Clubbing in Pohnpei!

Last night was….well, interesting. All I can say is, Filipinos now how to Party! Haha, last night was the second Filipino party I have attended since I’ve been here, and let me say, they are hilarious! I went because MJ had been practicing three dances for weeks and she was performing them last night. She was amazing of course! It was so cool! They did a rockin Michael Jackson dance! Anyway, for those of you who have not had the privilege of ever attending a Filipino party, there is ALWAYS karaoke involved! Haha and last night there ended up being some dancing as well! Lets just say that I never thought I’d find myself clubbing in Pohnpei. At the very end of the program they put on some music and Joy and I grabbed Barbie and Andrew (two of the SM guys that came last night) and started busting out the dance moves. For those of you who have not had the privilege of attending a Filipino party OR seeing me dance the night away I apologize for you are truly missing out. My dance moves include a wonderful collection of the lawn mower, the q-tip, the shopping cart, some Christian character choreography moves, and a few disco moves I learned from a workout DVD. Lol. Needless to say it was hilarious and so much fun! I was dancing with my student’s mom and one point in the evening. Enough said. Tonight is the valentine’s banquet for the high school. It is at the same place, a club called Flamingos (the only club on the island/place to hold big parties). Apparently they allow dancing at their banquets, so I have no idea how we are going to supervise over 200 high school students dancing about with raging hormones…that will be interesting. And let me tell you, these girls learn how to move their hips from about the age of 4 because of hula, so by the time they are 17…well ya. They’re good. So we’ll see how tonight goes!

Yearbook Letter

So every year the teachers each write their kids a letter to go in the school’s yearbook. I know that you guys don’t exactly know my students so you may not quite understand most of this but I figured I’d post it anyway. :)

Dear superior fourth grade class,

My Indians, My Ninjas, My Masseuses! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! How am I ever going to live with you?! I’ll never forget Marion turning our rug into a dance floor and busting out the Michael Jackson moves, massages from master masseuse Julius, Zack break dancing and hanging out with me EVERY lunch quizzing me on Pohnpeian and making me laugh, JR ALWAYS annoying me and trying to fight me (Brat! Haha you know I love you!), my secret notes from Julien and Zara that I always find on my desk (I’m keeping them forever!), my cleaning girls Evon and Grace that are so cool and hang with me every day after school (my desk would be a mess if it wasn’t for you two!), Burt trying to rob the class while wearing a ski mask haha, Les’s amazing hugs everyday before he leaves, Marlin jumping out of his seat about to explode he was so excited because he had the answer to whatever question I was asking (thanks I always knew you were listening to me ramble on and on even if no one else was!), Ayaka always racing at the end of each day to tap the erasers, Yuichi always lighting up my day and filling it with giggles and hugs and arguing with me about who loved who more, Veronica always making me feel like a super famous rockstar, Wolphgang and his talent to make ANYTHING into a sword, Edgar sitting at his desk with his hands folded like the perfect student (Ya!), Briana watching me from the back of the classroom with a look that says, “Oh my goodness my teacher is crazy!!” , Leonito telling me all about the Phillipines (I feel like I’ve been there!), Makani running around with his pants pulled up and his shirt down so that he looked like he was naked! (Miss Nugent and I laughed EVERY time.), Loriann helping me lead out with worship songs in the morning with a big smile on her face even if everyone else was half asleep, Hart’s amazing drawings on almost every assignment he ever turned in, AJ scoring the greatest touchdown ever during our football game against Miss Nugent’s class (we won of course!), Sunshine saying “Miiiisssss!!!” unbelievably loud and then giggling when she realized I was going to strangle her, Daunte playing his imaginary drum during our rain dance…I could go on forever!

You guys have made me feel more loved than I ever thought was possible. From secret notes and letters, to hugs and tickle fights, to salsa dancing and football, to all laughing uncontrollably and falling out of our chairs in the middle of math class while I told silly stories! I can’t wait to play football with you in Heaven (we’ll definitely beat Miss Nugent’s class again!) and fight next to you in the battle against evil with the God of the universe on our side! I know you guys are ready! Don’t forget to wear the armor of the Lord every day! Always keep Jesus as your best friend no matter what comes your way, and He will ROCK your life! I can’t even begin to put into words how much I love the 24 of you. I hope I didn’t cry too much when I left…WAAAHHHH!!! :) I guess all that there is left to say is…I LIKE PIZZA!!!

How!

Love, Miss Breann :)

Haiti and Pancakes..

I have been keeping my kids updated on Haiti. I recently blogged about my student Yuichi and how he wanted to give his birthday money, I forgot to mention another incident that highlighted the innocence and generous heart of a child. Before I share this little story with you, let me explain what we have been doing for Haiti over here. Our school started “Haiti boxes”. The idea was for each elementary class to create a box and fill it with as much donation money as possible. My kids immediately got into it, we are going on about our third week of fundraising and we have a little over $200. I am so proud of them! We will collect the money from all the classes at the end of this week and I am really excited. Also last weekend we held a Movie Night for the elementary kids in our chapel. It cost them $2 to get in and we showed the movie Bolt (awesome movie by the way!) on a big projector. Also we had a bakesale going on the whole time. It went great, we raised over $300 for Haiti that night! I was very happy with how it turned out. Ok, so now that I have caught you up on our Haiti fundraising events here’s the story…So the day my class started our Haiti box my girl Loriann came up to me. It was the end of the day so everyone was leaving and running around, and she says “Miss! Miss! I’m going to bring pancakes tomorrow ok?” I was like…what? Definitely not following her I said, “Um..ok, why sweetie?” she responded saying “For Haeitee Miss. For Haeitee.” I still wasn’t following her…she clearly read my clueless expression and continued, “I’m going to have my mom make pancakes for the people in Haiti, then we can mail them and they won’t be hungry anymore.” Once again my heart just about melted as realization hit me. I stifled laughter as I looked at her and replied, “Hmm that’s a really good idea, but do you think that the pancakes would last in the mail? Hati is really far away..” She paused in deep thought for a moment (it is still taking a large amount of self-control to not laugh at how adorable this situation is..). I somehow managed to keep my very serious face on as she finally came up with her answer that was accompanied by a pout, “No.” I leaned down to her and encouraged her, “Well maybe we can send them money so they can make their own pancakes. What do you think?” The pout disappeared from her face, “Ok Miss. I think that’s a good idea.” With that she bounced off with her little backpack. I went home feeling so full that day. Once again the heart of a child, it amazed me..