Power outages and monkeys!

My apologies for the incredible hiatus but I am proud to report that the power is on long enough today for me to write a blog. Let me explain...

So for the past 2 weeks our power in Palau was been very sketch. When we first got here people told us it would be out all the time but in reality it had only gone out 2 times in the 6 months we had been here. Well 2 weeks ago that all changed and now we experience daily power outages lasting a total of about 4-5 hours each day. Come to find out, Palau has decided that it's citizens are using too much power and we need to conserve so in an attempt to force people to save on power the power company shuts out entire grids for 2 hours at a time each day. The time for our specific area is from 6:30pm- 8:30pm and occassionally during the day while teaching. According to the paper this will be going on until further notice. So there you have it...my drawn out excuse as to why I have not written in awhile. In a sense the power outages are nice because if forces us to be more social instead of grading, being in our classroom, and working on the computer. :-D

In other news...a big group of about 16 of us SM's went to Anguar last weekend which is the southern most island of Palau. We took the state boat and it took us 4 hours to get there. The island has less than 100 people living on it and is just filled with WWII ruins/ crashed planes etc. and tons of forest area. But I must say the coolest part about Anguar is...THERE ARE MONKEYS!!! During the day it isn't the easiest thing to see them but we saw tons between all of us there. The best time to see them is in the morning when they are nearer to the roads to get the bananas for breakfast. Too cute! The island is about 8 miles around. To get around most of our group rented pedal bikes and went around. Ale and I were able to borrow a motorcycle from a resident and we went around parts of the island with that. That was a pretty funny experience because Ale didn't believe that I had driven a motorcycle before so she was a bit reluctant but we ended up being just fine. I really did know what I was doing! :-D

School is starting to get really busy again and there are 3 weeks until Spring break. I can't believe I only have 3 months left. Time has just flown and I'm not sure I like it so much. It will be nice to be home but man oh man am I going to miss this place. Speaking of which, I have confirmed my flight home and I will be arriving back to the mainland on May 28!

Hope all of you are doing well. Would love to hear from you. Blessings to you and yours until next time...:-D