So my time in Guam is coming to an end. I have been through test after test and after everything from an EKG to a biopsy I am now cleared to go back to Palau. Good News! While I have been at the different doctors each day this week and haven't had much time to explore Guam, I have seen a little bit and from what I have experienced I would definitely come back here to do a full visit. It is like a mix between island life and the states. It's very interesting and relaxing at the same time.
While here I have been through many emotions. I have never had any kind of surgery or anything of the sort done before and the fact that I had to do all of this medical testing in a foreign country with no friends or family around was just a feeling of incredible loneliness. Through this experience I have come to realize that giving up is not the answer and that God truly has a plan for me. Even through the loneliness I know I am learning to be my own God serving adult...and I'm A-OK with that.
Luckily, my family has been with me every step of the way contacting me day and night which is very helpful. Also, the Lord truly blessed and sent me to a wonderful Christian doctor who invited me in to his family for most of the time that I have been here. I have eaten dinner with them almost every night and I am just so fortunate to be a part of their family here in Guam. They are incredible people and they have truly helped me to be a bit more calm while being here. God is so good.
As of right now I am still waiting for the results of my biopsy (which was not the greatest experience ever but I made it through), but all 3 of my doctors here in Guam are very optimistic that everything is just fine and that in years to come I will just have to keep a close eye on things.
Thank you for all your prayers and I pray that God is truly blessing your families as well.
Blessings to all until next time...:-D
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
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
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
Thursday, January 22, 2009
SPEAR FISHING!!!!
So we have been back in school for 3 weeks now since Christmas break. Things are really going well. The first week back I suffered from strep throat which hurt like crazy but of course nothing I couldn't handle. We also had our 2nd of 4 parent teacher conferences which went MUCH better than the first ones. Nothing real drastic happened other than I had strep so I couldn't really talk clearly. Oh well...:-D
The second week I found out that one of my students who was failing every subject (literally) due to not applying herself would not be returning for the rest of the year. I was incredibly sad not only because no one had told me until a week after her being absent that she wasn't coming back but also because she is one of my kids and I just felt like I was losing a child. It is still a really tender subject because I feel like I should have done more and it kind of feels like I failed in a sense. Even though I know I did my best it still hurts. I know God will carry me and her through this. She definitely tested my patience in every way and I feel so much stronger for it but I just wish I knew how to handle her in a way in which she could stay. God knows what He is doing and I will not let my emotions get in the way. I will just continue to do His work and lead these other precious children closer to Him.
This past week has been great. Last weekend the pastor of a local church decided to take me and Ale under his wing and take us to the places we have not been to...so we went spear fishing!! What an experience! We were out for about 2 hours. We went out around 10:00PM because it is easier to spear fish at night when the fish are sleeping. Anyways, I caught 21 fish!! Ale and the pastor went out together and me and this Palauan guy named Francis went out. Of course we stayed away from each other as to not spear each other. :-D In one hand we had our dive light and in the other was the spear. At first Francis would point out one to me and I would come and shoot it but after awhile I started to get the hang of it and would find my own fish and then hand it to him when I got it. haha. It was so much fun! Though I was terrified of sharks and salt water crocs (yes we have tons of those) coming to eat me in the complete darkness of the waters, I overcame and was able to have great fun. I can't wait to do it again! The next day the pastor taught us how to gut the fish and scale it. So now when I get home I can cook homemade fresh fish for you! :-D Also, with one of the bigger ones I caught we made sashimi (raw fish) and ate it! DELICIOUS!! I can't wait to introduce you all to this amazing cuisine.
Anyways, it has been quite eventful for the past few weeks. Oh and today my class and I "made snow" as a science experiment. It was so cute. They were so excited to see snow. Of course it didn't feel like real snow but they didn't really know the difference. They were so happy to take it home and show their parents. What a blessing these kids and their genuine excitement and happiness is to me. Pictures of all this are posted as well.
Hope this finds you all well. I look forward to sharing many more experiences with you. Unitl next time...:-D
The second week I found out that one of my students who was failing every subject (literally) due to not applying herself would not be returning for the rest of the year. I was incredibly sad not only because no one had told me until a week after her being absent that she wasn't coming back but also because she is one of my kids and I just felt like I was losing a child. It is still a really tender subject because I feel like I should have done more and it kind of feels like I failed in a sense. Even though I know I did my best it still hurts. I know God will carry me and her through this. She definitely tested my patience in every way and I feel so much stronger for it but I just wish I knew how to handle her in a way in which she could stay. God knows what He is doing and I will not let my emotions get in the way. I will just continue to do His work and lead these other precious children closer to Him.
This past week has been great. Last weekend the pastor of a local church decided to take me and Ale under his wing and take us to the places we have not been to...so we went spear fishing!! What an experience! We were out for about 2 hours. We went out around 10:00PM because it is easier to spear fish at night when the fish are sleeping. Anyways, I caught 21 fish!! Ale and the pastor went out together and me and this Palauan guy named Francis went out. Of course we stayed away from each other as to not spear each other. :-D In one hand we had our dive light and in the other was the spear. At first Francis would point out one to me and I would come and shoot it but after awhile I started to get the hang of it and would find my own fish and then hand it to him when I got it. haha. It was so much fun! Though I was terrified of sharks and salt water crocs (yes we have tons of those) coming to eat me in the complete darkness of the waters, I overcame and was able to have great fun. I can't wait to do it again! The next day the pastor taught us how to gut the fish and scale it. So now when I get home I can cook homemade fresh fish for you! :-D Also, with one of the bigger ones I caught we made sashimi (raw fish) and ate it! DELICIOUS!! I can't wait to introduce you all to this amazing cuisine.
Anyways, it has been quite eventful for the past few weeks. Oh and today my class and I "made snow" as a science experiment. It was so cute. They were so excited to see snow. Of course it didn't feel like real snow but they didn't really know the difference. They were so happy to take it home and show their parents. What a blessing these kids and their genuine excitement and happiness is to me. Pictures of all this are posted as well.
Hope this finds you all well. I look forward to sharing many more experiences with you. Unitl next time...:-D
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A Filipino Christmas to Remember
I'm home to Palau from the Philippines and man do I have fun stories and events to tell about! There were 6 of us SM's (5 girls and 1 boy) that went for an 8 day trip. We stayed at The Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP) in the dorms for 2 dollars per night! What a deal!
When we got there we were greeted by our tour guide named Ruby. Our Filipino friend named Jojo from Palau had set us up with her as well as with his family so we had a nice group of people to show us around. It was a good thing they were there becuase clearly we had no idea what we were doing. Anyways, Ruby was such a blessing. Jojo's father was willing to drive us around in his van and all we had to do was pay for gas. Oh side note...the exchange rate for dollars to pesos is 47 pesos to 1 dollar so needless to say things were fairly cheap. That's always a good time. :-D
Anyways, the Philippines is a very large place with tons of people. Some of the cities we went to were Manila, Paseo, Tagaytay, and a couple other cities that I can't really pronounce or spell. Manila is a fairly large city...comparable to Atlanta as far as the amount of people and the big buildings. In Manila was the Mall of Asia which is the biggest mall in all of Asia...go figure. haha...So in the Mall of Asia is all kinds of stores and movie theaters and IMAX and bowling. Bowling was a blast! One of the things that a few of us wanted to do was get a massage, which leads me to my first story.
Since the mall of Asia is fairly big and reliable we figured what better place than this big mall to get a massage. So me, Haslel, and Natalie went and of course did the normal preparations for a full body massage. Well our rooms were attached by sliding doors so we could hear pretty well what was going on in the next room. Anways, lets just say thai massages are not like American massages. They do not care about exposure of anything and they massage everything. All of a sudden I hear in the next room a smacking noise and it took everything in me not to laugh. Then without any time to prepare for what was coming next it began to happen to me...curious? Well basically repeated slapping of butt cheeks is the nicest way to put it. Needless to say we had some very humorous stories to tell the others and of course we will forever remember our Filipino massages.
Moving on... the area is full of mountains and for sightseeing we went to a few of them. On top of one of the mountains was a beautfiul view of a small volcano located in the middle of a lake. Since it was kind of expensive to take a boat out there we decided to just enjoy the view from our mountain. While enjoying the view we saw a sign for zip line rides for 100 pesos which is approx. 2 dollars. The zip line took us over beautiful forest area and gave us a pretty neat view of the volcano from high up. It was good times.
Also, we spent a day at Enchanted Kingdom which is like a way mini Disney World. By mini I mean 1 roller coaster and the rest were like carnival rides. It's a big deal there though and we still had an amazing time. Story...we were standing in line for a ride and when I went into the line I had checked my watch to see how long it would take and while standing in line I looked down and my watch was not on my wrist. It was highjacked!! I'm thinking when I was standing with my hands on the rail behind me someone just unclasped it and took it. NOT uncommon at all for the Philippines. We had to be way careful the whole time we were there of theft.
While at Enchanted we also went paintballing (of course I dominated and didn't get hit at all) and played outdoor laser tag. :-D That was a blast! Logan and I played 3 times and we clearly beat everyone else. What can I say, I'm hard core. haha. Anyways, Enchanted Kingdom was fun and made us really want to hit up some great amusement parks when we get home to the states.
The public transportation was an absolute riot. There were two main types of transportation. First, there were long jeeps that looked like party trucks called Jeepney's that they cram as many people in as possible and proceed to take you were you need to go. Second were these motorcylce things with a buggie on the side which were appropriately named tricycle's. That's right folks...no busses or taxi's...it's jeepney and tricyle time. It was hilarious! Since everyone drives CRAZY there and no one minds any kind of road signs or lines, I was slightly worried for my life while riding the tricycle a couple times but all turned out well. :-D
While there we didn't really eat any random food because the restuarants are pretty similar to those in the states. Speaking of which, you better believe I was at Starbucks everyday...no joke. The fruit was amazing! Mangos, mangosteen, and pineapple are the local fruits so we were able to get delicous fruits for barely any cost. There were 2 types of local foods that Jojo's family introduced us to. Logan was the only one brave (or dumb) enough to try them. One of them was called Balloot which is an egg with a half developed chicken inside and you proceed to peel the egg and eat the insides. DISGUSTING! The second, I can't remember the name of but it was basically chicken intestines on a kabob stick that you dip in sauce. I just couldn't bring myself to eat them.
New Years was great! Since AUP is located on a hill we were able to go outside on campus and watch all the fireworks going off down below in the surrounding cities. It was soooo beautiful. What a great way to bring in the new year.
Well...there you have it folks. That is the gist of all the fun things we did while on the trip. Of course we did other stuff to keep us busy which you will see in the pictures but all in all those are the big things that we did. We were seriously busy everyday and it was exhausting but it was so worth it. With cheap shopping, great food, starbucks, and good company your bound to have good times.
Hope you all enjoyed reading about it...now go check out the pictures!
Hope you enjoy those just as much! I love you all so much and I pray that you are all doing well. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Much Love until next time...:-D
When we got there we were greeted by our tour guide named Ruby. Our Filipino friend named Jojo from Palau had set us up with her as well as with his family so we had a nice group of people to show us around. It was a good thing they were there becuase clearly we had no idea what we were doing. Anyways, Ruby was such a blessing. Jojo's father was willing to drive us around in his van and all we had to do was pay for gas. Oh side note...the exchange rate for dollars to pesos is 47 pesos to 1 dollar so needless to say things were fairly cheap. That's always a good time. :-D
Anyways, the Philippines is a very large place with tons of people. Some of the cities we went to were Manila, Paseo, Tagaytay, and a couple other cities that I can't really pronounce or spell. Manila is a fairly large city...comparable to Atlanta as far as the amount of people and the big buildings. In Manila was the Mall of Asia which is the biggest mall in all of Asia...go figure. haha...So in the Mall of Asia is all kinds of stores and movie theaters and IMAX and bowling. Bowling was a blast! One of the things that a few of us wanted to do was get a massage, which leads me to my first story.
Since the mall of Asia is fairly big and reliable we figured what better place than this big mall to get a massage. So me, Haslel, and Natalie went and of course did the normal preparations for a full body massage. Well our rooms were attached by sliding doors so we could hear pretty well what was going on in the next room. Anways, lets just say thai massages are not like American massages. They do not care about exposure of anything and they massage everything. All of a sudden I hear in the next room a smacking noise and it took everything in me not to laugh. Then without any time to prepare for what was coming next it began to happen to me...curious? Well basically repeated slapping of butt cheeks is the nicest way to put it. Needless to say we had some very humorous stories to tell the others and of course we will forever remember our Filipino massages.
Moving on... the area is full of mountains and for sightseeing we went to a few of them. On top of one of the mountains was a beautfiul view of a small volcano located in the middle of a lake. Since it was kind of expensive to take a boat out there we decided to just enjoy the view from our mountain. While enjoying the view we saw a sign for zip line rides for 100 pesos which is approx. 2 dollars. The zip line took us over beautiful forest area and gave us a pretty neat view of the volcano from high up. It was good times.
Also, we spent a day at Enchanted Kingdom which is like a way mini Disney World. By mini I mean 1 roller coaster and the rest were like carnival rides. It's a big deal there though and we still had an amazing time. Story...we were standing in line for a ride and when I went into the line I had checked my watch to see how long it would take and while standing in line I looked down and my watch was not on my wrist. It was highjacked!! I'm thinking when I was standing with my hands on the rail behind me someone just unclasped it and took it. NOT uncommon at all for the Philippines. We had to be way careful the whole time we were there of theft.
While at Enchanted we also went paintballing (of course I dominated and didn't get hit at all) and played outdoor laser tag. :-D That was a blast! Logan and I played 3 times and we clearly beat everyone else. What can I say, I'm hard core. haha. Anyways, Enchanted Kingdom was fun and made us really want to hit up some great amusement parks when we get home to the states.
The public transportation was an absolute riot. There were two main types of transportation. First, there were long jeeps that looked like party trucks called Jeepney's that they cram as many people in as possible and proceed to take you were you need to go. Second were these motorcylce things with a buggie on the side which were appropriately named tricycle's. That's right folks...no busses or taxi's...it's jeepney and tricyle time. It was hilarious! Since everyone drives CRAZY there and no one minds any kind of road signs or lines, I was slightly worried for my life while riding the tricycle a couple times but all turned out well. :-D
While there we didn't really eat any random food because the restuarants are pretty similar to those in the states. Speaking of which, you better believe I was at Starbucks everyday...no joke. The fruit was amazing! Mangos, mangosteen, and pineapple are the local fruits so we were able to get delicous fruits for barely any cost. There were 2 types of local foods that Jojo's family introduced us to. Logan was the only one brave (or dumb) enough to try them. One of them was called Balloot which is an egg with a half developed chicken inside and you proceed to peel the egg and eat the insides. DISGUSTING! The second, I can't remember the name of but it was basically chicken intestines on a kabob stick that you dip in sauce. I just couldn't bring myself to eat them.
New Years was great! Since AUP is located on a hill we were able to go outside on campus and watch all the fireworks going off down below in the surrounding cities. It was soooo beautiful. What a great way to bring in the new year.
Well...there you have it folks. That is the gist of all the fun things we did while on the trip. Of course we did other stuff to keep us busy which you will see in the pictures but all in all those are the big things that we did. We were seriously busy everyday and it was exhausting but it was so worth it. With cheap shopping, great food, starbucks, and good company your bound to have good times.
Hope you all enjoyed reading about it...now go check out the pictures!
Hope you enjoy those just as much! I love you all so much and I pray that you are all doing well. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Much Love until next time...:-D
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Philippines!
I am off to the Philippines! I will be leaving today, the 24th and coming back on January 2nd. I am going with 5 other SM's. I will try and keep you all posted as to our fun adventures but if I cannot get to a computer I will definitely write about it when I return. Please pray four our safe travels and good fun.
Merry Christmas to all!!
Much Love until next time...:-D
Merry Christmas to all!!
Much Love until next time...:-D
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Just a glimpse of God's work
So I had a pretty amazing experience today. Let me preface by saying a few weekends ago Ale, Haslel, and I (my roommates) decided to make a list of 20 things we want to do before we leave Palau and it really got me thinking about my true goals for this whole experience. Anyways, I decided to see what goals my students really have for their lives, so I gave them an in class activity and the directions were to write 20 things they want to do before they die. I was expecting most of them to just think of little things that 3rd graders think of and copy from my ideas but I was totally touched, surprised, and filled with laughter to read their answers when they turned them in. I would like to share a few with you...
Genesis- one of my tough kids--
1. Go skydiving
2. go snowboarding
3. Learn more things
4. Learn to Respect people
5. Go to College
Vi-my sweet girl--
1. Meet Hannah Montana
2. Be a Princess
3. See snow
4. Decorate a Christmas Tree
5. To have my own piano
Taldil-my amazing Pianist--
1. Learn how to make a piano
2. Be a Hannah Montana Staff
3. Go to the Taj Mahal
4. I want to be with Jesus
5. Play with Snow
Ilang- My little drama queen-- (this one brought tears to my eyes)
1. Climb a skyscraper
2. Live in black and white
3. Live in 1884 (HA!)
4. Be a spy
5. See Ms. Ashley in heaven
Reklai- My cute little story teller--
1. Visit Ms. Ashley in Tennessee
2. Get a very cool car
3. Get a girlfriend (HA!)
4. be a wrestler
5. act very cool
None of those were ideas that I had given them! I am so impressed at God's work within these children. It was soo amazing to see just a glimpse of the great work God is truly doing in their hearts each day. I'm so inspired. I love them more and more each day.
Hope this touched you as much as it did me.
Much love and prayers to you...until next time...:-D
Genesis- one of my tough kids--
1. Go skydiving
2. go snowboarding
3. Learn more things
4. Learn to Respect people
5. Go to College
Vi-my sweet girl--
1. Meet Hannah Montana
2. Be a Princess
3. See snow
4. Decorate a Christmas Tree
5. To have my own piano
Taldil-my amazing Pianist--
1. Learn how to make a piano
2. Be a Hannah Montana Staff
3. Go to the Taj Mahal
4. I want to be with Jesus
5. Play with Snow
Ilang- My little drama queen-- (this one brought tears to my eyes)
1. Climb a skyscraper
2. Live in black and white
3. Live in 1884 (HA!)
4. Be a spy
5. See Ms. Ashley in heaven
Reklai- My cute little story teller--
1. Visit Ms. Ashley in Tennessee
2. Get a very cool car
3. Get a girlfriend (HA!)
4. be a wrestler
5. act very cool
None of those were ideas that I had given them! I am so impressed at God's work within these children. It was soo amazing to see just a glimpse of the great work God is truly doing in their hearts each day. I'm so inspired. I love them more and more each day.
Hope this touched you as much as it did me.
Much love and prayers to you...until next time...:-D
New Pictures
Just wanted to announce that new pictures are posted on my Picasa web album which you can acces by clicking on the Pictures link. I added new pictures to the diving, Fun in Palau, scenery, and my students albums.
ENJOY! I KNOW I AM!
LOVE! :-D
ENJOY! I KNOW I AM!
LOVE! :-D
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