Island Time

Hello from Pohnpei! Kaselehlie maingko!! Ia iromw?

Hello from Pohnpei Apartment 6! Currently I am sitting on my bed sharing a fan with Carley. We fight over proximity to the fan and the perfect equal spot that the fan rotates between us. Before I talk about the wonderful things that went on today I want to discuss a little of the...interesting... things that occurred after we all got settled in. Friday we woke up and deep cleaned the apartment. We successfully killed five cockroaches, hundreds of spiders, two earwigs, and located two friendly geckos :) Paul is a boy that kind of wanders around campus here (his mother works for the government here) and he helped us destroy our friends few unwelcome guests.

Friday afternoon we got to go to Twin Falls and swim in one of the smaller but still BEAUTIFUL waterfalls!! We climbed into the back of the trucks and rode for about 20 minutes up this gravel road to swim in the falls. It was amazing. (Photos all stolen from Christina D, who has a waterproof camera :D)
It was kind of just a huge current pool - it was exhausting swimming around that waterfall! But at some point several of us swam from the left of the waterfall underneath it, climbed up a few rocks and jumped into it!! It was amazing.


It was SO refreshing to jump in that cool water. We would prefer it if every single afternoon consisted of waterfall jumping.

After that we went to a 6pm vespers held at the SDA church. It was a nice vespers, quite short, which is unusual! The weather was not too hot, and we left and went back home to sleep. Saturday though, was quite a long day.

Residents of apartment 6: L to R, Carley Holm (2nd Grade), Kelsey Hebard (3rd Grade) Brittany Jacobson (sub and office), Sophie Anderson (PE) and myself! After the church service was over we all looked like this, except completely drenched.

Church was fun, for sabbath school I played a song on the piano and sang, and during the church service I sang with Sophie, Nikki, and Jalisa a quartet to "How Deep the Fathers Love." One of the guys here from Union, Carl Dupper, played the accordion - he played It is Well and was of course a big hit, most of them have never seen such a funky lookin' instrument!! During the church service we were all dedicated. The congregation spoke to us in unison, as did the children and the pastor. We were all given beautiful flowers, and they prayed for us. It was so amazing to see people truly appreciating of our commitment to come teach for a year. They give us so much respect. Many of the church members and even elders are products of the SM teaching program, some have even gone to University. They value us as teachers, which makes us, in turn, value them and their support. They have trusted us with helping to educate and minister to their children!

One of the big issues here on the island is what to do on Sabbath. There have been issues in the past supposedly with teachers going on hike and swimming, which unfortunately in their culture is not really appropriate. I think it has something to do with the fact that many of the people that go to the ocean or waterfalls to play drink, so it has negative connotations. That means we either get to lounge in our apartments or outside in the hammock.The other option is going with the church members to the Hospital - I was not up for it yesterday and our apartment stayed back to rest up and prepare for the vespers as we were going to lead out for the sunset service.

For the service each of us went up and talked about what led us to Pohnpei. Many of the students replied with "Well, Palau was taken!!" haha. haha. I really don't know what specifically led me to Pohnpei so I just spoke about what led me to be an SM. I spoke about my family heritage, the Dutch side of me which consisted of amazing radical adventist missionaries to India - where my Grandpa Kellar was born. I quoted the part in "Over Yonder" (Hymn in the SDA Hymnal) where Uncle Henry (my great uncle) wrote, "Help spread the invitation, tell it to men everywhere." I said that I really just wanted to do something in a position where I felt that I was valuable.

Sunday we had orientation, and that is what leads me to discussing Island Time. Let me tell you...it is also referred to here as "Micronesian Time." I'm sure you've heard of this, but it does not just apply to meetings times. It also applies conversationally. Here they all take their time, details and "getting to the point" are not really important. It may take three people and twenty minutes to answer a question that you're pretty sure you could answer in two. It's essentially a 10 month lesson in patience, and I'm sure by the time I get back to the US I'm going to pick up on it and annoy you all. I spoke with Jesse yesterday and he say's I already do this - but he has NO idea. It is insane :) Patience patience patience patience. We Americans (plus....SOPHIE) just want to start scheduling, decorating, planning...but there is a discussion that goes on prior to that...a slow preamble that is painful for us. But it will just get some taking used to and also some lower expectation for the productivity of meetings here!!!

Sunday night we had the big teacher dinner in the gym!! It basically seemed as if every single SDA on the Island drove out and made us food. At this dinner we were randomly assigned an Island family!


Us before the meeting, all accidentally wore the same shirt :)

Christina and one of her possible 4th graders! Playing around with the kids in the rusty playground. Those kids tired us out!


They sat us all at the end of the gym like honored guests!! It was so weird!

Carl and David stacking up on so much food - bananas, rice, curry, noodles, and of course a plethora of fish - yuckkkk. That will take getting used to! But of course these guys don't mind.

I was assigned to the best family!!! At least in my opinion. The father Mr. Joseph works at the Bank and his wife is a Doctor.


Stephanie is going into 4th grade, (L to R) Alexandara is in the green behind me going into 6th, and Ember is almost 4. There is an older one, Trelan (sp?) who is going to be a freshman in highschool and will be in my history class!! :) They are all adorable and I love them.

Carl brought his Accordion and so of course all the kids went crazy!!!



Carley, Me, and Kelsey :) All happy and well fed with new Pohnpei families!


After that we all went to our apartment and the boys came over to chill out and play a huge game a Dutch Blitz. Christina was the winner of most of the rounds, much to me bitter disappointment. This next week consists of more and more orientation and hopefully some more time to explore the Island. Love you all so much!!

Well, Sophie, Nikki and I just completed P90X and I desperately need a shower. See ya!!!!

Menseng mwahu!!