Ngatik, or Sapwuahfik

"Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength."

Philippians 4:11-13 NLT

One Week

From about January 6th to March 29th school has been going straight with not even one break. First and second quarter flowed into another with feelings of dread for both teacher and student. Just a little too much school with not enough rest. The weekend were always relaxing, with two trips to Black Coral, a trip around the island, waterfalls, afternoons at the Sufficools, but...still...Monday always showed up! For 13 weeks!

Here's a list of what exhausts me most about teaching:

1. Chapel on Monday. Keeping them all quiet throughout that hour is emotionally exhausting. So much frustration and anger boils in me when those boys and sometimes the girls act like 5th graders squirming in their seats with barely an ounce of respect.

2. When my students "whine" about various things. When I start writing Bell Work, or when I write Homework assignments, or even just a simple activity on the board. I hate being treated like I'm supposed to be entertaining and not make them do anything hard.

3. When a student doesn't respect me. I ask them to do something and they refuse for some lame excuse filled reason. "I had my headphones in my EARS but they weren't actually on miss! You can't take them!."

4. The stress of wanting them to do well and get great grades balanced with my desire to challenge them and not enable their laziness.

The actual preparation for classes, reading in advance, waking up each day and teaching them....even GRADING doesn't exhaust me as much as those four points above do. It's draining.

SO. It's important to realize my "STATE OF MIND" before telling you about my choice.

Option 1: Spend a week with my SM friends, relaxing in my apartment. Reading, watching movies, traveling around the island. Eating out at nice island restaurants, camping at Ahnt, and just enjoying the peacefulness in the comfort of my home.

Option 2: Spending $200 and traveling in a tiny plane to the island of Sapwuahfik. 100 miles SW of Pohnpei. Less than a mile long, and less than a mile wide. No electricity, no internet, no comfy bed, no yummy food. The goal: spending the week helping the school, leading out VBS each day, and promoting the small SDA school on the island. Accommodations: floor. Bucket shower. Bucket toilet.

What would YOU choose!? This was so hard for me. Other SMs had to choose also. Many wanted to stay also because we really only have about 8 weeks (now it's 5!) left in Pohnpei. Also, the prospect of "roughing it" during our ONLY time off the entire 2nd semester was a little hard to accept. What did I choose? I decided I wanted to go. I just knew as soon as I heard about the opportunity that I needed to just make up my mind and stick to it. They asked for people who wanted to go to bring their money to the office and I just did. I decided not to really think about it. I had saved up that money from my monthly stipend for food and just gave it to the office. Done. What have I gotten myself into!? I was excited..but also afraid that I would completely exhaust myself and come back so tired and not prepared for 7 more weeks of teaching.


HERE WE GO!!!!!
The final group that decided to go: Emily T, Katie L, Christina D, Nikki J, Joy N, Julie K and me! Kdub. It was hard saying good bye to my roommates. I knew they would have a lot of fun without me at home and I was kind of sad to miss out on it. But I was so glad to have Jules! She's one of my great friends here. Also Esther of course - this was her first plane ride! I think my first plane ride was to Canada.

The plane ride only lasted about an hour. Our pilot seemed...competent, not that I would have any way of knowing! My only evidence is that I survived.

All the island greeted us! Well, it felt like it. It was like arriving in Pohnpei back in August all over again. This time though we knew it was a big deal! It's incredibly rare to have "menwais" visit this tiny island. The plane only comes about once a week, and the boat maybe once a month? Can you imagine that kind of disconnect! It's one thing to be in an isolated town, far away. But to be actually separated by so much open water. Totally cut off! Completely dependent on boats and planes.


In the first photo of this blog you can see the main highway on this island. Wheelbarrows and bikes go on the left, pedestrians on the right. There are no strollers on Sapwuahfik. Babies get plopped into wheelbarrows or little carts!! We took the long walk to the school where we were planning on staying. It's a nice little school! Not what I was expecting. The previous PNI SDA Principal worked pretty hard on improving the school. There used to be an SM there two years ago, but not since then. The classrooms are very tiny. The school has....TWELVE students. But it's cute. The "swings" out front are just some kind of fishing rope tied up into a loop. It seemed to be quite fun for all of them!

The first night it was SO hot in that school. No electricity = no fan. I'm pretty spoiled at home with my big fan on my all night long. 85 degrees + intense humidity + no breeze + 7 girls all lined up in a row on mats = HOT! So I slept outside by the beach with Maureen (the principal's wife, who grew up on this island) and another SM, Emily. I loved sleeping by the ocean. The breeze, the crashing waves.



That next day we led out for Church! The church seemed to be once of the nicer buildings on the island! We sang, prayed, and took turns answering questions for the "sermon." Most likely only half of them understood us, but they were polite and interested none the less :) Pretty much everyone was just fascinated with us and the way we talked /sang. That afternoon was our first VBS. So many children came out! Most of them are not even SDA. They played around the church for a long time (playing jump rope with a rope made out of rubber bands!) anticipating our arrival. We told stories, played games, and gave them some things to color. We had 6 VBS events and each one gathered more and more kids. The last couple nights we had over 60 kids. It was quite the event :) We were told it was the first VBS/kids event they'd ever had.


The first night though requires a little bit of a story.



It wasn't as hot the second night so I decided to sleep with everyone in the school. The school has a bunch of tiny additions on the side so there's a lot of ways to get into the main room and lots of locks. We were told to be careful on the island, but that security isn't a big deal since there's no violence (whoever is violent is taken care of quite quickly in that SMALL of a community!). Well, that night we all went to bed. Just the 7 of us in the school's main room. Midnight came around, and about four of the girls all went out to use the bathroom (concrete room where you use a bucket to flush :). They had flashlights and probably chatted quite a bit. Well, they all came back and fell back asleep. Except one girl. She couldn't sleep. She had a feeling someone was outside...thought she heard something, etc. So she couldn't sleep and felt like she was the only one who was feeling this way. She was sleeping right next to the window with our coordinator by the window as well. Well then she was sure she saw someone. She woke up the coordinator, and asked if she heard it too. By then I was up listening to what was going on, and so were a few of the others. Then we heard him whisper. "Hey, is anyone in there?" which completely struck terror through my bones! Also something to understand: windows = not really existent here. More like slats, and these windows in the school were just open slats with no screen or bars. So he was right next to us. Then he walked around the school trying to open all the doors. I woke up Jules. So terrified. People asking me if I had brought my pepper spray (I didn't! Ugh!). We all grabbed our bug spray - haha. Then he had the audacity to SHINE his flashlight into our room. Well at this point, Joy banged her flashlight on the window to try and make him leave. But we didn't know it was her! So EVERYONE screamed bloody murder! (I screamed, but I thought it was more like we were trying to get the neighbors attention and Maureen's). He FREAKED and ran away and the neighbors and Maureen were there in seconds.

They told the "police" if they can be called that :) and we had body guards all night. But thanks to being so scared, and a few local cats, we got zero sleep last night. The next nights we slept in Maureen's parents house and felt much better with our body guards sleeping by the door. (Body guards = Beastly Sapwuahfik women!). Here's the BEST PART of the story though: I guess this is some kind of outdated local custom. Shine lights into woman's windows, and ask one out for a date. All the locals still acknowledge he was kind of a crazy creeper, but they also said they were 100% sure he had NO violent intents, that he was just curious and maybe a tiny bit drunk. The local guys kind of wanted to beat him up but they just threatened him. He actually came to APOLOGIZE to us the next day! He was very odd but we felt pretty safe the whole week. Oh culture differences. When he was explained how American's would view someone doing that as a violent act, he was shocked.

I don't want anyone to get the view that this island is dangerous. This was just such a odd thing to happen, partly because so many of us girls were there at one time which is such a rarity. They kind of know this guy to be sort of odd, goes to show there's "one in every group" even out in the middle of the pacific. But as far as a future SM going to the island, a girl going alone is probably not the best option. Definitely a guy, or a couple would be perfect :)



The days out on Sapwuahfik, by the beach, reading my book and resting in my hammock are some of the most peaceful moments in my entire life. One day we went out to visit the 9 outer islands. Small island > smaller island > even SMALLER island! Some of those outer islands were actually OCCUPIED by some locals living out there alone!! Insane. Eating coconuts, fish, taro, bananas, and probably some imported Sakau since nobody can live without that in Micronesia. Yuck.


Downsides: our second sleeping place was also home to rats, cockroaches, and huge spiders. Being kind of freaked from the second night "incident" we were all kind of antsy and woke up a lot. Rat walked on my legs one night, cockroach on my shirt, and a huge spider by my head the next night. I just said "SCREW IT IM TIRED" and ignored all of it. There just comes a point when you don't care anymore about bugs, roaches, or even creepy local stalkers. Just SLEEP. God will take care of you :) Haha!

Lesson Leaned

They have nothing. Only what is provided for them on the island. Water comes from the sky. Taro from the earth. Bananas and coconuts from the trees above. God provides. So many of the kids don't know a life other than this. They gave and gave to us who have so much, because that is just what you do. This is enough. We are given what we need. God looks after us no matter where we were born. Hardships surround every corner of the world, but God can give us peace no matter where we are. He can give us a small school, a small church, and a kind heart. We don't need as much as we think we do!

Lifetime Memory

The last night. I felt like taking a shower to cool down for the long night ahead. So I got my bucket, went out to the rain catcher and got some water. Precious supply of water. What would they do without so much rain? Then I went to the concrete built shower. The moon was full and the stars were bright. I was in the middle of the jungle behind the house without a roof over my head and the moon shining down on me. I poured water over my head, feeling so cooled and refreshed. So much joy in that small moment with just me and the moon in the jungle. I'll miss Sapwuahfik so much. It's no the kind of place you can easily return to in a few years, or even twice in a lifetime.

If you are thinking about being an SM for the first time, or even going out and serving God. If you feel called to serve in a place that has an extreme need. Think of Sapwuahfik. Think of these children, so excited to soak up the bible stories, the love that we have to give them. Supporting the church, the school, which is so fragile without the support of someone from the states of the church. Sapwuahfik is simple, isolated, and I am sure it can be lonely. But the locals are open, loving, kind, and will never stop giving you coconuts to drink.