This is a long update of photos & little writing in an effort to catch everyone up to speed about what's happened in the past month! I'm on Kwaj (the army base) where internet is much quicker, so here are mostly pictures....more writing to come :) For now I'll just add the blogs I pre-wrote a month ago..
PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
I went outside one day & found 4 children standing, each holding a tiny little puppy. They handed me one & I instantly fell in love. I immediately went inside to show Liz (the 4 kids trampled in with the puppies right behind me) and needless to say she fell in love too. We spent about an hour outside on our stoop just sitting with the puppies, them falling asleep all over our laps & arms. Adorable. This may have been a close call due to the fact we both definitely considered adopting the puppies on first sight. (I should mention a girl at orientation almost took one of the mangy Ajeltake puppies out to her site with her, but ended up coming to terms with reality & giving it to her vegetarian language instructor. I stress vegetarian because she was concerned someone might eat it. I’m not sure how plausible this is, but hey…it all worked out.) Regardless, Liz & I agreed we barely have enough money to take care of ourselves here…there’s no way we want to bring a little puppy into the mix. So, those adorable little puppies will have to endure all the tossing around, passing back & forth, riding on bikes, riding in scooter baskets and whatever else these children have in store for them.
Nge
Nge is the next island South of Gugeegue. It is about a 20 minute walk on a small dirt path to get to the end of Guegeegue, then we crossed the coral at low tide to crossover to Nge. There is one man that lives on the island; we saw him on our walk there and he waved & gave us the ‘go ahead.’ We spent the day snorkeling, eating coconuts & reading on the beach. This is the life I will be living on weekends & days off of school….ahh…..
Ebeye
We spent the night in Ebeye. Kenta, the other JOCV volunteer, is living there until his apartment in Gugeegue is finished so we stayed with him. Liz & I did some major grocery shopping and ate at the all dependable Triple J—our buffet of a cheeseburger, fries & ice cream really hit the spot. We went back to Kenta’s where sashimi with rice & a fridge full of cold beers were awaiting us. The evening continued with us teaching our new friends more games—circle of death & Ratuki (Liz just got this card game in the mail….we turned it into a drinking game). Our next move was checking out the bar in Ebeye; I say ‘bar’ because it is in fact the only bar in Ebeye that we are aware of thus far. There were a few things wrong with this place upon arrival: they charged a $4 cover-charge; they only served beer & (boxed) wine for $3.75 a can and $3.00 a Styrofoam cup respectively; the crowd was dead; and there were no doors on the bathrooms. We cut our losses, stayed for a drink, danced a little, and met a few nice people.
Saturday Yardwork
We decided to clean up our yard. This involved pulling tons of weeds, using a machete to cut the tall grass, picking up all the trash, and transplanting our huge garbage pile. It looks so much better now! We had the help of our amazing neighbors for the day; couldn't ask for a nicer support group here :)
School
PTA meeting
Liz, Julian (our principal) & I
Donna & Sivoki
School Assembly
My classroom
The school bell
A magical scene: I took a picture because I knew this might be a rarity
Children....surrounding our apartment
The remnants of a broken bus.
Ebeye & Gugeegue--pictures I love
Me & Juwae
Christmas!!!!! Mom, I don't know what I'd do without you. Your packages make me so happy :)
Twinsies--we got the same Cosmo in our packages
Siblings--Baby & Juwae
Adriel & Liz. True love.
Dragel & Juwae making cookies for their dad's birthday
Supervising/eating the dough :)
Our neighborhood gang
Me, Juwae, Grace, Liz, Dragel, Joey, Baby & Adriel
Baby, Grace, Me & Joey
Blowing bubbles
Desperate times call for desperate measures
Father Hacker Feast Day
This is a celebration for Mother Mary's birthday. I didn't know that Catholics celebrated this, but it was a huge feast with a lot of food, dancing, celebrating & even a talent show.
Kemen
The kemen is a baby's first birthday party. This is a huge celebration here. There were tons of kids, a dance performance, good music, and LOTS of food.
Jabowakis
Me, Liz, Christiana & Joy
We decided to clean up our yard. This involved pulling tons of weeds, using a machete to cut the tall grass, picking up all the trash, and transplanting our huge garbage pile. It looks so much better now! We had the help of our amazing neighbors for the day; couldn't ask for a nicer support group here :)
Swimming at the dock
These are my favorite pictures. On Saturday all these children were swimming at the dock--they are all adorable & so fun.
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