Final Week

As of today (5/18/2012), we have finished our final Friday of the school year. Although I was ready as I was to leave my kids and stop teaching them a week ago, my attitude changed significantly by Sunday night. I realized that I was just upon the close of my teaching for the year, and I would not get the chance to sit with them in my classroom again, not all of them together at least. I spent TEN MONTHS with these kids in my classroom, and now it’s over. It feels so surreal right now.

The farewell party that the students held on Monday night was not as emotional as I thought it would have been. It was the perfect farewell, epitomizing every event I attended this year: it started over an hour late, it was not very well organized and put together and we were fed white rice, spaghetti, potato salad, chicken, and spare rib, with soda and kool-aid to drink – just the Marshallese way. Hearing the teachers and the seniors share stories about their favorite memories from this year and before was especially fun.

Lonnie’s kindergarten class had their graduation on Thursday night. The whole day was busy and exhausting for Lonnie, who was responsible for practicing with her kids and setting up the room with decorations. The program was beautifully done, and the kindergarteners were absolutely adorable. Lonnie smiled the entire night, and you could tell that she was so proud of her kids. When she came in late September, none of the kids spoke or understood English, and they were hardly as functional in the classroom as a kindergartener in the States. I know she hated it at times, but day in and day out, Lonnie continued to push her kids to improve. They have come such a long way since then, and they are more than ready to start next school year as First Graders. With God’s guiding hand, Lonnie was able to set a solid foundation for her students’ education and future lives, and I think that they are ready to take on the world.

I am going to miss my students and teaching in the classroom very much. As I have said before, I have had the most ideal student missionary year, teaching Bible classes on an island in the middle of the Pacific, in a poverty-stricken area. No, it wasn’t a vacation year. Yes, it was hard work. Yes, I tried to give my students my heart and soul in my lessons, but yes, I could have given them more than I did. It was challenging year, especially the first half, which I spent trying to find my niche in the classroom. I often found myself losing my temper and getting out of line with my discipline, but with God’s grace, the students still forgave and accepted me the next day.

I’ve learned a lot about myself this year, especially learning to lean on God for everything. The Holy Spirit really did work in my classroom this year. I’ve had a lot of good laughs and a lot of good stories, but my favorite moments were helping the students believe in themselves when it came to exam weeks, seeing the light bulb go off when a student understands my point, and when I saw not just minds, but hearts being moved by the lesson I am teaching.

My students have taught me about life just as much as I have taught them, and for them I am eternally grateful.

What I Look Forward To

·         Family

·         Friends

·         Driving around

·         Internet that is always available

·         Warm, fresh water showers

·         Olive Garden

·         IHOP

·         Denny’s

·         Avocados

·         Strawberries

·         California Burritos

·         Frozen Yogurt

·         Seeing all the good movies that I missed this year

·         The Dark Knight Rises

·         Church

·         Holidays

·         Black Friday

·         Indonesia

·         Bowling

·         Camping

·         San Francisco

·         Chicago

·         Andrews University

Countdown

Hey, long time no blog post. How’s it going? How’s life? How are the children?

I apologize for the long delay. I just haven’t been sure what to write about. Life has been both quite busy and exactly the same. A lot has been happening, yet it feels as if not much has been happening. I’ll just give you a quick run through to update you on life.

The weather has gotten absurdly hot in recent weeks. I’m sure it has gotten warmer for you, wherever you are, as well – but it was never cold here in Ebeye. The weather was already hot, and now it’s hotter. It was really killer the first few days because the ocean breeze disappeared, but I think I’ve gotten used to it.

Due to the heat and lack of breeze, the ocean has been really calm. Whenever the ocean is calm like it has been, it brings out DOLPHINS! Right across the street from the school, we could see a pod (school? pack?) of dolphins just swimming and jumping around, having a good ol’ time. It was such a cool thing to see.

Last Tuesday we had a day outing to Bigej in the smallest boat I had ridden in, but it was totally fine because the sea was calm. On the way there we saw a pod of dolphins close to 30 feet away from us. On the way back, they were right next to the boat, and everyone except for me saw them (I’m pouting as I type this)…  It was really a beautiful experience for me to see the dolphins in their natural habitat; I don’t know how many of you have had the opportunity to say the same, so I feel really blessed to have seen them.

Doors are opening for us to bring Lucy back. Everything is falling together in place, and Lonnie and I are really grateful for that. However, last week Lucy presented us with a new challenge – she’s in heat! It’s really sad to see how all the boy dogs are chasing her now… We’ve gone into full protection mode, keeping her chained up with us in the classroom during the day. I’ve been walking around with a stick and Lonnie has gotten really skillful at smacking dogs with the metal part of a leash. We’re really hoping that Lucy doesn’t get pregnant, because I don’t think we’ll be able to bring her home.

I have just under 30 days until I get home! The last few weeks have been really to feel motivated to teach. You know how students get around this time of the year – they’re just ready for summer and nothing matters, but that affects my teaching in the classroom because I tend to feed of off their energy. I’m just counting down the days now.

When I first started out here, I always wondered what I would feel like at this time of the year. Would I be ready to go home? Would I not be ready to leave and consider staying another year? Now that I’m here, I know that I am more than ready to go home. Each day is just dragging along. I’m so looking forward to being back home.

Anyway, enough of this sob story. Back in November or so, I had an idea to film a little documentary-type thing just to show everyone what I’ve been up to, and what Ebeye is like; Ebeye isn’t really a place you could understand just from hearing about it – you’ll have to see it. Nothing major or long; we just haven’t gotten around to filming yet… Hopefully we’ll be getting that pushed out by the end of the year.

Four weeks left and I’ll be seeing (some of) you soon,

Daniel

Sharks, Strawberries, and Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was our last day of Spring Break. Lonnie and I were given the opportunity to go to Kwajalein, the US Military base that is half an hour away on a ferry. That may not sound like a huge deal to you, but it was for us. Even though we are American citizens, we are not at all allowed to be on the island, outside of the dock and the airport. And that is the treatment that the Marshallese are given as well – even though Kwajalein is their island and their soil, they are not allowed to be there without a job or a sponsor.

We hopped on the 12:00pm ferry and met our sponsors at the dock. Their names are Jack, Mary Lou, Patrick, and Barbara, and they all helped out at the chapel on the base. Jack gave us bicycles to use to around the island, which was so nice. Our first stop was Easter lunch.

They took us to the ‘Pacific Café’ which is like the cafeteria for the workers on Kwaj. I was smiling like a fool the whole time I was walking down the food line. Man, I could feel the stares of the regulars burning through me. I felt like such an outsider in the midst of all those Americans.

I don’t know if many of you will understand how wild it was to be eating there. All you can eat?! Caesar Salad?! Fresh vegetables?! Grapefruit?! Options?! I mean, they had Strawberry Shortcakes for desert, but even bigger than that was the fact that they actually had strawberries! I haven’t eaten, let alone seen, a single strawberry in 8 months! It was heaven. I think I’m going to explode when I get back to America.

As I got to know our sponsors, I learned that Kwajalein was spoiled. They were complaining about such small issues like the strawberries being to frozen most of the time, having less food in the line since the remodeling of their kitchen, not having boiled eggs very often, serving chocolate instead of vanilla ice cream, among other things.

I just couldn’t help but thinking, “Wow! You have SO many problems! I’m just living on a neighboring slum island that has 15x as many people as you do.” But I kept quiet.

They took us to the small boat marina to see the sharks. The fishermen were kind enough to clean up a fish and throw it into the water to see the sharks struggle and fight for food. It was so cool! They are nurse sharks, and are like 8 feet long, and they say that they are as nice as puppies if you swim near one. The fishermen ended up giving us the fish so we could eat it for dinner.

They then took us to the food court to get ice cream from Baskin-Robbins. Baskin-Robbins! They had a Subway and a Burger King too! I almost lost my mind! The grocery store had everything that they would have back home, and it was all at a regular American prices.

It made me kind of mad, because I kept thinking how the military took control of that island, and they’re actually hoarding all of the goods, while there are people just next door on an island who don’t have options for healthy foods – people who are not even allowed to go there and look at healthier options.

We had a salad and the fish from earlier for dinner at Barbara’s house. It was over dinner that everything was worth it. I realized over the table how incredibly nice our sponsors had been to us. They understood our situation, and they wanted to help us out and spoil us. It was almost like someone had noticed the work we were doing and wanted to reward us for it. They paid for everything while we there! All the meals, the snacks, the desserts, clothes from the thrift store were all complimentary of our sponsors! They treated us like royalty, all because they wanted to. They were happy to help us out and they were excited to be there and see their home. It really was an amazing day. It felt great to get away from Ebeye, and get a taste of America again. The entire Kwajalein trip was one of the nicest things anyone has done for me.

I learned of the Kwajalein-Ebeye situation from Jack’s perspective. He sees that the American presence has done more harm to the Marshallese than it has helped them. When the Americans first arrived, they proudly exclaimed that the Marshallese people were going to learn by their example. But ever since their arrival, the only examples that the people of Ebeye have are the military men that come to the bars to get drunk and find women; the same people that were the first to put cigarettes in the hands of these people. This is the example the Marshallese have picked up from the Americans.

Today there are only a handful of people that actually come to Ebeye from Kwajalein to care for and help the people. There is a lot that those people could do to help over here, and it makes me sad that they don’t. They just soak up their blessings, living on a perfect little resort island, blinded and blocking themselves from the poverty that is so near to them.

I don’t really know how to end this post. I could go on and complain about how things aren’t right, but that won’t do anything positive. Look around you and where you live today. There are plenty of people that you can help out and show some kindness to. Don’t keep your blessings to yourself. Get out there and share them with the people that need help; that’s why God gave them to you in the first place.

Daniel

p.s. pictures coming soon

Spring Break

I know I don’t update this blog as frequently as I wish I could. I really would like to update you all on my life here on Ebeye, but my days are usually busy and routine, so there isn’t much to tell you about usually. However, things have changed quite a bit the past few days.

I’m on Spring Break! We have 10 days off of school to just relax and get our minds off of teaching, and when we return to school, there is about 6 weeks of teaching left and then I’m home. It’s so strange to think that I’m going to be home so soon. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that my 10 months here is almost up.

Those are thoughts for another blog post. Let me tell you about Spring Break. Let me just address the thoughts you may have about how lucky I am to be spending my Spring Break on an island. I mean, that is the Spring Break-dream of all Americans, especially college students, right?

Well, let me remind you that I am spending it here on Ebeye, the “Slum of the Pacific.” This island is one-mile long, crowded with residents, and not much to actually do. No restaurants, no attractions to see, not many places to visit nearby. It’s easy to get bored around here, and we often do. And treating it just like any other weekend, I thought Spring Break would get easily boring as well. Boy, have I been wrong.

In order to stay away from the route of boredom, it’s important to make and keep a schedule. Unlike most breaks in the States, I’m still sleeping at a reasonable time and waking up early in order to make the most of my days out here.

The absolute best part of Spring Break has been snorkeling in the mornings. After working out, Lonnie, Lance, and I have been heading down to Beach Park to snorkel. Beach Park is a five minute walk away from our apartment, so I’m very fortunate to be able to do it for no cost.  We’ve never had our own snorkel gear so we never snorkeled there. We have seriously been missing out all year long.

I don’t know what Ariel was complaining about, but I like what I see under the sea. It’s a completely different world in the ocean. I wish I could take pictures for you all to see. There are so many fish of different shapes, sizes, and colors. Bright reds, yellows, blues, greens, rainbows – it looks like Finding Nemo or going to an aquarium, but being inside the tank. It’s incredibly beautiful, and if you ever get a chance, I definitely recommend it.

Yesterday we planned on a night snorkel session. Lonnie, Lance, Karissa, Emily, and I went out, snorkel gear packed, flashlights double-wrapped in Ziplocs. I’m not going to lie, it was scary as heck. We weren’t out there for very long; I lasted maybe 3 minutes before I started panicking and swimming back (I’m not a good swimmer and have an irrational fear of the dark). I think a lot of the fish were asleep, because there weren’t as many as there are in the day time.

I was summoned back by Lonnie to see something. Not too far from the shore, at the bottom of the ocean, was a manta ray. It was amazing, just like you would read about in science books as a kid - skin matching the ocean floor, eyes big and black, and about the size of a vinyl record with a long tail. And it was just there, staring up at us, like nothing was unusual.

Seeing two earlier, Lonnie called the manta rays the “Guardians of the Ocean.” They kind of just floated there, stone faced, and when Lonnie tried to swim past them, one swam at her. It was almost as if they were keeping us from going too deep so we didn’t run into any of the big bosses of the deep blue (sharks and other scary creatures).

God created and cares for the fishes in the ocean as much as the creatures on earth. It’s so humbling and amazing. I’m so thankful for being out here and being able to experience the world in the ocean.

Wrong Answer

I guess ‘Jesus’ actually can’t be the right answer for every question in Bible class. 

Q: The wages of sin is____________

A: Jesus

Healed!

Last week I had a fever of 103. My fever went away by Sabbath so I was able to preach. However, I had really sharp pains in my throat, making it hard to swallow or talk. On Tuesday, pink eye was developing in my right eye. Thursday, I had pink eye in my left eye. 

Today, I woke up perfectly healthy. Throat pains and pink eye all gone. Praise God!