The monster in our sink

I walked towards the sink with my dirty dish in hand, stomach semi-full of the typical supper of rice mixed with a few measly veggies. Carbs. I have consumed so many carbs over the time that I’ve been here. Between the white rice, white bread, and white spaghetti there is hardly a nutrient to be seen. We hurry into the stores and scan the fresh vegetables and fruit that they offer: overpriced eggplant - pale purple and wrinkly, broccoli - seldom good but often freckled with brown spots, and packaged baby carrots that have survived through the Cold War. Sometimes we get lucky and are blessed with cabbage, peppers, and the occasional green leaf. We only have 30 minutes for lunch, and that isn't nearly enough time! So Jules and have resorted to preparing nearly all of our food in the evenings so that we don’t have to worry about that. There’s always rice in the fridge, and we’re going to start making small armies of pancakes to freeze for later consumption.

Reaching the sink I stretched out my hand and twisted the cold nob towards me.

PFFT, PFFT! WHAP!

I dropped the dishes into the sink with a crash, and then winced as the sound of my short-lived scream reached my ears. Is it thunder? No.

There’s a monster in our sink.

He holds the water back when we’re trying to wash our dishes, and only when he so feels called will let some through the pipes with violent intensity. The water hits the sink and then is ricocheted toward us at lighting speed. We can hear his malicious giggles as we try to dodge out of the way of his lethal watery rage.

A task as simple as washing the dishes can turn into a frightful dance – a dance in which we do not know the steps, but will be sorely punished if we step incorrectly.

Often I walk away from the sink with my shirt wet, my glasses covered with drops, and the monster’s chortles fading away behind me.

No matter how we mentally prepare ourselves as we go to the sink, he always gets us.

The torture continues in the shower. I’ll be enjoying the cool water when suddenly - PFSH, THWAP!! - the shower’s stream turns to either little pathetic spits or vicious pounding until the monster gets tired of his games and moves on.

We turn the water off just to spite him.

In other news, we caught three rats in our trap the other night – the three musketeers. Mecha named them Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest. It was like they all were having some religious rat ritual in the trap when it closed on them… so unfortunate. I think Dumbest was the one on the bottom when I peeked in there and saw that they were all sitting on one.

A group of us went to Pisiwi last Sunday (pronounced Bee-sea-wee), and so I enjoyed a day of riding crazy waves, eating pineapple, and snorkeling while neglecting to put sunscreen on the backs of my legs.

So yeah, things are going well. I like teaching high school, and I really enjoy getting to know a lot of kids due to the broad range of grades I teach. Just pray that my students finally decide to turn in their homework!!

On our way to Pisiwi!

There are no empty stomachs here

One of my roommates points by the oven, “Oh yeah, and we caught a rat.”

This is typical. I bent down on my knees and looked at the little rodent that was just chilling in a trap in our kitchen. It was surprisingly cuter than expected with little whiskers, long claws, and a cute little wiggling nose. I pulled out my camera and it jumped around the cage when the flash from my camera went off. Apparently Alfred is going to drown it later today.

our "what are we doing?" faces

But I’m getting ahead of myself… back to Pohnpei! On Thursday we checked into the airport and played some Dutch Blitz while waiting to go through security. This time, we didn't have to pull everything out of our bags and got through with no problem, and sat down to wait while eating breadfruit chips, banana chips, and granola. Finally we went on the plane and were soon in the air – have you ever tried to play four-man Dutch Blitz with only two people? It takes a while.

view from Blue Lagoon

After about 50 minutes in the air, we saw the islands. Kosrae is just one island, there are no out-lying islands around to go visit on the weekends, but that isn't the case for Chuuk. From the window of the plane we watched in excitement as skinny atolls and tiny islands surrounded by coral and covered with sprinklings of jungle flora came into view. There are so many! It was like being introduced to a whole new world. Looking out the window at the main island of Chuuk as we touched down was like looking at home. These tin roofs, jungle backyards, and the sun glinting off the ocean waves are so familiar to me now, and I felt peace coming out of the plane into the humidity.

Leonard and Janna Quaile - They
have been fantastic people to
travel with these last few days!

The airport was crowded; at least it seemed to be after the “crowds” of people that I am now used to. We all got our luggage, and went to join the principal of Chuuk SDA School, Mr. Walter John, and the security guard/driver, Junior. Junior is a big guy with big hands and a bigger heart. He has a scar on his throat where he was shot with a slingshot dart, but that’s a whole different story. Tough guy.

Heading out of the airport we were surrounded by people; it was what I’ve become accustomed to: skirts and long hair, family shops and banana trees, dogs with matted fur and naked children, and groups of younger and older men chewing betel nut and watching us pass by. Through gaps in the trees and houses we could see the ocean, a dangerous beauty filled with small fishing boats. The paved street was quick to end, and where it did the potholes began. These streets are terrible! It’s like Rose St. in College Place on steroids. As many potholes in one section as Solomon had wives. There were places that a recent heavy rain had made the street into one big gray lake that our van just dove right into. We swayed back and forth while watching how the Chuukese people interacted, and when the van slowed to almost a complete stop we braced ourselves for the big bump that was guaranteed to follow.

Finally we got to the campus and pulled through the gate. Chuuk SDA School is a lovely little place, the entire campus is bigger than Kosrae SDA School, and has many more buildings. There’s a full high school here, whereas Kosrae’s School went to ninth grade.

Mr. John is a man who loves to entertain, so once we arrived we were hurried to some chairs to watch a tribal dance performed by the sixth graders. They waited behind green banners for the drums to start, whispering and giggling like all kids do. Then the drums boomed and we watched as the girls and boys twirled their fingers and hips to the beat, waving pieces of blue cloth tied onto their fingers. The girls wore sarongs over jeans and white shirts, and the boys wore grass crowns on their heads and grass skirts over their underwear.

It was fantastic. They put leis around our necks and crowns on our heads. Jules and I waved hello to the other SM here already, Michellana, and exchanged entertained glances with Mr. Quaile. When the dance was over we made our introductions and then brought our stuff to our apartment.

Jules and I share the apartment with four other girls: Michellana (Mecha), and three girls from the Philippines: Jessa, Jobeth, and Janet. Our room has air conditioning, two sets of bunk beds, blue curtains, and lots of storage space. Usually the electricity turns off during the night, but it didn’t for the first night, so the AC ran most of the night. I slept under an actual blanket it was so cold.

That evening they took us out to eat at the Blue Lagoon Resort, which is right down the street. Since the last time I went out to eat was at the Spaghetti Factory I thought it was only fitting that I order pasta. After a long wait – spaghetti with red sauce and mushrooms had never tasted so good. And oh goodness, I had apple pie. That first bite… that first explosion of cinnamon and apples and autumn was so incredible. For those five minutes it finally felt like September.

Breakfast - the most important
meal of the day!

The next morning – Friday – we were invited to eat breakfast with the principal and his wife. While I was expecting just something simple, I was soon to be proven wrong. Apparently, Jothy is legendary all through GMM for her cooking. So. Much. Food! There was cold cereal, rice, oatmeal with toppings, cantaloupe, oranges that were actually orange, apples, papaya, sweet pineapple, bananas, raisin bread, homemade bread, perfectly done scrambled eggs, and three types of juice. There were these potato things that I’m not sure of the name, but it was like the god of all fries. It was a bit of mashed potato wrapped with a tortilla-like shell and then rolled in breadcrumbs, fried, and then made perfect with a touch of ketchup. I’m such an American. We tried to finish a dish just to have Jothy fill it right back up again (Judelle, come visit your uncle and aunts over spring break and we shall eat all the food).

After that we finished unpacking and did a town trip – yet another trek over those potholes. We stopped at five different stores (apparently that is typical) and spent way too much at every store. We bought a 50 lb bag of rice for $20.93, so that was quite the investment. Rice for dayz! When we got back we had just sat down for our first us-made meal in Chuuk when Jothy knocked on the door, “Come! I made supper.”

You don’t say no.

There was rice, all kinds of tropical fruit, bread, and homemade pizza. When finished, we waddled over to the church for vespers and spend the next hour fighting with our eyelids. The next morning we ate breakfast with the principal and his wife again, and then there was potluck after church. In the short time I've been here, I have come to realize that there are no empty stomachs at Chuuk SDA School. Not if Jothy and Auntie can help it! 

If I come back from Chuuk and you don’t recognize me, please just point me to the gym.

So, I finally found out what I’ll be teaching. I spent Sunday evening pouring over the limited material that I have available for me to teach third grade English, fourth grade Science, eighth grade Science, tenth grade Biology, eleventh grade Chemistry, and twelfth grade Physics. And here I was thinking that I would be done with that class forever… hey, if I only have one textbook that is the teacher’s edition, I’m so thankful that it is for physics.

This blog post can be summarized in three statements: I am in Chuuk. I am teaching science. I have eaten a lot of food.

Cheers!

He said go

“The LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.’”

“’Come, follow me,’ Jesus said. ‘And I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”

God calls us to go, and his Son urges us to follow him wherever he leads – even to the ends of the earth. So right now, that’s what I am doing. God help me. Here’s the story:

A few days ago the Director of Education, his wife, and a few other people from the mission were making their rounds to the islands and had stopped in Kosrae. On Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Quaile were meeting with the SM’s at Kosrae, asking us about our stay so far and getting our opinion of the orientation that we attended in Hawaii. During the conversation he mentioned that our school was super overstaffed – which is very true. We have around 40 students, and 8 teachers available to teach them. Over in Chuuk they have around 170 students, and 7 or 8 teachers. Both ratios are pretty skewed.

Mr. Quaile asked us if we knew the names of anybody who would be willing to go to Chuuk.

In other situations I’m never sure if I’m hearing God speak to me, or if it is just me putting words into my own mind. But at that moment my mind was filled with one thought: Go to Chuuk! I looked over at the other SM’s and noticed Julianne was feeling the same thing, eyes alight with realization and determination to go where she was feeling called to at that moment.

We finished our meeting, went back to our apartment, and right after worship that night I asked, “So, what if one of us went to Chuuk?”

Silence. Alisha and MaKayla stared at me, and then Alisha put out a well-said “Wow.”

“What if two of us went to Chuuk?”

It was a long time until any of us went to sleep that night. We prayed about it, discussed possible new schedules, and prayed some more. The next morning – Monday – Jules and I went to find Mr. Quaile and Mr. A to tell them our idea. Jules was fixed on leaving, I wasn’t quite yet. Mr. A was hesitant but open to the idea, but Mr. Quaile agreed whole-heartedly. He wasn’t expecting that when he asked us for names we would give him ours. But honestly, this move will be good for the mission. Kosrae SDA School will still be able to function, and the school in Chuuk will get two much-needed teachers.

Now, I was thinking that if I chose to leave, it would be at the end of the quarter – giving me time to wrap things up and give time for the teachers to work out a new schedule. But there was a bigger plan, one that said if we were willing to go we would leave with the Quailes the very next day.

What?

I paced the rocks lining the beach during high tide, asking God if this was really what he wanted me to do. Leave Kosrae, a beautiful island that had quickly and quietly stolen so much of my heart. God calls us to follow him, and he definitely doesn’t promise that the road is going to be easy. If I were to leave Kosrae I’d be jumping into the unknown. In Kosrae, we have a brand new apartment, our own little truck, free snorkel gear rentals, good food, and a cute little campus filled with the most incredible people that I’ve ever met. The sunsets are beyond gorgeous, and I feel completely safe and comfortable.

In Chuuk? I honestly have no idea. I know the ocean is just beyond the basketball court past a tangle of jungle, and the people at the school are nice. But I don’t know much else or what I would be teaching.

But there are holes there that need to be filled. I didn’t go as an SM to be comfortable. There are a lot of reasons I went, but one was to learn how to cling to God. To learn how to trust him with whatever life threw at me, no matter how hard. Usually, I would have asked God for a sign, to show me that I’m supposed to go. But through this experience he’s teaching me that sometimes I just need  to take a leap of faith and to trust that he will be there to catch me.

So I sat down, looked to the sky and said, “Alright God, I’ll go. It’s you and me.”

That was early Tuesday afternoon. The rest of that day was a mess of informing parents and Jeanne, buying tickets, a last trip to the waterfall with our Kosrae friends, packing up our stuff, and wondering what we were getting ourselves into. “This is crazy!” We said more than once. Shout-out to Alisha and MaKayla, who were pros at making a new schedule for the school, and who accepted the new change of pace with a steadfast determination that could only come from God.

We went to talk to Pastor William and Mrs. Triss, a couple who has taken us girls under their wings and have treated us like family. I started to explain why we were leaving, but honestly I doubt they could understand me because I was crying so much. I’m going to miss Pastor’s stories, Mrs Triss’ cooking, and the kindness and love they showed even the first day. They gave us their blessing, prayed for us, and then through tears from most every eye we hugged good-bye.

This was harder than I ever imagined it would be.

The next morning we said goodbye to the students; first and second graders are so resilient. For the last time I said good morning to my students and led them in singing some of their favorite songs – Good Morning, Thank you God, and My God is so BIG. Then we pulled out a Go Fish game with uppercase and lowercase letters and played matching until I could figure out who was actually supposed to be teaching my kids. I taught science to the 7^th and 8^th graders, and when walking kids down to the bus stop I had gotten to know the kids from the other four grades. It’s amazing the type of connections you can make with people over only a month, a few short days, or even only a couple of laughs.

“Goodbye Teacher! I’ll miss you!” The words chorused over and over again. Then we were in the van, headed to the airport and there was no turning back.

I’m in Pohnpei right now. It’s great to see friends and to be almost barreled over with hugs, and if anybody wants to go to Pohnpei they really need an elementary teacher and a 7^th grade teacher. The campus is so much bigger than on Kosrae’s campus and the people are nice! Jules and I would be a good fit, but this isn’t where God is calling us. 

Tomorrow (Thursday) we leave Pohnpei for our new home, and I’m nervous but at peace. Thank you for your continuing prayers and support, and the next time you’ll hear from me I’ll be in Chuuk!