So a few more things to catch up on...
1.Eulla's birthday and the baby christening. When we got back from break, Jeanine told me that we had been invited to the christening of one of her kid's baby sister. Confusing, I know. So we got all dressed up on Sunday and walked to the Catholic Church. The service wasn't over yet, so we sat in and heard what the priest had to say. Then we went into the back room for the christening. It was cool that we were invited, because it was just us and the closest family. It was interesting to see because I'd never been to a christening before. After that, we were invited to the club that their family owns to celebrate Eulla's (the older sister) birthday. It was so fun! They even had a roasted pig and some intense Palauan food. We got to talk to Eulla and all her friends and played with the kids too. It was nice to get to hang out with people out of school settings.
2. We celebrated Victor, Jeanine, and my birthday over the last few months. For Victor's birthday we went to Little Italy and ate some amazing food. It was delicious! Then we came back to SDA and watched a movie. For Jeanine's birthday we went to Kramers and got sea food. They had a live band randomly that night so we got to hear them and they were actually pretty good! For my 20th birthday we went back to Kramers and had a Foosball tournament. We all got to play and it was super fun. Then we came back and watched a movie and ran around in the dark. I also got some pretty cool packages from home, as well as other people. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but thank you SO MUCH to everyone who sent me Christmas packages. I got around 25, and they were all SO amazing!
3. One Sunday our host families took us to the waterfalls in Nechasar! We took a huge bus with all the faculty and our families, but when we got there the hill was so steep that we had to park in the middle of the road! Then we hiked up a hill, down a path, up some rocks, down a ravine, and a whole bunch of other ways to get to the waterfall. When we got there it was worth it though! The waterfall was beautiful! It poured down into pools which ran down the rocks into other smaller waterfalls. The water was freezing too! We took so many pictures, and I even jumped off the side. It was a cool experience to bond with new people and get to hang out with our host families.
4. One Saturday Joy (one of the teachers here) asked me if we wanted to come to Nechasar church and help with the program. It was a long ride to get there, but her husband came and picked us up. On the way we discovered that he is the pastor! The church only had about 10 members, but they were all friendly and welcoming. We had Sabbath School outside and church we were barefoot in an open room! After church he took us on a driving tour of the state of Nechasar and then back to the waterfalls! This time it was with the church on Saturday, so we weren't really supposed to swim. We did, however, wade in the water and lay in the shallow part. Then we sang songs and talked about nature and heaven and a lot of other things. It was peaceful and it was fun to meet all the church members from another church.
5. Since Rebecca and Daniel came in December we've been preparing for BYC (Balau Youth Conference). We had several meetings a week trying to plan the whole weekend. I was in charge of registration and photography, but there were about 30 people involved all in all. Finally it was the weekend of BYC. I'm sure a lot of people were stressed because this is what we had been planning for and no one really knew what to expect. The new pastor (who came in a few weeks before) we going to speak and we had a lot planned. People came and stayed at PMA for the weekend for seminars and workshops and other things like that. Friday went great and I got everyone registered. We had an evening meeting and it POURED rain. It's funny because our theme was "Pray for rain" and it rained every day. Saturday we had church and it rained again. The President of Palau came and translated for church though, which was really cool! Saturday night we played capture the flag in the dark after the evening meeting. Sunday was workshops all day until the evening, but then we had a meeting. Six people got baptized! It was so amazing! Even Carl spontaneously decided to get baptized too. I know it really impacted people and it was a great event, with more than 200 people showing up. It's something that we started this year, in hopes that it will become and annual event.
6. One Saturday we decided to go camping in Baubledop. We drove the van out to the beach and brought our hammocks and everything. It was really fun, we made a campfire and ate on the beach. We set our hammocks up under a little hut and everything was perfect. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. It POURED rain all night. My hammock is full of holes, so I didn't have much protection. I ended up sleeping in the van, but forgot to close the window so it rained on me all night. I didn't get much sleep, but it was still fun to get to be in nature and hang out.
7.Last Thursday was Youth Day here in Palau and so we got the day off of school! All the SM's plus Myrrah (a teacher at PCC) went to PPR. It's the nicest resort in Palau and it really expensive to get in. Once you're inside, it looks like you are in Hawaii or somewhere other than Palau. It has white beaches, clear blue water, tons of lawn chairs set up, a nice pool, and hammocks to lay in. We got to swim in the ocean out to these cool floating docks to sun tan. We also went in the pool and lounged around on the beach. Jeanine and I hiked out to the end of the island and the view was beautiful. At sunset we swam back out to the floating pier and watched the sun set. Then we ate dinner at the restaurant and some other people from PCC joined us. It was such a great relaxing day!
8. I know it sounds like all we do is have fun, but that isn't true at all. We're always involved in something, weather it be BYC, church events, or school events. Just yesterday we had our school creativity fair. My kids and I have been trying to get ready for that for the past month, and it finally all came together. They made dioramas of under the sea to display at our booth, and we also put together a gymnastics routine. I worked with Joy's class, 3B to get them ready. They did cute little flips and pyramids and other things to "Eye of the Tiger". I was kind of worried about it because we didn't have much time to practice, but last night it went perfectly! They were all ready to go. The rest of the fair was great, except the kids kept putting me in jail a million times. There were lots of other booths and I got to socialize with a lot of people I normally don't get to see. The best part of the talent show was when a cute little girl, Alexa, sang L.O.V.E. with her dad playing the guitar. She was just amazing!
9. We just got finished with our last PTC (Parent-Teacher Conference). It was great! I heard that people are usually worried about that, but mine always go so well. The parents always have great things to say about me, and I always have great things to tell them about their kids. It's nice to have that communication to let them know how their kids are doing.
10. A few nights ago all the teacher were invited to go to Airai View Hotel for the birthday of the Ambassador of Taiwan's son. He's new to PMA and let us all come for free. Even though just a few of us ended up going, it was so much fun! I'd never been there before and there are two water slides for the guests to use and they were awesome! Even though now I'm covered with bruises, it was fun getting to know all the Chinese dorm students better. We got into a water fight and in the end we shoved them down the slide like 50 times. Bonding...
11. I found out that my roof leaks. Every time that it rains here in Palau, there is a giant puddle of water on my floor. I nearly slipped to my death a few days ago because apparently there's a hole now! I have buckets full of water that I get to dump out. It's an experience at least I suppose
12. Something new that happened was that last week I couldn't breathe. I was sitting out at recess and suddenly I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't see straight, it was hot, and I kept hyperventilating. They rushed me to the ER and I got diagnosed with dehydration. They put me on an IV drip which took forever and then I could go back to school. It was kind of scary, but at least I'm drinking more water now.
So now you're caught up with what's been going on. We have one week left and then we have spring break! We're planning to go camping, diving, and then Jesse and Rychelle come from Yap! It's sad that we're so close to the end of our time here. I feel like now things are going to go by so fast because we want them to go slow. There are still so many things that I want to do here, but I don't know if I can accomplish them all. I already miss my kids, but I'm still teaching them! I just love them so much-more every day. They really are the sweetest kids ever. They are all so helpful and loving and adorable. I know I'm going to miss them a lot.
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