The Best Gift

It's Thursday night for us, about a week since my last update. My predictions were correct it sure does get busy around here. I've been thinking, I definately don't mind telling you all about the different things that are going on around here, the thing is, there is no way for me to fully update you so please ask me questions, I'd really love that.

Oh yeah, the island, seems so long ago.. The island, Black Coral, that we spent our weekend on, was a beautiful little island and was about a thirty minute boat ride from the shore. Luckily Mr. B our boat driver/ principal, was able to meticulously navigate us through the coral maze that protected this oasis of paradise. The island was about the distance of a rock throw, and filled with little straw huts that were about 12 by 10 feet. Just enough for about two hammocks and your bags. Well Tommy and I picked the weak link of all the huts and decided to try and set our ENO hammocks up in it. Yeah you probably guessed it, we just sped up the collasping process and quickly went with plan B in the trees. For the SM's [Student Missionaries] the island i think was a well needed break, for me it was a great time to crack open some coconut and get to know these guys. We played a fun series of 'Mafia' for those of you who havent played this game before, you truly are missing out. We also got a good amount of snorkeling in, throughout the weekend I saw a total of 3 different sharks. Yes they were different because you could get so close that I could measure them, the smallest at about 2 feet, the longest at a good 7 feet. They were Coral Sharks, nothing harmless. One swam between Laura and I, and we were only 15 maybe at the most 20, feet apart. On the Island when we first set foot there were like a pack of dogs. On of the first dogs we ran into was obviously the mom of the pack. My dog Mollie had some serious enlarged nipples at one point in her life, but these things were incredible. I'll write an entire blog on that some other time, but the pack of dogs(minus the mom) were really upset we were there and were barking like crazy and wouldn't let us get anywhere need them. Luckily for them, I say 'them' because they would have been sorry if they had tried barking into the night during my sleep. But Luckily for them,this summer I had watched that Dog Whisperer on the discovery channel. The name of the dog whisperer is Caesar, and the episode I watched was how to establish dominance with an uptight dog, like such that the pack leader on this island was. He said there are "Dog Lovers" and then there are "Pack Leaders". I now am a pack leader, thanks to Caesar. Mom, your a lover, but we need those so its okay. =) So after my 5 minute session with the dogs Tommy and I had some followers for the rest of the weekend. A few of the dogs were still puppies, and at first I didn't know there was even owners that lived on the island so I named her after the island and was making plans to bring her back to the mainland since she looked like she was starving to death. I trained her with a certain call, so no matter where I was on the island after my call she came running with her ears flopping and her ribs showing. we later found she had owners and I decided not to steal her away, though it was tempting.

This week I've been working with Brittany, I mean Ms. Hernandez. The culture is that it is of great disrepsect if I call her by her first name, supposedly because the kids aren't even allowed to know it, I'm still figuring the details out on that one. Though Lemuel [an amazing friend i mad at Cohutta Springs who is also an SM] just found out that a huge 'dis' or as some might say 'put-down' here is to call someone by there fathers name. Normally that would be honorable or just weird, not so much a disrespect, welcome to Pohnpei. So i did a little research about the 2nd graders and I found that last year the class was split and suppposedly teachers from both classes are saying it was the naughty class. Yup well combine those two naughty classes into one and you'll have the time of your life. =) The boy McCall I talked about before, is now doing so well, he's just about up to pace with a good amount of kids in the class. He is a super learner considering the English language is still all very new to him. Brittany, the main teacher, and I are always looking for ways to calm the kids. This is what I've come up with so far. Super prayer mixed with trying to run them crazy tired during recess and then topped off with breaking out in song whenever they start their beast murmur that even me screaming in a speakerphone couldn't pierce. Thankfully Brittany has a very strong voice, and when need be, she definitively knows how to break it out. In the past few days I think I've sang every bible song ever written, along with adding at least one new verse to each one, just to extend the time. I also have a table full of flowers and notes with pictures of people dancing from the girls and then an assortment of picture drawings from the boys of really big muscle men some equipped with fire shoes to help the muscle man fly. They really are so adorable, although I do see why they say your practically guaranteed to come down with lice, even more so if you work with the younger elementary kids, and your chances keep going up if it seems like you've constantly got at least one kid attached to you throughout the day. Also this week I got to sub for the Sixth grade [okay i just started itching my head], I really had a good time with them, although I was more of the bad news bearer seeing I administered about 3 tests for them that day. Also we're in the process of trying to find a way to get ID cards to prevent such happenings as the one in "Throw Down" by not letting any outsiders on campus.

So the last few days all the SM's have been receiving all these packages from friends and family and I since I've only been here for barely a week i thought there was no way possible for me to be near that list. Well my amazing mother baffled me for the millionth time. Yup I got a whole crazy care package in the mail TODAY!! Now honestly if she had just put a rock in there I would have still been ecstatic. Nope not only did she have paper, which I've needed like crazy, but Beef Jerkey!! There were many other much needed items and many other just moral boosting ones, but the best gift of all in there was.... can you guess? A PENCIL SHARPENER!! I actually opened the care package with the teacher I work with in 2nd grade, and we were so excited we just embraced each other right there in the classroom. So thanks mom, it's amazing how needed and important the little things are when you don't have them. Well I really have to run, but please send me some questions. I haven't accessed all my emails, so if you've left me an email, I apologize I will do my best to get back with you.. Thanks for everything.. Hey Megs

The Throw Down

Happy Liberation Day, which is much like the United States Independence Day. Yesterday was our last class of the week due to the holiday. Though it was their last it was my first, yet second was the grade I worked with. One of the classrooms for the second grade has 35 students in it. Wow, talk about some energy. Those of you who are teachers know what I’m talking about, and those of you who have ever had an eight year old child, know even more. I originally was to spend most of my day observing but next thing I know I was tutoring one of the kids that had just showed up a week ago and school started about a month ago, his name was McCall. The part that made it difficult was his lack of the English language. Now there were a few words he knew, the main one being “I don’t know”. We spent a good chunk of time perfecting his Alphabet song, and then I saw one of the assignments he was struggling with were his sounds. So I would beat box the sounds of the alphabet, he would point to a letter and I would continue the beat with the new sound, he got me on ‘X’. The class really is a mad house, and normally that energy can be good, but I can tell I really am going to have to lay down the law, it also helps to call someone out when you know their name. I really give Brittany some super credit for holding it down for this long, being that many kid’s makes it very difficult to involve the hands on activities that these kid’s really should have. I’m in the process of trying to figure a way to split the class, problem is where to take them, even the cafeteria has classes in it at times. So if any of you could overnight a new classroom, that’d be great. Make sure it has a good pencil sharpener though, because ours doesn’t work so all the kid’s bring in their own little manual ones. At the beginning of the day the floor is a workable tile, at the end of the day it looks like someone sabotaged a mulch bed that W. C. Fields just put in.
Since today was a big Holiday, with Holidays come parties. Last night a huge party was thrown in the gym, with many activities and little competitions between classes, the teachers had our own team as well. They had a HUGE feast, lot’s of meat. The had fresh coconuts that they threw a straw in, topped with just the right amount of pineapple juice. Raw fish was even on the menu, and it still tasted like any other raw fish I’ve tasted. After a few interesting island dances it was time to wrap it up. Here in lied the problem. This was a party that brought it much more than just the SDA student crowd. If some one had told me that every member from the mafia at the highschool age was at this party, I wouldn’t have doubted it. If beetle nut wasn’t being spit on the ground then butterfly knives were being confiscated. Our main duty as missionaries were to get everyone to leave. So I grabbed this really good can of soda and started ushering kids out. I came to this one kid and I told him he needed to head out. He got real offended and came right up to my personal zone and was like “what you say to me” [sic] I was like “nothing you need to get offended over” then him and his little gang all tried surrounding me with their arms crossed and their lips sticking way out, like it was their first kiss or something. I couldn’t help but smirk a little bit. I couldn’t help my self, so I then told the ‘ring leader’ that I didn’t understand what that meant [as I imitated what they were doing]. The guy replied, “It means I’m gonna punch you face” I finished taking another chug on my soda, and calmly replied, with a twinkle in my eye. “I don’t want to start anything, you just need walk away right now.” So he walked away and his posse followed. I thanked God for the confidence he had just given me and walked to the next group. Just when I thought most of the warrior mafia kids were gone, I walked by this group of girls. Two of the girls were playing around grabbing each other, nope just kidding, as it transitioned into a flat out battle I realized it was no joke. Since this throw down emerged right next to me, I immediately grabbed the arms of the girl who had clenched onto the other girls head of hair yanking with all her might. As I did this another missionary let out this warrior cry while he grabbed the other girl, needless to say they let go, his cry was so beastly I even let go. Then God sent us some heavy rain and this cleared everyone out.. we all let out a sigh of relief and just hung out since we were able to sleep in a bit the next day due to the Holiday. Today I received my luggage, we also went in town to go supply shopping, which was my first experience to really see the town. We stopped at a bunch of little shops because each one seems to have their own especially cheap item. One place is better for cereal, another better for detergent. I looked at buying a block of Mozzarella, $34.95. Kristina says she’s going vegan. Tonight we had a potluck just between us missionaries Tommy and I brought ice tea, [the peach one Ma] and this pasta dish we threw together including the Goya cilantro mix I smuggled in from the States. Well it’s passing my bed time but I wanted to take the time to update you before things get very busy here seeing that school I’m sure will be a task. We are going camping this weekend, out to an island. That’s all they’ve told me so far, so I’ll give you the low down hopefully next week sometime. I hope you have an amazing finish to your week, and Happy Sabbath. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers and thanks for stopping by..

Just the beginning..

Thankfully all those storms on the East coast had cleared up and my 1:00 flight on Sunday carried through without a glitch. Five hours later, my flight stopped in Los Angeles and right before jumping on my next leg to Hawaii, I walked out side of the LA airport just to experience the Californian air. Arriving in Honolulu brought back the familiar feeling of excitement that I felt when I had been there to visit with my cousin Mike McGonigle a year ago, while he was task forcing at Hawaiian Mission Academy. Though then I had stayed for a month, this stop was for about 12 hours.
My Newark to Los Angeles trip was probably the best, not only was the airplane fully equipped with cheeseburgers and entertainment but the flight attendants were angels, at least one of them. Being a long flight, I spent a good amount of time out of my seat and the flight attendants were a lot of fun to talk and joke with. Southern University had purchases my ticket, in that process they also requested vegetarian meals for me. Normally this isn’t so bad, but when people on both sides of me are eating a cheeseburger, that is my weakness. So the flight attendants were nice enough to give me a cheese burger as well, though I later found out they had labeled me as a “fake vegetarian” until they heard my story. Apparently there are a good amount of people out there who fake there vegetarian identity in hopes that the food is fresher and a better deal than one with meat. I also realized on this flight that I was missing a toothbrush, I don’t need much to stay alive, but having a clean mouth, that’s crucial. Next thing I know the amazing flight attendant I met, Angel, had a tooth brush and tooth paste for me. This toothbrush came into more use you’ll see as you read on.
In Honolulu I had planned to just sleep in the comfortable airport, I say that without sarcasm as I continue my story. As I was settling in on some nice comfy seats, with friendly people from all over the world passing by, a security guard decided he had some advice for me. He said “Why don’t you go get your boarding pass, then come back and you won’t have to get it in the morning.” I was like alright, that sounds pretty genius, that would mean I could sleep right up to the moment boarding took place. A good ten hours of sleep at the least. So I had to exit security to get to the place he directed me to, I should have made him give me a piggy back there. So I show up at the counter, and you guessed it, they were closed and didn’t open until shortly before my flight the next morning. No problem, I just go back in the airport and sleep till morning like my original plan, eernnnnt WRONG. =) since I couldn’t get a boarding pass the security wasn’t allowed to let me back in. Now you see why the airport seemed so comfortable to me. So then my adventure started. After meeting a bunch of friendly people traveling all over, I met this really awesome Bus driver his name was like Kali. Each time I had him say his name I think he added a few K’s, L’s and U’s, but he was the man. He let me jump a board his bus route and brought me to this awesome little restaurant that is open 24/7. There I met a few girls from Micronesia and they gave me bit of a culture ‘low-down’. One of the things for the Island Chuuk, which is the stop right after Pohnpei if your flying the Continental Micronesia trip. The info was that if you’re a guy and your sitting down at the table, your sister is not allowed to walk anywhere near the table until you stand up, this signals she is allowed to approach. This seemed much more interesting at 3 in the morning. That night I also tried sleeping in the baggage claim area, where it was beautifully air conditioned, an hour into my sleep I was woken up by security on bicycles. They were like “excuse me sir this place is closed your not supposed to be sleeping in here” I was thinking “excuse me, you’re the ones riding your bikes inside, just let a young lad sleep” So they directed me to their recommended area that I slumber. As I arrived at this square of benches all facing each other I realized that this treasured sleeping ground was no secret, and I spent the rest of my night spooning with the homeless people. Even though my level of sleep wasn’t quite what I had aimed for, I wouldn’t trade this night in Honolulu for anything. The excitement and hilarious and entertaining people I ran into, I’m sure was just a preview of the adventure that is to come.
So I arrived Tuesday at 1:50 PM, nearly half an hour earlier than scheduled, these pilots were great. We stopped at nearly a thousand different Micronesian islands for the one word I understood out of the whole trip, Pohnpei, was announced. Once getting of the plane the brought us our baggage, though I was some how cut out of the ‘us’. My luggage was somewhere else in the world, but honestly I was just glad that I wasn’t the one lost on some other random country. Also thankful I still had Angel’s tooth brush. Then I was met with an awesome surprise of Tommy and Kristina, I had thought they were still teaching, but they had gotten substitutes just to come greet me. I then met Mr. B, who is the principal at this school I am working at. I can tell Mr. B and I are going to be good buddies. So after Tommy leiing me with an island necklace, and Continental giving me 50 dollars to survive with until my luggage came, we were off. The rain was just pouring down, the streets were flooding, the kids were frolicking in the puddles with their school uniforms, and the playground was buried in about a foot of water. Tommy and Kristina tried telling me that this wasn’t normal, but after reading that this is one of the wettest places on earth, some parts of the island measuring at 400 inches of rain a year, this is exactly how I had imagined it to look like. The school is just awesome, I’m going to be finding more out today, but I met many of the terrific staff yesterday. I really am honored to be apart of this team, If your still reading thanks for stopping by and hearing what’s going on. I’ll do my best to keep you all updated. Love you guys. God Bless.. drop me an email at Todda@southern.edu

Pre-Season

Wow, I'm still in awe of how this all came together. In less than 24 hours I will be on the true and proud Continental Jet heading towards Pohnpei to work as a [ enter your own job title, probably have a better chance of guessing it than I would]. No, I am thrilled, from what I am hearing now from the Vice-Principal, Kat Schroer, I will be assisting with the Elementary. All the other missionaries have already started the Big Game over there, almost a month for them I think. I thought this semester was going to be a totally different sport for myself. One where Ace's weren't from the Williams twins and winning scores weren't from the NY Giants, yes I was en route to a fun-packed semester of school. In the past few weeks, seems better to say days, God has put together a journey for me to head towards Pohnpei and be His light.

 

Many of you know that last semester, winter 08, I was headed towards Bere, Chad in Africa. I was to work there for several months at an Adventist Hospital. To give you the nutshell: The trip fell through and I worked at an amazing little elementary school in New Jersey, Tranquility Adventist School. I'll try and write more on that later, but after another amazing summer at camp this year, God is sending me[along with my sponsors] to Pohnpei. I will do my best to keep you updated on what is going down over there. I'm enjoying my last few hours in Pre-Season, one would say I've got the Pre-game jitters, but one things for sure is that when I get there, I'll be running strong like I've got the Vince Lombardi trophy in my hand. Excuse my football favoritism, but Yes, my Boy's are still the World Champs. Please keep us in your prayers, your in mine..