Happy New Year!

Well, happy liturgical new year at least! Today we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical cycle (year C for any of those who care to know). We celebrated last night at 8 pm with pizza, soda, and a brief prayer with all the boys. The weekend we celebrate Xavier Day, a day after the actual feast and into the weekend. I'm sure that'll be all brought up in a later post (since it hasn't happened yet). There will probably be two more posts this month (one catch up, another a reflection I've been praying and working on).

Finals are in two weeks, crazy! I've had time to write one exam, hopefully it's a "good" one. One of the coconut trees fell yesterday in Peniasena (sp?) and is currently being held up by electrical poles. SO, we're on generator power until that gets fixed. Unfortunately, the tree is hanging over a road, and we're pretty sure the busses won't be able to get through (nor are we sure about the safety if they could!). So, up in the air if we'll have classes tomorrow.

I hope everyone back home has had a good Thanksgiving weekend and a not too stressful black Friday for those who ventured out.

Yeah, Definitely Need To Update

View on Pisar
Sunset on Param
Sunset on Pisar

Boys on Param

So, as has been mentioned in a few e-mails, I'm very behind on updating my blog. Part of this is because the past two weekends and this weekend I am off-island on other islands. Two weeks ago was our JV retreat on Pisar, this weekend we are having a staff retreat/outing there as well. Last weekend we were on Param for the Junior CSP (Christian/Community Service Project, we're not exactly sure which is the correct C).
Teaching has been getting better and busy. I also now have a host family, they're awesome and very involved in the Sapuk community. My brother is thinking of having me help him next year with some youth group stuff...we'll see! Lately our electricity has been on a 4 hour cycle, which can get frustrating if you forget to save a document on the computer (just an FYI if it takes me a while to get back to you). However, it's easy to get used to. I've also finally gotten ok with showering in the dark in the morning (our power doesn't turn on till 8 am-ish).
Other news: Boils are gone, I have 20 envelopes which means I will be writing letters again soon (sorry for those I owe letters to!).
Above are the pictures taken from Param and Pisar. I'll post more on Facebook sometime in the near future, hopefully. Some may already be posted thanks to Robin (Australian volunteer).