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).

Joys

It's been a while, so I guess I'll start with some bad news: boils, everywhere. Ok, slight exagerration, but a have 2 boils plus a carbunkle (that's the technical term for having more than one boil in one spot). Also an annoying infection on the finger which makes it hard (annoying) to type at length. I thought I had known discomfort before, now I laugh. No, this isn't complaining, just letting you know why I may come back with a bunch of random scars on my body :)

Fun news!
I went to Tol again two weekends ago to get some info for a Christian Service Project the juniors were supposed to go on. It was pretty awesome and provided a lot of great things to reflect and pray on. I learned some Chuukese (very very little amount...ekis Chuuk). Unfortunately, we had to cancel the CSP due to the boat captain not wanting to go out when the weather was bad (it got better when we got back up to XHS, after all the girls had gone back to their sponsors). Don't worry, one WILL happen, and we will still get to go!

I'm currently talking like a Russian (with a very bad accent) in Literature. You may be asking yourself "Why?" Here's the answer: We're reading Animal Farm! By far one of my favorite books ever. I really should get to reading 1984 sometime...
The seniors have been given a case study project, I gave for case studies, they pick one and apply methods they've learned about so far in class. Hopefully it will turn out well. In English Skills, we're writing an Essay and prepping for the PSAT. They are really worried for some reason, so we're working on vocabulary skills (plenty vocabs, as we would say here) as well for the moment, I spent a good part of today writing prefixes and their meaning, I think I'm going to have them write songs in order to memorize them.

We have some Australian high school students visiting this week, should be interesting. They are staying at one of the nicest hotels here to sleep at, but spending most of their time with us and at Sapuk Elementary. 5 of the boys will be staying overnight tomorrow in the dorm. Hopefully this brief immersion experience will be helpful for them in some way.

Question: What is your image of God? What do you think it means about you and your relationship with God? Your vocation? (No, you don't have to share)

Heads Up

In case you were worried, no, none of the natural disasters taking place are anywhere near me. Thankfully, the Pacific Ocean is very large and, if a tsunami or something were to come in our direction, the water gets really shallow in random places within the lagoon, plus I'm on one of the highest points of this island. So please, if you were worrying, don't. :)

A better blog post to come. The power is probably going to turn off in a few minutes (it has been turning off at this time for the past couple of days).

It's been (over) one week!

...since our first day of school. Wow. So much to say, but so much beyond words! In just this one week I've experienced many ups and downs, joys, frustrations, sorrows, etc. that come with teaching. It's quite the roller coaster. One thing I realized this morning is that I need to be more firm and sure of myself in my morality class. Not that I am not right now, but I have been unsure how to handle the "touchy" topics we will be discussing in the class -- i.e. drinking and sex. I think being up front may be the best way to go The other day we did an activity and the class seemed a bit divided on those and more than a few issues. Hopefully it will make for good discussion and good reflection (my hope is that the class not only teaches them about moral theology but also how to think critically and prepare them for college, they are seniors in high school afterall!).
In other news, in case I haven't shared this already on here, I' ve been named "one" of the moderators for Campus Ministry. Currently, we are still awaiting the other Jesuit scholastic to arrive to teach and also help with CM, but his work papers haven't been pushed through yet. Right now, Steph is helping me out with it for the time being (helping meaning meaning completely guiding me). So far we're just trying to figure out who the student leaders are! Most of my job as CM moderator will be planning the service projects for the Fresh, Sophs, and Juniors, as well as planning out the Junior retreat and the Fresh and Soph days of prayer. It should be great and keep me busy enough, although I'm also thinking and praying about whether or not to suggest to our future "team" the idea of adding Bible study to the mix (currently one of the Austrailian volunteers, Robin, is doing this on his own. So making it part of CM would help to "institutionalize" it in the XHS community).

With sad news, I regret to say that I will bot be able to Skype as often due to a broken head set. I'll try to borrow others' when I can. Sorry for the bit of sad news.

Thank you to those who have sent actual letters. It's always wonderful to receive something in the mail! A lot of people have been getting packages, but I feel like letters are just as awesome because then I get to write back, sweet! If you would ever like to send a letter, but don't have my address, feel free to e-mail me.

As promised, some pictures

The ladies after Feast of the Assumption Mass on Tol (l-r, Jessica, Caroline, Megan, Stephanie). Note the beautiful marmars (flowers around neck and head)

The guys minus Matt, who was working on a speech (l-r, me, Tyler, Sammy)

A picture of the hill road we take down from Xavier to Saramen. Forgot to take some of the actual road at sea level.

The field via roof view, with the water in front. The island in the very back ground is a marker for the lagoon. Past the lagoon the water is a bit choppier.

There, some pictures.

DON'T PANIC!

(shout out to whoever can name the piece of literature I just quoted for the title of this post)

But really, don't panic. I'm ok. In fact, you probably don't even need to panic right now. Until you hear this (sorry mom):
Apparently I have developed an allergy to something. Not sure what yet. But yesterday morning I woke up with some hives, which got worse last night (even though I was taking some benedryl). Went to the clinic today downtown and they told me to take loratadine (ie claritin). Believe it or not, it is working, I just have to take multiple doses in the day. We'll try to figure out what the allergen is once the hives go away (I may post a picture or two once they're loaded)...can we say "community builder?" We'll have an epi-pen and a benedryl injection ready "just in case" the reaction is bigger than the one I had. Hopefully they won't be necessary.
The ride to the clinic was pretty fun, I always enjoy riding in the back of a truck or flatbed and just letting the wind hit me and feel like an adventurer (Indiana Jones, perhaps). Even when broken out in hives, it's awesome feeling.

School is officially starting in less than a week, more of the students are on campus and I'm starting to learn some of their names and just chatting wtih them. Hopefully they don't think I'm a total nut case from this allergy stuff (and hopefully they don't use it against me if they find out what it is!).

Yesterday I watched A Clockwork Orange, crazy movie to get you thinking about morality/free will. We're in the process of transferring all our VHS movies on campus onto DVDs so that they're easier to skip through and watch with students (well, when they can be watched with students, Clockwork would definitely not be one of them!).

Again, don't panic. It's rarely necessary. Just keep remembering to breathe.

Editors note morning after this post: Even though I was taking loratadine even over the night (when I woke up and checked my watch it was time for another!), I still broke out again -- the hives were almost completely gone by the time I went to bed. So, Joan (the infirmarian) and I believe it to be the laundry detergent. We'll be trying out a new one once someone can go downtown to buy some and then we'll try it out. If it's not that, it might be the bed.