First week in Yap

Well, as you all read, my last post was a little down, so I thought I should let you all know I am doing much better. Yesterday I caught the bus into town, which picks me up right in front of my house ( how nice is that) and it is only $1 to get into town. A taxi on the other hand is $5.75 one way. Because of this I am going to take the bus as much as I can into town. But, heres the catch, it only runs Mon.-Fri. 6:30 it picks up and 4:45 it takes you back to the village from town. So when school starts that could become harder to do. I spent my first day unpacking, because I am a nut when everything is cooped up in my bags! My room is very nice, I have a bed and a closet and a night stand. I bought a fan because there is no way I could sleep through the night without one, for one because it is so hot and for two I can't stand the sound of the bugs. My house is also very nice, there is a kitchen with a sink with water that is purified! So I now don't have to worry about boiling my water.(which I never worried about at my last house either because my host mom or sister would already have it boiled any time I needed water - I was their little princess, ugh! I miss them) We have an indoor shower, and although it doesnt have hot water it is very nice! We also have an indoor bathroom, but it doesn't work :(, so I have to use the one across the street at the laundry mat. Yeah! You hear right! We have a laundry mat across the street!! I did laundry today and it is the first time I have been able to dry my clothes since being here and man, that was nice! I am living with an older women (65) and her grandson (11). My host mom is very funny and nice, she loves to talk to me although comunication can be a little hard considering her english is not very good. But somehow through broken English and my broken Yapese we figure eachother out. On my second day here i walked to the very nice sports complex with Anderson (the 11 year old grandson) he doesn't talk much, but the silence was nice. It is about a 35 min. Walk to the sports complex from my house. Here they have a full court indoor basketball and volleyball court, a full outdoor track with a soccer feild in the middle, a baseball feild and a full weight room, with a boxing bag!! 😍 I met the guy who runs it and he is an ex peace corps who got married and stayed on the island. He is very nice and I told him I was willing to help in anyway possible. Hopefully later on I will be able to coach or even play some sports myself! The Yap games are going on now, which is a competition between all the villages in all of the youth sports, so later that night I walked back to the sports complex with Anderson and we watched girls volleyball all night long. We got a ride home from a women in our village who knew Anderson. She asked me if anyone had shown me around Gagil, which is the village I live in, and I said no. So she then said "tomorrow I will show you around" The next day, sure enough, she showed up at my house and we walked all morning. She took me to the beach where we watched her kids (she has two little girls ages 4 and 6) play in the ocean and we drank coconuts under the trees. It was really nice to have someone show me around who was around my age. She had a cell phone so we exchanged numbers. The next day I wanted to go explore Colonia, the town. I wanted to see how easy the bus was and find things like the bank and post office and where the grocery stores were. I was about to explore all of town in less then half a day. It is very very small. Infact the whole island of Yap is very small. I got grocerys, went to the public library got some lunch and some wifi at lunch. Which it turns out that there are not a lot of places that have internet except for the one resturant I ate lunch at. Good thing the food is good, I bet I will be back. I also met with one of our response team members and he introduced me to some other volunteers on the island. They are going to be teaching at the high school and are going through a program with their church. They all live together, there are 5 of them, but I only met 2, hopefully in the upcoming weeks I will be able to meet them all. I still have not met my principal, but he is my host moms brother, she has scheduled us to meet on Sunday after church.( my host mom found out I was catholic and was so happy, she can't wait to take me to church) school doesnt start untill Sept. 1st so I still have time to get adjusted. I am going back into town tomorrow to get some tape and meet with another Peace Corps Volunteer. I ate lobster for lunch! Thats right, lobster! The food here on Yap is much better, there are much more freah veggies and fruit ready to be eaten. I even found brown rice and wheat bread. I already feel healthier. I am feeling much better then I did before, but I am still adjusting.