Home for the Holidays

Different.... That is how I would explain my trip home, all in one word. I know this sounds very cliche but everything is exactly the same, but I see everything differently. Let me start from the beginning. December was a crazy month in Yap. The typhoon came in the beginning of the month, followed by the local dance performance followed by countless hours working with the youth group on their Christmas program. I was always busy, and never home. This was good because it didn't give me a lot of time to think about coming home. I knew that it was slowly approaching. It is really hard to explain my feelings on this topic. Of course I was beyond excited to go home, see my family whom I have miss so much words can't even explain it. I was excited to sleep in my big comfortable bed. I was excited to wear pants and not sweat. I was excited for SNOW(which normally I hate). With all this excitement came nerves. I was nervous that it would be extremely difficult to go back to Yap after being home. I was sad that I spent all this time helping my students prepair for the Christmas program, yet I would not be able to see them sing. Finally, I was anxious about how different things would be at home. I have traveled quite a bit, but this is the longest I have been away from home my whole life. Seven months, I mean, a lot could change in seven months, that is almost long enough for a child to be born. So, I had all this anxiety and all these nerves with no idea what to expect. I mean, people try to prepair you for reverse culture shock, but no matter how many people tell you, you just have to feel it for yourself. I thought I was prepaired.

    Affer a last minute flight change, I began my journey back home for the holidays on December 21st, 2014. I flew from Yap to Guam, Guam to Tokyo, Tokyo to Denver. Thanks to a little help from a glass of wine I was able to sleep the whole flight from Tokyo to Denver. After going through customs I finally walked through the glass doors to the greeting area. Here I instantly found my parents and sister. They were still looking for me in the crowed. I could tell they were tired. They had waited over 2 hours for me   (we can thank customs for that, or the wonderfull airline I flew on, take your pick) This is the type of moment you see in movies. You never really appreciate this moment until you live it. My mom was the first to see me, she screamed! She then came running toward me, arms wide, followed by my sister, and then my dad (who was video taping this whole incounter). This moment was exactly how I had pictured it to be. We then told stories and smiled and hugged all the way to the car. We continued talking all the way to Chilli's, where I finally ate chips and salsa and a salad (two things I missed desperatly). I was not prepaired for the effects this rich food would have on my stomach. Let's just say that my stomach hasn't been the same since being home. All food here is too rich for me. We spent the night talking and showing pictures. I explained the culture of Yap, talked about my wonderful students and went to bed early. The next day, jet legged, I woke up at 4am with no ability to go back to bed. Since I was awake, I decided to have my first cup of REAL coffee, not instant coffee. This was amazing! After the first day, I started to notice how things had changed. Correction, things at home were exactly the same, exaclty! I had changed. Physically a little bit (10lbs heavier to be exact) but mentally a lot! I am not used to wearing make-up or doing my hair. I always felt beautiful like this in Yap. At home, I found myself doing my hair and makeup for days I spent in the house. Why did I feel the need to conform to society. I still don't know the answer to this. I also noticed a change when I went to the gym for the first time. I can not believe what some girls wear to the gym! You are there to workout not find a boyfriend. Then I began to notice the little things in life that are senseless that people care so much about. Yes, having a new car is nice, and having the new I phone is cool. And yes, getting dressed up and going out with friends is still fun! But, after going through everything that I have been in the past seven months... I am different. I think listening to my students sing is nice. I think decorating the local church for Christmas is cool, and I think putting on my long loose skirt with no make up and hair in a bun and teaching my students is fun. Now, don't worry.. I still love being home, but now I am not worried about wanting to go back. I alone am the only person that knows the hardships I have faced while on this journey, but I also know now that I will come out of this whole experience with strength to do anything I want. Even though, I am not worried about my return to Yap, I do desperately wish I could take my mom, dad, and sister with me.  Well, I am going to enjoy the rest of my vacation at home, I will write again once I return to Yap! 'Till then!

Typhoon damage

Local dance practice

Typhoon

As you have all noticed my blogs have become less and less! This is because my life has gotten busier and busier. Paddling ended and I thought things would die down a bit. I was wrong. One week after paddling finished I was asked to join a local dance, which we would be performing in 2 weeks. I told them yes but I was really unsure if I was going to be able to learn this dance in time. It began to consume my life. I was practicing during all of my breaks, before school and after school. Not only was the dance moves making me nervous, but also the fact that the local dances are performed topless! We also started planning the Christmas program for the youth and we had a radio skit to do. Life as a Peace Corps became very unpeaceful. I had simple said yes to too many things and I was extremly stressed out. Then at the begining of the week there was talk about a possible typhoon headed our way. I didnt pay much attention to it because in such a small island people make a big deal about small things. However, this was not a small thing. The typhoon started heading right for us! The Peace Corps activated the emergency action plan and all volunteers were evacuated from our homes and put into a hotel. Many of the volunteers were happy to be able to get a warm shower and sleep in a real bed. I however, was not ver excited. It was very hard for me to leave my village. It was a very weird feeling saying good bye to my host family, kind of like I was abandoning them. The typhoon came and went and at the nice secure hotel we were in I could barley tell any bad weather was happening outside. The next morning when the sun came out I took a walk around town to see the damage. I saw whole trees tipped over with roots out of the ground. I saw roofs ripped off houses and I saw a lot of sea weed all over the roads. There were a couple pipes broken so extra water flooded some roads. I wanted to get back to my village to see the damage there, but I had to wait for the clear from Peace Corps. This was extremly hard for me. I sat around all day and waited and waited while I could have been helping clean my village or helping at the school (which was also a shelter) evenually at 4pm I was able to go home, but then came the trouble of finding a way home. All taxi and buses werent running. I finally found a ride from a friend. The village was a mess! Trees all over the roads! Phone lines and power lines ripped down, it was very sad to see. It is bow the night after the typhoon and the power is still out at my house. No one knows when it will be back on. Tomorrow is the offical dance and after this weekend things will die down again. Just in time for my vacation back home for Christmas! 

STRESSED

Well, one of the teachers has to leave the island for health reasons, so for the next 2 weeks we are down a teacher, the school was already down one before he left! So I offered my only off period to teach health to the 7th graders. I did this because I don't want the students running around and I want them to have a structured class, but the more I think about it the more steessed I get. I am also going to help with the kids paddling practice on Mondays. All of a sudden I have no time to lesson plan or even breath it feels like! I do best when I am busy and I know these next few weeks will fly by! It's only Tuesday and I cant wait for Friday already! I am however excited to teach health, I think I have a lot to offer the kids on the subject! Maybe the first thing I will teach is that being stressed is unhealthy 😉 

Funny little things

, Well what an interesting day I had. Let me first start by saying that last night on our way home from paddling practice the truck broke down, so the team got an unexpected workout walking home. It was only about a 30 min. Walk, but of course it broke down on the day that I had a package from home, so I had extra baggage one would say. This morning I woke up to find that ants had found a new home around my food. Ants are everywhere here and I have grown to ignore most of them, or kill them with my bare hand. But them making a new home in my food drawer really started my day off bad. When I arrived at school the internet had turned off, something that happens often, but I have learned to deal with. Well this morning, weither it was my extra walk the night before, the ants, the internet or my premenstral state, I was quite irritated. After my first class I cooled down a little bit. I am so used to formality and order that going with the flow doesn't come easy for me. Being here I have learned to go with the flow, and it is mornings like this morning that it is really important to go with the flow. After school I went for a nice run and did a workout with my host brother. After that I felt 100% better. I ate dinner (tuna and taro). After that I helped the group that works with the youth on developing a radio skit to prevent underage drinking. It was fun and I might even get to be in the skit, then I will be on the radio here! I will be famous! At least Yap famous! I am really happy to get involved with this group, and drinking in general is a huge problem here in Yap. After this I took a shower. My host mom loves to talk, and I love to talk to her and listen, but she finds the oddest times to talk to me. Like tonight for instance, after my shower, while in my towel and soking wet she stops me to have a full on conversation. It is moments like this that I smile, because looking over my day, all the way to that moment, I had to just laugh and kept the conversation going. These are the funny little things in life that people live for. 

Busy Bee

Sorry I have not posted in a while, I have been a very busy bee! Like I said in my last post, I joined the paddling team so I have something to do almost every night of the week, which really make the weeks go by fast! I am told that being a busy peace corps volunteer is much better then being a bored one, so for that I am thankful, but sometimes I wish I could have a little break. I really like paddling, and we have 34 days until the canoe festival. That is where we will be competing against the other municipalities. This is only the second year that Gagil (my municipality) has had a team and last year they took third. At the festival there will also be swimming races and local sailing. They will also have shows with local dancing! I am very excited to see the festival and even more excited to be involved in it. Last weekend I was sick, and man did that suck! I had a bad cold and it made my busy schedule seem unattainable, but somehow i managed to get through it and the sickness only lasted for about four days. And lucky for me it waa over a weekend so it didnt effect school for me much. That weekend Gagil had a Walk-a-thon where the community wakes up at 5:30am on a Saturday walks to the beach(about two miles) plays games, watches the sunrise then on the walk back they pick up trash along the road. The kids loved it, and even though I was sick, I had a great time. My Sundays are completely full now. I wait for a phone call from my parents at 8:30am then go to church at 10am then leave for paddling practice at 12:30 and we dont normally come back until around 7-8pm! They are quite the days! My students are doing well in my classes, I still struggle sometimes with lesson planning and at what level my students are at, but overall it is going well. I really like my students. I am getting closer with they other teachers too, which is nice. My host family is great. I tried betelnut because it is part of the culture here, and the locals love it when I "have a chew" with them. have found that I actually like it, and I now limit myself to only a couple a week. This past weekend we got more books delivered to the library. At the end of the day the library is a mess. I used to get upset about it, but now it doesn't bother me, it means the students are actually looking at the books. I talked to the director of youth sports, we are going to aet up a boxing club, but we are going to wait until after the new year because that is when all the new equipment is going tobe  coming in. I am happy to announce that I will be coming hone for Christmas. I didn't announce this before becauseIwanted to surprise Emily( my sister) but my loving mother let the cat out of the bag, but it doesnt take any excitement away from me coming home, I still cant wait! October had been kind of a hard month for me because i love fall time in Colorado, and the weather is exactly the same here. I got really homesick. It would be nice to sleep one noght without worrying if a spider will crawl over my face, or have one meal without ants getting into my food. But, at the end of the day these are all minor things, i can get past them, but I do miss my family more than I was expecting, but being away really shows you who is important and what is important. With having the internet, it has been easier to stay in touch and I am very thankful for that. The internet at my school is off and on though, somedays it works, others it doesn't. I have noticed on the days it doesnt work, I get a lot of work done in the library, so there are pluses and minuses to every situation, the key to mental survival is finding the pluses and thinking only about them. I think I am very good at doing this and that is why I am having a good time through this experience. I have noticed that I am very adaptable. Also since my last post, my bed broke, so now the wooden frame is being held up by one of my suitcases, it actually works quite well! Who knew I could be so handy! I got a great care package from my mom today filled with yummy food. I will sleep good tonight because we spent the afternoon paddling and when I wake up let's pray the ants haven't gotten to all that yummy food! That's all for now! 'Till next time!