I love it here!

I realize it's been about 4 weeks since I've written. That's probably due to the fact that I'm soaking up every minute here so much I've hardly been on the internet! But here is a brief (yeah right) update on the last month:

September 25 - This Friday we had no school because of Manit Day. (I think it's like a labor day maybe? I don't know I forget things.) Everybody gets together and sells food and people/kids do performances. So our gymnastics team was going to do a show there. It was supposed to start at 1pm, but it was pouring rain so it got delayed some. Then we were supposed to perform 2nd, but 3 other groups went ahead of us...and well you know how island time is. And apparently island performances too. But we finally got to go. And although the rain had let up, the hot, tropical sun beat down mercilessly.The show went good though. The guy coaches tossed me and I did a flare! It made me happy to do something gymnastical.

September 28 - Me and 3 other SMs started a little morning worship group. We go out and watch the sunrise and read our Bibles, pray, etc. If we read something cool we can share it with the group. It's a pretty amazing thing and it helps us keep each other accountable. The sunrise over the water is so incredible each morning. I'm going to miss that so much!

September 29 - At recess I'm massaging Shari's shoulders when I look left in mid-sentence and some lady starts breastfeeding out in the open. hahaha It was so hard to not scream and continue talking normally. LOL

September 30 - TSUNAMI WARNING! Some kids' parents actually came and took them out of school. Apparently we're supposed to go to the second story of the gym if there's a tsunami...hahaha really? If there's a tsunami we're toast. We live on a sandbar you can hardly see on a map. But we practiced our "fire drill"/tsunami drill. (The alarm is hitting the gas tank hahaha). Nothing happened all day. Damien and Zac got on the roof of our apartments with their surfboards waiting for the wave of their life I guess hahaha. After school the swells were huge! I just stood on the rocks with my mouth hanging open. Of course the guys went out having the waves of their life beat them to a pulp. It was pretty amazing.

Sad story - My mom sent me a hard cover for my computer to PROTECT it. I put it on and then realized I hadn't wiped the dust off the inside, so I was trying to pry it off to no avail. I stuck my finger between the cover and the outside and pulled (but not too hard because I didn't want to break anything). Then I opened it up to discover I had cracked the screen by pushing from the outside. That's right I'm an idiot. Now I have to ship my computer home (so I'll be computerless for at least a month) and it's going to cost me. I went outside and cried. It was so terrible. But it is just a thing.

By now we've gone on a couple of dives. Today will be our third. The first time we went down about 40 feet. On the way in we got swarmed by a huge school of fish. One swam (haha I almost said flew) into my hand and I screamed into the regulator. (Can't you just imagine??) It was so cool. This last Thursday we went to a different part of the lagoon and saw heaps of jellyfish. Don't worry they're little blue guys that don't sting. We saw a whitish colored ray too. Unfortunately my right ear wouldn't equalize very well so I was in a bit of pain when we got back...I'm really hoping it'll be ok today! It doesn't help being slightly congested. Hopefully the drugs will help. :)

October 3 - Walking back from Payless we heard a little meow. Damien caught a little kitty and now the guys have adopted her. It was really hilarious when Tony had her on his lap and Alise says, "Uhh...I think she's pooping." In the most calm voice imaginable. In seconds Tony is covered in kitty diarrhea. LOL Ohhh I laughed soooo hard. He was amazingly calm about the whole situation.

October 4 - Trip to Laura! This is about a 45 minute drive from our school. The other end of the island and there's beach! We went for a few hours to just play and have fun. We snorkeled some, but the current was really strong, so we spent most of our time throwing the football.

October 5 - World Teacher's Day! We went to a convention they were having for the island teachers. They had a few speakers, but more importantly they had prize drawings! I won a free lunch for 2 at ENRA (MIR). So I was pretty excited. They had cash prizes (one was $200), and free tickets to anywhere in the islands. It was cool seeing other teachers.

Ok this is getting long so I'm going to continue in another blog. :)