A Whole lot of Firsts*
*Disclaimer I am writing this email in a few parts, because I want to give you a clearer picture of my life here on the island
Coming to this island, I knew there would be many differences and I was not prepared for how many new things that there were going to be. Stepping off the plane, I felt as though I was stepping into a whole new world, and in a lot of ways I was.
As plane UA154 started its descent into Pohnpei International Airport, I was about to begin the journey of a life time. Looking out of the window, there was ocean and more ocean. Soon enough an island came in full view. Pohnpei is hard to describe, because it is so diverse. It was raining when we started our descent and water was streaking across my airplane window. As I was taking my first look at this beautiful place that I will call home these next 10 months I felt an incredible sense of peace. I was reassured this is where I needed to be. My heart leaped as I saw the beauty and the grandeur of the nature that God has placed on this little 129 square mile island in the middle of the South Pacific.
As we deplaned, we were greeted with the ever so welcoming blanket of humidity that I am familiar with, that solidified it, I knew I was home. After going through customs and collecting our baggage we were welcomed by Principal’s family and one of the returning SM’s who had gotten in a few days prior. Hugs were exchanged as flower crowns were placed on our heads. We boarded the bus and found ourselves on our way to campus. We took the afternoon to go and see an amazing waterfall and swim in it, that has been the only time we have been swimming since we have been here, but I am looking forward to the more that we can. As we arrived, housing assignments were given. I was to move into apartment A5 with two other girls, the other four girls are right next to us in A6.
Our apartment had a thick layer of dust and smells musty, but it feels homey. Soon after moving in, we realized that we were not alone in our apartment, we share it with ants and cockroaches as well. We are getting quite familiarized with how to kill the roaches (well my roommates are, I have not killed one yet due to sheer terror of these gigantic monsters). They documented their first kill and there has been several since them. It becomes quite humorous, last night, my roommate Heidi had gone to bed, I was still up reading when Jasmine came in and we saw a giant roach (it was only like 3 inches) and we needed to kill it because we could not sleep in peace without it. The challenge was to kill it without waking Heidi, and due to Jasmine’s awesome skills we managed to kill it. Also one of the first nights, I had gone to sleep and Heidi came into the room and found a roach crawling up onto my bed while I was sleeping so she screamed and killed it thankfully. Now a lot of my dreams include roaches and ants. It is not bad, I honestly love it so much. Ants do not crawl across my bed as much as they used to, so that is good.
We have had several plumbing issues as well. Our toilet doesn’t seem to like us that much, but that is reality at times. We now have several phone recorded videos on the plunger chronicles now that will be fun to laugh at in years to come. For a few days our toilet did not work at all, and we had to walk across campus, but it is so beautiful here the walk is not bad. I can cheerfully say we now have a fully functional toilet that only acts up sometimes. We will see how that goes.
Some big adjustments that I am starting to get used to are wearing skirts all the time, I never realized how liberating shorts and pants could be until I could not wear them unless I am in my apartment. Also, this no A/C thing is throwing me off, but that is life. I am actually adjusting to not having cold air easily accessible, because when I walk into an air conditioned building I feel relieved, but then I also realize I get cold quite fast. One thing that is guaranteed to be cold are the showers. I can tell you that, we do not have hot water, which is not to bad, except that I cringe every time I step in the shower, but the great thing about it is that I can always cool down if I need to. I also miss ice, ice is great, I did not think I would miss it as much as I do, but life will carry on. Random note, cereal is also super expensive over here, so that was something interesting that I noticed.
School starts tomorrow August 16, so that will be quite interesting, I am teaching senior Bible twice and then I have two chapels, and I’ll finish off the day teaching sixth grade. Our sixth grade teacher had to go home this week for a wedding she is in, and will be back next Thursday night. So until then I will be taking over the last two hours of her class. I am not ready to teach, I feel so unqualified, but I know God’s got this. I finished writing my Syllabus yesterday, and I wrote out all of my lesson plans for this next week. Honestly I am feeling a little bit like an imposter at the moment, but I know this will pass. The students will call me Chaplain Kayla, and I have already been nicknamed CK. I am super stoked to see how this is going to go.
Since I only teach one class twice, that was not enough to give me a classroom, so I have a small office on the side of the gym. They just gave me the key tonight, and it is quite a wreck inside, but it makes me happy. It shows me that there is an opportunity to change and make things better. So hopefully Sunday I will be able to get a lot of it cleaned. It is simply set up and is quite bare at the moment, but has all the necessities it needs. I actually have a bathroom in my office, but I am scared of it at the moment. But this place has so much potential. Before I left Florida, my mom gave me two wrapped gifts for my office and I opened them tonight, one was a name plate and it reads Chaplain Kayla, the other is a little wall hanging tapestry that says “Be Kind & Brave” there is a little bit of beauty sprinkled in this current mess. I am so excited for what it will turn into though.
It rains a lot here, I would not have it any other way. I love how beautiful and peaceful the rain is, it reminds me of a verse from Hosea 6:3 which states that He will come to us like the rain. So since it rains a whole lot here, I know I have a solid reminder that God is always so near and His love is as palpable as the rain around me.
I could not have asked for a better group of fellow SM’s. These people are amazing and they are quickly becoming family. We play games together and try new things. We play elementary school verses high school volleyball and basketball, having a great time doing it. Today we took a break and walked to a local little shop and bought ice cream for $1. Pohnpei is so indescribably wonderful, I cannot wait to share more with you, and I will continue this email after I officially have my first day and part of my first week teaching.
My first day of teaching classes has officially happened. It is in the past now. That makes me smile. The nice thing about having the first day on a Friday is that I get the weekend to recover and prepare for the next week. Today was, well today was today. Let’s just put it that way. So many feelings and emotions happened through a four-hour span of actually teaching school. My seniors seem pretty chill, very quiet at the moment, but I’m sure that will change very soon. I feel as though some of them did not take me seriously at first and that was a little nerve-wracking, but by the end of each of the two periods, I think we adjusted to each other. Chapel, now chapel was a whole new story. I actually did not even have the key to the chapel, so the Principal’s son had to let me inside.
The first chapel I had was about 100 5-9 year olds, that seemed to be the definition of chaos. Not that any of the kids were trying to be inherently bad, maybe some were, but it made for an interesting chapel experience. We sang several songs, I got them up and moving, and we had a goodtime. When I told them a story, that’s when I seemed to have lost them. I felt worse for the teachers, than myself, but it was only the first day, so I know there is much room for improvement. My second chapel seemed to go a lot smoother which was a relief. That made me feel better, some of the sixth graders gave me attitude, but after seeing that I was not going to oblige to their shenanigans, they put them to rest.
After I finished with my chapel, I took the sixth graders for the rest of the day, they pushed more buttons, but I remained firm. As soon as I let the sixth graders leave at dismissal, I felt much relief. My feet are about as sore as the first day of camp when I’m up on my feet all day. I’ve had a few meetings since the day has finished, and now I am taking some R&R time for myself. I have always had great respect for my teachers, but my respect has now been magnified, so thank you to all who have taught me in some form or another.
Currently I am sitting outside of my apartment on the porch. It is 4:30 Friday afternoon and Todd the cat (the principal’s daughter named her) is trying to find a way to take over my lap which this laptop is currently occupying. There are going to be many more new things, and several more firsts throughout these next 10 months, and I am so excited for each and every one of them. Please feel free to email me, connect through facebook or Instagram, or shoot me a WhatsApp message. Because any news from home is so comforting even if it is a simple response. You are amazing, thank you for being part of my rock this year. Catch you all up more soon. Praying for each of you. Also if you know of anyone who would like to hear about things like this, please feel free to share with them, and also send me emails of people's email addresses so I can add them, thanks!
Love always,
Kayla Goodman
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