happy birthday to me

tour...family's visit and my birthday

these are some of the adventures we had...

Arrival, claming with my Weno host family, getting our hair braided...

 

Pisar...

 

Met my language tutor and hiked to the top of my island...

                                 

 Swimming at Parem...

Sisters...

Snorkeling...

The best day ever was my birthday!
Cake and ice cream fights, dancing and Mariel and Melody (fellow PVCs) came for the party!

Uniforms and church events...

Ice Cream!

visitors

tour...visitors!

look who I picked up at the airport!
my family came to visit me...stayed tuned for all the adventures I planned for us to do!

Father's Day

tour...Father's Day

I suppose it is time to admit that I am a daddy’s girl (my dad would do anything for me!).

I miss my daddy!

Sometimes it is hard for us humans to fathom the amount of love Jesus has for us. We cannot see Him or touch Him. He is our Father and we just have to know in our hearts that He loves us more than anything else.

I do not share this aspect of my life very often because I do not think it is necessary, however I have recently thought of it in a different way (being away from home, always puts things into new perspectives).

My dad is not my biological father. I have never met my biological father (aside from a short time when I think I was 2, but I have no memory of it). The man I call dad, has always been dad to me. He married my mom when I was 5. He is all I have ever known as a dad. His love for me is a real life tangible example of how much Jesus loves us. Jesus does not have to love us, He choose to love us. Just like my dad choose to love me as his own.

Random thoughts…

4 more days until my family arrives! 

MST

Tour…MST (mid-service training) and culture shock!

One year down one year to go!

All the members of my Peace Corps group (M78) were back together in Phonpei for a one week training to review or first year and prepare for our second year.

It was great to see everyone!

I was shocked at the way I reacted to a “big” city! I was overwhelmed!

How can I be experiencing culture shock?! I only went to another state within the FSM. Phonpei is very modernized compared to Chuuk, I just did not expect it to affect me so much.

There was electricity, cars, tons of people speaking English, automatic doors and lights, hot showers, air conditioning, a mattress, food choices…a very fast-paced life compared to my simple life in Chuuk.

I enjoyed hanging out with my friends and hearing all the stories from everyone’s first year of service.

The whole time I was in Phonpei I just wanted to go home, home to my small island and get back to my quiet, simple, slow-paced life on Fefan. I missed my family.

How am I going to be when I go back to America?! I do not even want to think about it…

Random thoughts…

My family will be here in 11 days! So excited!

1 year

Tour…a year in review

I have been away from America for a year!

A lot has happened in the past year (wait! It has already been a year?!)

I have been to 13 funerals but spent a total of 14 days at funerals

I went swimming 11 times

I went to the Mortlocks 1 time

I went diving for 2 days (total of 4 dives)

I traveled on 2 ships

I went to Pisar 2 times

I have been to 4 weddings

I went to Pisiwi 1 time

I played bingo 2 times and one time I won a bag of rice for my family!

Two babys have born in my family which means I will be around for their 1^st birthday next year which is huge deal

It rained 145 days

I taught a total of 73 days (4^th quarter still is in session-year round school)
I gained 10 pounds! (I guess that will happen when you eat rice 3 times a day everyday for a year!)
I read 39 books
I read 12 books in the Bible
I wrote 151 letters
I received 94 letters

Things I missed back home…

Other than the normal holidays and birthdays.

I missed my sisters and cousins senior year and graduation (congrats mag pie and sasha!)

I missed a great uncles funeral

hot showers!?

tour...a nice hot shower

I almost forgot that hot showers existed! (how could I ever forget that?!)

For the past year I have been taking cold bucket showers. At first they were cold and I thought to myself how am I going to do this for 2 years! (that lasted about 2 weeks!)

It is so hot here cold showers are actually nice, and I actually love bucket showers! (I take at least 2 showers a day, sometimes 3-morning, noon and night).

My fellow PCV’s and I treated ourselves to the nice hotel in town. I took my first hot shower in a year! (it was so hot I had to turn the cold water on a little higher!) It was the most amazing shower I have taken in my entire life.

It is amazing what hot water can do…like rinse all the soap out of your hair and off your body! I have not felt that squeaky clean in a long time. It was also weird showering with 2 hands (using a bucket one hand is devoted to always scooping and pouring water).

It is the little things in life that bring pure joy and happiness to my day. (but whenever I am away from my island overnight, I just want to go home and be on my own plywood bed and use my own bucket shower-does this mean I have adapted into my PC life to well?!)