2 Quarters = 1 Semester

Similar to my journaling habits, my blogging commitments fall through sometimes! As of today, we finished the first semester at Palau Seventh-day Adventist Elementary School. I taught P.E to 1st-4th graders for one quarter and was an 8th grade homeroom and 7th and 8th grade reading teacher for the second.

Before I signed up for a job in Palau, I was sure that I did not want to "deal with" 7th and 8th graders—"They're dramatic pre-teens who think they know it all." But wow was I wrong! I have never loved kids so much, never connected with them like this. Because of the culture and experiences they have grown up with, their maturity level is much higher than an average 13- or 14-year-old.

My kids joke around with me, wrestle with me, cry to me, ask me for advice and one's even begging to join me in the States next year and attend high school in Lincoln, Nebraska. They are so curious about celebrities, right and wrong, boys/girls and most importantly, they have a huge curiosity about God, Heaven, Satan and how to be who they should be. I know why I am here, but I still feel so ill-equipped for the position. I am responsible for showing these young people what Jesus would do. I am responsible for showing them His love! And I find myself falling short daily.

Please remember me in your prayers. Remember my kids in your prayers! Pray that God will fill me with the knowledge to show and tell them who He is and how much He loves them. Pray that they listen!

Whipped cream fight with all the 8th graders.

7th graders did a project on s'mores.

Samples were a must.

Friday lunch out with our girls.

A Washington pathfinder group donated hundreds of dollars worth of new

sports equipment to the high school.

Us SMs took advantage of it one Saturday night.

{I'm in red, on the right side.}

7th grader in a box.

Why? I don't know...

I made them all Christmas hats.

They actually enjoy my retarded ideas sometimes!

8th grade bake sale fundraiser at the Christmas program.

Jordan's mum sent us all Christmas hats so we had a photoshoot

on the roof of the tallest building in Palau.

{Notice we got to wear TANK TOPS 'cause no one could see us!}

{I'm in red in the front.}

18/24 of the 8th graders!

Playing bippity-bippity-bop with my babies.

Gangsta with my kiddos.

{From left: Kira, Adrie and Balang}

Before my class' white elephant gift exchange.

{Notice the awesome tree I made in the background!}

My girls came to my apartment with very personalized Christmas presents!

Meant SO much to me! :-)

I was very blessed to be able to travel over Christmas break. I spent six days in Manila, Philippines then flew on to Bangkok, Thailand for eight days. It was an incredible experience! Here are some photos of that too.

At Enchanted Kingdom, an amusement park outside of Manila.

{Cedric Johnson, Jordan Timothy and myself}

At a Buddhist temple in Bankok, Thailand.

{Jacob Davis, Jordan Timothy, myself and Cedric Johnson}

Temple of the Dawn.

BEST part of the trip!

Got to pet, feed, play with and get bit by a 4-month-old tiger!

At temple ruins.

"I Trust You Already"

A random student from Union emailed me the other day to offer some encouragement. She reminded me, "teachers are people who are looked up to." I repeat that to myself many times throughout the day. My 8th graders are very curious about my life, my experiences, my faults. I've chosen to take a very honest approach with them in order to gain mutual trust and understanding.

They struggle a lot with drugs, drinking, smoking, sex, etc. here. As 12 and 13 year olds! It's sad but I am SO happy I can be here to help them through it. By telling them all my mistakes, all my rebellions, my failures, they can relate to me and feel safe and unjudged. I can be a good example by being a bad example. I can show them that just because they are/have messed up doesn't mean they can't pull it back and be amazing, successful, good Christians!

On the first day of class, I made them fill out this "letter to Miss Brenda." I typed out a paper and left blanks for them to tell me their birthday, they're best friends' names, favorite kind of music, food, etc. In the end it said:

"I just want you to know _____ and ____.

I ____ you already,

-signed-"

One kid, the one in the class I was most worried about relating to, kind of geeky and into playing war, wrote:

"I just want you to know . . . that I have trouble trusting people.

I TRUST you already,

-signed-"

I really feel like I've found my purpose here! Finally. It's so clear and it'll make SUCH an impact on these kids. I'm in love with my future!

Please pray for my words and my actions. Pray for my kids. They need God!

PE Teacher No More

Some complications came up and tomorrow will be my last day of teaching PE. As of Monday, I will teach one of the 8th grade classrooms (8B). I will teach my homeroom class Bible, Math, Spelling, Health and then will rotate through 7A, 7B, 8A and 8B to teach Reading. I'm SOOO excited actually—to have my own room, my OWN kids (and they're actually a really cool group)! :-)

New Leaf: Turned

The first week or two of school, I was pumped and excited and energetic, but I've seen that slipping away within the past month or so. As of Wednesday, I turned a new leaf. I reminded myself how lucky I am to be here, how rare of an experience I'm having, and that I need to suck up my tiredness, my frustration, my impatience, and go out and have fun with these kids! Just putting myself in a better, relaxed, more determine mood changes everything! The kids have more fun, I have SO much more fun, and I feel so much more fulfilled and needed at the end of the day. If you're feeling down and useless, maybe try this—just pray that God gives you energy and passion and happiness, and He will! It changes everything.

My FAVORITE kiddies!

{Nobu and Zuleika}

Joni and Dibuk

Some of my 2nd graders.

{From left: Aira, Luka, Kerker, Powei and Marlynn}

Some of my 1st graders.

{From left: Keziah, Zuleika, Niya, Alicia, Cherilee and Jennifer}

My first graders attacking me with LOVE during PE class.

Doing their daily warm-ups.

Already 20% Done! Still 80% to Go!

It's been exactly two months since the night I landed in Koror, Palau.

I've hit that part of the trip where I'm just lonely. I have so many awesome friends here, the kids are always loving and my family and friends back home keep close contact with me, but I'm still . . . lonely. I think I just need a good hug from an old friend.

My camera is broken. I leant it to a friend one day and it came back with water INSIDE it. :-( Luckily one of my guy friends here had an extra and kindly offered it until I can afford to replace my own.

So much has happened already here—lots of touristy stuff in the beginning, then the rush and chaos of school beginning and now we're all adjusted and living each day of classes as routine. I've got MOST of the kids' names memorized. But when I see them outside of school, out of their uniforms, all their names escape me. It's easiest to label them when they're with their class so I can associate them with each other.

Of course I have the obnoxious, outspoken, whiny boy in each class, but I've mastered my I'm serious eyes and they are so intimidated by it. In PE, they love to argue my calls, right? Cause they know so much better than me. And they ask, "Why, teacher?" And I say, "Because I said so." Awww, I bathe in the power! Haha.

This is Zuleika {Zoo-like-a}. At first, I was SO frustrated and impatient with her—she acted stupid for awhile to test us out. But I've been sitting right by her at chapel each week and physically put my hand on her head and rotate it to face forward anytime her attention shifts. She often has a braided ponytail that comes in handy as well, I just grab onto that sucker and she can't get distracted. She LOVES it! She actually grabs my hand if it's behind her and puts it over her own mouth and eyes. I LOVE her now! Wow. She's probably my favorite! She's very snuggly and fulfills some of those lonely feelings. She always jumps up to me whenever she sees me and has this hugely contagious smile. Yesterday I picked her up and swung her around a lot. Her smile helps me through my bad days.

The 8th graders had a party at one of the local resorts.

It has a pretty sweet water park.

They invited Jordan and I—how flattering!

Kenny, the PE teacher at the high school, and I have gotten really close.

We're practically the same person.

He's been nice to talk to 'cause we just understand each other.

He got re-baptized September 26.

Sabbath hike behind PMA.

My adventure buddy Jordan.

We have a little too much fun.

Sabbath afternoon nap on the kitchen counter—yes, we get that tired!

My face gets burnt almost every week 'cause I have to teach out front in the HOT sun all day.

My nose peels and looks like Rudolf.

The kids are supposed to call me "Coach B," some of them call me "Coach Burn."

Haha... it's cool.

Jordan and I at the Independence Day fair!

{two days off school!}

Some miscommunication happened, and we got to the bridge for the boat races at 7:30 a.m.

The program didn't start 'til noon.

This was our view for four hours—quite relaxing actually.

I found DR. PEPPER!

PUMPKINS at Surengal's {our grocery store}!!!

I don't know where they came from, but they just didn't seem to belong.

This is our van named "The Maggot."

Recently, 1st and 2nd gear stopped working so we literally have to get out and push start it every time we stop.

We're the newest Palauan bobsled team!

"Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time!

COOL RUNNINGS!"

Three Weeks of Kiddies

We just finished the third week of school at SDA {Palau Seventh-day Adventist Elementary School}. It's been exhausting and frustrating yet so amazing! The 1st and 2nd graders are a handful of confused, short attention-spans. Both the 3rd grade classes are great—they listen, understand and cooperate. Then the 4th graders come through and act just like 1st graders. I'm still figuring things out, but I'm pretty sure all the students have a good balance of fear and adoration for me.

Chapel on the first day of school. This is only half the kiddies.

One of my 1st grade PE classes.

We were exhausted after the first day {I'm in yellow}.

In the afternoons, I'm a "floater." This means I walk around from class to class seeing if they need any help. I tend to float toward the troubled, rowdy, out-of-control classes—normally 1B, 2A and 7B. They can always use help. 7B is by far my favorite. They don't have me as a PE teacher so they don't know that I'm actually a nice, fun person, they just see me as the drill sergeant who is crazy strict and intimidating. I love it! I stand at the front of the classroom, spinning my lanyard around my fingers, staring the bad students down with my evil eyes. Mmm, power!

My 4A class.

Some of the middle-schoolers and I at the Welcome Back Party.

Everyone's just been pretty busy with school, but last weekend we did go on the staff retreat to Ngemelis island. It was so beautiful—everything you could imagine of a paradise island! I slept in hammocks again, flew off a rope swing and swam in Jellyfish Lake. Amazing!

Palau's famous archway.

Me going off the rope swing.

We had vespers here {that's me!}.

My adventure buddy, Jordan, and I messing around at Ngemelis.

Swimming with a jellyfish. They don't sting in this lake. They feel so, so cool!

It started raining when we were in the lake—awesome picture, right?

Swine, Sharks and Scuba—Oh my!

I'm HERE!!!

There was a recent swine flu outbreak in Palau—600 recorded cases—so school's been delayed to begin the 24th. I'm really excited for it. We've already been here about nine days and haven't worked—though we did get paid today already. Score!

A complication's come up with my job though. Another SM asked me if we could switch jobs. His/Her job is not really exciting and I really don't want to switch but I don't know if it's what God would want me to do. . . so PLEASE pray about it. I'm going to decide and tell him/her on Sunday.

Palau's AMAZING though—We've already been hiking to a waterfall, experienced a unique potluck and boated through the Rock Islands. We went to a beach called "Shark City" and snorkeled with eight sharks circling below us. They're not aggressive at all in Palau because there's so many fish for them to feed on and humans taste gross. That was exciting to me!

Ngatpang Waterfalls


This is a place called the Milky Way. The bottom is smooth, white mud. I'm the one on the far left.


Fresh coconuts we hacked off the tree and opened. When I say "we," I mean the muscular men.

Two of the sharks at Shark City. Fish casually swim with them—no worries! ;-)

It rains very sporadically here, but still hot!

I'm almost completely done with getting scuba certified too—we went on our first open-water dive today—about 50 feet down. I saw some blue star fish and uh... some black and yellow fish in different shapes and sizes. They STILL all look the same to me though. I just want to see more sharks and turtles and hopefully an octopus or manta ray!

Practicing in one of the Resort's swimming pools.

First time in the ocean—still just at the Resort's enclosed beach.

LOTS more pictures on my facebook page. I will try to upload them to Picassa soon.

Well I'm off to go prepare song service for tomorrow's church. Please continue praying for me—especially about the job situation—I don't know what to do. :-/ Thanks and love!