Check it out!! STERLING AND ALEX RIGHT HERE ON THE INTERWEB!!! Postin’ a new blog before even a month has gone by!!! Record breaking time!
Once upon a time there were two devilishly handsome young men living on an enchanted island somewhere in the deep blue sea, west of an imaginary time altering line. There, they worked as masons laying the bricks of knowledge into the foundations of small children’s minds. Some would say they were minstrels of intelligence weaving melodies of mathematics through the noggins of the youth. On one bright day, a team of knights from the mystical kingdom of Guam came to test the young men and their fellow minstrels of knowledge to determine whether the good king could bestow upon the school the high honor of AAA Accreditation. After surmounting many obstacles and facing numerous challenges, Yap SDA School received a three year accreditation!!!! YAY!!!!
This be Alex. Yarr. In case you missed something, Sterling was trying to say that the Adventist Accreditation Association threw six people onto Yap to act as an accreditation board. We didn’t get raving reviews; in fact, the board was quick to point out a myriad of things we could fix or improve. However, we did get a good enough score to net three years more as an accredited school.
Last week, one of Sterling the Chivalrous’s students invited him to wrestling practice. On Thursday, Seth, Sterling, and I hopped into the back of a white truck filled with jolly islanders and set off across the island to wrestle. As you all know, we invented wrestling, so we were right at home at practice. We went through a crazy routine of rolling, sprinting, and using each other as mini jungle-gyms. Stretching consisted of a combination of dancing and punching your muscles. After getting to the actual wrestling exercises, we played an interesting game of “duck, duck, goose.” Instead of trying to tag the other person, you slapped him until he found a place to lie down. It’s too bad that we won’t be here for the Micronesian Olympics. There’s no question that they could use our technique and raw power.
Sterling again. Now that we’re done talking about all those serious things, I’d like to take a few minutes to write you a comical little story that happened to us just a few days ago.
On Sunday morning, Scott, Alex, and I hoped into the school’s green sedan and sped off toward the prison to sing some songs and have a small worship service. After we had finished at the jail, we all climbed back into the car and started back to the school. Alex graciously offered to let Scott drive even though he doesn’t have a license. We figured, being that we were on Yap, no one would give us any trouble. We were wrong. Scott missed a stop sign and suddenly lights appeared behind us. Scott pulled out a shot gun and shot the tires out of the police car. Then he pushed the bat button and our car began to soar through the air. Actually, I guess that didn’t happen. We just pulled over. I tried to switch seats with Scott but realized that I didn’t have my license on me and neither did Alex who had driven us to the prison. The police officer turned out to be a friend who works at the local hardware store as well as a firefighter and cop. We sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes in our cool little sedan with Yap SDA printed in block letters on the side. All our students drove by and laughed at us. The officer gave us a citation and drove our car back to the station. The citation was pretty cool because it had a list of about 20 different mistakes you could make like running a stop sign, driving intoxicated, driving without a tail light, and so on. We got two checks for missing the stop sign and driving without a license, but no matter how many checks you got, the fine was still just $20. Back to the story, I went into the station to make my one phone call. There I phoned the school office to get someone to pick us up. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, no one was in the office and that was the only number any of us knew. In the end our cop friend drove us back home. It was all quite an adventure.
Ooh-de-lally! Alexander here. What we say in our blog is 100% true, 30% of the time. I hope our loving audience appreciates our imaginative, immature, yet semi-accurate accounts of what goes on here. A last note: we still appreciate your emails, packages, and calls. We don’t have much time left here. “Only 22 school days left,” the German was informing us today. Looking back, we see how much some of you have done for us, and we are very grateful. You can’t have our firstborn sons, but we will gladly give you our thanks. Thanks much.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Police Wrestling Accreditation
Check it out!! STERLING AND ALEX RIGHT HERE ON THE INTERWEB!!! Postin’ a new blog before even a month has gone by!!! Record breaking time!
Once upon a time there were two devilishly handsome young men living on an enchanted island somewhere in the deep blue sea, west of an imaginary time altering line. There, they worked as masons laying the bricks of knowledge into the foundations of small children’s minds. Some would say they were minstrels of intelligence weaving melodies of mathematics through the noggins of the youth. On one bright day, a team of knights from the mystical kingdom of Guam came to test the young men and their fellow minstrels of knowledge to determine whether the good king could bestow upon the school the high honor of AAA Accreditation. After surmounting many obstacles and facing numerous challenges, Yap SDA School received a three year accreditation!!!! YAY!!!!
This be Alex. Yarr. In case you missed something, Sterling was trying to say that the Adventist Accreditation Association threw six people onto Yap to act as an accreditation board. We didn’t get raving reviews; in fact, the board was quick to point out a myriad of things we could fix or improve. However, we did get a good enough score to net three years more as an accredited school.
Last week, one of Sterling the Chivalrous’s students invited him to wrestling practice. On Thursday, Seth, Sterling, and I hopped into the back of a white truck filled with jolly islanders and set off across the island to wrestle. As you all know, we invented wrestling, so we were right at home at practice. We went through a crazy routine of rolling, sprinting, and using each other as mini jungle-gyms. Stretching consisted of a combination of dancing and punching your muscles. After getting to the actual wrestling exercises, we played an interesting game of “duck, duck, goose.” Instead of trying to tag the other person, you slapped him until he found a place to lie down. It’s too bad that we won’t be here for the Micronesian Olympics. There’s no question that they could use our technique and raw power.
Sterling again. Now that we’re done talking about all those serious things, I’d like to take a few minutes to write you a comical little story that happened to us just a few days ago.
On Sunday morning, Scott, Alex, and I hoped into the school’s green sedan and sped off toward the prison to sing some songs and have a small worship service. After we had finished at the jail, we all climbed back into the car and started back to the school. Alex graciously offered to let Scott drive even though he doesn’t have a license. We figured, being that we were on Yap, no one would give us any trouble. We were wrong. Scott missed a stop sign and suddenly lights appeared behind us. Scott pulled out a shot gun and shot the tires out of the police car. Then he pushed the bat button and our car began to soar through the air. Actually, I guess that didn’t happen. We just pulled over. I tried to switch seats with Scott but realized that I didn’t have my license on me and neither did Alex who had driven us to the prison. The police officer turned out to be a friend who works at the local hardware store as well as a firefighter and cop. We sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes in our cool little sedan with Yap SDA printed in block letters on the side. All our students drove by and laughed at us. The officer gave us a citation and drove our car back to the station. The citation was pretty cool because it had a list of about 20 different mistakes you could make like running a stop sign, driving intoxicated, driving without a tail light, and so on. We got two checks for missing the stop sign and driving without a license, but no matter how many checks you got, the fine was still just $20. Back to the story, I went into the station to make my one phone call. There I phoned the school office to get someone to pick us up. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, no one was in the office and that was the only number any of us knew. In the end our cop friend drove us back home. It was all quite an adventure.
Ooh-de-lally! Alexander here. What we say in our blog is 100% true, 30% of the time. I hope our loving audience appreciates our imaginative, immature, yet semi-accurate accounts of what goes on here. A last note: we still appreciate your emails, packages, and calls. We don’t have much time left here. “Only 22 school days left,” the German was informing us today. Looking back, we see how much some of you have done for us, and we are very grateful. You can’t have our firstborn sons, but we will gladly give you our thanks. Thanks much.
Once upon a time there were two devilishly handsome young men living on an enchanted island somewhere in the deep blue sea, west of an imaginary time altering line. There, they worked as masons laying the bricks of knowledge into the foundations of small children’s minds. Some would say they were minstrels of intelligence weaving melodies of mathematics through the noggins of the youth. On one bright day, a team of knights from the mystical kingdom of Guam came to test the young men and their fellow minstrels of knowledge to determine whether the good king could bestow upon the school the high honor of AAA Accreditation. After surmounting many obstacles and facing numerous challenges, Yap SDA School received a three year accreditation!!!! YAY!!!!
This be Alex. Yarr. In case you missed something, Sterling was trying to say that the Adventist Accreditation Association threw six people onto Yap to act as an accreditation board. We didn’t get raving reviews; in fact, the board was quick to point out a myriad of things we could fix or improve. However, we did get a good enough score to net three years more as an accredited school.
Last week, one of Sterling the Chivalrous’s students invited him to wrestling practice. On Thursday, Seth, Sterling, and I hopped into the back of a white truck filled with jolly islanders and set off across the island to wrestle. As you all know, we invented wrestling, so we were right at home at practice. We went through a crazy routine of rolling, sprinting, and using each other as mini jungle-gyms. Stretching consisted of a combination of dancing and punching your muscles. After getting to the actual wrestling exercises, we played an interesting game of “duck, duck, goose.” Instead of trying to tag the other person, you slapped him until he found a place to lie down. It’s too bad that we won’t be here for the Micronesian Olympics. There’s no question that they could use our technique and raw power.
Sterling again. Now that we’re done talking about all those serious things, I’d like to take a few minutes to write you a comical little story that happened to us just a few days ago.
On Sunday morning, Scott, Alex, and I hoped into the school’s green sedan and sped off toward the prison to sing some songs and have a small worship service. After we had finished at the jail, we all climbed back into the car and started back to the school. Alex graciously offered to let Scott drive even though he doesn’t have a license. We figured, being that we were on Yap, no one would give us any trouble. We were wrong. Scott missed a stop sign and suddenly lights appeared behind us. Scott pulled out a shot gun and shot the tires out of the police car. Then he pushed the bat button and our car began to soar through the air. Actually, I guess that didn’t happen. We just pulled over. I tried to switch seats with Scott but realized that I didn’t have my license on me and neither did Alex who had driven us to the prison. The police officer turned out to be a friend who works at the local hardware store as well as a firefighter and cop. We sat on the side of the road for about 20 minutes in our cool little sedan with Yap SDA printed in block letters on the side. All our students drove by and laughed at us. The officer gave us a citation and drove our car back to the station. The citation was pretty cool because it had a list of about 20 different mistakes you could make like running a stop sign, driving intoxicated, driving without a tail light, and so on. We got two checks for missing the stop sign and driving without a license, but no matter how many checks you got, the fine was still just $20. Back to the story, I went into the station to make my one phone call. There I phoned the school office to get someone to pick us up. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, no one was in the office and that was the only number any of us knew. In the end our cop friend drove us back home. It was all quite an adventure.
Ooh-de-lally! Alexander here. What we say in our blog is 100% true, 30% of the time. I hope our loving audience appreciates our imaginative, immature, yet semi-accurate accounts of what goes on here. A last note: we still appreciate your emails, packages, and calls. We don’t have much time left here. “Only 22 school days left,” the German was informing us today. Looking back, we see how much some of you have done for us, and we are very grateful. You can’t have our firstborn sons, but we will gladly give you our thanks. Thanks much.
Monday, April 12, 2010
We got a bunch of visitors!!!!!!
Herro. I am Sterling. Thank you for your joyous applause. I would like to take this beautiful moment that you and I are now sharing to formally and profusely apologize for the neglect that has been so evident and unjustified in our infrequent updating of this blog. We are sorry. Perdonanos. Pardon us. We ask humbly for forgiveness.
This is Alex. It has been over a month since we last updated this blog. Much has happened in the last month and a half since we wrote. For instance, a couple of American ambassadors came and visited us at our humble, yet better-than-any-other, school. We felt pretty special when we heard they were coming. We even dressed up for them, even though it’s pretty stupid to dress up in the heat and humidity of Yap. The ambassadors checked on how we were doing. They asked us questions and let us ask them questions. It was a darn good treat to be able to hear news of the outside world. We asked about America, world news, policies, bills, and other things. They answered the questions willingly and we, in turn, answered their questions on what we thought needed to be changed or put in motion on Yap. I’m bored from writing about this, so I’m passing the keys to Sterling.
GOOOO AMERICA!!!!
I never get bored writing to you lovely people back home. I’m not mean like Alex. I love you all very, very much and I don’t even know you all. Not too much has changed here. It’s still hot and Alex and I still look real good. One day we were warned of an incoming Tsunami!!! I was pretty excited about the idea of seeing a huge wall of water come crashing into the island. It would have been bad though I think. From all my long years of experience and wisdom I have learned that tsunamis are bad. later we were warned of an incoming Typhoon!!! But that didn’t happen either. I’m getting really tired of having my hopes of adventure dashed on the proverbial rocks of not having things happen…… wow that was a lame sentence. I’m bored of writing.
Alex now. Pastor Rojas of the General Conference came to Yap. This guy’s pretty cool. He’s got the most impressive moustache we’ve ever seen, and he packs the wisdom to back it up. He and Pastor Jano (from the Guam-Micronesia Mission) were here for a few days to check up on us and to take care of some business. Sterling and I had the privilege of taking Pastor Rojas all around Yap on a picture-taking, moustache-toting tour of the island. He was able to give us some very good advice on various issues, as well as tell us some very entertaining stories about this or that. It was a blessing to have him here, and he spoke (and played) for us before he returned home. Much thanks, Pastor Rojas! Sterling’s turn.
Sterling say, “Shout out home skillet!!” Which is English means: It was very nice and educational to have you come and visit us here on our beautiful island of Yap. We wish you many blessings and a life filled with never ending mustache hair.
We’ve had many great visitors in the past few months. Our most recent was Canvasback!!! Since I work for them I’m obligated to tell you that they have a great website which can be reached from any modern computer with internet access. The address is www.canvasback.org. There you can find great mission stories and pictures!!! That’s my parents’ website!!! I’m very proud of my parents.
Anyway, Canvasback’s visit was amazing. Along with a team of orthopedic surgeons, nurses, and dentists, they brought along a few of the most important people in my life. Aw!!! Yeah they brought our good friends Kelli, Doug, Cameron, and some new friends like Doug’s girly friend Christina, this dude Tanner, a cool girl Camille, and another cool girl Jessy. Also, Chris Howell, the fearsome Judo master, carpet dyer, and part time super hero came along mostly to beat me up. I think that’s really his motive for coming on all the mission trips we’ve been on together. Luckily my army of 6th graders protected me from a serious beat down. I knew they were good for something.
The team remodeled the middle school classrooms while also doing a week of prayer and a VBS program. They did excellently on both jobs. GOOOOOOOO CANVASBACK!!!!! Actually the youth team is called Canvasback Extreme which adds a cool and hip sound to the name. Alex’s turn!
Gracias, Sterling mi hermosa. Since the last time we wrote, the third quarter at Yap SDA School ended, which meant we had to tackle finals and parent-teacher conferences. Some of our kids did well; others didn’t. However, as teachers we can see that both our teaching and our students’ grades have improved overall. One of my kids had a GPA of less than 1.5 first quarter. I made the decision not to drop him down a grade and to keep him in grade 4, and this last quarter he achieved a GPA of over 3.5! Not all of my students have improved so drastically, but I still see growth and it makes me feel incredible. As for the conferences with parents, they went well. At least for me, they did. It is nice to be able to be the professional one as you sit across from someone a couple times your age and tell them that you know what you’re doing.
Only a few days ago, we (all of the guys from our apartment) got back from our spring break on Palau. We were surprised to see how different the country was from Yap, even though they’re both islands in the Pacific. Palau has nice roads, real street signs, ‘air con,’ multi-story buildings, restaurants, and ‘plenty’ people. We were blessed in many ways and we felt like God had a lot to say to us while we were there. We experienced many things there, including (but not limited to): Jellyfish Lake, where we were able to swim with a multitude of virtually harmless jellyfish; the Rock Islands, which are a myriad of small islands made of (you guessed it) rock which seem to float on the surface of the candy-colored turquoise water; Peleliu, a Palauan island state of 600 people which saw some terrible and bloody conflicts during World War II and still sports rusted tanks, war torn buildings, and a plethora of other artifacts; the I-Don’t-Know-The-Name-Of-It waterfall, which was fun and refreshing; Palau Mission Academy, the SDA high school on Palau which enrolls many students, some of which we befriended and played soccer with; the stellar student missionaries in Palau; and more. I realize that this list is getting too long to be engaging anymore, so I’ll let Sterling finish off. We may or may not post pictures for y’all.
This is Sterling signing out for Sterling and Alexander’s Bogus Adventure. We hope to write again soon. We love you all and we miss you. Peace yo!!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Momotaro the Peach Boy
Today … nay, tonight, I am honored to be sitting next to and to be conversing with the great and wonderful Sterling the Stellar. This week alone, he has sung Japanese ballads with a voice that makes cherubim cry; he has bested Alex Bolaños in an epic duel spanning galaxies and placed him into an unbreakable headlock; he has made world news with exclusive photos of his studly biceps and finely-chiseled abs; and he has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. Yes, I am indeed blessed to be breathing the same air as he.
This is Sterling now… yes I did do all those fantastic things. Yet still, I remain truly humble. In fact, I am the most humble person on the island. However, I must admit that I am also quite honored to be seated next to the great and much spoken of Alex. His fame requires no introduction. With eyes that can make a lion bow in submission and melt the heart of many young ladies, he stands as the paragon of manliness with arms as big as redwoods and vocabulary so wise and smooth he could make an alligator cry. Yes Alex is stupendous.
Introductions aside, hullo. I don’t know what to write, so I’ll let Sterling go.
We seem to babble on and on. So, to keep you from losing interest, I will now list the things that his blog will be about.
Scott arriving in his short shorts
High school Picnic
Elementary Sports day
Our yearbook
Our prison visits
Ok first off, our good friend Scott Wilson arrived about the second week back from break. He didn’t tell anyone what plane he was on so we just guessed when to go to the airport. It really wasn’t too hard because there’s only around two planes from the states a week. He was the very last person out of customs because he forgot to fill out his forms on the plane. The principal mistook him for a girl because of his long feminine hair. He was also wearing very, very short yellow shorts. Scott is very talented at making good first impressions. Alex and I brought our airsoft guns to the airport and welcomed him in true friendly fashion by giving him some welts that lasted for about three weeks. It’s awesome to have him here though. He’s teaching 8th grade and seems to be falling into it quite well. We asked him for a quote and he said, “I don’t know what’s cool to say. I’ve never been quoted before really.”
Oy. This is Alex now. Indeed, we were glad that Scott came. He arrived with first-impression short shorts; we met him with welcome welts.
Lately, I’ve been finding out more and more about my students. Or, more specifically, their home life conditions. Many of my students come from less-than-ideal backgrounds. They volunteer their stories to me without any prompting. I hear of multiple marriages, physical abuses, substance abuses, attempted murders, and most recently, suicide threats. Teaching eighteen students, most of which are educationally and developmentally behind, is hard enough without so many added negative factors. Please pray for my class, as many have trouble in the classroom as well as out of it.
On another, happier note, we’ve had a couple of successful school functions recently. Firstly, grades K-4 had an elementary sports day. One day, all day, we had games and activities for around sixty children. It was a taxing ordeal. Some of us ended the day both sunburned and ‘burnt out.’ However, despite the stresses, it was a fun day for both teachers and students. The second school activity (and the last one, as I can’t recall any others) was a high school picnic held yesterday (Sunday). I don’t feel like writing much about it, so I’ll just tell you that it was fun and nothing went wrong.
Also, Aila finally got her hands on a video of the Elementary Christmas program done in December. We were super stoked as we watched our kids sing (and misbehave) up front as we led them.
This is Sterling again. Over break, the board of trustees at La Sierra gave us a gift be used in whatever Alex and I thought would best help the students here. We decided to make a yearbook for the school which hasn’t had one in about 4 years. We’re not entirely sure how we’ll get it done yet but we’ve put together a team and have begun the process.
The last thing we want to talk about is our visits to the prison. Over these last months, Alex and I have been talking a lot about what it means to really take Jesus up on his offers of a new life and how to walk in his footsteps. Along with the other SMs, we began thinking about the ways that we handled ourselves after Kirsten’s death. Alex and I felt that when Jesus asked forgiveness for the men who crucified him, he also gave us a challenge to forgive those who have hurt us. Not really knowing how to go about these sorts of things, we borrowed a car and drove to the police station. There we kind of sheepishly asked to talk to whoever was in charge of the jail. We were led to a back room and then spoke with the boss’s secretary. We asked if it was possible for us to meet with Justin, the man arrested after Kirsten’s death. We were informed that not even family was allowed to see him. But I guess we were politely persistent enough that they eventually took down our phone number and said they’d call us. Two weeks passed and we didn’t hear anything from the jail. Finally we manned up and called them. They again took our number and said they’d call us back. However, this time they called the next day and told us we could come! I’ll let Alex finish the story.
On the following Sunday, Sterling and I headed over to the police station to finally visit Justin. After we arrived, they had us sit down in one of the roughshod visiting booths as they went to get Justin. Not surprisingly, Justin didn’t want to see us. We left him some cookies, soap, and a towel, which they said would be delivered to him. This was surprising, since earlier we were flatly denied both seeing him and leaving him anything. God really opened doors for us. On Thursday of that same week, we left him a pithy letter and some chocolate bread.
Yesterday (Sunday), we again went to the prison. This time, Justin agreed to meet us. We sat in the booth and watched as a young man, chained hand-and-foot, shuffled up to the other side of the glass. So started our first visit with Justin. I’ll let Sterling take the reins.
Justin looked young. His hair was trimmed as well as a his beard. I don’t know why I remember this but his shirt was inside out. His fingernails were long. When I saw him, I was struck with the feeling that there was no life left in his eyes. He talked quietly and rarely looked us in the eyes. We spoke through a glass window and it was pretty hard to hear him. I didn’t know what to say so I think I asked him twice how he was feeling. We talked for a bit about his childhood and then we talked about life at the prison. Over and over, he kept saying how sorry he was. We told him we forgave him and told him about a God who promises to forgive us. We prayed twice with him and asked if we could bring him a Bible. He told us that he had read our earlier letter and had said to himself that at least now he had two friends. I don’t really know what else to say. We’ll be trying to meet with him as regularly as possible. Alex wants say some stuff to end our post now.
Alex here. In the recent weeks after Kirsten was murdered, we heard many and mixed reports about Justin and some awful things happening to him. [Edit: Some content removed.] Even in the face of tragedy, even if we are affected by terrible acts, even when the most despicable sins fall at our feet, we need to keep our heads. This is only easy to say, of course. However, what I hear disgusts me. Don’t fight fire with fire. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Pick your cliché. God calls us to be above the rest. As believers and supposed followers of Him, we need to ask ourselves:
In the face of this blatant, inhumane mistreatment, who is the real criminal?
Sterling and I saw a man who may be feeling more pain and emotion than anything I could imagine. What saddened me during our visit was not the fact that a man murdered Kirsten, but the fact that a man is seen and treated as less than human.
Monday, January 18, 2010
A Parable of Mr. Spence's 6th grade class
The kingdom of heaven is like 9 children from Yap who decided to go fishing one bright morning. With excitement in their hearts, the four girls and six boys hopped into a canoe and paddled outside of the reef to cast their lines. That day, the ocean was rough but the catch was good. Many fish had been caught and their guts were floating in the water where the children had cleaned them. Suddenly, Dale’s line pulled like crazy. In fact, it pulled so hard that Dale was thrown into the rough water as a whale took off with the other end of his line. Frightened, he looked around to see many white tipped sharks beginning to circle him. The remaining 4 boys began to laugh and point at him helplessly struggling in the water. However, the 4 girls quickly looked around the boat and saw there was no rope to throw him. Without hesitation they dove into the raging water and swam selflessly to Dale. Three of the girls began systematically karate chopping the sharks right on the tip of the nose which every island kid knows is the best place to karate chop a shark while the last girl carried Dale to the safety of the boat.
When all were safe within the boat and the boys had recovered from their laughing fits, the children looked around and saw that the island was nowhere in sight and that they were completely lost. Much worse, the fish they had caught earlier had been flung into the sea during the epic battle with the sharks. For 7 days they were lost at sea without food or water. Then, as the children began to lose consciousness beneath the hot tropical sun, a miraculous breeze picked up and the next thing they knew, the boat was carried back to the island.
There on the beach they were met by Dale’s ecstatic parents who ran to great him. He told them the story of his close call with death and the parents immediately asked the girls to come with them to their beach party nearby where they could eat and drink all they wanted. As the girls started running towards the party, the boys, sick with hunger ran towards the feast as well. But as they started out of the boat, Dale’s parents stopped them saying, only the ones who helped our son while he was in need can come to our feast. So the boys were forced to lick up the betel nut spit from off the ground in order to fill their hungry stomachs.
When all were safe within the boat and the boys had recovered from their laughing fits, the children looked around and saw that the island was nowhere in sight and that they were completely lost. Much worse, the fish they had caught earlier had been flung into the sea during the epic battle with the sharks. For 7 days they were lost at sea without food or water. Then, as the children began to lose consciousness beneath the hot tropical sun, a miraculous breeze picked up and the next thing they knew, the boat was carried back to the island.
There on the beach they were met by Dale’s ecstatic parents who ran to great him. He told them the story of his close call with death and the parents immediately asked the girls to come with them to their beach party nearby where they could eat and drink all they wanted. As the girls started running towards the party, the boys, sick with hunger ran towards the feast as well. But as they started out of the boat, Dale’s parents stopped them saying, only the ones who helped our son while he was in need can come to our feast. So the boys were forced to lick up the betel nut spit from off the ground in order to fill their hungry stomachs.
The After-Break Post
Hello there! It’s Sterling and Alex back again with another white-knuckle, edge of your seat, gum drop busting, nail biting, teeth clenching, pickle snatching, chicken shootin’, arm pit hairing, punkin pie makin, explosive trip update!! (two exclamation points means double the excitement)
It’s been quite a while since our last update so we definitely need to apologize for the inconsistency of our blog. I’m sorry. From this point on any writing begun with S: is written by Super Alex and anything starting with A: is written by Awesome Sterling. So remember, S: is for Alex and A: is for Sterling.
S: Very fitting, considering its designer.
A: Alex is a jerk.
I think we’ll go back to A: for Alex and S: for Sterling. That makes way more sense.
I arrived at La Sierra about 8 at night and left the next morning at 2:30. I spent the night at my house and left the next morning at 4 AM for the Oakland airport where I began my long flight home. Or here to Yap. Yeah I didn’t write the home part on purpose so I guess that’s pretty cool that this little tiny speck of an island in the middle of the ocean is now my home. I love it. I really do. Its been so tight being back even though it was amazing being back home too. I guess I realized that all those people back home are still there and they still care about us and that really makes me just want to enjoy this adventure here because, not too long from now, I’ll be back with all the people I love at home and this will just be a memory. But the time I’m spending here is far too precious to just count it down and let it go away. I’m enjoying each moment of it.
A: And so at the end of Sterling’s sweet rigmarole begins the slightly different account of dear ol’ Alex. Sterling and I had different flights from Guam, yet both were to Honolulu. This, because his flight was direct and mine was the aptly-nicknamed “mail run,” the 15 + hour flight that stops at five (yes, five) islands before landing—exhausted and panting, no doubt—in Hawaii. In Hawaii, I met up with my siblings and parents for a pleasant, increasingly rare, full-family vacation. There, I enjoyed a nice respite from the stresses of teaching as well as some sweet family time. After that, I boarded (with no small apprehension, due to my previous flight experience) a plane pointed toward Guam, landing there without a hitch. In Guam, the Guam-Micronesia Mission treated us royally, lavishing us and pretty much letting us be a part of their family. All of the SM’s who spent time in Guam are super grateful to GMM for their hospitality and kindness. They don’t even know how helpful they were in “jumpstarting our engines” again.
I echo what Sterling said above. Thank you so much, all ye who support us. Our parents, our high school and university teachers, our church, and all of our friends have been invaluable (wow, I pretty much say the same thing every time) support to us. Really, you all don’t know to what extent your support, um, extends. Again, thanks much.
S: So now that we’re back in Yap we’re working hard to get our kids ready for finals! Already! But work here hasn’t been as stressful because of the arrival of two new teachers!!!!!!!! Alex B is our new 5th grade teacher and Andrea is the 2nd grade teacher. Alex lives with us and is super. But super more in terms of how super man is super. Or how the hulk is incredible. Basically the guy is a wall of muscle. He wears this shirt that says 300 lb. bench club or something like that. When he looks at you, you honestly think just his gaze is strong enough to bench you and then toss you across the island. But no, he’s super fun. He was a fireman so Alex and I are having trouble out manning him. But no worries. Our manliness has never met a worthy opponent. Together we’re manlier than a bear watching football and arm wrestling Chuck Norris while skydiving over a mountain of steak.
A: Yes, indeed. Assimilation back into life on Yap was no issue, at least for me. From the get go, my kids were laughing at and pulling my leg hair, hugging me, and giving me a hard time. Due to the introduction of another Alex into Yap SDA, Anna has started calling me “Xander,” my family nickname, which only shows how we fuse into a family here. To counter some rather saddening reports on my state of being, I am quite happy and content, not angry and depressed as I’ve been hearing I am. Again, thank you all for reading this, sending us emails and packages, and just plain caring. Hakuna matata.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Kirsten
It’s been quite a while since we last wrote. I hope you accept our apologies for that. As most of you already know it’s been a pretty intense few weeks. Along with all the bad, there have been some pretty wonderful things that happened around here. First of all it was Alex’s BURFDAY!!! YAY!!! He’s an old man now and I can say that because I’m still a young pup till tomorrow, which is kind of unfair since we’re a day ahead here. It’s like I got cheated out of an entire day of my life. But what can you do? For Alex’s burfday we had a burfay breakfast as well as going out later in the evening with everyone. That was while everyone was still here and I’m pretty grateful that we all got to share that night and relax for a bit before all of this happened.
For anyone who might be reading our blog and who hasn’t heard yet, I guess I should tell you all that’s happened here. It’s hard to really know what to say though. On November 19, Kirsten Wolcott, our second grade teacher and friend, went missing. After a search by the students, her body was found a short way from the school. That whole day it rained so hard we were drenched as soon as we stepped outside. As cheesy as it sounds, my kids told me God was crying and I kind of like thinking of that. The stress and incredible emotions from all this cause three of the girls to go back home for the year so our family out here has been left a little empty.
For a short time, we all had the immense luck or privilege, or honor or whatever to all live here in something close to paradise. For a second, it felt like we had all come close to something like perfect. You can feel it in the air on your skin it’s as if our bodies know this is what life is supposed to feel like. I swear the colors are more vivid and in the evenings the sun glows so bright it feels like its setting right off the end of the world just out of sight.
From everything we keep hearing from Kirsten’s parents and from others, she felt the same way about being here. She was happy and all we can say after everything is that we’re pretty happy just to have gotten to be here for a little while with her.
This is Alex now. I can think of one thing for sure to add to this post. That is, thank you so much for being there (and even here) for us! More than you can know, we appreciate all of your emails, your calls, your letters and packages, and even the visits (Linda)! All these things, they kept us strong, held our broken insides together. The blanket of support from our friends, family, school, and even people we don’t even know is amazing. Again, thank you all so much for your support. We love you all and think you are all stellar. Like the baboon.
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