Sabbath Afternoon

Roomies :)

Living together in a foreign country for 10 months makes us familia.

My island family

Scuba

I am getting certified to scuba dive! I am very excited. We went on our first dive on Sunday and it was amazing! At first I forgot that I could breath underwater sense I had the tank so I would just hold my breath but then I would remember and boom I was a fish in no time! I had a few problems equalizing, popping, my ears but other than that it was splendid. You wear a weight belt to make you sink and mine was definitely heavy enough cause I sank like a rock to the bottom of the ocean. We practiced sharing oxygen with our buddy and other safety things. My buddy, Josh, and I are obviously the best but we tried not to out shine the others to much. Just kidding!! Anyways, so after one dive we are half way certified. Sunday after next we will go on another dive, take the final written exam the following tuesday, and I will be certified for up to 65 ft. Our instructor can certify every type of diving though so I'm thinking I might continue and get certified for 130 ft and maybe night diving! Our instructor is one of our parents here at school, he is awesome and so much fun! Who's getting scuba diving certified on the island of Pohnpei? This girl!

What to do when you don't know what to do.

There is a poster up in my classroom that says "What to do when you don't know what to do" it has a list of things student's can do if they finish their work, reading, or whatever before the other students. Today I was sitting in my classroom grading papers and I was feeling defeated. It's only the first week of school and my kids are barely passing. What am I doing wrong?? I help them as much as I possibly can and I am moving as slow as possible. I love my kids and I think they are brilliant, don't get me wrong I just don't know how to bring that brilliance out. In America education is the focus of our kids, here it is not.
So what do I do when I don't know what to do??? I give the kids a nice list but there is no list for the  teacher. I put my head down on my desk and pleaded with God to give me wisdom and creativity to teach my kids. I know most of you might be thinking come on Macy you are teaching Health, Physical Science, and PE those aren't hard classes but they are. These kids have no idea what goes on in their body or what happens to their body when they use drugs or drink or anything else, they have no idea what it means to take care of your body because they don't know that the things they do mess their body up permanently. Physical Science is the basis for Chemistry and Physics. If they learn the basics now maybe Chemistry and Physics will be more fun and easier for them later! PE, these kids have no idea what it means to workout or exercise and I am here representing a healthy person to be there example and they actually see me as their example. I asked my students to give me one person they thought was healthy and was their health and fitness role model and over half of them put me.
I have a big job to do, but I'm ready for the challenge. I always wondered why God gave me a love for medicine but no desire to be a nurse or doctor or why he gave a brain that is so health/ medical oriented, I have found the reason. I'm ready to give these kids the random abundance of health and medical knowledge God decided to give me.
Bring on the new week!

School Starts Tomorrow!

Today I feel so accomplished! I finished my syllabi, did registration, went grocery shopping this evening, put the groceries away, made banana bread with Josh, did the dishes, swept the apartment, put the final touches on my classroom, and made French Toast with Jeff for supper! It was an excellent day. Tomorrow is our first day of school and everyone is gearing up for the adventure of a lifetime! We feel as though our three day course on how to be a teacher won't help us to much but we know with God's help we've got this! Today I was walking out of the high school and one of my student's yelled across campus "Hi Ms. Fisher!" Let me just tell you that things got real at that moment! I am Ms. Fisher! I am suppose to impart wisdom on these high schoolers about P.E., Health, Physical Science, and so much more! It was an excited and nervous moment, but there's no stopping what comes with the sun in the morning!

Simply Beautiful

One of our guys went spear fishing and caught this!

First Impressions of Pohnpei

Well I'm here in Pohnpei! It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life, even in pictures. I thought it would be islandy, like Hawaii, but it not lol It is a JUNGLE! Pohnpei is a mountainous jungle in the middle of the Pacific ocean! And it is definitely a third world country, shacks and rotted teeth are not uncommon. Everything is very expensive, especially food.
My first thought when landing in Pohnpei was how absolutely breath taking it was but my first thought stepping off the plan was oh my goodness I've never sweat this much in my life! It is extremely hot and humid. It is so humid that cuts heal weird! Usually cuts scab form from the outside in here the air is so wet they can't scab on the outside, it looks very interesting.