Bali

Kalah, David, and I spent our Spring Break on the island of Bali in Indonesia. While there we saw many interesting aspects of the Indonesian culture. The pictures below show only a small portion of what we saw. I thought that it would be enough to give you a glimpse into the incredible week we had.

Our vacation was incredibly relaxing, which is suppose to be the goal of a vaca. The reason it was so relaxing was due to the hotel we stayed at. If you are ever in Bali stay at the Tropical Bali Hotel in Sanur. It's a small hotel but the rooms are great. Also, the owners are fantastic! They did everything they could to help us with....well...everything.

This was one of the temples we went to.

This is an offering placed before the ocean for the evil spirits. I saw one that had a cigarette in it and another with a drink beside it. Most of them have flowers inside and some incense. You find these inside as well as outside of almost every building or shop you come to.

It was incredibly cheap to eat in Bali. Their currency is Ruppiah and as you see here #22 is 22,000 which is essentially the equivalent of $2.20. However, that is not the reason I have this menu displayed. If you look at what #22 includes in their burger you will find a fork! It was amuzing to see all of the errors in menus. This was not the only one we saw.

I loved going to all of the markets. These three pictures are from the market in Ubud. The picture of the temple above also comes from Ubud. It was really amazing to see all of the various items they sold.

These are pictures of some of the rice fields we saw. They were beautiful!


This is the fantastic breakfast we received every morning at our hotel. This is one of the things I missed when I returned to Guam.


This meal looks a little interesting but tasted wonderful. One of the owners cooks the breakfast most every morning and also cooks for supper upon request. Our last three nights there we requested supper. This is a vegetarian dish with eggplant and stuffed tofu with some other veggies. I cannot even describe to you how wonderful this meal tasted!

Glad that I could share with you a little of the experience I had. If you ever want to go on vacation to an island, forget Hawaii, Bali is better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOOMA.COM

Nooma is a nonprofit organization that puts out DVDs which discuss topics that are important to us as Christians. Tonight I watched one entitled 'Rain'. In this episode Rob Bell, the speaker, talks about how one night he took his small son on a walk. It ended up raining on their walk and he had to hold his son against his chest to keep the rain from soaking him even more. It was also to comfort his son because of the loud thunder. On their way home he keeps whispering in his sons ear that everything will be alright because he knows the way home.

At that point I start to cry. How many times does God tell us that he knows the way home, and we don't listen to Him? We are too concerned with our lives to listen to everything He is trying to tell us. With every decision we make we are either moving towards God, or away from Him. How scary is that? Honestly, when I make a choice I don't always think, "Will this bring me closer to God?"

This is the third time I have watched this DVD and I seem to glean something different from it each time. Something else I think about in connection with this message is what a wonderful God we have. Take a look at your own life. WE MESS UP EVERYDAY and yet God still wants us. He still tells us that He loves us. We are still His children and He wants to hold us against His chest and tell us that everything is going to be alright because He knows the way home.

Oh, no....a fire!!!!! ...or is it?

Last week two of my boys started to rough house. Of course they were just playing around but I had to make them stop. I usually don't like to do this, but I had both of them find a corner in the classroom to occupy for a few minutes. One of them chose this corner. BIG MISTAKE! Not becuase it is by the fire alarm but because this kid can't stand still and had to move his arms all over the wall so that he could be moving in some way. He placed his hands firmly on the wall and stretched his arms above his head. As he couldn't stretch any further his hands began to creep back down. Of course, on his way down he grabbed the fire alarm and pulled it.

If you are thinking, "Why did you let him go to that corner?" The answer is that the fire alarm he pulled is part of our old system. I didn't even know it still worked. The "real" fire alarm is outside the classroom and you have to lift a plastic covering to pull it. After he pulled the alarm a deafening noise sounded. Oh, and during the time he was in the corner I was mostly faced away from him and I was teaching so I didn't notice where his hands were going. I know...my bad. Anyway, in my class we all knew he pulled it so the kids didn't know whether they were supppose to line up. I told them they needed to because in any case the fire alarm did go off.

As we were walking around the school I noticed that we were the only class to depart from the school. I thought this odd (at this point I thought since the alarm was going off in my room it should have sounded off in the other rooms as well) so we walked to the office where I informed the accountant that the alarm went off in my room. She was confused because I told her the alarm went off. "Shouldn't it already be off?" She asked in confusion. I then had to change my statement to, "The alarm in my classroom is on." ...English is such a complicated language. Anyway, she called the principal so he could shut it off.

We went back to the classroom where Mr. Youngberg came and stuck a piece of paper in the bell so it would stop the sound. While doing this he asked me who pulled the alarm. I told him and he said that person needed to go to the office. With head hung low, my student walked calmly to the office. I then talked to the students about the fire alarm....which they already knew but I had to talk to them again because of the incident. Then the principal came back in and told them the story of the little boy who cried wolf.

At 9:30 AM my little boy and the principal came back to the room where my little boy appologized to the class. Mr. Youngberg informed the class that my little boy would be suspended for the rest of the day. Later on I was informed that he had to write a letter to the fire department saying he was sorry.

In case you are still confused about some things (as was I) Mr. Youngberg told me that the alarm in my classroom, when pulled, goes off in two rooms. Mrs. Youngberg, the kinder teacher, was the other room but she was not in it at the time the alarm went off.

Well, lesson learned. Never stick a kid next to a fire alarm whether you think it is turned off or not! Also, I knew my kid was getting a lecture at home. Why do I know this?? His dad is the fire chief.

Help is on the way

For anyone who has children or for those who want them:
Parent Teacher Conferences are exhausting for the teacher! I didn't have any grouchy parents or anything like that, but today I was at school from 9:30-7:15 PM for PTC. All of my parents are happy and have no complaints...much to my relief. But I cannot imagine what PTC would be like if there were parents who complained and had nothing nice to say. Always remember to talk nicely to the teacher. It doesn't matter what you think happened or what didn't happen, act in a calm manner and hear the teachers side of the story. If you aren't nice to the teacher then your kids probably won't be either.

The Lord has been good to me. I am blessed with parents who are ready and willing to help. Almost all of my parents asked what they could do at home to help their child improve. This made me extremely happy becuase with parent involvement the students success will only rise. Also, a couple of weeks ago in my weekly letter home I asked parents to donate art supplies (I have nothing in my classroom for art except glue and construction paper). Today I had a parent donate a couple of bags of art supplies (pipe cleaners, little colorful balls, eyes, etc). Another parent the other day sent some construction paper in and told me they are going to the store soon to buy some more art supplies. I was WICKED excited about this! I had another parent say they would work on getting a white board for the classroom to replace the chalkboard!

Not only do I have the parents of my students helping me, but I also have home and school. One of the leaders (Patti) invited me and another teacher over for supper one night. She asked me what I would like in my classroom so that maybe home and school could help out. Well, I told her a couple of things, but something that is close to my heart is books. My classroom has around 50 books. She then told me of the previous teacher having around 500 books for the classroom! I told her I had no idea where they were but I would look. After asking around the principal told me that the teacher said she wasn't using them so she wanted them moved out of the classroom!!!!!!!! My mouth dropped and my eyes opened wide. I could not believe that this teacher had so many books but didn't want to use them and so decided to give them to the school library. While I can borrow books from the school library they are still not books for my room alone. Anyway, I told this to Patti and she said she was going to try and give some of AWR's (Adventist World Radio) books to a used books store where they would give her a credit and I could go and buy books for my classroom! I was thrilled to hear her say that. So, slowly but surely I am building the class library back up.

Beautiful.....just beautiful

Last Sunday a few girls and I were invited to a place called ABC. At ABC they have jet skis, paddle boats, a nice beach for swimming, dolphin tours, parasailing, and many more fun water activities. The reason we were invited was because there is a new girl who is working at the SDA Clinic until Christmas. They wanted her to be able to make friends while she is here and have fun, so they called us female teachers up. "They" being the owner of ABC. He told us we could do anything we wanted while we were there and they would provide lunch for us. We estimated that from the things we did we each saved about $100 each.



This is the first boat we got on which took us on a dolphin tour, snorkeling, and fishing.

Here are some of the beautiful fish we swam with. There were others that swam about five inches from the surface called needle fish. I tried to keep my distance from those because from the looks of them it would be very painful to accidentally bump into one of them.

This is the best shot I got of the dolphins. This is as far out of the water as they would come. It was really cool watching them swim around the boat though.

This is a banana boat that the three other girls went on. I rode one later in the day on a different boat.

Kalah is holding a sea cucumber. They certainly don't appeal to the eye and are gross to hold.

The four of us went on a paddle boat and this is the view of ABC from where we were in the ocean.

We didn't go on this, but it definately looked like it would be interesting to try out.

This is the bus we took to the boat where we went parasailing.

This is the boat we went on for parasailing. Also, this is the boat where I went on the banana boat. Sorry I don't have a picture of me parasailing. Another girl has it on her camera.

This past Sabbath I went hiking with a few people from the Church I am beginning to attend. We all had to duck to go under this part. Actually I scraped my shoulder a little on one part. It wasn't bad though.

Part of a hideout or something from WWII. I forgot what they said it was used for.

After climing a very steep hill which I almost slid down more than once, this is part of the view from the top. We weren't very high up, but it was cool to look down on everything. At the end of the bridge you see is what we call Fish Eye. No idea why it is called that, but it is where quite a few people go snorkel. Muscle man Zach is standing on the base where a gun was located during WWII.

This is the place the base for the gun is located. It's bigger than this but I couldn't get a decent shot.

These are a few of the people I went hiking with. The dad of the kids is taking the picture.

And that concludes my little adventures for the past couple of weeks. Hope you all enjoyed the show :)

The beauty of Guam at night

These are some pictures I took at the beach last night. The first two pictures are of the eclipse...it was so gorgeous. This was about 6:30-6:45pm but the moon didn't get really red until around 8pm. By then I was back at my house (mosquitoes were biting). This beach is only a few miles from my apartment and it's wonderful to walk on. If any of you are jealous then feel free to buy a ticket to Guam :)

Mrs. Luke!

GAA (Guam Adventist Academy) has decided to visit all of the churches on Guam and be a part of the service to show we support all of the churches. We are also trying to get more students so we are asking for their support as well. Anyway, two weeks ago we went to the church across the street from my apartment. I wasn't to do anything for this service, however, all of the teachers were introduced to the church. When our name was called we stood up and gave a little wave. Well, there was someone in the congregation who recognized me. No, it wasn't the woman in the picture...it was her daughter. Immediately when this girl saw me she turned to her mother and said, "Mom, isn't that the teacher you worked with?" Her mother then looked at me and said, "Oh, yes it is!" So the end of the service comes and I look around at the people walking out of church when I spot the lady who I worked with in Chuuk! She was my translator in the classroom. I walked over to her and she gave me a big hug. We talked a little bit and come to find out she had been in Guam for the past 4 months, but unfortunately was leaving the next day. I honestly never thought I would see her again so it was really exciting that we just happened to be at the same church (there are seven in Guam). God gives us many blessings everyday, and for me seeing Mrs. Luke was the blessing given to me that day.


The principal and his wife took a couple of us around half of the island last Sabbath and these are some pictures from that little adventure :)

This is actually part of some beautiful scenery that I see everyday on the way to and from work. Rain or shine it never fails to make me smile!

This is a Carabou

From WWII