Blogs Suck!!

I just wrote this really long and heart felt blog and to the failure of technology so was the failure of my post so instead you get this bitter post...do forgive me but know that there are more happy things coming from me soon, when there is more power to write!!! Much love from across the pacific!!!

kinamwe to all!!!

E-mail sent September 28

Hola Familia!!! I hope you are all doing well!!!Another week goes by and still time is flying so fast, two weeks left till the end of the quarter and as of now more than half of my classes are failing Religion! AHHH what am i to do? They just won't do there homework, and i can't do it for them!!! So we'll see, i know its not too hard because some kids are getting A's and B's and i can't make it any easier or else these kids won't learn, if no one ever expects more from them, then they will only settle for the least that they have to do! Say a prayer for them!!! oUr basket ball team plays Xavier high school next week in a scrimmage game, so that will be my first real game as Head Coach!!! Its so wild, i have assistant coaches, i have the final say in coaching matters its so rad! These kids love the game and i am learning so much!!! It is just excellent!!! I am heading off to another small island this weekend!!! WHich will be so awesome it is a reef island which means that it sits on the outside of the lagoon touching the actual huge ocean as opposed to sitting in the middle of a reef locked body of water!!! Thats why you can't really surf on Weno. Island Geography is sooo coool!!! I can't wait to see actual waves again. Maybe i will make a surfboard out of palm leaves and hit the surf!!! We'll seee but don't worry dad i will be careful :) I love you guys so much and am praying for you all!!! Thank you soo much for the birthday wishes and please send everyone my love!!! Hey mom i got a letter from Martha Acevedo, it was such an awesome surprise!!! Its crazy to think that she remembered me enough to send a letter that just blew me away!!! Please give her my thanks and love and tell her that i do remember her and her two hot daughters ;) I love you guys so much thanks for making my birthday most excellently awesome!!! I can't wait to hear from you guys again!!! Hope to talk to you soon but until then send everyone my love!!!

E-mail sent September 18

Ran Annim!!! For those of you that haven't caught on Ran Annim means Hello in Chuukese which i am battling with trying to learn. I pick a few words up here and there but hopefully i can start carrying converations in a few more months. Crazy thing is that it has already been a little over a month that i have been here and time has just flown by. I can only imagine that the next thing i know it i will be on my way back to the states in some form or another after being "Ruined for Life" as the Jesuit Volunteer Motto goes. We have finished off the first half of the first quarter and we have just returned from a retreat off island. What's crazy about retreats, is back home we go up to the mountains to get away. Out here in Chuuk we hop on a small motor boat and head to a small island less than a mile wide or long. But it is so beautiful, I am still working towards putting some pictures online and i assure you they are worth the wait. But School has been going great. I am continually reminded of how blessed i am to have recieved such an awesome education, and there is not a day that goes by that i don't thank my professors for all that they taught me because the knowledge is priceless. So for all of you in school, thank your professors now because there is no way to know the tremendous help and affect they will have on your lives until you are out of school. That goes the same for coaching. Boy is it tough being a coach. Especially in a sport that me and my co coach have no mastery in. But i have my nose in the books for basketball just as much as i do for teaching which is crazy. Me and Lincoln were talking after our first week of school, that When we were in college (how old does that make me sound) all we could think about was not being in school anymore, now that we are out and on the other end, we realize it is so much harder from here and can't wait to go back to school :) But life continues very well and very enjoyable. Chuuk is slowly becoming home more and more each day, and with each sunset that ends our day I am reminded of the thousands of blessings i have in my life, one of the biggest ones is the opportunity to be out here, and to know that there is so much i have to be thankful for back home especially every single one of you! So Kinisou Chapur! Thank you! Muchas Gracias! Know that you are all in my heart and prayers! I love you all and can't wait to here from you!!!

E-mail sent September 13

So quick thing first before power goes out! I have a more permanent phone number, they hooked up a LAN line yesterday so we will still have the cell phone that we connected but i would reccomend using the other line first since we don't always get reception. Here they are call me when you need me :)

Home: 011-691-330-6765
Cell: 011-691-930-5366

I know its wierd for those of you thinking, "I thought he was supposed to be living simply whats he doing with a cell phone" No worries it was given to us since we didn't have any form of communication at all and people needed to get a hold of us, so we are holding on to it for the mean time and just remember that when calling that i live about 17 hours in the future and if it is a week day and between the hours of 8 AM and 5:00 PM our time i probably will be teaching or coaching :) so crazy to say that :)

So about that whole coaching thing!!! Its wild!!! We made final cuts on friday and announced the boys basketball team on Monday it was awesome, exciting and nerve racking and i am still sitting alittle uneasy with my decisions but hopefully they will be the team to beat our rival school Xavier High School!!! I pray that we win!!! Pretty much every day so if you want to send some prayers over to our basketball team that would be sweet!!! Power is running out and i am off to a retreat this weekend on another smaller island so i am super stoked to slow down and take a break and pray and relax, so you will all be in my prayers this weekend as you always are!!! I hope that all is well with all of you back home, can;t wait to hear from you and send you pictures, as soon as i figure out how to do that i will... i promise!!! Take care and lots of love always!!!

E-mail sent August 30

I found tortillas!!!! It is so incredible and they also have the chilli powder that you use to make mole (i think thats what you use it for) OH its so sweet!!! I think it is so awesome because as i walk around the grocery store i am finding all these ingredients that i completley doubted to find!!! But God works wondrous miracles so it is such an awesome blessing!!! I was wondering if you could send me some recipes so that i can work on making some stuff for me and lincoln!! Specifically mole and beans, and maybe how to make enchilada mix from scratch, because there is no El Pato on this island!! (maybe you can send some out) cause cans travel well, oh that would be amazing!!! OH i miss milk so much, they dont really have good milk, and since we dont have power regularly the milk doesnt really last us that long, i have tasted sour milk at least once a week :( but then we just open a new box sadly having to throw another away!!! But life is great!!! challenges here and there but always knowing that there is so much love and support from home helps me keep on going!!! I love you guys so much!!! I was wondering if you would be able to help out with something. We are in need of some balls for our sports!! as you know i am the new basketball coach, but the school does not have balls to play with and they aren't really found on island so if it was at all possible to see if you can gather up some quality basketballs and volleyballs to send out ehre it would be increibdl! Whatever is possible but it would be a most excellent opportunity to tangibly help out and connect with the school and the work that i am doing out here! I love you guys so much and cant wait to hear from you!!! Hope to call you soon but well see when!!! We are still working on getting a phone for our apartment, i will let you know how that goes and when dit does! I love you all and send my love to everyone!!! missing you but loving you so much more!!!

E-mail sent August 27

Sorry its been awhile but you have all been in my prayers! Thanks to all of you who have emailed i will try to send individual replies as often as i can, but here is a little very quick update on how amazing life has been! I have finished my first week of teaching and BOY is it tough!! These kids are incredible and are a huge blessing to my life but man 10th graders are just crazy!!! They are a lot of fun though! I am teaching to sections of 10th graders 36 students each in REligion and Music and Art!!! Its excellent!!! Its so wild to be living my life dream ;) and i can't stop thanking God for bringing me to a such an amazing place!!! It has been so amazing! Last weekend we went off Weno to a smaller island in the lagoon called Siis where they honored us by killing a pig!!! It was a big deal and we got to watch them do it!!! It was delicious and i so often forget that i used to be vegetarian...what was i thinking! No its cool but to my vegetarians the fish here is unreal and it is done so well!!! The beauty of the reef fish that we eat is unbelievable, its like someone went into some rich persons aquarium and then threw their fish on my plate and said "Samonga" Which is so excellent!!! Learning the language has been tough but i am working really hard cause i want to get it down!!! there are just so many amazing things about the Micronesian culture, and how each different island within micronesia is so different as well!!! They have us in charge of Fitness which has been really awesome!!! Being a PE coach! Wow!! I think i always secretly dreamt about being a coach and didn't know it, probably cause of how my dad raised me!!! Always being the best coach any son could have!!! And so ontop of helping out with the jumping jacks and push ups the students are really stoked about having the "Americans" be the Basketball coach especially the one from the home town of the Lakers :) Two problems, Lincoln is Canadian and B. neither of us are any good at basketball :) If you have any pointers send 'em my way!!! If not i will rely on the 80's basketball coaching books that we found in the Library!!! If anything just pray for us I am big on winning so hopefully there will be some divine intervention that will turn me into this all star basketball coach... watch out Phil Jackson here i come!!!! So i would have to say one of the most incredible nights we have had yet was meeting the President of the FSM which was incredible!!! He was here in Chuuk on a tour to the outer islands and Sr. Erencia who has been like our adopted mother and has just taken care of me and Lincoln since we got here, she has been great, but no body cooks like you do mom!!!! she is awesome, and she is related to the president and so she was able to invite us along to a BBQ he was having and i got to hang out and talk to the National Security advisor on Foreign Affairs!!! It was crazy!!! So blessed!!! But i have tons of correcting to do so i am gonna have to peace out but know that i love you all and that I carry you in my heart always!!! I can't wait to hear from you and hear how you all are doing!!! So keep those emails coming and know that i love you all so much!!! paz y amor.

E-mail Sent August 11, 2006

To start off I thought i would just put the few e-mails that I sent home to my family and then I can pick up from their and fill in the rest with whatever I have missed... so Good Luck!!!

Gosh this place is incredible!!! It is such a blessing to be here! I am sorry that i have not been able to communicate more but there are many things that make it difficult to do so, but hey I am talking to you now so I am thrilled to share a little bit about my time here so far. It is almost a month since i have left home and it feels like its been ages and so many lives have been lived since then but I am learning and growing so much already. I arrived in Chuuk on August 8th in the afternoon. I am living on the Island of Weno (pronounced Weda) which is in the Chuuk lagoon, one of the 11 populated islands in the Chuuk state. It is about 3 miles by 5 miles by 4 miles big in the shape of a triangle a bit. It rained for the first two days that we were here, and barely let up a bit last night, but it was wonderful to wake up to a sunny day, but the sun brought the heat :) Everyone here has been so incredible. We have an apartment not to far away from the airport (then again nothing is too far away from anything on this island) But our place is huge! We are living in an apartment built into the school which used to be the old Home Ec classroom but now it is where i call home. Lincoln and I have been trying to make it feel more homey but there is not much we have to decorate with. Since there were no JV's there prieviously it is like starting with a clean slate which is good. But the school has been very accomodating with our needs to help us feel comfortable while we are here. We don't have a phone which is why i can't really call because it got disconnected so I am not sure when we will get one set up but I promise as soon as we do I will call you up! Another big issue the island has is power. There is none! We spend most of the day with no power at all which is really crazy. It goes on periodically for a few hours at a time but it is very uncertain how long it will last. They have set times like between 11 AM and 3 PM or 7 PM to 11PM but we just don't know, and sometimes it doesnt come on, but it hasn't been a problem at all really. We just make do with what we have and if the power goes off and its night time, we just go to sleep :) But besides the power problems the island is beautiful!!! The best thing of all though has to be the school! I am so excited to be a Teacher!!!!! I can't tell you enough, but God brought me to the right place and I know that I am exactly where i need to be! The greatest thing is what i am teaching!!! I am going to be teaching Religion to Sophomores, Music and Art, and an Intro to Theology course. I AM GOING TO BE A RELIGION TEACHER!!!! I couldn't have asked for anything better!!! It is such a huge gift!!! and I am sooo grateful for it! I have dreamed about teaching religion for the past few years now and thought that I was going to have to wait until i got back to the States but no sir, I am a teacher and I am living a huge dream as we speak!!! And i am loving it!!! Oh man its incredible!!! Life is such a gift and I am so thankful for it! I was thinking today that as i think ahead two years seems so daunting when I think about not seeing all of you and I miss you all a ton. But when i think about the experiences that I am having here and all that I have to learn I am so amazed at how short of a time that I have here, and how fast this time will fly!!! I have so much to learn from the Chuukese and I am so thrilled to delve in and start living this amazing life that God has set before me. Time will fly and next thing you know it I will be on that plane landing in LAX speaking like a native chuukese and looking darker than ever it will be excellent!!! But i can't thank you all enough because if it weren't for you, if it weren't for your love then i would not be able to be here, i would not know how to love, how to be doing the things that i am doing. and it is your love that gives me the strength to go on to move forward through anything and everything!!! I am so gratefull for all of you and I carry you with me in my heart, and I am glad to know that God is holding us together in his hand, and when I think about it that way we are right next to each other! I love you all so much and pray for you everyday!!! I can't wait to hear from all of you because it means so much when I do! Take care of yourselves and I hope that you are all enjoying life where ever you are in the world!!! I send you my love and my prayers! Hasta Luego y todo mi amor, siempre!!!

Welcome to my Life

So... I know that i am really late on this whole blog and updating deal. I have realized that i am not the best at e-mailing large groups and don't really do well with individual e-mail updates. So here I am for better or worse attempting to keep you all updated on life here in the Federated States of Micronesia. I only wish that there was a better way to communicate with you all the beauty, challenges, love and growth that I am experiencing while here in Chuuk, but alas I trust that God try to carry my experience through my words and thoughts and hopefully you may have a glimpse into my heart and soul and share a little bit of the journey that I have now embarked upon. Thank you for caring, thank you for loving, and know that the love is returned to you ten fold all the way from "a tiny little dot in the big pacific ocean". Kinisou Chapur!