Two posts in one week?! I know, crazy! So I thought I would describe a little better where I live since most of you haven't been out here yet.  First of all, everything is so green! Palm trees grow here along with breadfruit trees, mango, papaya, banana, and coconut trees too.  There are all kinds of flowers everywhere that I just don't know the names for yet but fill the spaces with pinks and reds and oranges.  Up the hill from my house you can see the ocean off in the distance and if it is a clear day you can also see Aunu'u - another island that is close by.  There are mountains right behind my house and we have to go up them to get to my school.  Finding things here is rather interesting mainly because there are no street names and houses don't have numbers on them.  Not only is the island not on a grid but it is not even close to being laid out logically.  Most roads that you see look like dirt roads that you would not want to be on but in fact lead to whole villages tucked away out of sight from the main road.  To give directions you really have to know the area well because it literally is like "turn left at that big dead tree" or "do you know where _____ is? It is right by that." Since I don't know the area very well most of these directions are lost on me but the longer I've been here the more that these make sense.  Good thing I never learned which way is north because it would do me no good here! LOL! You can't mail something to someone's house as there is no postal service to your house.  Everything goes to the post office and you can go and pick up your mail only if they are currently open.  Right now that is the only thing I hate about living here - these post office hours are the most frustrating I've ever dealt with! If someone wants to know where you live you tell them your village first and then you describe what landmarks/stores/buildings you live near.  Then you figure out if they know that landmark/store/building so that they can picture what your house looks like.  If they can't picture what you are describing you have to start again describing something else that is nearby.  Just in case you ever need to find my house, I live between the Small Business Development Center and a Mormon church building.  My house is white and there is usually a sign in front telling about the other spots for rent near me.  So stop by, it's easy to get to - just head for Mesepa and look for the big tree : ).

A day in the life of...

So I've been a little occupied lately and haven't been good about keeping up with posting - sorry! Then I realized that the thing that occupies most of my time I haven't even written about! So, welcome to Ta'iala Academy.  My school is in its 2nd year of operation and from all accounts is running much smoother than last year.  We have about 64 students enrolled which is double last year so that's good - no chance of closing in the middle of the year or anything like that.  Job stability!! I teach reading and writing to the 3-8 grades.  I have the 7/8 graders first for 90 min, then the 3/4 grade, then the 5/6 graders after lunch.  My day moves along pretty quickly.  For the most part behavior is not a problem and I know that I really lucked out! Night and day from my last classroom!! We discuss poetry and literature every day and also have time to write (usually).  I don't have many books in my classroom so we take the poems and stories that we read from my college lit textbooks.  Good thing I lugged those around for the past 12 years!! The kids seem happy - and they should be because I have informed them all that I am their favorite teacher and that my class is their favorite.  If they ever disagree with me I very quickly tell them how wrong they are and how great my class is.  I love brainwashing children!! I will have to post pictures of the school when I've taken them so you can see where I spent most of my day.  The building itself used to be a house and they've converted it into more of a proper school.  The construction that I worked around this summer added some classrooms and a cafeteria but it is still a pretty small school.  My classroom was the front entrance for the original house and I've got the only doorway that has sort of a porch roof.  That is nice on the rainy days of which there are plenty.  My door faces the play area field or malai where they play tetherball, football, or just run around.  We don't have a lot of playground equipment and what little we do have is not really up for some rough playing children (we need industrial strength equipment for some of these kids!) so needless to say there is less for them to play with every day.  I get there around 7:30 (amazing I can get there that early huh?!), the school day starts at 8, and is over at 2:30 so it's not a bad length of time.  Once 2:30 hits it is time for us to start the after school program which runs until 5.  There are 3 of us teachers there; we feed the kids a snack, then have them do homework for an hour, then we do some kind of activity with them.  We just barely started the program 2 weeks ago.  The first week we studied Leonardo da Vinci and last week we learned first aid.  This upcoming week we will be studying Christopher Columbus.  It requires a lot of prep by myself and the other 2 teachers but it is usually worth it - the kids focus better and the time goes faster when it is all well organized.  When we just let them play I swear we are there forever! We have 25 kids enrolled so far and so it can be a little chaotic but it is usually fun.  I am generally there until 5:30 because there is always at least 1 parent that can't come on time to pick up their kid - grrr...  I don't have any breaks in the day as I have to be on duty for every recess and lunchtime and we don't have any extra people to cover this stuff.  I really miss going out for lunch(!) and I wouldn't mind 5 seconds away from children but that is what I signed up for so I can't complain too much.  At least the day usually goes by quickly.  With only having each class for 90 minutes there is no time to get sick of them or have something drag on forever.  I enjoy teaching only the 1 subject as well - teaching all subjects is for suckers - j/k! So that is pretty much my day and I thank you for joining me on this tour of my teaching day.