My new place

It was been a good week in my new home... for the most part. It is a really nice apartment and is perfect for what I need and it has been really nice being able to have a refrigerator and my own place and my own things. The only issue I have really run into is that I don't get good wifi there which makes it tough to do a lot of things that I need to use the internet for. Luckily I am able to go back to the jungle barn to use the wifi there, it is just a couple minutes to get over there. The only other issue I have had so far is that the electricity has gone out the last two nights. It was out the entire night the first time and didn't turn back on until the morning. The second night it was off for about an hour and then back on for maybe half an hour and off again for another half an hour. Both nights I was in the shower when the electricity went out and it gets pitch black when the electricity goes out. The hot water is also powered by electricity and is therefore really cold when the electricity goes out. It was a scramble with the cold water pouring down to try to find the handle to be able to turn the water off and trying to not fall anywhere. It was an adventure both times and I've come to the conclusion that I need to stash a flashlight in my shower.

This is my apartment from the outside. It has a pretty big porch area and a table and chairs in case I wanted sit outside and sweat at some point.

The kitchen is outside which I thought was odd at first, but I guess is alright because it would get super hot inside. I probably wont be using it a whole lot though. I like sleeping too much to wake up earlier and cook, and I am set with peanut butter and banana burritos for lunch. Dinner would be the only time I would cook and I am fairly limited to the things that i know how to cook without a microwave, so I'll be making noodles with sauce a lot, and that's probably about it. Luckily there are so many places to get dinner for very cheap here that I'm able to eat out for dinner when I get tired of my cooking.

The view of my apartment from the doorway. It's small but big enough for just me. My bed is really big and then there's room for my suitcases on the one side and another little bit of space on the other side.

Another view of my room and my bathroom. The bathroom is small and I have to step onto the ledge of the shower to be able to close the door because there isn't enough room to close the door if I'm inside, which seems weird but it works.

The view of my room from my bed. I have a refrigerator which is really nice, I never realized how much i loved refrigerators.

A really awkward picture of me on my bed just to top it off. I really like my apartment and it'll probably end up being where I stay unless I happen to find somewhere cheaper that I like at some point.

We have a missionary who just got here who played volleyball at Baylor, so she has started doing a volleyball clinic for the kids in the community and whoever shows up, and I was able to help out with it and had a lot of fun. These are some pictures form the first week. We had 11 kids show up and we are hoping to have it keep growing.

 We did a lot of drills to have them practice passing, setting, and hitting and realized a lot of them are very athletic and have good volleyball skills.

 They are perfectly willing to dive for the ball also, which makes for some awesome pictures and some funny times.

 Boys, girls, big, and small, we had them all. This is Kevin who was trying all day to keep up with the older kids.

 Gametime!

We had the feedings again this week. We had the feeding behind the jungle barn outside for the first time in a while because we had dry weather finally. It rained a lot the rest of the week. Friday we were able to get a break in the rain to be able to go over to the Ati village to do our feeding. I love that feeding and the kids there. They are so full of joy and so playful. We spent some time in one of the houses talking to Jemima who is recovering from a broken femur. She is stuck inside her house and hasn't been able to do much of anything for a long tie as she's been recovering in a big cast. She scoots around her house and the bottom of her cast is brown while the top is white. A lot of her friends were over and siting in the house with her and we went in and talked with her and brought her some coloring sheets. It was so amazing to see her so happy and in such good spirits because I know that if I was in her situation of not being able to walk or leave my house or do anything but sit or lay down for a couple months I would not be near as happy and in a good mood as her. We end up feeding about 70-80 kids and people from the village at this feeding which is awesome because the people are so grateful and you can tell they are in such need of the food.

 We got a little bit of a show from some of the turkeys in the village. The male was doing his best flirting to try to get attention but the female didn't seem to be very interested. After a few minutes she gave in though and so we obviously left the scene.

The water pump in the village where they are able to get "clean" water. Nothing about it is really clean though from what I could see.

It was an interesting week at school this week. Monday and Tuesday were holidays in the Philippines and so we had the days off of school. Thursday and Friday was the testing for the first quarter.  So Wednesday we tried to review as much as possible to get the kids ready for their tests. Thursday and Friday were very intense as the kids went through what would basically be like finals in the US. I'm not a huge fan of how intense the testing was, but I had to go with it so I tried to make it as relaxed and comfortable as possible for everyone. These were very important tests to kind of get a picture of where students are at and what we need to do to assist students with tutoring or other options to try to get them to where they need to be. The new principal has been here for a few weeks now so it has been good being able to have someone who is making decisions and starting to do the things that need to be done. Two of my 5th graders will end up with tutors which will really help them a lot, and I am also possibly getting a tutor to come in for 15 minutes a day during math to be able to give me another body to be able to help the students who need help with their math. This will give me so much more time to help more students and make sure everyone is where they need to be. I am not sure with my 2nd grade class but I am hoping several of them will be able to get some tutoring with their English. English is so important right now for them because every subject they take they need to know English to be able to understand a lot of it. Several of my 2nd graders really struggle with their English and it hurts them in most of their other subjects as well. So I'm hoping to be able to get them some help so that they will be able to have that extra one on one time that they really need.
The jungle barn is full of pastors and students who are here for another seminar that is happening this week. The jungle barn holds seminars and conferences for pastors and those who are studying to become pastors. There is a big church panting movement going on right now on the other island and they are wanting the pastors who are starting these churches up to be able to get some more training. It is an awesome movement that is going on and so many people are being impacted from the churches that are going up and reaching out to the communities. It is so awesome to see so much going on and God moving so much around here.

I have had a lot of people ask for ways to help and ways to get materials to the school and to me that could be used. I asked for a list of supplies the school could use and were in need of. I sent the list to my mom to be able to bring to church to share with people. She has a box ready to send to me but it just needs to be filled up first. If you would like to help or have some supplies that you would be able to donate, that would be really awesome. It is really hard to get a lot of supplies here because there are certain supplies that just aren't available here and others that are just very expensive here. Here is a list of supplies and ideas and anything that you think of that would be of help to a school probably will be.
Supplies needs for Agape Boracay Academy

Books:
    •    Easy reading book!! (Hello Reader Series by Scholastic Levels 1-2) Or ( Step into reading by Random house levels 1-4).
         Sets of five are good to use for reading groups.
ESL lower level reproducibles
Any ESL supplement activity teacher guide (all grades)
Science lesson reproducibles
Big books (especially for bible and science)
    •    Library books (chapter books too)
    •    Youth Bibles (NIV)
    •    Dictionaries

Office supplies: 
Letter sized file folders
Black clamps that hold papers together.. of varying sizes,
Envelopes of varying sizes (Please wrap in plastic or ziplock)
Thumb tacks.. the kind with the plastic heads
White board erasers
    •    Chalk board erasers
Good chalk
Markers for students – (crayola brand)
Expo markers for white board,
Construction paper
Glue sticks
    •    Clip Boards 
    •    Red Pens!!

Paper -
Photo copying paper (Lots would be great)
College rule lined paper,
Spiral notebooks (large and small)
Post it notes
File cards,  3 X 5 and a bit bigger too (white and color)
    •    Chart paper
    •    Clear plastic 3 ring paper protectors (100)
3 ring binder subject dividers (20)
    •    Roll of Butcher Paper
Card stock (Thick cardboard quality paper 8x11 size)
Construction Paper

Classroom
    •    teaching posters, (like the alphabet with cute illustrations, numbers, steps for solving math)
classroom decorations
big ziploc bags for putting items in like puzzle pieces etc. 
    •    Pencil sharpeners (the ones you attach to the wall, manual 7)
Sentence strips (Plain and colors too)
Pocket charts (I big one and 3 small)
    •    Christian posters!!
    •    Visual aides for science and Math (Posters)
Punch out letters for walls and billboards, maybe a few sets
Name strips for desk tops (not to big)
    •    Sets of Sharpies!! Permanent Markers are $1 each here
Boarder for classroom display boards
Maps One giant world map
Flannel graph with characters
Math manipulatives, tough ones that wont ruin or melt
Grade one reproducibles hands on coloring/ learning together
    •    Pencils, markers and crayons are ongoing needs

    •    We are in need of computers!! Labtops would be best and they don’t have to be brand new. Used, swiped clean and very basic programs.

Also if you would like to send medical supplies that we could use at the feeding sites that would be very beneficial as well. Things like bandaids, cotton balls, qutips, neosporin, or hydrogen peroxide would be very helpful.
You could send any supplies to Escalon Presbyterian Church or to my mom Nancy or my sister Jen at 1411 Dent st. in Escalon. Anything would be helpful.

I am getting more and more acquainted with the island and the people here. I am a lot more able to and more comfortable talking with people and forming relationships with the people around me. I am able to talk more to the waiters and waitresses, the vendors on the beach, the kids around the island, and people that I run into. Most people on this side of the island know that I am a missionary here and so it is so important that I am able to start talking more to people and building positive relationships.

So I got this photo from another missionary but figured it would be nice to show you. It's rainy season so it doesn't look like this all the time, but when it does it is definitely pretty amazing.

Thank you for all of your prayer and support. I couldn't do it without you.