Highlights: Week 2

Well, Ryan and I have made it through our second week of partner teaching.  The Top 10 list for the week follows.

10. Sorry to tell you Cass, but the beautiful new white Dream Chaser t-shirt you sent Ryan has now become "the official spaghetti shirt". Think red polka dots all over. 

9. Why would we need to designate a spaghetti shirt? Because by the grace of God we found a jar of Ragu at the American store here in Vava'u! You see, when food items expire in America, they ship them to places like Tonga. And after they sit in a boiling hot storage container for a month, they are finally shipped to Vava'u. Here, the palangis fight over these expired goods and shell out pa'anga with no regard to how ridiculously priced or expired the item may be. It was so worth it.

8. Seeing the most amazing double rainbow ever right outside our back door. It would give the one on the Lucky Charms cereal box a serious run for it's money. Wish we could have gotten a better pic.... these really don't do them justice.

7. Getting a box of cinnamon toast crunch in the mail (thanks Regan! we love you!) and us eating the whole damn thing in one day. Sugar+cinnamon+not stale = too good to stop. 

6. Ryan started both of his after school exercise programs this week. Younger kids on Tuesday, older kids on Thursday. Let me just set the stage for his Tuesday night program. Visualize 20 kids ages 6-10 just going nuts to be able to stay after school and play. Zoom in on my husband... face momentarily frozen in panic. Then, he just sprints off running and screaming around the school. All the kids quickly follow suit. It was the funniest thing I ever saw. Kids just blindly having the time of their life squealing like idiots (my husband included) running until they couldn't breathe. After that they were like butter in Ryan's hands. I never would have thought to try that as a behavior management technique. Then, the kids stopping suddenly to scream "fakapopouli" (dark cloud) and running under the veranda. Seconds later, the heavens opened and my husband was drenched in a matter of seconds. The kids thought this was hilarious (as did I) and ran out to join him and play red rover. Guess someone should study Tongan a little more.

5. Ryan's club on Thursday was one of the coolest things I have seen since starting work here. On Thursday, Ryan works with the class 5/6 kids. It was amazing. The entire school stayed to participate in one form or another. The principal came out in full exercise gear to exercise right alongside the kids. They were so jazzed and awed by this. Our principal is a pretty amazing man.  The class 3/4 teacher came out to help me run a soccer drill after depositing her whole class as a cheerleading section. They laughed uproariously while we worked through plyometrics and had a wicked dance party while we ran soccer drills. Put this together with Ryan using our rape whistle from our medical kit as a way to intermittently signal a team run around the school that everyone participated in and it was a heck of a way to close out the week. It was such a school team effort and I was so proud of Ryan for getting this program off to such a great start.

4. Abby getting sick and Ryan stepping in to teach all the classes solo. What a champ. He even came back with detailed notes that impressed the hell out of me. It made me so thankful to be here with such an amazing partner. Mom.... cancel the request for a baby monitor so I can keep tabs on the classes should this ever happen again.

3. Writing a jazz chant called "We Will, We Will, Read the Book" sung to the Queen's classic We Will, We Will, Rock You. This getting so energized that the principal started to sing and clap with the students. They thought that was awesome :)

2. Ryan finding one last Ho-Ho hidden in the back of the fridge (thanks for nothing dad!) and eating the melted mess while I looked on with anger and disgust.

Below is a picture of the library which is Ryan and I's home bas at school. We bring the kids in to participate in story time and work in small groups. I use the big box we found as my desk.

This week, we made talking puppets with our class 3/4 kids so they can have a way to practice speaking in English without feeling embarrassed or intimidated. Thank God we finally found a use for all those toilet paper rolls we went through during the whole e. coli thing. Here is Ryan and my puppet. We use them to model for the kids. Ryan might deserve husband of the year award after this experience.

And the #1 Highlight from our second week of teaching is.......... 

1. The birth of my new nephew (and Godson!) Shane Carter Pavelko! 8lbs. 10 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. Congratulations Katie, Eric & Briel, I can’t wait to meet him!!!