fire guy.

Last week, a few hours after I shared my last post, something horrible happened.

So horrible that, had it not been stopped, I wouldn’t have been able to show my face around school - or even in Yap - ever again. 

Because I would’ve been known as the girl who burned down YCHS. 

That’s right. I started a fire on campus. Like, a real one. With big flames and everything. It was insane.

Was I making a cheesy pita, you may be asking? No. I was heating up some chicken in the toaster oven - totally innocent, right? - and some stupid oil rolled dangerously off the skin and puddled up on the tray at the bottom. 

I heard some sizzling so I turned to look and there was smoke coming out of the oven door. Instead of turning off the toaster oven, I opened the door. Which turned out to be a horrible move because I let in a whole bunch of oxygen. So the whole thing kind of just burst into flame. 

Small flames, at first. Then everyone else in the staff room kind of slowly realized there was a fire. And then all of a sudden the flames were just huge. OBVIOUSLY I didn’t know what to do, but thank goodness for Mike because he put it out. 

Grease fires, man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwHZNu9hgMY

Everyone started singing “Madeleine started the fire” and it was actually really hilarious. But only because I didn’t destroy my school (that is made almost entirely out of wood and would’ve burned so quickly).

In my Micronesian History class, there’s not enough textbook material to fill an entire school year, so we do world geography with each unit as well. With this unit, we are studying the Middle East and Northern Africa, which has been so great. I have so loved teaching my students about the cultures and current events in this area. We have studied so many things - from the modernization of the UAE to the technological advances in Israel to the war in Syria. It has been so eye-opening (both for them and for me) to learn more about these things.

But, of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to teach (for a whole day) about Lebanon. I made meat pies (because kibbeh was wishful thinking) and hummus and brought in music and showed videos and taught the whole class how to dabke. 

It really made me want some awaymet - it was just after the epiphany, after all.

Teaching Micronesian teenagers how to dabke was no easy task, let me tell you. Part of it may have been because I was so excited and didn’t slow down the steps enough for them to really pick them up, but I think I really just kind of expected them to get it immediately and then we’d have a line going strong in a matter of seconds. But that was not the case. 

I had “Habibi” blaring through our open windows as we all held hands and trailed around the veranda. Obviously it wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t terrible either. If we had like ten more minutes, I think I could’ve had them on a pro-level. 

it's funny because no one knows what they're doing.

no one is on the same beat.

stomping way louder than necessary.

"Miss Ackels, can we dance every day?!"

So. 

Remember at the beginning of last semester when I was like “I’m the assistant volleyball coach!” and everyone was like “hahahahahahahaha” ???

Well, I have a sports update.

I am -

get ready for this -

no, seriously, get ready - 

the HEAD and ONLY coach for BOTH MEN AND WOMEN’S VARSITY basketball.

Two teams.

One dream.

One semi-inexperienced but definitely knowledgable enough coach.

Go ahead, laugh it up. It’s kind of funny.

We announced it last week at a morning assembly and since then a bunch of students have shared their skepticisms. 

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Did you ever even play basketball?”

“Wait, you’re coaching the men’s team??! Uhhhh…..”

“How do you get on JV?”

I am so pumped to share stories about this extracurricular with y’all. I’m sure it is going to be so entertaining.

Is anyone else thinking of Kicking and Screaming right now? I am soooOoOOo Will Ferrell, waiting on my Mike Ditka to come help me coach while I slowly lose my mind. “You want me to share my feelings of inadequacy with Mike Ditka?”

Oh, GUYS.

Have you seen Moana? If you haven’t, GO SEE IT NOW.

I just watched it a couple of days ago and oh my gosh I cried so much.

So. Much.

Those new Disney movies are really getting to me, y’all. I cried in the first, like, ten seconds of Zootopia and I remember Jeff just looked at me like, “what the heck…” but THAT MOVIE IS SO INSPIRING AND EMOTIONAL AND IT MAKES YOU REALIZE THAT EVERY PERSON HAS GOOD INSIDE OF THEM AND DIVERSITY IS BEAUTIFUL AND INCREDIBLE AND THE WORLD IS GOOD EVEN WHEN IT’S TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, back to Moana. 

I am confident I would have cried regardless, but I think like 80% of the reason why I cried so much is because there was such positive and accurate representation of life in the Pacific Islands. I just really felt it, you know?

ya don't see that every day ... Fi chowing down on a turtle skull.

The movie tells the story of a fictional island’s people, mainly following the daughter of the chief who will one day become chief herself. It faced some criticisms, saying that the representations were offensive, but you really can’t do much of anything these days without offending someone. The movie didn’t claim to inherit a specific island’s culture, nor did it create a blanket stereotype of all Pacific islands. It claimed to portray a fictitious Polynesian-esque island (The Polynesian region of islands being separate from the Micronesian region of islands, for those who don’t know the geography over here), and I think it did so beautifully.

If you want my opinion (which I’m sure you don’t), the music is eh, mostly. There are like two brilliant songs and the others are so mediocre. But that’s not the point - the point is the story and the portrayal. If you want like a little baby taste of what life is like here, watch that movie (or at least the first half (or at least the song “Where You Are”)).

—> low quality, but worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf24h3DyYPk

If you watch, know this: The flora and fauna are the same, the ocean is the same, the food and the baskets are the same. The crazy old lady in the village is the same. THE COCONUTS ARE THE SAME. There is similar art and dance and storytelling. 

another day, another nuunuw.

Oh! The Island of the Sleeping Lady, a legend on which most of the plot of the movie is based, is a real legend of a real island — Kosrae — which is one of the four states of the FSM. So that’s pretty neat.

Anyway, yeah. You should see Moana. It’s pretty zesty.

I just need to rant for a minute about how much I love Yap. While I was home, everyone asked how I’m liking it here, and my response was always the same:

“I like it now. It was rough at first, but I really do love it.”

How true that is. I really do love it. 

Last night, I was walking home and the stars took my breath away again. It’s crazy how that happens time after time after time. It doesn’t get old. The night sky is so unbelievable here. But so is the sky at all hours of non-rainy days. I’ll have to start taking pictures of the sunrises from my house. They’re beautiful. And you’ve seen some photos of the sunsets. Insane.

in love with the moon.

But aside from the way the sun beams through big green leaves and the way the moon lights up the whole island at night, just being here is something to be in love with. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to realize that, but I’m glad I know it now.

I love riding my bike around the lagoon. I love being close to the water. I love eating local food and talking to local people. I love hearing kids play basketball on the court outside my window. I love being followed by packs of dogs when I walk home. I love taking off my shoes before I go inside. I love teaching students who teach me so much about their culture and their lives. I love being a part of an educational mission much bigger than just this one year I’m giving. I love drinking coconuts. I love this place. I love the way it is a part of me.

It makes me sad to think about moving forward, but I must be prudent. I am present here, but I also need to think about what’s next. Being home gave me a good opportunity to really discuss options with family, friends, and strangers. These people helped me realize my ambitions and my potential. Before, I was too afraid to take future considerations seriously. It was so overwhelming that I just shut down. But now, I’m excited. I’m pursuing graduate school opportunities as well as job opportunities, and what do you know, I’m even considering teaching middle school. Oh how the turn tables…

Wish me luck as I continue this second semester at YCHS and spend about half of my week as “Miss” and the other half as “Coach”. And wish me luck further as I sift through the options I have for next year. Cross your fingers that I get admitted to grad school because it’d be DOPE to be a MASTER of something, you know?