uchuub.

I wanna be where the people are.

The Yapese word for coconut is “uchuub” (oo-choob). And it is my favorite word of all time.

Especially because I recently discovered another use for coconuts. And that is filling them with rum and kahlua. 

where it's at.

But none of this is of extreme importance because I had a very busy week full of non-academic activities. It was a blast, so here are the highlights: 

yakkin.

Last Saturday, we went to a beach park down south in Dulkan. It was beautiful! Tim organized the day for us and had kayaks and barbecue and live music on deck. Nick and Mike are in a band with two other awesome guys. They’re called The Breadfruit Revolution, and they play covers of songs by bands like The Beatles, Coldplay, Pearl Jam, Young the Giant, and more (remember: breadfruit is local produce. Originally I despised it then realized there are nine hundred million ways to prepare it and nearly all of them are amazing). They played their first live show at the end of the evening. It made me super excited to go home and go to a million concerts. I miss live music so much.

spotted: deflated blow fish.

The following Monday, Nick and I went on two more dives. First to Vertigo (where the sharks are, if you recall), and then to another spot with a complex German name that I can’t remember. There was a German tourist on our boat and he told us that the name of the site was a German word that is used to describe a table that a group of regular patrons sits at each day when they visit the same pub. The dive site was named with this same word because it is a cleaning station for manta rays.

little blue beebs.

Speaking of German pubs… @Rua, remember when we went to Munich for your birthday and everyone got put in the same room except for me?! And then we went to the bar and that guy kept calling you the wrong name hahahahahaha.

…..anyway.

drop off.

Vertigo was pretty sick. I was definitely expecting more sharks, but we saw about ten total and they got really close, which was cool. The sharks were really mild and seemed pretty uninterested in us, which I’m only mentioning so that all the olds out there can wrap their head around how safe/not scary this experience was. 

reef sharks.

The cleaning station was kind of a bust. We went to see mantas, which Yap is really well-known for, but it’s only guaranteed that you’d see them on a dive during mating season, which has passed. So we sat on the ocean floor, holding fast to a rock so as not to float away with the current, while we watched a myriad of fish eat microscopic bits of food off of corals. Wasn’t the worst way to spend an afternoon.

hungry.

But I will say, I really wanted to watch the fish clean a manta because I had so many good Shark Tale references on deck. And of course when I say good I mean terrible. But WHATEVER.

not as cool as a manta.

Also, I was crossing my fingers to see this one specific manta that’s been named “Dot Com” because I’ve been watching a lot of 30 Rock re-runs this year and that would’ve just made me happy. Wasn’t meant to be.

ya girl.

Tuesday was very busy. Three things to do in one day is out of control, out of the ordinary busy. We had STEM/robotics day in the morning at the community center in town. This was an opportunity for all of our students to showcase experiments they had been doing in groups at school as well as show off the robots the robotics club built and programmed during their elective period. 

chunky, patriarch of island dogs, bouncing the bake sale.

YCHS is sending three students to Washington D.C. in July to compete in an international robotics competition. It’s a SUPER big deal. So we had a bake sale to fundraise. We killed it.

my loyal crew.

After that, we took an hour to clean the island up a bit. We split into huge groups and went around picking up trash just to make everything in town look a little nicer. It was a good time. I’m always impressed by my students’ willingness to serve the community and each other.

After a long nap, it was time to chaperone the end of the year dance. Which was, essentially, casual prom. We had a local DJ, food, a dance floor, and bottomless iced tea. Could not, would not ask for more.

two of the most wonderful smelling flowers on island completed my prom look.

OBVIOUSLY I opted for pants when I was getting dressed for this event so I could dance hard. And y’all know I danced hard. It was a great decision.

Wednesday morning I went to breakfast with Gail. So let me take a minute to tell y’all a little bit about this incredible woman.

forgive the eagles shirt & you can see Gail is the best.

Gail is the most selfless woman I’ve met this year. She is unbelievably hard-working and she inspires me every day. She is dedicated to her family, passionate about teaching, and just an awesome friend. She taught the other three literature classes this year and was a tremendous help to me, especially as I struggled with teaching my own class in the beginning. We shared ideas and learned a ton from and with each other all year. She and I are kindred spirits. We like and dislike a lot of the same things and have similar feelings and opinions. She is my best and favorite Yapese friend as well as the single person or thing that I will miss the most once I return to the states.

can you tell these two gave me a hard time all year?

Thursday we spent the entire day at Maalay Beach Park with our students. And when I say the entire day, I mean it. A full seven hours with a million teenagers at the beach. 

The day went as you might expect. My energy levels started out as high as possible but rapidly declined hour by hour. 

mangroves in maalay.

We waded for a while, had mud fights, and explored the mangroves all while the tide was still high enough for us to be in the water. After a couple of hours, the water disappeared and we walked around on the newly exposed sandbar. We also played volleyball and ate way too much fish and taro. 

sand, for once.

SHOUT OUT TO FISH AND TARO AND ALL THE TITAWS OUT THERE WHO MAKE IT SO DELICIOUS.

food of the gods.

Friday evening we had a Baccalaureate Mass for the seniors and their families. Many students took most of the afternoon to decorate the chapel with flowers and wreaths and all kinds of beautiful things. It was so lovely. After Mass, there was a feast. Naturally.  

flora.

my juniors led the music and sang beautifully at mass.

Saturday was graduation day!!! The ceremony was short and sweet. And big news: I DIDN’T CRY! 

But the thing about graduations here is that after the ceremony, the graduates get completely dominated by leis. 

congrats, grad!

Family and friends bring scores of leis to the ceremony and once the official business is finished, the students all line up and just stand there as leis are placed around their neck until they can’t breathe/see/support the weight. The leis are made of yarn, flowers, money, candy - all kinds of stuff. It’s so fun.

!!!

Last week, we also went to Summer’s graduation from the Early Childhood Education center. In case you forgot, Summer is our neighbor and she’s the most beautiful little girl that exists currently on this planet. 

cutest little graduate.

She’s also the smartest child her age on the island. That’s not, like, an official fact but it’s got to be true. She’s brilliant. So she was chosen to speak on behalf of her class at graduation and it was THE CUTEST.

bestowing leis.

After YCHS graduation, The Breadfruit Revolution had another concert. It rained for most of the night, but there was great food, company, and music. So it was a success overall. 

And here we are - Sunday. I have three days left on Yap and its the WEIRDEST. You know why? Because goodbyes are the WORST. I’ve really met some amazing people here and it’s unfortunate that I don’t know if/when I’ll ever see them again. I’ll miss my students, my co-workers, my peace corps friends, the local people who have taken such good care of me, and the people I interact with daily. 

More than most things, I’ll miss the post office and the people who work there. I love the United States Postal Service, even though they recently let me down and lost a package I sent. I’m learning a lot about forgiveness through this challenging time. But I will miss checking P.O. Box 98 for messages from all of you wonderful people who love me so much. Thank you to everyone who wrote to me this year. I am coming home with a giant box full of letters - I couldn’t imagine throwing any of them away.

Cheers to these last three days of uchuubs and extreme heat. I’ll let you know when I’m on the other side!

All my love.

final sunsets.

nutrients.

island drives.

In keeping with the pace of trying unusual foods every couple of weeks, I recently tried sea turtle eggs.

A few weeks ago, some people donated an outdoor ping pong table to our school. Many of the students quickly became obsessed, playing during all of the breaks throughout the day. My history class was right after the lunch period, so there would often be students sprinting to my class after trying to finish a game.

One day, one of my students ran in with what I thought were two ping pong balls. 

sea turtle eggs: a delicacy.

Him: “Want one, miss?”

Me: “Uhhh… no? Go put those back at the table.”

Him: “No, miss, they’re turtle eggs. Want to try one?”

Me: “So what you’re saying to me is if I can eat this yolk, my moves will become the best in the whole world?”

Him: ...

Me, in my head: 

eagle eggs, nacho libre.

Yeah so anyway I said yes, and here’s what followed:

(sorry, there’s weird background noise. what can ya do.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3001Msb8ms&feature=youtu.be 

“Those eggs were a lie, Steven. A lie! They gave me no eagle powers! They gave me no nutrients.”

It was so gross. Apparently they were cooked in salt water, which made them extremely salty. It just tasted like pure salt that was actually goo because it was unsure of which form of matter to take. Nick also tried one from another student and said his wasn’t salty. So, luck of the draw, I suppose.

The eggs are boiled in water, softening the shell and making them safe to consume. You have to tear the shell open and just take a shot of whatever’s inside. I didn’t rip a big enough hole, so the yolk wouldn’t come out. Once it did, though, I spit it over the veranda. I can hear my mother’s voice saying, “nas-taaay”.

village at night.

A few weeks ago we had an event at school called Under the Tree Music Showcase. 

It was open for all students to perform any music they wanted. Some shared original songs, some played instruments, and many sang. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, my students are some of the most musically talented people I have ever and will ever meet.

hanging on campus.

The event was so much fun. It always moves me to watch people share their talents. In a culture where praise is unheard of, it was awesome to give the students an opportunity to do what they love and then tell them how proud we are of them.

The choir performed many songs as well, including this a cappella arrangement of “Royals” by Lorde that I just thought turned out so well. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAVzGTcwmLc&lc=z13rwlhbfui4ctd0d22icj1qnp2phjhgo04

Per usual, I was in charge of the bake sale. What else is new. Next week, we have a STEM / Robotics showcase where I will lead my fourth and final school bake sale of the year. The one radio station on Yap has it reported as the end of an era.

my one true calling.

fun fact: people here like to eat hot dogs with marshmallows.

My time here is winding down, as is the internal engine in my fan.

It is accurate, I think, to say that I would not have survived this time in Yap without the small, electric fan that I brought with me. It’s been running for roughly fourteen hours a day for the past ten months, so I’m honestly shocked it’s still kicking. But it’s doing this thing now where, once it is turned on, the blades don’t spin unless I manually spin them at the start. So that’s where we are with that.

trees in maap.

Announcement:

The school year is over! Aaaaand I hate that.

It’s really something special to know that I just taught high school for an entire school year. I’m sitting here thinking of my high school teachers, realizing I have, in a small way, joined their ranks. I had some good high school teachers, and I often think of them and their contributions to my life. It’s really cool to realize that what I’ve done this year holds that sort of weight or merit in another person’s life.

freshmen on the last day of classes

Yesterday, after the last final exams, we spent about an hour and a half cleaning out the classrooms and making sure everything was in order. I weirdly love cleaning and organizing things, so this was great fun for me.

Afterwards, it was time for some goodbyes. Time to close up my classroom for the last time, to say goodbye to students who are going to the outer islands for the summer and won’t be at graduation. Time to hang up my title as “Miss”. 

sophomores on the last day of classes.

OBVIOUSLY I cried. But truly it was only a little bit. There’s just a few that get to you, you know? Like one sophomore on my basketball team. He’s the biggest kid in the school and he came and gave me a huge hug to tell me he’d miss me and my jokes and the impact I had on his life this year as a teacher and coach. Like, what do you do in that moment other than sob? I don’t know. That moment made this whole thing worth it. One kid, that’s what they say, that’s all it takes. Change one kid’s life and you’ve done your job. And I seriously doubt I've changed anyone's life here, but I know I've certainly impacted a few. I know I've done the job I came here to do, and there is so much satisfaction in that.

juniors on the last day of school.

Once the school day was over, a few local members of the school board came with nuunuws and coconuts and beer and pizza to thank us for our time this year. It was really thoughtful and kind. I really enjoyed spending time with these people that we hardly get to see that keep the school running behind the scenes. We talked and laughed and ate and drank and then it was definitely time for a much needed nap.

with some of the sweetest freshmen girls on the last day of school.

The coming days are going to be full of activities, and it will be so nice to continue to keep busy but only with things that are fun and not at all demanding.

Tonight, there is a concert in Tomil. I can only assume that means two guys with a synth and a speaker playing reggae, but we’ll see. Tomorrow, Tim (expat, host of Thanksgiving, mentioned a few times before) is hosing a barbecue at a beach park. He also invited a group of students from Queens University in NC that are here for a few weeks. We got to meet them and answer some questions about Yap for them a few nights ago, so it’ll be cool to see them again.

Except, you know what? Okay. I’ve never experienced this before but I know all my friends from Chicago get this all the time. 

The other night when we met these North Carolinians, I introduced myself and of course I mentioned that I’m from Dallas. And this one guy immediately shouts, “wait, what city?” to which I OBVIOUSLY replied, “uhhh…Dallas?” 

Him: “No, but like, what city do you actually live in?”

Me: “Dallas. I live in North Dallas.”

Him: “North of Dallas? Where?”

Me: “Nope. North Dallas. Like in Dallas, real Dallas. Dallas proper.”

Dallas does not at all sound like a real word anymore. Dallas, Dallas, Dallas. 

So then later I went up to him and I was like hey are you from Dallas too? And he said, “Yeah, super close! Georgetown!”

And to be polite I was like “Oh, okay, cool!” but secretly I’ve never heard of Georgetown, TX. Or if I have I quickly forgot about it. IT’S LIKE TWO AND A HALF HOURS SOUTH OF DALLAS.

Anyway, that happened. I can't stop thinking about it.

Next week will be diving and bake sales and science fairs and concerts and beach days and graduation festivities. I will be sure to give a full report after the fun is all over.

And then that’ll about do it! I have 11 full days left here and I plan to make the most of them. Drives around the island, coconuts every single day, eating my favorite foods at my favorite places, hanging with neighbors in the village, daily sunrises and sunsets, and a couple of final hikes.

Stick around for one or two final posts. Much love to my people. I can’t wait to see you all oh, so soon!

sun setting over campus.

yapese pass.

another monday sunrise.

Here’s the update many of you have been waiting for -

We finally had a basketball game. Not just a game, but a tournament!!!!!!!!

Set the stage: Sunday. April 30th. 8:50 AM. Area foreigner (me) shows up at sports complex to find no one there and gate chained up even though tournament starts at 9 AM.

10:40 AM. First game starts. 

Thaaaaaaaaat’s Yap, folks!

So if you remember, I am the coach for the men’s varsity basketball team as well as the women’s varsity team. There were two tournaments, one for high school men, one for women, to be held on the same day.

Three men’s teams entered. Two women’s teams entered. 

Guess what place we got?

Men’s: 3rd. 

Women’s: …………………………2nd. 

oKAY but in my defense, if we had been playing games all season with practices in between, I really think I could’ve shaped these teams into something! It was just really hard to know what things to work on without ever playing against other teams, you know? 

I was FULL FORCE Greg Ackels Sr. mode during these games. 

You know the one. Scratching illegible notes about the game on a piece of paper the size of a baby’s hand while calling plays and standing somewhere in the space between the player’s bench and the scorer’s table. 

The most noticeable difference is that I did not remain calm.

Here’s the lowdown - 

The tournament was Round Robin. So the first game was YHS vs. SDA. So, not us. YHS won. Actually, no, I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t remember. (very un-Greg Sr. of me to not remember such a detail)

Next, we (YCHS men’s) played YHS. Lost 22-52. It is easy to make excuses, so instead of blaming the refs (who are easily at the greatest fault here) I will blame this one play known as the “Yapese Pass”. 

The Yapese Pass is everything that is wrong with basketball on this island. It is messy, it is inconsistent, it is unreliable. The Yapese Pass is when you get a defensive rebound and launch the ball toward your basket, hoping someone on your team will be there to receive it.

The Hail Mary of Micronesian basketball. Literally just an absolute hopeful launch.

I banned it at practiced and told them at the beginning of the game to “watch the lane, be ready to steal sloppy passes, and don’t let me see a Yapese Pass or you’re DONE”. 

I don’t think they heard me.

Next game we played SDA. Lost 22-55, but it was more of a fun game. I scratched down lots of notes about fouls, baskets, assists, steals, etc. but you couldn’t possibly get a speck of information about that game out of me. I just don't remember. I suddenly have a rejuvenated appreciation for the articles my dad would stay up late writing after every single one of our games for every sport.

Everyone, for just one second, think about this:

My wonderful father coached all four of us in pretty much every sport we played at some time or another. I really think soccer might be the only exception. Once we started playing for the DPL, he would write an article after every game that the four of us played, whether he was the coach or not, and he’d send it to the parents of all of our teammates. The subject line of the email was always a pun using a player’s name, and the writing was always fast-paced, entirely accurate, and hilarious. He captured all of our games on that baby-hand piece of paper and retold the story so our families could keep them forever. 

What a guy. Dad, I love so much that you did that for us. So here's this make-shift version of an article, where I don't really tell you anything that happened in our games except that we lost.

Because my boys lost both games, we got third and did not proceed to the final game. Go figure.

0-2 season.

The next game was the women’s final (we made it!!!!!!!!).

We played the YHS team and, let me tell you, this is where I lose it.

When I played basketball, I’d get really fired up. I’d get really personally offended by fouls called or not called, by points scored or not scored, by anything that contributed to my team’s losses. I’d get angry. I’d get mad. The refs would call reaching but really I’d be throwing subtle(ish) punches. **ahhhem** championship game against Good Shepherd, circa 2007.

I couldn’t stay still during this game. Everything that makes me angry about basketball was happening. GIRLS WOULD TAKE SIX STEPS AND THERE’D BE NO TURNOVER. I’m not exaggerating. It was so messy and so hard to watch and I was RUNNING up and down my bench yelling EVERYTHING I could think of.

GUARD FOURTEEN!!!!!

HANDS UP!

WHY IS NO ONE DOWN THERE?1/???!?!?

WHERE IS THE DEFENSE????????????????????????????

OFFENSE??????

WHO’S SUPPOSED TO BE THERE??????????????

HELP HER!!!!!!

WHERE’S THE SCREEN?!

SCREEN?//!?!!!!11/11?!?!??!?!?!!?!!

WHO’S SUPPOSED TO BE ON FOURTEEN!!!!!!!!

*author's note: number fourteen is very, very tall.

I thought of my brothers yelling at refs as I held my tongue. I felt it unnecessary to make a name for myself as “psycho Catholic teacher” by getting ejected from the game, so I just let the refs continue to not call anything on either side. 

Is it just me or is it traveling when you fall while holding the ball? I can’t remember but I know I did actually yell about that one like eight times. 

I can’t remember the score to that game, it didn’t make it into my notes, but it’s probably best we don’t publish that information anyway.

0-1 season.

Basketball is officially over, which is a weight lifted, but I’m so glad it ended with that tournament. I truly wish we had more games, because that was a real highlight for me. I’d coach games all day and never run another practice as long as I live if that were a possibility. Games are mad fun. Would love to win one some day.

Last week, Nick asked one of the bars if they’d let us do karaoke there. So we ventured down to the one and only Pine Bar (also known as Pine Club and Pine Restaurant) to grace some lucky locals with some questionable song choices. 

dueting with my favorite island friend.

Laurel, shockingly, has the most impressive Shakira impression I’ve ever heard, so we made her sing “Hips Don’t Lie” and it was phenomenal. Not that any of you will ever meet her (unless you live in NOLA and want to hit her up, she’s super fun) but you should all hear her Shakira. It’s scary good.

Last Friday, the students held a Teacher Appreciation Day for us. They kept calling it “TAD” which was so funny. One thing you have to know about Yap is that everything has an acronym. And it’s a pretty faulty system because a lot of people don’t know what any of them stand for, so it’s just this widespread mystery. YCA, FMI, ESA, DOE. There are dozens. Add TAD to the list.

not sure WHAT is up with my eye, but here are all of the teachers on TAD.

TAD was awesome, though. Each morning we start the school day with a whole-school assembly. The teachers sit on this bench at the front of the room, facing all of the students sitting in front of them. On this day, our assembly featured students who would stand up and read an ode to a specific teacher, one at a time until all ten teachers had been honored. After each presentation, a few students would come put nuunuws on the head of the teacher being honored. It was so wonderful to hear the things that the students like or remember or appreciate about each of their teachers. 

My homeroom is the most energetic group of students in the school. It’s just a fact. So 60% of their reflection about me was a long list of apologies. 

We’re sorry for talking during silent reading.

We’re sorry for messing around during study hall.

We’re sorry for always coming up with excuses when you ask if we’re doing our homework because you’re always too smart and you know we’re lying.

We’re sorry we don’t have better comebacks when you roast us for not doing our work.

But they also had a lot of lovely things to say. I appreciate them so much.

obviously I cried a lot. a lot, a lot.

EXCEPT someone gave me a poison nuunuw.

Not technically, but there was a certain type of flower on one of my nuunuws that had a scent that was nauseating to me. I left the assembly with it on my head and went to my first period literature class. A group of students were giving a presentation so I didn’t have to do much (perks of student-guided learning). But with about ten minutes left of class, I was so nauseous. 

I walked to the front of the classroom at the end of the presentation and all of the students told me I looked super pale. I joked and told them I was going to faint and they’d need to carry me to the principal’s office. But then I almost did pass out so I slept on the couch in the faculty room for three hours before my next class. #work.

School has been great lately! In Literature, the students are reading Night by Elie Wiesel. It’s a memoire about the Holocaust. It has been very heavy, but I’ve enjoyed teaching this material to them. They’re being very mature about it, which allows us to dig deeper into supplemental information, like the psychological factors that contribute to things like Nazi culture and genocide. I have also enjoyed sharing with them photographs that I took at Auschwitz and Birkenau because there are many things mentioned in the novel that I saw myself (under different context, of course) and I think that has provided a new level of depth for the reading. The students really, truly know this is all real, because talking about such unimaginable horrors doesn’t always feel real.

sophomore selfie.

In History we’re talking about “Micronesian Government Today!” and the ins and outs of a federal system, checks and balances, separation of power, constitutions, etc. We did an activity on Friday where the students were acting as the unicameral Congress of the FSM and I was the President. They all wrote a bill and each student read everyone else’s bill and signed it if they liked it. If they had a majority of the signatures, they could bring their bill to the President. Then I held and open reading of all of these qualified bills and either passed or vetoed them. It was a great time. And, of course, we watched the "I'm Just a Bill" Schoolhouse Rock video and I told them they were now, officially, a part of everybody. Because everybody who's anybody has seen that video in school.

passing bills, in more ways than one.

In Scripture, we finished the textbook a while ago but we finished the year by reading Fr Greg Boyle, SJ’s novel Tattoos on the Heart about his time serving the Dolores Mission in LA. He started an organization called Homeboy Industries, as well as many affiliated organizations that help ex-gang members turn their lives around. It really is a great read if you’re looking for something in that realm, so go for it. It sure did make me miss my friend Carleigh who worked for Homeboy through JVC a few years ago. Props to you, Carleigh, for making this world a bit brighter by spreading the LOVE.

senior selfie.

I went and saw my old neighbor Angie today. She’s still as sweet as ever. And I bought a sweet new lavalava from her. It’s the pattern from Satawal, her island, and I’m really stoked to wear it. It has like a million colors on it - it’s my new fav.

my island mother, Angie.

Oh, and I must quickly tell you about the shoes pictured above in the photo with Angie. They're called duralites and everyone (who's anyone) has them. I felt I could not live an authentic Yapese experience without them. They're perfectly heinous and can serve as a flotation device in emergencies. Yap: where fashion meets function.

WELL PEEPS, WE’RE DOWN TO TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS UNTIL I’M TEXAS-BOUND.

One more month of waking up to the sound of an old man hacking up a lung right outside of my bedroom window on Saturday mornings.

One more month to eat rice and soy sauce as much as I want without anyone getting on my case about “health”.

One more month to listen to scores of roosters at all hours of the day and night.

One more month to fit in that dive with the sharks at Vertigo.

One more month of teaching barefoot.

One more month of teaching…in general. Actually, 8 more days of teaching. Forever. WEIRD.

One more month of wiping the carcasses of dead insects off my body.

One more month of watching the sun rise over the Philippine Sea.

One more month of having three different undiagnosable medical mysteries spreading on my skin.

One more month of riding my bike around the lagoon at sunset.

One more month of fifteen, sixteen hour time differences.

One more month of driving on the left side of the car.

One more month with my best friend and my greatest source of stability in Yap - my trusty electric fan that sits perched on top of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, four inches from my face at all times.

These are just a handful of the things I will miss after this month has passed. Some missed more than others, of course, but missed all the same.

I’ll finish this Yap Year out strong, thanks to all of you. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I could not and would not have done this without you! Thank you to everyone who’s still been sending me mail or messages - I love you ALL!

this is what happens when you let students use your phone.