Australia

Dear Judith,

Oh boy.  I have not blogged in such a long time.  It's a beautiful Friday afternoon in Saipan, and Krystin and I are sitting at Java Joe's, drinking soy chai, and I'm trying to remember the details from RCT's trip to Cairns Australia.  

We left on a Thursday afternoon.  In the airport, we were assigned children to watch.  I got Joy and Tali, and we quickly formed Team Jet.  Everyone was jealous of us.  Our motto was, "We enter with style!"  

We stopped in Guam for a bit, and everyone ate dinner.  The kids were so excited to get Burger King!  I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me, so a friend came to sit by me.  I practiced my Japanese and wrote in my journal on the 4 hour flight.  

Customs took awhile longer than it should have, due to some of our props, but we finally made it out and loaded up into some taxis.  Our taxi, however, did not start, so Carol, Megan, Michi, and I had to wait for another one to come get us.  

We arrived at the Bohemia Resort and were amazed at how nice it was.  We settled in for the night and woke up early Friday morning for our show at the Cairns SDA Elementary school.  It went well, and the little Australian children were so cute!

We were lucky to have the afternoon off, and we went to Cairns Tropical Zoo.  It was epic-ly awesome.  I held a koala and fed kangaroos.  I loved it.  

We had a performance that night at a church plant, and they seemed very receptive, especially to our Lifehouse pantomime.  

Saturday started off with a performance for Youth SS, followed by church and a yummy potluck.  Some of the kids went with Sean and Rhonda to be on the radio, and the rest of us got ready for the afternoon performance in Edmonton.  Again, Tali performed beautifully, and they weren't many dry eyes in the house at the end of Lifehouse.  

The evening was spent playing volleyball and wandering around the Night Market, and the money began to disappear.  Australia is very expensive.  

On Sunday, we went to a lake and went tubing and kneeboarding.  Amy, Michi, and I left a little bit early, trying to make it up to Kuranda, an aboriginal village, but we were too late.  By the time we got there, almost everything was closed.  We sadly went back to Bohemia and chilled until bedtime.  

Amy left the next morning, so we had no more cars.  Rhonda, Michi, and I tried Kuranda again and this time we had great success!  It was a really cool place, and it was a neat experience to walk through all the shops.  

We left that night, headed back to Saipan, but not before hitting up the night market again.  I spent so much money, but it was well worth it.  Australia was a really great experience, and I feel very lucky to be able to have gone with some of my favorite people.  

Miss you Judith.  I haven't heard from you in a long time.  Hope everything is great!  Love you!

My Last Day of Tutoring

Dear Judith,

As I'm sure you know, tutoring is a great way to earn some extra money while living on Saipan, and I have been lucky enough to tutor two great kids since I got here. Ricky moved back to Korea a few months ago, and, sadly, my last day to tutor Charlotte was last Thursday.

Charlotte has been awesome. I love her and I was really sad to end my time with her. Most of our time was spent talking (I justified it by telling myself that I was helping her with her conversational English) and playing hangman. I really grew to care about her a lot.

We accomplished practically nothing on our last day, but we did take lots of pictures and eat lots of candy. Here are some of the best ones:

Yoshi

Dear Judith,

As my time on Saipan draws to a close, my mind is constantly filled with thoughts of my class. Here's some more of them.

Everything in the world belongs to Yoshi. I learned that pretty early in my time as his teacher. He is the only boy and the youngest in his family, which has led to him being completely and totally spoiled rotten. In anger, he has hit, pinched, and bit me. He never listens when you ask him not to touch something, he eats the other kids' snacks (keep reading for a story of that), he is loud and obnoxious when asked to be quiet, and I love him more than I could have ever believed to be possible.

At Lee's Birthday Lunch

Yoshi is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. His big eyes, chubby cheeks, dark hair, and easy laugh have all found their way into my heart. He loves his papa, and it's adorable to see how close they are.

A few weeks ago, Yoshi told me that he had eaten some cereal out of a classmate's cubby. I informed him that that type of behavior was not okay, and then asked why he did it. He answered, completely matter of factly, "Because I was SO hungry!" I really tried not to laugh, but I just couldn't do it.

Yoshi and I play a game nearly everyday at naptime. It started off simply enough. "Oyasumi nasai Yoshi," I said, so proud of the fact that I'd learned more Japanese.
"Oyasumi nasai Miss Jaimie...osaru" (Translation: Good night Miss Jaimie monkey)
"Oyasumi nasai Yoshi...osagi" (Translation: Good night Yoshi rabbit)
And so the game began. We go back and forth, always trying to come up with a new word. Perhaps I'm easily entertained, but I always end up trying to laugh quietly so I don't disturb the rest of the class. It works out well for him though, because it means he can stay awake just a little bit longer.

One of my biggest breakthroughs this year was with Yoshi. I nearly cried when it happened, and I'm sure that teachers are the the only people who could understand why. I was standing, cutting paper for an upcoming project. Yoshi was on the floor, and it was right after snack time. I wasn't really paying attention, so he grabbed my leg. He looked up at me, and said, "Miss Jaimie?"
"Yes, Yoshi," I replied.
"May I play with the blocks?"
To fully understand why this was such a big deal, you would've had to have been me, struggling for the past few months, trying to make my class understand that before you play with a toy, you must ask. Yoshi had asked. He asked.

Sleepy, coming back from a field trip

Yoshi teaches me Japanese, he gives me hugs, he falls asleep in my arms almost everyday. My mind, my body, and my soul will surely feel empty when he's no longer around to fill me with his joy and laughter.

My heart breaks with every second that brings me closer to leaving these precious children.