"Dear Lord, for Thy goodness we thank Thee..."

Here’s my week in review:

This week has been pretty good overall, besides the disruptive students.
Sunday we drove down the Ebeye causeway to get to Shell Island. It was really pretty! It was nice to get away from all of the buildings on Ebeye. We mostly did snorkeling and it was cool to see the fish and coral. We also got to try out the SCUBA equipment. Most of the SMs want to get certified, so it was fun to try it out. I definitely need more practice...
I went with Megan and Landon on Tuesday to see if there were any fruits or vegetables left at the stand on Kwajalein. There wasn’t much to choose from when we got there, but we did get an onion and a couple tomatoes. I must say we were disappointed to have taken 1 ½ hours just to come back with an onion and two tomatoes. It was nice to get off the island for a little bit, though (and go to another island… go figure!).
I got to talk to my mom on the phone this week! I was very excited. I was chatting with her on Skype, and then she called the school so I talked to her for a few minutes. It was nice to hear a voice from home. I was pretty homesick last week, but this week has been a lot better.
On Wednesday, we went home after school and staff meeting and fixed some supper. Lorraine came back to the apartment late, bearing… fruit!!!!! We asked wear she got the full bag of fruits. She said the school had received a delivery of overstock fruits from Kwajalein. The rest of us got ready quickly and headed to the school (also to be there for prayer meeting at 6:30). We went into the school office and there were boxes and boxes of fruit to choose from. Each of us took a bag and filled it with wonderful pears, apples, and grapefruit (if one was so inclined…). We grabbed an extra piece of fruit to eat before the prayer meeting. I was definitely a happy person! (Fresh fruit on Ebeye is expensive and usually not very good quality unless a new shipment has come recently.)
Yesterday, Megan made apple crisp in a Bundt pan (all we had!)!!!! It was SOOOOO amazing! We contributed some of our apples from the school to the creation. It was a wonderful treat! We also had rice and lentils for supper. We will probably be eating rice and lentils more often since they are cheaper and fill you up. Also, it is easier to cook for a group (4 girls + Landon). Splitting a $4-5 meal? That’s pretty good, I’d say!
We got the second half of our monthly stipend yesterday. They pay us twice a month, which is nice so we can’t spend it all! (What we would spend it on, I am not sure…) We get a little more money for our stipend here because everything is so expensive. Yes, cereal is expensive in the U.S., but it’s not $7. But that is mostly the sugary cereals. We have been pretty happy with Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Chex, and vanilla soymilk. (They don’t sell much milk here because the power can be inconsistent. Sour milk == yuck!)
Today, Sabbath, we had church potluck. WOW!! There was a TON of food for the potluck. You grab a Styrofoam plate, serve up rice from one of the big containers, and move on down the line. There were 7 or 8 dishes with chicken in various forms, salad (yay veggies!), corn on the cob, tofu rice topping, pancit (Filipino dish with rice noodles, some veggies, and whatever else you want), and amazing desserts. They even had cinnamon rolls! To drink they had water and Cola for the adults and some Capri Suns for the kids. I ate waaaay too much! Good stuff, though.
Another blessing this week was the electricity. We had pretty consistent power to run the air conditioner at the apartment, flush toilets, cook on the stove, keep the fridge cold, use the rice cooker, use the internet, and take showers. I definitely took electricity for granted at home. Here, if the power is out, it’s more of an inconvenience than anything. Sure it get’s hot, but if you can open the windows and get a breeze blowing through, it is not too bad.
I was thinking about the water situation here, too. We collect the rain water to use for showers and sometimes cooking. To help conserve the fresh water, we don’t leave the showers on when we are lathering. I didn’t think about it when I was at home because there is seemingly endless water. The more I think about it here, though, the more I realize we could save a lot of money on water bills if people would only have the water on when they rinsed off! (I’m thinking more for the colleges, where there are so many people taking showers in the dorms.) Maybe it’s not just water we waste. I think we get so used to abundance in every facet of our lives that we squander our resources. Time, electricity, books, food—the list goes on and on. I really hope I will remember to appreciate what I have when I go home.
So that’s my week in review (and other randomness). Hope you had a good week too!
Please keep me in your prayers. God bless!