Birthday Party and Kwajalein Liberation Day

2-10-09

Before the other stuff: I added another class to my schedule. We did some rearranging of the Elementary teachers and now I am teaching 6th grade math during my free period (as of last week). It has been going pretty well so far. I really like teaching math, so it’s good.

Birthday Party
Last week I was invited by one of my 5th grade buddies (Richie) to his niece’s 1st birthday party (in the Marshall Islands, the first birthday is a major event). The party was on Saturday night after AY and vespers. Richie also invited Ryan, the principal, to the party so after we were done with the Sabbath programming we went with the kids to the party. We sat in the courtyard as the family was finishing up the party preparations. Ryan made the suggestion of going to watch the basketball game because the party probably wasn’t going to start anytime soon. So we went to the basketball game and watched until it was done. The team who won would play our team in the championship game on Liberation Day. The Kwaj High School team, the Spartans, won.

When we came back we sat in the courtyard again. We were there only a few minutes when one of the ladies ushered us to a long decorated table where the honored guests were supposed to sit (I found out later that the spots were for the king and queen but they couldn’t come). Ryan and I sat in the very middle of the long table. There were bright blue Marshallese pillowcases folded over the chairs. The table had huge cups, Marshallese cloth napkins and table decorations, boxes of Macadamia nut chocolates, bowls, and pitchers of coconut milk (fermented, as I found out from sipping it once). They came around to give each of us cans of cola. There was a prayer in Marshallese and then we were dismissed to get food from the buffet tables. Being a Marshallese party, there were several different kinds of meat in large aluminum serving dishes, rice, and spaghetti (yes, spaghetti). We put our food on these nice large oval plastic plates and returned to the table. While I was eating Ryan told me that the decorations were gifts for the people sitting at the table. I was surprised just to sit at the table, much less get gifts!
While I was eating, Jeo and Richie took turns using my camera to get pictures of the party. They had a good time and got many pictures of the baby. While we were eating a mass of kids ran up to the toy decorations hanging from the tents and pulled them down. Jeo told me earlier that it was a tradition and that he was going to try to get a Barbie doll to give to his niece since it was her birthday that day (he’s a pretty neat kid). I told him that I would be glad to hold on to the doll so it wouldn’t look like he wanted it for himself (a very un-cool thing for a boy!). The mother of the baby came to talk to Ryan and I to thank us for coming. She told us to take the plates, cups, bowls, pillowcases, napkins, table decorations, and Macadamia nut chocolates as gifts (for birthdays, the family gives the gifts instead of the guests). It was pretty close to 10:30 pm when they opened up the two huge boxes containing the cakes. Since it was already late, Ryan and I decided to go. We thanked the mother again and gathered up our treasures in the bags plastic bags they gave us. It was quite an interesting time.

Kwajalein Liberation Day
Yesterday was Kwajalein Liberation Day. We had been trying to plan things for a couple of weeks, but nothing really was organized until the night before and the morning of Liberation Day. We picked our students to run in the races and told the students what to contribute to help out with lunch and taxi and tent rental. The night before Liberation day we still didn’t have a taxi to decorate for the parade. The vice president for the PTA was there to help figure out decorations. We found paint and flags to make decorations. We had red, yellow, blue, and white paint. I showed Mr. Korok that you could mix the colors to get the right colors for the flag. I made orange and green to make the flag. I painted a miniature flag on a piece of printer paper. It looked pretty pathetic, but I was proud of my art skills.
On Liberation Day I came early to the school to help decorate. There were some parents at the school helping to decorate the taxi and get the sandwiches and drinks organized. Each family was to bring two loaves of sandwiches and several waters and sodas. Needless to say the office was overflowing with drinks and sandwiches. I had never seen so many sandwiches in my life!
I decided that I wanted to try to paint the flag again, but the size of a full sheet of printer paper. I got the plate back out that I used the night before to mix the colors. I added more paint and started my work. Since there weren’t any paintbrushes, I used spoons to make my creation. It took me a while, but I finally finished my masterpiece. I think it might have taken longer to dry that to make, but when it was done I glued it on some black construction paper and we taped it to the windshield of the taxi (over the passenger’s side, of course).
When we finally got our students together we walked around to the lagoon side of the island on the other side of the public school to wait for the parade to start. It was incredibly hot and our students kept running off to little stores to buy water. We waited maybe 30 minutes for the parade to start. We walked down the street a block to turn the corner and walk into the main event area. We huddled our students under the shade of the tent and waited for the speeches to begin. Emily Finch and I stood the entire time the leaders were speaking. Some of the speeches were in English and some were in Marshallese, but even the students couldn’t understand some of it because of the wind and the speakers. We listened for what seemed like hours (maybe not an exaggeration…) and when it was done, we went back to the school to eat our sandwiches and drink our sodas. I ate and went back to the apartment to change from my staff uniform shirt (VERRRRY hot) into a cooler shirt and running shoes. I headed with Lorraine to Beach Park to go to the race. We planned to do the long race from an island down the causeway back to Beach Park. We finally found the people with the signup sheet and headed to the place where we waited for the bus to take us to the race starting point. We talked to some Americans living on Kwaj. One of them knew someone from Union!
On the bus ride down the causeway we were driving through puddles. The ocean was at an incredibly high tide and had come up over the road. We got a little ways past Shell Island only to have the road blocked by water, so the guys had to start there instead of the other island. Once the guys were dropped off, the police truck took the four of us girls back down the causeway to the island where we would start. It was a lot closer to Ebeye than Lorraine and I had planned (which was a good thing for me!), but it was alright. I got my iPod out and started my music and was on my way. Lorraine and I jogged together for a little bit, but then she passed me and was on her way. I jogged with a girl from an outer island (Namu) for a while. She encouraged me to start jogging again after I had walked for a little while. I was with her for a little while until I started jogging and passed her and was ahead until the end. I kept setting goals that I would jog to and then walk for a little ways and then jog again. I tried not to overexert myself so I wouldn’t aggravate my exercise induced asthma.
When I got back to Ebeye some people were on the sides of the road cheering on the runners. I was encouraged to see people cheering. I rounded the corner back to Beach Park, jogging with one of the guys that had caught up to the girls. We had to maneuver through the crowd to make it to the finish line. When I finished, I went over to Lorraine and she congratulated me and I hugged her and acted like I was going to collapse on her. I was so exhausted!!! It was a lot of fun though. The high school girls ran over and kept yelling, “Good job Miss Emily!” They told me to go over to the judges and get my prize—2nd place $125! I was pretty excited. Lorraine had come in 1st for the girls, jogging the entire way. I was very proud of her. They also gave us a liter of water and I downed it within 30 minutes of finishing the race.

While we were doing the race our team was playing the championship game. We saw one of the team members when we were walking to the school. They had won! When we were at the school we saw the team riding around in the back of the taxi the school rented for the parade, screaming and yelling. I think they must have been excited about winning…

Today we didn’t have school so that everyone could recover from yesterday. We had planned on that since last week. We were told that even though there was school the day after KLD last year, hardly any students came and those that did were too tired to do anything. I think the teachers needed the extra day more than the students. We have had so many sick staff members so far this month. Some of them are just now getting over being sick. Hopefully we can all be ready for tomorrow. I’m still pretty tired and sore from the race. I’ll have to see what happens tomorrow.

I hope everyone is doing well back at home! Send a letter if you get the chance. I love getting mail.
Emily Lorenz
Ebeye SDA School
P.O. Box 5070Ebeye, MH (Marshall Islands) 96970

January

2-10-08

Things have been pretty busy with school and other stuff that I haven’t had a chance to write a blog recently. So here’s an update of January.

I brought in the beginning of 2009 by stuffing couch cushions. The covers had been washed and I was helping to stuff the cushions back into the covers. It was really rather exciting…
New Year’s Day was Jhan Dale’s birthday, so there was a party and we watched August Rush. It was a very good movie. I did miss some of it because I went back to our apartment to wash dished, but it was still good.

We were preparing for school to resume on January 7. Some of the school started on the Monday, but we started on the Wednesday. It was nice to have a couple extra days to recover from break.

Pastor Rich Carlson, my college chaplain at Union, came to visit on January 12. Ashlee, Ryan and I went to meet him at the dock on Kwaj. It was very nice to see a familiar face from “home”. He visited the school and we went to Shell Island to go diving and snorkeling. That same evening we had Parent-Teacher conferences, which went pretty well. We caught up with the parents what happened at the end of last semester. We had a pizza party at the principal’s apartment with Rocky Road ice cream and root beer. It was a good time! On Wednesday, Pastor Rich told stories to my Bible classes about miracles he had experienced. I watched my students’ amazed faces as he recounted a story about a jungle pig. That afternoon I went back to Kwaj with Pastor Rich to see him off. I was sad to see him go, but very glad that he was able to come and visit me.

I was excited to receive several boxes of Bibles from my aunt in Colorado. I gave them out to the freshmen, juniors and seniors. I am waiting for the Bibles to come from my mom so that I can give Bibles to the sophomores. The students were very excited to get their own Bibles. They had Bibles at home, but not their own personal Bibles. Some of the students kept asking me if they could really keep the Bibles. I was happy to say yes.

The end of January we had a church youth trip to Shell Island. We had a good time playing in the water and potluck-ing (yes, a verb) and hanging out. The students were glad to get away from Ebeye for a little while and see some different scenery.

Happy Holidays!!

12-25-08
(The internet wasn't working at the school and I couldn't get to the internet cafe until today!)

I have not written a blog in such a long time! I figure that since it is Christmas break and I have time, I should write a blog to update everyone. I don’t really get around much to writing. If you want a more updated and in-depth blog about Ebeye go to my roommate’s blog notanoptiontobeconsidered.blogspot.com. She updates her blog pretty regularly.
The major event in November was a Thanksgiving dinner at the principal’s apartment. It was a potluck style dinner with lots of yummy food. We invited another missionary from another school to join our group. It was nice to have a big gathering so we could spend time together and be thankful for all of the blessings God has given us this year (blessings too numerous to count!).
For most of December I had help from 5th grade boys to decorate my classroom. I made many paper chains and had some of the juniors make paper snowflakes to adorn the otherwise boring classroom. We borrowed decorations from the school and I must say my classroom is the best looking in the entire school! Those boys worked pretty hard, especially one named Jeo (jay-oh) who tried skipping classes to decorate my classroom….
Between November and December there was only one week that was a full week of school. It seemed like each week had a holiday or some kind of an activity happening! It was nice to have long weekends to spend with the other teachers, but most of us felt a little frustrated about not being able to cover as much material as we were hoping. It seemed to work out alright, though, and we are now done with final exams and grades are turned in to the office. Yay!
Last week was the Christmas program. I had been trying to practice “O Come, All Ye Faithful” with the juniors so they would be ready. They can sing pretty well when they are motivated to stay on track to practice. The day of the program some of the juniors were missing so I decided to sing with them. I was going to play the piano for them, but I figured I would sing instead. It was pretty fun being able to sing with a group again. I do miss being in choir. Anyway, the program progressed very well until the sound of sirens and loud music came from down the street. It was the annual Christmas parade where taxis and other vehicles are decorated and people throw candy as they drive around the island loop. It was very distracting to have this going on while the program was still happening, but the program continued. Fortunately, the program was very near completion and the Kindergarten’s rendition of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” was adorable. My roommate, Ashlee, was videotaping the song and small children kept running past to go outside and watch the parade. It was funny to watch the video last night, seeing blurs go across the screen every few seconds.

Last night we had our staff Christmas party. We had a potluck dinner with very amazing food. I made brownies and garlic bread and I stirred the sauce and spaghetti (how difficult!). After the food we had a gift “exchange”. It was more of a stealing event, but it was pretty hilarious. Each of us drew a number to see in what order we would choose a gift. The person could either get a new present or take one from another person. I got number four, so there was plenty of opportunity for people to steal from me. The first gift I got was a Frisbee with a cute frog shower scrubby thing. Megan ended up taking it from me on her turn. I went to get a new present and what did I find inside? A new frog scrubby thing! It was so funny to get the same thing. After we were all finished with the gift game we split up to play various games. I played Uno with 4 other people. It was pretty fun even though I was doing a terrible job! We stayed until after 11 playing games and then decided it was time for bed.
Now it is time to continue my list of things I have learned on Ebeye (holiday season edition).
1. God is so incredibly good!
2. Holidays are best spent with people you care about, even if they aren’t your family.
3. My mom was right about cleaning the kitchen right after you make a mess—it makes you feel a lot better! (And you don’t get a stain on the counter from drink mix….)
4. My mom really is the coolest.
5. There is so much to be thankful for!
6. I am really going to miss the people that are here with me.
7. While cutting out snowflakes is fun, throwing snowballs would be great right about now….
8. Decorating is really fun. I wish I could decorate more often!
9. Even though I wish I could be with my family for Christmas, I am very glad to be here with the amazing people on Ebeye.
10. Playing with the little kids is a lot of fun.
11. It’s really good to have someone to talk to.
12. I need to practice the piano more when I get home!
13. I really like playing the guitar, even if I don’t sound the greatest yet.
14. It is really nice to have such a close bond with the staff here because it is hard at school (college) with everyone so busy with classes and homework and work.
15. Homemade syrup is yummy. Very yummy….
16. Peanut butter and homemade syrup is super yummy.
17. I really like veggie food. When it comes in a box from home, all of Ebeye rejoices. (Well, at least our apartment.)
18. Quality sleep is an essential key to being a good person. (A key I am missing.)
19. Christmas songs are fun, but you can only handle the Chipmunks for so long….
20. Talking to God everyday is so important. He gives your life purpose and direction when you wonder why you came to a little island called Ebeye.
21. I am sure now, more than ever, that Ebeye is where I am supposed to be.
22. It takes a long time for me to write a blog.
23. People think there is no power on the island if you can’t get online to check your email.
24. If it’s colder and rainy outside it feels a lot more like Christmas at home that when it’s hot and sunny.
25. It seems appropriate to have 25 things on this list since it is December 25.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and family wherever you are!
Don’t forget to check out Ashlee’s (my roommate) blog: notanoptiontobeconsidered.blogspot.com

Trip to the Hospital #2

On Sunday, the teachers and the week of prayer speaker (Dr. Eustacio Penniecook) took a trip to Nge Nge, an island down the causeway. We went to the dock and hopped in a boat (the same one that I was on for the horrific return from Carlos). It was a beautiful boat ride with sunshine and wind and waves. When we got to the island, we started unloading the boat and taking our stuff to the shore. I was the last person in the boat besides the driver and I was handing things to the people to take to the shore. I was wearing my water shoes because it is hard to walk in flip-flops under water. When I got out of the boat, I took my stuff and started heading for the shore. All of the sudden something hit the side of my big toe on my right foot. It hurt immediately, so I started limping back to shore.
Once I got on the beach I found a place to sit, tossed my stuff and then started crying. I writhed on the ground, as the pain was unbearable. The closest description of the pain is that it felt like my toe was going to explode. The other teachers gathered around me to see if I was ok. They told me I looked terrible (in a nice way) and needed to lie down (I was told later that I was so pale it was scary). I lay there as Ryan held up my foot. I cried and cried as the other teachers tried to comfort me with what my mom jokingly says, “Amputation is always an option” (I was considering…). Lorraine offered her hand for me to squeeze, but I only held onto it because I didn’t want to hurt her and I felt too tired to squeeze. The boat went back to get the second group of teachers to bring them to the island. I would have gone back on that trip, but they were worried I would pass out on the boat since I was still so pale.
When the boat returned with the other teachers, Alan and Ryan carried me out to the boat. Alan asked me if I knew any good jokes and I told him I knew a joke about this girl who hit her foot on something and it really hurt (it wasn’t really a funny joke, but yeah). Ryan and Dr. Penniecook rode back on the boat with me. I sat in one of the chairs on the boat and propped my foot up on a backpack. It was still incredibly painful, but I tried to focus on the wind in my face and repeating part of the chorus of “I’ll Fly Away” (“when I die, Hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away”…).
When the boat got back to Ebeye, Ryan and the Dr. helped me get up the stairs at the dock. I was trying to hop on one foot so I wouldn’t use my injured foot. They got a taxi and I rode to the hospital. I hopped into the ER where they put me on a bed (the one Megan was on last time). Mama Rose came to see me, saying that the pastor (her husband) told her Ryan was in the hospital. She asked why and he said that I was hurt. I was glad to have her there because it’s always better when “mom” comes. Anyway, the nurses and doctor decided to give me an anesthetic in my arm, saying that it would make me sleepy. It did make me sleepy, but I wondered the point when my foot didn’t feel any better and I couldn’t sleep because my foot was still too painful. I spent a little while in the hospital after the anesthetic because I felt too dizzy to walk anywhere. When I started feeling less dizzy, Mama Rose took me outside to get a taxi back to the apartments (all too familiar from the last trip to the hospital).
That night Dr. Penniecook took us to Litaki’s Restaurant, which is at the other end of the island. I decided to hobble my way there instead of taking a taxi for 75 cents. My foot looked alright when I left the apartment, and it definitely didn’t feel as bad as it did when I was on the other island. When I got to the restaurant, someone looked at my foot and said, “Your foot is huge!” I looked down and sure enough, it was very swollen. I tried propping my foot up on the bench across from me.

(My foot Sunday night.)

Since then, my foot has been gradually getting better. Monday was the Freshman-Junior class picnic, so I didn’t have to stand up and teach which was good. Tuesday we didn’t have class because of parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon. Wednesday I had classes and my foot was still kind of swollen, so I hobbled around the classroom. Students asked me about my foot and so I started on an incredible tale on how I had an encounter with a shark and I narrowly escaped. They didn’t believe me, but we had a good laugh. Currently, my foot looks mostly normal but it is still pretty stiff and somewhat hurts. I am hoping that this will go away so I can have full function of my foot. I am glad that I didn’t have to amputate my toe. : )

Hungry and Thirsty

Several of us have been concerned about the elementary students getting enough to eat. Many of them come to school without eating breakfast and we sometimes wonder if they are getting lunch either. The school already has a little store where they sell soup, cookies (more like cookie shaped bread with four chocolate chips on top since they are expensive), frozen ice things, and sometimes candy. The problem is that some kids cannot afford to pay 25 cents for a cup of soup. Ashlee and Lorraine were talking about getting some kind of food program for the 2nd and 3rd grades so that they could get some kind of food. We were discussing this and thought that the students would behave better if they had something in their stomachs. One student, in particular, comes to mind. He behaves poorly (in attitude and class work) at school, which is a reflection of the neglect (I was told) he gets at home. I know that we would not fix the world if we fed the kids a cup of soup per day, but I think they would feel a lot better and might be more willing to learn. The problem is money. The soup is made with rice, coconut milk, salt, seasoning, and chicken (most people are not vegetarian here), which can really add up when things on Ebeye cost sometimes 2x what they would in the U.S. We are still looking into how much it would cost to do a program like this, but we did tell Mama Rose the suggestion. She seemed to think it was a good idea.

I was thinking about my Bible classes the other day and wondering what I could do with them to help them learn. I have brought up Bibles from the library and dispersed them to the students to use during class time. One question from a junior struck me: “Miss, are these for us to take home?” I told the student that the Bible was from the library and that it needed to stay at school. The question got me thinking, though. Do these students have their own Bibles? I don’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me until recently. It seems like it should have come to me earlier. I think that all of the high school students should have their own Bibles. I know the school would like to give them Bibles, but money (again) becomes a factor. Even getting them Marshallese Bibles would be expensive. I would especially like to give Bibles to my juniors (I’m their sponsor). None of them are Adventists, but I think that giving them their own Bible could help them grow as Christians. I would love to do Bible studies with them in class and have them underline favorite verses in their own Bible. I believe that the students of our school are thirsty for the Word of God. If you know of anyone who would be willing to send Bibles to the school on Ebeye, please let me know! I would love to give out Bibles! :)
My address:
Emily Lorenz
Ebeye SDA School
P.O. Box 5070
Ebeye, MH 96970

Review week for 1st Quarter exams

This week was review week for the 1st quarter exams. I had a test for my music class on Monday, and then the rest of the week was review for my classes. As I was reviewing with the Algebra classes this week, I came to the realization (though I had noticed before) that most of them are still counting on their fingers. How can they be freshman and juniors and still be counting on their fingers? I don’t really know, but I think that is one reason why the freshman were having such a hard time with positive and negative numbers, even though I taught them how to use a number line.
I came up with a suggestion this past weekend about getting the high school students to help the elementary students with their reading. We have quite a few struggling students in all grades in the area of reading comprehension. I was thinking that getting the high school students involved with the younger students would help both groups with their reading skills and also bring the school together. Some of the seniors already tutored struggling students, but now other high school students are helping. This week the elementary classes were divided up into reading levels so that they could have tutors come from the high school for help. Each grade has their own reading class in the morning and in the afternoon they have the divided reading classes. I hope that this program will help our struggling students to improve their English and reading abilities.
Wednesday night we had our regular prayer meeting at the school. Afterwards we had a Yokwe party for people leaving Ebeye. There was a potluck and people talked about those that were leaving. A Filipino family and our school’s accountant are leaving in the next couple weeks for the Philippines. Our accountant is going to finish her training to be a CPA. As part of the Yokwe party, Mr. Batlock played the guitar and sang a Marshallese song while all of us walked around the room in a circle. I must say it was kind of weird to be walking in circles and not knowing the song they were singing. After the song finished, we each placed a dollar in the bowl in front of the people leaving. It is a farewell offering to them.
The Pastor was supposed to fly to the Philippines on Thursday to attend the meetings for the Southern Asia Pacific Division and Guam Micronesian Mission, but Continental had mechanical problems and delayed his flight 24 hours. On Friday, he went back to the airport on Kwajalein to get his flight. They rerouted him to Honolulu (about a 6 hour flight) to take a direct flight to Guam (about a 12 hour flight), and then on to the Philippines. I cannot imagine spending that much time on a plane!
After school and chapel on Friday, I went back to the apartment to finish making quarter exams. Some of Megan’s 7th grade students came and invited us to a birthday party. We followed the students as they led us to the house. As we walked past the school the students were saying something about girls from the public school fighting behind the store across the street (right by the ocean). They left Megan and I to go watch the fighting, so we waited a few minutes for them. When we got to the house the birthday boy told us to sit down at the picnic table. Agnes, a teacher’s aid at the school, gave Megan and me bottles of water. They served homemade pizza (it was amazing and greasy), ice cream, cake from Kwajalein (expensive cake), and Barbeque Lay’s chips. After we finished eating they brought out a piñata and a little boy was hitting it, which was really cute to watch. When they finally broke it open, candy and toothbrushes (yes, toothbrushes) spilled out onto the ground and the kids were scrambling to pick them up. It was interesting to be somewhat of an observer at the birthday party (and the tallest one there). Megan pointed out some of the students who didn’t eat their food but covered it to take home, saying that they most likely ate very little at home. It was interesting to see the contrast between the well-off family and the kids that were at the party. The great part is that those who have more money are usually willing to share what they have. I think that is something we could all do well to practice.

Hospital Visit

It all started Monday morning. I wasn’t feeling very hungry so I just ate a little Wheat Chex cereal. I had some leftover, so I took it for lunch with my PB&J sandwich. At staff worship I was feeling kind of blah, but it didn’t seem too odd. As my morning classes went on, though, I felt worse and worse. I finally made it to lunch and went home so that I could try to take a nap. After being unsuccessful, I went back to the school. I still had about 40 minutes left because I have a free period after lunch. I just sat in the teachers’ workroom and stared at the wall. I ate the rest of my cereal, even though I wasn’t hungry at all. I went to my last two afternoon classes and felt really exhausted. I did some teaching in Algebra 1 and I was trying to walk around the classroom to help students, but I was getting so tired. For music class I was going to play some examples on the electric keyboard, but the plug-ins weren’t working and when I finally tried one that worked, I was too frustrated to play anymore and so I had the students copy the information on the board. After the class was over I went down to the library to talk to Mama Rose about not feeling well. She told me to just go home and sleep. I got my things and went home, took a shower, and tried to sleep. I kept tossing and turning but I think I fell asleep. Around 5 pm Megan made supper for the other girls. They offered me some, but I still did not feel like eating. I tried to keep sleeping and drinking some water. I was feeling very warm in my bed and the thought finally occurred to me (after seeing Megan bundled up in jacket and pants from cold sweats) that I might have had a fever all day. The girls turned off the AC so Megan wouldn’t be cold, but I was burning up. I took some ibuprofen and that seemed to help break the fever, but I still felt really warm. I got up for a while and sat in the “living/dining room”. I was mostly staring at the cabinet island in the middle of the room. I finally went back to bed.
Around midnight, the vomiting began. Midnight, 1 AM, and close to 6 AM I got up to go to the bathroom. I had pretty much nothing in my stomach except for activated charcoal (disgusting coming up…). They had told Megan and I that if we didn’t feel good in the morning, they would find someone to take over our classes. Obviously, we weren’t going to school. Mama Rose came to our apartment and told us that she was taking us to the hospital. We weren’t too excited, but we packed up some things and got ready to go. Megan went out to the taxi first, but I started to feel like vomiting again. Fortunately, that was the last time I vomited. When we got to the hospital around 9 AM, Mama Rose took us to the ER where they put us on beds and started IV drips and took blood samples (Yay for letting IRR majors at Union practice their sticks on me!). Then they asked for a stool sample. First of all, Megan and I both had diarrhea (which is disgusting…). Second of all, the bathroom was disgusting. It looked like someone had taken a stool sample and wiped their fingers on the wall, and someone else had spurted blood on the wall (yeah, pretty gross). Anyways, they took our “stool” to get tested for things and we stayed in bed. Mama Rose stayed with us for a while and then Ryan came. While he was there we got some Gatorade, which was nice. Lunch came when he was there too. I took one look at the food and wanted to vomit, so I told Ryan he should eat it. After a while a nurse came and told me that if I didn’t eat something, I couldn’t go home. I understood, but I was not about to eat something that made me feel sick to look at (it might not have looked bad ordinarily, but I wasn’t hungry in the first place). When Ryan left, Lisa (the school secretary) came. After six hours of observations, they decided to admit us, so at 3 PM they took us in wheel chairs to a different room, which we shared with three Marshallese women. I took the bed by the wall and Megan took the bed next to me. They set up our IV stands and we were set to go. They told us they needed urine samples, so we got those (much better bathroom). The Marshallese women laughed at me because my IV stand wouldn’t roll very well so I had to carry it. I had to laugh too, because I thought it was pretty funny. Laying in my bed I looked at the walls and ceiling and saw many cockroach nymphs crawling. I was afraid of sleeping at the hospital. At supper, I ate corn and two scoops of rice and that was it. Megan and I tried to sleep, but the nurses kept coming and asking us when the last time was that we had a bowel movement or urinated (Nurses: just let your patients sleep!!! They’d get better faster…). Just when I was actually sleeping on my very springy and poking mattress, they would come back. Now, if my mom was the nurse, I probably wouldn’t be so annoyed, but some of the Filipino (most of the workers at the hospital are Filipino because they are educated) nurses weren’t as nice.
As with Tuesday, we had rotations of people to watch us on Wednesday. By far the best person on the rotation was Mama Rose because she is like a mom, which is really nice. We spent our day getting IV drips and going to the bathroom. They refilled my IV and then Megan’s ran out and she got her IV out. I was sad that they refilled mine, but Megan got her IV out. Mama Rose said that when she was in the hospital for having her kids that she had turned up her IV when the nurses weren’t in the room. I turned up my IV a little, and it made me happy when I finally got my “ball and chain” disconnected (although when Megan had her IV taken off, I got her stand which actually rolled). They let us go home around 3:30 PM with some meds, and we were very glad to leave. It was raining when the taxi pulled up to the house so we tried to hurry.
We still didn’t feel very well on Thursday, so we stayed home. I felt light-headed/headache most of the day so it was good I didn’t try to teach. By the end of Thursday Megan and I were feeling well enough to try going to school on Friday. We were feeling alright for the first bit, but then we were feeling nauseous and light-headed. We both went home at lunch time and took naps. A bit later we decided to make chocolate chip cookies to eat with our pills so we wouldn’t feel so nauseous taking them. They were yummy. We felt a little better after having naps, so we went to vespers.
Currently, I still do not feel hungry. I haven’t felt hungry since Sunday. I am hoping that when I finish the medicine I will start to feel hungry again when I need to eat. I have just been eating because I need to.


---I want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who were praying for me and thinking of me. God definitely answers prayers!---