The past two weeks here have been very action packed and full of surprises. I started teaching last week. So far I have given a diagnostic test to my students and realized that they are at a much lower level than I initially imagined. Negative numbers and fraction are a serious problem. Most of their former teachers did not stress these at all and encouraged the students to use calculators. Unfortunately some students are having trouble with addition and subtraction. Today in class I told them not that they can't use calculators all year and they could not believe it. Pretty crazy. But, everything is going well. I'm doing my best to plan to teach them through the beginning of Algebra II. So...I have a long way to go.
Last weekend was one of the most awesome weekends I've had here. I hiked up to a waterfall in Nett. It was about a 1.5 hour hike and it was well worth it. It was unreal. When we arrived we hiked down to the bottom of the falls.
It was beautiful. After the whole group of us swam in the lower part of the waterfall we climbed up to the top where there was a large pool with a cliff.
If you know me at all.. you probably know what I did.
The waterfall hike was on Saturday. On Sunday I was able to go to Nahlap Island to supervise a childrens surf camp sponsored by Pohnpei Surf Club. Nahlap Island is one of the small outer islands. In order to get a free trip to this island I had to swim around the kids when they were surfing. It was a pretty sweet deal. I did not realize that they get some pretty large waves beyond the reef at Nahlap. When I was swimming around I found myself dodging waves that were bigger than anything that I've ever seen back in New Jersey.
I was also able to do some snorkeling on part of the outer reef. It was probably the best snorkeling I've ever done. Even better than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was able to swim around with a reef shark that was about 4 feet long. It was really awesome being in the water with a shark. Don't worry Mom..the reef sharks are very docile.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at Nahlap taking a nap in a hammock and hanging out with the rest of the volunteers.
This weekend I will be taking a trip out to another outer island called Black Coral. I will be spending Saturday night there. I should have some really nice pictures to put up for next week.
That's it for now.
Tyler
keep the pictures comin! they are awesome. Sounds like you are doing super well. I love the stories! how big were these waves you speak of? and dare I ask how high the cliff was that you jumped from? Miss you ty-lo! stay safe.
ReplyDeleteHey Rallo,
ReplyDeleteThe waves were like 20 feet tall. It was insane. I almost got thrown onto some of the coral. I had flippers on which made me able to swim fast enough to avoid getting thrown onto the coral. Also, the cliff was probably like 25 feet. I jumped off another one this weekend and I have a video of it. I will try to upload it sometime to show everyone. Talk to you soon.
Tyler