When the unexpected happens, God has your back.

I woke up Sabbath morning with a terrible ache in my jaw. It was almost like how my wisdom teeth ached before I had them removed. After a quick look in the mirror I passed it off as nothing more than an irritated gum probably caused by a popcorn kernel.

Three days passed... After three days of not being able to eat or swallow anything without this dull ache I knew it was time to stop procrastinating. I had a nagging feeling that I should take a trip to the SDA Dental Clinic. "Convenient!" I thought to myself. This is probably the one location I could have chosen to come that has a state of the art dental clinic just a mile down the road from where I work. By now I knew that whatever was going on was probably more serious than a popcorn kernel. I just didn't know how serious until I sat down in the dentists chair.

The hygienist took a quick look and then brought over two of the dentists. They took two x-rays of my jaw. As soon as the results were out I sat helplessly in my chair while the two dentists, Dr. Berglund and Dr. Creed, began making comments about how "strange" it (the x-ray) was and how I would be needing antibiotics. It was around this time that it dawned on me that numbing agents, shots, and gauze were in my immediate future. Dr. Creed made an incision and drained the fluid that had built up. Then they broke the news to me.

About a year ago when my wisdom teeth were taken out, the dentist also accidentally removed the bone that separates your gums from your maxillary sinus. The infection in my gum was a result of the absence of this bone. Is this "TMI"? Haha well anyways, although Dr. Creed has taken care of the issue for the present, I will most likely have to deal with reoccurring infections unless I have a bone graft.

The silver lining in this is that a periodontist is coming to visit the dental clinic the first week of November! If I remember correctly, the periodontist only visits once or twice a year. Talk about great timing. November 7th is my consultation for surgery. I would be bummed and a bit scared about the whole thing, but all I can think about is how God had my back with all this.

So that's this weeks adventures. Stay tuned for part two.... the surgery!
"Da da da dum!"  :)

A Typical Day

Mornings:        On a typical morning I wake up around 6am. I have devotions and make breakfast, and am usually out the door by 7:15. Staff Worship is at 7:20. The office opens at 7:30, and by 7:40 I am diving into the days tasks. There are two blessings I enjoy daily: air conditioning in the office, and a never ending variety of jobs. Much of what I do is online, be it updating our school facebook page, website, or designing new posters and brochures. Every other Friday I design/publish a newsletter for the school. (Below is a link to one of October's newsletters.) This month I am tackling two fundraisers and the compilation of our school yearbook.

October's Newsletter

Afternoons:        By lunch time I am ready for a break from sitting in front of a computer. On rainy days I like to escape to the CDC classrooms and play with the kids. It doesn't take much to entertain them, and picking them up and spinning them around is a really great arm workout. On sunny days I like to stand in the sunshine! The weather on Saipan has (Praise the Lord) started to cool down. Lately weather is in the mid 80's and humidity is down to the mid 80's as well.

Evenings:           Around 4:30 we close the shutters to the office and have what we fondly call "office spa time." Office hours are over and it is time to visit. Some days everyone is busy and running off to get errands done. Other days many of the teachers join us. On Mondays and Wednesdays my roommate and I teach at Dream Academy, so by 5pm we are already up the three flights of stairs to the Dream Academy classrooms.

Days end:          At the end of the day my roommate and I come home, prepare our lunches for the next day, and then sit down on the two big chairs in our living room and take a moment to exhale. I love this part of the day. Time to write and reflect, time to plan for the next day, and time to just be.

So there you have it! A typical day for the student missionaries on Saipan.  

Foooooooood!

     Some have asked me about the food here on Saipan. The food is delicious. Potlucks at Central Church are practically the best thing that happens all week. During the week when we aren't trying out some of the local restaurants, my roommate and I are perfecting our culinary talents. We are very fortunate here, because it is a huge blessing to have fresh local produce available at affordable prices on the islands. One of the best places I know of to buy good produce is the San Jose market. Right down the road from the school, their produce is cheap, and as a little bonus they put this cheery greeting on their labels! Keep in mind, English is the business owners second language. Carrots, green beans, cabbage, cucumbers, tofu, potatoes, garlic, honeydew melons and more. About two weeks ago I made the decision to become a vegetarian. If I took San Jose's for granted before, I certainly don't now! 

Left to right: Teachers Enmanuel Alberto & Carolyn Benner

      In addition to what we get in the stores, my roommate and I also get our produce at the school. Below are pictures of several kinds of fruits that are in season right now. Bananas, coconuts, starfruit, and soon, papayas! I have never tasted better fruit. I did not used to like coconut, but now I am considering buying a machete just so I can enjoy them more.

       One of the exciting developments happening at our school right now is the start of a huge garden. Mr. Alberto (pictured to the left) is the head of this gardening project and has been hard at work composting and tending the soil in preparation  for all the vegetables we plan to plant. Unfortunately there is no fence around our school, so wild dogs and the chickens that our neighbors own have been destroying the raised beds and the first few seeds we planted. Next job for the Public Relations Assistant - promote a fence building fundraiser!

Almost ready to pick - a whole bunch of bananas

Fresh cut coconut - delicious!

The Child Development Center

        The Child Development Center at the Saipan Seventh-day Adventist School is separated into three classrooms and three age groups. The toddler room, preschool room, and pre-kindergarten room have two teachers in each room, and each year enrollment is completely full. Our school has a very good reputation for the quality care the kids get in the CDC. As any student missionary is aware of, working at a school requires that you be flexible. "You will be asked to do more than what is in your job description," I was told before I left Walla Walla. Hearing that prepared me for working here at Saipan. There are many occasions when an extra pair of hands are needed to do a variety of jobs. I find that I enjoy the variety! When I am tired of working in front of a computer there are always other outlets where I can be useful. 

One of my favorites is subbing for the teachers in the CDC. After working there, I am a firm believer that people need at least eight hugs a day. These children are so sweet and so loving! It took them only a couple visits before they warmed up to me, and now when I enter the classrooms I am greeted with several hugs and children calling out "Teacher, Teacher!" If that doesn't completely melt a heart, I don't know what does.

One will learn a lot about taking care of young children from working here. One of the first things I learned is that sugar in any quantity and any form is enough to send all 16 of them bouncing off the walls. I've decided that they can multiply the energy and share it among themselves. It's too bad they don't share their energy with their teachers. Mom, if you are reading this, thank you for putting up with two rambunctious twins! Nap time always follows lunch time, and I haven't yet decided if this is a grand idea or a terrible one. The kids are usually so hyper afterwards that it takes no small amount of convincing to keep them on their own mats. Nap time lasts two and a half hours, and by the end of those two and a half hours of monitoring the classroom I am about ready to take a nap myself.  

          The other day when I entered the preschool classroom to give one of the teachers a message from the office, I was invited to sit down and take a couple pictures with them. The minute I sat down, several kids crawled into my lap with their books and posed. It is moments like this that make me stop and realize just how fast the year is flying by, and just how much I enjoy my job.     

         

Dream Academy

About a mile down the road from my apartment there is a tutoring center called Dream Academy. The business is operated by a Korean pastor and his wife, and there tutors are paid $10 an hour to teach students Math and English. To a poor missionary ambitious on traveling a bit, this job held a lot of appeal, especially considering that the minimum wage on Saipan is barely over $5.00 per hour. It was quite fortuitous that the Principal I work under is friends with the owners and was able to schedule me an interview.

The interview:
Mrs. Lee: "You are Faith?"
Myself: "Yes, yes and I am student missionary from the states."
Mrs. Lee: "What can you teach, and when can you start?"

That was it. I had the job, and two students. I would be teaching 4th and 6th grade math two nights a week. Mrs. Lee tried to convince me to teach high school math, but considering that I barely made it through PreCalc in college I had to politely refuse. Several times. It seems they run short on "qualified teachers."

This was exciting - I actually get to do a little teaching during my mission year! I began planning curriculum. What do 4th graders work on in math? Oh. Fractions. Not my favorite, but I will survive. How about the 6th grade? Oh. Equations. Little bit better, but I am quite rusty.

We hemmed and hawed around for several weeks with exponents, negative numbers and other basic stuff. Then one evening during tutoring my students specifically requested to learn fractions and equations. "This is it," I thought to myself. "They are going to call me a fraud and demand a new tutor. I am no math teacher! What am I doing?" I promised that the next tutoring session we had, we would learn all about both. (I said "we" literally meaning all three of us.)

Monday evening came and I was ready. I had my worksheets printed out and was strategizing how I could help them solve some of these problems with a calculator without them knowing. It wasn't until I was half way through introducing the material that something clicked. I wasn't looking at my notes anymore. Every other question they needed help on, so I worked the problem out on the white board with them, prompting them through each step. I began to recall rules and tips that I had not thought about for what seemed an age.

An hour and a half never flew by so fast. I was really excited to tell Carolyn, my housemate, all about my exciting new discovery on our drive home. I really like teaching math!

Pilot

On an island that is twelve miles long and roughly six miles wide, one might at first think that there isn't a lot to do. At first. But take some time to scope out the place and get to know the locals, and suddenly you won't be thinking about the fact that you are only 500 km from the deepest spot in the ocean. You'll be too busy trying to discover how your church members make bananas taste like heaven in a deep fried wrap.

I have been living on Saipan for 2 1/2 months now and I can say with confidence that I have yet to experience any genuine "boredom." Is there even such a thing? Since the day (or should I say night) I arrived on Saipan and was embraced with 90% humidity and a gracious welcoming committee my perspective on life has changed. Culture. Wealth. Food. Clothing. Community. Time. I don't think I will ever look at any of these things the same... and I can't say as I'd want to.

I will have more time later to share what I know about "island time," rant about wasteful american habits and discuss the fine art of opening a coconut. Right now lets move ahead 2 1/2 months into the story.

Banzai Cliffs are one of the more frequented tourist attractions on Saipan. I had been to Banzai three times. Once during the day to see the cliffs themselves, and the memorials that were erected in honor of the Japanese soldiers and civilians who died there. Two other times I had driven there with fellow missionary friends to star gaze.

If you are looking for an average place to star gaze, visit Banzai when the moon is full. You can't see much but at least the moon looks pretty on the water. If you are looking for an absolutely downright knock-your-socks-off place to star gaze, visit Banzai cliff during a new moon. I have never seen so many stars in my life. The milky way was so vivid it competed with the photos taken by Hubble. I could not pick out a single constellation, there were too many to look at and taking it all in was both breath-taking and awe inspiring. Amazing what you can fit in on a weeknight.

Sorry! No pictures :) I was too busy enjoying the view.

Thanks for watching my video! I hope you enjoyed it... and Hafa Adai! Welcome to the CNMI.