I Have Found My Purpose Here.
So I have been in Palau for 14 days. I know I said I wouldn't go online for 3-4 weeks but honestly one week in Palau serves as a year of new knowledge, and I don't want to leave anything out. We landed here on August 6th at 8:20 pm. When we got into the airport I was greeted by my adopted "Palauan" family. My Palauan mother and sister are extremely kind and they gave me a basket of food to start off with until I was able to go grocery shopping. The humidity slapped me in the face like nothing i'd ever experienced before and since it was night when we arrived and there are no city lights to show the land we drove to our campus in wonder of what our new home really looked like. The first night was definitely the hardest, I asked my roommate Jessica if she didn't mind leaving the lights on while we slept because I have trouble falling asleep in new places (We continued to sleep with the lights on for the first week until I realized I was being a baby and I needed to turn them off). When I woke the next morning I looked through the window of my room and realized that we live in a tropical forest. I have never seen so much of the color green in one place before.
The first week in Palau was nothing other than work. We toured the both campuses (we live on the high school campus but I work on the elementary campus which is about 25 minutes into town) and prepared our classrooms, created lesson plans and anxiously awaited the first day of school. For anyone who is a teacher and to all of my teachers from pre-school until the last quarter of college let me just say a huge THANKYOU and I AM SORRY. I had never known how much work it takes to be a teacher. I never understood how teachers stay up late grading papers and making lesson plans and etc. etc. etc. I have discovered a new found love and admiration for teachers and becoming one myself in the matter of two weeks of training has opened my eyes so greatly.
On the first day of school we all felt nervous and terrified to even to wake up. The mixture of excitement and fear rolled into a huge knot in most of our stomachs. For me personally, all nerves went away the second I saw these kids. I am in love. With their smiles, their hugs, the funny comments, the way they converse with one another and the way they made me feel loved from the moment I met them. I found my purpose here. Last night I talked with a fellow missionary about how I can imagine how heart broken I will be when I have to leave them. Then I stopped and thought, "This is what these kids do every year. Every year they get a new teacher who they become attached to and every year that teacher leaves." and my heart ached. But what can I do? I can simply wake up each morning and come into my classroom and hope to make at least one child smile. I can simply memorize them by their name because knowing their name means so much to them. I can simply make time to get to know them, and laugh with them and I can simply love them. That's what these kids deserve, they deserve love. That is why I am here. To love these kids with my whole heart.
I can say so much more about Palau, about the culture difference and all the ways island life differs from city life, but I will save that for another post. Until then.
Blessings From Palau
Lysa
The first week in Palau was nothing other than work. We toured the both campuses (we live on the high school campus but I work on the elementary campus which is about 25 minutes into town) and prepared our classrooms, created lesson plans and anxiously awaited the first day of school. For anyone who is a teacher and to all of my teachers from pre-school until the last quarter of college let me just say a huge THANKYOU and I AM SORRY. I had never known how much work it takes to be a teacher. I never understood how teachers stay up late grading papers and making lesson plans and etc. etc. etc. I have discovered a new found love and admiration for teachers and becoming one myself in the matter of two weeks of training has opened my eyes so greatly.
On the first day of school we all felt nervous and terrified to even to wake up. The mixture of excitement and fear rolled into a huge knot in most of our stomachs. For me personally, all nerves went away the second I saw these kids. I am in love. With their smiles, their hugs, the funny comments, the way they converse with one another and the way they made me feel loved from the moment I met them. I found my purpose here. Last night I talked with a fellow missionary about how I can imagine how heart broken I will be when I have to leave them. Then I stopped and thought, "This is what these kids do every year. Every year they get a new teacher who they become attached to and every year that teacher leaves." and my heart ached. But what can I do? I can simply wake up each morning and come into my classroom and hope to make at least one child smile. I can simply memorize them by their name because knowing their name means so much to them. I can simply make time to get to know them, and laugh with them and I can simply love them. That's what these kids deserve, they deserve love. That is why I am here. To love these kids with my whole heart.
I can say so much more about Palau, about the culture difference and all the ways island life differs from city life, but I will save that for another post. Until then.
Blessings From Palau
Lysa