Greetings!!!
Already the middle of March! Time is flying for sure. Mrs. Joseph took me to their version of a department store called DAR for some fabric. I got some pretty red fabric for an Island style dress. Mrs. Joseph is the secretary. Her mother-in-law is making my dress. She has made me several dresses already. Then, we stopped at my first handicraft shop. It was really neat. I found a hair flower and matching earrings that will go perfect with the new red Island dress I'm getting! I enjoyed looking at everything and getting ideas for another visit. I bought many souvenirs to ship back. 

I am working on some emails to parents now. I have a couple of students that will not be promoted to 7th grade completely due to absences. After 25 absences in a year...excused or unexcused...a student will be repeating and not be promoted.  Not only that, but every 5th tardy results in a day absent. This is where many of the limits have been reached, in being tardy. I have one student that will not be promoted, that has one of the highest GPA's in the class. Believe it or not, I have some students that have over 90 tardies for the year!!! So, that is 18 days absent just from being tardy. The crazy thing is, her mom works at Marshall Island High School as a teacher! So, that means she is also late to work. The stardard in public education here is low. Even in our school one of the hardest things to deal with is the child is in charge. Whatever the child wants, the parents do. If they "don't feel good" or just don't feel like coming to school, the parents will let them stay home. And it can be ALL the time. The most current Minister of Education is trying to bring the standard up in education in the Marshall Islands, so many people are going to be shocked that things are not what they expect. I have another student that has missed over 30 days in actual absences, plus tardies. This girl was on facebook and playing volleyball and in the ocean most of the days she was out of school. One time, she missed over a week at one time. No contact from parents...no request for make-up work. We started calling at day 3 of being absent. No response. Apparently, grandma is part of the royal family, and mom and dad were thinking that we wouldn't hold their child back. For one thing, though, the principal~Mr. Buck~is not Marshallese. Another thing, we do not play favorites or give certain people special treatment based on who they are. I think some people do not think we are serious. But it will take one or two not being promoted for everyone else to see that we mean business! Plus, when they are out, if there is no note, or a legitimate reason for being out, the student is not allowed to make up work and receives a zero for any tests/quizzes that were missed. I have really started enforcing that one since I do not usually get notes of any sort...so, if they miss and have no excuse from dr or parents, they receive a zero for missed tests/quizzes. It only takes one or two to totally mess up their grades. But they have been warned. I do see more notes, though. 

Please pray for safety and traveling mercies, as Pastor Lang and his wife, Belinda, return from a trip to Guam...for a missions conference and Chuuk, visiting Mrs. Lang's family. They will be returning tomorrow evening. Talking about traveling. I will be Georgia bound June 3, and I will make it to Atlanta June 4. Then, at the end of June, I will return to Pensacola Christian College to work on some courses towards my Master's Degree. I should finish next summer. 

Well, that has been my day. Hope all is doing well. And thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it! 
Until next time, 
Sarah
 

Greetings Everyone!
It's already March! Hard to believe there are only a few more months. I am going to be slowly packing and sending things back...at least stuff that is not needed as the time arrives for me to head home. The two boxes today were mostly books and cards...but in one box it has one of the handicraft hand fans and some coconut candy...for my family to try. It's pretty yummy. Soon, I may begin to send some of the clothing items I haven't worn for a while...just to start getting things out of the way. 

Back at the beginning of February, the school had their first health fair. It went well for the first one. They had booths set up from dental people to CPR. The classes that were scheduled to visit the booths after lunch did not have a lot to look at, as some of the places left. Even after Mrs. Buck asked them if they realized it was an all day event...which they replied they did know that, they were just ready to leave. And yes, that is how it is here on the island. If someone doesn't want to show up to work one day, that is OK. I mean, it isn't like that here at the school but other places seem to allow it. Anyway, they had the medical students from the college here to do weight, glucose testing, and blood pressure. They had invited parents, church members, and neighborhood people in addition to the students to enjoy this new activity. The Bucks felt it was needed to help raise awareness for diabetes and high blood pressure, among other things, that is very prevalent here on the island.  The teachers were encouraged to have glucose and blood pressure checked. Mine was normal. No worries there. They also had a couple of healthy cooking demonstrations. Considering that most meals here are accompanied with a large serving of rice, poor diets are here. They were even able to get some of the businesses to donate bottled water/juice and either cans of fruit or fresh fruit for the students to enjoy as a snack that day. The Buck's son has returned to the states, but he continues to have fund raisers to help the school. One being that he as able to get several bottles of children's chewable vitamins donated. They knew that just giving the students one or two vitamins would not do any good. So, they figured it out and decided to allow 3 different grades--3rd, 4th, and 6th grade--to give each student a daily vitamin...and they had enough that we will give them the vitamins for about 3 months. I thought that was a good idea.  It was a good experience, and I'm sure they will do it again. 

Another activity that has taken place recently was the Friendship Banquet. It is only for 9-12 grade students. The students are put into "couples" in which that is who they will attend the banquet with. It is a night of friendship, fellowship, and fancy dressing up. This year's colors were purple and silver. So, every couple would dress in fancy matching clothes...yes, the couples are guy/girl pairs. They were all very fancy. Most students' outfits were sewn by family and friends. They have a devotion time, songs, testimonies, and of course...FOOD, which is served by the staff. At the end of the night, we did have an uninvited guest show up...a mouse! Yikes! Girls and guys alike were screaming and sitting on tables. The banquet lasted until about midnight. Then, there was cleaning up. After that, we waited for parents to get the kids...and it was sprinkling somewhat that evening. I even had a dress made for the occasion. In fact, two were made. We went to one fabric store and nothing jumped out at me. So, we went to another place...and I found one that would do the job...and I liked it well enough. So, I got it. Then we went to one other place...and the fabric jumped out at me! So, I got it too. It's the school secretary's mother-in-law that makes the dresses. All that I needed was another dress for the size and stuff. So, she made dresses out of both materials! Luckily, purple is my favorite color, so no worries in me not wearing them!

Anyway, I guess I will be calling it a night. Hope everyone has an enjoyable and safe weekend...as tomorrow is my Sunday here. My weekend is just about over! That is OK...it's been a good and restful weekend!

Thanks for reading!
Sarah