I’m terrible at this blogging thing….

Well….I’m afraid to look up my last post. I think it was a very long time ago.

We are doing well here. It’s finally February and that is super exciting. I think I will miss those Feb. holidays though. Apparently, Palau doesn’t celebrate President’s day:)

It is the weekend here. Weekends are the best just because that means I’m not at PMA! PMA is not my favorite place in Palau. I think my favorite place is the beach…..or anywhere where we can go and pretend to be a tourist.

Tonight Jesse took me on a date. We went to a place called Little Italy. It is more expensive Macaroni Grill I guess….without the good bread. But, I like it because it feels like a restaurant you would find in the states. And, I miss the states. We are looking into the possibility of going to Guam or even Ebeye over spring break. I’m pushing Guam because they have K-mart and Taco Bell. But, it would be really fun to see where Jesse was when he was an SM. So, we are going to compare airline prices to help us decide.

Being in the states of Christmas with the family was amazing! Hopefully you’ve seen some of the pics from that. I’m excited for summer too because we get to go back to Hawaii again. My homesickness comes in waves. This week has been a good week.

Having Daisy really helps with the homesickness. It is so nice to come home to a smiling puppy everyday. A dog’s love is so unconditional. It is the best feeling. I really believe she is a blessing sent from above. She makes life easier here.

There are many challenges….but that is for another time. This blog is just to let you know that I’m still here. I’m just busy….and not a great blogger. So sorry yall. Miss everyone TONS and TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yes, I’m going to get better at taking more pics too. But, for today….this is what you get.

Prayers.

A New Pastor

So the new pastor is arriving tonight at 11:50pm. Clearly, we will be among those missing from the welcoming party. If there wasn’t work tomorrow and/or it wasn’t so (oh so very) late I would have decided to go. It’s kind of a big deal because the Koror Seventh-day Adventist Church has been without a pastor for well over a year.

There have been many times that I keep thinking , “Yeah… that’s one of the problems here in Palau, but when the pastor comes it’ll be different.” I keep pinning all my hopes on this guy that’s coming to Palau from the faraway land called Texas. I know some things will change for the better, but it will all take time. Pray for us here in Palau, but especially for the new pastor, the church here has been waiting for him for quite awhile.

The Blackout

“When ideas are blocked, information deleted, conversations stifled and people constrained in their choices, the Internet is diminished for all of us.. There isn’t an economic Internet and a social Internet and a political Internet. There’s just the Internet.”
– Hillary Clinton (United States Secretary of State)

She was talking about the way the Internet is regulated in many other countries, but if certain legislation is passed through congress the statement would apply to the US.

I wish I could watch this video, but our connection here in Palau is just too slow.  Oh well, at least I can share it.

 

Mele Kalikimaka

Photos from a SCUBA Trip with Sam’s Tours

Ngchesar Waterfall

The school staff had a trip to this waterfall. It was super fun. Our dog Daisy really enjoyed climbing around the rocks and swimming in the water. We went on a walk down the stream with Victor and his puppy Neveah.
Enjoy some pictures.

Is this the end…?

Could this really be the end of the Palau Power Crisis of 2011?!?!?
For the last five nights we have not lost power here in Koror for more than ten minutes. Actually, it may not have even been five minutes. Of course, we have not heard anything official, but we have heard that a temporary-backup generator is currently solving the immediate problem of power in the city. Unfortunately for Hailey this generator cannot provide power for everywhere, so Palau Mission Academy and the rest of Airai state, or at least most of it, will continue to lose power at what currently seems to be random times. In fact, they had no power for most of the morning earlier today. They are pretty used to it. But it is exam week so it was extra hard on everyone, the students especially.
Most importantly for us is that we should now have power when it is time to sleep and time call home.

Daisy @ the dog show!

This gallery contains 17 photos.

The Palau Power Shortage of 2011 more info

We got more information today about the utilities situation here.

The office received a few different schedules, that kept getting revised throughout the day, but the times below were taken from the last one that was labeled FINAL. So during the times below we will be without electricity or water…until further notice…

POWER will be turned OFF in areas including our schools:

From 9:00 PM to 12:00 AM (midnight) in some areas of Koror (which include SDA Elementary and Koror SDA church)
From 2:00 PM to 6:00PM at PMA (and the surrounding area of Airai State)

WATER will be OFF (pretty much everywhere) from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM

…AND…

from 12:00 AM (midnight) to 5:00 AM

It won’t be too bad. But, we will see how hot it gets when we are trying to fall asleep tonight.

The Palau Power Shortage of 2011

So… the next few weeks to few months may be pretty tough.

It all started last night when one of the main generators at the power plant caught on fire. We had heard about the fire because the girls were going to have a Fall-food night at the house of one of the permanent residents that is from the US. When they got the the house there was no power. So they headed back to our apartments. Once they got back they found that the water was not working here. (Us guys were having our own game night up in the computer lab)

Shortly after waking up this morning our power went out, AND our water was off and then back on and then back off throughout the day. It turns out that the generator will need to be worked on for awhile and there will be some kind of schedule for when we have power and/or water or not. When ours is on other places will have it turned off.

When we know more for certain, we will let you know as well.