El Nido - Tour A

We had decided to embark on an island hopping tour via our “resort” in El Nido called the Four Seasons Resort. I’ll get to the resort later, but for now the tour will do.








We meandered through the resort’s mud flats to our sturdy boncha boat, pronounced BONKA, but the CH makes it sound a little more chic. There were two guides that made us feel as though we were back in our prime guiding the Dead, Kennebec, and Nob. Like the other guides we worked with, these guys were all of 20 yrs. old and bullet proof. Quick to smile, we got one of their names, Jollifer. He was the expert snorkler and often got in the water with us. The other smiley, made sure that our lunches were safe and no one was going to take our towels.



We first explored the aptly named, “Small Lagoon”. In case you are wondering as we did, what constitutes a lagoon from anything else: a body of water cut off from a larger body by a reef of sand, rock or coral. We could see that at lower tides it would be cut off and higher tides, get replenished with salt water from the ocean. We were the second team to arrive at this pit stop of the island hopping races of boncha boats. We were very impressed with the high walls of limestone that had been weathered by thousands of years of the elements.






We found one underwater archway to swim through (or under?) and another cave that opened up to a cavern. It was really beautiful and for someone who isn’t that excited to go underwater, it was worth everything second of anxiety I suffered to see what was on the other side.



It was amazing scenery under the water as well. The life that was been shared was unique and everything you would hope to find in the tropics from coral, shellfish, and fish. Some fish were braver and more inquisitive than others, so close up were available at times. Other times, throwing a piece of bread or some rice gathered up the needed courage to get closer to us. I felt a little bad about offering these foods high in Carb’s when that probably isn’t in their natural diet…they didn’t seem to mind the splurge and indulgence.



We proceeded to Big Lagoon, Hidden Lagoon, and other tricky named places including Commando Beach, which luckily did not live up to its name in military or other implied meanings of apparel (or lack there of). We were out for about 6 hours in total.




Had a wonderful lunch at Secret Beach. The boys got a fire going and prepped a protein packed lunch of fish, chicken, and porkchops. The packed some rice that was cooked three days ago and better for snowballs and fishfood as later proved. It was a gorgeous, right on the beach, hardly anyone around, and the weather was perfect, partly sunny and a slight breeze….ahhh!


We visited a few more treasures of landscape above and below the water line and headed back to the resort. As part of our package, we got this fried banana plate delivered to our room about 30 minutes upon our arrival. Nice touch!



That evening, we ventured out to a recommended restobar called Ric Sons. It had live music that was great, though a little deafening was good selections and good performing. We got great squid for Kirst, a spicey cheesie calamari…how can you go wrong? I got the crispy fried noodle seafood which was quite good as well. This place proved to be one of the best, if not the best, place to eat that we found.




We were pooped after that, got three 1.5 Liters of water and a package of Oreo’s, hailed a trike for 50 Pesos (a little over a buck) and went back. We watched some Christmas specials from the 70’s or 80’s and passed out like babies.



Great day! I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Palawan Day 2 - The Road less traveled by water buffalo's...

So as my bride foreshadowed, we embarked on our next little known adventure to the promise lands of El Nido, "The North", for you non-espanol speakers. The van with 9 original seats (and five welded additionally that would fit our cousin Jack or Hannah very well but intended by the shuttle company for adults, but I digress...) shows up amidst the deluge at our eccentric little inn. They throw our luggage into the odd spaces throughout the van in between other random tourists and take us to places unknown but the driver and his 14 year old helper.




We arrive at a rooster infested car port area to reload luggage to the roof while ever so carefully being dropped in the mud and chucked up top to the teenager who wraps all meticulously in the remnants of a tarp and 30 meters of twine that has been tested to incur 2 lbs. of pressure before exceeding its tinsel. How proud he was of his fine job! He even earned a smoke from his approving boss and a smile!







Kirst and I were really smart...and a bit lucky to ride in front so we could see the onslaught of what was to come. With our backpacks and water bottles placed in strategic locations to lock us in, we readied ourselves for the roller coaster, I mean van ride, up to El Nido. We were surrounded by "the sniffler"...who wouldn't accept tissues from anyone and would prefer to push the phlegm back and forth as opposed to remove it from his system; the driver who at one point asked DT if he wanted to drive after shaking his head to stay awake; and the human saw mill that obviously stayed awake all last night to enjoy the serenity we experienced.

I will be posting some fun videos of the ride on FLickr, there's a link at the homepage of our blog, if you'd like to "feel" the fun we had.

We made it to our first pitstop in a time that seemed more like virtual time travel of minutes, really took three hours. We stopped at a local seaside venue that some local jewelry vendors may have seen white folk before and met us at our van door awaiting our taste in bracelets and rings to be met with our wallets. We unfortunately had packed the cash too far away and tried to explain ourselves without much dignity...well I did anyways, Kirsten was much more benevolent than I.

We then hopped back in much to our butts chagrin and got settled for more snoring, sniffling and side to side head bobbing! Not more than three minutes, we embraced the local flair of driving....dirt roads! Now this gave us the complete experience. Our driver probably believes in God, he definitely believes in efficiency, he believes in smiling all the time. However, he does not believe in evasive action of pot holes. He tried numerous times to argue with the laws of gravity and go with Newtons first law of motion...a body in motion stays that way, even when met with a diagonal slope or vertical obstacle.

We only ran over one dog, we think only one, along our way through several villages. It seemed that the brakes just wouldn't, or couldn't, work and the only mechanism other than the gas and steering wheel that worked was the horn; trust me, this is good news. We enjoyed the remainder of the rain forrest that we saw, striking views of the coast, and most importantly planting our feet on the ground free of worry or tensing in our stomachs.

All and all, we can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

Palawan, El Nido

Okay so we will put pictures up but this is where we are at this winter vacation.
Doug and I have traveled from Subic Bay to Manila by our car...that we call Lady Liberty (representing our freedom) to Manila on the 19th. We then took a flight from Manila to an Island off the west coast of the "mainland" called Palawan. Here are a few things you need to know about this island. There are not huge resorts here and if you look this place up and see there is a huge resort, that my friend is a lie. The resort would be a huts. Kind of...with rooms with fans, rooms with aircon. We opted to pay more and stay in a room with aircon. (side note we are not staying in anythign that is close to resort, like we would pay those prices. HA) Now another thing you need to know is that there is only electricity from 2 in the afternoon until 6 a.m. the next morning. So aircon only at that time, and charging stuff and what not only at that time. Enough said? Just giving you an idea. There are not many cars but something called a trike....which you get around on.

Alright so we get in like at 7 on the 19th to Puerto Princesa and we stay at this place called the Deep Garden Forest Hotel. It is funny, seriously with large statues and weird looking stuff all over. The ride there well let's just say all I could think about was where the hell is this guy taking us. Down this dark dirt road with no lights and huge pot holes. Well we made it. And checked in and then headed to this restaurant called Kinabachu (or something like that) where we had blue marlin, dark negra beer, garlic prawns, green papaya salad. It was amazing. Very cheap too. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed. Seriously crashed. The next morning we had to get up early to catch a van that would take us about 6 hours to get to El Nido far up north......little did we know.

We wake up the next morning and get ready to go. And here comes the rains. Deluge. Couldn't even see outside. And all we could think was well at least it is cooler than it has been. Our van was suppose to be there by 7ish. Let's just say it wasn't. And that it the next story we will be telling. The van ride, the snifflier, the snorer, the tiny toilets, and the road that took us to El Nido.

FREEDOM!

Finally....

Can you say freedom?

We've been around the block quite a few times and exercised a lot of patience. We settled on spending quite a bit less than anticipated and got a very good deal for our money. Its a Honda Accord that has been well maintained and will need some "minor" work. Everything is working and K and I are ready to start mapping the area. We are toying with the idea of getting a GPS just to coincide with the map. We'd only get it if it were possible to put other countries of SE Asia on it.

No...it's not a BMW as we were entertaining the idea of getting one of the two that jumped out in front of us, but we can afford to put a BMW sticker on it. One was a manual with a very small back seat and small trunk. The other was 20 years old and though it had a nice new paint job, the owner has a history or reputation of not being on the up and up. It made our decision pretty easy. We had a lot of help from a couple of guys who toted DT around the outskirts of town and another guy who had a buddy selling the Honda. Consider it yours if you come and visit.

We're gonna lay low today, Saturday a.m. Sept. 4. We've both been charging pretty hard. I seemed to have misplaced my voice for the past two days, Kirst doesn't seem to want to look too hard?

She had to judge a performance competition last night that I chose to stay away from. I'll let her report out on that.

We've been able to re-acquire our ailing ya-ya and our place smells and looks much better.

The weather here is actually cooling down to what it has been in maine the past few days. Mid 90's and humidity to match, been quite nice.

We really like our place. It's bright and mostly cool with two AC units running frequently. The kitchen is very functional and spacious. We purchased a TV that we will be sure to take with us wherever our next abode lay. We have two bedrooms and three queen beds. One of them is like a trundle bed in that there is a queen mattress under the guest bed.

We have a great storage/work area downstairs with a washing machine and dryer. We've found that we actually need the dryer for towels and other items like denim and cotton b/c things just don't dry too well. Maybe when we're out of the rainy season, we can hang them up outside under the avocado tree and banana trees? Did that sound like a name dropper? Sorry.

It has been interesting in terms of electricity here. There was obviously an argument about whether to bring the USA here or stay Filipino. We have some 110V and other 220V. Luckily, we got both styles of equipment. My toothbrush charger is much happy not being connected to an adapter!

Despite living on the hillside and having a gorgeous view of the jungle and mountains, the other half of the house seemed to have drawn the short straw and moved out. He said that is was "abismal" in there. I never saw it, I guess we got a little lucky? But now, no neighbors that have an air of "listen to what I know" or "no, its like this" so it's been a welcome subtraction to our lives!

Kirst is doing a fantastic job coaching swimming. She's firm, fair, and fun: not bad for a first timer huh, you'd never know it? The kids are enjoying it and getting stronger at their individual skills. She takes advantage of it and often swims their routines at least a couple times a week after them. I enjoy watching her interact with the kids of MS and HS.

We try to run our 8 km loop twice a week amongst a shorter (somewhat) course a couple of times too. We even run in the rain, especially when light out, in order to keep from sweating. For me, I come back looking the same regardless if it rains or not. There is no shortage of hills, the only question you have to decide out of the driveway is whether you want a long steep hill or a long long semi-steep hill? Kirst has also gone for a long bikeride to Camayan beach which is 50 km round trip.

I've been able to play three rounds of golf which has spoiled me a bit. One place was too expensive to return to, hence they ask you to pay at the end when they gotchya. The other local, Luisiata (say it with a spanish accent and its very powerful), is gorgeous and much more reasonable. I've played with lots of different staff and their acquaintances and that has been a nice introduction to some great people that are somehow one, two, or three degrees of separation from our school. It is part of your fees to pay for a caddy. They are about 8 bucks and are usually, two out of three anyways, knowledgable about the courses and greens. They will do everything from choose the club, tee up the ball, to line up your ball for a put if you let them. They are usually friendly and working for a tip as well, which is expected especially from expats.

Kirst has been hanging with lots of different groups of fun ladies. Some from around here, some that are expats that have settled here, and other expats like us. She stays plenty busy and is enjoying all the different personalities. They get a kick out of her as you can imagine and appreciate her dancing and acting. She is actually taller than a lot of the locals, I think she likes that?

Everyone here really has been quite giving and friendly. It certainly helps when you can speak the language!

My time gets filled up pretty quickly too. Before I know it, its another monday and I don't feel like I spent enough time working or playing or resting over the weekend. I have a group of guys that let me play cards, a different group that exposes my speed on the basketball court (hehehe), and others that play golf.

Now wait a minute, I don't want this to sound like the Villages or Club Subic, we actually do work quite a bit. This is definitely a place where people work hard and play hard, some choose to play a little more than we can at the moment...ah next year!

I, just yesterday, received all brand new text books and supplements for all three grades. My grade 7's didn't even have a book to start out, but they'll be dangerous now. I'll mostly likely spend a few hours per day this weekend to get the next unit up and running. It wouldn't be fair to say that these kids are any smarter or the alternative compared to others. They are a mixed bag of abilities, though most students are Korean, followed by at least half Philippino. After that, you have about 10% of the population left that has neither of the forementioned ethnicities in their blood. They have been willing to work, just not sure how. I guess the previous MS math teacher wasn't all sunshine and lollipops so I have some confidence barriers to start breaking down, I'll give it a whirl.

We'll be sure to include some photos of the apartment as soon as possible, but just wanted to give everyone out there in the world a quick glimpse into our world. Check out our Flickr account too!

Miss you all,

D and K

Dragon Dance Anyone? Anyone?

Last Friday the PE teacher, Ken, who is a local and a very good friend of mine, asked me and a few others to attend a local event that included a tug of war. So I figured, "hey why not, I know I got a few pounds on most people around here?" So he asked us to come to a practice after school, here's where things go array from the initial plan. He gets about 10 or so of us there and he's got some locals with him, a couple of them carrying cameras. We figured, oh, white folk to take photos of something mighty white....Ah, nope.

We looked a little more around the corner and we saw one of the 20 foot dragons on seven sticks on the ground. We just got hired to do one of the dragon dances that you see at major events! Being the math teacher I profess to be, I put one and one together and figured, the tug of war was just one piece, we were "shanghai'd" into doing a dragon dance for how many people, we didn't know yet.

We had two ladies smaller than Kirst pushing us around like boot-camp and yelling at those that were slow or off beat. I was smart (this time). I took the head of the dragon. Once Kirst remarked that it was just like paddling over my head, that worked. The "drill sergeants" liked what I was doing and started yelling at the others. Just as soon as we started, we were done. The ladies said via Ken, we'll meet you at 8 a.m. tomorrow.....Ok,

So the next morning, we woke to a small issue in our apt.: no eggs, bread, cereal, nothing but enough milk for coffee. So yours truly had to run out for the delicacies only found on the streets of Beilun. If that stuff doesn't fuel the engine...well, there may be another option or two. I got 10 of these little items called “Boawdza”. They are kind of like dumplings but quite tasty, just not very filling. Anyhow, we worried that the rough start may transpire into a poor performance.

We jumped on the E-Bike and headed over following Ken. Not too far away, we start hearing fireworks. Not too uncommon anywhere here, but we suspected it may be the event. We arrived with a crowd of about 400 people watching us, luckily we were used to the staring. We sat in the audience and waited for the festivities to begin...let us at'em. We watched a drum performance that was really cool. About 30 Women in cadence, very powerful.

Next, they had a bunch of girls do the cheerleading/aerobic routine. That wasn't the highlight: we are up next! So we get our friendly dragon puppet and out of nowhere they start playing this music that included a big gong being rung repetitively. I thought we were being boo'd off the stage before we got on? Ken reassured us that we better get going. We went out and did about two minutes of running and waving around. The crowd went wild to see us out there trying some of their traditions. They were so supportive.

But just when we were thinking we were hot stuff, 12 older ladies dressed in pink Chea-Poas jump out on stage and completely showed us up! We watched, and appreciated, the dance so much more, it really was beautiful. They would run around each other, balance on each other, crazy. When they left the stage opposite us, three or four of us ran to the side and just bowed as if to say we weren't worthy to be on the same stage (the crowd loved it!).

On to the next event: the tug of war. We may not waive that dragon so well, but we got moose meat! I recalled a moment that since we were on their turf, and you want to show some class in order to get invited again. So, we fought like hell in the first three rounds of the tug o war, but once we were locked in for at least third place, we put in our subs....the students. The other teams that got first and second were so pumped it was a riot! Everyone was shaking hands with the foreigners! It was an honor to be invited and I think Ken was proud of us.

We headed for home at 11. we needed a bit of a breather and stretches. i watched a little NBA (west conference) and we took a small nap. I went to the gym and did a lower body work that proved to discover muscles that somehow I never knew I used in order to get from A to B. More importantly, lunch followed, grilled cheese and soup! Kirst got a virus on her computer so it took the better part of the afternoon diagnosing and fixing the problem, but alas, we are back online Houston, no more problems.

She decided that she would go for a run, to work off the anxiety that technology seems to transmit. I thought, I got a little gas left in the tank? I ought to go play basketball over at the courts. About a quarter mile away, there are approximately 20 full courts with usually 40 games going in the half-courts. I'd been over once but didn't get the nod. I worked the area a little harder and finally someone wanted to see what the tall lanky white guy can do. I soon discovered after, "you mean me?" that they wanted me for an actual purpose. I started walking over and to my left under the hoop was a pool of players sitting.

Everyone started snickering a little, I wondered if my shorts were on backwards? Nope. I didn't get dressed in the dark. However, they seem to take quite a bit of interest in the 6 foot 5 person rising to his feet and leaving footprints in the dry pavement. He was probably a tad under 300 pounds, needless to say, they wanted me to play him. Ok, I thought, what would I tell one of my players that came up against such a difference in size and mass? RUN! i just took it to a different level and didn't run in the other direction. I stuck to him like glue, which he didn't like, so he'd move all around. That may not have been the smartest thing to do?

It was a ton of fun and I had a great couple of teammates that shall remain nameless because I have no clue what they were. They welcomed me and didn't cast me away when I missed any of several shots. I tried to make up for in Defense and assists, just not the scorer I once never was!

When they, and I, had had enough I started on my way home on the E-bike, and picked up the bride as she concluded her run. We soon got a call from a friend that we went to Xian with, Jackie an ESL teacher from Australia, and her son Felix who is an 8th grader. We went to the Pizza Hut, which is actually close to fine dining in China...not even being sarcastic.

Feb vacation with the fam.

Okay so these are backwards but we will be okay. In February we went to the States to go to a job fair. In IOWA...seriously who has a job fair in IOWA...well we got to hang out and eat food and enjoy the snow and get a job so that was fun.
Anyway while we were there we go to make a stop at home and a stop in Boston to see Meg and Tom. The above picture was taken at fire and ice in Boston...the best tons of fun and food that everyone could eat. And I think I had cosmos....those were good! Meg looks great huh? She looks happy and I made her buy clothes...and then we had our sibling fight and everyhting was better. It is hard to be away from you sibling for long periods of time, you miss each other so much and then when you get together you don't know what to say. Beside hi and I miss you.

Here we are eating bread bowls in Boston with clam chowder and whatever else you could imagine. So good can't wait to go back. I love Boston...would live there in a heart beat.

Meghan and Mom...we had a blast together. It was nice to have the six of us together. It feels good to have family around you.

Okay so we were in Maine Dad went to take pictures of a Ice fishing derby in the middle of nowhere. The whole family went and we had tons of fun. Jill, Dan and Hannah and Jack were there too. We caught fish I picked it up then screamed. I don't think Mom will ever let me live that down. But it was nice to be in cold weather even though there was no snow. Then on top of that is felt really cold because now we are tropical! It was hard to say good bye to Mom and Dad when we left but it was okay because they came out in April and we spent tons of time with them!!!!

This is my husband. I love this picture because we are outside loving what we do. We are lucky to be teachers and have time off where we can spend it with the fam. We got up to see Don and Anne and they came down and had brunch with my parents one day. Doug spent a night up there to hang out with the extended family. It was nice, I think everyone needed it. Jan was in Florida so we didn't get to see her but who wants to come to Maine when you are a little warmer in Florida. At least we got to talk to her in the same time zone. That was nice.

AMAZING RACE

Let me guess you have heard of the amazing race before but how about in Beilun, China run by three people who thought it would be a good bonding experience for the school that they work at? Yup that is right the amazing Chaney and Daniels families decided that it would be fun if they made an amazing race around Beilun. So one Saturday in March it didn't rain and the race began. Doug and I had the pleasure of being on a team with two students. Brother and sister, Theo and Margot. So the four of us when they said go the four of us ran.
There were about 17 to 20 teams that did this, from families to friends to teachers with students.

The deal was that you had to take three modes of transportation, pedicab, bus and taxi, you had to make sure that you got a picture of you using them. So there are a few pictures of us on the transportation. The rest of the time we ran, ran and ran, and those two wonderful students ran also. It was great, we had to calligraphy that Margot rocked at, we had to cut paper, we had to buy fruit of a certain weight, and we kicked butt at all of them, then we slowed down when we got to the riddles, all the riddles, man they got us there......BUT NO WORRIES

WE WON FIRST PLACE!!!!! AND WE GOT TROPHIES.

This is Theo and Margot on the bus. It was great they would always say they were doing fine and then ask me how I was doing because I was the slowest.

Margot doing calligraphy she looked at me and said you do it...I turned to her and I said you are the true artist.

We had a blast. Doug and I love doing these thing together. We love being able to cross the finish line together and cheer each other on. We make a great team...we had so much fun that we couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day...now the plan is to do something like this for our new school!

Great idea and great way to get to know a town better...we have the t-shirt to prove that we did it.

Never going to catch up so starting NEW

Okay since back tracking is going to take forever I am just going to do what I can for the rest of the year!
Now the Oscars came out????? Yeah I can't remember but I do know that we had a kick ass Oscar party.
Everyone had to dress up as they were going to the Oscars. Doug and I had decorated the apartment and then Doug had bought a red carpet that we laid down from the elevator all the way into the apartment ending in a red round circle where people got their pictures taken. It was awesome. The above picture is of the large and small Chaney's....missing Sarah....she was a little sick. Everyone that came had to bring a dish to share that was some how related to a Oscar nominated movie. Seriously it was a blast.

Trent came as a body guard for the famous people and bought tons of food.

This is the Crother's family, yup once again yummy food. We had a blast. We talked about our all time favorite movies, actors, actresses and other movie related topics.

This is Robbie with me in the background just pretending I spotted someone famous. We played charades, with that said we will never forget Olga reenacting Brokeback Mountain.

It is nice to have friends like this, people that willing to dress up, play silly games, make food and enjoy each others company. You never realize how lucky you are until you do something like this. Yes no pictures of Doug but he looked smart in his suit with vest. He helped make the party happen so that to me was tons of fun!

Keefe's Come to China!

We were fortunate enough to get some more visitors here in Ningbo! They included Ben and Alex Keefe, Doug is racing Ben around the school track here.








Here is Ben and Dad, Chris, getting around with a local Pedi-Cab in the heart of Beilun. It cost about $.60 to get from one end of town to the other at our apartment. As this photo shows, they enjoyed the ride (even the driver!)








Guess who likes this ride? This is Alex and mom, Beth, getting to race dad and ben keefe.
We are really lucky to have family that would come all the way over to see us. They got to see Beijing, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. Well done, and thanks for coming!

Plant Shopping

This is the huge greenhouse we went to to pick up new plants for our new apartment. The runner in the family is scoping things out!


This is the runner in the family trying to tricycle away. We all wanted to take this vehicle home to Mr. Palmer for his garage to garden commute!

This is Shirley holding up a plant that is full of "Venus Fly Trap-Like" bulbs. These bulbous portions hold water and also trap prey inside. They were amazing!

This is Tim and Kirst roaming around the nearly one square kilometer facility!

Chinese Chicken Hill

Howdy there sports fans. We're coming to you live from Beilun, China and we're bringing you a fun filled expedition that included great uphill biking and backcountry cycling! This is Ken Li, our great friend, personal guide (just kidding), and PE teacher at AIAN!




This is the bride taking a quick water break. It was pretty steamy even though there wasn't a digital thermometer stamp on the photos. These are the hills to the west of where our school is and after the long climb up the hill dubbed, "Chinese Chicken Hill" by Robbie which also has a tunnel at its pinnacle followed by a wicked long down hill! I remember my speedometer reading 35 mph!




These gentleman were some smiley guys we ran into in the bush. They got a good kick out of us while they were on their way back for lunch. Most people we know, don't get a to experience as many authentic encounters. Robbie and Ken both have been really good about getting us out and teaching us how important it is to explore.




This was a result of Doug trying to jump a concrete aquifer. The front tire made it fine, the rear got a snakebite. OOPS! Ken had never fixed a flat before and insisted he do it. So far, so good. I haven't lost the rear tire! You're the man Xiong Di!

Vball for AIAN

This fall, I got to coach the boys team at AIAN. It was a surprise when the original volunteer backed out after the first practice, but I think it worked out ok.











The boys I got to work with were hard working and willing to try anything, especially have fun and get better.













We hosted the tournament in Beilun, even though we don't have an in indoor facility. We borrowed a local Chinese HS gym and it worked well enough.

We didn't win any games, our experience was a little less than other teams. We had two high school students, and only one of them could reach the top of the net.

We were the only team that had MS students, but they carried themselves with class and character and fought for every point we got.
Overall, it was a huge success and we earned the respect of other teams. We also won the sportsmanship award, something I hope they take great pride in!


Check out the video below. It was taken from the local TV news channel. Press the arrow in the bottom left hand corner.

Pinwheels

So back in September, Kirst had the job of organizing a schoolwide event called Pinwheels for Peace. This is an event that expresses our school's commitment to promoting peaceful actions and philosophies to our students. It also allows students to show their concepts of what peace is to them.

The students were able to make small pinwheels out of paper, chopsticks, pipe cleaners, and beads in classes. Depending upon the grade level, they had to do some class discussions, research, or higher order project to further promote peace around the world.



The most interesting component, is that thousands of schools all over the world were doing the same thing. This wasn't a Chinese activity, it was a global activity!

Praise to Kirst for all her additional efforts to make this even go smoothly, effectively, and worthwhile for all the staff and students. She made it real and easy, often a challenging concept for adults! Way to go KJPT!!!

February Update

We realized that it has indeed way too long since our last entry. Hopefully we still have a few interested readers out there. Kirsten and I have been rather occupied with a variety of events. Most recently, the job fair in Iowa, the center of the universe itself!

We will be making some back logs of our events to the best of our ability. Hang with us, we'll try to make it right and give lots of photos to go along!

Stay tuned!