Kayaking Adventures

This past week has been anything but easy on us. Some sort of culture shock or maybe homesickness hit all of us I think in the last week or so. Weekends here are always tough on us. We have so much free time and if we don’t plan things for us to do we sit around and think about what we wish we were doing at home. So we have now made it a weekend rule that we have to do something to distract or minds. On Sunday I remember coming home from lesson planning rather crabby. I just couldn’t figure out what to do with some of my lessons, I was hot and I just wanted normal. I walked in the house and told the girls I am sorry I am just crabby so just ignore me. They both soon told me they were crabby and that I was not alone. The next day at school Dana did some research on culture shock. Mostly because all of us were moody, crabby, and always hungry these last couple of days. We did our research and found out this is completely normal and we are just adjusting to our lives. Our bodies are just craving foods from back home but the only food we have from back home is ice cream. I would rather not tell you how much ice cream we have gone through since Saturday.

On Sunday one of the members of the church that we are attending told us that we could use his Kayaks whenever we wanted. We decided that we should totally take him up on this offer. Virginia and I told Reno, a local kid who told us he would help us get the kayak to the water that we wanted to do it after school today. Carrying the Kayak to the water was the easy part. Getting the kayak in the water was another story. So we decided to bring the kayak to the boat ramp. As we were climbing down many locals were warning us about how slippery it is. Word to the wise always listen to the locals. Reno walked down the boat ramp with no problem. I have walked on a lot of ice in my life and nothing was nearly as slippery as this ramp. Virginia was sliding down the ramp squatting trying to avoid falling. I was sitting on my butt just sliding down because I could not stand up on it to save my life. Now Reno is standing holding the kayak in the water on the ramp. Virginia someone how manages to get on. I crawl on slowly sliding into the water. Reno tries pushing us off and looks at me saying,” Teacher I am going for a swim.” Meaning he was about to fall into the water. He jumps onto the kayak to avoid falling in and almost flips us over. Phew. We finally made it on. Kayaking was so much fun the water is so clear we could see the ocean bottom the whole time and they said it was about 90 feet deep. Don’t worry mom. The boats traveling to and from the main island kept a close eye on us and said to wave our paddles if we needed them to help us! After we finished kayaking around we had to get the kayak out of the water…… So Reno was no longer with us. We paddled up to the slippery slope. The second the boat ramp ends there is a big drop off I can’t even touch the ground there. Virginia was at the front and hopped out first. She was sliding down but caught herself before falling in. I tried getting out and kept sliding. It was a challenge but I was slowly getting up the ramp. When a big wave came. The water got me and I was sliding and had no way to stop so I slid of the ramp into the water. The small crowd that had gathered to watch us was now laughing at us and we couldn’t help but laugh along. After quite the struggle we finally got the kayak off the slippery ramp.

Today Virginia and I made a big decision. We bought our tickets for Christmas break. We will be spending our Christmas break in………New Zealand. Don’t worry I would much rather be at home with my family celebrating Christmas but that was just not going to happen. I can’t wait to get there and see all sights and do some traveling around the island. It will be a Christmas I will never forget!

With Love,

Abby