Beauty

This week has been a week of abnormally warm temperatures for us.  These are the weeks I am constantly reminding myself of the very cold, harsh winters I was so used of a couple of years ago. I remember always dreaming of moving somewhere warm to avoid the cold.  On the hot weeks it can make it hard for a person to be thankful for everything around them. I find myself constantly complaining of being hot. Dreaming of what it would be like to actually feel cold. Sometimes it seems that we can never be pleased and the grass and is always greener somewhere else.

Today I spent my day making cookies with Lusi. We had the fan blowing on the cookies full blast to try and get the chocolate chips from melting. The weather app was telling us it felt like 110 today. Now put into the mix sitting in a kitchen with an oven constantly being opened and closed. I now think that if I ever make cookies and don’t break a sweat it may be weird. After making the cookies I was patiently waiting for it to get dark out so I could shower. The best time to take a shower is right after the sunsets because it finally cools off.

I was reading my devotions shortly before taking my shower and it was talking about the beauty of the earth. We often take the beauty for granted. The bible passage was from Job. Talking about how God had created everything and controls everything that is happening around the world. The most interesting part for me is it talked about how God decided when to make the waves stop and not to cover land. Now if you truly think about the fact that he just stops the waves on shore and controls all of that it’s pretty amazing.

As I was jumping into my shower the sun was just setting beneath the mountains. I was at Lusi’s house and they have an outdoor shower. I absolutely love the outdoor showers. It’s more or less a steel post attached to a pipe but it does the job. When showering you can see the stars glowing and the moon was a full.  Along with wherever you look you can see palm trees. It is one of the things I will miss the most when leaving this island. I love just taking in the beauty of it all.

With Love,

Abby

Back at it!

Well, Christmas break is officially over and school is back in session. This Christmas break was perfect I get to spend a week on the island and then traveled to another island called Western Samoa (WS). WS was a lot of fun I didn’t really plan out the trip I had a more lets just do it day by day plan. The hotel that I stayed at was really nice it would compare to a holiday inn in the states. A few of the highlights were:

1.                The To Sua Trench if you have never heard of it google it. It’s a one of the only ones you can find in the world. Its like a cave that you have to take small wooden ladder down to get too. The water is a mixture of freshwater and saltwater. So the water was actually pretty cold. You had to pay a small fee to enter the area but it was a beautiful garden filled with Samoan fales where we also ate our dinner overlooking the ocean!

2.     The market is very popular if you ask anyone they will all say go to the market. The market has so many cool things you can buy that are Samoan. I got lots of stuff there because it is cheaper there than it is in American Samoa.

3.     The island is a lot bigger. Like wow I felt like I was in the Dominican it was so big. It was filled with cows and horses. I get a little excited when I see farm animals because I have yet to see any here. So I really enjoyed driving through the mountains and looking at all the different animals and scenery. 

4.     The food was off the charts. They had so many restaurants to choose from. My favorite was the pizza but overall it was really good. We actually found another couple that the guy was Samoan and the girl was white. So for most of our meals we traveled around town to new restaurants. We found some really good places.

Today was our second day back to school. I was so excited to see all the kids again and they all said they missed school. Being home is boring they all told me. So we are half way through the school year already. I can’t believe. My students keep reminding me that June is not too far off. They also are quite excited to see my parents in February. They were counting how many days until they are here.

With Love,

Abby