1/4, a quarter, 25%

"Teeeeacher, I need HELP!"

And so went the insistent cries of my most vocal third graders as we went through the final exams for the first quarter of the school year. I've told students to return to their seats a thousand times, confiscated an entire squadron of paper airplanes, sent a student out of the room during the exam for repeatedly answering questions out loud, and wondered for the hundredth time how a student can have a pencil during the first half of an exam, and have no idea where it went the next time I stop by their desk to help them. I've found one of my hardest struggles is watching students write down the wrong answer to a question when I read it to them, and knowing I can't say the answer because it is a test.
----
A new exercise group has sprung up on campus as some of the other girls and I have decided we have to find a way to incorporate more exercise into our days as we rarely leave campus. So many evenings find a small group of girls, (occasionally joined by Jace) walking around the ever shrinking campus. Again, again, and again. Then it's over to the highschool building for a few minutes of stair-stepping as we run, gasp and wheeze our way up and down the outside steps. We cool down by (guess what!) walking around campus a few more times. We've also had our aerobics class in the one air-conditioned class room on campus, and if you want to watch five Filipino and white girls try to dance to hip-hop moves, you can come to Chuuk. The amusement might be worth the plane ticket, but probably not. Even though this new "exercise program" only began a few days ago I've come to enjoy it as not only a time to get some exercise, but a time to talk and grow closer to the people I'm working here with.
----
And thus ends this bit of news celebrating the conclusion of one fourth of my time teaching here, which is both believable and unbelievable, happy and sad, and a whole other range of emotions which I'm not sure how to put in words. I guess that's part of what being a student missionary is all about.