Where were we? September 28th

Hey wonderful blog followers!!! Jess and I are doing fine, thanks again for the wonderful packages that we keep receiving. It makes it feel like Christmas here! We got to go swimming this weekend and the dog who is now part of the family came too. His name is "ooch" and he's been dubbed "ooch the pooch." I think that living as we do, so far on the east side of Tutuila island keeps us seperated from the noise and havoc of the west coast. But, then again, we are also far away from fresh food and other fun things. We do have local stores that allow us to purchase dry and canned goods, but vegetables are a rarity. We are also dealing with a mini-fridge that makes us constantly rearrange things so that we can fit leftovers, etc. and it makes it hard to keep food that we might normally keep for a while.
The insect problem has not been very bad here. I did have a run-in with a wasp that was very ill-tempered and he left me a nice welt. Apart from that, the mosquitos are only out at night and don't tend to bother us very much.
School is keeping us both very busy, writing lesson plans and continually adapting them to meet our students' needs is hectic work. We do enjoy our students and I am really hoping that we've made a small difference so far.
I've gotten everyone on campus using Google Earth, it is a trip to see all of the teachers looking for their houses and their families with this. I've also been lucky enough to have a projector in my class and we've been doing all of my lessons with PowerPoint! My students are in the process of painting their favorite author's portraits on my classroom walls. I've definitely got some future Picasso's and Cezanne's.
I know what everyone wants to see is our new pad. You will have to wait until we get it nice and clean before I attempt photo postings of this. As it turns out video posting is not feasible due to firewalls set up at our school. I'd use a bypass proxy but I'm really trying not to get into trouble here. So, no video or pics of our home, but I hope you like these photos.








The first photo was taken a short walk from our new home,








there is another of a tiny roommate of ours (a very well behaved gecko),










another shows jess getting ready for our snorkeling adventure this past weekend, lastly you can see Ooch as he wanted to go swimming too.









We love you and miss you folks bunches,
Charlie & Jess

September 8, 2009

Hey Folks!!!! This is just a test. If this works you should see a video that you can play. It is a short guided tour of our new digs here in Am. Sam. I hope all is well with everyone, and we thank you for all of your support and packages you've sent. Thanks again, Charlie & Jess

9/1/09

Whoa, has it been that long? Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been stressed out at school, just trying to accomplish a lot with a little. Amazingly I just got a digital projector for my classroom and I think I'll be doing great from here on out! I've got so many lesson plans that are written for projectors from my years of experience working with Dare county. Thank you all for your warm wishes. Jess and I are in our new digs and we love it. We are in a clean place, the weather is not killing us, the neighbors are very quiet (and not too close), and we are very comfortable there.

School is getting a little better for Jess too. She is on a roll with her lesson planning. Even though math and science are still difficult subjects for her to plan for; she is working extra hard and it appears to be paying off.

I hope all is well with you! Thank you very much for sending packages. It really makes us feel that we are not so very far away. We miss you all very much. I will try to keep you posted on upcoming events and I'm still trying to add photos and video.

Much love,
Charlie & Jess