Insectopia aka Nah

The school fair was on Thursday of this week. Wednesday we spent a good share of the afternoon preparing for it. For the 3rd grade booth Maribel (the other 3rd grade teacher) and I hosted a game where you race ping pong balls down a pvc pipe by squirting them with water. It went well and we made quite a bit of money. The fair was a lot of fun, and also a lot of work. At the end I was so tired!!! Friday morning we packed for camping and headed out around noon. It was a long and fun boat ride and Nah, the island we went to, was beautiful. The sand was so fine and white and the water was clear. It was really awesome....until sundown. We were snorkeling around sunset so I didn't notice right away, but huge swarms of insects started coming out all over the place. Getting out of the water and getting changed meant getting eaten alive. Even standing directly in the smoke of the fire didn't help. These bugs aren't like mosquitoes where you can see them and swat at them, they are like microscopic and EVERYWHERE. After dark the insects went away a bit and I was ready for bed. We were sitting on the beach just chillin when the rain started, just a sprinkle, but I've been here long enough to know what that leads to. We all dove under the tarp before the deluge hit. So much for sleeping in my hammock. I rescued my food and 5 gallon bucket full of clothes/gear and settled in for one of the longest nights of my life. Despite the pouring rain, the relentless biting of the insects, and the palm branches poking me, I wasn't miserable, just not comfortable enough to sleep. I think mostly it was the bugs. I ended up wrapping myself with my sheet into a cocoon of sorts, which was much too hot, but necessary to ward off the insects. After tossing and turning and listening to the rain for most of the night I finally slept for a few hours. At dawn 2 boatloads of itchy, wet, miserable people loaded up and drove off. I wanted to stay until the second load because, hey I'd survived the night, I might as well stay the day and enjoy the beach, so why not? Those of us that stayed walked part way around the rather large island. We saw eels hunting for fish in the low tide, which is really awesome to watch by the way. In the midst of this show another rainstorm hit. We tried to find cover under a tree, but to no avail, we were soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes. Hiking back was fun though, there is nothing like trudging through the jungle in the midst of a downpour. We got back to camp, waited out the storm under the tarp and then packed up and left. We finally arrived back at the school sometime mid afternoon. I slept a good share of the evening to try to make up for last night. It was an experience for sure, not one that I'm eager to repeat, but still fun to have experienced. School is just the same as always, we have our evaluations coming up pretty soon so that is something to be thinking about, but other than that we are just cruising into the middle of second quarter. I think midterms are coming up here in a week or two. Well that's about it for my weekend adventures. From reading my blogs you'd think my life is all about scuba diving and camping, but in reality those are the things I deem most worthy of writing about. I suppose hearing that I eat PB&J everyday for lunch or that I had to kill world's biggest spider in my room one morning, or that the ship brought oats last week is equally exciting though. In conclusion, I'm itchy and I miss you all, but life is good. It's November already which means that Dec will be here soon which means that I get to see Ross and Riki!!! I'm excited, and itchy.