Guam Bound!
Week 1 Moments
● Sunday – arrive & visit the Pacific ocean!
● Monday – attend Harvest Baptist Church missions
conference evening session
● Tuesday – 1st day of 3rd grade!
● Wednesday – I saw a palm tree growing real bananas!
● Thursday – I saw a palm tree growing real coconuts!
● Friday – Teacher In-service; swimming in the pool!
● Saturday – young adults movie night!
Week 1 Recap
On Sunday afternoon, Kyla and I landed in Barrigada, Guam. We were met by the head principal,
Josh Taylor, who took us to Guahan Court Condos where we will be staying. We are fortunate
enough to have a whole condo to ourselves. It is very spacious with lots of windows and fully
furnished! Sunday evening, Josh and his family welcomed us to Guam by taking us to visit the
Pacific Ocean at the Office of the Governor of Guam—we didn’t tour the office, we just walked the
grounds looking out at the ocean; it was beautiful in the evening! Then they took us out for supper
at Panda Express while getting to know him and his wife and their six adopted Chamorro (Guam
native) kids.
Monday was Chamorro Heritage Day, so we got the day off of school and enjoyed the day
getting settled. We visited the mall with a FBBC friend and then also attended Harvest Baptist
Church’s Missions Conference evening session that night.
Tuesday was our first day of school! We got a ride to school where we were thrown into
the Harvest community. We met the elementary and head principal, our cooperating teachers,
and many other staff members of the school & church. We got a school tour, school IDs, and
observed most of the day with our teachers. I am in 1 (of 3) sections of 3rd grade. My teacher’s
name is Jennifer Brunson. She has been teaching at HCA (Harvest Christian Academy) for 8 years.
Her class has 22 students in it, all very diverse (from Chinese, Korea, Chamorro, Vietnamese,
Japanese, and American).
Wednesday was a normal day of school (schedule-wise), but abnormal in that it was the last
day before a four day weekend. I got to be more involved with my class that day–go to the library,
read aloud a new book, and grade their spelling tests after school. My teacher and I have been
getting along really well and she has lots I can learn from. As for student names, I think I am
starting to get several of them down, but anyone else outside of my classroom (staff, church
members, faculty, other teachers) is more of a struggle.
The end of the week was very chill. Thursday was Parent-Teacher Conferences at school,
but Kyla and I did not go to them since we just got here and don’t have relationships built with the
parents or many of the students. Instead, we helped organize standardized tests (next week) for
each grade in the library. And Friday was teacher inservice. We got to listen to two sermons in the
morning before breaking up into “divisional meetings” (elementary, middle school, high school) and
then having the rest of the morning to work in our classrooms. I got to meet with my teacher about
the plan for the rest of my student teaching experience and help prepare for next week’s testing.
As far as weekend activities are concerned, there has been talk of swimming in our
facility’s pool, a movie night, and hiking. We will see. Everyone is very friendly and they all want us
to get all the experiences of Guam that we can while we are here.
Prayer Requests & Praises
1. Transitioning – the weather is very hot, we do not have self transportation for at least this 1st
week, getting over jet lag (not too bad), taking it all in, meeting tons of people & getting
involved, staying hydrated with the hot temps as our bodies adjust & drinking filtered water.
2. School – building a good relationship with our teachers & with our students and completing
FBBC-related homework.
3. Professor Observations – this coming week, one of our professors is flying out to observe us
teach a lesson (this is difficult because it will be Week 2 and there are standardized testing
taking up most of the time–not a normal teaching week)
4. Being a blessing to those around us.
5. **Safe travels allthe way from the states!
6. **Wonderful accommodations
7. **Meals are plentiful and delicious!
8. **Very welcoming & friendly people
Guam Culture & Facts
● Guam is 30 miles north → south & 10 miles east → west.
● Guam is a U.S. territory (since 1898, in 1950 they became self-governed with U.S. citizenship).
● Guam has been heavily influenced by Spanish, Japanese, and American cultures due to their
periods of control.
● They say Guam is 20 years behind the mainland.
● Asians are just as much strangers on Guam as Americans are–many come for vacation.
● Stray dogs are very unfriendly, so some people carry baseball bats or pepper spray with them
to ward them off. *One of the reasons we are not allowed to walk anywhere from our condo and need
rides everywhere.
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“We give thanksto You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is
near.” ~Psalm 75:1
Sending love from Guam,
Whitney