March 5, 2013
In the South Pacific you don’t get snow days but you do get quite a few rain days- cyclone warning days. Normally this just results in the kids working through their lunch and going home at 1:30 instead of 3:30 (what is called a long run). The reason for this is mostly because it is really hard to talk over the loud noise that rain makes on a corrugated tin roofs, plus it gets pretty dark and my school doesn’t have lights. We have had a lot of these long run days but as I was telling my friend Wren yesterday, we have not had to cancel school. Apparently, Wren’s school on the main Island back in Tongatapu has been cancelled all week so she has yet to actually start teaching. Well, I jinxed myself. This morning I was woken up by the sound of a kid banging on my door requesting the key to the school. Giving him the key I noticed it was probably going to be a long run day, so I immediately started planning what I would do with my extra free time as I put on my skirt and matt. I started to walk out my door, cup of instant coffee in hand, when the kids came up to me and told me that the radio said school would be cancelled- I was not sure how I felt about this, 1 that is a lot of extra time, and 2 now I have to push back my assessment testing. Oh well! I threw off the skirt, hopped back into bed and got ready to start an epic day of watching Lord of the Rings. I made myself some toast and started to play the movie when I heard another succession of loud bangs at my door, it was my principal’s daughter informing me that we do in fact have school; bummer. I got dressed for the second time and took my six-step-commute to school. There were only two kids there and I wasn't really down to go through with a lesson with only two kids especially when school is supposed to be cancelled anyway. Turned out my principal thought that school was cancelled for just the main island and quickly realized she was wrong. So for the second time I ripped off the clothes grab my toast and hopped back into bed to start my movie. Twenty minutes into my cinematic adventure the power goes out and my laptop battery died- foiled again! I decide to try and cook myself a big lunch in hope that the power would come back on by the time I was finished- no dice. So I read and barricade myself in my room while outside it sounded as if waves were crashing against my house. Luckily, around 3 or so the power kicked back on and I was able to wait out the storm in the comfort of my bed watching the trials and tribulations of young Frodo and his companions. I left the house after the movie to do my first night of night school with the high school students. Now I am back in my room hoping to survive the big storm that will be touching down any minute and will probably last the night… I really hope I keep my power for it…
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