Spring Break

Although Spring Break was almost a month ago, I still feel the desire to unfold the events of that brief, but wonderful, spanse of time.

I looked forward to spring break with great anticipation because I knew that my boyfriend, Jere, would again visit me on my tiny tropical island. We had talked, planned, and looked forward to his arrival for quite some time........basically since he had left after Christmas! At the beginning of the week that he was to arrive, I had begun to prepare - shopping, cleaning, planning - but not all of my preparations were carried out as I had intended, because, two nights before his scheduled arrival, he disembarked an airplane, made a few calls, and arrived outside my apartment. I was already sleeping, so my roommates let him in. He silently came up to my room, knelt down beside my bed and whispered my name. It was such an amazing surprise - well, actually, I was quite scared at first because I had no idea what strange man was in my room when I woke up, but then when I realized who it was, it was an amazing surprise!

Jere came to school with me for the rest of the week and the kids loved him! I was practically forgotten! They wanted him to do everything that I usually do – worship, prayer, dismissal – everything! But I realized that they loved and accepted him so quickly out of their love and respect for me. So I was okay with it! And it was a lot of fun to watch, because I could even see a few little girl “crushes” forming!

Once spring break really started, we were able to relax. We weren't able to do as much and go as many places as we did during Christmas break because all my roommates stayed on-island this time, so we all had to share one vehicle, which was quite challenging. But we made it work. We stayed home quite a bit, went on walks, and just relaxed.

We went out on a fun date, which consisted of dinner at a little Indian restaurant, taking fun pictures on the promenade, eating ice cream as we watched the sun set, and a moon lit stroll down the beach. It was a lot of fun........just a few more memories to add to the collection!

One really fun thing we did was go in search of a distant, WWII cave – far off into the jungle. Grant knew the general area where the cave was supposed to be so we followed the trail until we found the familiar landmark, and then we veered off into the jungle, hacking down vines with the machete and hoping to find the cave. I was about to give up, when, I heard a victory whoop from Grant up ahead. He had found it! Spirits renewed, we found our way down into the entrance of the cave. Headlamps ready, we began our exploration. There were old Japanese beer bottle, belt buckles, shoe soles, 50-gallon drums. We even found a helmet from one of the soldiers who had taken refuge in this far-off cave during the war. It was pretty cool. Near the end, we ventured into the opening of another cave. Grant was in the lead and he found markings that continued to lead deeper and deeper into the cave. It was a long, narrow chamber that seemed to keep going, and going. We finally decided to turn around and head back, not knowing how far into the earth the cave would take us. It was fun and challenging to carefully pull ourselves through the small openings of the chamber.

We also were able to spend some time out on the tiny island of Managaha again. It has some of the best snorkeling and this time we snorkeled almost all the way around the island. It was pretty cool, but the sunburns that followed weren't quite as cool!

But overall, it was a wonderful time. It was hard to take Jere to the airport again and let him go, but thankfully it was at 4 am again! And it made it a little easier knowing that it was the last time that we'd have to say goodbye for a long, long time!