Pageant, Zumbathon, and Waterfall

Friday wore my blue dress. Looked a bit American but very Jessica Boschen. I received compliments all day from my students - both boys and girls. A few of the boys were embarrassed when they complimented my outfit. haha

Had some plagiarism take place in one of my classes. Most of the students didn't even do the paper I assigned them, as you may have figured out from my last post. Anyways, that's gonna be what it's going to be, and we will learn a lesson from it as a class.

Hung out after school as some ladies from the office convinced me to stick around for the Mr.  and Miss Tafuna Pageant. I grabbed some food and then enjoyed the four-hour ordeal. A bit long, but there were entertainment segments (which included some of my students) amid competition. They had traditional wear, warrior wear, talent, and evening wear. Here are photos from the evening wear portion. Made it home about 10:30pm with a ride from JJ, Jeselani, and Zachary's mom. (This family hangs out by the store a bunch.

Woke up around 5am Saturday morning (earlier than I wanted but I must have been too anxious for the two-hour Zumbathon. Yes, we Zumba'ed for two hours with a few breaks. That's one way to jumpstart your Saturday morning. This is me with Erica, one of our great instructors. She is also the one who I have been riding home with lately.

Then, I headed over to the football game. Tafuna was playing Vo Tech in the playoffs. We won 68-0. Playing Leone for the Championship. I took some photos from the sidelines again. Several people at church on Sunday said they saw me on TV. All of the football games are shown on local television and since I spend time on the sidelines guess I show up. Here is a photo of me with some of the cheerleaders.The two on either end are in my Marine Science class.

Ate pancakes at Matai Restaurant for lunch as I had been craving those for a while. Headed home and relaxed for the afternoon before heading to Kokoland for the sending off gathering for three of the volunteers who are going home. Then, I went with Hannah to meet some people she had met through Yoga class. They were all rather intellectual, and it was fun to chat with them.

Monday morning I headed to Leone on a mission to find this little waterfall that had been mentioned to me. Got off at the Catholic church like my friend at church told me to do, and then I walked down the road for a while. Ran across an elderly lady who asked if I was WorldTeach and on my way to the waterfall. "Yes, ma'am." She said I was brave to be going alone with the dogs, so she had her grandson get me a stick. haha. Had some dogs bark at me along the way, but none came close. Several family members were out and stopped any who became agitated. Made it to the last house on the road, and the guy had his son take me back to the waterfall. "Our own private waterfall," he told me. Only took us about 5 minutes to walk to it. Nice little spot, and I noticed piping. He told me that they run it to the village. Cool.

I sat there for a little while and let my mind wander before heading back on the little trail.

Here is the road walked down in Leone to get to the waterfall trail.

Headed back home around 10:30am, worked out for about an hour and a half, did my laundry, and then just relaxed for the day - enjoying my extra day off, but I have to admit I may be looking forward to going back to school to see what surprises may come next.