May 13, 2014, There Are Some Beautiful Sunsets Here

Greetings

I'm not going to email for very long today because I'm sick.  I just got sick last night and I feel gross.  I have a low fever around 100 so I'm okay, I just wish it would go away.  I took some benadryl last night to make me sleep and that worked well.  We were supposed to bike to guegeegue today and I'm sad we have to push that off a week.  The Beckers are a little tired from their trip to kwaj yesterday though, so I think they're okay with us pushing it back.  

It was so nice to skype with the family on Sunday.  I'm sad it went by so quickly.  The little ones are so big now! It's crazy to think that I'll be home in a little over 7 months.  The time goes so quickly.  

The work has been really frustrating recently because no one wants to study with us.  Everyone is either gone or makes excuses.  Or they're crazy and not really there 100% mentally and don't understand what we're saying.  I think we're just exhausted and stressed right now, and I think that's why I got sick.  It's so hard to find a good balance of not working too hard that you get sick but still working hard enough that you don't feel guilty about not working.  

Some facts about Ebeye that I shared with some family members when I skyped:  The land area of Ebeye is 80 acres and there are more than 15,000 people living here.  Supposedly 50% of the population is under the age of 18, which is not hard to believe because there are kids and babies running in the streets all the time.  

We went to Kwaj on Friday night just to get dinner at the checkpoint there.  We saw a huge stingray when we were up on top of the ferry!  It was nice to be on kwaj for a little bit.  We realized how nice and quiet it is there. We sat and looked through the fence to the real kwaj (that we can't get onto) and the streets were so clean and everything was so nice and quiet.  It felt like a real summer evening.  I'm tired of the constant noise of the streets here in Ebeye and the kids running up to us and hanging on our arms and asking us for food or a quarter or such.  

There are some beautiful sunsets here.  Holy P cow.  The sky just seems so much bigger when you're on a tiny island in the pacific and nothing is there to block the view of the sunset.  The sunsets don't last very long and so we rush to the dock sometimes to just watch and take pictures.  

Sorry I don't have much to say today.  I love and miss you all, 

Sister Ellen Butler