even more

So today we got to go back to our center so i figured they didnt find any more. I asked the head guy of our center what was the final count of bombs they found and they said there were 29 found each a yard long, 2 barrels of amo, and 2 smaller bombs. but i guess somehow it was cleared safe for us to go back and well it was just weird to see them all stacked up right near the building. i guess thats all i have to say
love you all

adding a little boomb in my life

The center we have been working on lately is getting a new playground therefore it has been kind of a damper on our activates because they have been doing construction and just yesterday started to dig a big hole for the foundation. So yesterday we were at our center and my boss comes in and just tells me that I need to evacuate the building now, get my kids all their stuff and go to the teen center down the street. I get a little sacred and ask why not totally sure if was ready for what I was about to hear but I figured if it was a typhoon or something the kids would be getting picked up. As the kids were getting their stuff together I asked again what was wrong and Sarah my boss told me that in the big hole that they had been digging they found a unexploded bomb (most likely from world war II) . I felt chills go down my whole body, to think we all had been playing on a jungle gym set that has been under a bomb! I talked to some of the Japanese locals that worked with us and they said that with all the wars that have happed on the island things like this happens all the time! Anyways so today we were at the youth center, just down he street from our center that we normally work at and we find out that they had found another 15 so a totally of 16 bombs in that area that I have been working at for the past 9 weeks! How crazy! So I guess we don’t be going back there anytime soon… they say at least 5 days till they are don’t making sure its safe for sure so were stuck youth center….

not enough time left....

Sooo Friday we went to gate 2 street. It is a street near kadena (the air force base) and has a lot of bars and dancing clubs, it was a lot of fun just dancing around with the girls.
On Saturday we got kind of a late start and decided to rent a car here on base. It worked out to about $18 a person for a little almost no power Japanese car for 24 hours. But it was a blast! We went to this mall near American village and bought a lot of Japanese food. We also find this child play center that was really fun because there was this 4D ride that we went into twice! The first time was the space coaster that you really felt like you were on a roller coaster! It was crazy we even got sprayed with water and it looked like things were jumping out at you, we were all screaming the whole time . the second one was wasn’t as exciting but still fun. It was a dinosaur one but it had more of a story behind it and it was all in Japanese so we didn’t really know what was going on. Any ways the next day we decided to go to this place called Okinawa World. It was so fun we spent all day there. We a snake show, a habu sake factory (that’s the sake where the snake is inside), glass blowing factory, pottery, traditional dance, and these amazing caves that stretched for like a mile. The caves were made from limestone dripping down its hard to explain but it was really neat! we ended up coming home 3 hours late returning the car hopefully we wont get in trouble! Well see they were closed today and were just hoping they don’t have cameras or something that check when we bring back the car but anyways it was worth it.
I cant believe we only have 4 more weeks here and 3 more weekends! Times going too fast my summers almost over : (

5 weeks left! :(

So on Monday the military dogs came to do some demonstrations for the kids! It was so fun to see the guys put on the huge jackets and then the dogs came and showed how obedient they were and then just like that on command they attacked and then just as fast as they started they stops when the guy said to. It was even better because the guys who brought the dogs and did the demonstration we had meet around the town earlier in the summer, so that was fun.
On Tuesday we went to the history museum and got to see how old Okinawa was and how the people lived and that was fun I wish I could go back again and go thought the art section because I think that would be really interesting. The kids are really start to grow on me 2 of my favorites are leaving in the next month and im going to miss them so much! Its getting harder and harder everyday thinking about them leaving.
Tonight we had this thing called desert fest where they kids all performed for their parents 3 kids and 10 songs and they did so well I was so proud of them! I couldn’t even have dreamed things would have gone so smoothly! I was so happy for them!
Anyways I love it here and don’t want to leave I love all the people ive meet and everything is just going so wonderfully!

time flies when your haivng fun

The past few days have just been getting better and better. The first few weeks of camp were kind of bumpy but now were getting the hang of things and its going much better! Yesterday we went to this park/ play ground and when we saw it on the list of field trips we didn’t really know what to expect but once we got there we were blown away! There were huge long slides with rollers that you can go down and this amazing ropes course with this tube that you climb up and goes upside down and you go though it! It was really fun we played around on it with the kids but it was super hot above 90 so we had to take a lot of water and shade breaks.
After that we went back to out center and I guess there was a small earth quake that some of the other groups felt but I didn’t feel it because I’m with 5 year olds and they are never still or quite enough to feel that kind of thing.
Anyways today was a pretty normal day went to the pool and that was nice! One down side about our living accommodations is that the only thing we have to cook with is a microwave so its very limited. But today for snack the kids had lasagna and there was a whole pan left over so we got to take it home for dinner! I know its really dumb it its nice having something like that, that we didn’t have to pay for and is baked and not microwave. I really miss my moms cooking and good food …
Another sad thing about living on a military base is that you have to see people come and go.. and we have already had one girl leave camp but we had another one leave today that was really heart breaking because she really has made her mark on all of us staff. I know I have moved a lot in my time but it never gets easier you just learn to deal with it and it breaks my heart seeing these groups of friends being torn apart. They talk about how one will be living on Georgia and one in Florida so they will still visit but when they look at a map I think they think it’s a lot closer than it really is. And then it makes you wonder what kind and how much of an impression do you or will you have on these kids, will they think of you when they think of their summers? Almost daily I think about my camp experiences. I think back to flying horse shoe and Gilead and Malibu all the funny stories I have and people I went with. I loved camp and I just want to make to same memories for these kids.

weekend / manic monday

so the weekend was amazing with my dad! it was exactly what i needed, it was relaxing and everything. we went to shiri castle which is actually a replica of the original ones because the old ones were ruined. after that we took a monorail to kokosai street where we did some shopping and it was really fun just spending time with him!.
we did a lot of waking and it was kind of tireing but i enjoyed the time we spent together!
he left mid sunday and the rest of the day i kinda just hung out and did nothing

but now Monday well its been crazy today at work we had the fire department come and do a little show! it was so cool they brought in all their gear showed the kids how it all worked and even let them play on the fire truck. they let every kid do the hose too! i jumped in and did it it wasn't as powerful as i expected but it probably want full blast. i couldn't imagine wearing all that fire gear here in okinawa its already 90 degrees and then the hot heavy gear on top would kill!

another thing i realized that is really different from back at the states is the TV here . bedides the fact that we only get about 10 channels in English and 7 of thoes are sports and its never current they are playing games that happened last week that we all already know the results to. there are no commercials. i know that most of the time that is great but instead of commercials they have these like public announcements that are just horrible!!!! they are the worst acting i can ever imagine the most mindless scrips and honestly i dont know what they were thinking when they think its ok to air these on TV. i mean timbercrest junior high tv boradcast was better! they go something like " its hot here in okinawa dont forget to put sun screen on" or " when lifting heavy objects ask for help!" and then a dumb picture of 2 marines picking upa box together. .... now sometimes you can tel the government helped a litle because they are a little better and normally about history like " john so and so did this cartoon balbalbla ... he is an american hero and thats why he honor him" or how words such as "flying by the seat of your pants" is an air force coined term. anyways
thats my frustration

look at my pictures!

ps check my pictures sight i have really fast internet here at the hotel so i put up a ton of new ones!

naked!

Today’s been amazing my dad came early but I was in a government office doing SOFA status things. SOFA status is status of forces agreement giving me Japanese rights and American rights both at the same time…. I'm not really sure what that means but something about if we get arrested for anything the Japanese government can hold us for 23 days with out any proof. Well anyways I'm not really sure what SOFA is but they said it’s to protect us in situations that can happen like that…. Anyways so I meet him at the Kinser gate and we went to my living quarters and hung out for a little we took the 12:20 green line (which is the buss that goes from marine base to marine base all over the island for free) to Kinser. Once we got to Kinser we walked to American village, which isn’t a bad walk at night or when its not a black flag but I swear today was the hostess day that has been so far the summer and we walked almost 2 miles in it! Anyway once we got there we shopped around and he got me a really cute shirt I can’t wait to wear it out in Pullman when I get back! Then we had some okinomiyaki in this little palace where you cook it in front of you its super fun and really good. Reminded me of when mom makes it! After that we went to his hotel, which is close to foster. Its super nice and really like a luxury relaxation hotel. I feel like one of these elite celebrities getting away in like a high up mountain hotel over looking the ocean. We have an amazing view of the city. This place is like a resort to relax at so dad got me a body massage. It was amazing I got a full body and head massage and its exactly what I needed I don’t know why I don’t do it more often seriously I feel like totally reenergized and amazing. I also did something kind of crazy today! I went into a public bath! It wasn’t a crowded one but here at the hotel like before you go to get massages and stuff you can go to the pubic bath and just soak and stuff so I did it! I was kind of scared because well id be that American with big boobs and obese compared to them but it was pretty small and only like one other person there and she was like in the sauna the whole time. And I brought my towel in with me so I really was only naked when I was in the water! I wore I was never going to do that again after I was like 5 but it felt nice! I wasn’t really that embarrassed and its not like people are staring at you at them anyways. Everything is has some special mineral in it to help you relax and its supposed to be good for you and really the baths felt wonderful kind of like the hot springs. Anyways after that we went and had dinner in the hotel. I think daddy got a really big package deal or something because he got this amazing like 10 curse dinner with the room. It was amazing!!!!!! It was really home style Japanese food with tons of different flavors, sashimi, meat you cook yourself on a little burner, tons of pickles, soups, tempura, rice, octopuses, and everything that just made the meal amazing! Everything came at different times and like one bite size of everything on cute little hand made pottery dishes. I took a couple pictures but wish I could have taken more! It was by far the best meal so far in Okinawa! The setting helped a lot too. Right outside of the window of the restaurant was the small Japanese sand garden with rocks and the lines in the sand, I haven’t seen a Zen garden before like the one there and it was exciting! To top it all off it’s the 4th of july and we are right by 2 navy and 1 air force base that is having this festival called America fest for the frist time since 2002, and it’s a hugeeeee deal! So here I am writing this waiting for the fire works to come on! Everyone had a safe and fun 4th! This place is amazing and I’m so glad I could share it with my dad!


ps i just found out i missed the fire works.... wops
oh well the rest of my night was totally worth it!

good day

Today was another regular day of camp but we started this new star system where at the end of the week all the kids who got a star would be put into a drawing to pie a counselor in the face. Luckily I wasn’t one of the ones that got chosen so I was excited. After work we had a BBQ with the commander of the base it was pretty intimidate just him, his family and a couple people but it was exciting because he is the highest ranked person here on base. He is kind of the mini president of the base pretty important shit! Most people don’t even get to meet him unless they are high up. Anyway we had amazing Japanese food it was a barbeque so I had squid and sushi and little fish with their heads still on. It was fun because they had these really hot rocks and you would cook your food on it! So we sat there and hung out with him and his family for a long time. His son was sooooo hot too haha he is in the air force academy and wow …. Anyways
I’m going to bed now! because im really excited for my Dad to come tomorrow! also tomorrow is the 4th of July and i am on a marine base so it couln't get any better! Night everyone love you

bivouacked

By far the best night here so far was the most unplanned and not expecting one of all. So we wake up Saturday morning around 11 and it was raining we had planed to go to the beach but the weather seemed kind of iffy, but we ended up going anyways and im so glad we did! We took the 30 min bus to foster and then another hour and half buss to a camp called Schwab. It is the northern most base on the island and is an all men base because it’s a combat / jungle warfare base and only men can go into combat and women don’t therefore when girls come to that base it’s a big deal. Its also the most beautiful base I feel like because it is right on the water and has the really pretty beach.
When we were walking to the beach we saw about 20 guys getting out of this huge camp cargo jeep thing that I had only seen in movies. So here were these guys dressed head to toe and it was sooo hot and we were all staring at them in disbelief, they had huge backpacks that looked like they could hold almost 2 of me inside of them, they even had a bullet proof vest they were carrying on top of all of that and later we found out that those alone weight about 25 pounds! Hanging off of them there were all sorts of things bedding tents and everything you could imagine. we watched them put the back packs on they had the flip them over from the fount. I guess we were staring and they could tell we were in disbelief because of them was like “yeah this is what you need for 2 weeks in the jungle” . later we found out that they are given a map with ten points and a compass and told find all the points and when your done you can go home so they have to have enough food and clothes and everything for up to two weeks just living in the jungle of Okinawa. That blew my mind I mean I thought my backpack for the beach was heavy and we were only planning on staying for a few hours. Planning that is….
So we get to the beach lay out our stuff and almost immediately these really nice guys came up to us. Told us they had some food and stuff if we wanted to come join them or just take it and come back to our blankets just being really nice and hospitable. We kind of just laughed and said maybe later. Most of the girls ended up renting snorkel gear but I didn’t get one so everyone was snorkeling except me and Alyssa and so we were just standing on the beach and watching everyone and was like oh I wish we could and then suddenly those guys came up us and said they had snorkel gear and we could use it. So we barrowed their stuff and swam out they also swam out and we ended up talking to them for a long time just in the ocean and they were all really nice they were all around 20 and one of the guys was even from south Africa! We ended up hanging out with them all day and playing volley ball climbing rocks, finding new parts of the beach, and collecting beautiful sea shells. They took us to the gym where we showered up and get ready as we could because they invited us to go to dinner with them.. We figured we would just go to some off base place and it would be pretty cheep but we ended up going to this really fun Japanese restaurant where you get your meat and cook it yourself in front of you! It was so much fun there was 7 of us camp girls and guys and 6 of the military guys. There was one guy who was a little bit older and he was a sergeant (which is a high rank and he was telling us how he is getting promoted in a month or so and going to be a sergeant general and at that point only the president of the united states of America can fire him!) but he was so nice he paid for all of our food! And it wasn’t cheep, all they did all day was try to make us feel comfortable and welcomed. It was amazing time they even paid for our cab ride there! I couldn’t believe how hospitable they all were. After dinner we went back to the beach and they went and got some more food and stuff and sheets from their own room and we call camped out on the beach it was so much fun we stayed up late swimming in the ocean playing games and just having the time of our lives! They even though us some military lingo and camping like that is called bivouacked. So all night we laughed and played sang camp song and just had a blast I honestly could not have asked for a better night, the stars were so beautiful I swear we could see every single one in the whole galaxy. Those are the kinds of nights I live for.

rain rain and more rain

We have been hearing of tsunami warnings but it really didn’t seem real till today when the weather started getting bad. One of the groups was supposed to go to the pool today but because it was thundering and lightening all day they couldn’t go because of it. That made it a long day full of tears and “its not fair that the other kids got to go “ wining.
Anyways I guess ill take this time to tell you about some of the funny on the island. During orientation we hear that there’s something about the Okinawa vibe or water but everyone gets pregnant here. I thought they were over exaggerating but today when we went to the PX which is the target kind of a sort here on base we all realized that there must be something about the island when instead of having handicapped parking places they had “expecting mother” parking spaces. Anyways this is a short post but hopefully I can get some more pictures up soon!

living the life

Yesterday was Tuesday so that means field trip day! We went to the pineapple park/ factory it was pretty neat! The park itself was a lot smaller than I had originally thought. We walked though a maze of pineapple plants but they were really small like the size of my fist or just a little bit bigger. After the maze of pineapples there was the tasting room unfortunately we could not taste the half dozens types of wine that they made from pineapple juice. We could taste many of the plates and bisects though. They were really good and I would have loved to buy some but its kind of hard with 50 children. Another kind of funny thing that we have been noticing a lot were these huge pickle things that we have seen everywhere like stuffed animals and pictures all over the island at first we thought they were sexual and then we thought they were just pickles. I knew they were some kind of Okinawin vegetable but I couldn’t think of the name so finally when we got there they had a huge sign that said goya and then it finally clicked what these pickled shaped things were everywhere really were! After a not so brief bathroom breaks with 50 children we walked next-door to fruits land. There it was a lot of fun because there were 3 sections. There was an tropical fruits section where they had all different kinds of exotic frits. They also had a butterfly section with huge butterflies that glide around and had a path from where they emerge from their cocoons and then where they are so friend and land on you. The third section is a tropical birds one of the girls got a cup with sweet juice in it and they flew to her arm and she had two birds land on her arm and she screamed it was funny seeing all the kids screaming and stuff.
Today we worked and went to the pool with the kids for the first time but it was cut short because of lightening and thunder. That put a damper on things because we had to go back to the center.
After work our whole camp A staff went out to eat with one of the SAC (school aged center) the people that we work with staff named Justin he is 20 and was really fun. Him his girlfriend and his cousin and all of us went ot this sushi place up by foster. It was soo good many of the girls had raw fish for the first time so that was exciting I had unagi and teriyaki.. the atmosphere was great because we sat on the floor on tatami mats which are like woken mats. The place we went was supposedly the originator of the California roll. And when we asked Justin why he said they had to make something that all the marines would eat. the dinner was a blast and so fun. Everyone was cracking jokes and having a fun time. After that we went to blue seal ice cream place and I had green tea and it was amazing! It’s a famous ice cream place on the island. But now im home and its time for bed because tomorrows another 9 hour day at work!

second week of work

I can’t believe is already Monday again. Last Monday seemed like forever ago and now all I can think about is the weekend again. Mondays are defiantly the longest days but its also exciting because Tuesday is fieldtrip days so you always know its right around the corner. Today was full of stress both from the kids and other staff members. At the end of the day we all do thins thing called closing which is a serious of songs kind of a mellow and end with lean on me and god bless America. My director who is this really cool guy from Ohio just found out about a death of a close family member yesterday so when we did closing a lot of us got emotional. And in turn the kids were crying and it was just a very emotional day all around. Seeing the kids crying during god bless America made me start to tear up because listing to the lyrics it hit me hard. These kids parents moms dads and sometimes even both are in the service and a lot of them are serving over in Iraq. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know that my father or mother could die from a bomb or land mine and never to come home. Many of the kids call us mommy or daddy to the guys and one time one of the guys asked the little girl who does it the most why she does it so much. And she said, “ It is because one day my daddy went to work and never came home”. It’s just so scary to think about that these give up so much just because their parents choose to do this. When I first came here I thought working with military kids would be easier because they would be better behave and i've talked to a lot of my other staff about it as well and we both thought that originally and now seeing actuality we were completely wrong. They aren’t too bad but they aren’t as well behaved as I thought but I can understand why. Why should they trust us everyone else in their life that they thought they could rely on to be stable aren’t. Constantly moving changing stations and waking up to have their daddy gone for a year would be terrifying. I’m glad I can be here to give them some sort of support and consistency, even though I know ill be living in 2 months I hope I can make an impact on their summer.

okinawa update

I’ve been here for about three weeks now and it’s been amazing. The first two weeks were training and they weren’t too exciting but it was nice to get used to the island and such. We were at camp foster which is a larger base than the one I will be at for most of the summer. Last week we moved to kinser the base that we are staying at for the rest of the time till June 16. That was also the first week of camp. When we got to our rooms we were so excited because we each got our own room and full size bed with our own bathrooms full size fridge and big TV with wireless internet. The accommodations much better than foster because at foster the rooms were smaller than my dorms last year and had to share them with another person and then had to share a bathroom and shower with the whole floor of girls add no wireless internet. The first week of camp didn’t go as smoothly as I had originally thought but the kids are still amazing. They are full of energy and never listen but they are all working their ways into our hearts. The people I’ve met here are also amazing. I feel like I’ve known them for ever and its crazy to think that just 3 weeks ago I had no idea who they were and we were just all strangers sitting on a plane together. Keni (Mss. pebbles), katy (cheerio), Lauren (lucky), are all from UNI, talia (honey) is from Florida and Alyssa (cocoa) is from Chico and Jordan (pops) is from blowing greens and I am miss KIX. It’s crazy because right where their college is is where all the flooding is happing in the Midwest.
I already have my favorite kid and his name is Milton. He is crazy wild and always gets in rubble for being too physical with us like hugging and stuff. He also calls a lot of us mom and we found out that he doesn’t have one. And his dad is the military so probably not too affectionate and that’s probably why he craves it from us so much. It breaks my heart to see these kids sometime. And talking to a lot of the marines it’s surprising how many have been to Iraq.
Although we have been busy with working 9 hours a head Monday though Friday we have been able to do some amazing sight seeing around here. We went to okuma which is this beach up on the north side of the island about a hour and half away from us who are on the southern most tip of the island and it was amazing I went snorkeling and jet skiing and just spent the whole day there with all of the camp people from all 3 of the camps. It was so much fun!
Yesterday we went to kokusia street, which is this street that is full of shops it was so beautiful and had such crazy shops with huge penis ashtrays and weird stuff like that. I also went to this restaurant called the crocodile and had crocodile salad which tasted amazing. They even had a pet crock outside in a cage. We go on field trips every Tuesday with the kids and last week we went to the ocean expo park and that was amazing! They have 3 huge wale sharks and really crazy they had so many huge fish and we saw a dolphin show. It was kind of sad at the same time though because they were in kind of small tanks for being such big fish.
Our base is on the ocean so we can see the beach form our window but we also went to the beach today called tropical beach. It was crazy crowded but still fun.
There is so much more but I don’t even know where to start. Another random thing that we have being a lot at camp is stop and steep stuff! The little girls at camp taught us step things and they are so funny keni and Katy is really good at them but I’m still working on it.
Ill update you all more later
Love you