12/1/12

12/1/12

This week has been such a rollercoaster of emotions.  Starting out, last weekend was our annual Thanksgiving dinner.  Every year it’s held at the Charge des Affairs (basically Ambassador but for a small island) house.  This year Chad is the Charge des Affairs so he and his amazing family put on a killer Thanksgiving dinner.  There was everything I’d have at home plus some Samoan things like pizza and chop suey.  This was also the first year that I’ve eaten turkey on Thanksgiving!!  Deciding to give up my vegetarian ways was for sure the best idea I did before starting the Peace Corps.  Anyways, besides the usual fare they also had over 10 types of pies plus some tiramisu that our Country Director’s wife makes.  The highlight of the evening was the homemade whipped cream.  Apparently that’s quite a rarity in Samoa.  After stuffing our selves to the traditionally hurting capacity, we spilled out onto the embassy’s grounds to play sports.  I partook in some croquet while most of the guys (American and the few Samoan boyfriends that tagged along) played football.  It was such a wonderful evening to just relax, feel American, and have a good time.

This last week we’ve finished up with our teaching practicum at the local school.  I’ve been particularly stressed over this, as I want to do a good job in front of my peers but this last week’s been hard.  It was the last week of school for the kids so they were all restless.  My favorite class through was year 7/8 (2 years are combined) with the At Risk (lower) group.  We did a lesson on onomatopias had a really great time with it.  The kids are so smart and really interested in learning.  We started out the lesson by running around and finding different sounds in the classroom by banging on things and trying to guess what the matching onomatopia is.  There are 3 boys and 1 girl in the class so they really got a kick out of it.  We ended the lesson after 30 minutes with a game of memory where we each do an action like crying and the matching onomatopia like wah wah and have to go around in a circle and remember each other’s.  They got really creative which was awesome to see.  In comparison, my last day of teaching practicum, a group which I will leave unnamed were completely cheeky and not behaving at all.  It took all I had with time outs and stern faces to get them to stop running around.  So not quite as enjoyable.
Two nights ago was the farewell To’ona’i with the local Methodist Church.  This was unlike any party that I’ve ever been to in America.  So I’ll try and do my best to explain the chain of events.  First we started with a prayer from the minister then he said “I know you’ve all been wanting to dance even though it’s forbidden, so now’s the time!”  And out came some serious rap dance music.  All the Samoan guys jumped up and came over to find partners.  Haha, it was a great start to the night.  After that song another Peace Corps Volunteer, Ally came out in the traditional outfit of the High Chief’s eldest virgin daughter and danced the Tau Po (sp?).  This involved her dancing in place while people come up and put money on her and then go and dance in the background.  When an untitled man comes up he’ll act like he’s going crazy like he’s in love with her and lay on his stomach so she can step on him.  It’s definitely a site to see!  After her dance, there was another Western club song and now it was the Samoan girls’ time to go find a partner.  Seeing how there’s only 2 unmarried guys in our group, they were certainly hot commodities.  After that began the family dances.  One song at a time, each Peace Corps volunteer would come up and dance their way onto the stage.  Their family would join them and dance around them while others would come and give money.   Usually between each family’s song they would play another Western song for us to dance to.  During one of those, it was our turn to go and find a partner!  I wasn’t feeling confident about going up to a group of guys so I found Madi’s little brother Mareko and pulled him in to dance.  He’s only 8 but oh my god he can dance!  He was right out of MTV!  I think I also made his day haha, he kept asking my to dance afterwards and was full of smiles the rest of the evening.  Halfway through the evening, the group dances began.  First there was the Samoan guys.  They did an AMAZING dance.  Half of them dance at a nearby resort so they had had plenty of practice.  It was so much fun to watch them with so much energy, especially since we know them all now.  After they went, it was our turn.  We’ve been practicing for the past 2 weeks and we nailed it!  Our timing was off slightly but damn if we didn’t look good :) It was finally time for me to do my dance with my family so up I went and danced into the center.  I had a great time with my family dancing around me and my older brother lay down and had me step on him.  I really love and felt the love from my family.  After all of the families had finished dancing, we were about 3 hours in and sweating from all the dancing but also having such a great time.  At the end, the pastor handed out gifts to all the Peace Corps.  I receive a beautiful lavalava and matching earrings.  I’m so thankful for my church.
On Saturday of this weekend, the power was out at night, which was a mixed blessing.  We couldn’t see anything that we were doing but because the entire region lost power, the night sky was beyond spectacular.  The next day on Sunday, the water was out for our village, which was not so fun.  The previous day there was a volleyball tournament in the village so all the drinks were sold out of the store.  Sunday was brutally hot so the combination of heat and no drinks made for an extremely thirsty village.  At night when it still hadn’t come back on, my family who owns the store made a trip into Apia to try and find some drinks to bring back and sell to the village.  I swear, orange soda never tasted so good before.
Saturday night was also a drama filled night.  Around 10pm, I was over playing cards in Madi’s fale with her brothers when suddenly they all jumped up and ran across the village.  Apparently the high chief’s son had gotten extremely drunk, became angered when someone told him was drunk, and came into town looking for a fight.  He picked up a rock to hit someone when some of the untitled men held him back.  Unfortunately at this point the pastor got involved trying to break it up and was punched.  The next day, the high chief’s son and his family came to the pastor to make a formal apology but the pastor rejected it.  In Samoa, most crimes are dealt with at a village level and never see a court or police involvement.  At this point when the pastor rejected the apology, a meeting of matais (elders) was called to decide the punishment.  I only found out yesterday that the punishment is 3 cows to be given to the pastor.  I think this is an extremely interesting view of law and it seems to be quite effective.
We’re leaving the village this weekend, which is so sad for me,…these 2 months have absolutely flown by.  I’m going to miss my family so much, though I know I’ll grow to love my new family just as much.  Where did training go??

November 17th

11/17/12

We have finally begun the teaching practicum of our PC training.  I’m partnered with Zach and Madi which I’m really happy about.  I mesh really well with Madi and Zach has great training in literacy training.  We’ve been going to the school nearby to teach in those classes.  I’ve been assigned years 7/8 and years 3/4.  The school is so small that there are only 3 teachers plus a principle there for grades 1-8 so the years combine and the principle teaches year 7/8.  Even though the classes are combined, the class sizes are still really small with less than 20 students in my year 7/8 class.  It makes it a great size to practice teaching in.  I’m really enjoying the teaching part.  Today when we went in, we were given teacher developed assessments of the students that put them either in the at-risk or advanced category and then he talked to us about what he’s been teaching.  He was extremely vague about his phonics lessons which makes me unsure if that’s what he’s been focusing on.  We were just sitting around so I popped up and split the class into the two groups, grabbed some books from the library and started testing the at-risk group myself.  Their reading pronunciation was fairly good, but it really broke down on comprehension of reading that they were doing.  So we decided to jump in there next week when we start our mini lessons.  I have to say, the thing that I am most nervous about is classroom management.  I’m a fairly quiet person so I don’t have that assertive personality sometimes needed to assert control but the PC has been teaching us some tricks.  In Samoa, usually the methods used are slapping on the back of the head, weeding outside, or sending outside of the classroom for the rest of the period.  I was really taken by a suggested method of reward where students earn points throughout the semester and then can cash in for different rewards such as dinner with me at my house, free homework pass, a book, or for top notch students a trip to Apia to see a movie and go to McDonalds.  None of those really cost much money and would motivate the kids.  We’ll see how it goes though, it’s all just in my head as of right now.

I absolutely adore the kids of Samoa.  There are a few that I’d like to highlight though and talk a little more about.
Amataga is my little brother and he’s 4 years old.  He’s an extremely shy boy and wouldn’t come within 15 feet of me for the first few weeks.  It turns out though that he adores laughing and loves to play certain games.   For instance, he loves to give high fives.  He’ll run up to me throughout the day with his hands raised, waiting for me to put mine out so he can slap them at full force and then dissolve into a fit of giggles.  He also likes this game where I fill my cheeks up with air and he pokes them and I make a funny noise.  Usually he’ll run around in the same shorts that are about to fall off and no shirt and then on Sunday he puts his fancy sneakers on and keeps pointing them out to me throughout church every few minutes.  He’s really creative with his toys and usually uses old bicycle wheels to roll around the fale.  My favorite so far I saw when I was visiting at Lina’s fale.  He walked past, dragging on a rope that was between his legs and about 3 feet long, a large branch that was almost 6 feet long.  It looked absolutely ridiculous and my family was laughing right along with me.  I asked afterward what it was and they said that he was playing horse.

Mareko is Madi’s little brother and is in my year 3/4 class.  He always has a goofy smile on his face.  He adores Madi and follows her everywhere.  One week when he didn’t have class he came to class with Madi and sat quietly next to her for the full 9-5 day (until he discovered our pens then kept taking them and hoarding them haha!  If you asked though he knew exactly whose was whose and gave them back).  He still comes to our school every day after his finishes around 1 and just sits next to Madi.  I’ve also seen days where Madi goes running in the afternoon and usually she’ll run past and about 10 sec past her, Mareko runs past after her in his favorite knee high socks.

Pepetua is somehow related to Alisa’s host mom.  Not quite sure the relation since she’s generally running all over the village but it’s there.  She is somewhere around age 4 or 5 and is by far the cutest kid in the entire village (which is hard to say since they’re all adorable).  She has super curly hair that’s short.  Pepetua’s favorite thing to do is to run at you full force across the village and body slam you into a hug around your knees.  She’ll then latch on and hug you across the village.  Love her!

Junior (an extremely popular name in Samoa, also shortened usually to J) is Peta’s host brother.  He’s also year 3/4, same as Mareko.  He’s taken a particular liking to me and likes to put my hand around his shoulder.  He’s also trying to look out for me and reprimands other kids if they hit my butt (a common greeting for some reason from the kids) or if they do something inappropriate.  He’s quiet most of the time but one time he found this orange wig in the ocean, put it on, and became so active it was hysterical.

There’s the boy (~age 4) whose butt crack is always showing.  The girl (~10) who wants my arm around her at all times.  The family of kids on the corner of the street who yell out MALO MASELA (hello Michelle) close to 10 times whenever I walk past.  There’s the boy (~3) who I though was a girl for the first 4 weeks until I saw him pull his pants down and pee on the door to our school.  There’s Buddha (PC nickname), the baby who has the most awesome head of hair ever.  The entire village has so many amazing children and they’re always running around.  I’m going to miss that sorely when I go back to America.  Kids always hide in their houses and if you’re a stranger and go up to them, they get freaked out.  Here, kids embrace people and you can hug kids and pick them up.  I love it!

Running Tally of Things Ants Have Swarmed:

My retainer
Mini bag of candy corn
Earplugs (both)
Chips
Inside my computer
Underwear

Site Visit

11/9/12

Yesterday, I arrived in my permanent village for a short visit of three days.  My uncle Su’a picked me up from Apia.  He speaks such good English, it was a relief for me as I was nervous enough as it was.  On the drive to my village, he raved about a new “hotel” called Lupesina so we took a detour to go and have a look.  It was one of the coolest buildings that I have every seen.  An American family moved here a year ago and bought up land that included a giant tree.  They decided to build a house up in the tree that guests could say at.  Just saying a house though barely covers it.  In the shower, the tree is a part of the wall.  One of the branches comes through the living room floor and forms a chair.  This place was absolutely amazing.  I talked to the woman for a while (she’s from Seattle!).  Apparently they are in talks to expand with other trees nearby to create a complex.  I would HIGHLY recommend this place to anyone in the area even if it’s just to look at.  After that, my uncle took me to my family’s house.  I was so nervous about meeting them but I’m so happy now.  I have 2 sisters that are about my age who are living with me.  Iseta (pronounced like Easter since that was when she was born) is going to a nearby college and Laititi (nickname Kiki) is studying to become a teacher in Apia.  I also have 2 brothers who go to the school that I’ll be teaching at.  Caleb is in year 4 and Daniel is in year 3.  My mom has an ENORMOUS garden all around the house with beautiful flowers and bushes with pineapples growing on them (which I’ve never actually seen before).  My dad seems cool and he’s got an awesome mustache.  I’m really looking forward to living with them for two years.  I also have newborn kittens in my kitchen who’ll be adorable kittens when I return in December as well as two dogs who seem friendly enough.  My Peace Corps cat should be a welcome addition.

Today was such a mixture of emotions; I’ll try to set them all down here.  When I first woke up I was so happy to be able to look outside and see the garden.  I have a large, clean room with netting to keep the bugs out.  When I went outside for breakfast though, I looked down at my plate and the food and drink all looked suspiciously like the food the I had bought as gifts for the teachers and my principle.  And unfortunately that’s what it turned out to be.  It was completely my fault for not explaining to my host family but I did have a moment of panic of what I would do.  So I scooped up the remaining instant coffee packets and took those with me.  Going to school for the first time was wonderful.  There are 8 teachers (7 female, 1 male) and a principle (male) at my school.  When I walked in with just the coffee and explained what happened they all laughed and laughed, thinking it was the funniest thing in the world.  So it all turned out okay…whew!  The teachers all seem really cool.  We sat around in the morning for awhile and I eventually asked why and they said that the principle wasn’t there yet because he was still sleeping.  That’s the thing about Samoans, if it’s raining, why go to school on time?  If you’re too tired, ehn, just keep sleeping.  It’s so chill you really have to just go with the flow.  So the teachers and I hung out while the kids had free-for-alls in the classrooms and waited for 30 minutes for the principle to show up.  Once he did, he took me aside into the library and talked with me about my project.  Apparently there was a Peace Corps here several years ago who did a lot of projects and they were hoping that I would continue.  One such project is computers.  They have a beautiful computer lab full of Macs and PCs from the 90s but nobody uses them.  Apparently no one knows how to use computers and they’re afraid that if the kids use them, then they’ll break.  So they’re just sitting there.  They asked me if I could conduct computer classes for all of the teachers.  The principle is super excited because he wants eventually to have a computer in each of the classrooms.  I’m definitely more than willing to do this; I just hope it doesn't outweigh my time with Literacy groups with the children.

Once we were done talking he took me to the classroom on the end where all the students were in and introduced me.  The kids all looked so excited and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.  They all sang and danced to welcome me and it was quite a sight to see all of them do that for me.  The principle kept talking about what an angel and a God send that I was.  I have really mixed feelings when people say that.  I know that I’m there to help the kids and I’m so excited to do that, I just don’t feel like I’m anything special.  It also makes me really nervous that I won’t live up to their expectations.  That’s just all in my mind though, so I’m sure it’ll all work out.  After that the teachers and I went to have breakfast.  Apparently the parents provide breakfast and lunch for the teachers every day.  I feel so lucky!

After breakfast it was already 10:00 so I went to each of the classrooms and had the kids introduce themselves in English with their name, age, and where they live.  It was odd because years 1 and 2 were GREAT, especially since they were only about 6 years old, and then years 3 and 4 were struggling.  I wonder why?  There were a few kids in years 7 and 8 who had had the previous Peace Corps as a teacher and were thrilled to tell me so.  Their English was quite good, especially 1 or 2 of the girls who came up afterward to talk.  After an hour, it was lunchtime so I went back out to eat (I’m going to get fat!!).  After lunch there was a PTA meeting so I got to go and introduce myself quickly to them.  The PTA is a very strong organization in Samoa with a lot of influence so it was stressed how important is was to work with them.

Now for my favorite part of the day.  After the PTA meeting, I was going to go to the library to just look at what kinds of books they had when a year 8 girl who seems to have taken a liking to me came and asked me to go to her class.  I thought the teacher wanted to see me but no, they wanted me to teach!!  The teacher was apparently taking a tea break so they were all just sitting around.  So I got to impromptu teach for 30 minutes.  I was so lost at first on a lesson so I asked what they were learning and they said past and present tense.  Once they saw I was going to teach they got all excited and rushed to the front to sit at my feet.  Haha, I had such a great time just coming up with something on the spot.  I don’t think it was the strongest lesson ever and they probably already learned the material, but they had fun doing it.

I’m really excited to begin why I’m actually here in Samoa. I want to start my Literacy and reading programs and to get to know the students.  I know I like my permanent host family so that won’t be a problem and my school is obviously thrilled to have me.  I’ll be starting in late January and it can’t come soon enough.  I’m a little bit nervous about setting up computers from the 90s but maybe once I do, I can find old floppy disks that have games on them for the kids.  I’ll have to keep that in mind for a later project.  Tomorrow I return to my training village to begin teacher training so I know I’ll attack the work with a ready heart.  Can’t wait!!

Update:  I was sitting down for dinner later this everning and my new aunt came in.  She asked if I had been to the Treehouse Building and when I said yes, she said that she had heard very sad news.  Apparently the owner’s son committed suicide earlier today by jumping off of the waterfall nearby.  I’m always saddened when I hear of someone committing suicide, but the fact that I had talked to his mother less than 24 hours before makes me feel it even more.  I am so saddened for their loss.  I couldn’t stop thinking about it last night and will have a hard time forgetting how the woman smiled when she described how her son would go around in the mornings and pick up the owl throw-up around the hotel and say how the baby burped it’s breakfast.  My heart goes out to them.

November 1st, 2012

11/1/12

The last 3 weeks have absolutely just flown by.  We’ve had a solid 3 weeks, 8 hours a day of language training and I actually feel really good about my language ability.  On Monday, I had a Language Proficiency Interview and I scored 2nd highest in my group (!!).  It’s been difficult these last few weeks and really intense, but I feel good about communicating at a basic level.  Apparently in past Peace Corps groups, they received double the time for language training that we did, but spread out through their training.  They were trying a new format this year and it seems to have been a success!  I'm happy that the language classes are over though, it was such a headache and we were always coming home exhausted mentally.

My family is absolutely amazing.  My immediate family includes my dad Fa’avale, my mom Logo, my aunts Tusi and Poto, my brother Lucky, and my two sisters Umafale and Ailine.  But the family next door does most things with us and in particular I love my little brother J (Junior) who is 6 months old, and my little brother Amataga who is 4.  My aunts are usually around in the day and do most of the things with me.  My mom and dad have another house that they’re in during the day and come and visit us at night.  During the 2009 tsunami, the village of Utulaelae was destroyed and everyone rebuilt their houses in the hills higher up.  Last year, the Peace Corps approached the matais (village elders) of the village and proposed to use Utulaelae as the next training village for volunteers.  The village agreed and decided to rebuild the entire village next to the ocean where it was originally located.  So over the next few months the site went from being occupied by 3 people, to over 100.  Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe that there was nothing there just a few months ago.  There is a store and a church, and beautiful houses.  The only thing indicative of recent rebuilding is the absence of gardens.  Samoans are very proud of their gardens and Utulaelae has none currently.  My family is really loving so I feel really lucky to have them.  My mom is also an amazing sewer.  She made me a puletasi (traditional dress) every day for the first 2 weeks to wear to school and they’re absolutely gorgeous.  I feel lucky to have such a large collection of them.  I also have in my family a dog named Devil and a kitten named Tili.  For the most part my family ignores them but I’m happy since I have a kitten that sleeps on my feet every morning at breakfast and a dog to keep guard over my house as I sleep and also has the most GORGEOUS yellow/gold eyes.

Samoans have a very interesting view on dogs.  The saying goes that Samoan dogs don’t eat food, they eat rocks.  This is because people are always throwing rocks at the dogs.  And not without good reason unfortunately as we saw on the first day when Madi got attacked by a pack.  It’s been difficult for me to view dogs differently over here.  I see a loving pet who is attempting to come in out of the rain and they view them as flea infested animals trying to come in a steal food.  Both views are right in a way and it’s hard to find a middle for me.

On that note, I’ve inherited the Peace Corps cat!!  Two groups ago, a Peace Corps volunteer adopted a cat and was unable to take her home, so gave her to a member of the next group.  I’ve become the lucky recipient of her this round so I’m thrilled to be receiving a spayed, flea-free, litter box trained cat.  A ready friend for entering my new family in December.

Last week, we made a trip out to To Sua Trench.  Some of the members from the previous Peace Corps group came out to show us around so it was awesome getting to talk to one of them.  Chelsea is in the same district as my new village (though I hadn’t learned of my placement at the time!)  To Sua’s a really gorgeous place that you can climb down a steep ladder and go swimming.  It’s basically a blowhole that had it’s top blown off and is now open.  There are caves on either side that you COULD go swimming into, but it’s highly cautioned against.  This is mainly because while it does go out to the ocean, the tunnel splits into 3 at one point and you have to make a correct guess in order to come up for air.  NO THANKS!  The current inside the swimming area was crazy strong but it went left, right, left, right so you didn’t have to worry about being sucked out.  After the caves we went to the beach next door that had actual blowholes as well as gorgeous coral and caves that you could look down into.  Really a beautiful side of Samoa that I hadn’t seen yet.  Mark it down family!  We’re going to it when you come out here :)

This week we returned to Apia for a few days in preparation for site visits later in the week.  Tomorrow I’m heading out to my site for three days to visit my future family and to see the school that I’ll be working at.  I’m really nervous that I have to rebuilt bonds with another family but also so so so excited to see the place that I’ll be working at for the next two years.  We passed my village on the drive into Apia and it was exciting that everyone got a peak at my village!  We all kept trying to guess which house was mine but we’ll see tomorrow :)  I apparently have a host mom and dad, and 5 sisters all about my age.  I’ve heard my mom has one of the largest gardens in the area so I can’t wait to see it!  I’ll be living in a western style house with my own room, kitchen, toilet room, and shower room.  From what I’ve heard it’s a gorgeous house and a sweet family.  Can’t wait!

Today was also Election Day in the USA!  We all went to Aggie Grey’s, a famous hotel in Apia, and watched the results coming in.  GO OBAMA!  It was exciting watching the results in another country with other expats coming and going while it was on and throwing out comments haha.  Especially the older guys from New Zealand who had no idea what was going on, “I hope your chap wins!”  From what I can tell, everyone in my Peace Corps group is democrat except for maybe 1.  It’s an interesting dynamic from my college I went to haha.

I have a lot of journal entries that I’ve been writing while in the training village but unfortunately forgot all of them in the village!!  So when I come into Apia again I’ll make sure to post them but for now, sorry!

Halfway Through Training!

The last 3 weeks have absolutely just flown by.  We’ve had a solid 3 weeks, 8 hours a day of language training and I actually feel really good about my language ability.  On Monday, I had a Language Proficiency Interview and I scored 2nd highest in my group (!!).  It’s been difficult these last few weeks and really intense, but I feel good about communicating at a basic level.  Apparently in past Peace Corps groups, they received double the time for language training that we did, but spread out through their training.  They were trying a new format this year and it seems to have been a success!  I happy that the language classes are over though, it was such a headache and we were always coming home exhausted mentally.

My family is absolutely amazing.  My immediate family includes my dad Fa’avale, my mom Logo, my aunts Tusi and Poto, my brother Lucky, and my two sisters Umafale and Ailine.  But the family next door does most things with us and in particular I love my little brother J (Junior) who is 6 months old, and my little brother Amataga who is 4.  My aunts are usually around in the day and do most of the things with me.  My mom and dad have another house that they’re in during the day and come and visit us at night.  During the 2009 tsunami, the village of Utulaelae was destroyed and everyone rebuilt their houses in the hills higher up.  Last year, the Peace Corps approached the matais (village elders) of the village and proposed to use Utulaelae as the next training village for volunteers.  The village agreed and decided to rebuild the entire village next to the ocean where it was originally located.  So over the next few months the site went from being occupied by 3 people, to over 100.  Looking at it now, it’s hard to believe that there was nothing there just a few months ago.  There is a store and a church, and beautiful houses.  The only thing indicative of recent rebuilding is the absence of gardens.  Samoans are very proud of their gardens and Utulaelae has none currently.  My family is really loving so I feel really lucky to have them.  My mom is also an amazing sewer.  She made me a puletasi (traditional dress) every day for the first 2 weeks to wear to school and they’re absolutely gorgeous.  I feel lucky to have such a large collection of them.  I also have in my family a dog named Devil and a kitten named Tili.  For the most part my family ignores them but I’m happy since I have a kitten that sleeps on my feet every morning at breakfast and a dog to keep guard over my house as I sleep and also has the most GORGEOUS yellow/gold eyes.

Samoans have a very interesting view on dogs.  The saying goes that Samoan dogs don’t eat food, they eat rocks.  This is because people are always throwing rocks at the dogs.  And not without good reason unfortunately as we saw on the first day when Madi got attacked by a pack.  It’s been difficult for me to view dogs differently over here.  I see a loving pet who is attempting to come in out of the rain and they view them as flea infested animals trying to come in a steal food.  Both views are right in a way and it’s hard to find a middle for me.

On that note, I’ve inherited the Peace Corps cat!!  Two groups ago, a Peace Corps volunteer adopted a cat and was unable to take her home, so gave her to a member of the next group.  I’ve become the lucky recipient of her this round so I’m thrilled to be receiving a spayed, flea-free, litter box trained cat.  A ready friend for entering my new family in December.

Last week, we made a trip out to To Sua Trench.  Some of the members from the previous Peace Corps group came out to show us around so it was awesome getting to talk to one of them.  Chelsea is in the same district as my new village (though I hadn’t learned of my placement at the time!)  To Sua’s a really gorgeous place that you can climb down a steep ladder and go swimming.  It’s basically a blowhole that had it’s top blown off and is now open.  There are caves on either side that you COULD go swimming into, but it’s highly cautioned against.  This is mainly because while it does go out to the ocean, the tunnel splits into 3 at one point and you have to make a correct guess in order to come up for air.  NO THANKS!  The current inside the swimming area was crazy strong but it went left, right, left, right so you didn’t have to worry about being sucked out.  After the caves we went to the beach next door that had actual blowholes as well as gorgeous coral and caves that you could look down into.  Really a beautiful side of Samoa that I hadn’t seen yet.  Mark it down family!  We’re going to it when you come out here :)

This week we returned to Apia for a few days in preparation for site visits later in the week.  Tomorrow I’m heading out to my sight for three days to visit my future family and to see the school that I’ll be working at.  I’m really nervous that I have to rebuilt bonds with another family but also so so so excited to see the place that I’ll be working at for the next two years.  We passed my village on the drive into Apia and it was exciting that everyone got a peak at my village!  We all kept trying to guess which house was mine but we’ll see tomorrow :)  I apparently have a host mom and dad, and 5 sisters all about my age.  I’ve heard my mom has one of the largest gardens in the area so I can’t wait to see it!  I’ll be living in a western style house with my own room, kitchen, toilet room, and shower room.  From what I’ve heard it’s a gorgeous house and a sweet family.  Can’t wait!

Today was also Election Day in the USA!  We all went to Aggie Grey’s, a famous hotel in Apia, and watched the results coming in.  GO OBAMA!  It was exciting watching the results in another country with other expats coming and going while it was on and throwing out comments haha.  Especially the older guys from New Zealand who had no idea what was going on, “I hope your chap wins!”  From what I can tell, everyone in my Peace Corps group is democrat except for maybe 1.  It’s an interesting dynamic from my college I went to haha.

I have a lot of journal entries that I’ve been writing while in the training village but unfortunately forgot all of them in the village!!  So when I come into Apia again I’ll make sure to post them but for now, sorry!

Last Days in Apia

A few nights ago was women’s night for training so some women current volunteers took us to one of their houses and cooked for us!  They made lasagna, crab and mango salad, and cheesecake for desert.  They warned us that we wouldn’t appreciate right now how much we would miss those foods in a few months and this was certainly unusual to eat them.  They talked with us about the culture for women in Samoa, how to deal with certain scenarios, and what and what not to do.  It left me with a mixture of relief and apprehension.  Some of the things that they mentioned are: always wear your hair up while in public, don't tell a male teacher no if they ask you to do something until you gain rep, don't look men in the eye or they think you're coming on to them.  But on the other hand, because we are women, our host families are extra protective of us and go out of there way to ensure that we are safe while living with them.  That makes me feel good :)  It'll be like having a second family.  So I guess in the end I feel really good.

On that note - I'm moving in with my first host family today when we move to Utulaelae Village!  I’m definitely nervous – how has this first week already finished?!  I won’t have ANY internet while I’m there, so I may be out of contact for close to 6 weeks.  We were told that several host families have showers without walls, out in the middle of the yard.  So all the women yesterday went into one of hotel rooms and Leata, our language teacher, taught us how to shower while wearing a lavalava.  She was an absolute riot, singing, and going on and on about how she loves showers.  It’s quite an intricate process, holding out from your body to use soap, then not flashing, and then rinsing.  It was funny watching her since she was hysterical, but at the same time I’m so nervous if I get one of those host families.  I’m sure I’ll get it eventually, but for right now I’ll probably flash a few times by accident before I get it haha.

Language training has been going great!  We’ve been making sure that we have the alphabet down and knowing what the word is when someone says it.  We’ve also learned our first basic greeting conversation!

Talofa                                          Hello

Talofa Lava                                 Hello to you

Oa mai oe                                    How are you?

Manuia fa’afetai, ae a oe?            I’m good, thanks, how are you?

Manuia fo’i fa’afetai                    I’m good as well

So I feel accomplished :) haha though if I said it to someone on the street they’d probably stare because it’s kinda formal. 

Last night we had a welcome fiafia (party) put on by the outgoing volunteers.  They did AMAZING traditional dances for us and put on a fashion show of different types of clothes and styles of wearing the lavalavas.  Afterwards, we all went down to the pool and there was a firedancer!  Absolutely AMAZING (and gorgeous).  Had my definite first time of “flirting” though for when he first came out, he paused and said, “Can Michelle come spend time with me afterwards?”  Legit.  Everyone turned and looked at me.  Aaaaaah that was nice :) …of course though, I couldn’t go and talk to him since the gossip probably would’ve reached my new host family before I even got there.  But it was nice anyways.

I’ve become the official seamstress of the group.  Karen, our operations officer, lent me her sewing machine.  A bunch of us have bought fabric for lavalavas and so I’ve been hemming and adding tie strings to them.  For those of you who don’t know, lavalavas are a piece of fabric about 2 yards long that you wrap around your waist.  They’re in gorgeous, vibrant colors so I’ve had a fun time picking mine out.  Another piece of clothing that you find here in Samoa is the puletasi.  They are formal outfits, though all teachers wear them to school.  They consist of a lavalava skirt bottom, then a top of the same or similar fabric.  They’re really beautiful, but the former volunteers warned that they’re wicked hot.  I’ve managed to snag two of them from a donation box that former volunteers put unwanted ones into.  They’re not the most pretty ones but I needed one for the move into the training village.  Apparently our host families will lend us dresses for the first few weeks of teaching while we work up our own collection.  There’s a huge mix of designs from large ruffles, to off the shoulder, to shorter skirt.  So we’ll see what I end up with eventually.

View of our hotel

My friend Angelina and I

Rhoda, my security trainer

Sorry this entry was so long!  A lot has happened in the last few days.  I’ll keep a diary over the next few weeks then once I get internet I’ll upload a few at a time.  So I’ll talk to you all in a few weeks.  Bye!

First Days in Country

Talofa everyone!  Malo!  I have had an amazing last few days since I left the US.  The flights were certainly the least enjoyable part with closer to 24 hours straight traveling.  I got to watch a few good movies though (Prometheus was amazing)!  I also officially never experienced October 6th because of the time zones haha.  As we were landing, the view of the island was spectacular!  The waters were gorgeous turquoise and the ocean came right up to the runway.  The airport itself was so small that the plane pulled right up next to the only terminal.  We walked off of the plane onto the runway and there was a big crowd welcoming us to Samoa including handing us leis of welcome.  Once we went inside, it was so funny seeing the terminal!  It was basically a two-room building where one was customs and the other was baggage claim/check in.  It was wonderful though because in the baggage claim area, there was a live band playing tradition Samoan music!!  Very very cool, and we all felt so welcomed.

The bus ride into Apia was such a wonderful experience!  We drove about 45 minutes through small villages that basically ran into each other, creating one long “village”.  There were no downtowns, no supermarkets, no fast foods, it was kind of refreshing.  As we drove past groups of people, they all waved to us and shouted “Talofa!” (hello!).  Because it was a Sunday, people were all resting either in their open Fales (traditional houses with no walls – think giant gazebo), lounging in their rock pools, or sitting on their house steps with their families.  Once we arrived in Apia, there unfortunately was no time for resting our poor jet lagged bodies.  We went right to our hotel for our welcome orientation followed by a welcome pizza party (I know, I know, I’m in Samoa!  How dare I eat pizza??  But it was darn good….).   That night in my fale with my roommate Angelina, we had our first bug encounter.  Our screen door wasn’t fitting all the way and a giant wasp looking thing flew in!!  Aaaah so of course we couldn’t sleep for thinking about it.  Luckily there was a handy bug spray sitting in our room.  Once we sprayed it though, the thing just got angrier!!!  Luckily after 5 minutes of dodging it, the thing twitched and fell to the floor (whew).  After that little incident, I went right to bed and didn’t move once until morning.

Yesterday was a huge day full of so many activities!  Morning started with the coldest shower of my life.  I thought that for sure if I just went into it, it’d all be okay but nooooo.  So after a few minutes of gasping, I finally gave up shaving and called it quits.  The first activity of the day was the Ava Ceremony, officially welcoming us to the village.  The village chief and head families as well as the top people in the Peace Corps Samoa came.  Apparently this is a ceremony that happens all over the island when a visitor comes, for if you don't participate in it, then you’re not welcome in the village and not respected by those in it.  Basically you listen to lots of speeches from local chiefs.  At the end of the speeches, one at a time we say “Lau ava lea le atua” then drink from a coconut shell that contains the Ava drink.  Interesting thing about the drink is that a sip makes your tongue go numb and drinking too much of it can make you go temporarily paralyzed.  Needless to say, we were all excited to try it!!  It definitely stood up to its reputation.

After the ceremony, our official training began with safety, medical (first lesson being diarrhea!), and basic language training.  All of our teachers are such amazing people.  All except two of them are Samoans and boy do they love to smile and laugh, it’s so comforting!

One point that all the teachers tried to emphasize was about the local dogs in Samoa.  They are apparently not the nicest and will take to ambushing walkers or packs of them go after joggers.  They suggested taking rocks and throwing them at the dogs while shouting “Halu!” to keep them away.  This is such a hard thing for me to fathom and so sad.  Since I’ve fostered dogs for awhile now, it saddens me greatly to see a nation of dogs that are forced into this behavior by people’s hatred and fear of them.  One side project I hope to work on for myself is to try and rehabilitate at least one dog at my permanent site.  I’d love to show my host family the other side to dogs that they don’t see.  On the dog note though……..we were walking back from training to our hotel and a group of 5 dogs jumped out of the bushes, biting one girl pretty severely.  They were chased off, but wow.  I think I’ll have to be careful of the pack mentality and try to befriend single dogs.  I talked to a Peace Corps Volunteer about this who came and talked with us today.  She brought in a dog as a puppy and raised it while she was here.  It’s an idea.

Today I had the wonderful experience of getting my mobile phone up and working.  I’ve successfully had a call from the US and am looking forward to many more in the future.  Our group also decided to walk down to the sea wall just nearby the Peace Corps office.  We got our first good view of the harbor in Apia and it was absolutely gorgeous.  Samoan people were sitting on the walkway around the harbor and enjoying food and company so we felt right at home doing the same.

Bay in Apia

I’m getting more and more excited about our training village that we all are moving to this Saturday and will be in for 3 months.  The village is picturesque beauty so I’m particularly psyched to go snorkeling.  We’re also getting our first host family on Saturday so I have to admit I’m a little nervous about it.  The likelihood of them speaking English is very low so it’ll be difficult at first because I don’t speak any Samoan but they’ll become a great resource after a few weeks of training.

Still getting used to the humidity – check back with me next week if I’m managing better :) I’ve been told you adjust over time.

View from our training room

LA Orientation

Here I am, writing this at the end of orientation.  In just a few hours we'll be leaving for the airport and boarding a plane that will eventually lead to Samoa.  Orientation has been a whirlwind introduction to the Peace Corps.  Besides the wonderful 13 people going to Samoa, we also met 30 new volunteers going to Vanuatu.  

It's been wonderful finally meeting everyone that I'm going to be spending the next 2 1/2 years with!  The picture to the right is everyone (minus one person) that's going to be in my group!  It's amazing that we can all fit at one table.  Everyone is so amazing and chill, I feel so lucky to be around a great group of people.  

A group of us decided to go to Subway for our last dinner in America last night.  We all stared at the ingredients, making oh so careful choices on what we would eat for our last dinner.  Not the best restaurant but mmmmm it tasted so good.

It was odd for me packing my luggage (again) and thinking that the next time I would open it, I'd be doing so in Samoa.  I think it's finally hitting home that I'm in the Peace Corps!!

The goodbyes at the airport were tough, and tears were definitely shed during and after.  I'm so lucky to have such a supportive family.  I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Onwards to Samoa~

The Time Has Come

Bags are packed, camera charged, goodbyes said, and final hugs given.  It's time to move on to this exciting adventure and I'm more than ready!

Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family for being so supportive of me throughout this grueling application practice.  Without constant encouragement, I don't know if I could've made it through such a long process.

My flight leaves at 11:00am tomorrow morning and I'm such a mixed ball of emotions.  I'm excited, nervous, sad, and full of anticipation.  Who knows what the next few years let alone few months hold, but I'm ready for it.

Good bye!  Tofa soifua!

Last Minute Details

Only 9 days to go until I leave my home for 27 months.  It's so hard to believe, I don't think it's truly hit me yet about the distance, nor about the length of time.  I just finished a call with the country director, Dale, and we talked for a bit about some minor details.  One of the biggest things was that Samoa is considering changing from a 3-term school year to a 4-term one.  This will affect the vacation times that I have.  Not that it matters particularly to me, but if any of you are wanting to come out to visit, double check when my vacations are!

I've already laid out so many things in Kiersten's room.  I guess it's easier to stage if I don't have to trip over everything in my own room.  I'm so worried that I'll forget something!!  Mailing takes forever so it'd be several weeks if I do forget something.  Aaaaah I'm sure I'm just over thinking things.

9 days to go!

28 Days and Counting

Only 28 days to go until I leave!  So much has happened in this last month since I've updated.  I've connected with 7 out of 14 people in my group and they're all really sweet people.  One of them started a Facebook group for Samoa group 84 so we are slowly but surely congregating.  It's been wonderful to begin talking with the people that I'll be serving the next 27 months with and to share our fears and questions with each other.

I also received my introductory CD in the mail.  Included in this is my first language lesson, my teaching homework, pamphlets on grammer and teaching, and an introductory slideshow on Samoa.  It was funny looking through the slideshow because some of the pictures had people in them from blogs that I'd remembered reading.  The language is definitely different from what I've learned in the past.  It was a whole bunch of vowels and repeating sounds in the words.  For instance, fa'amolemole is please and "O ai lou igoa?" is "what is your name?" Love it!  It's definitely fun learning something new like this.  Though I have to admit, I'm slightly worried about living with the first host family with a limited vocabulary.

My flight to LA is all booked.  I'm leaving on October 4th, at 11am.  All the Samoan Peace Corps volunteers'll be meeting in LA for two introductory days then straight onto Samoa.  It's so hard to believe that the time is coming up, and yet it also seems so far away.  I'm ready to begin this next part of my life but I'm also sad that I'll be away from my family for so long.  The Peace Corps is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time, but that doesn't mean that I won't miss my family and friends.

This next month will involve me trying to memorize as many introductory words as possible, finish buying items to bring with me, and spending as much time with my family and friends as possible.  I have a feeling that this time will fly.

28 days until I depart!

Family Backing

My family is incredibly supportive of me entering the Peace Corps.  My parents, while sad that I will be  leaving, are aware of the huge opportunity that I am being offered.  They have offered to to visit throughout my two years and to ensure I'm always supported.  I'm incredibly lucky.

At my recent family reunion, my relatives showed amazing support for me as well, though through one certain, odd way.  They had all the relatives take pictures of their best "Samoan" pose.  And by this I mean they all had no idea what a Samoan pose was and decided to make things up to amusing and great results.  I LOVE MY FAMILY!  If nothing else, they certainly know how to have a great time and how to be incredibly supportive to us all.

My sister and I 

1 month and 28 days until I depart!

Beginning of the Adventure

It seems that time has absolutely flown these past few weeks.  After almost a year and a half since I first began my Peace Corps application, I have finally received my assignment!  I am officially going Samoa, leaving on October 5th, 2012 and returning December 15th, 2014.  I will be teaching English to kids somewhere in the range of 5th and 7th graders.  So after many months of not knowing anything, I can't believe I finally know.

There were lots of obstacles on the journey to date.  Many many months ago, I had originally asked for a start date of May 2012.  However, my back had begun to have serious problems and because of that, I had to go see a chiropractor, which unfortunately pushed my start date back to October.  To think back at that now however, I'm really happy that I moved the date.  Not only did it allow me time to heal my back, but in the interim I got to visit my sister in Italy, take a camel ride in Morocco, see all my relatives at a family reunion, and earn extra money at a part-time job.  So it all definitely worked out in the end.  Another obstacle that I ran into was a health scare on my urinalysis.  Results came back that I was positive for ketones and the Peace Corps asked me to run another test.  I happened to look ketones up online and they show up either when you are diabetic or starving.  So the worst thoughts flashed through my mind that I was becoming diabetic!!  I had a long talk with my doctor however and he believes that it was just because I hadn't eaten that morning.  So I ate, took another test, and voila!  No ketones.  So lesson here is: always eat breakfast kids!

The way that I learned my assignment was rather interesting.  I was on vacation in San Francisco with my dad and uncle Scott and we were meeting my uncle Dirk and aunt Lisa for breakfast.  I got a call on my phone and suddenly there was a Peace Corps nurse!  She said something along the lines of, "Because of your assignment in Samoa, I just wanted to double-check that you're okay with the strong possibility of earthquakes" and I was standing there going "wait, WHAT?  Samoa?  Hold on, is this my assignment?"  Apparently they had thought that I'd gotten the assignment announcement already.  Anyways, after I hung up the phone with her, my assignment contact called and told me my assignment.  At this point I was THRILLED to be hearing news about where I'd be going.  Unfortunately we had already made plans to tour around all day so by the time we got back home, I was DYING to know about Samoa and researched for several hours.  I'm beyond thrilled about my placement and can't wait to arrive at my new home for the next 27 months.

2 months and 2 days until I depart!