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!