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!