Early Service Conference

Well, the first term is officially over.  10 weeks total and then a blissful 2 weeks of vacation.  With the Peace Corps though, our first vacation was reserved for continued training in the form of Early Service Conference.  So we got a week of vacation and then a week paid to stay in Apia for training.  For the first week, all the Peace Corps decided to head out to Manase in Savaii for a well deserved vacation and beach relaxation time.  I met up with my fellow Upolu people Lu and Millie to get on the ferry together to head out to Savaii.  This was quite an ordeal and the first time for me to do so.  The other volunteers are old pros at this point with the ferry but it was still new and exciting for me.  So as we boarded on, it became apparent that this was an extremely large ferry.  It said seat capacity was just over 250 and it holds cars as well.  Inside there was the heavenly item called air-conditioning and TVs to watch as we made the hour long trip to the other island.  The first 15 minutes or so were fairly smooth and then we hit the open ocean outside of the reefs that surround the islands.  At this point the horizon line began dipping up and down below the window and things started to make a distinct dipping motion.  Thank God I don’t get seasick because this would be the perfect time for it to show up.  And this was on the larger ferry!  I can’t imagine what it’s like on the smaller one.  Anywho, after the hour long ride we got out and met up with Kiri and Lina, two PCVs who live on Savaii.  They met us in the wharf with a “Welcome to Savaii!” sign which was wonderfully thoughtful of them.  We decided to kill a few hours by going to a nearby resort, Lucia’s, which is owned by a former PCV.  It’s a really beautiful resort that’s built on a lagoon.  Perfectly teal water that was slightly colder than the open ocean.  Great spot to relax and welcome myself to Savaii!!

Later in the afternoon, Lu and I boarded a bus with Kiri to spend a few days at her house and Millie left to spend a few with Lina.  Lu and I got the wonderful bus experience by Lu being asked to sit on my lap for the trip.  For an 1hr 45min trip, that can results in some serious numb leg and butt.  Once getting off though, it was great visiting another PCV and seeing where they live.  Kiri’s village is beautiful, right on the ocean with a huge Catholic church built there.  We were welcomed into her home by her family and then later that night after eating, went to the rock pools that her village has built.  The water was probably the coldest that I have EVER been in and once you became used to it (or numb), then your body felt cool for hours afterwards.  Great experience, especially because my village doesn’t have any of those.  The next day we headed over to meet up with all the other volunteers in Manase, a picturesque village that has beaches right off of a postcard.  We stayed in fales there that were little more than huts with mattresses and mosquito nets but honestly, anything more and it would’ve been brutally hot.  As it was, we had a nice breeze and an ocean view.

The other volunteers arrived the next day, bringing with them food for a potluck.  With 13 volunteers, that meant plenty of barbeque, chips, and other foods including my personal favorite, brownies made with cocoa Samoa (Samoa’s own cocoa mix).  The challenge of the day ended up being getting the grill started.  Grill in this case meant a metal plate balanced across two logs with coconut husks to put underneath.  Well Zach went to it with gusto and eventually got it lit to much applause and presto, we had barbeque.  I haven’t eaten that much in a long time and it was great having things that reminded me of home (Kiri brought pasta salad!).  We ended up meeting a guy who was staying at the resort at the same time and inviting him to hang out with us.  He’s from Canada but apparently just moved to Australia to start teaching there.  Well we all had a great time for two days just relaxing in the water and totally living up to the nickname of the Beach Corps.

Brad and Zach trying to get the coconut husk grill lit.

After Manase people headed in different paths for a few days before training so I decided to go with Allyson and Josh (the sole married couple in our group) to their house and hang out with them.  They live in their own house on Josh’s school compound and it’s a really cute place.  Kinda like something you’d see in the mountains of North Carolina, very cabin-esque.   We continued the food-fest by having Josh cook chicken saturated in BBQ sauce and then the next night having Mexican food.  One day Allyson even made bagels (!!).  I felt like I was in little American town right there.  Thanks Allyson and Josh for letting me hang!

Me enjoying my bagel :)

After that it was finally time to head into Apia to start our Early Service Conference.  This was actually more interesting than I had thought it would be originally.  At this point we all had 10 weeks of teaching under our belts so the sessions on teaching were much more relatable and we could think about how we would enact this in our own classrooms.  Some of my favorite sessions included Classroom Poster Design, Library Projects, and a session where local businesses came in and talked about how we can help out.  Great time!  Plus, we were all put up in the same hotel so we all got to hang out together for a week.  Won’t happen again until December so we all took full advantage of the time to go out and enjoy.  Unfortunately while I was there my backup power cord for my computer happened to break so I was really out of luck with my computer.  Luckily a week after ESC a package arrived from my dad and mom with a replacement cord so whew.  Note to any future PCVs in Samoa: if you have a Mac, bring a backup power cord!!  There’s nowhere on the island to buy a replacement.

PCVs and other aid groups during a Yoga event at ESC promoting Sexual Assault Awareness

Our Country Director's wife's legendary tirimisu

Planting trees for Sexual Assualt Awareness month at the local women's shelter

The new term started out great and went right into the swing of things on day 1 (which I hear is unusual).  I also got a wonderful surprise!  We are without a year 5 or 7 teachers so I was given the year 5 classroom to use as my own!  So all that first Monday I took to move out of the library and to decorate my new room.  I’ll take some pictures and upload at some point.  It’s great to have my own space AND to have a blackboard finally.  I’m very thankful for it.

Quick Language Lesson

Some of the vocab I’m probably using in my blog without even realizing it

Fale A house.  Notably, there’s the fale Samoa which is the gazebo like
house and then the fale palagi which is a house like we think in America.

Faleo’o A small fale

Palagi A foreigner

Pule School Principal

Faifeau Minister, Preacher, Priest

Tafao Hang out

Sole Unmarried, young, man

Puletasi Dress

Lavalava Sarong like skirt

Pisi Koa Peace Corps

And just a note, Samoa is pronounced SAH-mow-uh, not suh-mow-uh.

Samoan Videos

Vailima Pool Commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70j6QqcAuVA

The guy walking says "O a mai", "how is it/how are you"

The guy in the pool responds "Malu rag son", "cool, cold" with slang

American Samoa Oppa Gangnam Style:

It's amazing quality and totally Samoan.

Digicel:

All the best culture parts of Samoa.  Digicel is a phone company here and this is a video they put out about extraordinary Samoa.

Samoan Buses

Samoan buses are a hoot.  They’re converted flatbed trucks that look like a big wooden bus.  Usually a family will own 3 or 4 of them and operate them in a certain region.  They’ll be painted with various slogans.  I ride bright green ones with I’u O Atua written on the side.  The inside will be crammed with seats and it’s two per seat with the one on the aisle having half a buttcheek hanging off.  Once all the seats are full they’ll start sitting people on top of other people.  Usually it’s a good idea to grab a kid and have them sit on your lap.  It’s better that than someone larger.  The front of the bus on the dashboard is usually blinged up.  Upwards of 15 rear view mirrors will be displayed even though none of them can possibly be used due to the bus being crammed.  There is also usually a feathery boa along the dashboard and necklaces hanging.  Many will also hang tapestries or lavalavas from the ceiling with a good example being my usually bus driver who has a large tiger on his. 

The best way to tell if a bus is coming is by listening.  They tend to blast their music so you can hear them a good ways off.  There aren’t any bus stops in Samoa so all you do is go out to the street, chill in a nearby faleo’o in the shade until you see one coming then just wave it down.  Buses run on a very loose schedule so the general rule is to be there 30min before it’s supposed to come and you’ll most likely catch it within the next hour.  Once you get on, a guy called a supokako will take your bag to stash upfront and point out where you should sit.  This guy is responsible for getting as many people as possible on the bus and to also handle any problems (not that there are many).  Women usually sit up front and guys in the back though if you’re married it’s considered good form to sit on each others laps so that you open up another seat. 

If you’re on a bus leaving Apia you have plenty of opportunities to get food.  First off while it’s sitting in the bus depot waiting for passengers, people will be going by the windows selling food.  There’s been a crackdown recently on parents taking children out of school to sell food to bus riders.  The next opportunity is a few minutes later.  As the bus drives out of town it makes a stop at a place resembling a minimart or convenience store.  All the passengers will unload and pile into the store, loading up on snacks for the ride as well as bread and butter for the family back home.  Once you pile back in, the bus will sometimes make other stops as requested by passengers.  I’ve been in the back lot of Bluebird lumber more times than I can count as lumber gets loaded onto the bus through a door in the back and pushed through the aisle.  Sometimes baskets full of taro will be loaded up the middle of the aisle. 

Finally after all of this you’re on your way home.  The ride in and of itself is an adventure.  Going up hills you wonder if the bus will make it while going down you pray that the breaks were recently checked.

That all being said though, I really appreciate the buses.  I have one every hour in my village and they only cost 3USD to go to Apia.  I can meet new people and join in with village life.  How many other palagis (foreigners) ride the buses?  

Getting into the Groove

These last few weeks have been an absolute blur.  I’ve heard that about Peace Corps service; some weeks will feel like they’ll never end while sometimes entire months blink past.  February was certainly one of those months and with any luck the next few weeks will as well.  School has become a routine and we just finished our first term.  I retested all of my At-Risk groups and was pleasantly surprised by the growth that I'm seeing in them!    One boy in particular not only went from only knowing 3 letters of the alphabet to now 23/26, he also could pronounce all the short vowel words I threw at him (mat, sat, fat, hit, mit, lit, etc).  Malo lava David!

A few weekends ago I went to my friend Lu’s village to have a girl’s weekend.  It was a pain getting over there thanks to the buses.  I had to leave school a half hour early, wait outside for the bus which ended up being half and hour late, go to Apia, wait for another one to her village, and travel all the ways there.  All in all about 4 hours when she only lives about 30 min by car.  Bleck.  Lu lives in a village shaped as a circle around an open field which is different from mine that is in a line.  She has a whole house to herself so I got my own bedroom to crash in for a few nights.  It was also a treat to learn that she has cable TV!  This means 10 channels: MTV, BBC, CNN, 2 Bollywood, 3 Samoan, and 2 others I’m forgetting.  The Bollywood ones felt random.  For dinner we made pasta which was a treat.  In the morning we continued with the palagi eating by making pancakes in nutella and syrup.  Yum!  Her mom had mailed her some food treats and Lu was nice enough to share.  You don’t understand what a hot commodity some of those things are until you live off of chicken and ramen noodles for an entire month.  We decided to head over to Lalumanu Beach for the day.  Some guys from Apia who are returned Peace Corps volunteers came in and picked us up.  They were apparently spending the weekend in Lalumanu as well (hmmm, coincidence much…?).  So we all spent the day swimming, getting sunburned, and laughing over stories.  Definitely one of my better weekends.  It’s nice to feel a part of a group for once and it’s such a good one to be in.  I feel lucky.






My brothers are so funny.  They are always getting into mischief and it’s usually when the older one comes home from Apia on the weekends (he goes to Primary school there).  A few weekends ago I was reading in the main fale when I heard banging and laughing.  I thought nothing of it but then five minutes later when I was walking back to my fale I noticed yellow footprints all over the ground.  Following them I couldn’t help but laughing at the sight: my two brothers and the family dogs had yellow all over them.  Apparently they’d been playing in paint barrels.  Well naturally I started laughing and ran to grab my camera.  When I came back they were getting a severe scolding from my sisters and were being set to work scrubbing the paint off the driveway.  They were warning about how when my host dad got home he’d make them really sorry but he never did notice.  To this day the footprints are still there haha!

Easter was interesting.  First off, no Easter bunny.  Which was kind of a relief not seeing some creepo in a bunny suit at the ball with kids on his knee (when did that start??). Had a bunch of relatives come in from various villages.  My host dad had a bunch of sisters so they all came (four total plus their families).  It was definitely a religious holiday here, as it was in the origins.  Went to church twice (Good Friday and Easter Sunday).  Even though I still couldn’t understand lots of it I did hear the word Eseta (Easter) lots of times.  During the Good Friday service we got a performance by kids from the secondary school reenacting the crucifixion.  They walked down the aisle with a guy playing Jesus dragging the cross and three others whipping him.  From the sounds of the slapping I think they were taking their job a little too literally haha.  After service we all went back to the house and had our toonai (Sunday meal).  All the while this was going on, my family was pulling out lots of boxes of tin fish and woven mats.  Thinking something was going to happen, I walked over to my cousin and asked if someone was coming over.  “Yep, there’s a funeral today”.  Oh, well that’s news to me.  Sure enough, about an hour later cars started piling into the driveway and relatives started pouring out.  And what followed was definitely a cultural experience.  Lots of gifts were exchanged as well as money.  The favorite gifts to give in Samoa are woven mats and boxes of tin fish.  Woven mats come in various sizes and fine-ness.  For instance ones that are about 2x4 with 1 inch wide weavings are cheaper to make and are usually used for sleeping.  The ones given as gifts though are upwards of 5x15 with weavings of maybe ¼ inch.  Those take months to make and if they are sold can go for almost $10,000.  Well my family received 2 of those mats and we gifted one of ours.  The other popular gift tin fish is interesting and has a background.  Many many years ago, gifts of pigs and cows were given and often times if a fine was given it was in terms of that (i.e. 80 cows to be given to the victim).  Over time this has given way to tin fish being given instead.  When the person giving the gift calls out what they’re giving though, they don’t say “And here are 30 boxes of tin fish”, instead they still say “And here are 30 cows”.  Anyways, after the mats and tin fish the families divided up the slaughtered pigs and cows that were brought.  It was very important that every family present ended up with a part and each part had various meanings and importance.  My family ended up with two pig legs, a cow mid-section as well as the cow’s head.  It was interesting watching the young men carving up the animals while one of the relatives dictated what family got what.  Whew, it was certainly an eventful Easter weekend.

Funny and memorable tidbits:

• Being asked quite seriously if I was from Russia because I don’t like the heat
• Being locked in the school bathroom.  Who puts locks on the OUTSIDE of stalls?
• Killing my 6th centipede
• First marriage proposal (I told him “no” if any of you had any weird doubts)
• Getting bit by a dog
• My host sister exercising by running around the front lawn in circles for 5 minutes.  You go girl!  You did more than me.
• My new baby host nephew.  I’m an auntie!  Dadrian is beyond adorable and I was able to hold him when he was a mere 5 hours old.
• Giving my host brother Daniel a Batman shirt for his birthday and then having him wear a cape and zoom around the house for days.
• Sports Day at my school where “soccer” turned out to be lets throw a soccer ball at each other
• Being told “you look rather fat today”
• Watching Juno and my brother asking me if the pregnancy test was a flashdrive.
• Sitting down in school and my dress’ zipper breaks exposing my whole back.  Aaaaah that was so embarrassing…
• Yelling “GO MANU!” as the Samoan Rugby team played in the Tokyo 7s.  Did you know they're one of the best in the world?

The rush of classes

Whew, what a hectic week and a half of teaching!  As I said in my last post, groups have finally begun.  I’ve got years 4, 5, and 6 split into At-Risk, Middle, and Advanced for each year and each class has their own characters in the classes to make each interesting and unique.  They’re also all at vastly different levels!  I’m lucky if 2 out of the 9 are on the same topic.  I’m starting to feel some major respect for teachers in America who have to come up with so many different lesson plans ever single day!

Some of my favorite moments from this last week and a half at school:

• ·      One of my year 5 boys came in a gave me a Snickers bar and ran out.
• ·      I was reading a book to a year 6 girl during lunch interval when suddenly 10 others ran in wanting to hear me read. 
• ·      Watching the year 8 boys and girls dashing down the road in front of the Vice Principals car thanks to a new rule that any students behind his car (or left at school) are disciplined the next day.
• ·      My brother drawing Batman on the word poster his class was making with me
• ·      Two girls coming in and wanting to borrow books from the library to read at home (understand, this library is never used.  This is huge!)
• ·      My year 5 at risk class finally clicking with short vowels (success!!)
• ·      Two year 1s taking each of my hands as we walked back to the village after school.
• ·      My new friends Mativa and Mafa (years 3 and 4) who like to walk home with me each day
• ·      Playing JENGA with my year 5 and 6 At-Risk groups.
• ·      Walking up to school and every 10 seconds, “Good morning Michelle!” and a hearty wave, as I go by
• ·      A little year 1 coming in while I’m on break and just staring at me, smiling.  He’s the picture below, so cute!  

This is why I joined the Peace Corps, the whole reason I came to Samoa.  I love it!  I feel so extremely lucky and blessed to by placed at the school that I’m in.  My pule and teachers are wonderful and so enthusiastic about helping the kids. My pule wants me to set up a training program for the teachers for literacy and reading.  I’m beyond thrilled at how excited he is about this program.  It makes me feel wanted and needed and honestly, who doesn’t need to feel that every now and then?

Love you all in America <3  Mom, Dad, Kiersten, Redell, Lily, PAUL AND HOOKER FAMILY RELATIVES, miss you all greatly.  I received a whole bunch of letters over Christmas and when I saw the pile in my mailbox I started crying right there in the office.  Feeling the love all the ways over here in Samoa was a wonderful thing.  Even got a letter from Sweden (thanks Yuta!).  Much love, ‘ou te alofa lo’u aiga

A few random photos:

Finally got a picture of the giant black lizards.  This one came into my faleo’o while I was visting my training village family.

Nora loves to sleep in the sun.  This was a particularly cute pose.

My brother is obsessed with Batman and Ironman.  So I cut out paper to make Batman and Ironman masks.  Nevermind that mine turned out more like a cat, we had a blast!

An almost perfect rainbow as seen from the school!

School Begins!

2/6/13

Huge earthquake in the Solomon Islands about an hour ago.  Samoa is under a tsunami watch.  I have to say, I have goosebumps just thinking about it.  My bag is packed if I get the call from Peace Corps to head to the hills.  After experiencing the earthquake in Japan in 2011 I have a healthy respect and fear of tsunamis.  My mom and dad both texted within 10 minutes of each other to make sure that I’d heard about the earthquake and was keeping up to date on tsunami warnings.  I love that my parents look out for me!

Update:  Tsunami watch canceled 2 hours after being issued!


Well I’m halfway through my 2nd week of teaching!  The first week fell away in a blur with students spending the first few days cleaning the school which was sorely needed after the hurricane back in December.  The teachers lounge and the science classroom were worst hit but the rest of the school had a lot of greenery damage.  So lots of pruning and sweeping for the children!

The school that I teach at is years 1 – 8, basically the equivalent of grades 1 – 8 in the US.  The difference here is that each year is only 1 classroom of students.  We’re also short 2 teachers this year so year 3 and 4 and years 7 and 8 combine into one classroom each (that’s about 60 kids in one classroom).  There are a little less than 250 kids at my school and I’ve been assigned to hold literacy groups with years 4, 5, and 6.  The school itself is designed in a line with an outlying building that serves as a cafeteria for the teachers.  My school has a beautiful computer lab and library full of books and computers donated from sister schools in Australia.  It was fun walking into the computer room and seeing Macs from the 90s.  It felt like going back to my elementary school with the elegant curvature of the Mac computers in the bright blues and greens.  Opening up the Mac, I ruffled through some of the educational games on it and while the names didn’t mean anything to me, upon opening them up I recognized instantly some of the games that I played as a child.  It really brought back the memories.

Wednesday of the first week I began my testing of each student for their reading level.  I then broke each year into At-Risk, Middle, and Advanced groups so that I can adequately meet the different levels of capability.  I’m rather pleased with the Advanced groups in each year.  Their reading level comprehension is quite good and certainly leaps and bounds beyond my Samoan reading comprehension.  I’ve been given the Library to hold my groups in so I’m thrilled to have access to all of the books.  MESC (Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture??) recently received a grant from the US to purchase reading aid books at various levels for schools that have Peace Corps placed in them.  I’ve glanced through the books and can’t wait to use them.

         Another task I was given was taking pictures of all of the students for a student registry that the pule wanted me to type into the computer.  So I whipped out my handy dandy Sony Cyber-shot and proceeded to take pictures of almost 250 people.  It was actually a really fun exercise to do.  The guys got all cheeky and flashed “gang” signs or did over the shoulder looks haha I was cracking up.  In the end though I cropped all the pictures for just the head so it didn’t matter what they did below the neck.  My favorite group though was the 1st and 2nd graders.  They were absolutely adorable beyond belief.  One poor guy was bawling then I called his name and he quickly wiped his eyes and got up front, tears still rolling down his cheeks.  The teacher was just giggling throughout, I love her!

Finally today I finished with my testing and began my groups.  It was a relief to finally get started with my real work and to get to know the kids.  Though it is rather daunting having to learn 100 names!!  Eeeee well I have 2 years to do it.

There was a big controversy yesterday.  In parts of Samoa, the families of the village take turns to provide lunch to the teachers each day while school is in session.  Yesterday, the village council voted that that would cease to happen in my village.  The teachers are upset about this and I’m not really sure what’s going to happen in the long run.  It’s an interesting cultural aspect but it doesn’t truly matter to me one way or another.  On one hand I got delicious curry chicken from the parents, on the other I can bring my own lunch.  It’s up in the air about how this’ll turn out.

Just for funsies, heres a few of the Samoan phrases I’ve been using in the classroom!  Have fun trying to pronounce ;)

Fa’ata’ita’i mai         Repeat after me
Fa’avasega Put in order
Nofo i li’o Sit in a circle
Valivali le ata Color the picture
Moe’i’ini mata         Close your eyes
Tu’u i fafo se’evae Leave your shoes outside
Usu le pese o mata’i tusi Sing the alphabet song
Na’e malamalama i le palakalafa lea? Do you understand this paragraph?