(Note: Written 10/5. I apologize for the delay, but power has been out every day for some amount of time, and when it is on I am typically trying to get school work done so here it is… finally)
School today was totally chaotic, in classic Samoan style. I signed in at the office, said good morning, and grabbed the daily bulletin to see what the schedule was for the day. The schedule was mostly normal with an assembly in the morning then all six classes after. To me it was the perfect schedule since it was obviously going to address the students as a group, but still have classes to resume that normality we are striving for.
The assembly was an emotional and moving time for everyone as teachers, students, and survivors took turns talking to the group about their experiences on Tuesday and their advice. There were songs, prayers, tears, and a whole lot of laughter. You know when someone makes a joke about something tragic that happened in the past, and someone comments "too soon"? There is no such thing as too soon here, as evidenced by an elder who barely survived telling his story in a way that had the students literally rolling with laughter. As I have said before, this is part of the Samoan culture and I must say it does cut the tension and the laughing really makes everyone feel better. Along with the laughter were tears, and it was interesting to see many of the speakers go between tears and laughter so fluidly. One of the most touching moments was when our acting principle spoke of how it was ok to show emotions and cry, and talked about how the tsunami has affected him. I mentioned in a previous post how he lost an aunt, but he now shared how on Friday he found out that he lost another aunt and 12 other members of his extended family in Western Samoa. As he was speaking about his lost he teared up again – and I have never heard our students so silent.
At the end of the assembly, around 10:45, Dorian announced that we were having lunch early, then the students would be going to a sharing session. This entailed the students going into any classroom that was open (as we were missing some 16 teachers) and to have a sharing discussion about how everyone was feeling about the tsunami. Thanh, Julia and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows, and knew this was going to be a hot mess.
We went our separate ways for lunch, and towards the end of lunch I had a few students come in my room to chat. No one wanted to talk about the tsunami, they were more curious about how I liked Samoa and where I came from as I didn't have these kids in my class. I ended up having a long conversation with one boy about how the book of Job applies to the current situation, and how people have to keep hope and spirits up. He then spend a good amount of time telling me about how he is getting ready to go on his Mission after he graduates this year. He is Mormon and is very excited to be assigned where he is going for his two-year mission, and hopes that he will be going to the Philippines. He is a very nice kid and it is always wonderful to hear that a student is really thinking about the direction they want their life to take after school. Once the sharing period began I had students moving in and out of my class, and we talked about this and that. At one point I looked outside my room and realized that many students were leaving and others we just milling about in the commons. However, I return to my students and keep hanging out.
Time is dragging on and we were not told when the bell was going to ring for the kids to go home. The students were confused, asking if they could leave, and I answered honestly that I had no idea either. About an hour or so had passed when I hear some yelling, and looked out in the commons to see one of our teachers yelling that all the students could leave as she was getting into her car with some other teachers to leave. I was pretty baffled because I know the rest of the school wasn't leaving, but within the next 15 minutes most of the students had left our area, and Raj and I were the only teachers still in the classroom with students in our departments. I admitted defeat and told the kids that I guess they could leave, and I myself packed up and headed to the office. I found out that the bell was ringing at two, but that apparently our departments just gave up. I found Thanh and Julia, and we called the Red Cross to see if we could help out. Turns out that they actually flew in enough volunteers from off-island, that they can't use us. With a giant "whatev…" I headed home and decided to spend the evening at Pizza Hut so that I could watch the Packers/Vikings game. It was extremely chill and it was so great to finally get to watch my first football of the season.
Tuesday dawned, and we had no idea what to expect. As we arrived we found that we were going to has classes as usual, but as my classes began I realized that there would not be much teaching as I averaged about 50% attendance. I utilized my back up plan of watching Planet Earth (thanks family!) since it was a nice way to relax, but still fit with Life and Marine Science. Just as I was thinking the day might be ok, the power went out. So there at 11 I had to devise a new plan, which ended up just being talking and hanging out. The day was horribly long, and eventually the administration sent around a memo (a kid with a piece of paper scribbled in sharpie) at 1:20 that we were dismissing at 1:45. Classy, but definitely a good idea. AS there were 14 teachers missing, we had kids wandering around and in and out of classrooms. Once we made it home, we realized that the power outage was not just in our school it reached our house too. Thanh and I made do by napping until the power came back on at 5:30.
Wednesday started much the same as Tuesday: low attendance, power out at 9:50, and tons of teachers missing. However everything changed right before lunch we heard the bell ringing the tsunami alarm. Awesome. I had a job of convincing my students that it was a real tsunami warning (I in actuality had no idea what was going on, and knowing how things roll here it could have been anything – but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry)but eventually got them all onto the malai and started moving down the road to the evacuation site. As I started walking I asked around to teachers and finally one knew what was going on and let me know that there had been a huge earthquake near Vanuatu and that there was another Tsunami warning. Eventually in the river of students I found Raj, Julia, and Thanh and we reveled in how crazy the last week has been. After chasing students out of the store (this is not time for ice cream it is a real tsunami warning! Do you remember what happened last week?!?) we made it to Fa'asao Marist where we would wait out the warning. All of our students that hadn't been picked up by family on the way were but in the assembly hall, and couldn't leave until the warning was over or their family came to pick them up. WE teachers were getting bored ourselves as were our students, and it was packed as Marist, Leone, Midkiff and St. Theresa's Elementary were all on the campus. Thanh and I managed to amuse ourselves by playing with some of the little Midkiff kids – I taught them 'Down by the Banks', which they loved – and we played that for a while.
Finally we were allowed to return to school, and the students who needed to catch a bus walked back to school with us. Lunch was ready, but the cooks had left so the administration and teachers served the food to the kids who were there, and we all went home early.
That night Thanh and I had a feeling that school would be even lower attendance the next day, and we were right – we had only about 25% of students! Obviously it was not going to be a learning day, so I again played Planet Earth for the kids in the morning, and apparently word had gotten out because even though I had only 4 or 5 kids from my class in each, I would end up with closer to 30. It was nice to have kids who were interested in learning about science for once. In the afternoon when the power was off, things deteriorated, and I ended up just chatting with the few kids in my class, and yet again we got out early. That night we were glad to have a distraction as it was John's birthday during the week so we gathered at Rubble's to celebrate.
Friday's attendance was even worse, though that is barely possible, but it managed to be. After some more of the same in the morning, we received a memo that we were getting out after lunch which we much appreciated. IT was a relief to have a break from the chaos, and it was especially nice since it was a long weekend coming up.
The school week in general was so unpredictable and chaotic, that I am sure wherever I teach next I will be hard but to be surprised or upset by any event or change of schedule. I'll just be happy to have power and water that is safe to drink.
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