Double White Sunday

(Note: Written 10/16. Still didn't post due to internet and power issues… look for the pictures for this post in the later post)

Last weekend was an extremely fun and relaxing time, and I felt much less stressed and tsunamified on Tuesday. After the crazy week of school, it felt great to have the weekend to do what I pleased, and thankfully it was very fun. On Friday we grabbed some Chinese for dinner, and later that night Jesse, Rosemary and I went out dancing. It was awesome to get back to some normal activities and try to forget about the tsunami for a while, although the DJ works at my school and lost his house, so I had some moments where the tsunami invaded even there. However the night went very well, and the Bowling Club changed its plans and now Z, the DJ, plays some really good rap. A classic moment of the night was running into one of the teachers I work with in the bathroom of the club, and after a sweaty cheek kiss we were chatting and the conversation continued as she and her friend were in the stalls. Her friend yelled that she was out of paper, and my coworker's response was, "Be resourceful, girl! Use your dress!" Jesse and I had our hands clamped over our mouths to hold back the giggles.

Saturday was a insanely wonderful day as the morning began with laying around and reading all morning, until the early afternoon when we headed ove to Taylor and Scott's "Thank-God-we-still-have-a House Party" in Amanave. We arrived in style after hitchhiking and getting picked up in our coworker's mustang, and joined the fun. It was a beautiful day, and we spent it all drinking, eating some awesome ribs and salads, and lounging in the sand. You really have to see the pics from that day. As the party wound down Taylor and Scott gave us all rides home in the back of their borrowed PICED truck, and a back-if-a-truck ride is always the prefect end to a night.

Sunday was White Sunday here in American Samoa, which is the second largest holiday here, after Christmas. In traditional Samoan culture the elders are the most respected in the family, and that is shown in day to day activities. For example, children serve adults meals before they are allowed to eat (and I mean they wait on them so when dinner starts at 6, the kids sometimes don't eat until 9), and kids are always required to do anything adults ask. It's not just obeying rules, its more like, "get me my lighter in the other room, run to the store and get me some milk, do my laundry". The reason that I bring this up is that White Sunday is a day that honors the children – this is the one day in the year that in the traditional culture the children get to eat first, receive presents, don't have to do any chores, get new white clothes, and get to perform at church services.

Thanh and I decided to go to church on Sunday so that we could see this Holiday that is a Samoan tradition. We decided on the Catholic church in Leone, as it was one of the churches that had been hit by the tsunami, and we had met parishioners – me while I was cleaning St. Theresa's which is right behind the church. We woke up and dressed in our best (or in my case, only) puletasis and started the 25 minute walk to church. As it was a stiflingly hot day, we were lucky to be offered a ride after only about 10 minutes walking. Upon reaching the church we realized just how big the holiday was as the pews were packed full, and I would say there were about 600 people attending. An usher found Thanh and I seats, and we were just in time for Mass. I was surprised to realize that years of Mass had still left there conditioning on me, and I felt relaxed and content, as well as a part of the community – even though the Mass was in Samoan. However, Mass is Mass wherever you are, so I still could follow along. After Mass there were the performances from the Sunday School students, and they were adorable. There were many songs about Bible stories, some other religious songs, and some small scenes were acted out. At the end there was a song sung in Samoan and a prayer said when a banner listing all the victims of the tsunami from the Leone area.

The whiteness of White Sunday continued in antithesis that night as our friend Kara (who is a WorldTeacher from last year) was throwing a party at her newly acquired house. This was the first time that we had really interacted with many of the other palagis on Island, and it was definitely strange to be in such large groups of nearly all palagis. The people we didn't know mostly all work as lawyers, scientists, or teachers – but it was nice to get to know some new folks. Jesse and I finally returned to her house after snagging a ride at 3:00, and were thoroughly happy that there was no school the next day.

Columbus Day I mostly slept, did school work, and watched hulu – and as a result was energized and ready for the first real week of school post-tsunami.

 

 

Bonus: One of the other WorldTeachers in an elementary school told me about this conversation that she had with her students concerning the arrival of Western explorers in Samoa due to the upcoming Columbus Day.

"Yes, so when the white explorers arrived in American Samoa they landed at what is today called Massacre Bay. The reason for the name is that because the Samoans and white people didn't understand each other and didn't know each other, there was a battle and they fought and sadly 11 of the explorers and 39 Samoans died."

A students responds, "Wait, didn't the palagis have guns?"

"Yes."

"But that's not fair."

"Very true. Um… sorry. "

 

A great example about why celebrating Columbus Day in an Island still inhabited almost entirely by its native inhabitants, who have many parallels to the Native Americans in Columbus's story, is maybe not the best idea. What happened to Indigenous Peoples Day?