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Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Settled In
This past week I finally started feeling like I was settled in. My house is starting to truly feel like home, and my classes are becoming more intimate as I am learning the students’ names and their personalities. Every day I am getting to know the staff and school better, as well as my roommates and friends. It feels nice to be settling into a routine again, especially since we have been flying by the seat of our pants for weeks now. The only downside to this is that my blogging is going to become less interesting, as I haven’t had any near death experiences recently. I’ll try to spice it up.
This week at school I have been having much less issues with management as the students are getting used to their schedule and how my classroom runs. It was nice to finally see some learning being done, even if it was still a major adjustment to realize how behind the students are. Thursday once again became our fun group dinner rout night as we met again at Rubble’s to chat about our weeks, and celebrate that the weekend was almost upon us. Friday was a extremely interesting day at school because I got laid. Oops sorry, I mean leid, as we had an assembly to introduce the teachers and welcome the new teachers. Along with introducing all the teachers and staff, there was some serious class competitions going on seeing which class could do the best cheers (always better than kids in the US). However Leone High School has a very interesting way of inducting their new teachers. I will now relate how our vice principle, Dorian aka “Viper” began the inducting:
(All 900 students are assembled in the open air gym sitting on the floor by class. Dorian stands in front of the student with the microphone)
“Alright, now is the time were we induct our new teachers. So what we are going to do is we are going to play some jams, and the new teachers have to come up and just let loose and get down!”
We all look at each other with raised eyebrows as some Samoan R&B starts blaring out of the speakers and our names are called.
“Come on Thanh, Raj, Kate, Ben, Julia! It is tradition!” Dorian yells.
So with resigned sighs and apprehensive Why-the-hell-not-let’s-just-embrace-it looks we head front and center and start getting funky. The kids are cheering and laughing and having a great time, and we all get really into and just get down. Dorian soon pushes us out further in front one at a time for our solos, and soon the seniors are running up and dancing with us (or should I say up on us?) which causes us to laugh hysterically as the kids are going absolutely crazy cheering and laughing at our palagi ways. Ben goes 100% crazy and looks like he is having a seizure, and his football boys love it!
After all the dancing we are all laughing and surprisingly not embarrassed. While a few years ago that might have been might have been my worst nightmare, now it just made me feel like I was really a part of the school and officially let loose. As Raj and I walked back to our end of the campus at the end of the assembly every few seconds we heard “nice dancing!” and could tell the kids loved it, even if our dancing was more funny than actually good.
Now all jived up on school spirit, Thanh, Julia and I headed into town to hit up the library for some decent internet and to return and checkout new books. After some sweet internet time, I was finished and as I was waiting for the others I decided to sit in a fale by the harbor and read the book I just checked out. Some things are so relaxing.
After grabbing some delish Chinese food we headed to the football game in Tafuna where we were facing last year’s champions (and cheaters as their coach legitimately paid the ref to make calls in favor of their team. Like I said corruption here is a little crazy) Faga’itua. Sadly both our JV and varsity lost pretty miserably, but we are hoping next week against Tafuna will be better. Even with our team losing, and the teams not having the best technique you can’t help but marvel at some of the pure talent that the kids have.
After the game we said goodbye to other WT folk we had met up with at the game, and headed back home to Leone with Julia and Rosemary to do some star gazing at sliding rock. It was a beautiful clear night, and we carried two foam mattresses all the way to the beach and laid down to watch the stars.
You seriously can’t imagine how awesome the stargazing is here! It was a new moon the night before so it was dark, and the milky way stretched out brightly across the whole sky. There were more stars than I have ever seen before, and in the course of the few hours that we were there we say easily 20 big shooting stars while we talked about life and such. Incredible.
Saturday brought an morning of sleeping, reading and relaxing that was much needed after a busy week, but at around 2:30 we headed out to our school Staff party at my department head’s house. Ben was sick, so he couldn’t come which was a bummer, but Thanh and I made our way over, but ended up stopping in the home ec department to help make some of the food. After some helping we made it to the party and hung out with staff and teachers just chatting and the like. Dinner was some traditional Samoan umu as well as some other delicious dishes and you cannot believe how high people stack their plates! We tucked in and soon were full and happy. After the food the dancing started, and for the second time in as many days we were made to dance again in front of everyone, but we are getting pretty used to that. The party was a fun time, and definitely laid back to the point of my department head saying.
“Kate, I am ordering you as your department head to drink some rum!”
Which was nice as he knew that was my drink and got some special. After the festivities died down a bit we headed into town to meet up with our other WT friends who were having dinner. Long story short (too late…) about 17 of us ended up down at Malio Mai dancing the night away, some having a little more fun than others…
Today at our house we buckled down and got to work, and I actually have planned the next two weeks for my classes which is insane considering how much I usually procrastinate. That leads me to the present moment where I am in Kelly and Raj’s house typing this and using their internet, finally ready for the next week.
Note*** It is now Wednesday, and I finally have internet again to post.***
I would kill for some internet... Salu come home!
Peace.
This week at school I have been having much less issues with management as the students are getting used to their schedule and how my classroom runs. It was nice to finally see some learning being done, even if it was still a major adjustment to realize how behind the students are. Thursday once again became our fun group dinner rout night as we met again at Rubble’s to chat about our weeks, and celebrate that the weekend was almost upon us. Friday was a extremely interesting day at school because I got laid. Oops sorry, I mean leid, as we had an assembly to introduce the teachers and welcome the new teachers. Along with introducing all the teachers and staff, there was some serious class competitions going on seeing which class could do the best cheers (always better than kids in the US). However Leone High School has a very interesting way of inducting their new teachers. I will now relate how our vice principle, Dorian aka “Viper” began the inducting:
(All 900 students are assembled in the open air gym sitting on the floor by class. Dorian stands in front of the student with the microphone)
“Alright, now is the time were we induct our new teachers. So what we are going to do is we are going to play some jams, and the new teachers have to come up and just let loose and get down!”
We all look at each other with raised eyebrows as some Samoan R&B starts blaring out of the speakers and our names are called.
“Come on Thanh, Raj, Kate, Ben, Julia! It is tradition!” Dorian yells.
So with resigned sighs and apprehensive Why-the-hell-not-let’s-just-embrace-it looks we head front and center and start getting funky. The kids are cheering and laughing and having a great time, and we all get really into and just get down. Dorian soon pushes us out further in front one at a time for our solos, and soon the seniors are running up and dancing with us (or should I say up on us?) which causes us to laugh hysterically as the kids are going absolutely crazy cheering and laughing at our palagi ways. Ben goes 100% crazy and looks like he is having a seizure, and his football boys love it!
After all the dancing we are all laughing and surprisingly not embarrassed. While a few years ago that might have been might have been my worst nightmare, now it just made me feel like I was really a part of the school and officially let loose. As Raj and I walked back to our end of the campus at the end of the assembly every few seconds we heard “nice dancing!” and could tell the kids loved it, even if our dancing was more funny than actually good.
Now all jived up on school spirit, Thanh, Julia and I headed into town to hit up the library for some decent internet and to return and checkout new books. After some sweet internet time, I was finished and as I was waiting for the others I decided to sit in a fale by the harbor and read the book I just checked out. Some things are so relaxing.
After grabbing some delish Chinese food we headed to the football game in Tafuna where we were facing last year’s champions (and cheaters as their coach legitimately paid the ref to make calls in favor of their team. Like I said corruption here is a little crazy) Faga’itua. Sadly both our JV and varsity lost pretty miserably, but we are hoping next week against Tafuna will be better. Even with our team losing, and the teams not having the best technique you can’t help but marvel at some of the pure talent that the kids have.
After the game we said goodbye to other WT folk we had met up with at the game, and headed back home to Leone with Julia and Rosemary to do some star gazing at sliding rock. It was a beautiful clear night, and we carried two foam mattresses all the way to the beach and laid down to watch the stars.
You seriously can’t imagine how awesome the stargazing is here! It was a new moon the night before so it was dark, and the milky way stretched out brightly across the whole sky. There were more stars than I have ever seen before, and in the course of the few hours that we were there we say easily 20 big shooting stars while we talked about life and such. Incredible.
Saturday brought an morning of sleeping, reading and relaxing that was much needed after a busy week, but at around 2:30 we headed out to our school Staff party at my department head’s house. Ben was sick, so he couldn’t come which was a bummer, but Thanh and I made our way over, but ended up stopping in the home ec department to help make some of the food. After some helping we made it to the party and hung out with staff and teachers just chatting and the like. Dinner was some traditional Samoan umu as well as some other delicious dishes and you cannot believe how high people stack their plates! We tucked in and soon were full and happy. After the food the dancing started, and for the second time in as many days we were made to dance again in front of everyone, but we are getting pretty used to that. The party was a fun time, and definitely laid back to the point of my department head saying.
“Kate, I am ordering you as your department head to drink some rum!”
Which was nice as he knew that was my drink and got some special. After the festivities died down a bit we headed into town to meet up with our other WT friends who were having dinner. Long story short (too late…) about 17 of us ended up down at Malio Mai dancing the night away, some having a little more fun than others…
Today at our house we buckled down and got to work, and I actually have planned the next two weeks for my classes which is insane considering how much I usually procrastinate. That leads me to the present moment where I am in Kelly and Raj’s house typing this and using their internet, finally ready for the next week.
Note*** It is now Wednesday, and I finally have internet again to post.***
I would kill for some internet... Salu come home!
Peace.
Monday, August 24, 2009
American Samoa Top Ten
Every time I have talked to someone at home lately, I get asked the same question:
“What is your favorite thing about American Samoa?”
Or conversely:
“What is the hardest thing about living in American Samoa?”
I was surprised by how hard these questions are, and when I was asked I found I could only answer that I didn’t really know. So for this post I sat down and really tried to think about my favorite things about the island so far, and the things that are giving me a hard time. Eventually I came up with these lists that go in descending order, David Letterman style.
Top Ten Toughest Things about Living in AmSam:
10. Book Issues
Was I spoiled having a librarian as a mother? Probably. Right now I am having minor anxiety attacks about being able to get books since the library is way in Pago and I am just busy during business hours. I still have a few books in the house to read, and some library books – but I am only allowed to take out two at a time! Argh.
9. No Bike
Ok, I am actually going to get a bike when I get some more cash, but it is bothering me at the moment that I can’t really get a good bike ride in before school so I’m making it number 9.
8. Termites
I don’t mind termites so much in general – but when they are in all you cabinets, shelves, and furniture and occasionally winged ones swarm in your house they are kind of annoying.
7. Mosquitoes
I hate them. I really do. There are definitely a good amount here at dawn and dusk, and if you don’t remember bug spray you will get eaten alive. Also there are the fun possibilities of Dengue Fever and Elephantitis, but they’re pretty rare around here (at the moment).
6. No Car
Actually, I love riding the busses during the day to run errands, but as the buses stop on weeknights by 6, Saturday by 3, and don’t even run on Sundays it can be tough to get around. However hitchhiking is always amazing, and we actually are frequently are offered rides when we are just walking to the bus stop which turns out awesome. However at times when it’s hard to hitch, or you are going somewhere out of the way you have to use a cab which if you’re not splitting it can get pricy. Oh and grocery shopping is a royal pain. Despite the problems, it is nice to have less worries without a car.
5. Missing People
Not like people are missing, I just am preemptively writing this as number 5 because I know I’m going to miss family and friends. It’s still only a month in so I don’t really miss anyone in the teary crying way, just in the “Oh man so-and-so would love this right now!” way. However I anticipate that there will be times where this is a problem so it made the list.
4. Department of Education
The DOE here definitely seems to care about their students, but it is possibly the craziest government agency I have ever had the pleasure of working with. First off, the schools here score in the 20 – 30th percentile in national tests. Yikes. Obviously they want to improve scores but there are some major obstacles here. For example, at my high school the kids go to school from 8:30 – 2:30 with an entire hour for lunch, which isn’t a ton of instructional time. Even better, every Monday and Friday the kids get out a 1:40! If they want to up scores maybe they should have the kids stay a little longer. Also, teachers here are totally hit or miss. Some are wonderful teachers who are doing their best to help students achieve in their subjects, while other teachers miss (I kid you not) upwards of 40 days a year! 40/180 = .222 = Teachers missing almost a fourth of the year! And this isn’t one teacher on the island, it’s disturbingly common, although the DOE is trying to crack down with swipe cards – problem is already teachers are just leaving then coming back to swipe out…
3. Food Prices/Availability
Oh what I wouldn’t give to be in Wegman’s produce section! Food is in general very available and varied here – however that happens to mostly be concerning junk food. Fruits and vegetables here are way more expensive in the states (a dollar for an apple?) and the selection at the best store on the island is like that of a Circle K. Three tomatoes are four dollars… Broccoli is five dollars for two crowns… and pretty much any other fresh vegetable is only available sometimes. It’s very hit or miss. However thankfully I have been able to survive on frozen stir fry mix, carrots, and of course the abundant coconuts and bananas. I’m not going to even start on lettuce…
2. Dampness
Everything is damp here, and everything stays damp here. Luckily I seem to have forgotten what it feels like to be dry, so I am not noticing the dampness as much. When I arrived everything I touched felt damp no matter how much you tried to try it. I guess I’m just getting used to it. But imagine if you will everything that molds in the states molding 15x faster. Not to mention things molding that never molded in the states, like electronics and clothes on a hanger. So far I have mostly kept it at bay, but just come smell our couch some time…
1. Internet connection.
As of yet I only have it at school, and it is slooooow and unreliable which makes both keeping in touch with folks at home and lesson planning tedious to the extreme.
Top Ten Amazing Things about Living in American Samoa
10. The Department of Education
While this is #4 on my tough list, it made it to number ten on my amazing list thanks to my irresponsible side. Really who is going to complain about getting out early on Fridays? Not me. Also, with all the extremely sucky teachers around it is good to know that even if I am having a horrible day, I am doing better than a bunch of other teachers because I showed up.
9. Going out Dancing
Dancing here is not like the states because the men here LOVE to dance. And not in a “I just want to dance with you so you will get drunk and sleep with me” way but they actually love the dancing – and they are good at it! Good enough to make me feel super self-conscious but it’s still really fun. When a guy asks a girl to dance they will actually ask any man you are with if they may dance with you, and after the dance they will usually kiss your hand or bow and say “thank you”. Maybe feminists wouldn’t like it, but I like some classiness put back in dancing! In addition the music is the most crazy mix you will ever here, and its all done by awesome cover bands. In one night you will hear Samoan renditions of Cher, Footloose, Flo-rida’s Low, Chris Brown, Sexual Healing, and Michael Jackson just to name a few. It is quite the eclectic mix.
8. Wildlife
My favorite meditative moments so far are when I am walking home from school, the bus, or Sliding Rock as the sun is going behind the trees and the bats are waking and flying through the skies. There is something so awesome about huge three-foot wingspan bats silently traveling right above your head, all the way to your house. Also the sea life is awesome whenever I get a chance to go snorkeling.
7. Good Friends
I was somehow blessed to have two wonderful roommates whom I get along really well with, as well as numerous good friends nearby. The year is definitely going to be awesome thanks to those folks.
6. I’m doing what I love
Teaching is my thing, and now that I’m teaching biology themed classes it is a wonderful thing!
5. Chance to start over
I’ve noticed that for me when my routine changes I am able to weed out some bad habits, and as this is a major change in lifestyle it has really helped me to get rid of bad habits and attitudes.
4. Adventure around every corner
Falling off mountains, almost getting swept out to sea, trying new foods, hiking to strange places, teaching new kids, and meeting new people has made every day here an adventure.
3. I will not see snow this year.
Praise Jesus!
2. Fa’asamoa
Fa’asamoa literally translates as “The way of Samoa” aka the Samoan Way and encompasses all the culture, language and traditions of Samoa. Since I have arrived here I have really enjoyed the aspects of the culture and the people on the island. Everyone was raised to respect elders, contribute to the group before themselves, and to respect their heritage. This makes people here friendly, helpful, and very proud and willing to share and explain their culture. When it comes to my students, they may be chatty but it is rare that they are disrespectful, and both students and adults alike are very helpful in explaining the culture.
1. I am living on a tropical island!
There is a beautiful coast less than ten minutes walk from my house, the bus to town is like a scenic tour, there are coral reefs everywhere, it is always warm, when it rains you don’t care, and everyone is laid back. It’s pretty much epic.
So overall, on a scale from 1 - 10 on how awesome my life is right now it is def a 9.8. The remaining .2 will come with internet access.
“What is your favorite thing about American Samoa?”
Or conversely:
“What is the hardest thing about living in American Samoa?”
I was surprised by how hard these questions are, and when I was asked I found I could only answer that I didn’t really know. So for this post I sat down and really tried to think about my favorite things about the island so far, and the things that are giving me a hard time. Eventually I came up with these lists that go in descending order, David Letterman style.
Top Ten Toughest Things about Living in AmSam:
10. Book Issues
Was I spoiled having a librarian as a mother? Probably. Right now I am having minor anxiety attacks about being able to get books since the library is way in Pago and I am just busy during business hours. I still have a few books in the house to read, and some library books – but I am only allowed to take out two at a time! Argh.
9. No Bike
Ok, I am actually going to get a bike when I get some more cash, but it is bothering me at the moment that I can’t really get a good bike ride in before school so I’m making it number 9.
8. Termites
I don’t mind termites so much in general – but when they are in all you cabinets, shelves, and furniture and occasionally winged ones swarm in your house they are kind of annoying.
7. Mosquitoes
I hate them. I really do. There are definitely a good amount here at dawn and dusk, and if you don’t remember bug spray you will get eaten alive. Also there are the fun possibilities of Dengue Fever and Elephantitis, but they’re pretty rare around here (at the moment).
6. No Car
Actually, I love riding the busses during the day to run errands, but as the buses stop on weeknights by 6, Saturday by 3, and don’t even run on Sundays it can be tough to get around. However hitchhiking is always amazing, and we actually are frequently are offered rides when we are just walking to the bus stop which turns out awesome. However at times when it’s hard to hitch, or you are going somewhere out of the way you have to use a cab which if you’re not splitting it can get pricy. Oh and grocery shopping is a royal pain. Despite the problems, it is nice to have less worries without a car.
5. Missing People
Not like people are missing, I just am preemptively writing this as number 5 because I know I’m going to miss family and friends. It’s still only a month in so I don’t really miss anyone in the teary crying way, just in the “Oh man so-and-so would love this right now!” way. However I anticipate that there will be times where this is a problem so it made the list.
4. Department of Education
The DOE here definitely seems to care about their students, but it is possibly the craziest government agency I have ever had the pleasure of working with. First off, the schools here score in the 20 – 30th percentile in national tests. Yikes. Obviously they want to improve scores but there are some major obstacles here. For example, at my high school the kids go to school from 8:30 – 2:30 with an entire hour for lunch, which isn’t a ton of instructional time. Even better, every Monday and Friday the kids get out a 1:40! If they want to up scores maybe they should have the kids stay a little longer. Also, teachers here are totally hit or miss. Some are wonderful teachers who are doing their best to help students achieve in their subjects, while other teachers miss (I kid you not) upwards of 40 days a year! 40/180 = .222 = Teachers missing almost a fourth of the year! And this isn’t one teacher on the island, it’s disturbingly common, although the DOE is trying to crack down with swipe cards – problem is already teachers are just leaving then coming back to swipe out…
3. Food Prices/Availability
Oh what I wouldn’t give to be in Wegman’s produce section! Food is in general very available and varied here – however that happens to mostly be concerning junk food. Fruits and vegetables here are way more expensive in the states (a dollar for an apple?) and the selection at the best store on the island is like that of a Circle K. Three tomatoes are four dollars… Broccoli is five dollars for two crowns… and pretty much any other fresh vegetable is only available sometimes. It’s very hit or miss. However thankfully I have been able to survive on frozen stir fry mix, carrots, and of course the abundant coconuts and bananas. I’m not going to even start on lettuce…
2. Dampness
Everything is damp here, and everything stays damp here. Luckily I seem to have forgotten what it feels like to be dry, so I am not noticing the dampness as much. When I arrived everything I touched felt damp no matter how much you tried to try it. I guess I’m just getting used to it. But imagine if you will everything that molds in the states molding 15x faster. Not to mention things molding that never molded in the states, like electronics and clothes on a hanger. So far I have mostly kept it at bay, but just come smell our couch some time…
1. Internet connection.
As of yet I only have it at school, and it is slooooow and unreliable which makes both keeping in touch with folks at home and lesson planning tedious to the extreme.
Top Ten Amazing Things about Living in American Samoa
10. The Department of Education
While this is #4 on my tough list, it made it to number ten on my amazing list thanks to my irresponsible side. Really who is going to complain about getting out early on Fridays? Not me. Also, with all the extremely sucky teachers around it is good to know that even if I am having a horrible day, I am doing better than a bunch of other teachers because I showed up.
9. Going out Dancing
Dancing here is not like the states because the men here LOVE to dance. And not in a “I just want to dance with you so you will get drunk and sleep with me” way but they actually love the dancing – and they are good at it! Good enough to make me feel super self-conscious but it’s still really fun. When a guy asks a girl to dance they will actually ask any man you are with if they may dance with you, and after the dance they will usually kiss your hand or bow and say “thank you”. Maybe feminists wouldn’t like it, but I like some classiness put back in dancing! In addition the music is the most crazy mix you will ever here, and its all done by awesome cover bands. In one night you will hear Samoan renditions of Cher, Footloose, Flo-rida’s Low, Chris Brown, Sexual Healing, and Michael Jackson just to name a few. It is quite the eclectic mix.
8. Wildlife
My favorite meditative moments so far are when I am walking home from school, the bus, or Sliding Rock as the sun is going behind the trees and the bats are waking and flying through the skies. There is something so awesome about huge three-foot wingspan bats silently traveling right above your head, all the way to your house. Also the sea life is awesome whenever I get a chance to go snorkeling.
7. Good Friends
I was somehow blessed to have two wonderful roommates whom I get along really well with, as well as numerous good friends nearby. The year is definitely going to be awesome thanks to those folks.
6. I’m doing what I love
Teaching is my thing, and now that I’m teaching biology themed classes it is a wonderful thing!
5. Chance to start over
I’ve noticed that for me when my routine changes I am able to weed out some bad habits, and as this is a major change in lifestyle it has really helped me to get rid of bad habits and attitudes.
4. Adventure around every corner
Falling off mountains, almost getting swept out to sea, trying new foods, hiking to strange places, teaching new kids, and meeting new people has made every day here an adventure.
3. I will not see snow this year.
Praise Jesus!
2. Fa’asamoa
Fa’asamoa literally translates as “The way of Samoa” aka the Samoan Way and encompasses all the culture, language and traditions of Samoa. Since I have arrived here I have really enjoyed the aspects of the culture and the people on the island. Everyone was raised to respect elders, contribute to the group before themselves, and to respect their heritage. This makes people here friendly, helpful, and very proud and willing to share and explain their culture. When it comes to my students, they may be chatty but it is rare that they are disrespectful, and both students and adults alike are very helpful in explaining the culture.
1. I am living on a tropical island!
There is a beautiful coast less than ten minutes walk from my house, the bus to town is like a scenic tour, there are coral reefs everywhere, it is always warm, when it rains you don’t care, and everyone is laid back. It’s pretty much epic.
So overall, on a scale from 1 - 10 on how awesome my life is right now it is def a 9.8. The remaining .2 will come with internet access.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Endings and Beginings
It has been a crazy few weeks or so, let me tell you... I already am going to apologize for the length of this post (I am calling Guinness) because it is a doozy. Here is a brief (ha) update on my life the last few weeks from about July 29 – Aug 17. Yikes.
I am having serious issues posting pictures to the blog, so as you read please go through this web album so you can get the full awesomeness of my life right now.
Enjoy!
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of two weeks ago we had some serious instruction in lesson planning culmination in our having to develop a mini-lesson and present it to a group of students at a nearby church. It was really awesome to get to see everyone in their element, and it got me very excited to start teaching.
We also had some free time on those days and I ended up going snorkeling twice more at different areas of Airport Beach and one time I got to see a sea turtle which was pretty awesome. Friday, since it was the last full day of orientation Brandi and Lisa planned an sweet day at the beach for us. Since we knew this ahead of time, we took it upon ourselves to have an epic toga party. Let's just say there was banging dancing, tarot card readings, and other shenanigans. The toga party was definitely a great way to unwind and bond, with even Kathy and Kaleo getting involved. A very fond orientation memory.
Friday was our beach party day to celebrate the end of orientation. Although it rained on the way to $2 beach (so named because it costs two dollars) it was sunny when we arrived. The area is beautiful, with a sheltered area to swim in an a small island jutting out of the shallow water. I thought that it would be a fun adventure to try to climb to the top of the mountain, and Julia agreed to go with me. We slowly made our way up the slippery volcanic rocks in the water, and zigzagged up the steep slope using saplings and roots like rungs on a ladder. After about half an hour we had made it pretty high, but the side of the island was almost ninety degrees and the roots and trees had given way to grasses which didn’t provide any good foot or hand holds. However as we were about 25 feet from the top we decided to press on. I began to dig handholds and footholds into the soft rock and slowly I inched upward. Julia stayed about 10 – 15 feet below me so that if I slipped I wouldn’t end up on her head. About 10 feet from the top it became exceedingly tricky, but as I am really stubborn I refused to stop even thought Julia said I would probably kill myself. I dug another foothold and moved up a step, but after a moment my foot slipped, and then so did my hands and other foot. I found myself digging my nails into the dirt, closing my eyes, and screaming as I slid/fell about fifteen feet down where I finally stopped on a small ledge near Julia. Needless to say we abandoned summiting and, laughing, headed slowly back down.
Sweaty, totally filthy, and a little bit bloody I gladly joined some folks lounging in the gentle waves and casually snorkeling. After we finished our time on the beach, we headed back to Polytech to have dinner with the people from PICED who had been training us during the week. We had a nice dinner and some good conversation, and later in the night (after a little bit of wine and Vailima) decided to have another go at the Bowling Club. Rachel, one of the women with PICED gave us a ride in her truck, and as we were getting ready to leave more and more people wanted to come which resulted in one of my favorite pictures so far:
We hit the Bowling Club, and we hit it hard. Everyone (almost) was dancing to the eclectic Samoan mix (Chris Brown, Sexual Healing, Footloose) including Kathy who is probably the coolest sixty something I know. This night also gave us Josiah’s classic quote “The best looking women here are men” which is definitely true as we were in scrubby clothes and the fa’afafines were dressed to kill.
Saturday rolled around, and we begrudgingly began to pack up our suitcases and collect our things strewn about Polytech. After an awesome morning session on classroom management we snapped one last group picture by the water, said our goodbyes, and loaded on to our respective busses. Group by group us westsiders were dropped off and finally got to see our housing for the year. I walked up to my house and was totally in love! It is surrounded by trees and a manicured lawn, it’s far back from the road so at night all you can hear is crickets, cicadas and fighting fruit bats. The inside it pretty typical for houses here, and I found it was just what I was hoping for when I decided to come here – simple but functional. After Ben, Thanh and I settled into our rooms, and Courtney and KC settled into our living room (they stayed with us for a week until their flight to Manu’a) we decided to check out the coast near our house known as Sliding Rock.
We were delighted to find out that Sliding Rock is about a 10 minute walk from out house and is absolutely gorgeous! I really can’t explain it in words so just check out the photos in the web album. It was just luck that we got there at sunset.
Sunday dawned, and we decided to be responsible and spend six hours at sliding rock swimming, tanning, sleeping, eating, and reading. Definitely the most relaxed I had been since I had arrived in AmSam. When we first hiked over to the pools to swim we knew we had to be cautious, because the volunteer in Leone before us described in detail her and her friends’ near death experience at that very spot. We had checked the tides and knew that we in slack tide and could swim without much worry. We jumped in and swam about a bit in the pool, and I had my mask and snorkel to check out the fish and the coral. Not half an hour from when we got in a random huge wave washed into the pool, and the current started to carry us towards the three foot drop into the next pool which then lead to the ocean. We all swam for the sides where the current won’t get you as much – and Courtney and Julia who aren’t great swimmers scuttled out of that water as fast as they could. As KC and I remained in the water, laughing at them scurrying away another two wave, bigger than the first hit us hard. KC and I held on to each other and the rock surface, but I felt my mask slip off my arm (You were right Jim – never take you mask off!) and rush away with the current. Without thinking I let go of KC and immediately swam after my mask – which of course resulted in my going over the three foot drop, into the deep pool, and having the current pull me disturbingly fast to the ever closer ocean which consists of giant waves slamming into sharp volcanic rock. Awesome. Amusingly enough, at the time I still wasn’t thinking this, all I could think about what how we couldn’t find masks and snorkels on the island. Soon thought I caught sight of my friends looking on, screaming at me like I was about to die – and I realized that I should probably try to get out of the current. As I climbed out of the pool, tears welled up as the entirety of the situation hit me. I lost my mask! Everyone thought I was shook up because I was almost swept out to sea, and were mortified when I told them that I actually swam that way to find my mask. At this point I can’t help but leak out a few tears, which as you know is a big deal for me. A doctor we know was in the area and asked what color my mask was, as he was going to help look for it. I tried to keep my voice from betraying my emotion – but it was no use – I answered him sounding like a little girl who lost her puppy. “It’s b-b-blue with a y-y-yellow s-s-snorkel…”
As the big waves were a random occurrence, the pool was still again, and we started to look for my lost mask. The doctor was diving into the deep pool, I was looking in the area between the pool and the ocean, and KC was looking in the area we started in. I began to realize that my mask was gone forever, and tears threatened again – but just then KC yelled that she found it! I tackled her with a hug of joy, and could not believe my luck that somehow my mask had just been swept aside and wedged between rocks right where it slipped from my hands (so I swam towards the ocean for nothing…).The rest of the day was more relaxing, with some swimming and food and such, and a very amusing moment when we realized that it was full sun but actually raining so we managed to tan while keeping cool at the same time.
The week that followed was filled with in-services, school visits, setting up our classrooms, and other fun. Thanh, Ben, KC, Courtney and I took turns making dinner each night, and we ate better than we had in weeks. Our nights were filled with movies, hilarious games of charades, visits from other volunteers, deep talks, and Truth or Truth (lua, lima, or sefulu truth?). Time flew, and before we knew it, it was Friday and we really needed some fun. We ended up hitching to a bar we hadn’t been to yet called Malio Mai which is right on the beach in Fogaogogo. Five of us went, but soon we randomly ran into a few other WorldTeachers, our director, and Kara who is a volunteer from last year who stayed this year on contract. We chatted for a while, until Courtney and I randomly got convinced into dancing with a couple guys who I soon found out were NPS staffers. So of course I was pumped to finally meet some people from the park, and end up talking to one of them about the park and such. After a little while another guy comes up and says “Are you Kate?” Turns out that it was the superintendent of the Park, Mike. The rest of the night was a fun mash up of chatting with park staff, WorldTeach folk, dancing and just having a good time.
Saturday we had a lovely brunch at Sadie’s by the Sea that WorldTeach provided as a farewell to the Manu’a folk who were leaving the next day at 6am. It was a very nice brunch, but what made it is that the tables were beachside and it was an amazing view of the mountains from across the harbor and it was a beautiful blue-sky day. After singing happy birthday to three of our group who were celebrating, we said our goodbyes for now to the Manu’a folk, and went our separate ways. After using the internet at teacher quality and chatting with Brandi, KC Courtney and I grabbed some ice cream and headed back to Leone. KC and Courtney packed, and we worked on some stuff for school (as it was starting tin two days…) and a few of us ended up star gazing at Sliding Rock.
The next morning Thanh and I awoke at 4am to say our goodbyes to KC and Courtney as they left to catch their flight to Manu’a. It was strange to think that we had only known each other for three weeks, but were so sad to have to say goodbye. Thanh and I went back to bed, and arose late on Sunday and spent the day getting our classrooms ready and planning lessons. That night we all had trouble sleeping because of nerves and excitement and just too many thoughts running through our heads.
Morning came, and at 7am I found myself in my room making last minute adjustments, freaking out a little, but mostly extremely excited to finally begin my first year of officially teaching my own class. Soon it was 8:30, and Raj and I walked down to the school wide assembly. It turned out that the assembly made us all relax and get excited to teach since the kids and Dorian (aka Viper) the vice principle were so energetic and pumped up about school spirit. I headed back to my classroom busting with excitement for my first class which was Earth Science. Let me pause here and tell you the tale of my schedule. So we had no idea what classes we were teaching until we visited our schools the week before school started. When I met with my department head he asked my background, which is all biology, and then told me that it would be no problem to teach things in my content area like life science and biology. So I was excited that the schedule was working out the way I had hoped that it would with all biology classes. The next day we made a rough draft of the schedule and I was teaching life science and biology which is pretty darn good. I was given the teacher editions of the books and went home, pumped to begin to plan for the year.
Two days later, Thursday of the week before school started we had another department meeting and I was informed that I would now be teaching sections of Earth & Space, Physical Science (half chem and half physics), and one section of Life Science. Needless to say I was knocked flat, but when I recovered my powers of speech I began to politely (and then maybe not so politely) comment that I had no background in those areas. I really tried to explain that it wasn’t just I hadn’t had those areas since college – but that I had NEVER taken physics or earth and space, even in high school, and hadn’t had chemistry since sophomore year of high school. My department head said there was nothing he could do and that I would do fine. Garbage! How in any world does it make sense to have someone with a Master’s in Biology teach physics and chem? Apparently in AmSam… Upon returning home my roommates were subjected to hours of crazed, infuriated ranting about injustice, a waste of my degrees, and how you shouldn’t get peoples hopes up. After a few hours of this venting I decided to head back to school to do some more cleaning in my classroom (FILTHY). While I was there cleaning my fury started to change into depression, which I quickly tried to revert back to anger (an emotion I am more comfortable with) but the sadness was overwhelming. For the second time in a week I found myself starting to cry and to avoid being seen I locked myself into my storage closet. So there I am, sitting in a storage closet hearing the mice scurry around the boxes uncontrollably sobbing. The strange thing is that I wasn’t crying because I was stressed, or upset about teaching Physical Science or Earth Science – in reality I know I could handle it. I am so ridiculously nerdy that I was crying out of control because I was so sad that I wasn’t going to teach biology. All through grad school I kept dreaming of the day that I would finally get to teach what I love, and here I was having it postponed another year. I felt like I was at Biology’s funeral. Forty-five minutes later after calming down I headed home and was cheered up a bit by my wonderful new friends. Luckily with me I am usually able to sleep off my emotions, and the next day I woke up resigned to doing my best to teach the classes I had been given.
Flash forward to the first day of school where I was eagerly awaiting my first class which was Earth and Space. I was ready and excited, having looked over the resources for the class and tricked myself into being interested in the content. However, none of my students were showing up! The bell had rung, and students were walking all over, but no students! Slowly some students were hesitantly looking into my door, and approaching me with schedules – but all of them have my room but the wrong class. “Don’t panic!” I told myself, it will be alright… So I locked my room and headed down to my department head’s office, but ran into him on the way. He knew something was up and handed me some class rosters and said that there had been a problem with the schedule. Apparently I was now teaching Marine Science and Life Science! He must have seen my eyes widen with possibilities, because he quickly mentioned that these classes were temporary and I would only be teaching them for a week or two.
“A week or two???” I yelled to my department head, “What fresh hell is this? Now I have to teach for two weeks to kids I won’t even have for the rest of the year? Whhhhhaaaaaatttt??????”
Ok I didn’t actually say that, I think I said “Erg. Um. Ok…” but that is what I was thinking. Now I turned around and there was a giant mass of seniors from Marine Science surrounding me, so I lead them into my classroom and tried to franticly think of what to say to this class I had no idea that I was going to teach. Thank God classes on that first day were only 35 minutes so I had some time to get to know the kids, but there wasn’t so much that it mattered that much that I had totally different classes. After the last lesson I wandered down to my Department head in a daze to see what exactly was going on, but hear the same story – I would only be teaching those classes for two weeks. Lame.
Back home I related my ridiculous story to Ben and Thanh who were equally amused and sympathetic to my classic story of fa’asamoa (aka. The way Samoa rolls.). Immediately after, I took a nap as I was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, when I woke up I hit the books because I had to plan two weeks of lessons in a new class. The rest of the week went alright, the kids are actually pretty good and definitely a lot of fun, but I felt really uncomfortable telling these students that I was their teacher for the year even though I knew that it wasn’t to be. Regardless I made the best of it and implemented my management strategies and got things in motion. Thursday after school we had our department meeting and the first announcement blew my mind (and the reasoning is classic…) everyone thought it would be too much work to fix the schedule, so they were just going to leave it the way it is. You could have knocked me over with a feather. After all the drama of switching my schedule a million times, telling me I had to lie to the kids about being their teacher, and a half hour of tears and wiping my snot on lab manuals – I finally had the schedule I would have picked if I could have chosen it myself, and it was all thanks to an accident and avoidance of work! Woo hoo!!!!
That night on I was on cloud nine, and to make things better Julia and I ended up organizing an impromptu dinner at Rubble’s (a decent bar in Nu’uuli) with us, Jesse, Brigit, Rosemary and Max. It was great to get to hear how everyone’s classes were going, and I was amused to hear that many others had similar stories to mine with everything being switched last minute. Dinner was really a great decompression time, you could tell that we were all exhausted by the first week, but really enjoyed it. At dinner we started scheming, and decided that we were going to have a potluck dinner at my house on Friday, and then go dancing afterwards at Malio Mai. In addition Brigit shared with us her recently gain knowledge that Bingo is like crack to Samoans, and we decided that from now on we are going to have Bingo nights on Thursdays.
Friday is a wonderful day in the states, but in AmSam for me it is even better. For some unknown reason the kids here get out at 1:40 on Mondays and Fridays instead of the usual 2:30, so there are only three classes on Fridays and Mondays. Equally awesome is that my prep period falls on Friday so I only teach two classes! How sweet is that? So I had a great Friday at school, and soon after peaced out to try to make it to the National Park Office in Pago before it closed at 4. The bus usually takes about 35 – 45 Minutes to get from my house to Pago, but right after school on a Friday is a different story and it took me about an hour just to get to the park office. By this point it is 3:30, but I still made it, so I went in to see if I could drop off my proposal with someone. In the downstairs office were Lau and Jim, the two guys I had meet at Malio Mai so we just chatted for a bit and I gave Lau my proposal as he is working interp. About 4 I say bye and head out to catch the bus home, but Jim offers me a ride which was awesome since it saved me 30min and 1$. My life becomes increasingly awesome because on the way home Jim and I are talking and I find out that he is the guy in charge of the boats and the dive equipment and says he will take me diving sometime. As I had resigned myself to no diving for the year, I was so happy to hear that! Not to mention I was apprehensive about how working at the park would be, but seeing that I met everyone at a bar I am starting to think that they are pretty cool. I mean that in a nerd to nerd way of course.
Back home I started to get the house ready for dinner, and by 6:30 Cynthia and John, Brigit, Rosemary, Jesse, Julia and Taylor were all at the house and Thanh, our master chef, was whipping up dinner. We had a great time hanging out, and around 11 some of us decided to head to Malio Mai to go crazy. The night was definitely interesting as we met some seriously drunk, awkward, but amusing people. The great thing about Samoa so far is that all the drunk guys who ask you to dance may be a little weird, but they aren’t threatening. Although there was one guy in a scarf (he claims it was cold, and I guess 73 is relatively cold here) who was trying to lasso us with his scarf and when that failed he was whipping Thanh playfully which to our amusement made Thanh scream. Jesse and I wanted to dace one more time, and somehow we got coerced into dancing with two guys who proceeded to be the strangest dancers ever, Jesse’s guy getting up on her, while the rather large and unattractive man I was with was doing some strange bent over bird-flapping-wings dance around me. Jesse and I were so confused and amused that we were actually crying we were laughing so hard. Luckily the gentlemen were too drunk to notice.
We were ready to head home as the bar had closed, and were about to call a taxi, when the three New Zealanders and a Scot we had met were talking to offered all of us a ride home. On the way to the car we found out that we had on a ride on the condition that one of us was in shape to drive, which as I hadn’t had a drink I was. So in the true random trusting Samoan way I found myself driving the truck of a man I just met with all my friends in the back home to Leone. At our house we got them some water and the took a bathroom break, and Brigit drove them to her house from where they would head home. I have to say that I love the randomness of this territory.
Saturday dawned, and Thanh and I made ready to go to the big football game – Leone v. Samoana – our arch rivals! We made it there just a little after the first quarter, and we were treated to a sweet blowout victory of 28 – 0. We met up with a bunch of other volunteers at the game and cheered on our respective teams, and Ben and Max who are both helping coach Leone and Samoana respectively. After the game Thanh and I headed home and on the way made a little bus mistake and it took us 1 ½ hours instead of 40 minutes – but luckily we like chatting so the time flew. Back home we rested for a bit, and then decided to head out to a party we were invited to by one of the women who works at PICED. The party was pretty fun, it was her cousins birthday party in the day, and some older family and us WorldTeachers at night. After several hours of good times, Rosemary, Jesse and I decided to go dancing at the Bowling club. Let’s just say it was a good time. We ended up running into a teacher Jesse works with and he bought drinks which was nice, and the night ended up with us hitching home in a torrential downpour at 3 in the morning – but that is totally cool here.
Morning came, and I was at Jesse and Julia’s because we had plans to go snorkeling that morning. Once we made it to the area to begin walking though, we realized that the waves were way to intense for our liking and changed our plans to a picnic on Sliding Rock instead. It was a nice, relaxing way to chill on a Sunday after a weekend of crazy fun and today I was totally refreshed and ready for school.
Phew…
That is a lot of info. Hopefully I will soon have better internet access (although I have been saying this for two weeks…) but in all reality things are good. The only reason I want the internet is for this blog and lesson planning, because there is something awesome about being away from technology for a while.
Peace til next time.
I am having serious issues posting pictures to the blog, so as you read please go through this web album so you can get the full awesomeness of my life right now.
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| Orientation and Moving to Leone |
Enjoy!
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of two weeks ago we had some serious instruction in lesson planning culmination in our having to develop a mini-lesson and present it to a group of students at a nearby church. It was really awesome to get to see everyone in their element, and it got me very excited to start teaching.
We also had some free time on those days and I ended up going snorkeling twice more at different areas of Airport Beach and one time I got to see a sea turtle which was pretty awesome. Friday, since it was the last full day of orientation Brandi and Lisa planned an sweet day at the beach for us. Since we knew this ahead of time, we took it upon ourselves to have an epic toga party. Let's just say there was banging dancing, tarot card readings, and other shenanigans. The toga party was definitely a great way to unwind and bond, with even Kathy and Kaleo getting involved. A very fond orientation memory.
Friday was our beach party day to celebrate the end of orientation. Although it rained on the way to $2 beach (so named because it costs two dollars) it was sunny when we arrived. The area is beautiful, with a sheltered area to swim in an a small island jutting out of the shallow water. I thought that it would be a fun adventure to try to climb to the top of the mountain, and Julia agreed to go with me. We slowly made our way up the slippery volcanic rocks in the water, and zigzagged up the steep slope using saplings and roots like rungs on a ladder. After about half an hour we had made it pretty high, but the side of the island was almost ninety degrees and the roots and trees had given way to grasses which didn’t provide any good foot or hand holds. However as we were about 25 feet from the top we decided to press on. I began to dig handholds and footholds into the soft rock and slowly I inched upward. Julia stayed about 10 – 15 feet below me so that if I slipped I wouldn’t end up on her head. About 10 feet from the top it became exceedingly tricky, but as I am really stubborn I refused to stop even thought Julia said I would probably kill myself. I dug another foothold and moved up a step, but after a moment my foot slipped, and then so did my hands and other foot. I found myself digging my nails into the dirt, closing my eyes, and screaming as I slid/fell about fifteen feet down where I finally stopped on a small ledge near Julia. Needless to say we abandoned summiting and, laughing, headed slowly back down.
Sweaty, totally filthy, and a little bit bloody I gladly joined some folks lounging in the gentle waves and casually snorkeling. After we finished our time on the beach, we headed back to Polytech to have dinner with the people from PICED who had been training us during the week. We had a nice dinner and some good conversation, and later in the night (after a little bit of wine and Vailima) decided to have another go at the Bowling Club. Rachel, one of the women with PICED gave us a ride in her truck, and as we were getting ready to leave more and more people wanted to come which resulted in one of my favorite pictures so far:
We hit the Bowling Club, and we hit it hard. Everyone (almost) was dancing to the eclectic Samoan mix (Chris Brown, Sexual Healing, Footloose) including Kathy who is probably the coolest sixty something I know. This night also gave us Josiah’s classic quote “The best looking women here are men” which is definitely true as we were in scrubby clothes and the fa’afafines were dressed to kill.
Saturday rolled around, and we begrudgingly began to pack up our suitcases and collect our things strewn about Polytech. After an awesome morning session on classroom management we snapped one last group picture by the water, said our goodbyes, and loaded on to our respective busses. Group by group us westsiders were dropped off and finally got to see our housing for the year. I walked up to my house and was totally in love! It is surrounded by trees and a manicured lawn, it’s far back from the road so at night all you can hear is crickets, cicadas and fighting fruit bats. The inside it pretty typical for houses here, and I found it was just what I was hoping for when I decided to come here – simple but functional. After Ben, Thanh and I settled into our rooms, and Courtney and KC settled into our living room (they stayed with us for a week until their flight to Manu’a) we decided to check out the coast near our house known as Sliding Rock.
We were delighted to find out that Sliding Rock is about a 10 minute walk from out house and is absolutely gorgeous! I really can’t explain it in words so just check out the photos in the web album. It was just luck that we got there at sunset.
Sunday dawned, and we decided to be responsible and spend six hours at sliding rock swimming, tanning, sleeping, eating, and reading. Definitely the most relaxed I had been since I had arrived in AmSam. When we first hiked over to the pools to swim we knew we had to be cautious, because the volunteer in Leone before us described in detail her and her friends’ near death experience at that very spot. We had checked the tides and knew that we in slack tide and could swim without much worry. We jumped in and swam about a bit in the pool, and I had my mask and snorkel to check out the fish and the coral. Not half an hour from when we got in a random huge wave washed into the pool, and the current started to carry us towards the three foot drop into the next pool which then lead to the ocean. We all swam for the sides where the current won’t get you as much – and Courtney and Julia who aren’t great swimmers scuttled out of that water as fast as they could. As KC and I remained in the water, laughing at them scurrying away another two wave, bigger than the first hit us hard. KC and I held on to each other and the rock surface, but I felt my mask slip off my arm (You were right Jim – never take you mask off!) and rush away with the current. Without thinking I let go of KC and immediately swam after my mask – which of course resulted in my going over the three foot drop, into the deep pool, and having the current pull me disturbingly fast to the ever closer ocean which consists of giant waves slamming into sharp volcanic rock. Awesome. Amusingly enough, at the time I still wasn’t thinking this, all I could think about what how we couldn’t find masks and snorkels on the island. Soon thought I caught sight of my friends looking on, screaming at me like I was about to die – and I realized that I should probably try to get out of the current. As I climbed out of the pool, tears welled up as the entirety of the situation hit me. I lost my mask! Everyone thought I was shook up because I was almost swept out to sea, and were mortified when I told them that I actually swam that way to find my mask. At this point I can’t help but leak out a few tears, which as you know is a big deal for me. A doctor we know was in the area and asked what color my mask was, as he was going to help look for it. I tried to keep my voice from betraying my emotion – but it was no use – I answered him sounding like a little girl who lost her puppy. “It’s b-b-blue with a y-y-yellow s-s-snorkel…”
As the big waves were a random occurrence, the pool was still again, and we started to look for my lost mask. The doctor was diving into the deep pool, I was looking in the area between the pool and the ocean, and KC was looking in the area we started in. I began to realize that my mask was gone forever, and tears threatened again – but just then KC yelled that she found it! I tackled her with a hug of joy, and could not believe my luck that somehow my mask had just been swept aside and wedged between rocks right where it slipped from my hands (so I swam towards the ocean for nothing…).The rest of the day was more relaxing, with some swimming and food and such, and a very amusing moment when we realized that it was full sun but actually raining so we managed to tan while keeping cool at the same time.
The week that followed was filled with in-services, school visits, setting up our classrooms, and other fun. Thanh, Ben, KC, Courtney and I took turns making dinner each night, and we ate better than we had in weeks. Our nights were filled with movies, hilarious games of charades, visits from other volunteers, deep talks, and Truth or Truth (lua, lima, or sefulu truth?). Time flew, and before we knew it, it was Friday and we really needed some fun. We ended up hitching to a bar we hadn’t been to yet called Malio Mai which is right on the beach in Fogaogogo. Five of us went, but soon we randomly ran into a few other WorldTeachers, our director, and Kara who is a volunteer from last year who stayed this year on contract. We chatted for a while, until Courtney and I randomly got convinced into dancing with a couple guys who I soon found out were NPS staffers. So of course I was pumped to finally meet some people from the park, and end up talking to one of them about the park and such. After a little while another guy comes up and says “Are you Kate?” Turns out that it was the superintendent of the Park, Mike. The rest of the night was a fun mash up of chatting with park staff, WorldTeach folk, dancing and just having a good time.
Saturday we had a lovely brunch at Sadie’s by the Sea that WorldTeach provided as a farewell to the Manu’a folk who were leaving the next day at 6am. It was a very nice brunch, but what made it is that the tables were beachside and it was an amazing view of the mountains from across the harbor and it was a beautiful blue-sky day. After singing happy birthday to three of our group who were celebrating, we said our goodbyes for now to the Manu’a folk, and went our separate ways. After using the internet at teacher quality and chatting with Brandi, KC Courtney and I grabbed some ice cream and headed back to Leone. KC and Courtney packed, and we worked on some stuff for school (as it was starting tin two days…) and a few of us ended up star gazing at Sliding Rock.
The next morning Thanh and I awoke at 4am to say our goodbyes to KC and Courtney as they left to catch their flight to Manu’a. It was strange to think that we had only known each other for three weeks, but were so sad to have to say goodbye. Thanh and I went back to bed, and arose late on Sunday and spent the day getting our classrooms ready and planning lessons. That night we all had trouble sleeping because of nerves and excitement and just too many thoughts running through our heads.
Morning came, and at 7am I found myself in my room making last minute adjustments, freaking out a little, but mostly extremely excited to finally begin my first year of officially teaching my own class. Soon it was 8:30, and Raj and I walked down to the school wide assembly. It turned out that the assembly made us all relax and get excited to teach since the kids and Dorian (aka Viper) the vice principle were so energetic and pumped up about school spirit. I headed back to my classroom busting with excitement for my first class which was Earth Science. Let me pause here and tell you the tale of my schedule. So we had no idea what classes we were teaching until we visited our schools the week before school started. When I met with my department head he asked my background, which is all biology, and then told me that it would be no problem to teach things in my content area like life science and biology. So I was excited that the schedule was working out the way I had hoped that it would with all biology classes. The next day we made a rough draft of the schedule and I was teaching life science and biology which is pretty darn good. I was given the teacher editions of the books and went home, pumped to begin to plan for the year.
Two days later, Thursday of the week before school started we had another department meeting and I was informed that I would now be teaching sections of Earth & Space, Physical Science (half chem and half physics), and one section of Life Science. Needless to say I was knocked flat, but when I recovered my powers of speech I began to politely (and then maybe not so politely) comment that I had no background in those areas. I really tried to explain that it wasn’t just I hadn’t had those areas since college – but that I had NEVER taken physics or earth and space, even in high school, and hadn’t had chemistry since sophomore year of high school. My department head said there was nothing he could do and that I would do fine. Garbage! How in any world does it make sense to have someone with a Master’s in Biology teach physics and chem? Apparently in AmSam… Upon returning home my roommates were subjected to hours of crazed, infuriated ranting about injustice, a waste of my degrees, and how you shouldn’t get peoples hopes up. After a few hours of this venting I decided to head back to school to do some more cleaning in my classroom (FILTHY). While I was there cleaning my fury started to change into depression, which I quickly tried to revert back to anger (an emotion I am more comfortable with) but the sadness was overwhelming. For the second time in a week I found myself starting to cry and to avoid being seen I locked myself into my storage closet. So there I am, sitting in a storage closet hearing the mice scurry around the boxes uncontrollably sobbing. The strange thing is that I wasn’t crying because I was stressed, or upset about teaching Physical Science or Earth Science – in reality I know I could handle it. I am so ridiculously nerdy that I was crying out of control because I was so sad that I wasn’t going to teach biology. All through grad school I kept dreaming of the day that I would finally get to teach what I love, and here I was having it postponed another year. I felt like I was at Biology’s funeral. Forty-five minutes later after calming down I headed home and was cheered up a bit by my wonderful new friends. Luckily with me I am usually able to sleep off my emotions, and the next day I woke up resigned to doing my best to teach the classes I had been given.
Flash forward to the first day of school where I was eagerly awaiting my first class which was Earth and Space. I was ready and excited, having looked over the resources for the class and tricked myself into being interested in the content. However, none of my students were showing up! The bell had rung, and students were walking all over, but no students! Slowly some students were hesitantly looking into my door, and approaching me with schedules – but all of them have my room but the wrong class. “Don’t panic!” I told myself, it will be alright… So I locked my room and headed down to my department head’s office, but ran into him on the way. He knew something was up and handed me some class rosters and said that there had been a problem with the schedule. Apparently I was now teaching Marine Science and Life Science! He must have seen my eyes widen with possibilities, because he quickly mentioned that these classes were temporary and I would only be teaching them for a week or two.
“A week or two???” I yelled to my department head, “What fresh hell is this? Now I have to teach for two weeks to kids I won’t even have for the rest of the year? Whhhhhaaaaaatttt??????”
Ok I didn’t actually say that, I think I said “Erg. Um. Ok…” but that is what I was thinking. Now I turned around and there was a giant mass of seniors from Marine Science surrounding me, so I lead them into my classroom and tried to franticly think of what to say to this class I had no idea that I was going to teach. Thank God classes on that first day were only 35 minutes so I had some time to get to know the kids, but there wasn’t so much that it mattered that much that I had totally different classes. After the last lesson I wandered down to my Department head in a daze to see what exactly was going on, but hear the same story – I would only be teaching those classes for two weeks. Lame.
Back home I related my ridiculous story to Ben and Thanh who were equally amused and sympathetic to my classic story of fa’asamoa (aka. The way Samoa rolls.). Immediately after, I took a nap as I was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, when I woke up I hit the books because I had to plan two weeks of lessons in a new class. The rest of the week went alright, the kids are actually pretty good and definitely a lot of fun, but I felt really uncomfortable telling these students that I was their teacher for the year even though I knew that it wasn’t to be. Regardless I made the best of it and implemented my management strategies and got things in motion. Thursday after school we had our department meeting and the first announcement blew my mind (and the reasoning is classic…) everyone thought it would be too much work to fix the schedule, so they were just going to leave it the way it is. You could have knocked me over with a feather. After all the drama of switching my schedule a million times, telling me I had to lie to the kids about being their teacher, and a half hour of tears and wiping my snot on lab manuals – I finally had the schedule I would have picked if I could have chosen it myself, and it was all thanks to an accident and avoidance of work! Woo hoo!!!!
That night on I was on cloud nine, and to make things better Julia and I ended up organizing an impromptu dinner at Rubble’s (a decent bar in Nu’uuli) with us, Jesse, Brigit, Rosemary and Max. It was great to get to hear how everyone’s classes were going, and I was amused to hear that many others had similar stories to mine with everything being switched last minute. Dinner was really a great decompression time, you could tell that we were all exhausted by the first week, but really enjoyed it. At dinner we started scheming, and decided that we were going to have a potluck dinner at my house on Friday, and then go dancing afterwards at Malio Mai. In addition Brigit shared with us her recently gain knowledge that Bingo is like crack to Samoans, and we decided that from now on we are going to have Bingo nights on Thursdays.
Friday is a wonderful day in the states, but in AmSam for me it is even better. For some unknown reason the kids here get out at 1:40 on Mondays and Fridays instead of the usual 2:30, so there are only three classes on Fridays and Mondays. Equally awesome is that my prep period falls on Friday so I only teach two classes! How sweet is that? So I had a great Friday at school, and soon after peaced out to try to make it to the National Park Office in Pago before it closed at 4. The bus usually takes about 35 – 45 Minutes to get from my house to Pago, but right after school on a Friday is a different story and it took me about an hour just to get to the park office. By this point it is 3:30, but I still made it, so I went in to see if I could drop off my proposal with someone. In the downstairs office were Lau and Jim, the two guys I had meet at Malio Mai so we just chatted for a bit and I gave Lau my proposal as he is working interp. About 4 I say bye and head out to catch the bus home, but Jim offers me a ride which was awesome since it saved me 30min and 1$. My life becomes increasingly awesome because on the way home Jim and I are talking and I find out that he is the guy in charge of the boats and the dive equipment and says he will take me diving sometime. As I had resigned myself to no diving for the year, I was so happy to hear that! Not to mention I was apprehensive about how working at the park would be, but seeing that I met everyone at a bar I am starting to think that they are pretty cool. I mean that in a nerd to nerd way of course.
Back home I started to get the house ready for dinner, and by 6:30 Cynthia and John, Brigit, Rosemary, Jesse, Julia and Taylor were all at the house and Thanh, our master chef, was whipping up dinner. We had a great time hanging out, and around 11 some of us decided to head to Malio Mai to go crazy. The night was definitely interesting as we met some seriously drunk, awkward, but amusing people. The great thing about Samoa so far is that all the drunk guys who ask you to dance may be a little weird, but they aren’t threatening. Although there was one guy in a scarf (he claims it was cold, and I guess 73 is relatively cold here) who was trying to lasso us with his scarf and when that failed he was whipping Thanh playfully which to our amusement made Thanh scream. Jesse and I wanted to dace one more time, and somehow we got coerced into dancing with two guys who proceeded to be the strangest dancers ever, Jesse’s guy getting up on her, while the rather large and unattractive man I was with was doing some strange bent over bird-flapping-wings dance around me. Jesse and I were so confused and amused that we were actually crying we were laughing so hard. Luckily the gentlemen were too drunk to notice.
We were ready to head home as the bar had closed, and were about to call a taxi, when the three New Zealanders and a Scot we had met were talking to offered all of us a ride home. On the way to the car we found out that we had on a ride on the condition that one of us was in shape to drive, which as I hadn’t had a drink I was. So in the true random trusting Samoan way I found myself driving the truck of a man I just met with all my friends in the back home to Leone. At our house we got them some water and the took a bathroom break, and Brigit drove them to her house from where they would head home. I have to say that I love the randomness of this territory.
Saturday dawned, and Thanh and I made ready to go to the big football game – Leone v. Samoana – our arch rivals! We made it there just a little after the first quarter, and we were treated to a sweet blowout victory of 28 – 0. We met up with a bunch of other volunteers at the game and cheered on our respective teams, and Ben and Max who are both helping coach Leone and Samoana respectively. After the game Thanh and I headed home and on the way made a little bus mistake and it took us 1 ½ hours instead of 40 minutes – but luckily we like chatting so the time flew. Back home we rested for a bit, and then decided to head out to a party we were invited to by one of the women who works at PICED. The party was pretty fun, it was her cousins birthday party in the day, and some older family and us WorldTeachers at night. After several hours of good times, Rosemary, Jesse and I decided to go dancing at the Bowling club. Let’s just say it was a good time. We ended up running into a teacher Jesse works with and he bought drinks which was nice, and the night ended up with us hitching home in a torrential downpour at 3 in the morning – but that is totally cool here.
Morning came, and I was at Jesse and Julia’s because we had plans to go snorkeling that morning. Once we made it to the area to begin walking though, we realized that the waves were way to intense for our liking and changed our plans to a picnic on Sliding Rock instead. It was a nice, relaxing way to chill on a Sunday after a weekend of crazy fun and today I was totally refreshed and ready for school.
Phew…
That is a lot of info. Hopefully I will soon have better internet access (although I have been saying this for two weeks…) but in all reality things are good. The only reason I want the internet is for this blog and lesson planning, because there is something awesome about being away from technology for a while.
Peace til next time.
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