An Intrepid Sojourn

Grüß Gott, Österreich!

2011-09-20T10:00:00.000-11:00

It’s not even been a week and a half since I arrived in Austria, but it feels like a much longer time. Strange to think that just two weeks ago I was hanging out at home with my family and going out to dinner with my grandparents. However I have made it, and the last days have been packed with new adventures, people and a language which perhaps explains why it seems so long ago I was home. My parents have already chided me for not letting them know how it was going, and I suppose that I have been neglectful of blogging and emails. In an attempt to catch up, I’ll give the quick and dirty details of my first week and a half here.

After the happy delay in NYC, I finally made it to Vienna 24 hours later than planned. As a consequence Dr.L and Dr. H who are so kindly letting me stay with them in return for giving their girls a chance to practice their English had work all afternoon so they had a driver pick me up from the airport. First day in Europe and I was already having new experiences. The driver had a sign with my name on it! I have always wanted to be one of those people who was so important they couldn’t be bothered to take public transportation. At least once. Once I arrived at their office and connected flats, Dr. L gave me a snack and showed me where I could (gladly) take a shower and nap until they could leave the office for home in the late afternoon. I was only too happy to take advantage after all the long travel.

Upon arriving at their home in a village about 40 minutes away I met the girls Selena and Barbie (note – not their real names!) who were very excited to have someone new to play with. I also met Oma and Opa (grandma and grandpa) who lived downstairs as well as a multitude of cousins, aunts and uncles.

Over the next few days I started learning German, took long bike rides around the village and neighboring villages, helped the girls with their homework and picked them up from school, and got to know the family a little better. On Saturday the fam was going into Wien (Vienna) for the morning and early afternoon and invited me to tag along. It was great to be introduced to the city by people who knew it so well and know all about the sights to see. We also had a very nice lunch and did a little shopping. Sunday was the day before my birthday, and as the family had found out about it and that week was also two other members of the family’s birthday we had a big celebration with several cakes that night. It was very nice of them to be so considerate of someone they just met, and several member of the family even gave me some chocolates. It was a very nice night.

Mein Haus.

Church in the village.

Some darn nice biking scenery.

This week the fam was leaving for a wedding in Italy, and invited me to use their flat in the city while they were gone so that I could explore Wien more. I was very grateful for their offer and currently enjoying my stay in the city. The flat is only about a 15 minute walk from the main downtown area, and the city itself is beautiful. It has such a different feel from London, Paris, or Rome. The architecture is really very stunning – if grand and sometimes ornate. But I have never seen so many beautiful buildings all together. And after the traffic of other cities, the pedestrian only area of the old downtown is a very welcome break. So lucky me I have from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday evening to explore the city and relax!

Auf Wiedersehen Erie!

2011-09-13T08:05:00.000-11:00

Why is it with travel that you never feel like you are really going until long after you’ve started your trip. I’ve already made it to the airport in Berlin, and I feel like I am just realizing that I am actually moving to Europe – hopefully for a year or more. On the plane today I was also hit with the realization that I could have used with a little more knowledge of German before I got here. And I really have no excuse as I have a book, Rosetta Stone, and a German boyfriend. I suppose now is the time to learn! Luckily Rosetta Stone has taught me really helpful phrases such as, “Der Junge isst Brot” and “Die frau farhet.” and “Nein. Der Pfert schwimt nicht.” Meaning “The boy eats bread.” “The woman drives.” and “No. The horse isn’t swimming.” Very helpful I’m sure. However I am really excited to throw myself into learning German.

Travel to get this far has been hectic to say the least. Supposed to go to my cousins wedding in New Jersey on Saturday and just have my family drop me off at JFK, however all the flooding the eastern part of PA and Jersey caused all the roads to be closed so we had to miss the wedding. Therefore I also had to book a flight to JFK. I ended up getting a ticket to fly out of Buffalo Sunday morning, but that plane was delayed because it broke. This resulted in my missing my flight to Dusseldorf and I had to reschedule the next flight, which came with a nice price tag – and it was 24 hours later. Luckily the lovely Rosemary let me stay with her in Manhattan and we had a nice late night snack of Thai food and a long chat.

My next flight went off without a hitch, and I even made a friend on the flight. Her name was Brittney and she is 19 and going to Greece to study abroad. We had some nice long chats to pass the time and the seven hours flew by. Now here I am in Berlin, waiting for my connection to Vienna. I can’t wait to get there and see what is in store!

No More Pack Mule

2011-09-08T18:06:00.001-11:00

Last time I move abroad I seriously over packed. Way too much. Two big 50 pound suitcases and a backpack (which I thought was not enough) that I lugged to LA to hang with Marley, and then all the way to American Samoa. I ended up with tons of clothes I barely wore and lots of things I thought that I might need, but never did. And there were things that once I got there I still wish I had brought. Since then I have started embrassing a less is more, vaguely Buddist minimalist attitue towards my posstions in general, and I was excited to use this move as an opportunity to really pare down my possesions. And I hate manuvering suitcases (thats why it's called luggage).

As I was pondering this minimalist move at the store where I was buying my one and only suitcase I decided to really commit and bought a carry-on sized suitcase. Everyone who I talked to about this carry-on sized move thought I was being a bit over the top, and I have to admit that as I sat down to pack I was beginning to get concerned myself. I don't really need to take much besides the basic necessties, but clothes were the most difficult. However, I reminded myself how even though I had tons of cloths with me in Samoa, I endedup wearing my favorites most of the time - so this time I decided to take only a few clothes, but those that I really liked. I sorted what clothes to take, and then I went through a couple more times and culled out the least necisarry. Here is my final list in the end:

1 netbook, charger and case
a mouse
camera/charger
a couple plug adapters and a converter
iPod/cord
Notebook to write down German I learn through the day
couple pens and pencils
A few meds/bandaids
brush/hairties
face wash
face lotion
toothbrush
deotorant
razor
tweezers
travel sized shampoo/ conditioner
Bird of Europe field guide (duh!)
2 more books
Frye boots
Old faux ugg boots
Chuck taylors
black flats
old navy flip flops
winter coat
rain jacket
northface fleece
hat/gloves/scarf
4 dresses of varying degrees of dressiness
3 pairs jeans
1 pair black pants
1 black skirt
1 pair mesh shorts
1 pair leggings
5 tank tops
5 short sleve shirts
3 long sleeve shirts
5 sweaters
some underthings and socks
3 packing cubes
reusable shopping bag
tote bag
purse/wristlet
travel towel
bathing suit
small jar of extra chunky peanut butter

I was actually pretty proud of myself. I was packed to move to Europe (hopefully for a year or more) with little enough stuff that I could carry it all on the plane (but I won’t cause I don’t want to lug it around – but I could, and that’s the cool bit). I feel so free already!

My Amazing Mom

2010-05-09T19:07:00.001-11:00

When I look at my life right now all I can do is think how amazing it has been. I don't say it enough but right now seems like a great time to thank my mom for making all this happen for me. My mom was the one who diligently forced me to do my school work, made me try new things, and instilled my love for learning and science. Everything good about me is thanks to her, and for that and many other reasons I love her so much.

Thanks mom for always being there for me and Ricky!

Here's a song that puts some of my feelings perfectly into words.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ick.

2010-05-07T18:44:00.000-11:00

On the walk to catch the bus we found a momento mori:

Storage Closet = Death Trap

2010-05-06T18:31:00.000-11:00

I feel the need to share my storage closet with the world. Let me make it clear that this is the condition in which I found it. That being said, let us begin the tour.

Portal to hell.

Yep. This is real.

Who wants to look in this microscope?

So cozy.

Eddie and Sophia, my skeletal friends.

Rats eat EVERYTHING.

Lead Nitrate that is older than me.

The only reason I ever enter this closet is because it has A/C. I'm not going to lie, I may have even eaten lunch in here on the hottest days. So far I haven't been poisoned.

Standard Based Assessment - Samoan Style

2010-05-05T18:07:00.000-11:00

Thank God we are giving these tests at the end of the year, because if they were in the beginning I might have had a stroke from sheer ridiculousness. The SBAs are the tests developed by the Office of Curriculum and Assessment in the DOE to test that the students are meeting the standards that the DOE implemented as the foundation of the curriculum.

Here at Leone the sophomores are being tested Monday through Thursday, and the juniors on Friday. I am a proctor for a group of students with two other teachers here at my school. In just the first two days look what we ran into:

Math Section:

#18 has no answer listed for option D, it’s just blank.
Another question in the test book has a check mark printed next to the correct answer.

The students could use calculators, but the teachers didn’t know that so no one told the students to bring calculators.

Reading:

One problem asks students about the meaning of the underlined word – but there is no underlined word…

The student’s answer sheets are numbered 23, 24, 24, 25, 26, 28

General:

There is no actual time set, they can just take as much time as they need.

The teachers can answer questions during the test.

They get the whole test book for the week and just keep turning it in so in theory they could totally cheat.

Thanh caught kids cheating and the other proctor told her not to report it because it would lower the scores and the teachers would look bad (she did anyways).

The best:

I was talking to another teacher from a small elementary school and his administration ORDERED him to give the students the answers if they didn’t know. Yes, you read that right – he was ordered to cheat.

And this is only day two…

DOE Appreciation Dinner

2010-05-04T17:56:00.000-11:00

This week in American Samoa it’s Teacher Appreciation Week! It’s also SBA testing, so I don’t really have to teach which makes me appreciate testing. Yesterday the DOE held a dinner as part of the week’s festivities to celebrate teachers who had reached 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 years of service in the DOE. They also invited us WorldTeachers to thank us for giving a year of our time to teach here.

The dinner was at Hong Kong House, one of the many Chinese places and it was absolutely packed with teachers, administrators and us. I realized this would probably be the last Samoan formal function that I would attend, and I really realized how much I was going to miss all the unique elements of Samoan events. There was a band blasting a mix of Samoan and eclectic states songs, teachers being honored getting up and dancing having dollars thrown at them, gifts of tuna, and a bunch of us getting up and doing the electric slide in front of the main table. And I can’t leave out the MC’s comment after our dancing, “For those of you who didn’t come up and dance, we hope you will get electrocuted!” Teacher events in the states just aren’t like this.

Yes! Appreciation Tuna!

Max can eat this week!

Flaunting those fancy certs.

In Samoa this is a single serving size.

KC and her friend Sky came back this weekend and are hear for the week so KC wrestled with the DOE so that Sky could also come to the dinner, especially since it was Sky’s birthday. Sky had the opportunity to have a very unique birthday dinner, and we all had a pretty good time. Afterward all our treachery responsibility was thrown out the window and almost all of us headed to Rubble’s for some drinks and a chance to catch up. This was the biggest gathering of WTs that I had been at since our mid-service evaluation in January so it was a pleasant Monday night.

Friends...

After much chatting and joking, and some drinking, I finally headed home splitting a cab with Sky and KC and went to bed at 1:15… Whatever, I only had to proctor a test the next day. Can you tell that we are nearing the end of the year?

It's a Miracle!

2010-05-02T21:04:00.001-11:00

For the last few weeks the internet at my house has been extra slow - to the point where some web pages just won't load. It was tedious but not terrible, but after a couple weeks I really needed to use some faster internet to get some work (or blogging?) done. I decided today that I would shell out the $10 for one day of using the hot spot in Laufou and would camp out in Carl's Jr. for hours and just do all I had to do with high speed internet including my increasingly more frantic job searching.

I signed on and paid online and to my amazement was treated to the fastest internet I have ever used on island - by far. I had mooched off people here before and while it was fast for the island, it was never this fast. It was so fast I didn't even have to buffer videos on YouTube! (Shut up that's a big step here...)

As a result I have been here for seven hours downloading two weeks of videos that tie into my lessons, checking plane tickets, sending couch surfing requests and uploading pictures and videos. Also drinking several liters of Diet Coke.

For the first time all year I was able to sit down and upload many of my videos from the year, so with out further ado I present: my year in videos.

By far my favorite, a video of the beautiful view from the top of Mt. Alava. This was the view we had when we camped on Mt. Alava in January. Amazing.

Here's a more sober video I took the day after the tsunami while we were delivering emergency supplies to the villages on the west side that were hardest hit.

One from our trip to Western Samoa of Rosemary and I sliding down Sliding Rock.

Here are a few of the many videos that I took of our school's Samoan Day we had earlier in the year. They really practiced and you can tell!

The first video of my time here in AmSam taken on our first full day on the island back in July. These are the boys in our group preforming a traditional dance they just learned in our morning at the local museum and cultural center.

The crowd at the Flag Day weekend fautasi races. They are cheering for their village's boat.

A boy jumps into the pool below the waterfall in Nu'uuli. We couldn't even climb the rock face!

Sweet Saturdays - and Guts

2010-05-02T16:50:00.000-11:00

Yesterday I was lucky in that I managed to get a ride with Taylor so that I could take a huge package of gifts (lucky mom and brother!) to ship home to the post office in Pago Pago. Sadly the reason that Taylor was heading into town is because her aunt was in the hospital because of a serious issue that had come from no where a few days ago. Thankfully she is doing alright now.

So I find myself at the post office at 10 in an extremely long line, but I managed to get my packages shipped and for cheaper than I thought. Afterward I actually ate a bagel (they are redic rare here) and read my book until Rosemary met me at the coffee shop I was at and we decided to go swimming at Sadie's for the third week running. We ran into John there and had a lovely day of swimming.

Later I ran home to shower and get my computer so that we could meet up later and watch the latest episode of Glee that I had downloaded. we were meeting for dinner at Jade and I got there early as i wanted to catch the last bus. In true AmSam fashion the power was out in all of the west side when I got off the bus, but I had no worries as I waited in the lingering A/C in Laufou reading by the security lights.

Luckily the power came back on and we could get dinner, and afterward we decided that we would just walk the 40 minutes to Julia and Rosemary's place. As we neared their house I really, really had to use the bathroom, so when everyone stopped at the store I took Rosemary's key and went ahead.

I was booking about as fast as you can power walk, and this happened to be in an area of the road with no sidewalks. Since I didn't want to get hit by a car I was walking in the longish grass on the side of the road. Suddenly I head a loud, wet, explosions and instinctual do a awkward pirouette as I look down to see the huge toad that my powerful footfall just squashed into a bloody pulp. The toad, of course, was a huge fat one and it was large enough to plaster my sandals and ankle with bloody entrails goo. I swear that until I shook my foot it's liver was wrapped around my ankle.

Still really having to go to the bathroom I hastily wiped off most of the gunk with a breadfruit tree leaf and powered to their house where immediately after using the facilities I jumped sandals and all into their shower.

At least it's a funny story.

The rest of the night was much more fun as we watched two new episodes of Glee and enjoyed the good company.

Bingo!

2010-04-30T23:57:00.000-11:00

Friday marked only two weeks until Cynthia is leaving to go back to the states, and she has a few more things she needs to cross off her list before she leaves. One of the them was Bingo.

“Bingo?” I hear you asking. “Why would you want to go to bingo in AmSam? That seems really random.”

Like Nelly says, It's getting hot in here.

It is not at all random – it is a cultural obsession here. Gambling of all other sorts is illegal here, but the churches are allowed to hold bingo games to raise money for the church’s needs. This has been going on for decades and as a result bingo is highly ingrained into the society here. The bingo games range from games between 15 people in the little church in Manu’a, to the massive bingo nights at some of the largest churches on the island. The bingo is actually a big problem for some families as many people have a serious gambling addiction. I’m not exaggerating, there are some men and women who spend all their family’s money at the bingo games which actually run six days a week. To add to the problem, when the adults play bingo the kids are often left to their own devices and this is often blamed by many locals as the reason for a section of our students’ bad behavior and lack of care about school as there parents are never around.

Gambling for Jesus!

Regardless of the pro-bingo and anti-bingo debate we new we had to go try it at least once when we were here, and as Cyn is leaving soon we decided to hit it up on Friday. We headed to the one of the biggest bingo games that is held in Ili’ili every night, and that we drive past frequently. When we arrived we were amazed to see just how many people were there – after a quick look in all the rooms and the outside areas, and some mental math we estimated that there were between 600 – 700 people playing bingo! We only have 60,000 people on our whole island, so it’s quite a lot.

Can't even fit everyone in the two huge rooms inside.

Cyn intensely focusing.

Turns out just to play amount of games is $15, which I can’t afford so I just watched while John, Cyn, and Rosemary played – occasionally helping spot a number. Cyn later let me play one of her games and it was actually more stressful than fun. While I was watching I was thinking about just how much it costs to play bingo, and the people by us told us they come almost every night! Many people were playing double sets of games, so that’s $30, and they were playing the intermission games which total another $14, and the early bird games which total at around 12$. So that is $56 not including food that they are selling. Yikes.

Despite the morality of the church taking advantage of the people's gambling problems the night was a fun change.

Rain, Rain.

2010-04-29T23:05:00.000-11:00

Even when it rains here it's still gorgeous.

Earth Day (Doesn't Exhist Here)

2010-04-22T19:20:00.000-11:00

Not surprisingly when I told my kids about Earth Day none of them had any idea what I was talking about. Their journal entry for today was, “How can you celebrate Earth Day?” and it received many interesting responses.

“I will eat good foods like apple.”

“I will recycle all the blastics.”

“My family and I watch all the little kids and play.”

“I will clean up all the rubbish and burn it by the house.”

“We should run naked under the moon tonight.”

BONUS: Today I also gave a quiz to one of my classes on the skeletal system and one of the questions was: “What are joints and how do they help you?”

I should have known better…

“Joint are a way to smoke the weed and it help because it make you all happy and fun and stuff.”

The Definition of Fun

2010-04-21T19:22:00.001-11:00

Here a little sample of the conversation I had with some of my seniors this afternoon after they had finished with their quiz:

Me: Nah, school in the states is still fun but they do take things like fighting and cheating much more seriously than they are taken here.

Kid 1: Oh that makes sense cause my mom said that my six grade cousin got kicked out of school in Seattle because he smashed a Mexico kid’s head against the chalkboard and made him bleed!

[Raucous laughter erupts from the boys sitting in on the conversation]

Kid 2: See Miss Kate, you can’t have no fun at school in the states!

Ack! I've Been Poisioned!

2010-04-19T19:25:00.000-11:00

Sunday night, as usual, the intense fun from the weekend is calming down and I am trying to get mentally prepared to go to school. In my head and to Thanh I moan about how anything would be better than going to school on a Monday – floods, cyclones, tsunamis…

Fate is a cruel mistress…

Middle of the night I am woken up with extreme nausea and stomach pain. I will spare you the grizzly details, but needless to say the night and wee hours of the morning were not very pleasant, and I was cursing the humorous turn of fate that gave me what I asked for. After croaking to Thanh and the secretary at school that I would not be going in I promptly threw myself back on my bed expecting death to take me at any moment.

Although I am being slightly over-dramatic I can assure you that it was not fun. However when I could finally hold down liquids I was graced with a visit from the Gatorade Fairy (AKA Julia) and from that point on I slowly started feeling better.

Moral of the story?

Never say that there is nothing worse than school on Monday.

Flag Day Weekend

2010-04-18T20:08:00.000-11:00

Samoan flag day weekend is a celebration of the integration of American Samoa as part of the United States (woo! Free money!) that has been celebrated since…

Although it is called Flag Day, the actual feeling of the day is much more that of the Fourth of July. Families get together and BBQ and relax during the weekend, as well as attending Flag Day celebrations. This year one of the main attractions was a parade and Samoan presentations at the stadium. We had seen similar at our Samoan Day celebrations so we decided to check out the other event, the Fautasi races. Fautasis are traditional boats that look like huge canoes and carry around forty rowers in each. For the Fautasi Race many villages entered a boat, and there was also a boat from Western Samoa. The boat races were a big source of village pride and the crews had been training for months. One of our own, Matt, was apparently the first palagi to ever row in a Fautasi Race.

Thursday we stayed over at Scott and Taylor’s and watched Glee, and on Friday morning we were up and heading to the first heat of the races. It was a beautiful day and were enjoyed watching the race but were a little confused about what was going on as the radio everyone was blasting from their cars was in Samoan, and the boats were coming in at all different times. As it turned out the boats were about ready to start the race when teh goveror called and made them wait til he could get out to the starting line in his yaght to see the race start.

A family watching for the boats.

The race starts in the open ocean, and by the time that the yaght got out there the boats had drifted away from the line and a couple were swamped becaue they had to wait half an hour. The race was scrapped.
We watched anyways but decided we would come in to watch the real race the next day, and consoled ourselves by hanging out and swimming at Sadie's and then hitting up the karaoke bar at night.

On Saturday some of us headed back out to see the real race, although it was not nearly as nice weather. However it was cool to see the race and we ended up watching from one of the areas where the boats dock so that we got to see them when the race was over.

After yet another afternoon of sushi and Sadie's we headed to Ben's friend Matt's house to hang out for a while, and then decided to head to a going away party for one of the palagis on Island at the karayoke bar. Back for the second night in a row, but this night was much more of a party vibe as evidenced in the pictures.

The weekend was deliciously long and much needed, and did not disappoint.

Blue Sky

2010-04-16T20:06:00.000-11:00

I'm going to try to make this short and sweet, cause I am exhausted.

The InterIsland plane to Manu'a is broken. The governor's plane, the only other plane that can go to Manu'a, recently had it's landing gear catch on fire - so also broken. The boat that takes the parts to the broken planes is also broken.

Everyone on Manu'a is stuck there, and no one can get to Manu'a.

KC and Courtney were supposed to come here, but are now stuck. Even worse, today KC's best friend SKy flew in to visit her - but they can't get to each other! WE went to the airport and picked up Sky and are going to try to entertain her until she can find a way to get to Manu'a or until KC can find a way to get here.

Fa'asamoa.

A School Visit from T

2010-04-14T19:58:00.000-11:00

Today we at Leone High School were given a blessed treat when PICED came for a visit! Taylor and her youth leadership group came to our school for (supposedly) a school wide assembly that her group would perform a play at. Since it’s Samoa our school decided last minute (literally last minute – moments before school stated) that they didn’t want to do a whole school assembly and that only the gym classes would go see the play. WE were pretty pissed cause PICED had come and set up a huge stage and had a big production planned and our school decided that they would just change plans last minute. Talk about rude.

Julia, Thanh and I decided that we would just take our classes anyways out of solidarity and so that our kids could hear the message, and told the office as much. All in all Taylor’s kids were awesome and had a great message about staying in school, and our school looks even more sketchy. But what’s new?

Clash of the Tastes

2010-04-13T21:19:00.000-11:00

As mentioned earlier Taylor, Scott and I wanted to go see Clash of the Titans on Saturday but were out of luck. We decided to go today as Tuesdays are matinee prices all day, and met up at the theater with Rosemary and John and Cynthia. Needless to say the movie sucked, but we enjoyed the A/C and each others company which has been the best we can say about most of our movie trips this year.

Seeing a movie is a Samoa is a little different than seeing one in the states. Unless you live in the most Podunk town known to man, within a little bit of a drive you can see a pretty decent variety of movies. On our lovely island Nu’uuli Place Cinema is the only movie theater on Island and only shows two movies at a time. Each movie changes about every two to three weeks, with a few popular ones hanging around for over a month.

This doesn’t sounds too bad, does it? You figure you’ll get to see a smattering of the most popular movies so at least once a month something decent will come up.

Wrong.

Once you account for Samoan movies tastes the picture is much more grim. To get an idea if a movie is going to be shown here please answer the flowing questions about the movie in mind, adding or subtracting points as listed if the answer is “yes”.

Is it an action movie? +10
Is it a romantic comedy? -2
Is it a family film? +5
Are there explosions? +10
Is the f-word used upwards of 20 times? +5
Is the protagonist defending family honor? +20
Is it artistic? -8
Is the plot easy to understand? +13
Is it making a political statement? -25
Is it reminiscent of American Pie? +20
Does it suck? +15
Is there gratuitous nudity and/or violence? +15
Is it Twilight? + 30
Are there subtitles? -50
Is the Rock in it? +1,000,000

If the movie you had in mind earned more than 50 points, good news! It will most likely be shown at Nu’uuli Place Theater!

Here were out most recent movies:

Wonderful selection, huh? The only quasi-decent movies that we've had this year are Where the Wild Things Are, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Literally the best movies available in a whole year. WWTA was only here for a week and I'm pretty sure we only got it here because they thought the monsters would eat Max in the end. However, I will concede that this is a sacrifice that I am willing to make to live on this tropical island.

Marine Band

2010-04-13T19:20:00.000-11:00

The hours before class actually start on Monday mornings are some of the most depressing I experience on Island. I’m tired, wish it was still the weekend, and the kids are usually pretty grumpy themselves. Occasionally on Mondays when we waltz into the office we are delighted to find that there is a morning assembly! These are always much appreciated by the staff and students because they result in a shortened class schedule and sometimes they also eat up all of first period. Today’s was a concert from the Pacific Division of the Marine’s Band. It was quite the show with the walking brass band walking through the kids while playing some tunes, and then a full band on stage. As this is AmSam things were not quite like concerts in the states. For one of the songs a couple of the guys in the band were serenading a girl from the audience, and as it is Samoa she ended up bumping and grinding with the surprised Marine as well as kissing him as she ran back to her seat. More highlights include the band asking if anyone likes a band (AC/DC, Journey, ZZTop) and the kids just started in silence each time they asked, as NONE of the had even heard of the bands! Rock doesn’t do too well here… However, even when the kids didn’t know the song that didn’t stop them from enjoying the moment, especially when kids would randomly get up and run on stage to dance with the band which resulted in confusion, knocking over some equipment, and spanking of Marines by minors. Hilarious to watch, just like most assemblies here.

And we missed first period! Score!

Shrieking Eels

2010-04-12T20:43:00.000-11:00

Saturday night Rosemary and I stayed over at Julia’s and we decided that we would all head over to hang out at Sliding Rock for a while in the afternoon. On the way we picked up Thanh and Cynthia and spent a lovely few hours chatting a relaxing while staring at the ocean. At one point it was just Cynthia and I sitting near an area when the waves ran up a channel between two jutting rock faces. As we were talking something caught my eye down in the water between the rocks and lo and behold it was a moray eel. Being the nerd I am Cynthia and I went and sat closer and just watched it swim and an forth in the waves.

I love nature-y moments.

Do you know what that sound is, highness?

2010-04-11T18:41:00.000-11:00

Saturday I work some more in the morning and then caught the last bus into town to meet up with my friends at Carl’s Jr. I was feeling good, ready to have a crazy night after being cooped up working and being responsible. We headed to Julia’s to have some delicious dinner, and some people took showers and then we prepared for an eventful night. Taylor, Scott and I decided to go to see Clash of the Titans and then meet up with everyone later so we headed over the Nu’uuli Place Cinema (sweet name) and got in line to buy tickets. Just as we get to the front of the line they announce that the movie is sold out and as there are only two movies we abandoned plans and headed back to Julia’s.

Once we explained our early return we killed some time until it was time to belt out some karaoke at The Island Hut. Use you imagination to guess how we passed the time, but by 9:30 we were ready to sing some old ‘80s songs and on our way to Island Hut. We passed an amusing hour or so singing and listening to some truly horrific songs by others. After a while we were feeling the need to change it up and spent the rest of the night bar hopping and hanging out with some other WT people that we ran into.

This is the exact kind of night that makes me ready for the week ahead!

P.S. Sorry Julia!

Too Much Hair Care

2010-04-06T22:43:00.000-11:00

In western society we are constantly told that the more you shower, the better your hygiene. LIES! Well, to an extent.,, Over the long weekend in Manu’a it was just so hot that I got into the habit of putting my hair up in a bun as soon as I got out of the shower. It was very nice and cool to not have my hair touching me and I kept doing it after I got home. The week when we were back it was extra hot, and I was taking two (occasionally three) showers a day to try to feel clean and cool and not like I was about to keel over from heat.

Yesterday when I jumped out of the shower after school and got ready to head to our Thursday night dinner I spun around and smelled something kinda gross. I spent the next few minutes searching the kitchen all around me to discover what the smell was only to realize that it was my hair! The hair that was always in the bun had actually started to get some mold growing! I immediately realized that this made perfect sense – I had been washing my hair at least two times a day, and throwing it up into a bun wet.

Heat + Constantly Wet Hair + Time = Moldy Hair

After the initial shock, I could only laugh at the craziness of the tropics and let my hair air dry. After a few good scrubbings and some serious hair drying my hair was back to normal, but when it comes to hair I will forever empathize with sloths.

Doubling the Palagi Population of Manu'a

2010-04-04T19:48:00.000-11:00

Friday morning we arrived at the airport as a swarm of seven; Taylor, Scott, John, Cynthia, Rosemary, Thanh and I (Julia went the day before). Ryan was at the airport with us, and we were trying to get him on our flight so that he could come to Manu’a with us, but sadly the flight was all full up. We all got weighed and checked in, said goodbye to Ryan, and went to relax in the air conditioned terminal until it was time to board. It was extremely pleasant to know that we had a long weekend ahead of us in which we were going to relax in the beautiful Manu’a and get to see KC and Courtney.

Finally the time came and the seven of us boarded the twelve person plane to Manu’a. One of the best parts of the trip to Manu’a is the beautiful view you get of the central and eastern areas of the island. That day the sky was clear and blue, and the view was awesome. It’s strange that we can see our whole little world from that plane – it really puts it in perspective.

The entrance to Pago Pago Harbor

Olesega and Ofu

T&S

After equally beautiful views of Ofu, Olosega and Ta’u – the Manu’a Islands, we landed on the runway on Ta’u. We were greeted as we disembarked the plane by the smiling faces of KC and Courtney and we all enjoyed the reunion moment. As soon as we got our luggage we climbed into the back of a few trucks and took the half hour ride to the village of Faleasao. The ride is indescribably gorgeous as you ride along the coast and then up into higher ground for a beautiful view. I was in Saunoa’s truck which has a steel frame which allows you to stand up in the back of the truck, and leaning out over the top of the cab flying down the winding roads is one of the most exhilarating experiences that I know of.

Packin' in to Saunoa's truck.

Presenting the view of Olesega.

Once we dropped our stuff and KC’s house and lunched a bit we decided to do some swimming and relaxing. The afternoon was a delicious blur of swimming, talking, lying under trees napping, reading old magazines, and sipping some sweet coke zero. Paradise.

Arrival and lunch.

Me and Taylor

KC's front yard.

As the sun was getting ready to set we headed to the trail on the east side of the village to reach a ridge between coves that is a great spot to watch the sunset. On the way we stopped by the Zach, Dan, and Josiah’s house to check it out and invite them to come with us. As we were waiting for Josiah one of Courtney’s students, Sabrina, came up to me with her closed fists pressed together, looking expectantly. For a moment I was totally baffled, but then I remembered: I had taught her class the super nova pound when I was there at Thanksgiving! Laughing, I put my fist together and on the count of three we pounded fists and screamed “BOOM!” loudly as we threw our hands apart. I collapsed into giggles, so impressed that she had remembered and then we proceeded to try it about ten more times.

Finally we continued on our little hike to the ridge and arrived with plenty of time to relax and look around. There was an area when the rock face bottlenecks and as the wave came in there was a crashing tower of water. It was invigorating to lay and hang our head out over the fall and feel the spray. Everyone took the time to catch up with each other and take some sweet pics, and as the sun set behind Ofu and Olosega we walked back to the village and went in a fantastic Seder meal whipped up by Julia and help from Courtney.

Bam.

Watching the awesome crashing waves.

Catching up.

Ofu and Olesega in the distance.

Scenic rubbish fire.

Yes, we had most likely the first Seder meal that the Manu’a Island have ever seen. It was pretty cool as it was a feminist Seder and was among friends, in addition to the no traditional foods since Julia couldn’t get most of the ingredients on Tutuila. All in all it was a truly unique, educational and savory experience.

Lots of matzo.

After recovering from our food comas we just hung out until it was time to get some sleep and then the great debate began. Who would sleep in KC’s bed? Who wants the couch cushions on the floor? Should people who brought hammocks sleep outside or in the house? Eventually after much debate everyone decided where they were going to sleep, and as John and Cyntia decided to sleep inside they let me borrow their hammock so that I could sleep outside in the open fale and was joined by Taylor and Scott with their hammock. I hung mine up between two poles and climbed in, draping a mosquito net over myself. I drifted to sleep with the sound of the crashing waves, but was woken up by the blinding flash of lightning and a cold breeze as rain started to pour. Since I was under the fale I stayed nice and dry and had that comforting ability to lie in the hammock and watch the light show and the refreshing breeze.

Saturday Sauno’a offered to take any of us who wanted out to the National Park land where the original settlements were found. I’m going to take a minute to tell you exactly who Sauno’a is, because he is an interesting dude. He was born on Manu’a, adopted and raised in Tutuila and Hawaii and joined the navy and served in Vietnam. After the war he traveled all around the states and eventually had a dream that signified to him that it was time for him to return to Manu’a and meet his biological family for the first time. When he arrived on Manu’a he was walking on a road toward his family’s village when he saw a woman walking in the opposite direction. As they drew closer they realized that they were mother and son and ran to embrace. Sounds fairy tale like, but I hope it happened just like that. Anyways, today Sau’s kids are all grown up and he has retired back to Manu’a to live as a a subsistence farmer and promote local agriculture.

Saunoa showing us his garden and landscaping.

Back to the point, he is a cool dude who always give KC and Courtney vegetables and has a pretty awesome garden at this house. And a bad ass sign on his property that says “You shoot Lupe here, I shoot YOU!” Lupe are the local doves that have seen a drastic decline in numbers. So Sau offered to take us to the National Park land and who would say no to that? We piled into the truck and headed back past the village with the airport, Fiti’uta. The ride was beautiful again, and some of us stood up and fully embraced the beauty of our location.

We entered the National Park road and after dodging branches and being covered in spiders we reached the end of the road and took a little beach time to chill out and collect shells. Once we had collected our fill (yes I know this is against park rules, but believe me no one else ever takes stuff cause no one goes there) we jumped back in the truck and headed out. On the way I had the extreme pleasure of locating up in the trees a colony of nesting brown noddys, which was something I had not witnessed before.

The road into the National Park.

The beach at the NP.

After we relaxed for a while on the beach we jumped back into the the truck and headed back to Faleasao, making a quick pit stop at Sau's house to get a snack and some vegetables.

Hot, hot, hot.

I found a cucumber!

Group pic.

Once we were back at base-camp we hit the beaches for some more swimming until it was time for dinner. We had a delicious dinner cooked by our own John, Taylor, and Julia and took some time to just relax after we ate. Later we headed to the wharf to do a little late night fishing, but soon after we arrived I was feeling introspective and decided to go for a hike my myself. After returning to the house briefly to grab a flashlight and a ton of bug spray I took the trail we took the night before to head over to the next cove. Soon I found myself in the pitch blackness of the cove with only the light of the stars, and as I laid down to look up, I realized that I was having the best star gazing of my life. In the middle of the South Pacific, on a sparsely inhabited island, laying on a beach in a remote cove. This is why I came here.

Eventually I headed back around bed time and joined up with the others and we were tuckered out so we headed to bed. The next day it was sadly time to go home, and after some confusion where I wasn't on the passenger list (Déjà vu?) we all made it on the plane and back to reality.

Adios, Manu'a.

For even more pics:

Manu'a

Julia's Manu'a Pics

Hotel T&S

2010-04-02T13:31:00.000-11:00

On Wednesday as we were driving along the western coast we swung by Taylor and Scott’s to say hi, but they weren’t there. Later, on the phone with Taylor we decided to have an overnight the next day after our Thursday night dinner, and then all drive to the airport together on Friday morning to head to Manu’a. The plan sounded awesome to me and it fit the bill for showing Ryan the best of the island.

Thursday after school Thanh and I headed into town to meet everybody including Ryan at KoKo Bean for dinner. Our normally wonderful dinner was better than usual as everyone enjoyed a newcomer and the fact that we had the next day off and were headed to Manu’a. After dinner T&S piled people into their truck, Thanh and I hopped into Ryan’s car, and we headed out to Hotel T&S.

The night passed pleasantly with chatting, drinking, and watching the stars out on the beach. Eventually we had to call it a night and hit the hay. Suddenly I was jolted from my sleep by John waking me up, and then I hear the frantic ringing of the village bell. Tsunami warning?!? That’s what John and Cyn thought too. Soon we are headed out on to the road to look down towards the village but then it dawns on us, and Scott wakes up and confirms that it is just the 5 AM church bell for Good Friday! Oh Samoa… You’d think they could make their frantic ‘”come to church” bell and their frantic “OMG it’s a tsunami run!” bell sound a little different…

We awoke for the second time closer to eight and piled in and headed to the airport. Ryan accompanied us as we were going to try to get him on a flight with us so that he could join us in Manu’a. Sadly once we make it to the airport we found out that there was no room, and then we said our goodbyes to Ryan. After playing with Sandra’s little baby Pikasone for a while it was about time to get moving and we headed to the wonderfully air-conditioned departure gate to await our flight to Ta’u!

Punk'd

2010-04-01T17:14:00.000-11:00

[Me and my friends had reserved seats on a flight to Manu'a on Friday to go visit our friends. Normal procedure is that you just pay for your ticket when you show up for the flight. Someone from the airport had told Taylor that if we didn’t all pay for our tickets by 4:30 on Thursday we would lose our seats. We found this out on Wednesday night. On Thursday Rosemary was at the airport and as Thanh and I couldn’t get there fast enough asked if they could please hold our seats without the money. I found this out later, but first the airport staff called me.]

“Hello, is this Kath-er-ine My-eel-nik?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Oh, I’m from InterIsland calling to tell you that since you did not pay for you ticket we have given away your seat on the plane.”

I stand stunned by… lack of professionalism? Annoyance? Disappointment?

Then over the line I hear a muffled chuckle.

“Wait a second… are you punking me? Is this an April Fool’s joke?”

“HAHAHAHAHA yeah… sorry hahahaha. You’re still on the flight, just pay tomorrow when you show up at the airport.”

I seriously love AmSam!

Couchsurfing!

2010-03-31T23:01:00.000-11:00

Many moons ago when I was back in Erie I posted about some of the couch surfers that I hosted at my apartment as they were passing through Erie. I have been active on Couchsurfing here in American Samoa, but no one had yet requested to surf and actually made it to the island. However last month I was contacted by a man who was planning on coming this way for his research for his PhD and he actually made it to Tutuila!
On Wednesday after school I met with Ryan at Carl’s Jr. and we headed back to the house. Ryan turned out to be a very interesting person and a wonderful surfer who clicked with our group immediately. Wednesday night we headed out to Poloa since Ryan had a car so that he could have a chance to see the beautiful Westside at the best time – sunset.

Ryan with Cynthia and Jessie.

Back home we sat up talking and Ryan had no end of interesting things to share. He is in his thirties and is a certified nurse who worked in the Alaskan bush but is now back at school to get his PhD in History with a focus in infectious disease. Pretty sweet huh? Listening to his stories about working in up in Nome was really interesting, but even cooler was his knowledge of the Influenza of 1918 in the South Pacific. There was one boat that sailed the Pacific infecting every island it landed on which even led to the terrible result of Western Samoa losing 26% of its population to the flu! American Samoa was actually one of the only places to have zero deaths from the epidemic as they refused to allow the ship carrying the flu to enter the harbor.

I love couchsurfing!

Future Housewife v. 2.0

2010-03-30T12:53:00.000-11:00

As the first attempt at bread went pretty well, I decided that I would bake a couple more loaves for the upcoming trip to Manu‘a. Since I had conquered the white bread I decided to try to make some cinnamon basic swirl bread to change it up a bit. Here it is!

Fish Lab

2010-03-28T20:55:00.002-11:00

As it so happens both my Marine Science and Life Science classes were studying fish around mid-term time, and since I had given them both tests a couple weeks before I decided to have their mid-term be a lab activity. Both classes focused on the external anatomy and groups of students each had a fish and needed to sketch their fish, label it's parts, and answer the questions about the material we had covered concerning fish anatomy.

I was pretty excited because while nearly all of my students frequently catch or clean fish, they really didn't understand the function of parts a fish's anatomy. For this activity I went to the local market and purchased some freshly caught reef fish and brought them to class for the activity.

Oh, suck it up. It's not that bad...

I so pleased at how well most of my students did with the activity, however I myself had a few lapses of judgment when I came to the realities of the lab. Allow me to demonstraight the simple idea I did not remember:

Fish + Tropical Climate + Time = NASTY

By the end of the first class the fishy smell in my room was getting pretty stanky. By the end of the day... well lets just say that it was potent. Some of the boys even took to wearing their i'e's (skirts) around their faces like surgical masks because they swore it was going to make them sick. They were being a little dramatic. However I did have to start wiping the fly eggs out of the fishes' eyes after the second class (vomit).

Yep, those white things - fly eggs.

But hey, if these are the sacrifices I have to make for my kids to learn, so be it. At least until they become maggots.

Future Housewife

2010-03-28T12:41:00.000-11:00

Nothing is worse than being sick and behind in work in Samoa – the sunny weather just taunts you! This past weekend I actually stayed at my house the entire time (ack!) due to a nasty cold and the fact that I was behind in work. However as I felt slightly better I decided to find something entertaining to do before I went crazy. I decided that I was going to try my hand at baking bread, and it actually went pretty well. The extreme boredom also made me get extra diligent about photographing the process for this post.

Time to kneed.

Let that baby rise.

Looking good.

Take that Prichard's!

Lab Table Love

2010-03-26T17:32:00.000-11:00

Some experiences I have had here are beyond strange. Luckily, I have become jaded to the unexpected happenings of AmSam. Expect the unexpected indeed. That begin said, today I had another experience that I couldn’t fabricate if I tried. It was during my third (reich) period, which is typically my worst class but they were doing very well that morning. The class was taking notes and I was answering a question that one of the students had asked, and by the time I looked up a good many of the students were done with the slide that we were on. As my eyes made a quick once-over of the class I noticed something strange. To set the scene you have to understand that in Samoa kids don’t ever get glasses, even when they need them – don’t ask my why. So I will let my students sit up on the lab tables for notes because some of them have a tough time seeing the front of the room.

Back to the moment in class, it was thus not strange for me to see one of my students up on the lab table, but what he was doing was definitely not taking notes. He was laying on his side on the table next to the gas hook ups that are found on the table. After half a second I noticed that he was actually humping the gas hook up. Considering he started to make some quite noises and then made eye contact with his friend and smiled I assume that he was doing this to amuse his friend although I have no idea why he thought of this, even if he is the class clown. After a second with this continuing I asked in a loud voice, “ _______, are you in love with my table?” The whole class finally noticed what the student was doing (in the middle of the classroom) and burst out laughing. The student was laughing too but said as an explanation that he didn’t notice I was looking, to which I responded “Dude. You are in the middle of the classroom!” The class finally started to calm down and I assured my student that if he was patient he could find a girlfriend and wouldn’t have to settle for a table.

Pretty Lil Teine

2010-03-25T16:45:00.000-11:00

Here in American Samoa our students definitely listen to mainland music, but they still love their Samoan music too. Samoan music is heard just as commonly on our kids cell phones (which they use to play music while walking around campus) as the newest R&B song from the states. Samoan music truly has it's own flavor, and can at times be a very acquired taste. However one new song is getting very popular, even with us palagis as it has a more mainland sound.

I recently got the video (thanks Jessie!) from YouTube to show in class and lo and behold it was filmed on our own little Tutuila and I can identify most of the shooting locations. With a little help from Jessie of course. The chorus goes "Pretty lil teine. Seki a o'e" which translates to "Pretty lil girl, you're the coolest"

While not necessarily the deepest lyrics it sounds way cool in Samoan and I bet you will have it stuck in your head. Check it out!

When I first saw the video I thought that the main girl looked familiar. Turns out we met her earlier in the month when we went to Fagatele Bay. She was with the college group that gave us a ride, and we rode with her in the back of a truck. Small world, or in this case, island.

Teachers Are Perfect. Period.

2010-03-24T21:08:00.000-11:00

Last night I decided to go for a nice evening stroll to the store up the road for some essentials (Diet Pepsi). As I walked and did my shopping I was talking on the phone to KC, my friend out on Manu’a, about life and our upcoming visit to her and Courtney in about a week. Walking back home I encountered the boys from our school heading home from a late football practice, many of which were my students. I was walking on the path (where a sidewalk would be) on the side of the road, so as I said ‘hi’ I went to move to the side to made room for the boys passing in the other direction. In stepping sideways I had to step up a dirt berm, and I managed to slip and fall headfirst into the giant hibiscus bush at the side of the road. I stand up to the laughs of some kids, and the amused concern of some of my students with my hair full of leaves, glasses in the road and dirt everywhere. In trying to play it cool and act like it was no big deal I started walking away – only to be stopped by a student calling because I had forgotten my glasses. Oh yeah, I kind of need those. I finally remembered that I was on the phone as this happened, and it turns out an amused KC had heard the whole thing. At least I was entertaining.

Thankfully all that was injured was my pride.

Olfactory Triggers

2010-03-23T22:11:00.000-11:00

Despite living my life here in AmSam, and wishing that the end wasn’t quite so near, I cannot help but miss things about home. I’m not sure if it is the yearning for the impending return home or some other reason, but lately I have been having especially strong flashbacks that are triggered by smells. The rushes of old memories have been exceedingly random and strong even though the strength of olfactory memory triggers is not new to me in either experience or science terms. Here are two examples that happened recently that were really bizarre.

A student in class was using Icy/Hot (it’s own post…) which has a very potent pepperminty-chemically smell. All of a sudden I was back at Camp during workweek cleaning the bathrooms. The smell was exactly like the smell of the abrasive cleaner we used to clean the sinks and other surfaces in the bathroom. It was one of those times where the memory hit me before I even had time to figure out why it popped into my head. Before I knew it I was listening to country radio, singing along, and scrubbing sinks in the boy bathroom with friends. To the maintenance truck! Very weird.

Our kids have a penchant for all types of cheap knock off cologne and perfumes that they buy at the corner stores here and literally slosh all over themselves. As a consequence my classroom sometimes smells like walking into a skanky Sephora knock-off store. One student had just doused himself in a new scent that I hadn’t smelled before and when he walked in the aroma immediately sent me back again. I had a vision of play-dough flowers where the dough smelled just like that cologne. At first I felt that this was not a real memory, and somehow my brain was making this up. I didn’t really have any recollection of making these play dough flowers. But as the day went on, and the scent lingered in my classroom I slowly had a few more threads of memory drawn out of my brain and I realized what it was I was remembering some sort of flower making basket toy. Lo and behold, when I got home and Googled it I discovered the "Flower Making Basket" and upon seeing it totally remembered playing with it. What. The. Heck. I had no conscious memory about this, I think if anyone would have asked me about it before I wouldn't have recalled the memory. The power brain is pretty much freaking me out. What other memories are stored in there that my consciousness can only recollect with a trigger? Also, does my longing for home increase the strength or likelihood of these flashbacks?

Icy Hot

2010-03-22T21:22:00.001-11:00

The bell for fourth period had been rung and slowly my class was trickling in when I noticed a student extra slowly limping into class. I asked him if he was ok and he told me that he had hurt his leg, and then proceeded to pull out a container of Icy Hot and rubbed some of it on his leg. He looked like he was in pain so I didn’t mind that he was putting some on, and proceeded to walk around the class a bit encouraging my students to start their work. A few minutes passed and the smell of Icy Hot was becoming stronger and stronger, and I started to suspect that the use of Icy Hot in the class had gone from medicinal to recreational. I walked back up front and asked the student to put his Icy Hot away, but alas – I was too late. Some of the boys in the back of the class we rubbing their arms and chest under their shirts which confirmed that they were being weird yet again. I asked them to quit with whatever of the Icy Hot they had left, and we resumed note taking.

A few minutes later I notice that one of the boys who had grabbed some of the Icy Hot was starting to rub his chest and armpit harder and harder with an increasing look of distress on his face. Moments later tears were welling up in his eyes and he was pushing his way to the door. Once he got to the doorway he broke into a flat out sprint for the boys bathroom with the whole class dying of laughter in his wake. I don’t know how much Icy Hot he used or where exactly he put it but I couldn’t help by laugh on the inside about how random our students are.

Go West, Young (Wo)Man!

2010-03-21T23:50:00.000-11:00

Spring break may have been canceled due to the tsunami, but we we're not giving up all of our vacation dreams! Thanh and I decided that we would take a couple of days off of school so that we could have a mini-vacation to Western Samoa. I was especially adamant about having this vacation as I had not made it to Western Samoa yet since I was stranded on Manu'a when I was supposed to go at Thanksgiving, and went home for Christmas.

Western Samoa is the other half of the Samoan archipelago and has the same culture as AmSam, but was originally under German occupation and then was granted independence. As a result of the lack of US funding, Western Samoa (to the rest of the world, just Samoa) has retained a more traditional lifestyle for much of the population thereby making it a more "authentic" tourist location. Personally I went to see a building taller than three stories and some new sites, and to not run into students every five seconds.

So it was decided that we would leave on St. Patty's day after school and come back on Sunday. After much begging Thanh and I also convinced Rosemary to join us which just about solidified the perfection of the trip. So on Wednesday after school Thanh and I ran home, chucked our school stuff, grabbed our bags and ran like hell to the airport to make our 5:00 flight. We met Rosemary and with much dorky dancing and celebrating we made it on the tiny plane to Western.

The north-west side of our gorgeous Tutuila.

A mere half an hour later we were in Apia and reveling in our vacation! We checked in at Princess Tui's Hotel which has hostel like bunking for cheap and hit the town for St. Patty's Day. We had a leisurely dinner at some crazy restaurant which made great iced coffee but gave me soup so salty not only was it inedible for humans, but the cat hanging out with us wouldn't eat it. After dinner we headed to the bar next door for a drink, and lo and behold who do we run into? All of the other WorldTeachers! Most of them were there for the week, and they had already kicked off the festivities with some green beer and were having a good time. We joined in with piña coladas and the night was wonderfully fun. Maybe too fun as I ended up in a slap fight and skipping down the street, but it's hard to say if that was from the drinks or the ecstasy of being free from teaching responsibilities.

Rosemary and I giving our students' go-to picture pose at dinner.

We returned back to our hostel and met some fellow travels in the living areas. There names were Dwayne and Glen and they were from England and Australia, respectively. I was chatting with Dwayne and after the initial awesome realization that he had been to Erie before (weird...) he turned into the most self absorbed, pompous travel gloater I have ever met. Rosemary got the cute blond one... Eventually we turned in to hit the hay, and I climbed into my lower bunk and tucked in my mosquito net. I rolled over to face the window and found myself staring at the glorious sea of stars that is so much more expansive in the South Pacific. That night was another moment where I am completely confident that this year is one of the best decisions of my life, and I feel asleep blissfully and exquisitely happy.

Morning was equally transcendent as I awoke to the kiss of the sun's first rays on my cheek and watched the colors of the sunrise. Assured that they day was going to be marvelous, I rose from bed and showered, then met my friends for breakfast.

The view from the front porch of our hostel.

Discussions over the fresh fruit and toast decided that we would hire a cab for the day to hit up some of the sites we most wished to see. After some haggling and packing of day bags we were on the way. We lounged in the cab as we drove the coast and mountains of the island to reach our destination.

Ocean view as we traverse the island of Upolu.

Our first destination was the Ocean Trench which is an old lava tube that now allows water from the ocean to collect in a trench slightly inland. You can actually swim in an underwater tunnel and reach the ocean, which some of the WT boys actually did that week, but no way were we trying that. You can climb down and swim in the water, letting the ebb and flow of the current rock you back and forth. I will let the pictures describe the rest.

Ocean Trench. Yes, it's that awesome.

A bad time for acrophobia.

Under the tunnel to another opening.

Our next stop was at sliding rock (not ours at home...) where you can slide down the waterfalls into the pool below. Wicked fun!

Waving from the pool after we slid.

Swimming in the waterfall.

Finally we returned back to Princess Tui's, tired and dirty, and immediately headed to the showers. After I had recomposed myself I found out that Adam and Jung had stopped by to see if we were in, and we decided to all go to dinner together. We headed to Paddle's, an Italian restaurant/bar with a beautiful view of the Apia Harbor, and kicked back to chat. It was very pleasant catching up with Adam and Jung and we also thoroughly enjoyed the change of cuisine and atmosphere.

Paddle's on Apia Harbor

Me, Adam, Jung and Rosemary after dinner.

Once we wrapped up dinner we headed back to On The Rocks for more drinks, and met up once again with the other WorldTeachers who were in Apia. We sat and swapped stories about wayward childhoods (Rosemary and her neighbors loitered in a construction site too!) and just enjoyed the night. Finally we said adieu to the others as we were heading to the other island, Savai'i, the next day and wouldn't see them again.

Roomies!

Rosemary and Bobby.

A truly terrible pic of Alex, Tanne, and Molly. My bad.

The next morning we hit up the market and bought some gifts (which I can obviously not write about here) and then swung by the food market on the way to the bus that we caught to get to the ferry to Savai'i. We don't have markets like this in AmSam so I indulged by buying some starfruit and umu-ed green bananas for lunch on the road. All that shopping sure made us thirsty so we grabbed some young coconuts for about 20 cents each. Delish.

Food Market

Nature's carbonated beverage.

Eventually we got on a bus, but since this is Samoa you know it wasn't normal. My big suitcase that we had brought for souvenirs was tied on to a platform on the back of the bus with some twine, and we piled in with a ton of other people. Just like in AmSam no bus is ever too full, so our hour long ride happened with Thanh sitting on my lap and Rosemary holding our bags on hers with a switch in the middle. This is how memories, and numb legs, are made.

Good thing we are such good friends.

We made it to the wharf, and soon after made it on the ferry to Savai'i. The waves were fun, and soon I was lulled to sleep, only occasionally awakening to the spray of salty water. Once we reached Savai'i it was another hour bus ride to Manase - the super awesome tourist spot were we could wear bathing suits on white sand beaches!

Ferry time!

Our lodgings were perfect for us - a thatched fale with mats and mosquito nets that opened directly onto the sandy beach. That Friday evening we arrived was spent with some swimming, dinner while watching the sunset over the ocean, and long night chats. Again I was thoroughly content to fall asleep to the sound of the bats in the trees and the waves crashing on the reef. Life doesn't get more simple and satisfying.

Fales opening to the beach.

The view from our fale.

Rosemary kicking it in the mosquito net.

Sunset on the deck.

Saturday was a day of pure hedonistic pleasure. All day was occupied by swimming (in baiting suits!) napping on the beach, reading, and relaxing. Sadly, in the afternoon Rosemary took ill, but at least she had an amazing place to recover. That night after dinner I left Thanh to her book, and took a very long walk out on the beach under the stars. Again I was taken aback that this was my life, and couldn't be more overjoyed that I found myself there at that moment. Those lonesome hours under the stars might have been the closest I have been to understanding what I want from my life, but like all wonderful moments it too had to end.

Sometimes getting up at dawn is worth it.

Thanh, as the sun rises.

A tropical breakfast.

Our front yard. Not a desktop background, I swear.

The next morning, back in the real world, we were enjoying a leisurely breakfast as we had a few hours before we had to catch a bus to the wharf for the 12 o'clock ferry. However during this serene scene the owner approached us to tell us that there was no 12pm ferry that day, only at 10am. Our eyes met, momentarily stunned. Then springing to our feet, we hollered for the owner to call a cab and bolted to pack. It was 8:50... The cab arrived at 9:10, and we rapidly explained to him that we had 50 minutes to make the one hour drive to the ferry before it left. He assured us that he could make it.

Our cab man took his job seriously and we found ourselves careening down winding jungle roads at break-neck speeds dodging chickens, pigs, cars and children as we barreled towards the wharf. After reaching for our seat belts (alas, broken!) we held on tight and jammed out to his sweet Samoan mash-ups.

9:50... We're getting there...

9:53... Almost there...

9:58... Just around the corner!

9:59... We're dead!

10:00... We pull into the wharf with screeching tires as the ropes from the ferry are being pulled up and our driver yells from his open window the the man signaling up the gangplank. After a moment's hesitation the man nods at the cab driver, and stops the ferry for us.

A quick fist pump and satisfied "Yes!" are signs that our driver has set a new personal best.

I grab the luggage and pay, Thanh runs to the boat, and Rosemary grabs the tickets and in no time we are stepping on the ferry as it pulls away from the dock. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

The rest of our trip is calmer from there as we reach Apia without further drama, grab some chow, and hit the airport for home. Needless to say this is one weekend adventure that I will not forget quickly.

Here are more pics if you want them!

Western Samoa!

Thanh's Western Samoa Pics (And Stuff from Before)

Spanish Club!

2010-03-17T21:13:00.000-11:00

Sometimes when I’m in a good mood when teaching I get a little goofy, and lately have been speaking to the kids in Spanish for a second. This always gets their attention and then they want to know what I said. Lately the students have seemed to realize that I can actually speak quite a bit of Spanish and have taking to asking me how to say certain things.

When I realized that there was actually a legitimate interest in Spanish I decided to start a Spanish Club. So far it is going pretty well, and it is so fun to actually teach kids who want to learn again! I had almost forgotten what that was like. I only wish that I had known earlier in the year that students were interested.

So far I am just going over the basics with them, but they already seem to have plans for a play in the works. Who knows? Perhaps we will do a Spanish play. I’ll keep you posted.

Guerrilla Fashion

2010-03-16T19:31:00.002-11:00

My Monday Morning:
[School starts at 8:30. Each morning in the office there is a bulletin printed out that has the day's schedules and announcements. On Monday mornings we either have an assembly first and no homeroom, or 1st period, homeroom, then second period.]

[I enter the office at 8:00 and approach the secretary]

Me: Morning, Rita. Where is the bulletin?

Rita: Oh, it's not ready yet.

Me: Wow, cutting it close today.

Rita: Yeah they were figuring out the schedule.

Me: Gotcha. So is it assembly or homeroom today?

Rita: Homeroom.

Me: [heading out of the office] Thanks, Rita!

[scene flashes forward to 1st period Marine Science. 8:55 AM]

Me: "...no boys, for the last time that is not the shark's penis it is the sharks clasper. Sharks use claspers when mating."

[student from outside opens the door and yells in]

Student: Everybody has to go to the gym for the fashion show.

Me: What are you talking about? There is no assembly today, it's homeroom.

Student: I don't know they told me to tell the classes that.

[By now the my students are halfway out of the classroom. I walk outside and look out over the campus.]

Me: [to the teacher two rooms down] So is there really a fashion show?

Mr. G: I don't really know.

[I shrug, resign myself to the fact that my first period is going to be behind on their work, and head to the gym.]

Fin

Turns out there was a fashion show, and there was apparently some lack of communication between the group running the fashion show and the administration about the schedule.

The fashion show was run by the Future Business Leaders of American Samoa (FBLAS) which is a business club at our school who are known for their bake sales and ridiculously high stilettos on their club uniform day. Is it coninsidence that the club has 5 inch heels, an acronym that is pronounced 'fabulous', and a fa'afafine as their moderator? I think not.

FBLAS is hands-down the most active club at the school, and the fashion show reinforced the point.

Work it girl!

The MC

The fashion show was very fun to watch, and even had some lip-syncing and dancing interludes. However in true Leone High School style the messed up schedule resulted in me getting only half of my first period. A great way to start the week already behind in where I want them to be. Ah well, fa'asamoa.

Kid's Write the Darnedest Songs

2010-03-15T21:49:00.000-11:00

While spending Sunday afternoon working our butts off to get ready to go to Western Samoa on Wednesday, Rosemary showed me this awesome song that her student wrote in social studies class about Western Europe.

Awesome! Points for creativity. And to answer your question no, I do not have a little girl like your chinny, so stop rubbing it in.

Fagatele: Round 2

2010-03-14T17:06:00.000-11:00

Friday night pizza and Jessie and Julia's, then a sweet Saturday trip to Fagatele. You may recall that this is the bay we went to on my birthday back in September, where I got the worst sunburn I have ever experienced. Needless to say I over zealously applied sunscreen this time and there was no repeat mistake.

This time we lucked out because we caught a ride with a biology class from the college that was heading to Fagatele too, and we rote in their trucks up the mountain. Easiest hike ever. All in all a wonderful day of snorkeling (in big waves which added to the excitement/danger factor)laying in the sun, reading and chatting.

Jessie looking poised and relaxed.

Yes, when Thanh tries to take my picture I act like a petulant child.

Journal Entries: More Classic Quotes

2010-03-10T20:54:00.000-11:00

Everyday when the students arrive in class, they first work on a journal entry. It helps the kids settle down and get ready for class and mostly functions as activating prior knowledge on the subject we are learning about that day, unless I have exhausted relevant prompt ideas. Here are some recent excerpts from my kids journals. It’s like Gump’s mama used to say, “Journals in Samoa are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

Journal: What would life be like if you were a fish?

“You may remember Beatrix Potter from books you read as a young child”

Journal: If you could become any famous person who would you become?

“The person that I want to pi is Akon the resant wai I want to pi Akon is pecas he hav a cud vois.”

“My mom, the reason why I picked my mom because she help another people when they smile help and she done lots of things in our house when she clean our house you cannot see some trash. And she helps me to do my homeworks and the another famous people is my dad he push us to go to the school and the church every day. Thank you.”

Journal: Who is your best friend and why?

“My best friend is _______ cuz she nice girl not backstepper like other girl.”

“My best friend is _______ because I like the way he’s talking about samoan things and other things. And the way he’s smoke weed and drink beer. We do works together and also do jobs at home. And we sniff ice that the blood and crib do.”

Journal: What would you do if you became President of the United States?

“If I become pres I would give everything I could to help the homeless people around the world. And the other thing if I become a president, I would accept weed to smoke everywhere in the world. And I tell every police man and woman that weed is not a bad thing to do.”

“Well if I become a president I can change the world with my power and I can do a better job because the world right now is fucken mast up so yeah.”

Journal: What was the happiest day of your life?

“Well the happiest day of my life is the week end because its free for life and its fun because we drunk for days and you know its week end we do what ever we want and my parent let us do and yeah.”

“The happiest day of my life was when I was in Carson at California we went in 2007 we went to many parties went to bars and meet all my cousins that I never met in my whole they treated me like there own then I came back because my cousins couldn’t stand me because I was yet doing drugs already in the age of 15.”

Journal: What do you think your life would be like in 20 years?

“I would be so old but not to old and I would be able to get a better future, I think but yes, and I will, I will be able to graduate from high school and get a better grade and graduate from college get a better a job have sex all I want but I was just joking I just want to take care of my parents first and my whole family first.”

Journal: What was a time in your life when you were scared?

“The first time that I got scared is that when a girl try to kiss me and I get swet finger and red cheeks and also I get scare when she get closer when it happen it fills fine and that when I got scare.”

“I relly scare about when the second come of Christ and he judes every single word I’m doing in earth because I relly scare if I go to hell satan.”

We Are the World

2010-03-08T18:56:00.001-11:00

I am sure that you, reader, are aware that in the beginning of February a new 25 year anniversary version of “We are the World” was released to benefit the relief effort in Haiti.

Little known is that the songs secondary objective was to drive me to insanity.

Raj, who is another WorldTeacher here teaching English, introduced the song to his classes in a lesson about giving back to the community. Little did he know the evil that he unleashed. Hearing that the kids liked the song I downloaded the whole 8 minute 30 second long video to add to my collection of bribe videos. Each day if the class behaves and all students get their work done before the end of class I reward them with a music video or two up on the projector. This was Julia’s brainchild and is very nearly the sole reason that my classes’ behavior has improved so dramatically this semester.

So the day dawns where I debut the “We are the World” video in my classes and they are IN AWE. For the next three weeks every one of my class only wants to watch that video. Every day. Over and over. One class worked faster than I have ever seen them work so that they could actually have time to watch it three times on repeat. I can’t complain about their motivation. However watching this video a minimum of six time a day for weeks was starting to drive me insane.

Finally, a test day rolled around and they had to work on their test for the whole period and couldn’t watch the video. Peace for two days! Or so I thought… I let them listen to music while the work as it helps cut down on the talking (cheating), and what did they listen to? We are the World. On repeat. For a whole hour. Seriously. The best part is that three out of my five classes did this.

The craze has died, but I at least can now completely reenact the entire video including voice changes and auto-tune which I did for the entertainment of those near me on a bus with Thanh.

Here is my gift to you:

Cyn's B-day Bonanza

2010-03-07T16:44:00.000-11:00

For Cynthia's birthday she had only a few requests: Taylor and Scott's house, Sex and the City, pizza and buffalo chicken dip. Over the weekend we managed to have most of these but with some added bonuses.

On Saturday we were picked up by Taylor at the KS area which allowed us to get all the groceries we would need for a night of fun and food and we headed out to their house around noon. Upon arrival food prep began and we found out that for Scott, food prep had begun the night before when he started marinating a huge amount of ribs with his own Dr. Pepper marinade.

Scott, unable to control the evolutionary drive that men have

to cook large amounts of meat. And it turned out delicious.

Needless to say the food was amazing and everyone was happy. Scott and Taylor made ribs and potatoes, Rosemary made Sushi, Julia made about a million things (like usual) and I made some Buffalo chicken dip. Julia even made the pizza with homemade dough! The night was kicked up another notch with the arrival of Taylor's uncle Pete and his friend Clinton who hooked up some amps and played some sweet rock for hours after dinner. I'll tell you, there is not much better then sitting at a beach, eating ribs, then sipping a cool drink while the sunsets and people are playing guitars and singing. Awesome.

Cynthia was amazed. Or outraged.

A little bit later we headed into the the theater (an empty bedroom with mattresses on the floor, and Jessie's projector hooked up to a computer) to watch some episodes of Sex and the City. Sadly (but not necessarily unexpectedly) the disks that John had rented for Cynthia were pretty scratched and all the episodes skipped. We continued to watch these annotated versions for a while, and then decided to call it quits head head back outside.

The morning brought John and Cynthia's now famous breakfast buffet, and then we all piled in the truck and headed home. And got soaked - it poured on the way home. Fa'asamoa.

Cynthia's Birthday Weekend

Animal Reports: The Finest Excerpts

2010-03-05T20:37:00.000-11:00

Over the last few weeks I’ve had my seniors in Marine Science working on research reports about a marine animal of their choice to introduce our section on higher forms of marine life. After two weeks in the library, fill-in-the-blank outlines, checklists, and begging the due date arrived and... I got about half. Over the next week I eventually had about 70% of the reports in and today I give to you the best quotes from those reports. And no, those aren’t typos.

Jellyfish important to people because the eat jellyfish especially tongan people. The reason I pick this animal because it look funny and breatty face also look dead lier and look smart than other animal. And it have lightning in body.

It could actually poison people more than a snake called venom and it could be affected according to this idea from the book about polluting the ocean and fishing with dynamite.

Hi my name is _______ my animal is a octobus and why I chose octobus is because this is the only animal from the ocean I like to eat.

My animals look like a star but can swim and looks very polk a dotty.
The starfishs interact with each other directly without anybody telling anybody else what they can and cannot die.

I picked sea turtles for my animal because it is indanger animal.

People help stingrays by putting up signs on the beaches that have stingrays saying “don’t harm the stingrays and stuff”.

A Video from the Land of Archaic Technology

2010-03-04T21:32:00.000-11:00

After roughly one bajillion attempts to upload a single video to YouTube, I finally had success. This is a video of the sophomore class parading to the malai at the very start of the Samoan Day festivities. The song they are singing is the Leone High School song, and basically just says that we are the best school around.

They are just too cute. But don't tell the boys that I said that, because they tell me they look "tough and manly".

The Answer to Why our Students Can't Read

2010-03-02T21:33:00.004-11:00

Cynthia, who is an absolute saint for putting up with probably the most psychotic administration ever found in a school, recently related this direct quote from her arch-nemesis the school librarian:

" I hate reading."

Tsunami... Again

2010-02-28T21:32:00.000-11:00

This going to encompass my whole weekend, so hang on – the tsunami stuff is coming…

On Friday the original plan was to go see Shutter Island which we were sure was going to come out at our theater that weekend. I was heading into town early since I was going to do some work in the sweet A/C of Carl's Jr., and discovered to my horror that Shutter Island isn't on the "list" that is set for the Island, so instead we got Copout and STILL have Valentine's Day. Wow… thanks for the awesome movies… This put a few kinks in the plan but I headed to Carl's to get the work part of my plans done, but that also was foiled (not that I minded) by the fact that Rosemary and Jessie were already at Carl's to work. Needless to say none of us got any work done, but we did have some very fun hours of chatting, and I do mean hours. We didn't end up leaving Carl's until about 9, and we decided to walk to Jessie and Julia's instead of cabbing it which took us about 40 minutes. It was a nice walk and once we got to their house we just chatted for a bit more, and then decided to watch an episode of Glee. After infinite more talking about philosophy of education, international education, and such we headed to bed.

Just as we were about to fall asleep, around 2am we heard the Sa bell ringing, in a kind of strange pattern. Immediately Rosemary thought about how her friend from Japan had called to tell her about a huge quake in Chile, and we wondered if it was a tsunami warning. We figured it didn't really matter if it was because Jessie and Julia's house is way far from the ocean and decently elevated. Back to sleep we went… Mere moments after nodding off Jessie got a call from Brandi confirming that there was indeed a tsunami warning, which we acknowledged and then went again, back to sleep. At 5ish AM I was awoken by my dad calling to let me know that there was a tsunami warning. His concern was nice, and I thanked him and assured him that I was safe. Just as I was heading back to bed (I walked outside so I wouldn't wake people) and getting snuggly in Julia's A/C'ed room my phone rang again. This time it was my mom telling me there was a tsunami warning. I assured her I already knew, again, and asked if she and dad were at home. She said yes and then I asked her if she knew he had just called twenty minutes before. Apparently he said he was going to call later. Really awake now, but filled with the knowledge that my parents really love me, I called some friends just to make sure that everyone was ok, and found out that many people were at John and Cynthia's house up the mountain. Julia was now awake (I talk a bit too loud) and we decided that if we had wait for a possible tsunami, we might as well do it with friends.

Half an hour later Julia, Jessie and I were on the road walking up to John and Cyn's house in Mapusaga Fou. The walk took about 35 minutes and was actually very interesting. As we were in safe areas the whole time, we could see all the people from the lower areas arriving to hang out with their families or at their church that was on higher ground. It was strange because the whole scene reminded me of a giant Fourth of July picnic. There were people grilling and chilling in the back of pick-ups in their family's front yards, people had blankets and lawn chairs spread out, and all the kids were playing while the adults chatted.

Once we made it to J&C's house we found a few awake and a few asleep friends, and Sandra's kids Leo and the newly adopted, and utterly adorable two month old Pikasone. Turns out Sandra and her hubby are in Hawaii and Scott and Taylor picked up the kids and a few other family and brought them up the mountain too. We hung out and chatted, and I eventually napped and before you know it it was same to head back down. I snagged a ride back in the truck and promptly took a nap in my powerless house.

That night we refused to let a lame tsunami ruin plans, so we met for dinner at Jade and then headed to the Karaoke Bar in the airport (it's Samoa, just go with it…) for some nighttime amusement. WE ended up having a redic fun time at singing at the karaoke bar, especially since the only other people there were a group of friends there for their fa'afafine friend's birthday and they were nice enough to even share some fruit and cake with us. It didn't hurt that they weren't great singers and didn't give a damn, it gave us some confidence. After some "Baby's Got Back", "No Scrubs", and "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" we called it a night and caught a cab home.

Sorry there are no pictures yet, all the one we took are on Julia and Cyn's cameras!

Lunch: Petting Zoo Style

2010-02-24T21:28:00.001-11:00

Think back to summer memories at a farm or state fair petting zoo. Everyone has an image of some little kid taking a big load of treats into the petting zoo area and being nearly crushed under the weight of eager sheep and goats jumping up on the kids chest, back and shoulders. The piercing screams of a scared child, the treats being thrown as far as possible, and the farm animals' sly glances at each other that clearly say "Mission accomplished" as they swarm on the treats now accessible on the ground.

This is exactly what happened in my classroom on today.

The class after lunch today was one of my senior marine science classes, and as usual the kids had a few snacks that they were still munching on when they came into class. So far there were only some boys in my class that had shown up when in walks on of the girls in my class with almost a whole hamburger that she had gotten from the store near school. Like a pack of starving hyenas their noses pricked up and they caught the burger in their gaze. Mere seconds later the girl was surrounded by at least five boys who were grabbing and scrambling for a piece of the burger, which they girl had chosen to try to stuff in her mouth as she saw the boys rushing over. The girls is attacking the burger like a starving person, attempting to get as much as possible in her mouth while a couple of the boys manage to rip off pieces. With her mouth now full the girl resorts to punching the living heck out of any part of a boy she can reach with her flailing fists, to which the boys respond with more punching. Soon there isn't much burger left as much has been ripped off or stuffed into a mouth. The girl finally escapes the circle of boys, takes one last bite, and with a final punch from one boy hands over the rest of the burger to him.

Now this may sounds violent and quasi-ridiculous, but I tell you that they were all laughing while this was happening, including the girl and that stuff like this is the norm.

Totally like a petting zoo though.

You're just lucky there's a fence...

A Depressing Monday

2010-02-23T21:26:00.001-11:00

Some days here are bad days – stuff just goes wrong. In the fall when these days happened I would have a sick, sinking feeling in my heart, a short fuse, tears of frustration welling up, and when I got home and nice loud venting session. I have realized this semester that I have finally become able to distance myself emotionally from the problems that happen at school. I don't mean that I don't act on the problems or that I don't care – but I no longer get depressed or overly upset by this situations. This has been very good because Lord knows you aren't a better teacher when depressed and frustrated.

So this Monday in my first two periods of the day my students' Animal Reports were due. We had been working on these reports for two weeks solid in the library. I gave them a rubric, worksheets with prompts for research, and example report, and a sheet detailing EXACTLY what they needed to do to get an A. And did I mention that it only had to be two pages and have a drawing?

That may sound like I am not having them work hard, but please remember that the majority of my students (except 2 freakishly advanced students) read at about a 6^th grade level, and write at maybe a 4^th grade level. I'm not joking. So this report was at their level.

Most of them had all the research done, as well as their picture and all they had to do was take the information from their research outline into an essay format over the weekend, and then turn it in.

I got 11 out of 39 reports on time.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thank God that I have become more stoic, because if this had been the fall I would have cried, thrown something at the kids, and probably quit. It is pretty upsetting to see just how apathetic these kids are to learning… anything… This semester I am more at peace with this reality, especially as it is the norm all over our school and the other high schools in the area. Instead of quitting I let them hand in the reports all week, just reminding them that they lost points every day and beating in the fact that I would fail them for the semester if they didn't give me something by the end of the week. For a bunch of my kids, something was what they did in class the week before, and couldn't even be bothered to attempt to write an essay. Forget that I said all week that they could come in at lunch and I would help them write it.

Luckily I am able to keep going without smashing my head against the wall, but my God these poor kids… This is why all of the WorldTeachers have some resentment towards the powers that be. Whatever the schools here are doing, in many cases it doesn't seem to be teaching. How can half the kids in on an island with a US Federally funded DOE get to senior year and not be able to write above 4^th grade level? Where is the money going? What the hell are they doing in Elementary schools?

Oh yeah. According to friends in the elementary schools, not much.

Sa'ilele

2010-02-22T21:25:00.000-11:00

Another weekend rolled around and lucky for us the weather is the complete opposite of the past cycloney weekend. Friday afternoon we were craving some outdoor activity since the past week and a half had been pretty rainy. Thanh and I made plans to meet folks at Lion's Park for some relaxing by the water, and headed out right after school so that we could make it to Cost-U-Less to get some wine for the night. It was wonderful to be able to walk outside in the cool (relatively) evening air, and it made me realize how much I had missed that during the week of rain. This in turn made me realize that I am going to die next winter in Erie…

Thanh and I met up with Rosemary and Jess at Lions park and busted out our wine and stories of the week. I can't explain how completely and utterly relaxing it was sitting by the water as the sun dipped below the horizon. We sat there for hours just chatting, and eventually as it became late at night we caught a cab and Thanh and I head for home feeling entirely stress free.

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we celebrated the weekend by breaking in Scott and Taylor's new work truck! If you have seen how we had to travel in their last car, you can see why this was a big deal. This is especially true because when we wanted to go on adventures to the east side we just didn't have enough room for everyone, so we had to have some people take busses. Now that T&S had this work truck we were able to do something we have been wanting to do since the fall – have a picnic in Sa'ilele.

If you were to look waaaay back in this blog you would find a post about when we went with Sandra (Taylor's aunt, runs PICED) to deliver tsunami relief supplies to the village of Masefau on the north side. That day on the way back, Sandra turned off and showed us another village on the north side, Sa'ilele. The village was really beautiful with a sandy beach and little beachside fales. It very much reminded me of Fale'asao in Manu'a in terms of the small size and quaint houses and church along the coast.

So this Saturday, thanks to the awesome hauling capacity of T&S's truck, we loaded up a cooler, our bags, and the back of the truck and headed out to Sa'ilele. It was a big group, and we even had some room left over in the back of the truck.

A wonderful day of swimming, sunning, eating, reading and napping – the kind you only get in Erie a few times in the summer. The only down side is that here, regardless of how much sunscreen you put on – you will get sunburned.

Picnic in Sa'ilele

Samoan Day

2010-02-19T21:23:00.001-11:00

Over the past month if you had visited our LHS campus you would have frequently seen that all the students were out of class. Why is that? Samoan Day!

The original date of Samoan day was set to be Feb 11^th so beginning in mid-January we were having 50 minute long practices each day to prepare. For Samoan Day each grade was to perform a series of dances and a song that would be watched by the other classes, parents, teachers and anyone else who came to Samoan Day. The day is meant to celebrate the Samoan culture and help keep the kids close to their roots and to remember the traditional dances and songs.

The practices were fun to watch (we couldn't really help with the Samoan dancing…) and they only shortened each class by about 5 minutes so it didn't have too bad of an affect on the learning. Well, at first. As we got closer to the long anticipated day the practices kept getting longer and longer. I don't mean that they would be scheduled for longer time slots; they just would let the run longer on random days meaning you would never know if you actually were going to see the class period that was scheduled for after the practice. That last week we didn't see those class period see once. One day the last week they just canceled the afternoon periods all together - right before they were supposed to start so that we could practice more!

Regardless of the frustration we felt as teachers, we were really excited for Samoan Day since out students were pumped and had some amazing dances worked out. However the day before Samoan Day was to happen we heard word that Cyclone Rene was on the way. Since it was predicted that school was going to be canceled the next day the we had an emergency assembly (as we have no PA system) to tell the students that Samoan Day was going to be moved to next Thursday. This was pretty awesome because it meant that we were going to have Friday off, and as we already had Monday off for president's day we ended up with basically a three day week.

As it turned out it was good in terms of no real school, because we spent almost all of Tuesday and Wednesday practicing. At this point Thanh and I were banging our heads against the wall because we hadn't been able to teach in a structured setting for what felt like eternity. Finally, Samoan Day rolled around and it was worth it! The kids were so excited and they did an amazing job! Here are some of the pictures from the day, and for more check out the web album. I am going to do my best to put up some videos that I took, but that is always tedious with our internet.

Mr. & Mrs. Long-Samoan-Word-That-I-Don't-Remember, but they opened the day's festivities with the 'Ava ceremony and a traditional siva (dance).

Some of my sophomore showing off their guns.

The girls of the Tongan club doing their dance. See Tonga was even included!

The freshmen class.

Our principle getting down to some traditional tunes.

Samoan Day

Classic Sayings

2010-02-17T20:39:00.001-11:00

In the last few weeks I feel like I have been subjected to some hilarious and bizarre conversations or sayings. Some are just because there is a misunderstanding of English, and it's not funny because people can't speak English, its just funny the way it comes out. Some other sayings play on the occasionally brutal honesty of the Samoan culture. And some make me frustrated because they portray the sometimes poor attitude towards teachings. Here are some that I can remember off the top of my head.

I was scheduled to have my class in the library during the period after lunch, but when I arrived at the library the door was locked. I headed to the office to get a key as my students were waiting outside and looking like they were about to skip. The secretary directed me to one of the counselor's offices, and as I enter the room is packed with teachers and staff.

"Um hi, can I get the key for the library?"

"Oh hey Kate, would you like some chicken?"

"No thanks, I just ate and have to get to class. Could I get the key please?"

"It's Samoan day this week you have to eat Samoan food! Come have some chicken or breadfruit."

"Thanks for the offer, really, but my class is waiting outside and we need to work on their reports."

"Ok here is the key, but you have to enjoy the culture, take some chicken with you!"

"Thanks but I'm good. Thanks for the offer I'll get some food on Samoan Day."

Really nice teachers, but I have to teach those kids lol…

Thanh and I went to ask the principle about when we have to sign out for the day because we had heard a different time from our department heads than what our principle had posted on the bulletin. Thanh speaks for us…

"Mr. _____ I see what you have posted on the bulletin, but I was under the impression tha-"

"YOU ARE UNDER MY IMPRESSION!"

Thanh looked mortified as he yelled at us, but I almost couldn't hold in a laugh. It's hard to be upset by a screaming administrator when they are butchering English.

One of my students barely speaks any English but I have lately started to have a problem with him because of inappropriate comments. Here is a conversation that lead to one. He walks up to my desk clutching his chest making very dramatic, tortured looking faces.

"Hey ____, you look pretty sick."

He replies with much clutching of his chest and wincing. "Yes, I… stroke… It's no good… no work…"

"Well don't worry, just keep working on your journal and if you die I will give your body to your family."

"Miss I die now…"

"You can do a little work first."

"No… I die… last words: I love Miss Kate."

"How 'bout: I love Life Science?"

"No… I love… Miss… Kate..."

"OK _____, you need to get started on your work."

"I come you house tonight. Finish then."

"NO."

Conversation with a student who I am near certain is MR but receives no special education, but she tries very hard in class despite the work being somewhat over her head. We were getting settled for some PowerPoint notes.

"Miss Kate, we have notes today?"

"Yep."

"How many slide?"

"Five."

Very carrying mumble, "Oh, fuck you Miss Kate."

For a moment the class is silent, then it erupts into laughter, "ooooooo!"s and lots of pointing. For a minute the student didn't even realize what was going on until the girl next to her said,

"_____, you just swore at Miss Kate!"

She looked at me and responded, "Oh sorry Miss Kate! I meant to swear in Samoan!"

I actually had to try really hard not to laugh, because I know this girl and she just likes to swear but never really means it. Especially since 97% of the time she is trying very hard and really trying to please me and garner some attention. Or maybe I just can't be fazed anymore.

Recently one moment has taken the funny (and kinda sad) cake. My Marine Science seniors are currently working on animal reports. I have mentioned before that my students are not at the level of their states-side counterparts, and in fact are realistically at about a fifth grade level when it comes to writing and analytical skills. Because of this I had created a packed with questions and areas for the answers that would guide the students in finding and organizing information about their chosen animal. I was looking over one student's worksheet who had been using the internet to do his research when I stumbled upon this completely serious answer:

The Land of Football

2010-02-17T19:57:00.001-11:00

I have mentioned many times before how serious football is here in AmSam. The kids love it and many of the students dream of being in the NFL. This isn't very different than many other kids in the states except that our students actually have a decent chance. It is estimated that a boy of Samoan decent is 56 times more likely to play in the NFL than any other boys their age.

This came to the attention of 60 Minutes after the spotlight was on Samoa for the tsunami, and they have since run a story on football here on the island.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

There is also a little web clip of the Leone JV team doing there 'Haka' traditional war dance that they perform before and after the game. As three of my classes are sophomores many of my students are performing and it cute to see them so excited to do their thing. In the main video some of my seniors are seen and interviewed and it is great to see them so pumped up.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Last Wednesday we had even more football fun when three players from the Cincinnati Bengals came to visit the island. Why where they coming here, you may ask… They are all from American Samoa. It's funny to think that three unrelated players are all on the same team, and from the same island of 65,000 people! The kids were pretty excited since the players coming made them feel like they really can achieve their dreams, especially because many of our students are related to one of the players. I feel closer to the NFL than I ever did in the states.

Valentine Rap

2010-02-14T21:25:00.000-11:00

My only Valentine of note this year came from a student's class assignment to write a poem or song for a teacher. A couple students brought me cards and recited poems, but one student actually wrote a rap and recruited two guitar players to help her with her valentine for me. She came in during my sixth period and with her charisma got the whole class cheering by the end. Check it out:

She asked for a 'big fat A' and did I give it to her?

How could I not? Its hard not to when they say you are sexier than Ashanti.

An Animal Abundance

2010-02-14T12:47:00.002-11:00

A few weeks ago we began out unit on animals in both my marine and life science classes. Amusingly just as we were getting in to the animal kingdom my room was attacked by a plethora of critters. On Monday I was at school early to get my class set up and to prepare when I suddenly realized that I had been under attack by a horde of starving lady-mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes here have one major difference from the ones in good 'ol Erie, PA. In Erie when I am bit by a mosquito I feel it and the result is usually a squashed mosquito and a vigilance for any of its friends. Here in AmSam when the little buggers bit you don't feel it which means that by the time you're a little itch you might discover that you have ten nice obnoxiously itch bites. This is what happened on this past Monday as I was working hard on some lessons for school. Once I realized that I was covered in bites, I was pretty ticked off and confused as I usually never had mosquitoes in my room. I notices that there were tons of the mosquitoes just flying around my room, and I figured there must have been some eggs laid. As luck would have it I found that one of the lab sinks in the back of my room had been plugged up and there was some standing water under the garbage the kids put in there (yes my room is a mess, but the kids here are walking litterbugs). As I moved a crumpled paper a swarm of mosquitoes flew out - yuck. For the next few days I was slathered in DEET while at school, and was still constantly getting eaten alive. I was about to lose it. Thankfully I survived til the weekend.

Mosquito attacks where not the only animal invasion of the week. I few weeks ago I started running after school since the campus is covered in areas and free of attacking dogs which make it so I can't run around the neighborhood. Lately I have been leaving my sneakers and socks at school on weeknights since I only wear them to run. When I came in last Tuesday I found my sneakers still sitting right on my desk, but one sock was missing. I thought it might be the wind and searched all around the desk area, but couldn't find it. I just figured it would turn up. The next day I came in and the other sock was missing. That's when it hit me. Those dang rats in my classroom must have stole it. You might think that it would be unlikely, but these rats in my classroom have chewed through Tupperware that I left overnight in the classroom. They are not to be messed with.

Cyclone Rene Update

2010-02-13T09:31:00.001-11:00

The windows were boarded, stuff was moved away from the windows, buckets were filled with water, we were well stocked with provisions. How did the cyclone turn out?

A lame, kinda windy rainstorm....

Awesome!

Hey, Rene.

2010-02-12T17:55:00.001-11:00

Cyclone Rene is on her way! Good news - no school today! Bad news - its a cyclone... We have battened down the hatches (boarded up the big windows) bought water and some extra food and are getting ready for a windy night.

This year has proved to be chalk-full of new weather experiences for me with the earthquakes, tsunami, and now a cyclone. Let's just hope it doesn't do as much damage as the other phenomena did. I'd have a pretty complete set of experience if we just had a torna... maybe I shouldn't even suggest it...

Power is going out soon, but hopefully I will be back online sometime tomorrow. Yay for new experiences!

Laws, Smhmaws.

2010-02-09T20:55:00.001-11:00

Here is a scrapped together pic of a section from my school's Journalism Club's occasionally published news letter.

By: Unknown. There are two things wrong here - the first is blindingly obvious. You should NEVER use a colon after a preposition, in this case the word "by". My eighth grade teacher (code name: "the bird") beat that thoroughly into my skull after losing points for it on approximately 638 consecutive poems I had to write.

The second and slightly less obvious problem.... does that poem sound familiar? Sorry Bette Midler, not only do Journalism students here not give you credit for writing your own song, but they will butcher it too. Exactly how does a river drown a need? I don't know either. So much for journalistic integrity.

Clown Car

2010-02-08T20:06:00.001-11:00

Here in AmSam life is a little different. For example no one really pays any attention to either seat belt laws or having the legal number of passengers in your vehicle. This works out awesomely for us because as you may well know none of us volunteers have cars, but our friends Taylor and Scott do have one.

Their baby is a little Suzuki sx4 which is a four door hatchback that is most frequently compared with the mini cooper because of its small size.

Our usually group of friends has nine people, but we usually don't all make it to hang out, or we will meet up near someones house so most people can get a ride home with T&S. However we have gotten progressively more confident at fitting people into the car and have recently created a new record with all nine of us fitting in the car to go somewhere.

I will remind you that this is a car that is comparable in size with the mini cooper - this isn't a Ford Escape I'm talking about.

This is what we look like...

So how do we do it? Here is one configuration: Scott drives. John sits in the passenger seat with his lovely bride Cynthia on his lap. Five people fit in the back row of seats (Taylor, Jessie, Julia, Rosemary, and Thanh) and then the last person goes in the trunk (me!). It is actually surprisingly comfortable.

TMI

2010-02-04T21:48:00.000-11:00

Everyday for the last two weeks we have had classes shortened by five or ten minutes so that we could have fifty minutes of "Samoa Day" practice. At these times the each grade gathers at a designated spot on campus and choreographs and learns a few traditional Samoan dances that they will preform on Samoa Day next week.

On Tuesday I was heading to the Sophomore class's practice as I am and adviser for that class but was running a little late as I had to stay back to speak with a student. Finally I was on my way and while walking along campus I crossed paths with another teacher who I knew by face but didn't know her name. I was just being friendly and said hi, and this is how the conversation went:

"Hi, how is your day going?"

"Oh not well. Very bad actually. Diarrhea. I got the runs."

At this point I notice that she is holding a roll of toilet paper...

"Uh, ok well feel better!"

TMI.

Wonderful Waterfall Weekend

2010-02-02T21:34:00.000-11:00

After the exhausting slave labor of our "Field Day" on Friday Thanh and I needed to relax. Thanh chose to take it easy at home while I chose the infinitely more responsible meeting friends for happy hour at Rubble's. There is nothing like air conditioning and margaritas to make you forget a stressful day or week at school, and some of our group had a rough week. After a pitcher of margaritas, some dinner and then another (free!) pitcher of margaritas from Jessie's coworkers we were all feeling much happier than earlier in the day. We decided to then hit up Koko Bean for some coffee and to listen to the band that was playing. As it is AmSam and small as heck, it figures that the band playing was my coworker's band that we heard play at JR's art expo a few weeks back. IT was nice to hear some bluegrass as it is a real departure from the typical music we hear on island.

Saturday we decided to do something fun and easy and decided that we would go investigate a waterfall in Nu'uuli. Jessie had been to the waterfall a few months ago so knew how to get there, and we were pretty excited because it sounded fun. We parked at a store on the main road, and from there it was only about a 25 minute walk down a road and then a trail. The waterfall was even better than I had hoped it would be – tall and beautiful with a large, deep pool to swim in. We admired the view from up on the area where the trail comes out, and then headed down to the water for some swimming. It was both relaxing and fun as you could jump off of some of the rocks into the pool right under the waterfall so that you get half-drowned with water on the way back up, which was pretty fun. A few boys were there when we got there and they were climbing the cliff face to jump off into the water which looked totally awesome – but as soon as we tried to climb up the cliff we realized that either those boys (twelve year olds, mind you) were redic buff or had gecko feet because it was impossible to get up there! We admitted defeat and just enjoyed swimming and jumping off some of the larger rocks.

After we all squished back in the car and headed to Jessie and Julia's to shower and change to get ready for the Birthday Party for our fellow WTer Matt. The party was going to be epic because they were renting one of the Aiga busses to chauffer us around from bar to bar for the night. However as it is Samoa, the guy flaked and we ended up staying at the Tafuna house for a good while before finally taking a fleet of cabs to the Bowling Club. We ended the night by camping out back at J&J's house until morning. Despite the bus troubles we still a good night.

Waterfall!

Is this in my Job Description?

2010-01-30T12:36:00.003-11:00

For the last two or three months our school has not had a landscaping service on contract to mow (or as they do here in Samoa, weed whack) our campus, so the grass has gotten pretty intense. Last week our principle apparently got fed up with the occasionally chest-high lawn and decided that since the DOE was taking too long to work out a contract for a new service he would take matters into his own hands.

Cue the announcement of "Staff Field Day". We found out that Our principles solution was to decided that the staff was going to all bring their week whackers to school and we would have a half day and then take care of the lawns ourselves. The idea was to show the DOE that if they didn't hurry up and get a contract we would have to have the kids leave early so that they staff could take care of the lawn, therefore reducing learning time. Interesting idea...

As it turned out, when we showed up at school yesterday ready for a half day of classes and then the afternoon slave labor we found out that they had decided to have a full day of school after all. Wonderful. I love having classes that I was told I wasn't having so that I can be completely unprepared. Luckily I all ways have some back-ups ready because hey, this is American Samoa.

The day continued, the kids are ticked because they thought they were having a half day too, and we realize that we are still supposed to stay after an do field day after school. Thanh, Julia and I decided that we don't want to be the lazy teachers so we decided to stay and help, but only til 4 when we are technically supposed to stay at school until. So for a bit over an hours we filled garbage cans up with piles of grass clippings and carried them across the way and dumped them into a giant pile. This was all while we realized that there were only about 10 of the other staff actually doing anything...

Is this stuff in our job description? Who knows. The things we do to look good at our school...

Say What?

2010-01-28T00:02:00.000-11:00

There are winged termites living in our toilet paper roll. Seriously. I can't make this crap up.

Oh, Samoa...

I Rescind that Last Post...

2010-01-27T22:26:00.000-11:00

Today I was smote by the weather gods of Samoa for my mocking of the 'rain excuse' that some of my students have used as the reason that they are late for school. Apparently my jocular nature should not have stretched to mocking the rain as a lame excuse for holding up school because today as we were contemplating how to get to school in a complete and utter stormy downpour we enlighten on how serious the rain here can be. First our adventurousness failed and we asked our landlady Salu if she could give us a ride to school when she took her son because no amount of ponchos could keep us dry in that rain. Salu informed us that she had been listening to the radio and lo and behold - school was canceled!

The steady, heavy rain over the past few days had been adding up and last night's and this morning's extreme precipitation and high winds finally were too much and there was a lot of flooding on the road and worries of landslides.

Were we concerned? Nowhere near. Thanh and I thanked Salu for the information and as soon as we were out of sight in our house did a celebratory dance of no school and thanked the Mormon god of Samoa for the weather. I have learned my lesson and will not balk at the rain here again!

To Excuse or Not to Excuse...

2010-01-26T20:31:00.002-11:00

Yep. Here in Samoa rain is a legitimate excuse for being an hour late to school.I'm not sure how this works because it rains quite a bit here, so it seems that kids could be late pretty often. Oh wait... they are late pretty often.

MLKJr. Day Adventure

2010-01-26T20:10:00.004-11:00

(Posted 01/20/10)

Last week excitement rose as we approached a rare and wonderful three day weekend. Friday started out with a relaxing dinner and Jessie and Julia's and Saturday we spend nearly the entire day at Sadie's by the Sea eating, drinking and swimming. Sunday was the day the adventure began. We decided last weekend that we wanted to do something new that we had been meaning to do since we all arrived on the Island – climb Mt. Alava. This hike is maintained by the National Park and is a moderately (or deathly) strenuous 3.6 mile hike up to the top of Mt. Alava. The trail is actually an old road that used to service the cable car station that once existed on the mountain and ran cable cars across the harbor to near Samoana School. They kinda ended that when a navy plane carrying paratroopers for the Flag Day celebration hit the cable line and everyone in the plane perished. So now you have to hike up.

Being the crazy palagis we are we decided that it wasn't good enough to just hike up the mountain, so we chose to camp overnight in the fale'o'o (traditional style Samoan house) on top. We still don't really know if this is allowed, but we figured we'd stick to our motto of "fa'asamoa" and just do it anyways. On Sunday afternoon ten of us met at the trail head loaded up with supplies and all the water we could carry and set out on our jaunt.

A half hour later we were literally soaked with sweat, winded and taking a break already on our two hour hike. Going up a mountain is hard work for the not so in shape of us. However the views were awesome, the day beautiful and the nature exquisite so we just kept on trucking and after much ado we finally made it to the top. The view was amazing, and we all were in fantastic spirits and ready for the night which started with an amazing sunset. Once it got dark we relived our younger years by making cold s'mores (the boys tried to start a fire but everything is just too dang wet) and playing some Mafia. I felt like I was back at a middle school sleep over - just on a mountain and with some adult beverages - and eventually we headed to bed.

Sleep was not so good for some of the group, with two people actually getting sick, which was the only sad bit of our otherwise awesome adventure. After a leisurely morning of breakfast, staring into the ocean, and Thanh going to put on her hat and finding a giant ticked off centipede inside, we headed down the mountain. The hike back was lovely and much easier than the hike up and we arrived at the car exhausted but exhilarated and loving life.

Now I'm back at school but the week started on such a positive that I am still riding out the high. Check out the pictures to see just how awesome this weekend was.

Camping on Mt. Alava

Scary Things in Our Shower

2010-01-26T20:09:00.000-11:00

(Posted 01/17/10)

My shower today, you can pick which you think is more frightening.

Kitten in a Bucket

2010-01-26T20:08:00.002-11:00

These things really only happen in Samoan classrooms. One of my students brought a kitten to class and it took and nap in a bucket after I carried it around for a bit. So cute, so distracting.

Flirting is Not Universal

2010-01-26T20:07:00.002-11:00

(Posted 01/15/10)

Possibly the most ridiculous thing I have seen in my time here occurred yesterday in my class. Two of the seniors in my class were flirting, which is common place especially with this pair. The class had a little free time at the end since it was they last class of the week and I had worked them like slaves and was feeling generous. The boy was jokingly punching the girl in the arms, and saying something teasing in Samoan, and she was responding with slaps back and other aggressive physical flirting. This continued on for a while with the boy's friends watching on and laughing, when the boy struck a particularly hard punch on the girls arm and her response back was to lean in, plug one nostril and blast snot from the other side of her nose all over the boy's face with his friends getting some collateral damage.

End of flirtation, you say?

After he literally wiped the snot off his face he laughed and punched her in the arm again, and then held her hand.

Where am I?

Bonus: Some pics of my students.

My Favorite Little Punks

Welcome Back!

2010-01-26T20:06:00.003-11:00

The weekend after I arrived back on the Rock we WorldTeachers had our mid-service evaluation. I was kind of bummer because as it was the first weekend back I really wanted to just hang out and maybe do some snorkeling, but we survived anyways. On Friday we decided to stop by a party that A guy named JR was having (refer to post) to show off his new paintings. His family's last party for Raj's mom was really fun so we didn't want to miss out on this. When we arrived the place was pretty full of people and paintings and we chatted with Jr for a while about his paintings and then continued to mingle with other folks there. We ended up enjoying most of the night chilling at an outside table on the porch with some drinks and appetizers (his kids and grandkids came around with trays of snacks, interesting…). We ended the night with a trip to Malio Mai, the bar with a beach, just to kick back and enjoy the warm island night.

Saturday I very grudgingly headed to the mid-service thingy at the library with Thanh, but the day turned out alright. The paperwork wasn't too bad, and the picnic we had was decent food and a spectacular view. The picnic spot was a national park site that has an old military gun (a big one) that you get to by taking a 15 minute hike up the mountain on the side of the road that overlooks the ocean on one side, and Pago Pago Harbor on the other side. Awesome!

After lunch Thanh, Julia and I met up with Taylor for a trip to Airport Beach for a little snorkeling. It took too long to get there so the tide was high, the wind had picked up and visibility wasn't great but it was still better than nothing. After some time in the water we just chatted while drying off on the rocks before heading back to the car to meet people for some Chinese food dinner. Sunday dawned and I was completely engrossed by the Packer's game which I listened to online and ended up being one of the most stressful and nail biting games I have even experienced. And I couldn't even see it! Oh well… It struck me as strange though, to think that the next Packer game I see I will be back in Erie for good. I have a feeling that this spring (ok fall here I guess…) is going to fly by.

Art and a Cannon

It's a Wonderful Life

2010-01-26T20:06:00.000-11:00

(Post Written 01/8/10)

For seventeen glorious days I was back in Erie, Pennsylvania! I found out that I was going back home for the holidays back in October when my wonderful parents told me that they got a ticket for me to travel back. The weeks leading up to the break I was literally freaking out I was so excited, and the days at home did not disappoint. Getting to PA from American Samoa is no joke however, and even though I left on the night of the 17^th, I didn't get back home until noonish on the 19^th. The trip home itself was wonderful in that once I got to Hawaii I was so excited to have some nice AC and good coffee and vegetables for lunch that the waiting through my eight hour layover wasn't that bad! My last flight home from Detroit to Erie I was so excited I was worried that I might pee myself, and was even excited when it was snowing when we landed. As Erie is a small airport there were only about 30 people on my flight so it didn't take long to get to the gate, and once I saw my family waiting I couldn't stop smiling. As I came through security my mom was right there waiting and I grabbed her in a hug while she cried (moms…) and right after grabbed my dad and little bro Ricky. It was so surreal to see my family after leaving them at the exact same spot in the airport almost exactly five months ago. That whole day I was awash with giddiness because it was just so weird and good to be home. It felt strange to realize that though my last five months had been tumultuous and each day brought something new, that things at home had gone on as they always had.

I headed with my mom right to my grandfather's house as it was the day where my extended family gathers to cook tens of dozens of cookies which we so creatively refer to as "Cookie Day". In one fell swoop I got to catch up with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandfather – not to mention eat a bunch of fresh homemade cookies. After heading back home for a nap I stopped by my grandpa's house again, and then met up with my friends at our favorite bar, the Plymouth. The days leading up to Christmas were nearly as perfect as I could imagine. Sunday was the Packer's game with my family and our crowd of fellow Packer fans and seeing my friends again. Monday was our epic party at my friend's condo at the nearby ski resort where we had a mini reunion of old Camp Notre Dame friends from as far as Alaska and Scotland who it was amazing to see again. Tuesday I headed to my paternal grandparents house for the traditional Wigilia full of perogies and such and my dad's sister's family from Ohio. More hanging out, Christmas shopping and spending time with family lead up to a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas where I gave my cousin Erin who was my person in our family gift exchange an 'Ava bowl and some congressional corned beef. All during Christmas I was so happy to be able to be home with family. Some people like the idea of traveling for Christmas, or don't mind being with their family, but with my family as close as we are I wouldn't have it any other way.

The rest of my stay in Erie after Christmas was full of seeing friends, hanging out and just enjoying civilization. Watched another Packer game, went out for my cousins Birthday, and many other fun things all leading up to New Year's Eve. The night ended up being another mini reunion with Camp friends, and also with two of my friends from grade school and high school. We rang in the new year old school. New Year's Day my parents have the whole family over for food and fun, and I was a fun time. Saturday we headed out to Camp for my little cousin's birthday party, and I stayed up way too late having convos and my cousins where we all realized that we are old, and our parents were nearly all married by our age. It was a rather disturbing realization. Sunday was the final Packer game of the season, and Erie apparently wanted to see me off in style because that day started some blizzardy weather that lasted until I left the next day. Finally it was time to go home, and my folks dropped me off at the airport and we said our goodbyes again and I headed into the gate.

As fate would have it my flight out of Erie was delayed, and as a result I missed my connecting flight from Detroit to LA. By some lucky chance the only way that the airline could get me to Hawaii in time for my flight back to Pago was to re-route me through Las Vegas and to have my seat from Vegas to Hawaii be first class! Sipping champagne as I flew over the strip, I enjoyed my first and most likely my last ever first class flight. Finally, late Tuesday night I made it back to the heavenly hot and humid weather of my AmSam home.

A Very Merry Christmas

My Weird Life

2009-12-15T22:20:00.001-11:00

This morning Thanh and I were getting ready for school, bouncing around the house getting lunches and book bags ready. On one of my many trips from the kitchen to my room I happened to look up and was startled by something staring at me near Thanh’s open bedroom door. I stopped in my tracks and blurted “What the hell?”

There before my eyes was the front unsquished half of a biggish gecko that had apparently gotten caught in Thanh’s door the night before. At this point Thanh, just from hearing my exclamation (and rightly assuming it had to do with animals) had already jumped on to her bed with a shout of “What is it!?!? What is it?!?!” As I move in a little to inspect the poor guy, Thanh catches sight of its legs and starts with some “OMG!”s. We are both pretty grossed out as it freshly dead and some guts are coming out of its side, but it is cartoonishly only squished in one hip area. Thanh looks pensive for moment and then realization dawns on her. When she went into her room for the night, she had heard some scratching noises that she thought was a rat or something trying to get into her room. As it turns out it was the slow death of a trapped and partially pancaked gecko.

Thanh is super disgusted, and even though I usually don’t mind dead stuff I was kind of grossed out too. Thanh remained on her bed while I got Ben’s machete and an empty oatmeal box to get rid of our deceased friend. Our grossed-outness was upped as the geckos’s toes stuck to the machete as I tried to pry the body out of the door frame. It was a disgusting process as the body was sill all fresh-and-floppy but the part that had been squished in the closed door was practically cemented on. After some scraping and a nasty, wet plop the gecko was removed.

Strangely this was not out first squished-gecko-in-the-door experience. About a week ago Thanh noticed the near-mummified remains of a smaller gecko smooshed lengthwise in the bathroom door. As this was fully pancaked and dry and crusty it wasn’t so bad, and is actually still there. But the one this morning had a tendency to wiggle. Eww.

So far no one else in out group has had this problem, but maybe Thanh and I are just natural (if accidental) gecko killers.

DOE Dinner and Thanh's Birthday

2009-12-15T22:19:00.001-11:00

Last Friday was Thanh’s 26th Birthday and we celebrated in an interesting way. After school we went to Pago Pago for the DOE Teacher of the Year Banquet that we were invited to since we are WorldTeachers. As it was formal we had to rock the pulatasis (ugh) and act all professional and when we arrived we realized that only Thanh, Julia, Rosemary, Steve, and I came to represent WorldTeach. I was secretly, or perhaps not so secretly, grumpy about getting guilted into going to some boring DOE dinner on a Friday night, but as the night went on I became glad that I came. The night turned out to be one of those unique Samoan experiences for a few reasons.

When they called up the teacher of the year for each school, and announced each regional winner the lucky teacher came up to the stage to not only receive a “trophy, certificate and three hundred dollars” which they announced with EVERY teacher, but stayed up to do a traditional Samoan ‘siva’, or dance. It is fun to watch the traditional dancing and see dollar bills thrown at and shoved into the clothes of respectable teachers. I amused myself during the boring talking in Samoan part by imagining what it would be like if when teachers in the states won an award they had to do a dance on the stage and have all the audience stuff dollar bills in their shirts like common strippers. I think I’m going to try to start that up when I get home.

There was a little break for dinner, and the dinner was classically Samoan and made my night. Do you see the platter of food I am showing you in this picture?

Did you think that was for our table? Nope. EACH of us got one of those platters! I have no idea how anyone could eat all of that, but I know that Samoans are fond of left-overs so many that’s the intention. Regardless, we had to stifle our amusement at just how much food was put in front of us.

We ducked out a bit early as we arrived at six, the time it was supposed to start but as it didn’t actually start until seven we were pretty tired of sitting at nine when we were still there. We headed to Sadie’s by the Sea for a bottle of wine by the harbor to celebrate Thanh’s B-day and had a very fun night and a great sleep once we were back home.

Saturday was also a nice day consisting of the typical Taylor and Scott’s house, and then some late night Chinese food. Nice last weekend before my visit home!

DOE Dinner and Gecko Guts

Crazy Days

2009-12-09T06:46:00.004-11:00

I apologize for the delay since the last post, but these last few weeks have been rather busy and fun, coupled with sporadic internet function. Today however I am kicking back and relaxing. My school work is all caught up, we got out of school a bit early, and I caught a bus and am at Pizza Hut watching the Monday night Packer's game in sweet AC, writing this between plays. Sigh… It's a good Monday.

To quickly recap:

I finally made it off of Ta'u and back to Tutuilla by Thanksgiving afternoon, only four days late... My long weekend actually turned into a week, but it was definitely a fun week!

A few hours after I got back, KC and Courtney came in on the next flight and surprised us at our house. Thanh, KC, Courtney and I had a fun Thanksgiving Day weekend of many movies, dinners out, laughing at New Moon and late night chats. It was so fun and relaxing that I wasn't even that upset that the delay in Manu'a had caused me to have to cancel my trip to Western Samoa.

Last week at school I had one of those awesome weeks where I just love my kids to death, even when they are little shits. For example, when two of my seniors were fighting over a book bag and dropped a liter of beer which shattered and showered them, me and my room in beer – I could only roll my eyes, laugh and ask them to clean up. Well that and having them come in at lunch for two weeks to do review work – the alternative was the office which would give detention. The beer actually ended up being beneficial to their education!

The weekend rolled around and we had an awesome Friday night and Saturday at Taylor and Scott's house that involved much eating, drinking, swimming and coral/mountain adventures (see the pics!) Saturday was definitely one of those days that I will always remember as Taylor, Julia and I ended up sitting in tides pools at the really low tide and just watching all the beautifully colored little fish swim around us. I was even actually cleaned by a cleaning wrasse! Life goal #125 - check. Oh, and I beheld the kleptoparasitic behaviors of a magnificent frigate bird! Epic day for bio nerds.

Time is rolling along, and I feel like I blinked and it is almost time to go home for Christmas. I am ridiculously excited to get home and visit everyone to the extreme that I have dreamed about it many times and made extensive lists of what I want to do when I get home. I also have created a teary scene where I attack-hug my family at the airport in which I knock my mom over with love. Sappy, but true – I miss my fam. I may also cry and or freak out upon seeing any family member or friend – I am that full of emotion.

Despite my excitement for heading home, I oddly am starting to already miss it here, which is lame because I will only be gone for a couple weeks. If this is any indication about how I am going to feel when I leave in June I sense some nights of tipsy crying and much yelling of "I love you guys!" and "I am going to miss you Samoa!" But I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

To end with, a few random notes:

I was very nearly Frida Kahlo-ed on the bus.
I have realized that no grocery store banana will ever be good enough for me.
Sea-cucumbers are God's dirty joke.
This year's WorldTeach teachers have now had: tons of swine flu, MERSA, boils, detached retinas, bone infections, other eye infections and oodles of lice. We live in a giant Petri dish…

Side note: As I sit in this Pizza Hut I am reminded to mention one of the things I most hate about Samoa – they chew louder and more disgustingly here than any place I have been before. I am literally twenty feet from a table of people (mind you they are blasting the sound from the football game) and it sounds as if they are crewing their food in my ear canal. Chomping and smacking of lips? Check. Talking with a mouth packed full of food? Oh yeah. Obnoxiously loud sucking of fingers in between bites? You know it. As my family will attest I loathe loud chewing more than my combined hatred of Hitler, Paris Hilton, Latisse and Nickleback. There is no higher dislike.

Yet another side note: Sorry, but I am just full of Pizza Hut observations today. Another issue here is health, especially for the kids. For dinner while watching the game here I had a nice combo of a diet pepsi, personal pan cheese pizza and a side salad – and I am stuffed. There is a new family near me that consists of two women and two little girls aged about 9 and 7. Both of the little girls had the same combo as me (except with regular soda and pepperoni) AND an order of popcorn chicken each from the connected KFC. And they ate it all! No wonder obesity and diabetes are common place here.

And finally after all the ranting, here are the pictures:

Manu'a!

Biology Nerd Paradise

PS. I apologize for the random and rambling quality of this post, it just came out that way.

A Looooooooong Weekend

2009-11-24T11:26:00.001-11:00

So I went to Manu'a this past Thursday to spend a long weekend with my friends KC and Courtney. The weekend was awesome, but I found out that my flight Sunday was cancelled, but they put me on the early flight on Monday. Then on Monday they changed the time of the flight but said they "couldn't contact" me to let me know, so I missed the flight. We then found out the the FAA has shut down the only airline that flies to Manu'a, Inter-Island, becuase none of their planes are up to saftey standards. However there is one chance to get off the island and that is the govener's plane which holds a whopping six people. Today KC and Courtney were supposed to fly out also so we all went to the airport at 7am to try to get on the flight. When the flight arrived at 10 not only were we not the ones to get on the flight, but they told us their was no other flight that day. Three minutes later we here the pilot turn and tell a matai's (cheif's) family that another flight would be back this afternoon to pick up more people. KC and Courtney are familiar with this getting shunted to the back as it happens to them as some of the few white people on theh island, and Samoans in the know admit that it is because we are white.

So this is what racism feels like! It's actually a good experience as I never really was treated like a second class citizen because of my race before.

When will I get home?

I seriously don't know. And it kind sucks cause I have to cancel my trip to Western Samoa which I am supposed to be leaving for tomorrow... blargh...

Fa'asamoa! I'm going to make the best of it regardless!

Produce Miracle!

2009-11-17T20:44:00.001-11:00

Today after wogging (walk/jogging) at the track in Tafuna with Taylor, Scott and Thanh we stopped at KS mart to pick up a few things. As you may recall from earlier posts and my ever increasing signs of scurvy, American Samoa does not have many fruits or vegetables readily available unless it can grow here (breadfruit, bananas, Asian eggplant for some reason...). But today, lo and behold what do we find at KS? POMEGRANATES!

I love them, I really do - ever since my presentation on Persephone (Wikipedia it) in Junior/Senior Humanities. Taylor and I were pretty pumped, but due to an annoying habit of this island, the price was not posted anywhere and we wanted to know that it wasn't going to cost a millions dollars. When we asked about the price we discovered that the staff didn't even know what a pomegranate was because they have never seen them on island before. First pomegranates in AmSam in known history! (At least according to KS Mart staff)

My lucky day!

(Note: I am eating my pomegranate right now. Score!)

A Chaotic System

2009-11-17T20:27:00.001-11:00

Last week my department head, Doug, told me that we were going to have a Christian Rock concert at school all morning on the 17^th. Yesterday at our morning flag raising assembly they announced to the students about the concert. Last night Thanh and I were discussing what the possible schedule would be and we agreed with what Doug had said which was that as our typical Tuesday schedule is: 5^th ,6^th ,1^st , lunch, 2^nd ,3^rd – that we would most likely have just 2^nd and 3^rd .

As I arrived at school today I said my usual 'good mornings' and snagged our morning bulletin. Blarg. Of course the message about the concert had been mistaken, and we actually still had Period 1 in the morning, just after the concert. I went to my room and spent the time before class started finishing up a lesson for period 1 as I had heard that we wouldn't have them and thus hadn't double checked that everything was ready. As the bell rang for assembly I walked with Dr. DeWees, another teacher in my department, and we discussed the pros and cons of the chaotic nature of our school system here.

The assembly was fun in its Jesusy way with the Kantina brothers turning out to be more of a Christian cover band more than a rock group, but still it was a nice change. As the assembly came to a close, Dorian came up and announced that there had been a little change in the schedule – figures – and that now we would have a 15 minute break, then 5^th period, lunch, and in the afternoon 6^th, 1^st, and 2^nd. But each was only going to be 45 minutes instead of the usual hour.

Sigh.

So we all went our separate ways to prepare for class. I didn't have to do much as 5^th period was my prep period, but as I settled in to get some work done Doug found me and asked me to cover 15 minutes of Dr. DeWees class since had left for town because 1^st period was his prep. I commiserate with the schedule changes so I had no problem covering, and headed down to Dr. D's classroom to wait for the bell. As I waited I played his guitar and just chilled, and as the bell rang only one student came in. Upon entering he dropped his bag and started to walk out so I hollered,

"Dr. D is going to be back in ten minutes so you need to come to class and can't skip" (kids skip all the time if their teacher is absent)

The kid popped his head back into the room and responded, "It's OK Miss Kate it is lunch time now."

"What???"

"Yeah the office changed the schedule again."

Double-blarg.

So I went and checked with Doug and was met with an exasperated shrug. As started sweeping my eyes over campus seeing if anyone was coming around with a memo and who did I see? Julia with a stack of papers! I hollered at her and we met midway and she handed me the new schedule with a total 'whatev-this-school-is-insane' look. So what was the new schedule?

10:20 – 11:45 Lunch

11:50 – 12:50 5^th Period

12:55 – 1:55 6^th Period

2:00 – 3:00 1^st Period

Why the heck not? Our fourth schedule for one day… The good part is that I had nothing to do essentially from 9:50 – 12:55, so I managed to get a lot of work done, and even find time to write this post.

Oh and they still haven't told us the schedule for tomorrow…

Aunu'u

2009-11-16T06:49:00.003-11:00

What is the most wonderful Saturday you can imagine?

That is exactly the Saturday that I just had. The usual group (which I am beginning to refer to fondly as 'the crew') Thanh, Jesse, John, Cynthia, Scott, Taylor and me headed to the far east side of the island to catch a little pontoon boat to head to the island of Aunu'u for the day.

Aunu'u is a tiny little island about a mile of the coast of Tutuilla that is home to about 500 people and zero cars. To get to Aunu'u we parked in a small parking lot and took a $1 ferry boat ride to the wharf on island. The water was a bit choppy so we had a fun roller-coaster like ride to the island which gave us an awesome view of Tutuilla.

Once on the island we 'oooh'ed and 'ahhh'ed over the general cuteness (and cleanness) of the village, and then began our walk to the back side of the island were Taylor and Scott knew of a nice place to swim with a cool cave to check out. As we arrived at the site the tide was very low which was perfect for us to check out the cave. To get inside you have yo lower yourself into a hole in the rock and crawl through about ten meters of tunnel with a little water at the bottom (hence going at low tide...) which is thankfully still lit from some cracks in the rocks. Once you make it inside the cavern it opens up to a pretty huge space in which the waves crash in at the other end making an awesome/terrifying noise. The cavern itself is spectacular with the waves crashing around your shins and the gap in the side up near the ceiling letting in light to show the cool rock formations. In the center of the opening is a rock form that juts up that you can climb out to to escape the waves and get a nice very of the entire cavern. I only wish that it wasn't so wet so that I could have taken in my camera and gotten pictures!

Soon after we got into the cavern the tide started coming in, which was our cue to get out. The area of the beach we were at had a nice pool area where we could relax in chest deep water and just relax and talk for a bit. After we had enjoyed the water we dried off in the sun and ate lunch which I digested with a little nap afterward. Feeling re-energized we hiked back to the village and some of us went to the other nice sandy beach, but me and some others decided to do some snorkeling at the wharf. Despite the decent current the snorkeling was pretty good and I had a nice time checking out some of the fish. I especially enjoyed myself swimming in the middle of a school of banded flagtails as they would school around me and get very close. I felt just like one of the gang.Once my legs were tired from swimming in the current we joined the others on the beach were we looked for shells and then we laid out our towels in the sand to relax until it was time to leave.

After another wicked sweet boat ride we brushed the sand off and piled back in the car. We stopped to drop off our friend Jess (who we picked up on the way as she lives on the east side about 10 min from the ferry stop) and she and her hubby Charlie graciously let us rinse off and admire their ocean view love nest. We said our goodbyes and packed back in the car for our hour long drive back to civilization, and decided on the way to get some dinner at Koko Bean. Due most likely to our brains frying in the sun all day we all had mad fits of the giggles all during dinner and our after dinner coffee which rounded off our fantastically fun day.

As we finally emerged from our hours long dinner, we decided to call it a night as we were all beat. After dropping of those closer to the central area I arrived back home and as I was falling asleep all I could think was that days like this were what I had hoped for when I decided to move here. Awesome.

Aunu'u

PS. The first few pics are from the JV championship football game, and from Thanhs expression you can see it didn't go well... When we left it was 42 - 0.

Veterans Day (It's a real holiday here!)

2009-11-16T06:43:00.002-11:00

For some unknown reason (although I suspect it has to do the with crazy patriotism here) all schools have Veterans Day off. This year the holiday fell on a Wednesday which beautifully cut our work week into two manageable two day bits.

A few weeks ago we had been postulating on what to duo with our surprise day off, Thanh and I offered to have a party at our house if it was ok with Salu and Ben. As soon as we mentioned it Taylor and Scott offered up their house and Thanh and I not-that-grudgingly deffered to them as they do have the beach house. Also as Taylor's B-day was on the Monday before, we figured that a Tuesday night party would be an awesome birthday celebration.

When Tuesday came around the plan ran smoothly. As many of us needed to catch the bus out to their house in Failolo which only ran until 5, and Taylor and Scoot didn't get out til 5 they left the key to the house in their outside dryer. Thanh and I left immediately from school and took a very fun ride on the school bus with our students to their house, which the students absolutely loved and they were amazed that we were actually visiting their west side. After waving goodbye to our students as the bus pulled out of the drive way, Thanh and I got down to the serious business of cooking up some grub.Thanh used her awesome genetics and prodigious cooking talent to whip up some awesome seaweed/kimche/mushroom/tofu soup while I got overzealous and baked a two level birthday cake and some spicy chicken wing dip (thanks to my mummy for the recipe).

A couple hours later everyone had arrived and we had a very nice and fun party that lasted decently late in the night. I however had tried to sneak to bed early as I was very tired form school, but was aggressively wrestled out of bed by a mob of friends, which at first extremely annoyed me, but moments later I felt the unmistakable fuzzy friendship feeling of being loved my my equally stressed palagi friends.

After finally turning in, we awoke to some ridiculously amazing breakfast thanks to John and Cynthia, but some not so awesome weather for our purported beach day. However God provides, because as we were wondering what to do we discovered that there was a Top Chef marathon on Bravo! I'm not ashamed to say that their may have been some tears of joy in my eyes, but before you think me sociopathic try living without movies, TV, and good food for a few months and then see how much you appreciate the stress relieving and food fantasy inducing power of Top Chef in the company of good friends. The rest of the day was a jumble of Top Chef, beach walks and much snacking and BBQing and is most definitely the best Veterans Day I have yet had.

Veterans Day!

The Most Relaxing Weekend in Known History

2009-11-16T06:40:00.001-11:00

This past weekend was supremely relaxing. Friday night was the first weekend night since I've been here that I didn't go anywhere and just stayed home, but it was just what I needed. The rest of the weekend was more fun since we had plans to help Sandra (lady in charge of PICED/ Taylor's aunt) deliver some goods that were donated for tsunami relief. Sandra wanted to make sure that things were delivered fairly and that the goods got to the right people, so her plan was to take a pre-sorted load to one village at a time.

When we got to Sandra's house at 10 packed up the stuff and packed ourselves in and headed to the village of Masefau on the north-east side of the island to deliver the goods. After we spread out the food and goods and the chief and mayor lead the handing out we were invited to the mayors house for tea. Now, when you hear that someone is going to 'tea' you most likely imagine some cookies, or maybe little sandwiches and tea - of course. However the tea we had was Mountain Dew and Coke to drink, and a huge plate of coconut rice and pisupo (corned beef - right out of the can). This is some good eating here in Samoa, but for us bunch of palagis the idea of eating approximately half a pound of cold, fatty corned beef not to mention a hefty portion of rice in the late morning is a daunting task - especially as it is a very kind gesture from the mayor and you know you have to eat at least a third of it. Luckily for me I received the smallest portion. While we were plugging away at our plates we did get to hear some very interesting talk from the mayor about the way relief funds are working and how his village is doing, which help us deal with our plates. Oh and some really cute puppies didn't hurt either.

On the way home Sandra took a little detour to show us the cool little village of Sa'ilele which has some truly lovely sandy beaches that we immediately vowed to return to. As we headed back west we decided to head to Scott and Taylor's for some dinner and just some chilled hanging out. A very nice, relaxing weekend.

Check some sweet pics!

Thanksgiving Starts Now

Home Sweet Home

2009-11-06T22:49:00.002-11:00

Today marks an monumental day in my time here in American Samoa, as it is the first weekend night I have not gone to town! For some reason today I felt like staying home and having a hot date with a nap, some blogging, and the new episode of Grey's Anatomy (which only take about two and a half hours to watch with buffering...).

I am feeling thoroughly relaxed, and decided it was time to show everyone the lovely place that I call home.

Isn't that cozy looking? Well it is. Here are a few more pics of mi casa.

My kitchen.

The front of my house. My bedroom is the window on the far left.

The first picture is the view of the yard from my front stoop looking left, and the second is looking right at Salu's house.

Here is a more zoomed out picture so that you can see how wickedly short my walks to school and the beach are. Pretty good placement huh?

Even more zoomed out, you can see where i live in comparison to village of Leone, the harder hit smaller villages to the west side, and friends.

Here's a map of the 'town' area where almost everything civilized is: Carl's Jr, the football stadium, the bowling club, McDonalds, Laufou Shopping Center.

Pago Pago and the east side, connecting to the last map.

So there you have it, my niche in a nutshell. My home away from home, and a home that I am getting quite fond of.

Seaweed and Crazy Students

2009-11-03T21:36:00.002-11:00

In marine science we are currently learning about algae - which is just about the most boring thing ever, especially since some of my students have trouble with English, and my projector had been commandeered by the Red Cross. Thankfully today everything got more fun. It order to make algae seem slightly more intersting and since I had my projector back today I made a slide show of pictures about algae and how people use it. After the slide show we watched a quick video about algae as biofuel, and then I brought out the coup de grace - a container of seaweed.

I thought it would just be mildly interesting to them as they live around the ocean and eat from the ocean all the time. However the student freaked out about eating the seaweed, and although most of the tried their reactions were hilarious. The faces some of the made were classic, not to mention a certain boy in my class jokingly threatens to sue me because apparently I was trying to poison him. Classes like these make me love my students...

Some days there are moments that make me realize I am in a different culture. For example today at lunch I was sitting in my room working on a PowerPoint presentation for my class when some boys came in and asked if they could use the outlets in my classroom. This might seem unsual, but it is an everyday occurance for me because the kids love to charge their phones and mp3 players at lunch and before school, and as I have outlets at all the lab tables they stop by often. Not to mention that some of the students don't have houses, so they need to charge things at school.

I was still working away listening to some music, when I noticed a few minutes later a strange buzzing noise in the background. I turned off my music and immediately knew what the noise was and stormed to the other side of the room where the boys were circled. In the center was a boy with his arm out on a stool, and another boy whom I know with a homemade tattoo gun in hand, ready to ink up the other boy's arm.

That may sound crazy, but the best part is that the day before I had found two girls in the stairway after lunch washing one of the girl's legs with soap above the knee where she had obviously just had a six inch tattoo of the word "diva" made in blue ballpoint pen ink. I kid you not, these kids jerry-rig tattoo guns from an old power adapter, a small motor, the shaft of a ballpoint pen and a needle, then break pens open and use the ink to tattoo each other. How insane is that?

Strangely enough my new thoughts of the matter is that next time I catch them I'm going to take a picture so you can see just how weird the situation is.

I’m Back!

2009-11-01T21:39:00.002-11:00

Look! I'm back! I'm posting again! Sorry for the delay folks, please note that there are three pre-written blog posts that I also just published, so go back and read those first to get caught up, if you have the time.

Life is basically back to normal, and thankfully my days at school have gotten much better in the last few days. I am out of the funk I was in when I wrote my last post, and am back to feeling ok about going to school, and actually liking my students. I am truly relieved that my weird bummed-out mood only lasted week and that I am back to my usual content feeling.

School improved by the end of last week, with Spirit week ending on a pretty fun Halloween day. For Halloween I decided to dress up as a student at our school (one of the most thuggish variety) and Thanh, Raj, and Julia joined in too. It was pretty sweet as we all looked nice and thuggish, and the kids got a real kick out of our fake attitudes and my sudden desire to talk about how I skip class to smoke behind the E building. Raj invited my classes over to watch Simpson's Tree House of Horror with his classes for the day, and we had a nice morning of shortened classes. After lunch we all headed to the gym for a dance which was pretty cool for a bit when the kids were doing the jerk, stanky leg, crumping, and the like – but soon turned less entertaining. The dance was called off and the students told to leave early as a few serious fights broke out and at the same time an epileptic student had a grand mal seizure. WE hung around until the fights were cleared up and the ambulance arrived, and left very subdued.

That night I decided to head to a dance competition at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) between ten of the college's clubs. There were three categories: Michael Jackson tribute, group dance, and monster dance. We watched all ten clubs in each category, and some of them were awesome! I wish I could show you some videos of some of the group dances, and I can't find any on YouTube but if I do I will post them because they were pretty good. We crashed at Julia's place, watching a movie until we fell asleep.

Saturday was pretty sweet as we all met at Rosemary's place at 11 to head to the annual Tattoo Festival at Tisa's Barefoot Bar. Tisa's is way out on the east side so we had to transfer to a different bus, but it was really nice to be able to go somewhere different for a change. The tattoo fest was pretty cool as they had three tattoo artist set up tattooing all day, as well as one artist who specializes in the traditional style Samoan tattooing. The traditional tattoos are made by attaching a piece of wild boar tusk that has been specially sharpened to the end of a stick, dipping it in an ink made from the seeds of a local tree, and then tapping the sharpened point of the tool into the skin with another stick. Sounds crude but you would not believe how cool this was to watch. The man traced no template on the skin, would just do it with no guidance but his own mind and hands. The person who is receiving the tattoo has to lie on a mat on the floor, and two people have to pull the skin being tattooed taut so that the tusk can easily pierce. Wilson would just tap away over the skin and after a few seconds a design seems to appear perfectly, moments later oozing with blood. All I can say is that it makes your typical tattoo gun look really pathetic in comparison. Definitely check out the pics we got for this.

Later that evening we grabbed a ride back to the west side form Taylor and Scott (seven of us and all our bags in their tiny Suzuki five-seater – we are getting pretty good at this sardining…) and stopped to grab some dinner at a sushi place in Pago. Afterwards we hung out at Rosemary's place for a bit until we decided the time was ripe for a trip to the Bowling Club. Bowling club was fun as usual until some random drunk dude offered us some beer, which we politely turned down as he was drunk and we didn't want to be tied to him, but promptly sat at our table anyways. This in itself would only be slightly annoying if he was a nice drunk, but as it turned out he kept trying to pick a fight with Scott because he thought that Scott was buying all of us girls beer after he offered. Scott only bought a bucket for him and Taylor, but we could not convince him thought he drunkenness what was really up. The weirdness continues as Thanh and I find out that this dude already knows where we live because he is also from Vailoa and he has seen us before. Creepy. Later in the night it got even worse as he started yelling at Scott saying, "Half these girls teach at Leone and they are from my village! MY VILLAGE!" For some terribly infuriating reason he thought that since we were form his village he had the right to buy us drinks and dance with us. Um, hello – I think Thanh and I should have a say in this? Thankfully it was closing time, and Scott managed to talk some sense into the drunk guy's friend who managed to keep him away from us and Scott as we left. First time we have had any issues like that, and hopefully will be the last.

Today we had a BBQ to attend that was being thrown for Raj's mom who is visiting. The amusing part is that we were all invited by Raj, but none of us (including Raj) knew where it was or what was actually going on until it happened. It turns out that Raj's mom wrote is a columnist for a newspaper and wrote an article about her concerns about her son being so far away in an obscure island for a year. A woman, Sue, a palagi here in Samoa read this column and wrote to Raj's mom assuring her that life in American Samoa was safe and comfortable. The two struck up an email correspondence and Sue decided to throw a BBQ for her and all us WorldTeachers once Raj's mom arrived. I didn't know any of these details until I was at the party, so Taylor, Scott, Rosemary and I had no idea what the party was going to be like. I didn't really know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't what I was soon to find at this party. Their house was huge and very contemporary styled, with brand new appliances and much artwork on the walls. Their living room had three couches (ok that might seem like a weird detail here, but couches are rare on island) around a big flat screen TV with football on. Out in the beautiful front yard people were drinking at tables on the front porch while kids played out in the yard. After some introductions and speeches it was time to eat, and we were all ecstatic to see a wide range of food including a salad that was made of mixed greens! (You may only be able to appreciate that if you live here…) As I was eating some cake and ice cream on the porch, I was convinced that I was at a Fourth of July party in the States.

After that lovely BBQ I am back home trying to post all this blog stuff, and get my work done for tomorrow. That's all I have energy for, but check out the pics that go along with the last few posts!

October and the Like

School Pains

2009-11-01T18:25:00.002-11:00

(Note: Written on 10/28.)
Sorry, sorry, sorry, for the extremely long break between posts. The reason for the delay is a combination of the power being out for hours each day up until this week, school related stress, and procrastination. We are FINALLY getting back to some semblance of normal this week just about a month after the tsunami, although some students and teachers are not yet back, we have adapted.

These last two weeks have been my hardest yet, far more taxing than the week of the tsunami or even the beginning of the year. I suppose that the reasoning is a combination of the fact that I have lost my initial motivation and energy that I had at the beginning of the year (now we are over ¼ done!), and that the tsunami completely wiped out the classroom management I had established. The story seems to be the same for many teachers – when the kids returned from the tsunami it was as if they had forgotten how to act at school, probably because the school was a circus for weeks after. All the energy I had invested in strictly enforcing my management plan had really started to pay off in the weeks before the tsunami. Behavior was really improving, the students knew what to do when they came in class, and they knew the consequences if they chose to misbehave. However, after a week off and a week of nothing, when we actually started to teach again it was as if they had forgotten how to act at school. I felt as if I was starting from scratch again, having to keep many students after school (many of them not showing up, which they had learned not to do before as I keep them the next day twice as long…), reign in abnormally rowdy classes, chase out kids skipping other classes and sitting in mine, find my students loitering outside, and other horribly stressful activities. Not to mention that we are still missing multiple teachers so we are always covering other classes.

This week is finally getting a bit better (which is really good because I almost lost it last Thursday) as the students are slowly getting reconditioned to know how to act in class. However, my feelings on school have really taken a plunge because of these last few weeks. I think they are slowly beginning to come back up – the good day today counteracting the atrocious day on Monday when I had to keep an entire class after school. While my energy is low, and this past week I have never dreaded going to school more, I am starting to believe that it is getting better.

Enough moping for now. On a positive note my weekends and evenings have been especially nice lately, and I find myself thanking fate that I have such good friends here to be a great support system. Thanh is my constant sounding board and many evenings I have been reassured that I am not the world's worst teacher or a horrible person thanks to her sound words of wisdom. Not to mention that on some evenings and weekends we have some pretty awesome fun. I am positive that if I had just come here to teach alone, I would have quit and ran away crying. It is completely thanks to friends here that I have retained my sanity and love for teaching (although it is hidden deep, deep, down sometimes). It has been extremely helpful to know that others are going through the same hard times, hear their solutions, ideas and their good moments to uplift. You've probably read about them but some of my closest friends here are Thanh, Rosemary, Julia, Courtney, KC, John, Cynthia, Taylor, Scott, and Jesse. Seriously, without these lovely folks I would be a mess.

This past weekend we sadly had to say goodbye to yet another of our friends, Brigit. She had broken her ankle last January and had to have surgery to install hardware so that it would heal correctly. The pain in her ankle returned after some weeks here and was accompanied by a fever. They ran some tests here but could not tell anything conclusively, and as they are concerned about an infection in the bone from the hardware they suggested that she go back to the states for more testing. So with that prognosis Brigit had to make plans to head back home to figure out what is up with her ankle, and we had a 'tofa' or goodbye party for her on Saturday. As it was so close to Halloween we also made it a costume party, and it was a blast. Almost all of our group, even those from Manu'a, were at the party at Taylor and Scott's and it was a ton of fun. The weekend really made me feel better after an atrocious Thursday and an interesting night of parent teacher conferences.

Again, I am sorry for the delay, life has been a bit rough. However my life for the next two months is looking extremely amazing, so I am confident that any hard times at school will tolerable thanks to other good parts of island life. This weekend is the Tattoo Festival at Tisa's Barefoot Bar on the east side which will be a pretty sweet time. We have the 11^th of November off from school for Veteran's Day and as that is a Wednesday it will break up the week nicely. The weekend of the 14^th Taylor and Scott are having a join Birthday party at their house, and so far all events at their house have been awesome. A week and a half later is Thanksgiving and Rosemary's coworker invited her and two friends, Thanh and me, to stay with her and her family in Western Samoa. From Wednesday afternoon to Sunday night we will have an amazing vacation in Western, and besides gifts for our hosts we don't have to worry about a place to stay or food. Some real cultural immersion! Once we get back it is less than three weeks until I fly home for Christmas! Thanks to my extremely generous, loving, kind, wonderful family I am able to come home for the holidays which is just what I need. I am so excited to see everyone back home!

Once I looked at my life in that schedule, I figured I can deal with anything that school or tectonic plates might throw at me.

Until next time, which will be soon I promise.

Double White Sunday

2009-11-01T18:24:00.001-11:00

(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?

Back to School… well sort of…

2009-11-01T18:22:00.001-11:00

(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.

Surreal

2009-10-04T23:27:00.002-11:00

Sorry that it has been so long since I have posted an update, especially since many are wondering about the situation here, but it has been a busy and exhausting weekend. Overall the cleanup has been going decently well. Families, friends and volunteers have been working hard and have cleared away impressive amounts of rubble, but there is still much more to do. There has obviously been some snags in the way of organization, looting, and some people taking advantage of the situation – but those are expected. Situations like these bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. This post should give you a glimpse of the recovery efforts from my view thus far.

Thursday I awoke and Thanh and I headed to school to check in and hear the latest news. Teachers were looking melancholy and were swapping stories about the tsunami and news about what is going on. From what we are hearing it seems as though people are still waiting for FEMA to finish their assessments before too much serious cleaning can begin, so we decide to wait to hear from the Red Cross as they said they would call us once they were ready to distribute supplies. Raj and Kelly had told us that they also wanted to help, so we walked up to their house to wait for the call from Red Cross. Two hours later we were still waiting, and getting exceptionally stir crazy. We finally decided just to call them and see what was going on, and once we got a hold of them we found out that there was nothing for us to do. Needless to say we were stumped at how there was so much that needed to be done, but nothing for us to do…

Not willing to give up on helping yet (plus no school so what else were we to do?) we headed to the Mormon church down the road that is doubling as a shelter for those that lost their homes. Upon arriving we discovered that we had just missed lunch and that there was really nothing to do. They actually offered us food, which we politely refused as we really were starting to feel anti-helpful. As I had not yet heard from Taylor and Scott or the National Park folks (phones here are a hot mess) Thanh and I decided to head to Pago Pago where I hoped I would run into the staff at the office.

On the way I was repeatedly trying to call people, and finally much to my surprise and delight got a call through to Taylor. I was relived to here that both her and Scott were alright, and that miraculously their house was fine. Their story turned out to be the one that we had heard through the coconut wireless, but even more terrifying. Apparently they had felt the earthquake, gotten into their car and begun to drive along the coast to get to the road up the mountain, and as they were driving the first wave came up and slammed their car off the road. Luckily they managed to get back on track and drive the car the remaining short distance to the road to high ground, not without much freaking out and swearing as the water was getting ever higher. Both have said that there was nothing as terrible as watching the following waves tear through the village as they looked on helplessly, though thankfully there were no casualties in their area.

Feeling heartened by the good news from Taylor and Scott we continued on our way to Pago. Arriving in the harbor area our mood sunk again as we survived the damage there for the first time. The area that we were just coming to know and love was gone, and I was struggling to remember what had been in the now rubble covered areas. We hopped out of the bus and began to walk, trying to take in the scene. As we arrived at Pago Plaza, where the National Park office had been we now saw the empty shell of the building as all of the stores and offices on the first floor had been gutted by the wave. Looking around I saw no one I recognized, and so we split up: Thanh to get more footage for the Vietnamese news station she had a correspondence with, and me to walk to the Teacher Quality office to pick up my long waiting birthday packages from home. Mid way through my mile long walk I heard a voice shout "Kate!" and saw a SUV pull over in front of me. Sarah and Mike from the park jumped out and Sarah gave me a swift hug asking me if I was alright. I assured her I was fine then asked about them and the rest of the staff, and was amazed to hear that they too, like Taylor and Scott, had a close call. Mike and Sarah had run out of the building and up the mountain with other staff and were only seconds ahead of the wave. If the wave had been a second earlier or a bit bigger they could have been lost. Mike related the story of Jim, another staff member that I know, who was traveling on one of the busses and had to scream and shake the driver so that he would stop and they could both run to safety as he was trying to outrun the wave. Luckily they both also make it in the last moments. It was miraculous that some many people I have met in these last few months were so close to perishing but had the good sense and luck to make it.

Mike and Sarah gave me a ride to pick up my packages, and then a traveled with them until Nu'uuli hearing about the damages at the park, stories from Pago, and Mike's chat with Wolf Blitzer. After assuring them that I would love nothing more than to help them re-setup the office (I guess my new master's work?) I hopped a bus back to Leone. Back on the bus I was in a much more relaxed state than I was twelve hours ago as I now knew for certain that those I had not heard from were safe, even if just barely. The cleanup here stops with dusk, which here is about 6:00, so after a shower at home we relaxed for the night. Somehow we managed to keep out Thursday night tradition of Rubble's alive despite the chaos, and met up with friends from around the island to share our stories from Tuesdays, and ways to help those affected. Back home after that long dinner, I slept much more soundly than I had the last few nights.

Friday dawned and the WorldTeach Leone crew had an even more intensified need to help out. Thanh, Julia, and I headed down to Leone and found the chief (also our PTA president) and asked him how we could help. We were directed to an area where we helped those already working sort rubble into wood, metal and garbage piles which we continued to do until the early afternoon with the additional help of Kelly, Raj, Tanne, John and Cynthia. Sifting through the debris was a strangely emotional task. One moment you were solemn because you knew we were still searching for the body of a little boy – the next you were laughing at some ridiculous item you found, like someone's porn stash, or silk boxers – then you were right back to somber as you realized that that was someone's life laid out for you to sift thought. There we also the just bizarre moments were you would find a stiffened and rotting moral eel or puffed up puffer fish.

Once people started breaking, we started to plan our next move while sweaty, unbelievably filthy and with stinging eyes and lungs from the dust and smoke. We called the Red Cross only to again find out that they were planning and still didn't need us, so we all went home for some much needed showers and naps. That night we met again over dinner with other friends who were coming to our area as the east side still didn't have power. After dinner we all headed back to Rosemary and Brigit's house where I crashed along with our east side friends Charlie and Jess so that I could be closer to the Red Cross in the morning.

Saturday we Julia and I headed down to the Red Cross praying that they would finally have something for us to do, and lo and behold they did! We were immediately sent to a FEMA training where they were showing recovery volunteers and Red Cross staffers how to set up the Yurts that are going to be the temporary housing for those who lost their homes. The training was pretty cool, and so were the Yurts. They go up quickly and house about 8 people; I just hope they can stand the intense wind and rain that sometimes come up here. Back at the Red Cross, we thought that we would be sent out to put up some Yurts, but obviously there was more organizing to do because we waited about an hour before we joined forces with Sandra. Sandra is the woman in charge of PICED, and we ran into her at the Red Cross where she was also waiting to see if she could help. Eventually she was sick of waiting and decided to take matters into her own hands and get and deliver some supplied herself. We jumped in her truck, Rosemary included, and headed across town to the wholesale store to buy some intense amounts of mackerel, spam, noodles, flour, and canned spaghetti. After loading up the purchases from the few stores we visited, we headed out to Poloa where her relatives lived and were house 35 people from their village who had lost their homes. We swung by and picked up Thanh, and then delivered the food to her family's house.

One the way back into town we stopped by Taylor and Scott's house where they were cleaning the debris from their yard and beach. After we visited for awhile Sandra was ready to go, but the four of us decided to stay back and help Taylor and Scott with their clean up. After a few hours of picking up garbage, hacking trees with a machete, carrying cinderblocks up the beach (torture, I swear…) it was getting late and we were getting exhausted. We clean up and decided to get some Chinese to relax and hang out. Dinner was lovely, and I promptly headed home with Brigit and Rosemary where we were planning to watch a movie, but Rosemary and I were out before it even got started.

Today I decided that I had to relax. Tomorrow we go back to school for the first time since the tsunami and I have no idea what to expect. As the chiefs of some of the villages said no one can go to work or school until the village is cleaned up, or principle is expecting between 50 – 60% attendance. We have no real idea how many will actually show, or how the students will act and feel on their first day back. Because of this, and since teaching is the reason I am here, I felt that I should be properly rested and ready to face tomorrow, whatever craziness it may bring. Attempt at normalcy, here we go.

Again here are some pics from the days past, just follow along and you will be able to figure out what they are.

Tsunami Recovery Begins

The Clean Up Begins

2009-10-01T00:18:00.002-11:00

As I sit to write this I am sweaty, filthy, and utterly exhausted.

Today I woke, and the memories of the day before flooded back to me ruining my sleepy ignorant moment. The morning was a dreary, drizzly day fitting precisely with my feelings at the moment. Thanh and I heard from Salu that they were announcing on the radio that teachers should report to school, so we packed up and headed over to Leone. Upon arriving at school we were met with a solemn mood in the office and sidled up to the front desk to hear the news. Some of the worse tidbits include finding out that one of our teachers lot her house and everything she owned in the tsunami, and was caught so unawares that she had to run up the mountain in only her towel after emerging from the shower. She literally doesn't have the shirt on her back. Reports from the far west side is that everything near the coast is damaged, with the village of Amanave left without one building standing. In addition, we heard from our acting principal himself that three members of his family were still missing, including his aunt.

Our hearts were heavy as we left school, but we were determined to help. Thanh needed to return to home first because as the only Vietnamese person on the island she was going to be reporting and sending in video to the global Vietnamese news station (go Thanh!). I decided to head into Leone on my own to see if I could find anyway to help. When I arrived in town I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go to help, and after checking the churches and finding them empty I gravitated towards an area behind one of the Catholic churches. As I was walking I heard some commotion and walked over to see what was going on. Although I can't understand Samoan I could feel from how they were motioning to the police that there was something serious going on. Moments latter an ambulance arrived slowly driving in, and it dawned on me that there was only one reason an ambulance wasn't in a hurry. I turned and walked away as they began to load the vehicle.

Turning to look to my left I noticed that there was an elementary school at which many people were working at cleaning. I read the sign to learn that I was at St. Theresa's school, and walked over to see if I could help. I introduced myself to some of the people working and after explaining who exactly I was, I was briefed on what the basic plans were. We were sorting the debris and I was working on getting all the wood into piles around the school yard. After dumping detritus on to one pile out side of a classroom for a while, and noticing a distinctly pungent odor I realized that laying half out of the pile was a bloated dead dog. All I could think was thank God that the children had gotten out before the waves had come.

Before I was ready for a break I was told we had to stop. When I asked why, I was told so that people could take pictures. I was thinking that that was ridiculous until someone else explained to me that FEMA was here and that they needed to do their assessment of the damage, and that we had to halt clean up so that they could record what had actually happened. I spend the next ten minutes swapping stories and news with some of the women I had met, and was soon taken to meet others from the school. I mentioned that my acting principle was still missing family including his aunt, a baby, and the babysitter. One of the woman (obviously understanding the Samoan that had been spoken) told me that the old woman, my principal's aunt was the victim that I had just seen found. This was too close to home. Next thing I knew I was being kissed by the principle and thanked, and had my arms filled with frozen broccoli, a gallon of liquid eggs, lunch meat, and a pallet of chocolate milk as they were trying to not waste the food as it would go bad soon. Surprised and thoroughly bemused I was lead to my new friend Lucy's car, and she gave me a ride home as the rain picked up and we had to break for FEMA anyways. As I stumbled into the door at home, Thanh looked at me like I was crazy and commented, "Shouldn't that food be going the other way?" I explained to her that I guess it would go bad and that how could I refuse the food that they were shoving in my arms coupled with kisses. I don't want to offend.

Filling Thanh in with what I had been up to, then taking a break and grabbing some lunch I managed to regain my energy and Thanh and I headed to the bank was we needed to bulk up on cash. While at the bank Julia called me and let us know that she had hooked up with the Red Cross office, and Thanh and I joined her as it was conveniently across the street.

I met with the woman, Lani (who turned out to be our principal's wife), who is in charge of the west side for the Red Cross and within the hour she had hooked us up with a couple trucks that were going out to the extreme west coast of the island to deliver food and water to the road and utility workers and people hardest hit. Turns out that in American Samoa when the Red Cross delivers food they deliver McDonald's - I kid you not we handed out over 500 meals from McDonald's and hundreds of bottles of water in the next few hours.

WE rode in the back of one of the pickups through Leone and all the way to Poloa, all the while seeing first hand how severe the damage was. In addition we constantly ran into our students who would shout a greeting, and if we were stopped stay and chat. I cannot tell you how amazed I am at the attitude of my students and the people in general. While chatting with one of my kids as we passed out food and water I learned that all he had left to his name right now was the clothes he was wearing. Somehow he still had the good humor to jokingly ask if we had homework for tomorrow. It was the same with everyone we talked to, very surprisingly upbeat.

One of the harder moments came when we were driving and were in a bit of a traffic jam. A car coming in the opposite direction (headed to town) was frantically laying on their horn to get through, and as my worry spiked I saw into the back of the pick up to see a young man being held my family or friends - one holding a towel to the lower half of his face, another doing chest compressions. The blank look in the young man's eyes terrified me as the seemed too dull for life. We could only pray for the best for him, but we knew I was not looking good as they were still 40 minutes from the hospital. I am hoping like no other that it was not one of our students.

Seeing the utter destruction in some of the villages was completely devastating, but the attitudes of the people and seeing everyone cleaning and helping out made the sadness much lighter. After giving out the extra food we dropped off some that we had set aside for the newly homeless now residing at the Mormon church in the area.

Back in Tafuna we got some dinner, and then made plans with Lani to help out tomorrow if we didn't have school. The Red Cross was done for the day, but hearing Rosemary's experience as the check in person at the desk at the ER we headed to the hospital to see if they needed any help. We were glad to find that the hospital had calmed down and the nurse we talked to thanked us for the offer but said that they were finally seeing a slowing of people injured in the tsunami.

Thanh and I hitched home with a student's family, and now I find myself here typing this post. Despite all the chaos, tragedy, and destruction I experienced today I cannot help but be in a better place emotionally that have been for the last two days. Seeing the community spirit to help rebuild and clean up has really helped to raise spirits as it reminds me that while it will take many months, even years, there will eventually be a return to normality. However the people lost cannot be replaced, and images of the people recovering the woman's body and the boy in the back of the truck will not stop playing before my eyes.

Students will not return to school until Monday, but teachers are checking in tomorrow morning. Lani is going to pick us up on the way back out to the west side and we are going to continue to help with the food and water distribution, and help out in anyway that we can. It is the strangest feeling as a teacher to know that many of my students have lost family and all their possessions, and I am at a loss for how this will affect our community and school for the next few weeks. These next few days we are merely going to try to help out in someway, because this is our community now, and I cannot help but feel that I must help if only for the selfish reason that I need to feel as if I am doing something.

I tried to document as much of my day as possible, so as you follow this post check the pictures to see what I am talking about. I have some video that really puts the destruction of the far out villages of Amanave and Paloa in perspective, and as soon as the internet is running a little faster I will post them.

Tsunami Aftermath

A Bad Day on the Rock

2009-09-29T22:32:00.001-11:00

This morning I awoke around my usual time of 6:15, jumped in the shower and emerged fifteen minutes later refreshed and ready to start my day. I was extra excited because Jesse and I had plans to start our first day with the paddling group at the Yacht Club in Pago Harbor after school. Thanh and I were making our typical PB&J's for lunch when we heard something that sounded like a huge dump truck driving down the road. A moment later the house began to shake and we realized that there was no truck, just an earthquake. The quake got worse and after staring mutely for a few moments we realized that we should get outside. It was the most surreal minute or so as we stood outside watching out house and the trees around it move independently, while the ground below us shook. The worst of it over, but my landlady's cars still moving back and forth, I ran over and knocked on the door, asking her if she knew if we should go to high ground. I assumed this would be relatively normal for her, but she looked concerned and her son Dave, who is six, looked terrified. Salu informed us that this was the worst quake that she had ever felt here, and that we should be prepared for the possibility of a tsunami warning.

Thanh and I figured that school would know what was going on, so we packed our school bags (mine including my passport, wallet and external hard drive just in case) and walked the few minutes to school. As we arrived we saw teachers and administration gathered around the office brows furrowed with concern. Moments after our arrival our acting principal, Dorian, gave the cue for evacuation. Thanh and I walked throughout the school speedily rounding up the students that were there, thankful that since it was still about an hour til school would start that there were not too many. With the the students assembled we began the evacuation to higher ground following the disaster plan.

While all of this was going on, myself, Thanh, and the kids were mostly just excited to have a day off from school, and while Thanh and I were taking the evacuation very seriously on the inside we didn't think there would be any tsunami since it had been forty years since the last. I would gladly go back and have school if it meant that we could have avoided the tsunamis.

The evacuation route lead us to the gas station which was the gathering point, but as word trickled in that there was actually a tsunami that hit, we continued the kids on to higher ground stopping at the nearby private high school, Marist. Once at the school we got the students settled in the hallways, and joined the teachers and administration at the entrance to hear teh news. Slowly reports trickled in that a 15 ft wave had hit Pago, that the waterfront area of Leone was hit hard too, and that more waves were possible. Immediately my mind turned to our friends in other parts of the island, especially our friend Jesse who always is at school near Pago early.

At this point despite the phones not working much, and all lines being busy, I got a call from my mom who had heard the news online and was very concerned. I assured her that I was fine and at high ground, and gave her the quick run down of what had happened. After getting off the phone, I finally made contact with Jesse who told me that she was fine, having joined her students in running up a mountain.

The next few hours was a waiting game. While sitting around at the school I alternated trying to call people to see if they were ok, and talking to family and friends back home. I was most worried about two friends, Taylor and Scott (see birthday post) who recently moved to a house on the ocean out further west than us.

Finally the tsunami warning was removed and we were about to send the kids home. Before we went our separate ways, the students present from Leone HS, Midkiff, and Marist along with the teachers and staff joined hands in a large circle, and we prayed and sang. Amidst all the tragedy and worry it was a beautiful thing to see people come together as one. However, no one yet knew the true extent of the damage.

We received a ride home from a woman who picked up her kids at Marist, and she related to us the story of her sister who works in Pago plaza in the same building on the second floor, right above the NPS office. She talked about how the wave came at the building and she thought that she was going to die, but thankfully the second floor was spared.

At home we knew that we would face no power and unsafe drinking water. So with bottled water in hand we set of to see the damage in Leone. I was not expecting it to be as bad as it was, and I was amazed to see that entire houses were missing, cars were thrown into other houses, and debris was everywhere. I cannot really explain it but check out the pictures and video. For some reason my memory card thing isn't working so I cannot get my pictures out, but these are some I stole from my friend Raj. One video is from some random people, the other two are footage from my roommate Thanh. You can tell which because you can hear me rambling in the background.

Tsunami Aftermath

Now I fully began to understand the magnitude of this disaster. During my walking around I was amazed to find that the people we not crying but stoically surveying the scene. I am not sure if it was shock or acceptance but it was present. I also noticed that the Samoan attitude of laughing at things that are uncomfortable or upsetting was in full swing as many people would occasionally laugh at something or another. I appreciated this as joking is how I typically deal with my upset feelings, and at least I wouldn't be looked on as disrespectful here. One of the worst moments was when I ran into one of my students in the debris. He is typically one of the most cocky and misbehaving seniors I have, and although he was had become remarkably more well behaved in the last week he never lost his swagger. However as I saw him today I can say that I never imagined he could look so solemn and dejected. All I wanted was for that cocky attitude to come back.

Finally returning back home, I was exhausted both mentally and physically so lay down to sleep as I felt I couldn't take anything more at the moment. I awoke to the sounds of Salu and her niece Flo, who is an EMT, talking. I joined them outside and learned that the official death toll released by the hospital was up to 29, but Flo said that in reality it will be much higher as there are still dozens of people missing. She reconfirmed that 6 were announced dead in Leone, one a little girl from the elementary school, and that at least 10 more were missing, some of them also young kids who had been on their way to school. This somber news was joined with the information that Pago was utterly wiped out near the water, and that there was a chance that there could be another tsunami tonight or tomorrow. Great. Keep the emergency bag packed.

For the rest of the night I have been listening to information and stories trickle in from friends here on the island, and friends back home. I try to keep telling myself that some of this information may not be accurate, because honestly some of it scares me shitless. I still haven't been able to contact Taylor and Scott and was getting worried. However, Ben came home and related a story to us that he heard from the volleyball coach at our school who lives near where Taylor and Scott do, just up the side of the mountain. Apparently him and his family were high enough to be safe, so after the quake they actually watched the big waves come in and pound the coast below. Between a break in a few he saw a car flooring it to escape the area by driving up the mountain road. He said that literally feet behind the car was the hugest wave yet and he said that he thought for sure that they were going die. Thankfully the car made it and as it moved closer he could tell that they were palagis. As there are not too many palagis in the area there is a good chance that his story could be about Taylor and Scott, which is great in terms of them being alive, but horrible since they are probably terrified and homeless right now. Tomorrow I plan on calling there workplace where her aunt also works to see if they are alright.

KC and Courtney had a rough experience out in Manu'a. Although in the end they didn't receive any major tsunami action, they were terrified because not only is their house on the beach, but their school is too. The were at school when they noticed the ominous sign of the ocean receding which typically precedes a tsunami. The lack of organization was apparently indecent as teachers and students alike climbed into trucks or ran up the mountain. KC talked about how some students just waited at the bus stop next to the ocean as if the bus was going to come, not understanding that a tsunami could be coming in minutes. Thankfully she and other teachers were able to get the kids all to safety uo the mountain. I cannot even imagine how terrifying it must have been to have seen the water recede and be expecting a tsunami to crash into you at any moment. Thankfully they are all ok, but sadly some of her students have family that died in Pago.

In addition, Raj called me and related some stories that he had heard when he was down in Leone. It seems that one of the students that we both have lives directly on Leone Bay and was home when the wave hit. According to Raj the only reason that our student survived is that he managed to cling to a concrete post as the waves swept thought his house, completely destroying it, leaving him with cuts and scratches all over his arms, legs, and face. Thank God that he is OK, but his uncle is one of those who didn't make it.

Most of you know that I am doing my Master's work through the National Park here, and while I haven't gotten much done yet since I am still settling with school I have met and gotten to know some of the staff. I had heard that the NPS office and visitor center had been especially hard hit, but I didn't realized just how bad it was. Once power and internet were back up I received the horrible news that as of mid-day, Mike (the superintendent of the park), reported that they were only able to locate a fifth of the park staff. A fifth! I was terrified to think that those super nice people I had met at the park could be injured or worse, and immediately sent emails to those at the park I was in contact with asking if they and the other were alright, and if they need any sort of help (I have no idea how I could be of help but I felt like I should offer) and to please let me know.

Part of me is dreading waking up tomorrow as I am worried that the day will only bring terrible news of the deaths of students, student's families, friends, and acquaintances. I am trying to hope for the best. While I haven't known anyone here for more than a few months or very intimately, my fondness for this island and it's people that has developed since I have arrived leaves me feeling heartbroken at this destruction.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I am going to try to face it head on and do whatever I can to help my community rebuild and move on.

Storming the Point

2009-09-28T19:51:00.002-11:00

This weekend we decided to take it easy as the past one had been pretty intense. Friday Jesse and I kicked it fall style by hitting up the football game after we went out to get some Chinese with folks. The game was actually a really good game, but our offense is HORRIBLE - but our defense make up for it with it's amazingness. Let's just say that our defense put us at the goal line three times in the last quarter -four and out once, blocked field goal, and interception - and the offense never capitalized. Sadly it was a frustrating loss even if it was an exciting game.After the game we headed to a party for Bobby's birthday at the Tafuna house, but I was just so tired I couldn't get into it and caught a ride home with the other Leone folks pretty early.

Saturday was glorious. The weather was some of the most perfect we have had: about 85 degrees, sunny blue skies, a gentle breeze and the water as smooth as glass. Jesse and I decided that this would be the day to 'storm the point'. This was our elaborate plan to show up unannounced at our friends' Matt and Max's house located on Coconut Point which sounds pretty touristy, but is actually an area of houses right along a stretch of coast sheltered from the waves by a fringing reef. We showed up with beers of placation, and proceeded to dump our stuff in their house and head to the beach across the street leaving a sleepy Max looking slightly confused.

What followed were several hours of ridiculously perfect bliss, during which Jesse and I lounged on sandy substrate in the perfect 81 degree turquoise water gazing out upon the beautiful east side coast. For real it was insanely sweet. Check the pics.

I added more to my Picasa Album so check those too.

A September to Remember

Downside of the amazing beach adventure was that later I was hit with a bad bout of dehydration that took some slow sipping of water and a four hour nap to heal, but I was up in time for some late night chats and Princess Bride at Rosemary and Brigit's where I ended up crashing.

Sunday consisted of an equally relaxing and satisfying day of school work and grading at Pizza Hut with football games on, air conditioning, and free Diet Pepsi refills (halelujia!). Now I am pretty much caught up with my school work, and enjoying this lovely week of class with my ever more endearing students. We'll see how these feelings keep up...

Peace!

Hey, Noah! Could We Borrow Your Boat?

2009-09-25T15:56:00.001-11:00

9/22/09 3:17 AM

I bolt up from my slumber registering the word flood. I cock my head to the side and hear voice outside my door, so I put on my shorts and open it inquiring, "Did someone say flood?" Ben's friend Paul, who is staying with us, was standing in front of Ben's open door midway through trying to explain to him that our kitchen was flooding.

Ben and I groggily hurry into the kitchen, and see that there is water shooting out of a pipe under our sink, soaking the floor and the area around. I run to my room and get my trusty headlamp, and run out back to find the shut off valve for the hot water, which thankfully was easy to find. Back in the kitchen we were assessing the damage, and notice that our floor slopes slightly which was a pain in this case as it cause there had to be about an inch of water covering the floor in the far part of the kitchen, and our living room. Knowing how things mold here, we started getting to work on the water right away which involved me with a broom, Ben with a Swiffer and Paul with a towel. After a few minutes Thanh come out looking thoroughly confused so we explained the situation and she joined in the fun. 45 minutes and many towels and broom strokes later were had swept most of the water out the back door, and had all of our fans on high blowing on the floor.

Overall, a very unique way to start a Tuesday.

I Got a Fever

2009-09-25T07:39:00.003-11:00

On Fridays at Leone we are allowed to were casual clothes and the students and staff wear a shirt of a school color. Our school colors are green and yellow, so when it is a day to wear yellow they call it "yellow fever". Git it? It's funny because it is a disease. So what fever do we have to get on Fridays when we wear green? Jungle fever.

Not a problem, I have that everyday.

School Insanity

2009-09-25T07:39:00.001-11:00

Please take a moment to answer this question honestly: "Am I a type A person?"

If the answer is yes, NEVER EVER EVER come work in American Samoa, especially if you are a teacher.

Since I am a total type B, I'm cool with how things go down here, but allow me to give you just a few more fun facts about what it is like to teach here. Keep in mind that they overarching theme is "chaos". Two weeks ago there was a letter to the editor in the paper about how it was unfair that Leone gets off at 1:40 two days a week and at 2:30 the other days, while the other high schools get out at 3:00 every day. Hilarity ensued as our school received word just two days later that the DOE just noticed that our schedule was not fulfilling the minimum amount of instructional time for each day. They say that the schedule was only approved at the DOE by two people, and that this lack of hours just came to their attention. The funny part is that Leone has been using this schedule for the last TWO YEARS. Somehow the DOE didn't notice that there were not enough instructional hours at our high school for TWO YEARS. It took a parent writing a letter to the editor to get noticed. So two weeks ago we began having our block schedule run until 3, which by the way they didn't tell the teachers until the day it started. Surprise!

That's not all… the next Thursday (which was this past Thurs) our administration informed us that the block schedule simply would not work with the new hours we needed, so that starting Monday we would be starting with an entirely new non-block 6 periods a day schedule. So throw you lesson plans for block out the window, because in three days you will have 50 minute classes daily.

Monday rolls around and the new schedule is in place, and the students are PISSED. One of my brightest students was talking to me about actually getting the students to go on strike, and I told her that I would be right on the picket line because change that fast is crazy.

Just as we are settling into our schedules, today I find out that we are changing our schedules – yet again – to go from 4 classes in the am and 2 in the pm, to 3 and 3, starting next week. Oh, and starting next we are also having homerooms, which were just posted outside for the kids to see. Funny, I wasn't given a homeroom list…

After some counting I realized that in our seven weeks of school so far we have had 4 entirely different schedules. All with at most two days notice. How chaotic is that?

So there you have it – just a few reasons you should never, ever, ever, ever come work here if you are type A. You may flip out.

PS. On the positive side, we had an assembly this Monday morning to try to cheer the kids up and get them on the administrations good side. It consisted of performances from the "Brightest Stars" group, which is a collection of the most talented singers between middle school and college ages around the island. IT's actually pretty sweet because I guess there are people form American Idol coming and the one who is the best gets to have a trip to be on the show, but this might just be hearsay. Regardless, there were some pretty sweet performances and they were in accordance to classic Samoan taste. This means that there were some pretty fly renditions of some 80's love ballads, a little Miley Cyrus, "My Girl", R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" and a duet of Backstreet Boy's "Quit Playing Games with My Heart".

To better understand how performances work here, you need to imagine a concert. When the singer hits a high note, or performs a sweet run everyone in the audience screams and cheers, with many jumping up from their seats and punching the air. Even more awesome, in Samoan 'fiafia' tradition people walk up to the stage and throw money at the singer's feet, or go up on stage and put money in their shirt (yes, I know you are equating this to strippers, but its traditional here…). The best though is that when people go up they will also sometimes kiss the performer on the cheek. So when the stud who sang the R. Kelly was up there he was literally almost knocked over while girls were shoving money down his shirt, kissing him, and taking pictures – all while he is trying to sing! He deserved it though; the kid had an amazing voice.

It was a great way to improve moral as the kids and we the teachers loved to hear the singing, and were dying laughing as some of the singers were assaulted by fans with money and overzealous affection. It made me realize yet again, that if I leave next year, I am going to miss the assemblies here, as I don't think there is anything quite like them in the states.