The lovely friends in my room....

First Week of School

First week of school! Filled with new supplies, clothes, and haircuts. Fun ‘getting to know you activities,’ well rested teachers, and clean/organized classrooms. NONE OF THIS was the case my first week of school.  Now, believe me I’m not ignorant to think that any of this would be the case, but I must say I was not expecting my first week to be the way it was. The weekend prior to school starting I texted my principal to ask her when I should arrive at school; she said 8 o clock was when school started so arrive around then. Monday morning I showed up on time and ready to go. I showed up, and no one was there. Not a single kid, not a teacher, no one. Finally an hour later people started arriving and an hour and half later the principal came. All in all there were 14 students that day. Basically that day was spent talking to the principal and two other teachers about nothing in particular while the kids played. This went on for a couple hours and then the principal decided the day was over and we all went home. On Tuesday the same thing happened, exactly the same thing. Wednesday about 20 kids showed up and the weeded the school grounds, and picked up the grass clippings by hand.  Thursday was a different story. The same 20 kids came to school and were ordered to continue weeding as well scrub down all the classroom walls/ceiling. They also scrubbed the outside walls of the school and cleaned out the gutters. After that they cleaned the bathrooms. It is not uncommon for the students to clean the school the first few days of school. It was a little weird at first, but actually I kind of think it’s a good thing. Only in the sense that the kids take responsibility for their school. They take care of it and everyone works hard to make sure that it is up kept. I decided that I was not going to sit and watch the kids clean anymore and on Thursday I decided to get down and dirty and help scrub the walls as well. After all, its my school too!  The bathrooms however I decided to leave to the kids. J By the end of the first school week not one lesson took place, no more than a hand full of kids showed up, and the teachers seemed to still think they were on vacation.  Not the first week I had imagined. However, it seems to be the fa’asamoa.  I am excited to start teaching though. I’m going to be teaching grades 4,5,6 and 7 every day.  I don’t have my own classroom so I will be using the library.

Dads

I’ve been living with my host family for about two months now. They are a great family that I’m really starting to come to love. Each member in the family has their own story, but for this blog I would like to focus on my host dad. The reason I would like to focus on him is because last night it occurred to me that he resembles in many ways like my actual father. My host dad works for a gas and electric company in Apia. He has been working there for almost 30 years. When I asked him if he likes his job he said yes, but I could see it in his face that he is tired, and looking forward to retiring. This is similarity number one with my dad. My dad has worked for a service company for over 30 years and seems to be counting down the days until he can finally retire. He has worked his whole life and I know he is ready to finally be done. However, he keeps on working because he knows my family needs the money. The same goes for Mika, my host dad, he works because he is one of the only members in the family with an actual income. Every night Mika comes home he sits down, uniform dirty from work, lights a cigarette, has a cup of coffee and watches the evening news. Both men are the last ones to go to sleep, and the first ones up in the morning.  On particular nights when the day seemed to be particularly hard and long he is usually a lot quieter. This is similarity number 2, and identical to the T with my dad. Every night my dad comes home after a long day of work and secludes to quiet and relaxation time. This entails a cigarette and soccer/news. Those nights when my dad has a rough day you can usually see it in his face. His eyes will be a little red, and tired looking. He’ll usually be a bit quieter like he’s lost in his own thoughts, and he’ll do this thing where he puts his hand on his chin.   Last night while I was watching the news with Mika I saw him do this same exact thing. It was very surreal. I don’t know if its because I haven’t seen my family or been home in a long time, but I think about the little things a lot more now. The most random stuff like our crooked mailbox, how you could always see my dog in the window when pulling in to the driveway, and how when walking into the house I could always tell by the smell when it was spaghetti night. Every day my little host sister and brother run outside of the house when they hear my host dad’s truck coming. They always run to the truck before Mika can even get his door open. Always greeting him with huge smiles. I used to do this all the time when I was little I could see my dad’s truck pull up through the front window and I would always run out there to meet him. He would always have a Dr. Pepper drink and he would always give the rest to me. I loved being the first one to talk to him when he got home. I’m adult now, moved away during college, and am now living in Samoa. Nevertheless, I still think about those times, and even the smallest gesture from a new person who is in my life can allow the memories to come flooding back. I love it.

My family

The front area of my host familys fale.

My host mom!

Vi, Moseki, and Siave my host brother's and sister

The most simple and perfect toy.

Peace!!

Teine (woman on left), Li'i (in far back) Mika (boy with cheesy smile) Siave, Vi, and Moseki

Just part of my wonderful host family!

English Camp

This past week me and several other volunteers participated in an English camp put on for kids. The English camp was held at a fellow volunteer’s village. The whole premise of the camp was to help the new group (my group) receive more practice working and teaching Samoan children. There were 12 of us total. 8 people from group 83 and 4 people from group 82. (83 is my group) The 82’ers were the ones kind of in charge of the whole operation. We were to stay in a church hall for the week. We arrived this past Saturday, and like most cases there was major miscommunication when we got to where we were staying. The church congregation thought we were arriving earlier then we did, and because all of the volunteers were coming from different parts of the island we all arrived at different times. However, we didn’t know that the congregation was waiting for us all to arrive because they wanted to have an ava ceremony. Let’s just say we didn’t make a good first impression. However, I think we redeemed ourselves the next day at church. We sang a song during church, and each gave a quick introduction of who we were. That seemed to ease things a lot. Monday was the start of English Camp and I must say I was a bit nervous. I had only had two prior weeks in a Samoan school. Therefore its was all pretty new to me. It was nice though because all of us got together and kind of planned our lessons together. The start of camp was a bit chaotic, and uncertain. I didn’t know my kids and I had no idea what kind of English background they have had in school. Because the camp was only a week long I had to do a quick evaluation of each child. However, I realized that it wasn’t going to be thorough as if I was in my own classroom. The days consisted of two parts: a morning class and an afternoon class. The morning class was the actual lesson, and the afternoon class was mostly games that somehow related to the lesson we had just done. Throughout the days I taught things like: verbs, body parts, and directions.  We played games like: Simon Says, Hangman, and several other games.  I had a lot of fun.  My first day I had 12 students by the end of the week I had 22. Same goes for the other volunteers. I found this to be a good thing because it meant that kids were going home and telling their siblings and friends how much fun camp was, and then they wanted to come too. Thursday after school we let the kids watch Aladdin. Friday being the last day was a big day. We had the English Camp Olympics! The 8 teachers were grouped into two’s. So there were 4 teams: America, Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia. My team was team America. We had relay races all afternoon. We did the crab walk race, the wheel barrow race, the 3-legged race, human knot, and dragon tails. The kids had an awesome time. My team came in last, but for the record the teams were stacked! My class had the smallest and youngest kids compared to Rachael’s team who had kids who were bigger than me! Nevertheless my kids were awesome, and did great. J After the races were done we gave out certificates to each child, and then of course…handed out ice cream cones. Other than the actual teaching of the lessons I have to say my favorite part was saying goodbye to the children. I know that sounds weird, but its true. I had student after student coming up to me giving me hugs and thanking me for teaching them during English camp. My favorite was when a student who was so shy during class walked with me all the way home and then repeatedly thanked me, hugged me, and waved goodbye until I was out of sight. It was those moments that made truly made me feel good. You can just hear the sincerity in their voices, and see it in their eyes. I absolutely love it, and them.

Assembly before English Camp

Peace Corps teachers!!

English Camp 2011!!!!

 My team, Team America!!! For the English Camp Field Day.

Doing the crab walk at field day

Getting their certificates at the end of camp.

Barefoot in a hospital

 My first hospital experience started in the evening when my little sister was complaining of a tooth ache. She had been complaining of this tooth ache for a couple days now, and I guess at this point it was pretty bad. She had been crying and crying and no one in the family knew what to do. They all were looking at me for help. Asking me if there was anything I could do, wanting my advice remedies, etc. I didn’t know what to do if this was back home I would have said, “go to Walgreens and buy some tooth ache numbing gel.” But the nearest Walgreen is hundreds of thousands miles away so we were out of luck. I gave my sister some Tylenol, had them heat up a wet towel for a compress. However, nothing was working. My sister wouldn’t stop crying, which in turn, gave her a headache. Finally my host mom said they were taking her to the hospital and they wanted me to come. At this point in time it was about 10pm. In my head I just kept thinking why are we going to the hospital she just has a toothache? But I didn’t say anything because I could see the worried look on my families faces. My host mom, dad, sister, and brother loaded into the car and headed to the hospital. Now I have never been to a hospital overseas before let alone a developing country at that. I knew that my family was expected to bring their own sheets and pillows because the hospital did not provide any for the beds. When we finally arrived at the hospital it was about 10:30 and the hospital was pretty full. The hospital was one giant room, with self standing walls as dividers. The place was as bare as could be. There were some wooden benches that were used as a waiting area. My brother and I took my little sister and took a seat. As I looked at my brother I noticed he wasn’t wearing any shoes! I looked at the other people in the waiting area and many of them weren’t wearing shoes either. That’s when it hit me how things really are. My mom went to check her in. In return she got a ticket with a number on it. This reminded me of going to the deli at the grocery store and pulling a ticket number and waiting to be helped. Our number was 35, they were on 20…great, it was going to be a long night. As hours went by it was finally our turn my mom and sister went in to see the doctor and while I waited back I heard this screaming like none other coming from a nearby room. I went to see what was going on, and saw these doctors putting this toddler in an ice bucket. I’m assuming the child had a fever. I felt so sorry for the baby.  10 minutes later my sister came out. “Really that’s it!? We waited 3 hours for 10 minutes!?” No, I followed my family outside and next door to a nearby building. The sign said, dentist. At this point it was one in the morning. My mom was knocking on the locked door. The lights turned on inside and a man who had looked like he had been sleeping came and let us in. The man was the dentist that was going to take away my sisters toothache. I couldn’t believe it! A dentist at one in the morning!? I would have never believed it. I must say I was quite impressed. Apparently she had a cavity in the root of her tooth. The dentist filled the cavity and we went home.

I have to say that the overall experience made me appreciate the healthcare back in the States, and realize how lucky we are. Also, that I never want to get sick here.

What I Love

Now that I have vented out all the pesky frustrations I want to counter it by expressing the things that I love and appreciate. In all honesty, looking at the positive side has never been strength of mine. I’ve always felt that if you just assume the worst, and don’t get your hopes up, you can’t be let down. Very cynical I know, but hey I’m not perfect. My mom is the complete opposite. She has a way of finding positive things in everything something that I always admired about her. She always told me that I needed to stop being such a pessimist. And now that I am in the Peace Corps it’s a vital coping mechanism that a person needs to have. Focusing on the positives and not dwelling on the negatives. One of my fellow PC friends is a prime example of this. She has this fascinating way of finding the littlest things and appreciating it. So, I am trying to follow the example of my friend, mom, and the PC’s advice by thinking and taking note of all the positive aspects of my crazy life. Here is what I’ve come up with that I love and appreciate:

·         When it rains and cools the hot weather down

·         My Samoan family

·         My peace corps friends

·         Driving around the island (Probably my favorite thing to do here)

·         The fact that there are no snakes here

·         Coconut trees

·         I love that no matter where I go; a view of the ocean is always nearby.

·         Receiving mail and emails from friends and family back home

·         Samoan ice cream

·         Samoan coffee

·         A killer view of the stars at night

·         Long walks in the evening

·         Samoan music

·         Being able to go into town when I need a “break”

·         snorkeling

·         Cheap taxis

·         Walking around my village and people calling my name to say hello