A recap of 2013.

Well it’s been so long since I’ve blogged it seems almost pointless to try and catch up—so I’m just going to give you a highlight of the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 and then promise to try and be a better blogger. 

·         We had our Inter-District Spelling with 12 schools that I planned with another PCV and my students took 1^st place! Making us the winners of the District and Inter-District Spelling Bee!

·        I was the head PCV of the 2013 GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Conference, which involved 44 girls and 12 PCVs along with 12 successful Samoan women.  The conference was 2 days and had multiple different sessions designed to help girls realize their leadership potential and increase their motivation to aspire to success.  The conference was a hit and the girls loved it! Also, my interview about the GLOW conference was on 3 different TV stations!

·         Last year, my students, teachers, and I pulled off 3 Spelling Bees, 2 English Days, 1 Community Day, 1 English Camp, and 25 weeks of reading club!

·         I was finally able to sweep all the grass off the lawn without getting blisters(now I have calluses, yay!) and pick up approximately 10 million leaves without getting a sore back.  These are things I consider real achievements.

·         I ate at least 300 pieces of taro (this is not an exaggeration—it was probably more actually), 100 coconuts, 50 pigs (not the whole pig of course), 200 pieces of fish, 1,674 crackers, and at least 300 bugs, mostly ants.  (I no longer bother trying to pick the ants out of my food).

·         I have really improved my Samoan, but still don’t understand everything.

·         I made some of the greatest friends of my life among my other Peace Corps Volunteers.

·         I travelled to Auckland, New Zealand and spent 2 and half weeks over the Christmas break with some friends there.  We hiked Rangitoto Island (an old volcano), watched a free movie at the park, watched some pretty trashy American TV, ate way too much food, and spent New Year’s Eve at a lovely beach near a house that we rented. 

·         My mother, grandmother, great-aunt, and cousin came to visit me in Samoa! We travelled around both islands of Samoa, ate lots of food, spent lots of time on the beautiful beaches, went to the waterfall, and spent several hours in the market.

·         I moved! About 2 weeks after I                 came back from NZ I moved to a different family in my village.  They own a resort in my village and are so generously letting me stay in one of their rooms—which has a bathroom inside the HUGE room and a deck that sits right on the sea.  It’s beautiful.  Now I feel more like a spoiled brat than a Peace Corps Volunteer—but I figure when life throws you lemons, you can make lemon meringue pie!

·         I have enjoyed every morning since I moved sitting on my deck, watching the sea and the palm trees, eating yogurt and granola, and drinking my tea.  I really do have a great life now. 

·         I GOT A YOGURT MAKER! When I was in NZD I found a yogurt maker for $19 and so now I can make my own yogurt in Samoa instead of paying $4 for one small package! This is probably the most life changing event—the number of crackers I ate this year will be ridiculously less than last year.

·         I’m now planning my wedding to my best friend! We are getting married in December here in Samoa at my favorite resort.  I couldn’t be happier!

Overall, my first in year in Samoa was the best and most challenging year of my life! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for 17 months and only have 10 months left! I know December is going to be here before I know it and I’ll be back home for Christmas, drinking hot chocolate, freezing to death under a blanket! As excited as I am to be home with my family again, I’m going to try my hardest to enjoy every minute of my last year in Samoa and not waste any time trying to do as much good here as I can.  

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY, SAMOA!

October 7^th marked one year since our plane landed in Samoa on that hot Sunday morning.  It’s absolutely insane how quickly the time has gone by.  It’s weird because a day can drag on here like none other, but months fly by.  Time is strange on the islands. 

This last year has been an emotional roller coaster, containing some of the best and some of the hardest times in my life.  I feel like I have been more challenged here than anywhere else before, but I have also felt more rewarded here than anywhere else before.  Most days I love Samoa, but there have definitely been some days when I think I just want to go home today and never come back!  They say Peace Corps is the “toughest job you’ll ever love.”  I never understood it until I got into the thick of what it really means to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.  What does being a PCV mean to me?  It means giving your last 20 tala to your family or someone in need because they don’t have food for the night.  It means sharing your ice cream you’ve been thinking about getting for 2 weeks with a kid at the shop. It means doing things you don’t want to do, like dancing in public.  It means helping a kid with homework at 9:00 at night.  It means cold showers every day without complaining.  It means sweating bullets everyday when you walk home in the sun in your school uniform which happens to be the heaviest and least breathiest material on the planet (and did I mention it covers neck to ankles?). It means only having about 4 different meal options.  It means crackers or fried flour and water for breakfast every morning.  It means only being able to talk to your family once a month, maybe.  It means getting to see the rewards of your work in your students.  It means getting to listen to a kid read a book they couldn’t have read 6 months ago.  It means getting to hold hands with 40 different kids on any given day.  It means endless kisses and hugs.  It means singing the same song 20 different times because the kids love it so much.  It means dancing silly because the kids think it’s funny.  It means staying positive even on the days you don’t know what you are doing here.  It means remembering that I am an only one person, I can’t do much, but I can do something. 

I’ve been contemplating a lot the idea of time, and how afraid I am of leaving without having done all that I can here in Samoa. It’s scary how quickly time goes by, and how easy it is to say “Oh today is a busy day, I’ll do something good for someone tomorrow.”  I think I’m learning here how important EVERY single day is.  And how important EVERY single interaction is.  How we treat people makes all the difference in the world.  What we do with our time is up to us, but when it’s gone it’s gone and you can’t get it back.  I know, for me, I don’t want to waste a single day not trying to do as much as I can to try and bring a little more good or a little more happiness or a little more kindness into the world.  Because, Heaven knows, with all the bad that there is in the world, we need as much goodness as we can get.  

An Update of the last few weeks...

I’m by far the worst blogger in the Peace Corps, I’m pretty sure.  It’s funny because I feel like I’m always busy but when people ask what do I do, I can’t think of anything to answer.  Instead of trying to catch my few blog followers up on what’s been going on in the last few months since my last post, I’m just going to give a few main highlights and then just vow to be a more consistent writer after today! 

·       I ran a 104 KM relay race with 5 of my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers around the perimeter of the main island of Samoa.  It was an awesome experience.  Easily the hardest thing I’ve done physically and the hottest day of my life, but it was really fun.  It was a beautiful run, I never ceased to be amazed by the beauty of this island. 

·       I got a new puppy, Marley! As some of you may know, my last two puppies, Jackie Chan and Baby, disappeared mysteriously when I was away one weekend.  Subsequently, Marley has been spending a lot of time at the neighbors so she can used to going over there when I’m not home.  She’s a real hoot.  She loves dragging things around the floor, like mats for example.  She also loves sleeping on the bed, more specifically on my pillow.  Which is fine because during the day she spends most of her time playing with her brother, my neighbor’s puppy, so at night I’m just happy to have her close by.  She loves chicken and papaya but will not eat bananas, bread, or noodles.  For a samoan dog, she’s very picky. 

·       My house has turned into a bit of a zoo.  I have 3 cats and Marley, the puppy.  Well the other night, I wake up at 3 am to the sound of my guitar playing.  Just a couple strings, but they were very obviously being strummed.  So I started yelling for catman (my cat) to stop, assuming it was him since I could feel marley on the pillow with me.  About 2 seconds letter, I feel catman moving around at my feet and I still hear the guitar playing. I open my eyes and turn on my lamp to verify that marley is indeed sleeping on my pillow (she was) and that catman is at my feet (he was).  Then I proceed to freak out thinking there is either a giant spider (which is possible in Samoa) or a ghost playing the guitar. I turn on the main light to see a full size crab climbing up the strings of my guitar, and feel somewhat relieved.  Only somewhat because it turns out those crabs have pretty scary pinchers, so that made me worried on how to remove him from the room.  Luckily, I succeeded in letting him back out to the wild.  I had to tell him I just don’t think my little room is big enough for 3 cats, a dog, me, and a crab.  He seemed to understand. 

·       We hosted a Community Day for all of the village to come and see the classrooms and talk with the teachers.  It was nice to have some of the parents of my kids come in and see their children’s progress and the things they have been doing.  I felt proud of my kids.  And of course the kids performed some new songs!

·       We had a 2 week break in between the 3^rd and 4^th term—during which I bought a bike and acquired a guitar.  I learned how to play jingle bells and amazing grace on the guitar—not very well, but you can tell which song is which.  I rode the bike 10 miles to the next PCVs village to help her with an English Fun Day, twice.  I got a pretty good tan laying out on the beach at the resort in my village.  We had a one year reunion at this amazing resort in Asau—it was great to have all of the PCVs together again. 

·       I had my birthday! So now I’m old—23! Where does the time go??? I spent the day at a beautiful resort in Manase just watching the ocean and being so grateful to be here.  I also spent a lot of time contemplating how I used to think 23 sounded so old and grown up when I was 16.

·       I assessed my kids reading levels, and was pleasantly surprised by how much progress many of them have made.  Most are still learning letter sounds, which makes me feel like this is too slow, but I am just happy that I can see that they are learning things, even if it is slow.

·       We had Teacher’s Appreciation Day, during which the teachers chastised some kids for not bringing gifts and told them to bring them next week—that just made me laugh.

·       My mom bought a ticket to come to Samoa!! I’m so excited to see my family again.  My mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin will be coming to spend a week in December and I could not be more excited to get to show them around and introduce them to my life here in Samoa. 

·       I reached my ONE YEAR mark in Samoa—I will write a separate blog about that! 

20 things you probably won't see in the states.....

1.  Kids wearing diapers climbing on roofs to get the ball when it gets stuck in the gutter.

2.  5 year old kids using machetes/knifes and adults not thinking it’s weird or feeling worried.

3.  5 year old kids wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt walking by themselves back from the store carrying their body weight in rice. 

4.  Principals smoking in PTA meetings.

5.  Principals smoking in class.

6.  Teachers/Principals drinking in the library after school hours. (You might see this in some schools in the states now that I think about it).

7.  Teachers sending kids to the store during class time to buy cigarettes, phone credit, crackers, etc. 

8.  Teachers sleeping on desks during class time.

9.  Teachers having students massage their backs during class time.

10.  Year 8 students being assigned to substitute teach for another year while teachers hangout in the staff room.

11.  Kids saying “Give me money Palagi (white person)” when a white person walks by.

12.  Kids sharing their candy when they only have one piece.

13.  Kids sharing everything without ever complaining—this is pretty much all kids in Samoa.  The sharing thing is one of my favorite things about Samoa.

14.  21 people riding in a van at a time.

15.  62 people riding in the back of an oversized truck at a time.

16.  100 people riding on bus made for 40 people.

17.  3 year olds roaming the village alone. 

18.  Kids acting like they have just won the lottery when they get a new book in the school library.

19.  10 year old girls walking around without shirts on.

20.  12 year old boys doring chores without clothes on. Outside. 

FEAU

Life for most Samoans is centered on their chores (feau).  You have the basic chores, like sweeping the house—which is done with a short broom made of parts of a coconut tree and dried.  It is way more difficult than sweeping with a regular broom because you have to really get down low to sweep the floor properly using the side of the long twig like things to sweep the dirt away.   Laundry is another chore that takes ages and is a lot of hard work.  You usually have to do it early in the morning so that your clothes can get out in the sun to dry and also because the water gets turned off in the morning between 9 and 10.  I only know one family in my village that has a washing machine but I know that they exist for some Samoan families because several of the other PCVs have washing machines—I’m not jealous (the more I say it the more I start to believe it).  I am a pretty lazy laundry washer.  I usually just my put my clothes in a bucket with some soap and let it soak for a little while then punch it around for about five minutes and then do 2 rinses.  If something is super dirty or if I’m feeling extra energetic that day then I will use the scrub brush to scrub my clothes.  I try to hang out my clothes out in the sun as early as possible but a lot of times I’m too late so they stay out all night and get rained on but then they are fine by the next day.  I’m not the best laundry doer ever. 

Making the food is another chore that has to be done every day, obviously.  The saka (taro or breadfruit usually) has to be made every day.  That means that someone has to go to the plantation, bring the taro, peel the taro with an old tinned fish can cut down so that it’s really sharp, cut the taro, and then boil it.  Usually it is covered with pe’epe’e, which is like coconut cream.  For that you have to go get the coconuts, peel the shells off the coconuts, crack the coconuts, shave the coconuts, use the water and a hush to make a nice cream liquid out of the shavings—it’s more complicated that it sounds. Everyone I know cooks over a fire, so you have to get the firewood, make the fire, and then cook your food.  Needless to say, making the food can be an all day event.  And if you eat two meals a day then it’s always an all day event. 

Tae Lapisi (picking up the rubbish) is another chore that is done every day.  The funny thing about rubbish is that it’s not really rubbish that they are picking up, it’s leaves.  My dad would be very happy to know that all those days of him making me pickup sticks and me crying that it was the worst thing in the world, have paid off now, because picking up rubbish is one chore that I excel at.  I’m way more thorough than most of the Samoan kids that are usually in charge of picking up the rubbish, so I look like I’m ridiculously slow, but I personally think it looks much better when I do it than when my host brother does it. 

Vele le vao (picking weeds) is a chore that is done somewhat regularly, depending on the family, but is done by every family the week before the asiasiga, which is when people go around the village looking and checking all the yards to make sure they are being taken care of well.  I’ve heard they give a prize for the most beautiful house in the village, but I’m not sure if my village does that or if it’s just some villages.  This is my favorite chore, I really enjoy picking the weeds. 

Sasa le vao (cutting the grass) is also done in time for the asiasiga.  This is a fun chore to watch, but one that I have only tried twice and massively failed at both times.  Basically, you take a machete and just hit the grass really hard with it.  It takes ages and it takes a lot of muscle strength (that may be why I’m not so fabulous at it).  It’s really a very fun chore to watch shirtless young men do—I say that respectively, but honestly.  They are just so good at it.  And it looks so cool when there are ten guys out there just hacking away at the grass with giant machetes. 

Some other chores are roasting cocoa, which is done over a fire so is very hot.  Basically you just roast the seeds and pull off the shells, but it’s so hot and the shells burn your fingers when you pull them off.  But the finished project is delicious cocoa Samoa, so I am a fan of that chore.  Feeding the pigs is done daily, as well.  That consists of cutting coconut slices, and then sitting down on a bucket and yelling “PIG PIG PIG PIG” in a deep voice over and over again.  That’s a chore I have only done once—but it was so much fun it made consider wanting to live on a farm! Feeding the chickens is kind of the same way, except you usually throw rice and say “Coo, coo, coo.”  Feeding the cows is similar except you just take the leaves and put them in front of the cows when they are tied up, pretty simple.  Making the beds is another chore that sounds similar to things we do back home, but here it usually  consists of putting down mats on the floor, and then laying out everyone’s individual sheet and pillow in the correct spot and tying up the mosquito nets. 

These are just a few of the chores that Samoans do on a regular basis and that I have had the chance to do myself—there are plenty of others that I know I’m forgetting.  Basically, all of these chores make me realize how many little things I have taken for granted my whole life.  When cooking a meal can be as simple as putting something in the microwave for 2 and ½ minutes, whereas here it never takes less than a couple of hours.  It’s little things like that make me appreciate where I come from and also where I am.  I feel so lucky to be in a place that I can learn so many little lessons everyday just by observing the people around me. 

Upcoming Plans...

I have started working on some secondary projects in the village and I’m really excited about them!

First, we have started working on a project called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World).  It’s a world-wide program that’s been done by a lot of peace corps volunteers in other countries.  Last year was the first time it has been done in Samoa, so this year will be the second.  Basically it’s a conference that is designed to teach girls from the rural primary schools in Samoa about career possibilities and education opportunities, as well as exercise and female health issues.  Last year they only had girls from the main island and it was just one day long.  This year, the conference will be two days long and will have girls from both islands.  We think it will be really exciting for the girls from Savaii because many of them have never been to the capitol city of Apia, which really is like the equivalent of going to D.C. for them.  I am heading up the GLOW project, and we have a team of about 8 volunteers working on it.  It’s been really cool for me to get to talk with some of the successful Samoan women about being involved in the conference and to network with new people.  Making appointments with people at UN Women or the Ministry of Women, Community, and Social Development is a nice change of pace from just sitting in my classroom all day, it reminds me there are other things going on out there in the real world. 

Second, we are having our English Camp next week.  It was supposed to be a 3 day overnight thing, but the parents were really nervous about sending their kids to another village to stay the night so we decided to do a 2 day DAY camp.  So the kids will come at 7:30am and then go home at 5:00pm.  We will spend one day in Patamea (3 villages down from my village) and one day in Saleaula (my village).  We were going t do a mystery/treasure hunt them one day and an animal theme the next day and then combine the two and do skits and song s for the parents the third day, but since we changed the program we may just do a bunch of different fun games all day and not really have a theme.  We are having a planning meeting tomorrow to finalize everything.  The kids are all so excited they won’t stop talking about it. I am getting kind of tired of answering the same questions over and over again, but I know I am also like that when I’m excited so I just keep smiling. 

Third, we are going to have an island wide Spelling Bee during the fourth term (November/December).  We are going to try and have all the Primary Schools in Savaii do a spelling bee and then send their top students to the district Spelling Bee and then we will have a Savaii wide Spelling Bee for all of the top students from each district.  I suggested it to all of the other volunteers and they seemed to be excited about it, so I think it will be good. 

Lastly (and most ambitiously), I have started the talk of getting a village library.  I don’t know how it is going to go, but I talked with the brother of one of the high chiefs in the village and he said he thinks it could work.  He said I just need to get some of the high chiefs on my side and then I should have the support of the whole village.  The brother lives in Bangladesh and does development work over there, so I’m sad he won’t be here to help me and work as a support agent, but it was really nice to talk with him and know that there is atleast some support already.  I’m going to work over the break on a proposal for the village chiefs and getting it translated, but it will be a very slow process.  But I would appreciate as many prayers and good vibes sent this way as possible! Also, if you want to start informing your rich friends about it, there will come a point when I will be begging for money or books I AM SURE!

EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment is my favorite word in the English dictionary.  It has so much---what’s the word---POWER? That seems redundant, but I can’t think of another word that carries as much strength or action.  When I was applying to grad schools I wrote my essays about how I wanted to empower people.  Think about what it really means to empower someone—to help people to get the tools they need to be able to think and work and do things for themselves.  Working in my primary school in Samoa is giving me lots of ideas of how I can empower my students with the tools they need to try and be successful .  I love it!  I love this word empower because it’s not just giving someone something, it’s helping them to be able to do things themselves.  When I teach a child that when the “T” and the “H” are together it makes the “TH” sound, I feel like I am empowering them to be able to discover the words themselves.  And then when they look at the word and say it correctly with the new sound they have learned—well, those are the moments that remind me of why I wanted to be in the Peace Corps in the first place.

Last week we had our second English Day, which was fabulous! I was so proud of my kids that I actually started crying when the very first group came out and sang “The World’s Greatest.”  Each class, years 1-8, sang a song. Some of the best were Justin Beiber’s “Baby,” “Lean on Me,” “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough,”  “My Friend” (a little remix to The Temptations “My Girl”), and “You Raise Me Up.”   We also had three plays, which were a little rocky but cute.  But the biggest part of the day was our Spelling Bee.   We had three rounds and then a final.  The kids did so great! I was so proud of them.  The girl that won lived in America Samoa for several years and went to school there, so I felt like maybe some people thought that was a little unfair, but it’s tricky to balance including the kids that have been lucky enough to go to school in America Samoa or New Zealand with the kids that have lived in the village their whole lives.    Overall, all the kids did fabulously.  It’s a new thing for the school and the village but it’s definitely something that I want to continue to do. 

Some funny things about English Day:

1.       One little boy came to school dressed in a big, fluffy white dress with gold hoop earrings and danced in the middle of his class during the song “Baby.”  It was really funny! (Side Note:  Gender is really different here.  Boys don’t have to prove their masculinity and there is no fear of someone calling you “gay” like in the states.  Boys often wear princess shirts, carry Barbie backpacks, and pink is in no way related to girls.  This applies to men of all ages.  But honestly, when a man is wearing a princess shirt and has just finished killing a pig with his bare hands—there really is no question about how masculine he is.)

2.       The kids all do this bow-like thing when they  finish performing, but it’s the exact salute that the Nazi’s did to Hitler.  So they all put one arm out in the air and then they bow.  It’s so different.  (Side Note #2:  People also have the swastika symbol tattooed on their bodies and draw it on all sorts of things.  I often have to remind myself that before Hitler, it was a symbol of peace—so it has very different meaning culturally.)

3.       People talked through the whole thing.  Which is also not considered rude culturally.  I didn’t really notice it that much until a women who is visiting from Bangladesh was like “I was so annoyed because people were talking the whole time.”  And I was like, yeah, they tend to do that.  People talk during prayers, church, speeches, plays, and even Spelling BEES!

I really felt like doing things like Spelling Bees and English Day is empowering my kids with the knowledge that they can speak English and that they can spell! When a kid learns a new word or when they read a new book I just get this feeling like they are being empowered with something that could really help them, that could really inspire them to want to pursue an education, and something that can make them feel smart.  Kids are always being told how stupid and bad they are here.  But I swear any time I tell them they are smart or that they can read or that I’m proud of them, there smiles get so big that I sometimes worry their cheeks are going to make their eyeballs pop out.  Part of that is because they think it’s funny that I’m saying that because they don’t believe it, which makes me want to cry sometimes—but regardless, they do smile, and those little smiles make me one happy girl!