It's getting real folks...

This weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Savai’i and visit the village I will be living in permanently after next month.  It was a very good experience! I was greeted at the warf by my principal, host father, and a couple other men from the school committee. It was very weird leaving all the other volunteers because we have been doing pretty much everything together for the last month (which feels like a lot longer—In a good way!) and we all just kind of scattered as we got off the ferry.  It was probably good for me to have the realization that we are not going to be together for much longer, but I’m really going to miss the friends I have made.  Anyways, so we got to the warf and all scattered. I spent the next several hours driving around and eating a quick lunch with the men. I finally got to meet my host sister and brother and mom a little later in the afternoon. They are all so kind.  My dad is very talkative and my little brother is sooo cute! My mom sewed me a Puletasi yesterday, so that was very nice of her.  She wanted to make sure I had something nice to wear to school.  It’s funny how quickly they make me feel like a part of the family.  My parents are both 42 and they have 2 kids that live with them.  There is a 16 year old girl and a 11 year old boy.  They both a friend/cousin(?) living with them too, so another girl that is 15 and another 10 year old boy.  I kind of wish my parents would have let me have a friend come live with me just because they didn’t have enough children or other kids for me to play with, but I’ll save the woes of being an only child for another day.   The first day, we just went  around the village and visited the school.  I was only at the school for just a minute, but all the students did say “Good Afternoon, Ali” in unison to greet me, so that was cute.   We also went swimming in the sea in the afternoon. It was very nice.  They didn’t have the same white sand beach that Utulaelae does, but it was crystal clear water with fine white sand on the sea floor.  So, I’m definitely not complaining! I really love the ocean any time I can see the bottom and can swim in it!

My family has a pretty big compound, especially for as few of them as there are.  There is a main open empty fale (just a structure with no walls and no furniture), then an open fale for eating (ust a few chairs and a picnic table), and then an open cooking fale, and then an open sleeping fale with a couple of beds and chairs, and then there is my house! My house is a western style fale with walls and windows (just open windows, no screens or anything, but it’s nice for the breeze).   I stay with the younger girls in the house, but I have my own room.  I am very happy to announce that I do have running water and a flushing toilet in my house!  It’s no four seasons, but it has absolutely everything I need.  I will have to buy a small fridge and some sort of cooking device (there is no stove), but Peace Corps gives us a little allowance for these things, so that will be perfect!   My school is about a 15 minute walk from where I live, and there is an LDS church right beside the school, so that will be perfect!  My village is located on the lava fields, so it’s covered in big black rocks everywhere. It’s different than any other village I’ve seen here.  There was a volcano that erupted here in the 1900s and the lava rocks everywhere are the result of that.  If there was every anything here before that happened, it was definitely destroyed. 

I went to my school today for the whole day! I was welcomed with a traditional ava ceremony, during which all of the men from the school committee said kind words welcoming me, and one tried marrying me off to the other single male teacher.  The students performed some songs and dances that were precious, and then as the highlight of the event—I was asked to dance in front of all of the students, teachers, principal, and school committee.  It was one of the most awkward situations I have ever been in.  First of all, I don’t dance. Second of all, I really don’t dance when I don’t have something prepared. Third, I don’t dance to music that’s not hip hop, i.e. children singing and clapping the words to some Samoan song.  So, regardless to say it was not the most pleasant experience for anyone involved. However, we all made it through it with very little injury.  The students thought it was funny, the teachers got excited to have a project, and I learned that sometimes we just have to do things we don’t want to do because it’s what we need to do.  I really did not want to dance, but I felt like it would show my fellow teachers that I respected them and was grateful to be there.   I also thought about all of the awkward, uncomfortable, and unpleasant situations that you encounter when you are in a different culture and I think it’s a great quality to learn to just embrace them and not dread them.   I really felt so excited to be there at my school today.  The kindness just radiated from them.  Even though we didn’t have many deep conversations, I felt their love and I felt love for them. The students were so happy and the teachers seemed so excited. They kept telling me this was the first time they have had a Pisikoa and how excited they were for me to help them. I was already thinking about all of the projects I want to do while I’m here, especially related to the reading groups.   I won’t be teaching one class, but rather pulling out small groups of students to work on literacy.  I’ll be doing most of this in the “library” which consists of such a small number of books it almost made me cry, then I looked at the english books, I did tear up a bit.  I definitely want to work on developing the library and helping the teachers learn how to use the computers (that’s one of the things the teachers asked me if I could do).  It’s kind of an overwhelming feeling, but it’s also one of the best feelings!  We watched a clip from John F. Kennedy (the President that started the Peace Corps!) during one of our training sessions the other day, and one of the things he said was that there was “No feeling of PRIDE more real than being in the Peace Corps.”  Sometimes when I think about all that I need and want to do while I’m here, it feels daunting and impossible.  But then I think about the fact that I am here, and how blessed I am to be here, and I feel so excited and just full of JOY.  And every time introduce myself, “O a’u o le Pisikoa.”  “I’m the Peace Corps.” I feel a feeling of pride that I have never felt before! It’s a great feeling. SO from now on, every time I feel annoyed that I can’t go to the bathroom without everyone in the village talking about it or I can’t eat a cracker without 14 pairs of eyes staring at me, I will remember that feeling. 

 I am excited to go back to Utulaelae tomorrow. I miss my village.  I miss my family and friends and the sunset on the beach and choir practice and so many little things it’s kind of absurd.  It’s unreal that I have only been there for three weeks because it already feels like my home.  Based on how sad our goodbyes were when we were leaving to come here, I don’t even want to imagine how hard it will be when we leave for good in December.  That’s the hardest part for me.  Making relationships and leaving them behind.  Not a day goes by that I still don’t miss all my families and friends in Tonga, and I can already tell Samoa will be the same way.  Speaking of missing people, I have now had a total of five women tell me I’m “leaga” (which I think is the equivalent of bad/ugly, but it’s used in lots of situations so I’m still a little iffy) because I’m the only child and I left my parents behind.  They ask if I miss them and I say of course, and they say “Leaga oe, you leave your parents behind alone to miss you.”  I try to tell them that it’s ok, my parents are strong, but I guess you just don’t leave your parents in the fa’asamoa.  So here’s a shout out to my family in the states! I love and miss you guys and you have a lot of Samoans feeling bad for you having a daughter that would just desert you!