A lot of patience, thankyous, and lessons being learned...

My time in the Peace Corps is really helping to develop my patience. I used to think I was kind of patient with people generally, but now I know I was a crazy person for thinking that. I suck at being patient when I can’t understand what is being said, and when I have been waiting for the bus for over an hour, or when I’m late to school one day even though I came at the same time I come every day, and when I have 30 kids pulling on my shirt “Ali! Ali! Ali!” while I’m trying to explain something to another student. And I especially suck at being patient when I feel like most seven year olds back home have more independence than I do.   But the more time that passes, the more that I’m starting to get used to it.  It’s a battle and it’s far from over, I haven’t even begun to master the whole patience thing yet, but I have been working on my personal attitude and the amount of kindness I show towards people.  And let me tell you, that has made a world of difference. Even just in the last few days, I have been able to tell a huge difference.  The funny thing is that when I think about how much patience it must take my Samoan family, and my students, and my principal, and the teachers at my school, and my friends at volleyball, to have me here with them, I feel guilty for ever being impatient with anything here.  So what I had to sit at a funeral for four hours when I had “important” things to be doing, my family has a girl who can’t understand most of what they say, living with them.  They are responsible for me. They have to worry about being talked about for anything that I do, because it reflects on the family.  How hard it must be for them to have this independent, “thinks she’s grown,” loud, opinionated, curious, white girl come to stay with them for two years.  How hard it must be for my principal to have a new member of staff who has no idea how the education system or school schedule is ran in Samoa.  How hard for my teachers to have a teacher come and even though she is new, they have to ask for permission to have things copied, typed, to take paper or books or resources, just because she’s from America. How hard for my students to have a teacher who can’t understand everything that they are trying to say to her, to not understand when they are trying to explain why they don’t have their homework or where they lost their book at.  And worst of all, how hard it must be for my volleyball friends to have this girl playing that can only set the ball properly about 30% of the time.  Man, that’s the worst.   So, when I think about all the patience and kindness that is being shown to me by the people of Samoa, it makes me feel very grateful.  But it also makes me feel guilty for not realizing this faster and for getting impatient with little things.

With all of my thoughts being focused on trying to be more patient and more kind this week, there have also been a lot of thank yous running across my mind.  I really am so thankful to be here even if I do get impatient more than I am proud of.  I am so thankful for my family.  First, my family in Kentucky that I miss like crazy. My mom that makes me feel better when I complain to her and sends me a box full of school supplies, but most importantly makes me feel missed and loved and reminds me that I am good even if I get in trouble in Samoa sometimes.  And my dad that sends me credit for my phone so I can call home and goes through H-E double hockey sticks to send a box with everything I mentioned I might need! And my family in Samoa, that I know love me. And then my families in Tonga, that I know still pray for me regularly.  I am so thankful for my friends, near and far.  My Peace Corps friends that keep me sane and keep me laughing.  And my friends back home that remind me that as cheesy as the saying “BFFs” might be, it’s real for us and it includes when you are across the world and haven’t actually “talked” in six months.  I am also grateful for the ocean. Because it’s amazing, and I think that every day when I walk by it on my way to school.  

I would like to now give you a direct quote from one of my prayers the other day, “Oh Heavenly Father, THANKYOU for those cute baby chickens, because they are SOOO FREAKING cute and I love them! Seriously, they are so little and cute and totes adobo (totally adorable).  Oh I love them. Thank you for letting them be outside right now. Amen.”  The chickens in that prayer can be exchanged for the piglets that are at my house right now and that I love as much as the chickens.  And also the one survivor puppy that has made it!

I also say thank you to Heavenly Father every time the kids hear me coming to get them from their class to go to my pull out groups and they say “yes!!!” or start arguing over whose day it is to go.  I say thank you every time the kids leave my class and they say “thank you!”  It’s amazing how much impact that little word can have.  I also say thank you every time my little buddy Sa is reading to me and he doesn’t know a word (which is often, so I also say thank you to Heavenly Father and to Sa for him coming to read even though it’s hard) and he points to the word and says “please ali, who?”  And I say thanks when Fineaso walks into my room singing “ua moni” at the top of his lungs, because it just makes me laugh. And I especially say thank you when I see talaoloa staring at me and I turn and smile at him and then he keeps smiling for the next five minutes.  And best of all, I say thank you when Oscar (yeah, I don’t where they name came from!) a sweet little boy with a disability says he has a gift for me and then gives me a towel!! Seriously?!  How could that not touch your heart??  At the end of every day, when I’m saying my prayers, I say “Thank you for letting me be here in Samoa.”

These are a few of my favorite things....

A few things I love about Samoa….

I love that the people can sleep anywhere.  They can sleep in moving cars or buses, they can sleep standing up on the bus holding onto the rail, they can sleep with any amount of noise, they can sleep on the bare floor, they can sleep in any sort of position (ie, hanging out of a car or bus window), basically, Samoans can sleep anytime, anywhere! I love it. 

I love that to get a taxi you just put your hand in a pulling, come here motion and make a super loud kissing noise. And more than that, I love that taxi drivers always seem to hear the kissing noise, even when their music is blaring and their windows are up.

I love that the buses are always crowded and it doesn’t matter how packed it is, or if there are no empty seats, laps, or standing room, they always manage to fit more people on the bus.  In reality, I have a very love hate relationships because they can be very uncomfortable when you have someone sitting on your lap and your leg is digging into a piece of metal for an hour, but generally I find them entertaining because they are absolutely the most crowded things I have ever seen.

I also love that people always seem confident that their children are safe even if they don’t know where they are, and as far as I have seen they are always safe. 

I  love that I have a watch in Samoa. This isn’t really about Samoa, but it is something I love.  I have never really worn a watch before, but for some reason here in Samoa I love it.  It’s kind of funny because this place has the most fluid definition of time I have ever seen, but for some reason the watch gives me comfort.  I also seem to think that it has magical powers.  I look at it to see how much longer events are going to last, even when I don’t know the time the event should end.  I seem to think that the watch can tell me how much longer the event will be.  I also look at it to find the score in volleyball.  Like for some reason, the watdh will be able to update me on how badly my team is losing.

I love that every Sunday we eat lu au and taro from the umu. That's my favorite meal in Samoa. And even when I'm not here to eat with my family, because my church goes to late or because I have been out of the village, they always save me some and have it waiting for me when I get home. 

I love that school starts an hour late when it's raining, along with everything else. 

I love that kids see me from inside their houses when I'm walking in the street and say "MALO ALI!!" even though I have no idea where they are hiding. 

Rules were meant to be broken? I don't know if that's the motto in Samoa...

So I feel like I have been busier in the past few weeks than I have been the whole time I have been in Samoa.  I am loving my students and really enjoying teaching (although I am still pretty sure it’s not the life long career for me, for those of you that were wondering).  The homework center is still going well, the kids really enjoy reading. I had my mom send a box of school supplies and some old books that were mine when I was a kid and I put all of the books on the shelf in the library. The kids spotted them immediately (which wasn’t hard considering there were only about 100 books total in there to begin with) and got so excited. The kept asking where they came from and saying “lelei tele oe!” “very good you!”  I’d like to insert a special shout out to my mom, grandma, mama starr, aunt tonya, and aunt kim, because all of the books are from you guys and now they are being used by the kids here and are greatly appreciated so many years later!!! Thank you for giving me opportunities to read when I was a kid, I’m so grateful to be able to share that with the kids here.   Anyways, so that has been an exciting addition to the reading time and I actually really appreciate having those stories read to me. It’s funny how different it is being on this side of reading stories. I’m pretty sure the last time I really looked at those books I was the one trying to make out the words as I read them to the “reading experts.” Now, I’m the “expert” and am putting my fingers over the words to try and break them down for the kids, just like my mom and grandma used to do when I was little.  It’s just strange to think about.  Some days I don’t feel like I’m grown enough to be responsible for teaching kids to read and then other days I feel like I’m too old to be living here.  I mostly feel this way here because the culture is so different when it comes to independence, especially for girls.  In Samoa, most girls live at home until they get married and almost all girls (I feel confident saying 99% of girls) are living under their parent’s rules, until they get married and many even after that. This is very different than what I am used to.  My parents would probably say that I have pretty much been doing what I want to do since I was about 15 (maybe even before then?), and the idea of living under their “rules” until I’m married just makes me laugh….so coming to Samoa, and having so many rules to follow has been a real adjustment. It’s definitely worth it, especially because most of the rules don’t really bother me, but every time a kid comes in my room and asks to read a book or says “YES!!!!” when they see me coming to pull them out for their lesson, I think “yeah, this is worth not being able to (insert whatever random rule I have to follow here).”   And I know that Samoans would probably come to the states and say that we are all out of control (especially the kids!) so it really is just a cultural difference and not something that we can really say “this way is better!”  With that being said, here is a list of some of the rules that I have encountered in Samoa.

1. Girls must always wear lavalavas, especially when leaving the house.

2. Everyone must wear a lavalava when having family prayer.

3. One must not point their feet in front of them, or in the direction of any other person, when sitting with a group on the floor (which is pretty much always).  If you do, you must cover your legs with a mat.

4. One must not be seen talking at night with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

5. One must not be seen touching (holding hands, hugging, or-HEAVEN FORBID-kissing-GASP!) their significant other, this includes married people.

6. One must always bow their heads when talking to someone of higher position (older people, men, teachers, etc.)

7. One must not play music when walking down the road.

8. One must not walk in the road during the time of the “sa.” “Sa” is the time of the night, usually around 7:30, when the men in the village ring the bells and everyone has to be in their houses for “prayer” even though most families I have encountered don’t actually have prayer at this time in my village.  IF you happen to be walking in the road at this time, you must sit down on the side of the road.

9. One must not talk on the phone past 12 at night because there are many devils in the air that you can breathe in.

10.The  pisikoa (peace corps) must not ever have anyone in her house.

11. The pisikoa must not go running past the last house in the village.

12. The pisikoa must not go to the mormon church every Sunday because it looks bad for the other churches.  If she does go in the morning to the mormon church, she must go to a different church in the afternoon.

13. The pisikoa must always inform her host family where she is going.

14. Children must bring a handkerchief to school or they will be smacked.

15. One must never eat and walk at the same time, however there are some exceptions to the rule, I just don’t understand what exactly they are and when it’s ok. I do know, however, you must not walk out of your house eating a cracker when you are running late to school.

16. One must not gossip.  (this rule is funny to me because I hear gossip all the time, but apparently it’s a rule and a 20 tala fine if you are caught).

Well this list isn’t exactly comprehensive, nor is it applicable to everyone in Samoa, but you get the general idea of many of the rules in my village. Some of them make a sense to me and others make me go, really? That’s a rule? But what I love about the rules is that everyone in the village knows them.  And everyone knows who is breaking a village rule.  And they have all of these committees that enforce the rules, they don’t need policemen because everyone has so much respect for the village matais that they can literally enforce all the rules themselves. It really is neat the way that everything is ran here, it’s like organized chaos. They govern themselves quite well.

Totally switching topics, I was watching “The Proposal” and at the end Ramon is saying how he knows Margaret is good dancer because he saw the way she was drinking her soda. The interviewer says, “what does the ways she drinks a pop have to do with how she dances?” and ramon looks really confused and says, “I don’t understand the question.”  I have been having this kind of response to all the people and kids asking me “you go to school tomorrow?”  I always feel so confused, because I think, “of course I’m going to school, it’s a school day.  But I have noticed that a lot of students and teachers miss school a lot so I wonder if it’s more of a voluntary thing rather than a mandatory thing, so people don’t really know if you are going to decide to go the next day.  Anyways, I think that’s about all for the update here. Again, I really do love it and feel very blessed to be here every day. It doesn’t matter how many rules I have to follow, they are all very worth it.

The bright side, it's really bright!

The first week of school in Samoa is very different than I remember it being in the states. The students do a lot of cleaning and playing and there is no teaching or class. The teachers have some meetings, organize their supplies, and do some other preparatory work, but it’s very different. I spent the majority of the week doing assessments on my students and figuring out if they needed to be placed in the “advanced” group or “at risk” group (school’s words, not mine).  I had them read, go over the alphabet, and identify numbers.  I was impressed by many and also saddened by several Year 8 (7^th grade) boys that don’t even know the alphabet yet. But that’s why I’m here, right?! It’s a definite work in progress.  I also did some organizing in the library with the small collection of books we have and did some decorating in my class, which also happens to be the library. 

The second week of school has been great! Very exhausting, but by far one of the best weeks I have had since being in Samoa.  I love my students. They are amazing. They love books. They love to read. They aren’t reading at very high levels, many of the students struggle reading in Samoan, let alone English. But they love to try, which makes me ecstatic.  So during their interval period, they come into read.  That’s the equivalent of a kid coming to read during recess, which isn’t a super common thing as far as I am aware.   They read books in Samoan and in English, but mostly they just love to look at the books and think about what could be happening.  Then after school, I started doing a homework help center, so the kids come in and we do their homework as a class and then they spend the next hour reading. During this time all of the older kids have to read books in English. So they literally line up with their books to read to me.  Some kids are so bad I have to help them (or tell them) every word. Some kids are pretty good, so I just listen and don’t correct unless they ask. So basically I spend about 2-3 hours of my day just listening to kids read. What a great job, right?  They get really sad at 5:30 when I say it’s time to go, and ask every day “we read tomorrow?” I kind of hate leaving because I want them to keep reading. It makes me feel very excited and very motivated about being here. Honestly, I know it’s such a little thing-reading-but it really does make me feel like their little lives can be a little bit better by reading a book. I love it! I love my students!

Samoan Language

A  few funny things about Samoan language. First of all, it’s really hard for me! I don’t know why. There are only 13 letters and there are few grammatical rules.  But most of the words consist of 80% vowels.  Some words (and even many sentences) are only vowels. How are you? Oa mai oe?  What about you? Aea oe?  Learning to speak Samoan has been one of the hardest things for me coming to my new village.  I felt really good about it in training, I felt like I was really picking it up and having good conversations with people in my training village. But when I came to my new village, it was like they were speaking Chinese and I had been learning a different language the whole time.  Part of the problem is that people skip lots of words when speaking (which happens in english a lot too, it’s like we kind of swallow sounds) and I get lost because it doesn’t sound like how I learned it.  However there are some things I understand pretty well, and some of them really make me laugh.

1. Ua e sau? Translation: Have you come? (it’s funny for a couple of reasons, but I’ll focus on one). This is said when you come home or maybe to some ones house who is expecting you after being gone.  My response is always “ioe.” “yes.”   But literally, everytime, it takes all of my self control to suppress the sarcasm in me and not say, “no, I’m still gone, but I’ll come soon.”

2. Eke alu I fea? Ae alu ai? Translation: Where are you going? This alone is not funny, but when in certain contexts it cracks me up. For example, when you are walking to the shower with your towel, “where are you going?” just seems so obvious it’s almost a joke. But it’s not. Or when you are walking towards the church, dressed in white, carrying your bible, and it’s 9:00 Sunday morning.  Or when you are running towards the bush with your tennis shoes and exercise clothes, sweating. 

3.  Moe umi. Translation: Long sleep.  People will say this to me when I come out of my room at 8:00 am to go exercise. It doesn’t matter than I usually have been up reading and getting ready for the day for an hour or so, or that I didn’t go to be till 1:00 the night before.  I hear “long sleep” almost every morning.  And then almost everyone in the village sleeps for a few hours in the middle of the day and I want to say, see this is why I like to sleep for 6-8 hours at night, so I don’t have to sleep for four in the middle of the day!

4. E ma’I mai le la. Translation: you will be sick from the sun. People say this to me when I go outside almost anytime the sun is out, but especially between the hours of 10 and 5. So pretty much the whole day. If I want to walk to the store, “you are going to be sick from the sun.” It’s funny.  Or when I’m going to exercise at 5:00, people exclaim, “La!” “sun!” as if I don’t know that the sun is there. 

5. Na e moe.  Leai, faitau se tusi. Pepelo. Translation: You slept. No, I read a book. Liar. I don’ t think this needs an explanation. Let’s just say that generally if you go in your room in the day, everyone thinks you are sleeping, see number 3.

6. Fa’alavelave. Translation: Too much trouble or Funeral (maybe it means something more along the lines of giving at a funeral, but the word seems interchangeable).  This is funny to me after going to a funeral the other day, during which multiple cows, atleast  a hundred boxes of corned beef and tin fish, tons of sodas, hundreds of dollars, ice cream, and a million pounds of food were given to the visiting family of the women that died. It was crazy to me. And it really was too much trouble, but just the fact that it’s the same word, well I really understood why even more.

7. Susu(hold the last u for a seconds) vs. susu (lets off the last u really fast). Translation: Wet vs. milk, suck, or breast. I have a lot of issues with this word.  I think it’s a little ridiculous those words are so close, but what are you gonna do?

8. Sole! Translation: Untitled boy in the village.  This one just makes me laugh because you hear it about five hundred times a day, for everything. Anytime someone is talking to a boy, sole. When you are playing volleyball with the girls and someone makes a mistake, sole. When something is kind of surprising, sole. I actually love this word, and try to incorporate in my vocabulary as much as humanly possibly, sometimes I just say it out of context because I like it so much. 

"Alu Ese"

I was out on a walk the other day when a few girls invited me into their house to have tea. The term tea is used loosely here and generally just refers to a drink and some sort of snack, like panikeke or crackers.   So after I drank my cocoa I went to the front of the house and talked with two older women, They of coursed asked me the typical questions, where did you come from, where are you going, do you have a boyfriend (to which I answered “I just think about God” and got an “Halleluah! Amen!” in response, that was obviously a better response to these women than my other option of “so many boyfriends!”), and then the next question that always comes up (it’s true, ask any PCV!) is “what’s your religion?” To which I respond “Loku mamoga” (mormon church) and generally get a “uggh. you need to change your religion. E le mo’I (it’s not true).” To which I respond, “to me I think it is true.” Side note-I actually really enjoy this part of Samoan culture, people are so blunt to talk about religion.  In the States it’s almost become a topic we are afraid to bring up with strangers (and sometimes even close friends) in fear of stepping on toes. But here, they bring it up with everyone! That also means they feel no shame in saying “your church isn’t true!” But I like it because I feel like it gives me the opportunity to share my testimony a little bit. I’m not here as a missionary and, according to PC rules, we have to be careful not to come here and be perceived as missionaries, but it’s always nice when you have the opportunity to share your testimony!

Anyways, back to the story, so she asks me “do you like bible study?” so I respond “of course!” ok, that’s a lie, the conversation was in samoan so I just responded “fiafia tele” which could either mean very happy or very like, but I she understood that I meant I really like bible study. So she invited me to come to bible study on Friday night! What better way to spend a Friday night??? (this isn’t sarcasm, this is Samoa, there really aren’t many other options...maybe bingo?)

They told me to come at 7:00 because it starts at 8:00, well I thought “I know Samoans, it’s not really going to start before 8:00, I’m not going to get there till right at 8:00.”  So I get there 8:05, thinking “this is good, I’m a little late!” Boy was I wrong! I got there and sat in the back while the kids were getting their hair braided, then I got my hair braided, and then we still had another 30 minutes before the woman who was leading the bible study actually came. So a little after 9:00 we go inside to start eating, me and three other women. And then we sit around and talk for another 30 minutes and then 3 little girls that live in that house came in and so they started singing songs of praise. There were only 3 little girls and 3 women singing, but you would have thought it was a whole choir. One little girl was playing a little music using two spoons hitting them together. One little girl was dancing with her hands (because we were all sitting on the floor cross legged of course) and her eyes closed.  I just listended to them and thought, this is pretty cool.  Slowly more people started coming in. One guy came with a keyboard and one guy with a guitar, they led most of the music. We sang for about an hour.  It was just in this empty room in a small house, with mats covering the whole floor.  The women were sitting against the walls and all of the child were sitting in the middle of the floor in rows facing the guys with the instruments. Then the woman gave  a prayer that I couldn’t really hear because of all of the “Amen” and “Halleluah” people were shouting. “OOH, this is interesting!” I thought. I hadn’t been to this kind of church in a while.  It was the same when the woman was giving her sermon,  everyone had so much excitement in them. They were all so excited to be praising God, even the littlest kids there were lifting their arms and shouting “amen, halleluah, glory!” I just sat there smiling. I was so happy. I honestly could feel their love for God. I looked around and thought this room is literally packed full of people, it’s tiny, there is no furniture, these people have so little in terms of material things, but in that moment it didn’t matter at all.  All that mattered is that they were shouting and singing there praises to God, they knew God loved them and they knew that they loved God. 

 After the sermon, they continued to sing and then the women asked for people who wanted to be prayed for to come to the front. Now at this point, Hour 3 of sitting cross legged on the floor had commenced and I really had to go to the bathroom, so needless to say, I was beginning to get restless. Not to mention, it was 11:00 and I’m usually sound asleep at this time of night. But when the prayers started I got really interested again. They stood holding their hands up in the air while the woman put her hands on their heads and prayed for them.  Most of the people fell down on to the ground and then she massaged their stomachs and other parts of their body while two other women rubbed baby oil all  over them. She was saying a lot of stuff in samoan I didn’t understand but she kept saying “alu ese” which means “go away.” I gathered that she was talking to the bad spirits or whatever bad things were inside the people’s bodies.  So I was watching this for a good 30 minutes or so, and then noticed that she started walking towards me.  So I quickly looked away and tried to look like I was really interested in the geckos that were fighting up in the light fixture, but she came over to me and said, “The spirit is telling me I need to pray for you. Can I pray for you?”  What’s a girl to say? “I’d really rather you not, but thanks for the offer.”  Of course not! So I walked to the front thinking my list of “awkward situations” is going to get very long very quickly here, huh?

She told me she could see that I have a gift of love inside of me (which I like to think is true) but that there is something missing (not sure exactly what that is yet) and that she can tell I’m missing my parents (which is true, not to the point that I feel like it’s negatively affecting my experience but I do miss them!).  She then continued to pray that God will be with me wherever I go and that the devils will go away from me.  And although I don’t really believe there are bad spirits living inside of me (at least I really hope not!) I did think, I do hope that any bad feelings or thoughts that I am harboring will go away.  It really was a nice prayer.  Her hands were pushing really hard on my head, so I understood the falling down part a little bit more, and the women rubbing baby oil on me was a little distracting, and I thought this isn’t normally how I pray or receive blessings, but honestly it was a good experience! I appreciated the things that she said and I did sincerely say a little prayer in my heart, “Yes, Heavenly Father, please do watch over me and go with me wherever I go and be with me here in Samoa and help to always know the things you want me to do. And please do take away any bad feelings or thoughts that are in my heart.”   It was one of those moments when I thought, you know I don’t really know if there is a “wrong” way to worship God. There are different ways, and ways that we  each think are the best for ourselves, but I think anytime we are truly trying to worship God and do what he wants us to do, then it’s good.  And best of all, it was a really cool cultural experience. It was so neat to see the worship that was taking place in this little house.  

Church in Samoa

Church is a huge part of the culture. Pretty much everyone here goes to church every Sunday. Church is one of my favorite parts of the week. As pretty much everyone reading this already knows, I’m LDS (mormon) and so I attend the LDS church regularly.  But I have been trying to attend all the churches just to get to know people and get my face out there, if you will.  On Sunday morning almost everyone in the village can be found preparing food for the “Sunday To’ona’I” (the meal).  Actually, if you don’t want to go to church, the only really good excuse for missing is “I had to make the food.” This is an acceptable (and understandable because, HELLO, it’s food!) reason for missing church.  Churches usually begin sometime between 9 and 10, but for the most part it’s 30 minutes after the bell rings. This was one of the funniest things to me when I first came to Samoa to get used to.  I am used to things starting at a specific time, so when I asked “what time does church start?” And the answer was “after the pastor rings the bell.” I thought, ok, this is definitely different.  So anyways, typically in the Methodist and EFKS churches the pastor rings the bell and then everyone starts getting ready for church and then about 30 minutes later he rings the bell again and then church starts about 2 minutes later (this is a general statement, some churches obviously stray from this protocol). Generally there is a prayer and a song at the beginning and then money collection and then a prayer that lasts between 10 and 20 minutes, during which everyone is on their knees (as you can imagine, this is my least favorite part—it’s painful!), and then maybe a few more songs, then a sermon which can last anywhere from 15 minutes (that was a great day!) to 90 minutes (that was a LONG day!) and then some man will come up and read out the amounts of money that all of the families in the congregation donated that day.  This is the biggest difference I have noticed in the churches here. It’s a funny thing to me because no one really seems to feel shy or ashamed about it, but at the same time we were told during our training that one of the reasons that they started doing this here is because Samoans are very competitive and they kind of use this as a way to shame people into giving money to the church.  So after the man reads out all of the donations, there is usually another song and prayer and they end by singing this beautiful “Amene, amene, amene” song.  My favorite part about church is the singing. It’s amazing. Everyone seems to know how to harmonize in Samoa, and they all know how to sing their parts (alto, soprano, bass, everything!) even though most of them don’t have song books.  Which that doesn’t really matter because the song books don’t have any notes or anything in them, just the written lyrics to the songs.  Another funny thing about the songs is that even when you are singing from the book, they tend to change words, add verses, change the order of the verses, sing multiple lines of a verse or skip a line of a verse all together, so half the time I feel like it doesn’t matter whether I have a hymn book or not.  Everyone wears white to church in the Methodist and EFKS churches, and women wear a big, fancy hat. You can wear any shoes because generally you leave your shoes at the entrance of the church (but I have noticed this varies a lot from church to church). 

Some things that are fa’asa (forbidden) in church: drinking water from a water bottle, taking off your hat if your head gets really hot, laughing when the pastors son is sleeping and falls of the bench, looking at the pastor directly when he is talking. 

Some things that are NOT fa’asa in church: belching, picking at scabs on your feet, picking your toenails, picking your nose, talking during prayers, talking during any part of church actually, sleeping, lighting up cigarettes or bringing in real beer bottles during a skit. 

The LDS church runs pretty much exactly the same all over the world (I have found this true from experience in the US, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, and Australia), but there are some funny cultural differences here. Although it technically starts at 9:00 ever Sunday (there is no bell),  when you get to church at 9:05, you will be one of around 3 women in the relief society meeting and one of about 10 in the whole church.  People generally don’t start showing up till 9:30.  The meeting usually doesn’t begin till 9:20 or so, so the “late” people really haven’t missed anything yet.  There is no rule about not talking while the teachers are talking in the classes or while the speakers are talking in Sacrament meeting.  It is also not all that common for people to bow their heads and close their eyes during prayers.   I have to say there are many reasons why I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but being here reminds me of that even more. I love that it is the same everywhere you go. It’s the same classes, the same lessons, the same doctrines, the same outline of the program, etc. I also love that tithing is paid in secret and that none of the money goes to the bishop or leaders of the church since no one in the church gets paid. And I love that the spirit feels the exact same to me, no matter where I’m going to church or what language the people are speaking.  I love that my testimony can be strengthened, by a simple song or a testimony shared by a child, even when I can’t understand anything that is being said. 

One thing that is really great about Samoa is that God is everywhere. There are not laws prohibiting talking about God anywhere or laws saying that you can’t pray.  No one is afraid of being politically incorrect.  Today we went to church in town for all of the teachers. It was a service for literally all the teachers on the island. Everyone was required to pay $10 to go on a bus to this church service. It made me laugh thinking about if you tried to force teachers in the states to pay $10 to go to church.  Or if you tried to make all of the teachers go to the same church for a service, you know someone would be offended. 

I have found that being active in a church in Samoa is a great way to meet new people and get involved in the village. So much of village life is centered on church.  I feel grateful that I am already used to going to church every Sunday and being involved in church so this part of the culture is not a huge transition for me.  I also feel grateful, yet again, to have God in my life and to know that no matter what church I am going to, or how I am worshiping Him, He is always with me and He is always aware of me and my goal is always to make Him proud.