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.”