English Day and the feat of the bugs….

Well English Day is finished….I won’t make this super detailed about the day itself since I already went through the program in my last blog, but I will say it went fabulously and I felt like a proud parent.  I sat on the side of the stage and mouthed the lines of every kid’s poem, all the lines to each skit and play, and sang all the songs and did the dance moves when the kids looked a little lost.  I gave them all thumbs up before and after and smiled with my most cheesy like velveta smile.  I was sooo proud. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for better students.  I did get a little “shush” cray-cray to the students that were sitting down and talking during the other student’s performances, but again, I was like a protective mother that wanted everyone in the world’s attention focused on her thirty children.  Oh, they really just did sooo great! They yelled their lines so that everyone could hear them (obviously there were no microphones) and they danced with vigor. 

I had to give a speech in Samoan and, although I was shaking with nerves, no one laughed at me so I felt pretty ok about it.  I just decided not to go into a career that involves me giving speeches in foreign languages…so that narrowed down my options by, well, not a lot.   We ended up not being able to find any speakers so we couldn’t show this really awesome PowerPoint I had made complete with two really awesome videos, which you know being a perfectionist I was really annoyed with for about two minutes…and then I remembered they never have technology at any of their programs so no one would care or notice a difference. And the kids were so wonderful they didn’t even need my technology.  I’m so proud of them! Like any Samoan event, it turned into an opportunity for people to give money.  So the parents and guests would bring up money to put in a bowl in front of the students when they were performing, which kind of distracts from the kids, but it’s a very culturally normal thing.  So we made quite a bit of money and then at the end the teachers split the money between themselves…some things I don’t really understand, but I nod and go with it. 

After the program the kids got to play soccer, which they love! The funny part was that most of the kids had worn super nice white church dresses and didn’t bring a change of clothes so there were like 20 kids out playing soccer with their dresses on and flying around.  They looked cute.  So we have a 2 week break, which isn’t much of a break because I really only have 4 free days out of the whole 2 weeks that I don’t have something planned and 2 of those are Sundays.  But I’m really excited for the break anyways! We will be having a get together with all of the peace corps next week at some nice beach fales, where we will have a bbq and swim.  So that will be fun! And then I’m going to try to go on a snorkeling day trip, because I feel like I need to see more sea life since I’m in the middle of the most beautiful ocean in the world.  Side note-I’m also going to get scuba dive certified! Because really, how often do you get to do that in your life! LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED, NOT JUST ENDURED! And then I will go spend a couple of days with my host family from Utulaelae before we start our Early Service Conference the next week at the Peace Corps office.  I’m not excited to be sitting in a classroom during that time, but I am excited to be with all the other volunteers and to hear from the staff!

Besides English Day, the only Blog worthy thing is my experience with the GIANT BEETLES FROM HELL.  I’m not kidding when I say they are 2 inches long and over an inch wide.  It’s scary.  And there wings flap louder than a helicopter’s.  So the first one I saw was when I was inside my safety net (mosquito net) and the whole thing was moving as the beetle walked around on top.  That time I just stayed really quiet and hoped it would feel sorry for me and just leave me alone.  It did. The next one wasn’t so lucky though. I was sitting in my bedroom floor and it flew into my hair, where it kind of was hanging on so after I flipped it out, I decided it needed to do.  SO, I grabbed my sandal and hit it.  The think didn’t even crunch a little bit. Didn’t even act phased. So then I got scared and decided it really needed to die before it tried to seek revenge.  So I had to stand up and literally put all of my weight on the thing to crunch it (talk about having a shell of steel).    I have never seen a bug filled with so many guts before.  I’ll spare you the details of the smell and thickness of the guts as I cleaned them up, but take my word for it when I say it wasn’t pleasant.  See the picture on facebook for more details. 

The next one I saw, I decided I needed to show it to my host family to make sure that this wasn’t some kind of demonic, blood sucking, soul stealing bug.  So I heard it flying and when it landed on my suitcase, I was ready with a tanktop of mine to throw on it so I could capture it and take it to my host family.  But then I decided my shirt wasn’t thick enough to protect me from the bloodsucking, soul stealing, beetle.  So I threw a lavalava on it and then wrapped it up into a tiny little ball.  When I took it out to the family’s fale, they all cracked up at my reaction when it started flying and they told me it was fine.  The bugs and I are getting along pretty well in general, but this particular brand of beetle and I have mutually decided to be arch nemesis. I’ll keep you posted….