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! 

Apia...the NYC of Samoa.

I feel like I have mentioned Apia a lot in my other blogs but I haven’t explained enough of why it is so exciting to go there!  Apia is the capitol city of Samoa and is the only city in Samoa.  They have a McDonald’s! It used to have a movie theatre but it was destroyed in Cyclone Evan and they should be opening it soon.  But they have multiple restaurants, hotels,  internet cafes, a library (which apparently is kind of disappointing, but let’s not be picky),  banks, markets, shops, actual grocery stores that you go into instead of the stores in the villages where you stand at the window and tell them what you want and they bring it to you, nightclubs, and bars.  You see where the analogy of Apia to NYC comes in, right? 

The truth is, Apia is just really exciting because of what it entails.  To understand this, you have to understand village life.  So in the village, you are always being watched and everyone always knows what you are doing, who you are talking to, where you are going, and you will get asked these questions every time you go outside. You also can’t just leave  your house whenever you want, especially at night.  You have to wear a lavalava everywhere you go, which is basically just an extra piece of fabric to make you even hotter and even less attractive.  In the village, I eat taro everyday.  It’s usually accompanied by fish (which I actually do really really love, but it’s pretty much the same everyday), chicken soup, or chop suey.  IN the day time I eat crackers or instant noodles or a canned soda from the store and sometimes an ice-cream when it’s not “finished”.  Sometimes you can throw an orange in there when they are around.  That’s pretty much the extent of my diet.  Also, in the village I speak Samoan 95% of them time and English 5% of the time.  I really do love my village, I love school, I love my kids, I LOVE volleyball, I love my friends, but sometimes you just want to get out of the village life for  a minute. 

So, what does this have to do with Apia?  When you go to Apia you are free!!! You can wear whatever you want.  I pretty much just wear shorts or capris, but I try to avoid lavalavas at all cost.  You can also go wherever you want to go whatever time you want to go.  It’s pretty great.  One of my favorite parts about Apia is the food options! It’s amazing how excited a fish enchilada or cheeseburger can make you when you’ve been eating the same food for months.  And in Apia, almost everyone speaks English! But the VERY BEST part of the Apia trips is getting to hangout with my friends! I love being able to spend time with my fellow PCVs, especially the ones that have become some of my very best friends!

Usually we go on Friday afternoons or on the 6:00am ferry Saturday morning.  Getting to Apia is quite a journey. I usually wait for the bus for 30 mins to an hour.  And then the bus ride is an hour or an hour and a half.  And then the ferry ride is an hour and ten minutes. Then the bus ride from the warf to Apia is 50 mins.  But even after the four or so hours of traveling, I’m too excited to be there and see my friends that I don’t even feel tired.  We usually go straight to the hotel and crank up the air conditioner (except for the times we have been stuck in the non AC rooms, which were a little depressing) .  Then it’s not long before I jump in the shower and enjoy the hot water for a good 30 mins or so. Then it’s off to eat! Again, one of my favorite parts!  There is generally time spent interneting, watching a movie, walking around, and just spending time together in general.  But it’s never long enough.  It honestly feels like the weekend flies by and then it’s Sunday again and we are waiting at the market for the bus to take us to the ferry which will take us to the next bus that will take us back to our individual villages.  Back at our villages, it’s not long before we are calling and texting again about when our next trip to Apia will be.  I feel very grateful that I was sent to Samoa with such a great group of people.  They truly inspire me to be better, work harder, be more optomisitc, and to try harder to make the world a better place. 

The girl next door...

I don’t know exactly how my neighbors refer to me when I’m not at their house.  Ideally, they still call me Ally when I’m not around, but sometimes even people who know me well still call me “Palagi” or “Pisikoa” (white person or peace corps).  My host family calls me “Tiene lale” or “tiene lea” (that girl or this girl) when they are talking about me, it’s not offensive at all because it’s so common, but it still makes me laugh when I hear it. “Take the food to that girl.”  “What’s that girl doing?” “Be quiet, that girl is sleeping.”   So anyways, it doesn’t matter what my neighbors refer to me as when I’m not around, I have finally found a place that really feels like home. 

The last few weeks in Samoa have dramatically changed my attitude here, and I think I owe a lot of that to the family that lives next to me.  I’ve mentioned before that most Samoan houses are big open rooms with few walls or bedrooms (if any) and there is not a lot of privacy.  Because of this, it’s pretty much like we always know what our neighbors are doing at any given point of the day.  We can talk to each other by just raising our voice a little even when we are in our separate houses. 

This was the first family that I really met when I came to Savaii because this is where I play volleyball every day.  We also happen to go to the same church and they have several teenage girls that I really like.  They invite me over for Sunday lunch after church a lot of the time, which I always love! We watch movies, play cards, chat, watch Samoa Star Search, drink cocoa…it’s great! I now spend more time there than I do at my own house, but I love it because it’s a great fix for when I have that homesick feeling.  This family reminds me of what it is that made me fall in love with Polynesian culture in the first place.  I love big families. I love see the relationships and seeing the love and seeing the different ways that that love is shown.  I love watching them work together to get things done.  I love that they have to make approximately 50 pounds of chicken to feed all of the people in their family.  I love that they laugh at everything—that’s what always draws me over there.  When I’m sitting in my room alone, either in silence or just the sound of my own laughter when I’m watching Big Bang Theory (hilarious show, by the way—I totally recommend it!), and I hear the laughter next door, it’s impossible to stay away.  They have 20 people living there now (the compound has 2 houses) so there is pretty much always something going on.  Even during the afternoon malolo time that is generally an understood period of quiet/resting time all across Samoa, you can almost always count on seeing someone in the cooking house or hearing a baby crying.  Which I love since, as my PCV friend Zach recently pointed out, I’m addicted to noise and people.

Some more things I love about the neighbors: 

1.       They are all really good at volleyball.  Even the 6 year old sister has a better serve than I do; the 12 year old is way more consistent in her passing skills than I am and the 50ish year old mom and dad—well they just make me look pathetic.  The levels of anger that people have when I play on their team and suck (obviously) vary from person to person, but despite the fact that I am really terrible, even the most competitive members of the family still let play on their team every day. 

2.       They say the funniest things in English.  The littlest girl always tries to speak to me in English when we are alone.  She says a lot of words, I don’t really understand the message she’s trying to get across, but I’m always impressed with her vocab.  One thing she will say is “It’s very nice.”  or “NICE!” which I appreciate because that’s my most commonly used phrase in Samoan.  “Manaia!”  The older girls say things like, “It’s none of your business” and “I don’t care” or “It’s VERY no good.” and “the ball is very outside.”  They are always hilarious! But my favorite was when the 12 year old girl, who has become one of my best friends in Samoa, was walking home with me and we were holding hands and she whispered “I like your mom.”  I had shown them some pictures from America the night before and everyone was saying how young and pretty my mom is, but she was so cute when she said that!

3.       They buy Ice-Cream for people’s birthdays.  I don’t think this needs any commentary, it’s ice-cream! What’s not to love about that?

4.       They dance all the time. And sing.  It’s great!

5.       They have this family meeting thing where they get together with the extended families in the village for Sunday Lunch. There is so much food, it’s impressive.   I can’t tell you exactly what they talk about, but I know it’s about family things and making the family better.  Everyone has to give $5 (single) or $20 (couple) and they save the money for things like funerals or weddings or whatever comes up in the family where they will need money.  It’s great! I have been invited twice now and last time I gave my $5 and they wrote my name in the family book—I like to think that means I’m officially a member of the family! J

I feel so grateful to have these neighbors that have welcomed me so kindly into their home and have allowed me to feel like a part of their family.  It’s these kinds of things that make me love Samoa.  It’s going to be a great 2 years!

A little update of things in Samoa

Things here have gotten so much better this term than they were in term 1.  I feel so much happier and like I’m starting to feel at home here.

School has been slow this semester, but good.  I’m teaching my kids Zoo Phonics, which is letter sounds through animal names.  It’s fun and they love it.  I see progress with them, but it’s slow because I only have a very limited amount of time with them.  But next term it will be better!   I am planning another English Day which will be like a spelling bee, which I think will be a lot of fun for the kids and the parents. I’m really hoping it will be fun! And then we are having a soccer festival the last week of school, so my principal has roped me into being the soccer coach of sorts—I have led a couple of practices but mostly they just play an unorganized game with themselves for a couple hours in the evenings.  During the term break I am planning an English camp for the kids with another volunteer and his students.  It’s only three days, but it should be a lot of fun for the kids. I’m excited!!  We are planning scavenger hunts, crafts, plays, songs, games, reading activities, and lots of cool things! I think it will be great. 

We are also planning a GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Conference in September –which will soon be posted online and asking for donations from friends and family back in the states, so I’ll give more information about it when that time comes.   Basically its going to be a really neat experience for the older girls in the Primary Schools that will talk about career options, importance of education, Health and other topics.  Many of the girls have never been to Apia before so this will be their first time. I think it will be awesome! I’m probably the most excited about this right now. 

On Monday I’ll be volunteering at the Special Olympics in Savaii, which I’m excited about.  And then next week will come back to Apia for the Closing Ceremony of the Pacific Partnership.  SO things have definitely picked up in terms of my busyness level—but anyone that knows me, knows I love being busy! And I think being busy makes me feel more useful and makes me feel more excited to be here! I’m loving it! Anyways, that’s a pretty general update of things in Samoa.  I really am grateful everyday to be here.  It’s a great blessing. 

The Crazy Events of Samoa’s Independence Day

Yesterday was one of the coolest days I have had in Samoa.  All of the PCVs travelled to Apia this weekend on Friday for some events that were taking place on Saturday.  The trip over was by far the worst that any of us had experienced so far.  There was a big storm so the sea was terribly rough, which meant a lot of sea sickness for most of us.  Luckily I didn’t throw up, but part of that was because there was so much rain outside and the seats were all taken so a lot of people were just standing under the little covering outside.  The thought of throwing up over the edge in the pouring rain while all those people were watching me greatly deterred me I think, but it was still an hour and half of torture nonetheless.  So we came to Apia Friday, did a little business in the office, and then after having Pizza, we went to a Faafafine show.  Faafafines are this really interesting concept in a lot of South Pacific Island(and maybe other places too).  They are boys that are raised like girls.  So generally they dress, talk, walk, and act very feminine.  You could write a book on the whole concept so I won’t try to explain them in this blog, just to say we would compare them to Drag Queens, but they aren’t really like that at all because it’s more of a lifestyle they have from childhood.  So anyways, we went to this pageant (kind of like a drag queen show) and it was pretty funny.  The Samoans were laughing so hard and screaming about everything so it was pretty funny to see them get so excited about everything.  So we came back pretty late on Friday….which leads me to Saturday….

We woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning, 30 minutes later than what we had planned but my phone died so we missed the alarm.  We were supposed to be at the parade at 7:30, the paper technically said between 7 and 8 but our Country Director said 7:30.  The paper also said we would start walking sometime between 9 and 10.  So when we left the hotel at 7:30 we weren’t too worried because, Hello, it’s Samoa and nothing in the history of this country has EVER ran early!!!  So the taxi guy can only take us so far because of the traffic, so then we get out of the taxi at 7:40 and start walking.  We finally get to the parade sight at 7:55 and then across the field from where we are, we see the American Flag and realize that is where we need to be.  So we start walking over there.  At this point I must insert that it had been hurricane sized rain the day before so the field was obviously just a big mud pond that we are walking through, which means it’s  a lot trickier because your sandals sink in at every step and then you flick a little mud every time you pick up your feet.  As we get about half way to the other side we realize (well becca and kate realize because I’m too busy looking at the ground trying to pick the least muddy spots) that the Flag is moving and our group has started walking. Oh, another thing I must insert is that this “parade” isn’t at all what we think of when we think of parades.  Each group only walks about the length of a football field (maybe a little smaller).  There is this big awning that all the VIPs sit under and the news crew is under and that is where you walk.  So when the girls saw that they were walking, they started running, realizing we were about to miss the main reason we came to Apia this weekend.   Well I’m still focusing on getting the least amount of mud on my pants as possible, when I suddenly look up and realize the girls are about100 yards in front of me splashing mud all around them.  So then I say “Are we running now?”  and decided to jump on the band wagon.  It was at that moment that I see our group is almost right under the awning.  We were splashing mud on all of the people we were running past and the people were saying “Hey! Watch out!”  It was pretty embarrassing. So they get there you know like 15 seconds before me and then I finally run into the group literally right in front of a camera man almost knocking him and a fellow PCV, who happens to be a 72 year old woman, down to the ground.   So that was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life.  Ever. One of the other PCVs said her host family called and said they saw us running. So that’s just fabulous. 

We walk for about 5 seconds, do this little clap/knee slap thing, and say “Manuia lau aso  fua” or “happy independence day.” Then walk for another 15 seconds and then we were done. It was  super short and a lot of work for 30 minutes in the spotlight! Haha. But I was glad we made it, even if it was very last minute.   It was a neat experience and really cool to see what our version of the 4^th of July is like in Samoa. 

That evening we were invited to go to the Opening Ceremony of the Pacific Partnership.   I can’t really tell you a lot about the Pacific Partnership except to say that it involves tons of NGOs, US Government programs, the US Navy, possibly the French Navy somehow, and they are working with Pacific islands to develop sustainable programs and humanitarian aid where needed.  There were 700 people on the ship that arrived yesterday, but there were already a lot of people and navy guys that came earlier to start working on developing hospital resources and putting water tanks in school.  It’s a pretty fabulous program. 

None of us realized how big of a deal the ceremony was until the American and French Ambassadors were there from New Zealand (don’t ask me why they live in NZ, I get confused. I think they are ambassadors to all South Pacific Islands, but it’s confusing), the governor from American Samoa, the Prime Minister of Samoa, and a lot of other really important looking people.  Not to mention the hundreds of Navy people in their really nice uniforms.  The ceremony itself was pretty short but it was really neat.  They did the raising of the flags and the navy band played the Samoan National Anthem as well as the USA’s.  They played Samoa’s first and I immediately thought of my kids and how they sing it with so much pride and gusto every Monday and Friday morning during our prayer meeting at school.  I thought of how cool it is that this song has meaning to me and that I can sing some of the words to it and really be able to understand them.  And then they played the US national anthem and I got a little teary eyed.  I realized how proud I really am of where I come from and what the US represents-freedom and bravery and so many good things.  I really had one of those I AM proud to be an American moments.  I am proud to be working for the US government in Samoa as  a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I’m proud of the US government for being involved internationally and working with other countries to help them meet their needs and develop more where needed through programs like the Peace Corps and the Pacific Partnership.  It really is excellent.  I just thought it’s so cool that I get to be a part of this.  It’s amazing to me the things I’m learning in Samoa and trying to do here and how much love I’m developing for this country and these people.   The Samoan Flag really does have a special place in my heart now.  And I feel overwhelmed with gratitude thinking how I get to have this experience of serving in Samoa, while working for the US government.   We really are working together.  The Ambassador quoted Oprah saying, “We all have friends that want to ride in the Limo with us.  What we need is friends that will take the bus with us when they limo breaks down.”  Words of wisdom from one of my personal Heroes.