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!