oh no ive gone crosseyed

Samoa is a very strange place. A place of endless summer and carbohydrates. A place that changes you the minute you walk off the airplane. A place that makes your english deteriorate. A place where it is pointless to wear a watch and no one cares what time you show up or if you show up. A place where fashion is a different colored t-shirt with less dirt on it. Take it or leave it, its a funny place.
So the last few weeks have been...i dont even think there is a word to describe the last couple of weeks. I am working on settling in at my school and getting used to certain things such as certain "discplinary techniques" that are a bit different than what I was raised with. After the first 3 weeks of school the year 8 teacher (I work in a primary school so there are years 1-8, and we orginally had 6 teachers but one was in new zealand the first week of school and I think she is still going to be coming back tomorrow...) stopped coming to school. He was very sick, but supposed to come back and never really did. So for a few weeks I had year 7 and 8 which was a lot of fun because they were good kids and a lot of the year 8 girls have very good english and helped me along when I didnt know certain Samoan words. Sidenote, most of my year 7 kids know very little english. When I gave them a little quiz the first day a couple of them answered the question "How old are you" with "I am very well today thank you."
At any rate, the matais in our village decided that year 8 needed to be taught by our principle much to my sadness. So currently there is one teacher for year 1,2, and 3, one teacher for year 4,5, and 6, Im teaching year 7 with 8 kids and my principal teaches year 8. Makes total sense...
At any rate, my kids are funny and cheeky and loving nothing more than playing the hand slap game "down by the banks of the hanky panky."
This week at morning assembly my principal was talking to the kids in Samoan about soccer teams or something and I was only half paying attention, but then I heard her say, "yes and Lola will be your coach." Aaawwhhhaaat? So you can call me coach hanks from now on. We had our first practice on friday and it was all of the kids year 4-8 which was pretty ridiculous. The year 7 and 8 boys were actually pretty good and I got to run around with them a little which was fun to do in barefeet and the pouring down rain.
In Samoan family news, my my mom in Tafatafa just had her 4th baby, a little boy named Fo'i. They came back from the hospital on Thurs and I went over there to see him. Big old boy with a head full of hair. Mom looks pretty beat so I hope they let her rest for a few days, she is all of about 5 years older than me.
Last monday I went crab catching with my family at night on our beach. One of the more hilarious experiences I have had here. A bunch of us loaded in the back of a pick up truck stopped and picked up some donuts and headed down to the beach where half of us trudged off down toward where the lava rocks are, while the other half stayed at the beach fales drinking koko Samoa and eating donuts. So heres how it happens. My "aunt" has this big old flashlight she shines under rocks and the kids i.e. my brothers and sisters aged between 13-24, go after these huge crabs by either smashing their hands down on top of these suckers or crabbing them behind the pinchers under the rock and dragging them out. The they take these big old things and dump them in a rice sack. Awesome. The next night we boiled all the crabs in a big pot of coconut cream, onions, and salt. Wow.
So the goods are goods and the lows are low, but what did you expect? I hope all is good in the "real world" out there. I heard that some people from group 78 Peace Corps Samoa just found out they will be coming out here in June 2007. If you happen to be reading this and just learned that you will spending the next two years of your life working Peace Corps Samoa starting in June, feel free to leave a post or email me with any questions or concerns. I can def help you with the packing list because the Peace corps packing list is only soso really.
Alright enough of that, love and kisses to you all. No worries here, only going a little crazy and could use some cold weather and a mom hug, other than that just gotta leave them laughing when you go...

Wish List

Alright all of you who I know are dying to send me a package here is the official Laura Hanks Wish List!
1) Board Shorts, or any shorts that are knee-length or longer. Mesh and linen work too.
2) Face cleansing wipes...you know like oxy or neutrogena
3) stickers!
4) Little packets that absorb moisture...for my computer and everything else that is covered in mold
5) emergen-c packets: can pick up in whole foods i think, little packets that you put in water and are packed with vitamins. I have completely od'ed on carbs here
6) coloring books!
7) those clippy claw things that I put my hair up with
8) Sex in the City season 6 or any old dvds you dont want. Unfortunately burned dvds dont work in my computer...
9) Olive oil
10) Your love in a box
Thanks for your caring loving friendship. Miss you all!

Crazy couple of weeks. About to get disconnected on the internet. But all is well now so here are some pics of the good parts. Also just found out we are a losing the first memeber of our group so we are all a bit bummed. If anyone wants to send anything this way I could desperately use some board shorts or any shorts around the knee length. Oh and olive oil. I will make a better wish list next week. Love to you all!

My class! I dont think most of them had seen a camera before so they were pretty excited. I had them make name tags for their desks out of magazines and markers. Also very siked about that.
This is the wall you see as you walk into my house. My Samoan dad when painting the house wrote "welcome" and then stood back and pondered it for a few minutes. Then I guess he decided he needed me to know who exactly was welcome in my house so he squeezed in the "you." Mom, notice the calendar?
This is the other side of the main room...and my bed. My "closet" is the piles of clothes under the bed on a piece of cardboard.
Ok this is actually a really messy day, but I was in a hurry so it doesnt usually look this bad. But this is my work table where I have a great view of the road and the sunsets. Mom, I dont know if you can see the wind chime hanging between the windows. The back room is through a door to the right of the pic and the front door is to the left.
This is the back part of my house aka the kitchen/bathroom. The sink is great except there are no pipes and the water goes directly on the floor. Notice plant growing through wall next to sink. I am very proud of the shelf next to the sink as I rigged it up with some twine and an extra refidgerator rack. The toilet and shower are to the right.

On my own...

Now that I finally got my laptop that means more pictures! I found some old one and new ones for you viewing entertainment. First week in my very own house has been interesting and im not at all lonely because I have tons of friends living with me in the form of lizards, ants, a huge rat, and cockroaches! Yeah! No its cool though. I had one funny moment when I was getting in my shower (which is a tin box with a pipe that shoots water out of the top) and I turned the water on and this tiny little gecko shot out onto my arm. He kinda looked up at me with these big eyes like "What the F*$% just happened?" and I kinda yelped and then continued to laugh at myself for the next 10 min. At least it wasnt a snake.
At any rate, school starts monday! Would be nervous, but I dont think I will be teaching at all this week since the first week is usually meetings while the kids do ground work. On top of that Im not sure if my principle is even back from New Zealand yet. Anywho, enjoy the pics. If anyone feels the need to send a package I need spices like I need oxygen. It costs $11 tala for a small bottle of cloves here! Im just saying....
This was when I could finally unpack my bags aka move into my house! This also meant that I could finally open all my christmas and birthday presents! I tried to get everything in there, but some stuff didnt quite fit. It was a fun merry little christmas all to myself. Living alone and existing in a state of nothingness has caused me to create all sorts of fun new ways to entertain myself. On Thursday night Meghan came to spend the night and was caught off guard when I was discussing the rules of my house with the cockroaches in the kitchen. What was even more disturbing was that I didnt find it wierd until she pointed it out...
This was the amazing and glorious last sunset in the world in 2006 in Savaii that I have been bragging so much about. Not bad ehh?
This is in Maasina right after I had blown the conch shell for lotu. Every evening in every village there is about a 20 min lotu or time for prayer where everyone has to go inside and pray. In Maasina our family is in charge of blowing the conch shell to signal everyone to go inside and then again after about 20 min to signal the end of lotu.
77 girls before our Fiafia with the village. And its true that if Peace Corps doesnt work out for us, we have thought about pursuing a 4-some modeling career.
This was our culture day during training. The boys were all hiking up the mountain to the plantation while the girls busied themselves scrapping papayas and peeling bananas. In this pic I am scrapping a coconut, which is usually a man's job hence the two men watching me intentily so I dont screw it up. The big guy inside the hut is Fiafia (means happy in Samoan) and is pretty much my hero. The other guy is the mayor of Maasina. After the coconuts are scrapped they wring out the shavings to make coconut cream which is put on pretty much everything.

I have a house!

I have a house! Yeah! So I went back to my village last sunday to move in, but I don't think my fam was quite ready to let me go, so I stayed one more night in their house which was fine. Monday morning there was a matai meeting at my Samoan Dad's place and I got to be the taepo. This was exciting because that means that in this very serious meeting with all of the chiefs in my village (matai is like the chief of the family) I was the only girl and I got to mix the ava. Ava is this ground up root that they mix with water at traditonal ceremonies. The ava is put in this sort of cheese cloth and then I get to squeeze and mix it with water in this huge ava bowl. Really cool, I did OK with the help of the matai's sitting around me, except the ava ceremony part of the meeting takes about an hour and a half and my legs completely feel asleep (you have to sit cross-legged the whole time because it is rude to point your feet at people in Samoa and the 4 talking chiefs were sitting across from me and since I had the ava bowl in front of me I couldnt exactly readjust). So when the whole thing was over the matais told me to go sit by my Samoan father on the other side of the fale. Not wanting to show weakness I stood right up and discovered that my legs from my knees down no longer worked or had feeling, thus I nearly toppled over into the ava bowl before I was caught by one of the matais. Gracefull...Im going to be deported...They all laughed and I tried to explain in broken Samoan the importance of circulation to the lower parts of my extremities, but I dont think we really understood eachother...sigh
That afternoon after much anticpation I finally moved into my cute little house next to my school. I love it! It has two rooms and the first room you walk into is my bedroom/living room. The next room has my little gas stove, fridge, sink, toilet, and shower. Its so cute and I LOVE being able to cook for myself again and actually make food from home, like salads! Although, the family that lives across the street from me fines me quite interesting and I don't think they believe I actually can cook because every day they send over one of the girls who is 17 with two plates of Samoan food for me. Haha, it is so sweet. In Samoa everyone lives with a huge family usually extended relatives and all, so I think they believe I am lonely or feel sorry for me that I am alone therefore every night I have company for dinner.
Wednesday Meghan (Meka) moved into her place. She had to wait a few extra days because she is living with a family and they had relatives staying in her place. So I rode my bike down to Siumu in the afternoon to visit her. It only takes 45 min on bike! Her house is also very cute and purple and orange, but in the middle of a family compuound hence lots of people watching her all the time. Regadless, she is happy and I am happy that she is close. Jordan (from group 76 who came here in June and swore in in August) lives 15 min from Meka in the other direction from me. So we are all excited to many girls nights since we are all close and because I got my computer and 3 dvds of family guy yesterday!! I love you mom and mary, you dont even know!
Thursday the 3 of us girls decided to meet at a waterfall between where we live. That took about 30 min on my bike and it was awesome. We spent the day jumping off lava rock waterfalls into little pools about 15 feet below. It was amazing.
So all is going swingly down on the southern side of things. I am in Apia at the moment and will be heading back to my village for a bbq on the beach because it is Uncle Iese's last day before going to New Zealand tomorrow. Yeah. Family thanks again for the packages, they were amazing! I am especially excited about my Bush second term cards. You do know I technically work for that government, right? Love and kisses to all!

quick update

Just wanted to post some awesome news i found out yesterday. Aaron, Meghan and I were shopping in a thrift store in Apia and we ran into one of Aaron's family members from Ma'asina. She was excited to tell us that my sister Sele in Ma'asina had given birth to a baby girl on Jan 1st! She was also excited to tell us that the family had named the baby Lola, after me! I seriously almost cried in the middle of the Samoan thrift store.
After this joyous news I made my way to the bus station to take the bus back to my village. After waiting for an hour I realized I had missed the last bus and today is a holiday so I am stuck in Apia until Sunday when I am "suppose" to move into my house. alright and kilisi (chris) is pushing me out the door. gotta run, more soon

Manuia Tausaga Fou!

Or Happy New Years! Well its been a crazy few weeks in the land of salt water and palm trees. Group 77 became offical Peace Corps Volunteers on Dec 13 and we moved to our sites on Dec 14...well...sort of. Quite a few of us were not able to move into our housing because of certain "circumstances". In fact when I hopped into the Peace Corps land cruiser bright eyed and bushy tailed prepared to save the world I said to the driver cheerfully, "So where exactly are we going?"
"To your village [Tafatafa]"
"Yeah, where am I staying?"
"Umm...I dont know exactly. I guess we will find out when we get there."
Ahh the way of the Peace Corps. So we got to my village and found a bunch of guys working on my house and the PC staff talked to a few of them and one jumped in the back of our car and we started driving off. No idea what was going on but eveyone else seemed happy about it. We pulled up to a house in one village over and I came to find out that the mysterious man in the back of the car was actually the pulenu'u (means mayor. Pule means boss and nu'u means village) of my village and I would be staying with him until my house is ready.
Although at first I was sad to hear my house wasnt quite ready, I am so happy to live with a family for my first few weeks in the village. My new Samoan mother and father (Sally and Sagaga) have been so wonderful. They have three children who are 1, 3, and 4 and adorable. They also live across the street from their cousin and his family who are all just as goofy as ever.
I spent most of my first week reading, biking, checking out the progress of my new house, going to dance and singining practice at night, learning how to weave fine mats, going to the beach, etc.
On Dec 22 most of my group headed back to Ma'asina for christmas. It was great to see my family there again. I spent Christmas day bbqing on the beach and snorking around the coral reef.
I was back in Tafatafa for my birthday which was very bizzare because none of them knew it was my birthday. Being a lover of attention it took much self-control not to yell out "Where is my birthday cake!" but i made it and had a wonderful day hanging out with the women's committee and helping prepare for the matai title cermony that would be taking place at my uncle's the next day.
On the 30th I headed out to Savaii for New Years which was amazing. I saw the last sunset in the world of 2006 and she did not hold back! There was a pretty fun crew out at the beach fales, but over all pretty relaxed. I got pretty sunburned from snorkeling all day and at midnight almost all of us were in the water. Let me tell you what, I thought the stars in northern wisconsin were beautiful, but in the middle of the pacific...wow.
I came back from Savaii today, planning on going ot my village but apparently it is a public holiday so it looks like I will be bunking up with Meghan and Aaron in their hotel again (their houses arent ready either but their employers put them up in a motel in Apia rather than having them live with a family. I think I got the better deal, but its nice I have a place to crash in Apia for now.
Hopefully meghan and I will be moving into our houses this Sunday so keep you fingers crossed for us. She lives about 10km away from me and is my second closest PC neighbor.
Overall things have been great here. I dont start teaching until Jan 22 so I am free to do whatever I want until then. I am still trying to find the balance between traveling and seeing friends and intigrating with my village as much as possible, but it is hard being the new girl. And I cant even tell you how much i just want to unpack my suitcase! Since I am living with a family I was only allowed ot bring one bag to their house, which means I have been living out of a suitcase for 3 months now. AHHH! I am also glad that the holidays are over because my first christmas away from home was a little sad :-( But overall things are great! I cant wait to start teaching and really doing what I came here to do. Hopefully my computer will be here soon and I can put up some more pics and write more blogs more often and possibly use more, more often in sentences. I miss you like more than boiled bananas!