Ive recently noticed that my writing styles tend to mimic whatever author I am reading and for the past few weeks I have been reading Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool-Aide Acid Test, so bare with me…
Well, I believe the “soccer season” has finally come to an end. The games were always fun to look forward to, but I was becoming a little tired of every single Samoan in our district (at least 10 villages) man, woman, child, elder demanding “Lola, Siva (dance)!” every minute I was there, which by the way the games last from 8am to 3pm. This last Wednesday was ANZAC day, which is a holiday in New Zealand. For those of you who don’t know, New Zealand is a group of islands approximately 1600 miles from Samoa, so naturally we didn’t have school. Instead we played soccer. Our under12 boys won the district…I think…And our under 14 boys lost in a heartbreaking 0-1 game.
Remember that time that there was the poor exchange student in your middle school and use to kind of make fun of his accent and giggle when he messed up words? Remember how it was the funniest thing ever to teach him swear words and tell him that it really meant “chair” or “pencil”? Haha, man were those good times…karma sucks. So the other day we are having lunch and I sneezed. One of the teachers says, “Ia, ua ti’o le povi.” Huh? Oh you know, it’s a Samoan thing you say when someone sneezes, it means the cows are crying. Oh cool. Being the disciplined disciple of the Samoan language I dutifully jot it down. Yesterday, teacher sneezes. “Ia, ua ti’o le povi.” HAHAHAHAHA! Hmmm….they are laughing harder than usual. Lets take a peak at the dictionary. Ti’o, ti’o, ti’o….ahhh here it is…yes “ti’o v. (not for decent use)” (The dictionary actually said “not for decent use!) “…to ease one’s bowels, to defecate.” Classy. The cows are….nice.
One week left in the first term and then we have a break from May 4- May21. The first week Im planning on biking around the big island, Savaii with a few other PCVs. The second week we have our early service conference at some beach fales in lalomanu. Early service conference is for just our group after the first 6 months. Have I been here for 6 months?
So I got barby-dolled for the first time the other day. Often time peace corps volunteers have Samoan families who are really excited to dress up their palagi (white person) in samoan attire, hence the phrase being barby-dolled. The other day I had set up a meeting with the matais in my village in a peace corps staff member to discuss a project I was trying to get going with the women’s committee. The meeting was supposed to be at 10am so I was planning on going to school first and was going about my daily morning routine, i.e. no Samoan before coffee, very strict rule, when mama Sally drives up in the truck. I thought she was gonna drop off some clothes but no, Lola get in the truck. But…I…ok, never argue with a Samoan woman on a mission unfortunately weighs more heavily than the coffee rule. I get in the truck and we go to her house where she has made me a beautiful new puletasi (woke up at 4am to finish it!) and demands that I put it on now so she can see. Of course I oblige. Mmmhmm good, now sit. Next thing I know my hair is done up like I am going to prom with flowers and all. It was actually very nice and who knew they had hair spray in Samoa?
I got to mix the ava again at the meeting and this time I didn’t fall into the ava bowl afterwards which was nice. The rest of the meeting achieved absolutely nothing, but lets not talk about that. Am I becoming jaded…
No, I am not. I really do love my village. Recently the days have been flying by. Multiple times I have been walking home after helping a kid with homework or just enjoying a meal with a family and look up at the southern sky and feel like, didn’t I just wake up? Ok mom here is the schedule of the last few weeks of my life because I know you and absolutely no one else wants to know.
650- wake up…coffee….
730- stumble up the hill to school
740-830ish hang out with teachers and try to follow their conversations
830-2 teacher…sort of
2-3 either read or sew or go help my buddy malaki (we can come back to him)
3-5 soccer practice
5-630 dance and song practice with the kids at the church
7- help kids with homework or help my one computer student
8- Lola time
Malaki is my little buddy who is in year 1 and has a big old hole in his eardrum which makes it a bit hard to hear. I am working on getting him a hearing aide from an Australian NGO, but in the mean time we are learning sign language, the alphabet, colors, numbers, etc. But Laura, you don’t know sign language, you might say. No, I don’t and not only that they have a different sign language here than they do in the states, but no fear. I am a peace corps volunteer, hence, I take myself far to seriously. And there is a nice little DVD for Samoan sign language that just came out, so that helps. Anywho, Ive been helping out Malaki and his mom so she can know some of the signs as well. He is my one little project that has been going very smoothly and has had no problems thus far…
Well, Samoa is still here and so am I. Hope everyone is happy and well. Letters and emails always welcome.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
And then a little something
Just a few more for viewing pleasure...
St Praticks day in Samoa. We dont like to have fun here...
Kids, front of my school. Go Nene!
Yeah infected feet!
Little known fact: Samoans hate the sun. Tonipo on the right has his school i'e on his head and his buddy Arona is using his school shirt.
Standing on the "porch" of my school "coaching" the soccer team. You can just barely see the ocean over the tops of houses. I mean its not the worst view....
Its BABY LOLA! This is in my training village, Maasina, with my sister Sele (holding baby lola) and little Vitale on the right, the love of my life. This is shortly before I passed out from heat exhaustion after biking 15 miles in the equatorial sun.Oh what a long strange trip it has been…continues to be and will be. Samoan primary school soccer season is in full force. We had our first games the week before last at a village down the road. All the kids were so cute in their matching “uniforms” (random blue shirts and random red shorts). We were the first school to arrive to “game day” and we sat politely under the little sign that had the name of our school and waited for the other teams…and waited…and waited… Eventually the other schools began to slowly trickle in. There were maybe 10-12 schools in all. Of course in the atmosphere of sport and anticipation I, along with the kids, began to grow antsy after the first hour. Fortunately Samoans and I make a winning combination, as they love to sing and laugh at very silly things and I enjoy making an ass of myself. Naturally, I took center stage and directed them in some camp songs I had taught them. I taught them the banana song which, if you don’t know, is a winner with kids and involves dancing around like a banana ending with the grand finale of screaming, “Go bananas, go, go bananas!” It pretty much brings me to tears every time because the kids have no idea what they are saying they just jump around yelling whatever. The kids from the other schools were so in awe of our sweet new song that when we finished they all started clapping and chanting “banana, banana!” That counts as sustainable development right?
Eventually we started playing and it was just so weird to think about all the soccer games my parents drove me to when I was growing up and how all the kids on my teams were always decked out in shin guards, matching socks, cleats, clean new uniforms, etc. And here are the Samoan kids. Just as excited and pumped to play soccer, but their shirts are hand-me-downs or ripped or too big, their shorts don’t match, and cleats…haha! I think I saw maybe 3 kids wearing shoes. But it just goes to show, no matter what the conditions are, mankind just loves sports!
Last weekend (March 24-25) I decided to ride my bike out to my training village, Ma’asina, to visit my training family. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of Upolu island, my village, Tafatafa, is a 30 mile round trip to Ma’asina with some pretty monster mountains in between. First stupid mistake, thinking I am Lance Armstrong. Second idiot move, leaving for Ma’asina at 10am on Saturday, hence biking up mountains when the sun is the absolute hottest on an island where we can spit on the equator. Thanks to our Lord and Savior J.H.C. I am still alive today. It was great to see the family and remind myself how beautiful that village is. When I got there I was happy to see that my family had recently purchased a truck. When I left the next day they graciously drove me over the first two massive mountains (the first 4 miles). The road leading into Ma’asina is a long, VERY curvy, VERY narrow, gravely, loose, road down a steep, STEEP mountain. This was the road that my brother, Manu, decided to teach my other brother, Lafo, how to drive their new stick shift truck (mom, maybe you should skip this part) with me and my bike in the back of the truck. Again, thanks to our Lord and Savior I made it out alive.
Don’t know if anybody heard about the earthquake off the coast of the Solomon islands on Sunday. Peace Corps issued a formal Tsunami warning in Samoa Unfortunately this was at 2pm on Sunday which is right after Sunday feast and national nap time. So as exciting as it would have been to run for the hills, I stayed put in my bed. Luckily the tsunami in question was another 18 incher.
I had one more near death experience today as well as a valuable learning experience. I learned today that it is very important to never tell a Samoan to please stop singing. One of our teachers thought it would be really cute to sing me a nice little song in the English language. Very nice of her, except the song in question was the %$^@$ Barney song “I love you, you love me…”remember that little tune that makes all people in the whole of the US want desperately to be put to death as soon as physically possibly? Right, well I asked her politely to please not sing that particular song. She thought that was funny and decided to show me how you can sing it in Samoan too, and proceeded to show me…the whole song. Sigh, yes that’s nice, but please stop. Well, she just couldn’t understand how I couldn’t like a song in my own language so she sang in again in English just to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken. At this point I put my head down on the table and tried desperately not to drive my pen into my eyeball. Finally she finished, looked at me with a confused look and then abruptly went to class. I went back to reading my Economist glad to have survived the audible torture. The other teacher in the room looked at me as if I had just strangled a kitten. “What has happened? Why would you do that?” I tried to explain that I just don’t like the song, just like he probably doesn’t like certain things. Yeah, no go. Had to go formally apologize for my rudeness. If I ever meet the schmuck who invented that song I will kick him in the shins.
Eventually we started playing and it was just so weird to think about all the soccer games my parents drove me to when I was growing up and how all the kids on my teams were always decked out in shin guards, matching socks, cleats, clean new uniforms, etc. And here are the Samoan kids. Just as excited and pumped to play soccer, but their shirts are hand-me-downs or ripped or too big, their shorts don’t match, and cleats…haha! I think I saw maybe 3 kids wearing shoes. But it just goes to show, no matter what the conditions are, mankind just loves sports!
Last weekend (March 24-25) I decided to ride my bike out to my training village, Ma’asina, to visit my training family. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of Upolu island, my village, Tafatafa, is a 30 mile round trip to Ma’asina with some pretty monster mountains in between. First stupid mistake, thinking I am Lance Armstrong. Second idiot move, leaving for Ma’asina at 10am on Saturday, hence biking up mountains when the sun is the absolute hottest on an island where we can spit on the equator. Thanks to our Lord and Savior J.H.C. I am still alive today. It was great to see the family and remind myself how beautiful that village is. When I got there I was happy to see that my family had recently purchased a truck. When I left the next day they graciously drove me over the first two massive mountains (the first 4 miles). The road leading into Ma’asina is a long, VERY curvy, VERY narrow, gravely, loose, road down a steep, STEEP mountain. This was the road that my brother, Manu, decided to teach my other brother, Lafo, how to drive their new stick shift truck (mom, maybe you should skip this part) with me and my bike in the back of the truck. Again, thanks to our Lord and Savior I made it out alive.
Don’t know if anybody heard about the earthquake off the coast of the Solomon islands on Sunday. Peace Corps issued a formal Tsunami warning in Samoa Unfortunately this was at 2pm on Sunday which is right after Sunday feast and national nap time. So as exciting as it would have been to run for the hills, I stayed put in my bed. Luckily the tsunami in question was another 18 incher.
I had one more near death experience today as well as a valuable learning experience. I learned today that it is very important to never tell a Samoan to please stop singing. One of our teachers thought it would be really cute to sing me a nice little song in the English language. Very nice of her, except the song in question was the %$^@$ Barney song “I love you, you love me…”remember that little tune that makes all people in the whole of the US want desperately to be put to death as soon as physically possibly? Right, well I asked her politely to please not sing that particular song. She thought that was funny and decided to show me how you can sing it in Samoan too, and proceeded to show me…the whole song. Sigh, yes that’s nice, but please stop. Well, she just couldn’t understand how I couldn’t like a song in my own language so she sang in again in English just to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken. At this point I put my head down on the table and tried desperately not to drive my pen into my eyeball. Finally she finished, looked at me with a confused look and then abruptly went to class. I went back to reading my Economist glad to have survived the audible torture. The other teacher in the room looked at me as if I had just strangled a kitten. “What has happened? Why would you do that?” I tried to explain that I just don’t like the song, just like he probably doesn’t like certain things. Yeah, no go. Had to go formally apologize for my rudeness. If I ever meet the schmuck who invented that song I will kick him in the shins.
And now for your viewing enjoyment...
My kids pulling away after the soccer games
The "school bus" that took pretty much our entire school to the soccer games. There were about 15 pick up trucks packed with kids from all the villages and they were all singing songs and just happy as can be. 
I mean...really...can you get any cuter?
Tafea, Gloria, Uesa, and Emeline hanging out before the game.
All the primary schools lining up getting ready to begin the games!
Mania (his name means "nice" in english so that is what all his friends call him) on the left and Iemi on the right. Some of my favorite year 8 boys who love to rock my pink sunglasses.
This is about hour 2 of waiting for the soccer to start...Kids are still excited though and keeping a very good watch on my bike I might add.Oh what a long strange trip it has been…continues to be and will be. Samoan primary school soccer season is in full force. We had our first games the week before last at a village down the road. All the kids were so cute in their matching “uniforms” (random blue shirts and random red shorts). We were the first school to arrive to “game day” and we sat politely under the little sign that had the name of our school and waited for the other teams…and waited…and waited… Eventually the other schools began to slowly trickle in. There were maybe 10-12 schools in all. Of course in the atmosphere of sport and anticipation I, along with the kids, began to grow antsy after the first hour. Fortunately Samoans and I make a winning combination, as they love to sing and laugh at very silly things and I enjoy making an ass of myself. Naturally, I took center stage and directed them in some camp songs I had taught them. I taught them the banana song which, if you don’t know, is a winner with kids and involves dancing around like a banana ending with the grand finale of screaming, “Go bananas, go, go bananas!” It pretty much brings me to tears every time because the kids have no idea what they are saying they just jump around yelling whatever. The kids from the other schools were so in awe of our sweet new song that when we finished they all started clapping and chanting “banana, banana!” That counts as sustainable development right?
Eventually we started playing and it was just so weird to think about all the soccer games my parents drove me to when I was growing up and how all the kids on my teams were always decked out in shin guards, matching socks, cleats, clean new uniforms, etc. And here are the Samoan kids. Just as excited and pumped to play soccer, but their shirts are hand-me-downs or ripped or too big, their shorts don’t match, and cleats…haha! I think I saw maybe 3 kids wearing shoes. But it just goes to show, no matter what the conditions are, mankind just loves sports!
Last weekend (March 24-25) I decided to ride my bike out to my training village, Ma’asina, to visit my training family. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of Upolu island, my village, Tafatafa, is a 30 mile round trip to Ma’asina with some pretty monster mountains in between. First stupid mistake, thinking I am Lance Armstrong. Second idiot move, leaving for Ma’asina at 10am on Saturday, hence biking up mountains when the sun is the absolute hottest on an island where we can spit on the equator. Thanks to our Lord and Savior J.H.C. I am still alive today. It was great to see the family and remind myself how beautiful that village is. When I got there I was happy to see that my family had recently purchased a truck. When I left the next day they graciously drove me over the first two massive mountains (the first 4 miles). The road leading into Ma’asina is a long, VERY curvy, VERY narrow, gravely, loose, road down a steep, STEEP mountain. This was the road that my brother, Manu, decided to teach my other brother, Lafo, how to drive their new stick shift truck (mom, maybe you should skip this part) with me and my bike in the back of the truck. Again, thanks to our Lord and Savior I made it out alive.
Don’t know if anybody heard about the earthquake off the coast of the Solomon islands on Sunday. Peace Corps issued a formal Tsunami warning in Samoa Unfortunately this was at 2pm on Sunday which is right after Sunday feast and national nap time. So as exciting as it would have been to run for the hills, I stayed put in my bed. Luckily the tsunami in question was another 18 incher.
I had one more near death experience today as well as a valuable learning experience. I learned today that it is very important to never tell a Samoan to please stop singing. One of our teachers thought it would be really cute to sing me a nice little song in the English language. Very nice of her, except the song in question was the %$^@$ Barney song “I love you, you love me…”remember that little tune that makes all people in the whole of the US want desperately to be put to death as soon as physically possibly? Right, well I asked her politely to please not sing that particular song. She thought that was funny and decided to show me how you can sing it in Samoan too, and proceeded to show me…the whole song. Sigh, yes that’s nice, but please stop. Well, she just couldn’t understand how I couldn’t like a song in my own language so she sang in again in English just to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken. At this point I put my head down on the table and tried desperately not to drive my pen into my eyeball. Finally she finished, looked at me with a confused look and then abruptly went to class. I went back to reading my Economist glad to have survived the audible torture. The other teacher in the room looked at me as if I had just strangled a kitten. “What has happened? Why would you do that?” I tried to explain that I just don’t like the song, just like he probably doesn’t like certain things. Yeah, no go. Had to go formally apologize for my rudeness. If I ever meet the schmuck who invented that song I will kick him in the shins.
Eventually we started playing and it was just so weird to think about all the soccer games my parents drove me to when I was growing up and how all the kids on my teams were always decked out in shin guards, matching socks, cleats, clean new uniforms, etc. And here are the Samoan kids. Just as excited and pumped to play soccer, but their shirts are hand-me-downs or ripped or too big, their shorts don’t match, and cleats…haha! I think I saw maybe 3 kids wearing shoes. But it just goes to show, no matter what the conditions are, mankind just loves sports!
Last weekend (March 24-25) I decided to ride my bike out to my training village, Ma’asina, to visit my training family. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the geography of Upolu island, my village, Tafatafa, is a 30 mile round trip to Ma’asina with some pretty monster mountains in between. First stupid mistake, thinking I am Lance Armstrong. Second idiot move, leaving for Ma’asina at 10am on Saturday, hence biking up mountains when the sun is the absolute hottest on an island where we can spit on the equator. Thanks to our Lord and Savior J.H.C. I am still alive today. It was great to see the family and remind myself how beautiful that village is. When I got there I was happy to see that my family had recently purchased a truck. When I left the next day they graciously drove me over the first two massive mountains (the first 4 miles). The road leading into Ma’asina is a long, VERY curvy, VERY narrow, gravely, loose, road down a steep, STEEP mountain. This was the road that my brother, Manu, decided to teach my other brother, Lafo, how to drive their new stick shift truck (mom, maybe you should skip this part) with me and my bike in the back of the truck. Again, thanks to our Lord and Savior I made it out alive.
Don’t know if anybody heard about the earthquake off the coast of the Solomon islands on Sunday. Peace Corps issued a formal Tsunami warning in Samoa Unfortunately this was at 2pm on Sunday which is right after Sunday feast and national nap time. So as exciting as it would have been to run for the hills, I stayed put in my bed. Luckily the tsunami in question was another 18 incher.
I had one more near death experience today as well as a valuable learning experience. I learned today that it is very important to never tell a Samoan to please stop singing. One of our teachers thought it would be really cute to sing me a nice little song in the English language. Very nice of her, except the song in question was the %$^@$ Barney song “I love you, you love me…”remember that little tune that makes all people in the whole of the US want desperately to be put to death as soon as physically possibly? Right, well I asked her politely to please not sing that particular song. She thought that was funny and decided to show me how you can sing it in Samoan too, and proceeded to show me…the whole song. Sigh, yes that’s nice, but please stop. Well, she just couldn’t understand how I couldn’t like a song in my own language so she sang in again in English just to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken. At this point I put my head down on the table and tried desperately not to drive my pen into my eyeball. Finally she finished, looked at me with a confused look and then abruptly went to class. I went back to reading my Economist glad to have survived the audible torture. The other teacher in the room looked at me as if I had just strangled a kitten. “What has happened? Why would you do that?” I tried to explain that I just don’t like the song, just like he probably doesn’t like certain things. Yeah, no go. Had to go formally apologize for my rudeness. If I ever meet the schmuck who invented that song I will kick him in the shins.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
As of March 14 I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer for 3 months, which is exciting because now I can officially leave the country! Which is pretty neato except I lack the time and the money to go anywhere, but the idea is pretty cool nonetheless. After being in Samoa for a total of 5 months the last 2 weeks have surprisingly provided a lot of 'firsts' for me. Last Saturday and Wednesday I went kayaking for the first time at Salani surf camp about a fifteen minute bike ride from my village. It was soooo beautiful. Their kayaks are open tops and I went out and played in the ocean for a little bit where you have a gorgeous view of the mountains on land and the water is crystal clear and there are tons of beautiful coral all around. While I was kayaking I saw a reef shark for the first time which was really sweet. They are fairly small and I was so excited to see one that I actually tried to follow it. I also saw a stingray try to do an impression of a dolphin by jumping out of the water about 10 feet in front of me and flapping around attempting (or so it seemed to me) to be beautiful and graceful and then proceeded to crash into the water in an awkward belly flop. That was also a first and fairly comical as well.
I had my first Mormon missionary invasion…I mean discussion with two white guys from the states who are stationed here. They came to my house last week to talk to me about the Mormon religion for 3 hours…you got that right? 3 hours? Yeah, so that was…interesting.
I also experienced my first St. Patrick’s day in Samoa…if you would like details you should probably ask someone else.
I was also pooped on by a baby for the first time which was rather exciting. I went to visit my Samoan family last week and little Sally, who is about 1 year old, came running up to me with her hands up yelling “Lola, Lola, Lola!” And being in a good kid-loving mood, I scooped her up and put her on my hip and was dancing around and playing with her when all of the sudden I smelled something a bit…foul. So I put her down and realized that A) she didn’t have a diaper on and B) there were now brown stains all over the shirt I was wearing where Sally’s bottom had previously been. This might sound disturbing to some of you at home, but the part that I found most disturbing was that I actually debated if I wanted to go home and change or not. The thought, “its not that bad I guess” actually crossed through my mind before I caught myself and said “self your covered in baby $h*t you need to go home and change.” So that was fun…
At any rate, besides mormons and poop things are going quiet nicely. I am still coaching the soccer team at our school, although I think I am just in charge of the girls now which is interesting. Im excited that they are actually letting the girls play since you don’t really see girls playing much sport here, but you can def tell that that is the case with our soccer team. One girl just runs after the ball and kicks her legs out like a weed whacker and when someone is in front of her she continues with this performance and just plows through people not only knocking them over, but actually running over them as well. Its quiet impressive. Her lack of body control kind of reminds me of….well me at that age (anyone who saw me try to play basketball at the age of 10 would know that I found it physically impossible to stay on 2 feet for more than 5 minutes at a time, true story).
Well, Im off to be important...to someone...somewhere...aka sit in the office and enjoy air conditioning. Hope all is well. Kisses and coconuts.
I had my first Mormon missionary invasion…I mean discussion with two white guys from the states who are stationed here. They came to my house last week to talk to me about the Mormon religion for 3 hours…you got that right? 3 hours? Yeah, so that was…interesting.
I also experienced my first St. Patrick’s day in Samoa…if you would like details you should probably ask someone else.
I was also pooped on by a baby for the first time which was rather exciting. I went to visit my Samoan family last week and little Sally, who is about 1 year old, came running up to me with her hands up yelling “Lola, Lola, Lola!” And being in a good kid-loving mood, I scooped her up and put her on my hip and was dancing around and playing with her when all of the sudden I smelled something a bit…foul. So I put her down and realized that A) she didn’t have a diaper on and B) there were now brown stains all over the shirt I was wearing where Sally’s bottom had previously been. This might sound disturbing to some of you at home, but the part that I found most disturbing was that I actually debated if I wanted to go home and change or not. The thought, “its not that bad I guess” actually crossed through my mind before I caught myself and said “self your covered in baby $h*t you need to go home and change.” So that was fun…
At any rate, besides mormons and poop things are going quiet nicely. I am still coaching the soccer team at our school, although I think I am just in charge of the girls now which is interesting. Im excited that they are actually letting the girls play since you don’t really see girls playing much sport here, but you can def tell that that is the case with our soccer team. One girl just runs after the ball and kicks her legs out like a weed whacker and when someone is in front of her she continues with this performance and just plows through people not only knocking them over, but actually running over them as well. Its quiet impressive. Her lack of body control kind of reminds me of….well me at that age (anyone who saw me try to play basketball at the age of 10 would know that I found it physically impossible to stay on 2 feet for more than 5 minutes at a time, true story).
Well, Im off to be important...to someone...somewhere...aka sit in the office and enjoy air conditioning. Hope all is well. Kisses and coconuts.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
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...
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...
Monday, February 12, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, February 09, 2007
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.
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.
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