Back to the Island Life

After months of waiting to see if I would get offered the position of being a contract teacher on Aunu’u I finally got the news in August. Two weeks after receiving the news I was on a plane on my way to American Samoa. Spending two months home with family and friends was amazing and I truly enjoyed every moment of being around the people I love. I was also excited to get back to the island and see all people and start teaching again. I was super excited for the school year to start because I felt so much more prepared for this year than I was for last year.

            When I arrived on island I stayed at a hotel for a little over a week. Staying in the hotel was nice but I was itching to get back to the island. During my week stay on the main island I was busy getting all the paperwork completed for my contract. Getting paperwork completed here takes forever compared to the states. Slowly but surely I am starting to get it all completed. It only took a month and a half. I also made my first big girl purchase and bought a car. To make my life a little easier over the next two years I figured this would be a smart choice. My car is nice and I love having the ability to go off island whenever I want.

            Another big hurdle I had to tackle upon arriving on the island was finding a house. I was unable to stay at the house I was at last year because the new WorldTeachers were going to be housed in that house. So my principal and I were house hunting once I had gotten back. We finally found a house that was located in the “mountain”. The mountains on this island are not nearly as big as the ones on the main island. My house is located after the taro plantation. All the other locals live in front of the plantation. The plantation is about the size of a small field and it has a cement pathway through the middle of it. Which leads you to my house. I enjoy the small walk it talks because it’s very peaceful and reminds me of living in the country. The plantation at night is FULL of frogs. You are literally dodging frogs the whole time you are walking through. Luckily I am not scared of frogs but I always feel bad because Lusi is super scared of frogs.  The locals were a little bit concerned about me being placed here due to the location. At night if I am walking up towards my house usually people will walk up just to make sure I arrive safely. I told them it would be fine because I am used to living in the country. It took me three weeks of being here before I was able to move in. The house is a perfect size for me and contains everything I need.

            I was fortunate enough to get three new girl volunteers with me on island. I got the chance to really get to know them the first couple of weeks I was here. I ended up sleeping on their couch since my house wasn’t quite ready. It was nice being able to help them figure out the island and teach them about the culture of the island. It’s also nice to have them to hang out and chat with them after school. Most days I end going to their house after school to hang out with them.

            I was more than excited for school to finally start so I could finally get into routine again. This year I am teaching level five and I really enjoy teaching this grade. My students are great and I feel more comfortable in this grade level. Our school year has been off to a great start and cant wait to see what happens throughout the rest of the year.

            I also have the goal of trying to learn Samoan before the end of the school year. I am definitely getting better at understanding the language but speaking it has been a process. I am just really scared that I am going to mispronounce something. So at night Lusi is always helping me learn some new words. I really want to learn it so that I hang at with locals and I can understand what they are talking about. It also helps me with teaching also because sometimes I get frustrated when my students don’t understand what I am saying but I can guarantee if someone was teaching me in Samoan language I would have no idea what is going on. So this year I try to find the Samoan meaning of words to help my students. This also helps me learn the language. Win/win for me! I spend most of my Sundays searching through the dictionary looking up words for the next week but if it helps my students I don’t care!

With Love,

Abby

Highlights from the year

As I am finally packed up and sitting in my room so many memories are flooding through my mind so I am going to share a few of the highlights of my year with you. My first one will be “Just Play”. “Just Play” is a program that my students were involved in for the second half of the school year. This program focused on getting students eating right and excercising daily. Something my students are not very good at. For example I rarely see my kids doing any sort of exercise and after lunch most of my students have a can of soda and uncooked ramen noodles with some kind of BBQ flavoring. One day I was curious and read the label on these ramen noodles and they contain over 400 calories in each bag. That’s insane! Anyway just play had the students do three different games in twenty minute time period. Which means my kids really had to hustle through the activities to get it completed in this time frame. We spent over a month preparing these activities and perfecting our transitions before the judges came to judge us on our performance. If you do well on the first round you move on to the championship, which takes place on the main island. We blew the judges away and moved on to the championship. The championship was so much fun. We took around forty students across the channel on boats and then on about a forty minute bus ride. The bus was so full. We had kids sitting on each other’s laps and people sitting on the floor but the best part of it all is the kids were singing the whole way to town. I have never seen my kids so excited for something. After all ten schools do their performance it was time to announce the winners. We slowly were getting closer to first place and you could feel and see how nervous all the kids were about this. When they announced that we won the feeling was similar to when our high school won the state championship. The kids were jumping and screaming and chanting. I was so proud and excited for them at that moment.

            The next memorable moment would be Lucifer. We have had a rat in our house for over three months and this is the smartest rat I have ever met. Somehow Lucifer can take a peanut off of the trap without setting it off. He can also lick the peanut butter off the trap without setting it off. He is one smart, little rat. We have tried all kinds of ways of trying to kill him and have been unsuccessful. At this point we have just given up. He has made his appearance known in the house. He has taught me to put every single piece of food away or he will destroy it in the middle of the night. He also likes to make an appearance once and a while. For instance when we are watching a movie he decided to come out and join us. He ran under our feet and we screamed for dear life. We also got a nice little surprise that night because we found out he has a little friend too. Yes, we have two rats in the house now. There might be more we are not sure because I can hear them crawling through the walls in the middle of the night and lets just say it is similar to the sounds of cats fighting. I can hear them hissing too. It is a very comforting sound when you are trying to sleep. Lastly, going to the bathroom in the middle of the night is terrifying. You never know where that stupid rat is and you don’t dare want to encounter it. So you take a mad dash for the bathroom and pray that you don’t run into the rat. Props to Lucifer because he has gotten Dana and I standing and screaming on top of the furniture multiple times.

            Saturday drives around the island is something I am really going to miss. On Saturdays we always wake up early and head over to the main island. The best part of riding in the car was the fact that we could sit in the bed of truck for the whole day. On one of our last days on island we decided to go to hidden cove that only the locals know about. Locals rarely go to these places because the drive/hike to these places are not usually the best kept. We had to drive about four miles on this “gravel road” and then hike for about twenty minutes to reach the beach. This beach was absolutely breath taking. I love how clear the water is here. Like always the beach was completely empty because locals rarely go to the beach. We found a very tall rock and were jumping into the deep part of water into the ocean. It was a lot of fun swimming in a new place and seeing new things.

            I am also going to miss the sense of community I feel on the island. This island is more like a big family to me. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone helps out everyone. I also see a lot of people every day. I may not know the names of all the people on the island but I can recognize them and know that they are from the island. I am going to miss when I walk outside I have multiple people yelling my name and coming up to me and seeing how I am doing. I am going to miss the little parade of kids that always follows me around.

            Alright I finally made it back home and I some what adjusting to the cold weather we are having here and the time difference. I wanted to share with you about our crazy ride to the airport. Last Wednesday I was dreading leaving the island so bad because it was going to be my last time being there for a long time. I remember the moment Lusi looked at me and said you have to put your stuff on this boat or we are not going to get a boat across. Every time that I saw a boat I would be like I am not ready to leave lets just wait for the next boat to come back. We had Tupperware’s and suitcases full of all of our stuff all sitting in our front porch. We had told the kids that were waiting around that we had to go. As soon as we said that they all grabbed our stuff and carried it down to the boat for us. I did not have to carry a single thing, which was a good thing because I was too busy giving people hugs and saying goodbye to everyone. I was sad to say goodbye but I had to keep telling myself that I am going to be back someday. Once we got into the back of the truck we had to face yet another problem. It started to rain. It was no light rain. Luckily my coat was water resistant so I put that over my head and just ducked down in the back of the truck waiting for the rain to pass. I had gotten fairly wet and Dana and Lusi were soaked from the rain. Despite the rain and getting our entire luggage wet it was a nice distraction from the fact that we were leaving. Getting to the airport put an instant pit in my stomach because the worst part was approaching. The goodbyes. We had like a group of 15 of us to say goodbye and we were the last ones through security. I literally had gotten through security and boarded the plane and twenty minutes later I was flying over the island with tears in my eyes.

            It was a great year and I would not have changed a thing! I can’t wait to see everyone back home!

With Love,

Abby

One Last Time

At the beginning of the year I remember looking at the calendar and thinking this year is going to take forever. I was thinking how am I ever going to make it through this year time is going to go by so slow. As I started making friends and getting a feel for the culture the time started to pick up. This place that once felt nothing like home soon began to feel like my new home. It was a slow process getting to know people and to feel welcome but over time we started to build up friendships and a new home.

            I can’t even begin to describe to people how this year was for me. I can honestly say that this was one of my hardest and most rewarding years. Going through your first year of teaching in a new country where English is not the first language was not always an easy thing. I remember times where I would get so frustrated at my students for speaking in Samoan during class. As my Samoan improved I slowly understood that my students were just translating for the students who did not understand what I was saying. They also chose to have little side conversations that had nothing to do with class and got mad when I would explain in English that I know the basics of what they are talking about and it has nothing to do with your math homework. My students at the beginning of the year were complete strangers but by the end of the year turned into my family. They know so much about me and I know so much about them. I wouldn’t have changed that either I am really going to miss seeing them all the time. Even though school has been out for almost a week I still get to see my student outside at some point throughout the day.

            The feeling that I have right now I wish upon no one. The only way that I can describe it is as a rollercoaster of emotions. I feel like my heart is getting torn out. I have to say goodbye to my students who have had my back all year and when I really needed them they were always there to help me. I have to say goodbye to the people of this village who have been so helpful towards. People have brought food over multiple times, given us rides to town and simply just came over to the house to check on us and chat with us. I remember at the beginning of the year I felt like such a stranger here. Now I never get that feeling. When I am walking through the village people are always saying hello or when we go to town all the people from the village always wave and talk to us. This is what I am going to miss seeing all these people all the time. Finally I have to say goodbye to the two people who helped me get through this year. I would have never survived this year without Dana. She is the only one the truly understands the struggle of this year we have been through so much together. We have both heard each other just screaming at our students and we have stood on the counters screaming because we have had two rats running around our house. I also wouldn’t have survived the year without my boyfriend Lusi. He helped me in so many ways possible when I needed to stuff from town or simply just someone to vent to on bad days. I have gone almost this whole year without spending a full twenty-four hours away from these people. I am not real sure how I am going to survive leaving. Every time that I hear that plane take off I get tears in my eyes because I know soon that I will be on that plane. I am not even emotionally ready to go down to the boat and watch all my students and friends slowly drift away. Then comes my next feeling excitement. I have not seen my friends and family from back home in over ten months. I cannot wait to see them and hug them. I can’t believe that I have gone this long without them.

            One of the big things that I have taken away from this year is that we really have no control over what is going to happen next in our lives. We can plan and prepare as much as we want but God always sends us a curveball that always seems to catch us off guard. I also learned that everything happens for a reason and you just have to trust the process and believe that everything is going to work out. So even though I am leaving here brokenhearted I know that God brought me hear to make me stronger and a better person. He also taught me to trust him. As I have so much fear in my mind about what is going to happen next with me I also have peace because I know its going to work out it always does. As of right now I still have not heard about my contract with the DOE. As much as I would love to know before I leave I have my doubts that I will know. Everything here happens at a slow pace and so I just have to be patient. I have also talked to multiple people about this and they said not to worry about it you will be back. So hoping that all goes smoothly and I find out somewhat soon that I will be coming back next year!

With Love,

Abby 

P.S. I have one more blog coming I am not quite finished with it! 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone back home and I hope that you enjoyed the holiday weekend! Our Easter weekend was full of activities that kept us busy throughout the weekend. It was a much-needed break from school to just relax. On Friday Dana and I spent the day just relaxing around the house and getting things ready for next week at school. We decided to get everything done with on Friday and just enjoy the rest of our holiday weekend. Here is a recap of a few of the things we did over the weekend.

I have recently joined our local volleyball team. The team consists of all people that live on our island. On the weekends we travel to play teams on the main island. The volleyball team is a church activity so only people who attend the church we go to are allowed to play on this team. Last week was our first week of practices. It is a little different then playing in the states. For instance instead of playing in a gym I am playing on an outside court right next to the ocean in the sun. I really enjoy playing on the team. This weekend we had an early practice. Early meaning we started at 4:30 in the morning. I for a while thought the locals were just pulling a prank on me little did I know they were actually being serious. I understand why they had such an early practice because it is a lot cooler in the morning when they sun is not out it is much more enjoyable practice. It’s a good thing that I am a morning person otherwise that would have been a real struggle.

On Sunday morning we had our sunrise service for church the bells started ringing at four in the morning. Thankfully church didn’t start until 5:30 so I got to sleep in a little. The Easter service was a candlelight service. So everyone was holding the candles and it was still dark outside so it was very pretty. Sunday was also Dana’s birthday so we had an excuse to get ice cream and cake and be lazy all day on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon at around 3:30 we had our joint church service. The church that we attend is a pretty big church its about the size of the church we attend at home. All of the people at the village were attending this service. It was quite the experience first of all the church was completely full on Sundays the church usually gets only half full. We all sat according to church so each church had their own little section in which they sat in for the service. Each church had the opportunity to sing a song and then they had a short little service. It never fails that when we attend big events like this they like to call us out. I think it is their way of showing they appreciate us. The pastor goes just have the person next to you translate since you seem to like him so much. Take a wild guess that Lusi was next to us and translating for us.

On Saturday we decided to go on a hike around the island. Our time here is slowly coming to an end and we want to enjoy the beauty of the island as much as possible before we leave for home. Dana and I hiked the whole island and then went swimming for a while. On our way back we noticed the locals all playing a game of cricket so we sat and watched for a while. We were also told that on Monday they were having an island wide cricket one side of the island against the other side of the island. We attended the game on Monday and watched all our students and the adults participate in an island wide game. It was fun to watch everyone together except it was a little hot outside. I have never sweat so much while sitting and watching a game before.

Hope you all had a great Easter!

I miss my car

I have officially gone almost eight months without having my car. Since I was sixteen I have always have the privilege of having my own car and the ability to travel anywhere I want when I want. I had put my trusty old car in the car of my parents since I was leaving and had no use for it while I was here. That does not mean I do not miss my car. I will give you a little perspective of what it is like to travel here. It is not nearly as easy as you would think it would be. For starters many people who live on my island have one family car. It would be all of my dads brothers sharing on pickup. You can imagine that my dads side of the family would not all fit in that one car. Then they go down what I call the chain of command. They first make sure that the older people in the family do not need the car for any reasons. After that they make sure the younger kids do not need the car because taking the kids on the bus would be quite the hassle.

            Lets just say that we were doing this in my family. I will make it simpler and just use my immediate family. I would have to check with my parents first to see if they needed the car if they did. I would be relying on the bus. If my parents decided to stay home I would now ask Jared since he is the oldest and also has kids. If they needed the car and had no room for me to tag along back to the bus I go. Lastly I would have to ask Derek if he needed the car and if he did back to the bus I go. Finally since I am last in line I could ask if I could use the car. So all in all getting a car here is quite a complicated process. Luckily when people have open space in their car and are driving past where you need to go they are more than willing to drop you off.

            All right so more than likely here we cannot find a ride and head for the bus stop. The bus is not always the most reliable since we are so far out on the island. On average we will wait about an hour for the bus to come. After an hour of waiting around hoping a bus will show up we hop on. It’s about a fifteen-mile drive to where we need to go and on average takes us about forty-five minutes on the bus to get there. Once we arrive at the market I usually only spend an hour of shopping and back to the bus stop we go. On Saturday we had a rare experience. We got to the bus stop and we saw some locals and were chatting with them. They told us that we need to get comfortable because they had been waiting for over an hour and a half the bus. For the fun of it I set my stopwatch to see how long we were going to have to wait. At the hour mark of waiting we asked a bus driver who doesn’t do our route to please give us a ride home. Thankfully we got home it was know 1:30 and we made it to the harbor. We left our house at eight and only did an hour of shopping.

            When we got back to the harbor it was now the waiting game of the boat. The coastguard just reinforced a law on our boats saying that each boat can only hold eight passengers. Usually we fit at least ten to fifteen people on these boats and now we are down to eight. We got up to harbor and waited our turn to hop on the boat and finally get home. Around 2:30 we finally made it home and all I could say is I miss my car. With the help of my car my day trip would have only taken me two hours I am guessing instead of six!