First Day of School

The first day of school finally arrived and I was as ready as I could be. I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I thought I was going to be I was just ready to get the day started. We started walking to the school around seven and we all had our headphones in and were getting ready for the craziness of the day. When all of the sudden three dogs came out of nowhere and one of them was biting and pulling on my skirt. I did not see them coming at all and just screamed an older guy came out of the house and chased them away from us.

Once we arrived at school the students were already waiting to get in the classroom. They were all so excited to start the first day of school. The school gave us some breakfast and told us to meet on the lawn for the school assembly. The school assembly was all in Samoan so I have no idea what was said. The only thing I knew was the Lord’s Prayer that they said right before going to class.

The morning classes went by so quickly the students caught onto to everything I was teaching quickly. I also had them write me a letter about themselves so that way I could get to know them. It was interesting to hear what the students had to say.  A majority of my students talked about how when they got older they wanted to join the army and give back to their families. This culture is very big on family and always watching out for your family. The kids had a hard time understanding how I could leave my family for a year. They also had a hard time understanding why my brothers didn’t live with me anymore.

I was very excited once lunchtime rolled around. I was super hungry and I needed a break. I find Virginia and Dana and we all talk about our morning and how tired we are. The lunch ladies gave us some of the leftovers so we could eat them for supper! I think I am going to like them giving us the extra food. I was warned that in the afternoon the students have a hard time focusing. That was very true. Most of the afternoon we spent playing games and getting to know each other. We also had music today I asked them if they knew any songs without music. They started singing all different kinds of songs and they were really good. I felt like my students were serenading me. One of the songs they sang was All Of Me by John Legend. They can really sing I told them one of these times I am going to record them singing to me!

The day is finally over and lets just say I don’t plan on moving much. I forgot how exhausting a full day of teaching can be.

With Love,

Abby

Ready or not

Well the last couple of days have been filled with classroom prep. I have been busy trying to lesson plan without any wifi and without any materials. Let me tell you it has been a real struggle. I relied so heavily on google to help me create all my lessons plans through out college and now I sit in a classroom and try to be creative on my own. My biggest worries is being creative in music and art. For music one of the teachers told me to just sing to the kids. If anyone of you knows me that well you know for a fact that I cannot sing to save my life. This could be interesting.

On Saturday morning I decided that I was going to do a little surprise for my mother on her birthday. I have an island phone that works to call people on the island and I can make calls to the states in the case of an emergency and that way my family can contact me in the case of an emergency.  I decided I needed to test out my phone and see if it could actually call the states. I dialed my mom’s number to see if she would answer. I was becoming a little worried because the phone just kept ringing and ringing but by some miracle she answered. I said Happy Birthday and I had never heard her scream my name like that before. It pretty much made my day so much better. I decided that the extra costs that it cost me to call her was worth the fact that she was so excited to her my voice! After a short conversation we decided we better hang up as I am sure dad was in the background worried about us racking the phone bill up!

On Saturday afternoon we headed across to the main island to test out our hammocks. Virginia and I had never set them up and decided to do it for the first time on the main island that way no one could see us failing at it. The people on our island literally watch us so closely. Like they could tell you exactly what time I left and where I went and what time I came back. I guess its good to know that they care about us a lot. Anyway back to the hammocks. Since I was unaware that the ropes did not come with the hammock I had to buy some rope. It took me a little while and my hammock may have almost touched the ground but I did figure it out. With a little bit of practice I am sure I will master it.

On Sunday morning we headed to the church that they said spoke the most English. The church is a white church with stain glass windows and seated right on the ocean. I can see the waves crashing as I am listening to the church service. In this church they love to sing for the first hour they just sang. Even though it was in Samoan it was fun to watch them. They also had a ton of little kids in the church and they were so stinking cute. They did sing one song in English and they sang and danced around while singing the song. Everyone in the church was just dancing to the music. We also got to shout outs throughout the church service. They thanked us World Teachers for coming the church and for coming to the island. They thanked us for leaving our families and lives to come help their children. They also told us that we were going to be their family for the year since we won’t be around ours. It was very sweet of them.

After church Luma our school secretary gave us a whole bunch of Samoan food. It was turkey tails served in banana leaves, taro, and a sweet salad. It was all really good and it was nice to have a meal made of us. We then spent the rest of our Sunday preparing for our first day of school. Ready or not our first day of teaching is here! Lets hope all goes well!

With Love,

Abby

School Prep

This morning we all woke up at around seven- thirty and started making breakfast for the day. Virginia came out of her room all panicked and goes get ready were supposed to be at the school. We were unaware that we were supposed to be at the school at 7:30 this morning and quickly got ready and packed our bags for the day. When we go outside one of the teachers was in the principals truck waiting to give us a ride. When we got to the school the principal apologized for failing to inform that we were supposed to be there at 7:30. She informed us that we had a staff meeting at 9:30 but we should start cleaning our rooms.

After opening the door to my classroom I realized that cleaning this would be quite a project. Most of the teachers had already cleaned their rooms because they had all week to do it. We also had very limited cleaning supplies. I had a bottle pine-sol and a stack of paper towels. The room was pretty dirty but slowly but surely it was getting cleaner. We met some missionaries our age on the island yesterday and they stopped by to help us clean. They were very helpful and it was nice to talk to people our age.

Our teachers meeting only took a couple of minutes but it was very informational. We got our class schedules and a list of students that we would be having for the year. I had a little bit of a panic attack when receiving my schedule because it said Samoan Studies. I was like how the heck am I supposed to teach Samoan Studies if I can’t even speak the language? The principal then stated that a teacher would come in during that period and we would have a prep. After that first shock I continued reading to find out I will be teaching music and health. I have no experience in teaching these subjects but I will give it my best effort! We also received our school supplies for the year. Due to limited funding we did not receive an abundance of items. We got a stack of colored paper, 5 sheets of tag board, couple highlighters and markers. I am going to have to get creative with the supplies that I have received.

In the afternoon I continued working on the classroom and hanging a few items on the wall to make it feel more like a classroom. After getting overwhelmed with everything I have to complete before Monday morning I decided I need to go for a run. I found a pretty cool trail to run on. It has a small side walk that you can follow that goes right next the ocean. After a little while it winds into the mountains where you are just surrounded by palm trees. It is very pretty and I have to run the trail twice in order to make the run long enough. The island is so small that it is hard to find a running path that is long enough! Never in my life did I think that I would have that problem. Nor did I ever think that my first teaching job would be a school located on Remote Island in the middle of the pacific.

Our nights at home here are a little different to the typical twenty two year old. By around nine at night we all head to bed for the day because we are so tired. I am lucky that both Virginia and Dana like reading just as much as I do. We spend most nights just listening to the ocean waves crash and reading our books. We plan on having a book exchange once we finish all our books so that way we don’t run out!

With Love,

Abby

Samoan groceries

Today we went on our first grocery trip of the year. We decided we would start out the shopping trip at Cost U Less. This store is very similar to a Sam’s Club in the states. You can but lots of food in bulk at this store. Since we were unsure of when we would go shopping again we figures this would be a good choice. The name of the store is very deceiving. This store did not cost me less. I spent so much money in this store but all the items I bought I really needed. I remember when we were checking out I looked at Dana and said if I start crying just let it happen. I have never spent this much money in one store before. I did not cry thank goodness! We loaded up our little ford ranger with our groceries and realized we were going to run into a problem real soon. The truck was almost full Virginia and I had to sit in the bed of the truck and we barely had any room. Dana and Shivaun were in the front of the truck with the same problem. We then headed to another store to get more supplies but we barely bought anything because we were all overwhelmed by how much money and stuff we got from the first store. After carefully packing the truck we headed to get our bags from the house we were staying.

Finally, we were headed to our island! We were all so excited to head there and know that we were going to be staying for a while. Virginia and I were sitting in the bed of the truck. More like lying making sure nothing was going to blow out since it was really windy today. I was lying across life jackets and suitcase. Can’t say it was the most comfortable ride I have ever had. I may not have been very comfortable but how can one complain when they can see nothing but ocean on one side and mountains on the other. I don’t even know how to explain the views to you guys. Every time we make the drive to our island I just sit in awe of the beauty of this island. Everything is so green and the water is multiple shades of blue depending on where you are on the island.

Let the fun begin. We arrived at the harbor and had to unload our overstuffed ford ranger onto the boat. Today we got to experience the rough sea. The waves were bigger than normal. I thought the boat ride was quite fun with all the big waves. The only part that made me nervous is I did not want any of our groceries to fall out. Once we got to the harbor I was a little worried about how I was going to carry all this stuff to our house. Well, thanks to the Samoan guys on the island I did not have to worry. They grabbed a wheel barrel and started carrying all of our stuff to our house. We had like five our six of them helping us. It was so nice and we didn’t even ask for any help. They got mad at us when we tried to help them. I have a really hard time with that. I like to do things on my own and that is not how they do it out here.

After getting settled in our house again we were all exhausted. We all went to our rooms and did our own thing. The first thing I did was hang pictures all over the walls in my room. It felt so bare and I really did not want to stare at white walls again. Once it got dark outside we walked around our house to make sure that our curtains were actually working and no one could see in our house at night. We then took a short walk down the beach since it was so nice outside. The view was amazing. You can see the lights from the main island and hear the waves crashing. When you look up at the sky it is just filled with stars. I plan on grabbing a towel and lying on the beach a couple of nights. We then went to the “hangout” spot on the island and got a chance to meet a couple of our students. They seemed super sweet and said they would help us with Samoan. I think I am going to need all the help I can with the language!

With Love,

Abby

Why?

Why? Why would one travel across the world to teach on a remote island and barely make enough money to make ends meet for a year? This is a common question that I had been asked prior to this trip. Most of the time I had no idea how to respond to this question. I can’t really explain my reasoning to anyone because I don’t really know. I just knew that this is something that would change me but also be good for me. It would be an experience that I would be talking about for years to come.

As orientation is coming to a close the reality is once again settling in for the year. I feel like almost everyone who is on this trip at some point in the last two weeks has questioned coming here. What am I doing here and was this the best decision for my future? Let me tell you this question has rolled through my head multiple times. Most twenty year olds would not give up almost everything to go teach in school that is in high need of teachers. I think we all knew that we needed this. All of us on this trip have different reasons for doing this. All of us are trying to figure what our next big move in life will be. All of us genuinely care about people and doing the right thing and that’s what brought us to this little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that many people have never heard of.  

One of the biggest reasons I came on this trip is for the kids. Even though I am sure some weeks these kids are going to make me want to pull my hair out and book a flight home. I would do anything for them. I have learned that when I work with kids I treat them as if they were my own. I may be hard on them at times but its just tough love. I want to prepare them for what is to come. I want to show them that someone cares. Many kids don’t grow up in a stable household. So I take it upon myself to make sure that they have someone in their life that cares for them and makes sure they are okay.

I know that the reason I came on this trip is to grow as a person and to learn more about the world. Whenever you go on a trip like this you meet so many unique people who have interesting stories to share. You also learn about yourself. In this day and age social media and technology play a prominent role in our lives. Ill be honest not having social media and technology for twenty four hours is nice. You don’t feel attached you are actually experiencing and living besides just sitting behind a screen.

With that all being said this may be my last blog for a while.  I am moving out to my home for the week and am unsure when I will get Internet again. The school I am working at is supposed to have Internet but it is currently done! Cross our fingers that it gets fixed soon. I will continue writing blogs and post them when I get the chance. Thanks so much for your support I have no idea who is reading them but the support is awesome!

P.S. If you see my mom in the next couple of days make sure to give her a BIG birthday hug since I won’t be able to give her one this year J

With Love,

Abby