Weekly conversations

The excitement of the new school year is starting fade off. Which is nice because students are falling into the routine of the school day and so am I. This week we have had a lot of visitors at the school evaluating and seeing how the school is running. Which means I have been a little busier than normal and why I haven’t had a chance to write this week. Tomorrow we have an assembly in the afternoon and all the teachers are excited because they are bringing local food and they want to see our faces when we try it. I can only imagine how much entertainment my students will also get from this. I am excited to see what they all bring in. The assembly we are having is for our new building that was built on the school campus. It is comparable to a large garden shed with no walls. This is where students will meet to have school wide assemblies or school wide meetings. They just finished building the building when we arrived on the island and we are just now going to have the opening ceremony. I have no idea what we are doing but that is nothing out of the normal for me!

The best part of the school being in session for almost a month is I am finally getting to know my students and all the little things they do. At lunch the other day Virginia goes do you’re students do this weird eyebrow thing to you guys? Both Dana and I were like yes they do it all the time and it creeps me out. Whenever we ask our students a question they would look us in the eye and just raise their eyebrows. I had no idea what this meant and I was just like whatever I will just let it happen. So after this conversation I went back to my classroom and asked my students what it means when you raise your eyebrows and look someone in the eyes. They said oh teacher that means that we are saying yes or agreeing to you. It all makes sense and know I catch myself doing it right back at them. Once I think that I have this culture completely figured out I find something new about it.

Most of our nights in the house turn into us just talking about our day and all that occurred. Some of the topics that come up in conversation are kind of interesting but it never gets boring. The fact that technology is almost non-existent in our house means that some days we do a lot of talking. I really like just sitting around and talking. Virginia always has some little fun fact that she read about somewhere along the line that she adds in every once in a while. Dana and I always joke about how we are going to know so many weird facts once we get back from here. Tonight at our house we were all going through what we would like to describe as American food deprivation. Our little mart across the water only carries a very small variety of food. I would have to say my diet here consists of beef patties, potatoes, pasta, and grilled cheese sandwiches. We have been eating these meals for about two months straight and have started craving some different foods. We tend to joke around with the others about food they really like and describing it in great detail just to bug the other person. Tonight we were talking about chocolate and how much we miss have chocolate. We then got talking about s’mores and at one point Dana was plugging her ears because she was like stop talking about it its making it worse. To say the least next time we go downtown we are going to be on a mad hunt for s’more supplies.

With Love,

Abby

Buck up buttercup

My best friend in high school would always tell me to “Buck up Buttercup” when we were doing something hard. We played sports throughout our whole high school experience and had many years of conditioning together. We would always be partners and pushing each other to be better. Whenever I wouldn’t want to finish a conditioning drill or didn’t think I could play another game she would just say, “Buck up buttercup.” Someway somehow we made it though all of those experiences. If a high school sports has taught me anything it is to never give up in life. Sometimes life is going to be hard and you just got to keep pushing on and know that it will get easier and you are going to make it through whatever you are going through.

On multiple occasions these last couple of days in my head I was telling myself to buck up buttercup. For example yesterday when I was lesson planning I was getting a little bit on the frustrated side. As a teacher you have to accept the fact that you are going to fail. You are going to have lessons that just don’t work and students are looking at you like you a speaking in some crazy language they have never heard of before. As I was looking for creative ways to do my lessons I was like I am getting nowhere with these kids. Then I was like hold on think back to the first day of school. When you read a short passage and not one of your students had a clue as to what you had just read to them. Now think last week one of your lowest reading level students was summarizing a story that you had read in class. I just have to remind myself that it just takes these students longer to catch on. So keep going you are making progress.

Then I got to thinking about how much I have changed since arriving on the island. My first day of class I can honestly say I did not know a single word in Samoan and had no idea what my students were saying. I know have caught my students cheating in Samoan. Yes, they thought that they could give each other the answers in Samoan and I would have no idea what they were saying. Jokes on them because that no longer works and they got in trouble for it. I also had a student who couldn’t think of the English word for a Samoan word and low and behold I understood what they were saying and could help them! I was pretty excited about that not going to lie!

Today I caught myself saying buck up buttercup one last time when I got home from school. I was talking to my friend Haley and my mom and it finally hit me how much I missed them. I was joking with Haley saying I am just going to teleport home for the weekend so I can quick see everyone and come back. After I had gotten home from school I caught myself lying on my bed surrounded by pictures of my family, friends from college, home, and Okoboji. I was thinking about how much I wish I could just sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with these people. Then I looked at a picture of Haley and could here her voice in the background saying, “Abby, get out of bed. You have one year make the most of it and come home in couple of months.” So I got out of my bed and decided to go for a run.

On my run I was tired and just didn’t want to finish and I got to thinking. Okay, Abby life is not always easy. God has a tendency to push you to your limits and sometimes a little farther then you have planned. Think of all the times you wanted to give up and you just kept pushing. I think partially because I am so competitive I have this mindset. I will not let myself give up in any situation its just how I am. So I kept telling myself to push through the run. Towards the end of the run this little boy started running next to me. I told myself I couldn’t stop because this little boy was not giving up. He helped me get through the run even though he had no idea that he did that. He just enjoyed the fact that his teacher was letting him run with her.

This trip I think is very similar to a marathon. In the beginning everything was new and exciting for me. I was so excited to see new sights, meet new people, and try new foods. Just like in a marathon you start out so excited that its finally here and that the day is finally here. Now I am getting to the middle of my marathon where times get tough. Where you get tired and just want to give up because some day’s things just don’t go as you planned. These are the days you keep pushing and keep getting better because in the end this will only make you stronger as a person. God never promised that life would be easy for us he just promised that he would help us get through it.

With Love,

Abby

Another week down

We survived yet another week of school. Friday afternoons are always a struggle in my classroom. My students want to be done for the day and so do I. It doesn’t help that here after students eat lunch they are so unfocused. We were told in orientation to do all of our important teaching in the morning because after lunch students just want to be done for the day. I have to agree that statement is very true after lunch is a true struggle. My students are still working on teaching me the language and on Friday’s they give me a quiz to see how much I learned over the past week.

On Friday’s are the big volleyball games on the island. We all go to the church and play under the lights. At the volleyball games there is so much going on. You have one court. There is a big volleyball game going on with all the locals. People sit on a brick wall around the courts trying to watch the kids. They have about fifty little kids running around the court at all times. Sometimes it can be a little distracting. At least one little toddler runs through the middle of the court in the middle of the game. I just like the fact that everyone gets together to have a fun time on Friday nights.

On Saturday afternoon one of our island friends Lima, called us and told us she was going across to get groceries. She asked if we wanted to come along because she was going to show us all the different spots we could go. Her sister in law came with us and they have a truck on the main island. They drove us to a couple of local marts and these marts had a few more options than the one we usually go to. All of these marts had fresh fruit, which was what we were all excited about. As surprising as it may seem it is really hard to find any fresh fruit here.

Saturday’s are one of my favorite days because I try to Face Time my family every Saturday morning. One of the hardest parts of being here is not being in constant communication with my family. I am so used to being able to call people whenever I need to talk to them. Out here I can only talk to friends and family for about an hour a day! Which is a little different than usual. So I always look forward to Saturday mornings when I get to spend about an hour chatting with my parents! I also got a little surprise this weekend and got to talk to Karlee because my parents were at a wedding that she was attending! J 

With Love,

Abby 

Open house and rain!

Today was our open house at school. I had no idea what to expect with this. The only open houses I had heard of in the states is after school hours. The parents and students would come in after school hours to see the classroom and meet the teachers. In Samoa they have the open house in the middle of the day. The parents come into the classroom in the middle of the day to watch the teacher teach. That is what I thought it was. Bless my student’s hearts because without them some days I would be completely clueless as to what is going on. One student goes, “Teacher go talk to the parents about the student and go outside the classroom and bring a chair for the parent to sit in.” In my head I am thinking so I leave my classroom and hope my students continue doing something while I talk about another student outside the classroom. Hmm this could be a little interesting. It was like an informal parent teacher conference. It is also not uncommon to talk about a student’s behavior in front of the whole class with the parents. Not what I am used to but that’s just how it is done out here. The open house went well once I figured out what I was supposed to be doing. It was refreshing hearing all the parents telling me how grateful they were that I came here to teach their child.

After school we saw a bunch of people out at the Wharf . Curiosity got the best of us and we went to see what was going. We saw a different kind of boat that was transferring a car to our island. We were very curious as to how they were going to get the car onto the land so we sat down and watched the process. All the local guys were standing by the boat “ramp.” The ramp is very steep and very slippery. They had to wait until the water was just the right height and they drove it off the boat onto the ramp. They had the pickup they were bringing to the island tied up to another pick up at the top of the ramp. The pickup up at the top had to pull it up because the ramp was too slippery and they were unable to drive it up. I was just hoping the pick up they were bringing onto the island would not slide into the ocean. It took a while for them to do it but they finally got it on land.  

It has been raining all night, which meant that we didn’t have volleyball. It was really weird not seeing all of our friends because it was raining. We decided to watch some One Tree Hill and I made some flash cards to work on learning the language. My goal is to become somewhat fluent before I leave. My students have been helping and correcting me as I use more of it in the classroom. It helps when I speak it all the time. So sometimes my students make me say it in their language just so I get the hang of it.

Tonight I was going to go plug my computer in. I decided to go and peek at the other rat traps to make sure we didn’t catch anymore or that they didn’t get set off for some reason. To my surprise we had caught ANOTHER rat…….. I am now paranoid of how many we actually have in our house. The one that was in this trap was really fat. These things are so disgusting and I need to figure out where they are coming from because I don’t like the thought of them in my house. Just be thankful you don’t have a rat problem in your house because its not one bit fun!

With Love,

Abby  

Pictures!

I keep forgetting to do this but here are some pictures of what my life is like! I have been so busy with school but here you guys go!

First Day of school!

The kids always bring us fresh fruit! Here is a picture of them dropping them off at our house.

This is what I get to see every morning as I walk to school! 

My lovely students love posing for the camera for everyone back home. 

We see puppies all the time. Meet Oreo he is one of my favorite local puppies!

I cracked my first coconut the other night! 

One of the local boys who always says hi to me every morning at school.

Another picture of my class I promise we don't always goof around. 

This is the harbor this is right outside the front door of my house. This is where we go swimming all the time. As you can tell the kids love swimming here too!

We went for a hike one day and found a little lake on our island!

Another picture of the road leading up to the lake!

The path that we took on our hike!

Just call me the rat trapper..

Like promised I told you I was going to keep you posted on our little rat situation. I was asking around to all the locals seeing what they did to keep rats out of the home. Most of them laughed and said that they don’t have a rat problem in the house. Thankfully, one of the teachers at school offered to help us with this problem. He came over and showed us how to set the traps. For the time being I felt a little better about the situation.

Last night we went about our regular nightly activities. We went to the local volleyball match and played a couple of rounds. After the game a couple of our new friends told us that they had ordered pizza for us and would come around eight with it. To say we were a little excited about getting pizza was an understatement. We were all eagerly waiting for the clock to hit eight so we could enjoy our pizza. At around eight we got the call about pizza. The boys and Lima had brought us pizza and pop and we had our little picnic outside. When I go home it might kill me that I won’t be able to go outside as much as I do here. We enjoyed our pizza and pops sitting on a grave. Yes, I did say grave. It is common here to see people sitting on graves. The graves here are on the family’s property marking that it is a families land. It was a great night under the stars, eating pizza, and making new friends.

After we enjoyed our meal we decided to head in for the night. I usually stay up later than my other two roommates. I sit in my room reading and just having “quiet time”. If you know anything about me I need to have a couple of hours to myself a day otherwise I get real crabby. Just ask anyone in my family! As I was reading I heard a loud snap and to say I was relieved was an understatement. I heard the loud snap of the trap going and I could finally go to sleep knowing the little devil was dead.

In the morning we went hunting for the rat and found it in our kitchen. I had told my roommates and Virginia being the animal lover was like poor little rat. Dana was terrified and would not go near the corner in which we had set the trap. I on the other hand was intrigued by it. I was looking at it and trying to figure out a way to get rid of it. I took it out to our screened in porch and let it set there. That way it wouldn’t stink up the house and I had to figure out how to get it out of the trap. When I got home tonight the rat and the trap was gone. I am thinking a local cat smelt it and took it for supper. At least we got rid of it and hopefully it was our last one!

So far this week school has been going well. I am finally getting the hang of being a teacher. I still face many problems everyday but that is typical. I am starting to really catch onto the language. Which is good because I am sick of not knowing what people are saying to me. I just want to interact in conversation with everyone. Slowly but surely we will get an understanding for it. Tomorrow we have our open house for the school. Parents are allowed to come to school and see the classroom. They can watch us teach a lesson and talk to us to see if we are having any problems with the students. I am excited to meet some of the parents of the students.

Lastly, I got mail today!!! Mail days are literally my favorite days. My grandma had sent me letters and I laughed along with parts of it and enjoyed every moment of reading them`. It was so nice getting information about what was going on back home. That’s one of the hardest parts I feel so left out from home! I also got my fan that I had ordered a couple of weeks ago. We decided to buy fans to see if it would save on our electric bill. I bought one online and it even has a remote and sound setting on it. I feel so spoiled being able to lie in bed and turn my fan on. I swear the littlest things make me so happy these days.!

With Love,

Abby