Graveside Dancing

Being a teacher on this island is a little different then being a teacher in the states. For instance I am around my students all the time. Outside of our house is the place where most of the kids go after school to play. I can sit in the house and tell you what students are playing outside just by listening to their voices. One of the hardest things about being here is knowing that once the bell rings to dismiss the kids for the day I am a friend. I can pick on them and joke around with them like they are my siblings. My kids know that during the school day they have to listen and respect me and after school they can joke around and play with me all they want. To say that my students pick on me would be an understatement. They love to make jokes and pull my hair. Yes, pull my hair. Its more like a gentle tug because they have never seen hair so soft before and blonde.

We are slowly starting to get more comfortable on the island and are branching out and talking to the locals more and more. The other night we could here kids outside sitting on a grave. This is completely normal everyone does it here. Virginia is an absolute cat lover and has been trying to get the cat “Socks” to come near our house. She was running around the house talking to the cat. Dana and I had to decided to go and sit by the kids and bring our speaker and music along. These kids love listening to music and they were excited to have us there. Our students were trying so hard to get us to dance with them. All they wanted was for the teachers to dance with them. Finally, they talked Virginia and I into doing a dance off with them. We danced to the song “Silento” the one where they go “Now watch me whip, Now watch me ney ney.”

I was expecting a little dance off and I am horrible dancer so I was like whatever. My goodness the kids got into the dance so much. It was fun watching them dance and sing along. They were way better than Virginia and I. The next day at school we heard all about it. By the time I got into my classroom at 7:30 my kids were already asking about the dance. If you would have told me one year ago that I would be dancing with twelve and thirteen year olds on a grave in the middle of the Pacific I would have just looked at you and laughed.

This week has been kind of a crazy week in the classroom. The last two days I have had meetings on the main island. For meetings at the main island we have to travel for about three hours and sit through about an hour meeting. My students love when I have meetings because they get out of school early since I have to go. I on the other hand would much rather be in the classroom teaching them. The one good thing about the meetings is they were close to the ice cream place. So of course we had to stop for some chocolate milkshakes after the meeting while we were waiting for the bus.

We also got to experience our first bus ride from Pago Pago to the boat harbor. All the other times we have always found someone that is willing to give us a ride back. On the buses out here they have T.V. screens that we can watch movies on while riding the bus. Ironically, the movie that was playing while we were on the bus was about a Tsunami. I remember looking at Virginia and Dana at one point and seeing pure horror on their face while watching the movie. My one thought was why would you play a Tsunami movie on a bus that is driving right next to the ocean. It was very creepy watching the movie and being that close to the ocean.

Time is sure flying by already! I can believe it is almost the middle of October!

With Love,

Abby