Happy Halloween!

We had our first big holiday on the island and we got to see how other people celebrated Halloween. I had no idea what to expect for this holiday I didn’t know if they would make a big deal out of it or just not really acknowledge the holiday. The school had a competition to for the teachers. They had a costume contest to motivate teachers to dress up for the holiday. I dressed up as a cheetah I had ears and a tail left over from previous Halloweens so I had them shipped to me.

Once we arrived at school I noticed that some of the kids dressed up for the holiday but not all of them. If I had to take a guess on it I would say for one it would be really hard to find a costume out here compared to the states. In the states you can just drive around and find all these different places that sell costumes but I barely saw in costumes when we went shopping. Secondly, it gets really hot when wearing a costume. I never really thought I would have that problem usually on Halloween I shivering and wishing I had a warmer outfit. I would say that about half the school was dressed up for the day.

I don’t think I will every wear a costume with a tail to school again. My students thought it was so funny to go around and pull my tail. Within the first hour I bet I had my tail pulled over twenty times. My students also had an insane amount of energy the whole day. I made a poor teacher decision and let my students have a piece of candy right away in the morning. Never again will I give my students candy to start the day out. They also continued to ask all day if they could have more candy. They sure do love their candy out here. In the afternoon all the students go classroom to classroom for candy. They have a song that the kids sing when they go trick or treating. They sing have of it in Samoan and half of it in English. It pretty much says that if you don’t give them candy then they will throw rocks at your house. So they went classroom-to-classroom singing this song and handing us candy.

The kids also go trick or treating at night from house to house. All the kids in the village go from house to house get candy. We had kids coming all night long to our front porch for candy. We had some kids come about six or seven times because I remember telling this clown that I sure have seen you a lot tonight. It was a lot of fun and the parents also went trick or treating with the kids. The kids also liked our house because it was the only house where they got American candy. Just be careful with candy out here because it melts fast I had melted candy corns all over my classroom floor because they melted in the heat.

We also went night swimming on Halloween. One of my favorite things to do is go swimming at night when its raining. The water is way cooler when its raining outside and you don’t get salt water in your eyes nearly as bad when it is raining. We have gone night swimming almost every night. It is also nice because when you go night swimming there are no kids because they can’t swim at night without a parent around. I also love looking at the stars at night when we are swimming in the water.

With Love,

Abby