Ofu & Olosega & Ta’u

The first island that I visited over my Thanksgiving break was Ofu and Olosega. A small bridge in the middle that maybe takes 1 or 2 minutes to walk across connects the two islands. These two islands are known to be the most beautiful islands in American Samoa. Let me tell you they did not disappoint one bit. One of the things I loved most about the islands is how remote they are. During my two days that I spend there we only saw ten people. It was amazing.

            When we arrived on island we stayed at a small inn. The people who were hosting us picked us up from the airport and gave us a complete tour of both islands. Which was wonderful. We were the only people at the inn so we got quite spoiled. On Thanksgiving we spent our day sitting on the beach. Since the beach is a part of the National Park they had picnic benches scattered around along with hammocks in the shade. We made sandwiched in the morning and then spent the whole day reading our books and snorkeling. The snorkeling was unlike any I have ever seen. There were so many fish swimming around. When we returned to our inn at night they provided us with thanksgiving meal. I really could have cried tears of joy since I have not really had a Thanksgiving meal since I was stateside. After out meal we watched a Christmas movie in the nice cold room. Almost felt like Christmas because I was cold.

            The next morning we tackled the hike of Mount Tumu. Before heading on this hike. We could not find accurate information of how far this hike was. In the back of my mind I was a little bit nervous since I can honestly say I am in terrible shape. Luckily our people at the inn dropped us off at the trailhead. Otherwise we would have had a four-mile walk before we started. About ten minutes into the hike, I literally thought I was going to die. Thankfully Taylor one of the girls with me was equally having a hard time. It was straight up for an hour and a half. When we got close to the top we had to use ropes to guide us up the mountain that’s how steep it was. By the end Taylor and I were literally crawling up because we were so tired. While Kate was telling us she wasn’t even tired…..

            Once on top it made it worth the walk up. I was lucky enough to have cell service at the top so I could share the view with my family. The walk down was much easier. After we made it to the bottom we went to spend the rest of the day at the beach. Unfortunately it was a mile and half hike to the beach. I was so exhausted by the end. Once I got to the beach I didn’t really move. I read my book and swam to cool off. By the time we made it back to the inn we had walked a total of ten miles.

            After getting back we quick went to the bridge to jump off it. It is a tradition for World Teachers to jump of the bridge. So of course we had to get that in quick before we left the following day. After jumping in one of the locals informed us that sometimes you can see sharks swimming under the bridge. Not real comforting but at least I had finished the jump by that point.

            The following day we headed to Ta’u the last island. It was about an hour and a half boat ride to get there. The boats are a little different then what I am used to. For one they have a twin engine, which is two motors. So the boats move at a faster pace. Also the sea was a lot rougher then I was used to. There were a few times I am pretty sure are whole boat was out of the water. When we got to about the half way point of the boat ride. I boat just died. Both engines just turned off. This was a moment I wish I didn’t know as much Samoan as I did. They were saying well there is gas in both tanks. I have no idea why they are not turning on… As we are sitting waiting for them to figure out what is going on Kate begins to tell me this story. About World Teachers who lived in the Marshall Islands and were on a boat and the boat went missing and they were never found. Not the most comforting story to be told while your boat is dead in the middle of the ocean with rather large waves. Luckily, the boat came back to life and we safely made it to the island. We can now laugh about it but we were not necessarily laughing at first.

            Once arriving in Ta’u we didn’t do a lot. We just stayed at a friend’s house and had a good time talking to her and learning about her life on the outer island. It was interesting to see what her life was like along with see the school she was teaching at.

            One last interesting fact is when flying to the outer island these planes are tiny. They maybe fit 13-20 people depending on the plane. Very small. When checking they hand write your boarding pass. They also have you step on a scale similar to the one you have at your house and weigh you. Depending on your weight is where you get seated on the plane. Luckily I am very light compared to Samoans and get the privilege of sitting behind the pilot. Meaning I could hold a conversation with them if I wanted or if I reached my hand out I could touch them. The planes are very small. I cannot even stand straight up inside and all of the seats fold down. 

With Love,

Abby

            

Teaching in a different country

Over the course of three years the wear and tear of teaching in a different country starts to get to you. Being a teacher is not for the weak. As I like to say. For every person who says teaching is easy I would say write 64 page lessons plans weekly, try managing multiple kids, and meeting the expectations of the administration and parents. Not as easy as you would think. Don’t get me wrong the kids make it worth. Now put the mix in their of living no where close to anyone you know, having no ink in your printer, not speaking their native language and you have my life. As crazy as it may sound I love every single second of it.

            Not many people at the age of twenty-four can say they have done what I have done. Sometimes I can be rather hard on my self because I feel behind the rest of the world. As I was reminded over my nice long break I have done a lot. I have moved to a place where I know absolutely no one. I got myself established and now have a car, island family, house, and many friends. I may not have what my friends have but I have what makes me happy.

            When traveling or going home there are times you experience culture shock. Here are a few of the “culture shocks” I experienced while I went to the outer islands of American Samoa.

1.     A showerhead, at my house I do not have a showerhead but rather a pipe with water flowing out of it. Over my mini vacation I had a showerhead!

2.     Air conditioning: Running air conditioning here can get really expensive. So I only run it at night when I am sleeping. My vacation was wonderful because my room was always nice and cool.

3.     Fast Internet: Internet that is fast can be hard to find some days. Well our vacation was filled with the fastest internet I had ever received in American Samoa

4.     Not making meals: I am always, always making food or so it seems. Going out to eat is just not an option for me. Well, over break someone prepared all of my meals and it was absolutely wonderful.

5.     Being able to be me: This one is big. Livings on an island were there are constant eyes on me. It was nice to know that I could just do whatever I want and no one was going to question my doing.

6.     Relaxing: Something I get from my parents. I can never stop working. Over break I left my laptop at home, which forced me to take a nice break. Didn’t realize how stressed I was until I stopped.

Over my time hear I have come to realize that material possessions are not what I need to make me happy. I have learned to live with very little for this day and age and I am quite happy with it. My biggest fear with moving back home is I will get sucked into having material things again.

With Love,

Abby

Thankful

This week my students and I have done a lot of talking about what we are thankful for in our lives. Beings as it is Thanksgiving this week. Well I shared with my students about how thankful I was as to be there teacher. I think God was truly testing me as a teacher last year. My kids were a challenge to say the least. I questioned my sanity most days and quite honestly I am a lot happier this year. I have not had one single fight in my classroom this year. Last year it was a good week if I didn’t have a fight. I mean like they would realllly fight I would have to stand in the middle of them and say, “ You throw another punch and it’s going to hit me. You hit me your automatically suspended and will have to deal with the consequences.” That usually stopped them. I never got punched.

I quite honestly was quite skeptical of my class before the school year started. I was scared I was going to have a repeat year of last year. In the back of my mind I was thinking if I had another year like that I might just have to find a new job. Thank goodness my students this year reminded that I do love teaching. I am so proud of those kids. Like I can’t even put into words. They have put so much effort into school this year. Some days they are a little reluctant but they always push through. I have really found that my students strive when I set goals for them. It’s amazing what they can do. I mean their reading and writing skills are no where near perfect but a heck of lot better then they were in September when we started. We have to start somewhere.

This week is a pretty crazy week for me. I have to get all my homework and school stuff done by Wednesday for my trip!! So excited but so much to do. The holidays are literally my least favorite time of the year. It’s hard being away from home and missing out on everything. This is usually the time of year were I struggle a little. I am trying to keep myself busy to keep my mind off of home. I can tell you next year I cannot wait for Thanksgiving I have not had a decent Thanksgiving meal since 2015. Crazy huh! I also can’t wait to have a Christmas tree. Today I would enjoy a little snow. I do not know the temperature but when my shirt is wet after school. Rarely happens but it did today I know its hot.

With Love ,

Abby

Oops

Did not realize how long it had been since I had done my last blog! This week has been a busy week again! The biggest thing this week is I made decision to spend my Thanksgiving in Manua. Manua is an outer island of American Samoa. It is about two hundred miles away from where I live. So the only way you can get there is by taking an airplane. Plane fare is about 85 dollars one-way. Not that bad if you ask me. This island rarely has flights going there but over our break they did so we jumped out the opportunity to go. Its supposedly the most beautiful island out of all of them. Manua consist of three islands Ofu, Olesega, and Ta’u we plan on visiting all three. I am going with Taylor and Kate! Lusi said he would never ever go there because of the ghosts. Samoans are very superstitious people and I am not going to argue! I am super excited to see these. Google them it looks so pretty! Ill make sure to take a picture of another National Park dad for your friends. Another one they haven’t been too ;)

This week my students are taking a try at their very first five-paragraph essay. Cross your fingers for me. I still haven’t told them it’s going to be five paragraphs in the end. We are just writing one paragraph every two days. I think if I told them that they would automatically refuse. At the end we will put them all together. Slowly but surely we are making progress. Another thing I have been hitting really hard is their reading fluency. It’s when you time the students to read a passage for one minute. You then count how many words they read correctly in that one-minute. We read the passage timed twice a week and I let them practice read it will me in the afternoons if they would like to. We started making a weekly goal of how many words they can read combined as a class. Last week on their first timing they only got 381 words on Friday we I timed it again we got 581 words. I literally recalculated four times because I thought I had made a mistake.

This week is the WIC week. Which is like food stamps in the states. I was not real familiar with how all of that worked until I moved here. Almost everyone is on food stamps here. This is the week I usually get some free fruits and vegetables. Most of the Samoans know that I really like the fruits and veggies but don’t get them a whole lot because they are pretty expensive. Well if they have extra money left they usually but fruits and veggies and bring them to me! Yay. They also get Honey Bunches of Oats with this program and everyone tells me how much they hate it and I kept telling them don’t throw it away I will eat. I love that cereal. So I am enjoying some grapes and honey bunches of oats tonight J

With Love,

Abby

Parents and Sunshine

This week was our parent teacher conferences week at school. Otherwise known as my least favorite week of the year. Parent teacher conferences are very different here than they would be in the states. It’s a good day of conferences if half of my parents show up to it. The unusual part of it all is that they have them during the school day while school is in session.  So while I am in the middle of teaching my lesson for the day parents will step into my door way and I will pause everything to have a conversation with them. Now my students either get super quiet which means they are trying to listen to what I am saying or they are super loud because I am not in the room to stop them. The conference last usually an average of like five minutes. Very very different. Its not my choice but they said when they held them at night no one would show up for them so its better to do it while school is in session.

After a week of heavy rain and flooded roads to the school it finally stopped raining and the sun came out. The first day of sun after many cloudy days can be a little rough on one. I am usually very lazy because I am hot and have very little motivation to do anything. I also sweat a lot. Like it’s disgusting how much one can sweat here. The few good things about the sun means my showers are no longer freezing. My towel will actually dry and not still be damp from the day before. Along with my bed and cushions on the chair no longer have a damp feel to them. Yay!

This weekend I decided to go stay at my friends Kate and her roommate Taylor. I like going there because their house is literally ten steps from a beach and you can just sit on the couch and see the ocean. I also like going there because they live close to all the stores I go shopping at. So I can wake up on Saturday morning and drive like ten minutes to the store instead of a 15-minute boat ride and then an hour and a half drive. I also like hanging out and talking to them. We watched a movie and fell asleep by 9:30. I am telling you teaching in the heat takes the life out of a person. We tried to watch a movie and we all fell asleep. Our early bedtime really makes for some early mornings. I usually am awake by like 545 everyday. Thanks for that one dad.. When the suns up I am up. Luckily Kate wakes up early so just went outside and read by the ocean. After that we had smoothies we put on our swimsuits. You can actually wear swimsuits at her house! Swam the morning away. After that I went home and did lesson plans and homework! How exciting.

With Love,

Abby