Dana

Last Thursday my old roommate from my first year of living here came to visit. I was so excited for her to come visit and see how much the kids have changed over the last couple of years. She flew all the way from Washington, D.C. for only four days on the island. That’s a lot of flying about 26 hours one way. It was interesting hosting someone who has already lived on the island and all the locals know. Not as much planning on my part.

            We spent our first night across since riding a boat late at night comes with a high fee. We stayed up until like one in the morning reminiscing of our time on the island along with catching up with all the news things that has been happening in our lives. We got a chance to visit our church’s camp. All the kids of our church and family sleep at the center it’s a building next to the church. It is very similar to our fellowship hall. They spend four days staying their making meals, playing games, and sleeping. You are not allowed to go home. You need to shower and do everything else at the church. It was interesting to see it. Since Dana was here I did not stay over night. We did come down and play in the games and hang out for a while.

            On Dana’s last day island we ran into another World Teacher from our year. She lives on the way outer islands but came back for flag day is was waiting for her boat to leave to go back to the island. Her boat is more like a small ship that they have to ride for 12 hours. I visited her back in November but we took the airplane instead of the boat. Anyway we were eating and she came into the same place and joined us for lunch. We were planning on driving around the island that day and asked her to join us. We had our chauffer Lusi driving us three girls around the island. We had so many laughs reminiscing all the things that happened to us over the last three years on island. After a day of fun we had to drop Dana off at the airport and bring Anna to the wharf to catch her boat and back to Aunu’u we went.

            It was so fun to catch up with the other teachers but it was also a sad moment. As that was the last time we would all be together. We are going different ways at the end of the year. We realized this might be our last time of seeing each other. A few tears were shed as some great friends were made along this journey. This also scares me very much for what its going to be like when I actually leave.

With Love,

Abby  

Easter & Flag Day

The practices for the dances, skits, and songs have been in full swing for the church. Around four to five hour practices everyday. They were informed that the T.V. station was coming to record them, which lead to very intense practices. Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate because I have to go to the airport to pick up Dana that night. Dana was my roommate my very first year and I haven’t since her since we departed ways in Hawaii. I can’t wait to have her back for a couple of days and to show her around the island again. She will be here from Thursday night until Monday night. It will be a quick trip but can’t wait to spend time with her.

            Along we Easter this week we also have the holiday of Flag Day here. Which includes the Fautasi races. The Fautasi races are boats that about forty men row in. The row from one part of the island to another and the first one done holds the title for the year. The time and day of the race always depends on the ocean. So the Saturday before Flag Day is the first scheduled race, depending on the ocean. Luckily, this year it happened on Saturday morning. I have never actually watched the races because transportation can be a little difficult and Aunu’u doesn’t have a team. It was live streamed so I watched a little bit from my house. One of the boats this year actually snapped in half in the middle of the ocean. They had to send rescue boats out to come bring the people back in. They have only found one half of the boat. The other half off the boat is nowhere to be found.

            Along with the Fautasi races they also have an event at the stadium. This years theme is focusing on the schools and our future leaders of American Samoa. All of the high schools had to pick a group of students to perform traditional dances to Samoan songs. All the elementary schools had to have their teachers perform a traditional Samoan dance. Due to the boats and the timing of the performances our school declined performing. Thank goodness because I am not very good at the Samoan Siva and would rather not have the whole island watching me dance.

Earthquakkke

Our school is doing its annual test for tsunami warnings this past week. I spent time explaining to them that they cannot run home and need to run towards my house to be safe. As a teacher here my biggest fear is that we will go into a tsunami warning in the middle of the school. Due to the fact that I am very scared of one.

            Well in the very wee hours of Friday morning I had a close call with one of these situations. I woke up to Lusi saying my name repeatedly. Thinking that he was waking me up because I was late for work. As my bed was shaking I figured he was trying to shake me awake. When I realized he was on the other side of the room on his bed. Earthhhquake he goes. Just seconds ago I was a deep sleep and the panic hit me. Oh my gosh its happening. My biggest fear of living on this island is actually happening to me. We soon go to wake up other people in his family. Debating if we should run up the mountain. We were standing outside listening to the sound of the ocean. I was completely freaked for awhile. This was the first time that I had actually felt an earthquake. Soon we were all over the internet looking for a warning and trying to listen for an alarm. After a half hour back to bed we went.

            The next morning we found out that the earthquake was over 400 miles from where I live. Which is why we were not put into a warning. Thank goodness. I was talking to Lusi about it after and asking him about why he didn’t run up the mountain. He said that since it didn’t last long and didn’t feel as strong as some in the past. He also noted that if he didn’t hear an alarm but felt that it was strong and long we would have been high tailing it up and not relying on the alarm system. Pleasantly freaked out for a couple hours but extremely grateful it didn’t happen during school hours. The one thing my students do not need to see is a teacher freaked out. It would only make matters worse for all of us.

            With Love,

            Abby

April

Well March ended with a bang this year. I ended up getting very sick and having to go to the hospital to get me back on my feet. It all started on a Sunday of not feeling well and got progressively worse. My stubbornness led me to going to school and constantly telling myself that it’s just the flu. By Wednesday morning I lost the battle and stayed home. I would have been pretty useless inside the classroom and rather not spread the sickness with anyone. After a day of rest I still was not feeling better and was forced to go to the hospital. I do not recommend catching a bus while sick but I had no other choice and hopped on. The hospital here runs a little different. You have to pay a 20 dollar fee to get seen by the doctor. They don’t really have a clinic instead they send you all to the E.R. Now the E.R. is nothing like in the states. It is always full of people waiting. I am always told if its truly an emergency to call the ambulance because that will be faster then going into the E.R. To my entertainment two non-samoan people were in the waiting room. Making comments about how long you wait it can average from two – six hours before you get in to see the doctor. I got fairly lucky and only had to wait two and a half hours. Then I went to the pharmacy for another forty-five minute wait… Hopefully that is my last experience with that.

            April is also a month filled with all different kinds of church activities. We have volleyball game that our church sends four teams over to play other churches. They have a girl’s high school and old people team as they call it and boy’s high school and old people team. The old people team consists of anyone who has graduated from high school. We wake up around four in the morning for practice. This way we can beat the heat. We also hold a practice around five at night when the sun is just about to set. I really do enjoy playing volleyball but it also really makes me miss playing volleyball competitively. I have also come to realize I am not nearly as fast nor can I move as fast as I once did.

            With Love,

            Abby