Year Three

I can’t believe that I have been a teacher in American Samoa for two years going onto my third year. It has been an experience that is hard to put into words. I feel like sometimes I am living two lives. I have my life in the states with my family and friends that I have known for years. Then I have my life in American Samoa with all my friends and family out there. I have grown to know so many amazing people over this experience. Each year seems to bring some really high highs and some really low lows. I can feel my self-growing as a person each time I face something unknown. When I look back on the time I have spent on Aunu’u, I think of many accomplishments I have made and some not so good moments.

As I move into my year three and I am days away from going on a very long day of flying. I am very excited for the upcoming school year. I have spent more time then one would like to admit preparing for this school year. I am trying to rebuild my curriculum to something that I am familiar with and am comfortable teaching. The way that most teachers teach out there is not how I studied to teach in college and I want to bring what I learned in college to the classroom. I also finally had the funds to actually make this possible. Being a volunteer teacher made it extremely hard for me to do that because funds for resources were very limited. So I am hoping for a great year of learning in my classroom.

This year I once again will be changing grade levels. This year I will be teaching fourth grade and I have nine students. I teach all subjects except Samoan. A Samoan teacher teaches Samoan, since I know very little about their culture and language. This year I am also going to start taking my masters classes. Fingers crossed that I can find decent Internet to complete my classes. I am a little worried about that but we will see what happens. I am taking my masters in teaching English as a second language along with educational leadership.

I am excited for this upcoming year to see what it holds. This is my last year as a teacher in American Samoa as a contract teacher. I am really going to try and take in the beauty of the island and the people I know. I also ask that you pray for my students for the upcoming school year as it will be a change for them never having an English speaking teacher who knows very little Samoan. I hope that it can be a great experience for my students and myself.

With Love,

Abby

Topical Storm Gita

Tropical Storm Gita took us all by surprise. My best friend from back home came to American Samoa for a four day visit. We had spent most of our time indoors due to a monsoon that had hit us on Tuesday night. The rain was so heavy that they had cancelled school for the rest of the week. On my walk to school Wednesday morning I had to walk through calf deep water to get to school. Once arriving at school they informed me that it would be cancelled for the day. I was more than thrilled because that meant I got to spend the whole day with Karlee instead of just half of the day. The rain had just continued to fall until Thursday. When I was listening to the radio on Thursday they had said the island had gotten 16.4 inches of rain since Monday. I have never seen it rain like that before. While driving to town to go do some sight seeing we took one of locals along to drop them off at work. She continued to tell us in Samoan that they think a tropical storm might be coming and the flight could get delayed on Friday. This isn’t the first time that I had heard of a tropical storm and been warned of this so we just shrugged it off because hadn’t even heard about it on the radio yet. As we were heading back to our small little island on Thursday night we had another person warn us of the weather that was coming in but I was still skeptical because I hadn’t heard it on the radio and only two people had warned us. To put Karlee at ease we decided to just play it safe and go stay at a hotel for the night. Little did we know that was going to be a very smart decision. After gathering clothes for the night and all of Karlee’s belongings we traveled back across the ocean. The sea was anything but calm and it was down pouring so we were all wet by the time we had gotten off of the boat. We had headed to the hotel that was in a bay and were far away from the open ocean. When we got to the hotel I checked in and was handed a paper that had said tropical storm to hit American Samoa Friday morning. I still had very little concern for the storm. I then decided to text my family and tell them what was going on so they were aware of what was happening. I also told my brother Jared because he loves watching the weather. All of them were already asleep so they wouldn’t receive the messages until the morning. At around 1:30 am local time I get a call from brother saying he was concerned of the weather and I should be prepared for what is about to happen. I assured him we were fine and that we had the supplies needed to keep us safe. The winds came in the middle of the night and did not stop until around 5 that evening. All the roads were flooded due to all the rain that we had been receiving. Power lines were down everywhere. Trees were snapped in half and roofs were torn off of homes. It was a mess. We ended up being stuck at the hotel until Sunday morning. When Karlee was finally cleared to fly out. We were fortunate enough to have power and very little water. Most of the locals lost power on Friday morning and did not get it back until Sunday afternoon. It is now Tuesday and I have yet to have power at my house and some villages are also still out of power. School has been cancelled for the week due to the damages they have sustained. On island there are lots of trees that have fallen down. We also had our internet tower fall down on a house thankfully no one in the house was hurt. Also no one in all of American Samoa had been killed in this storm. Many people were very unprepared or unaware of the storm coming and it took us all by surprise. 

Love, Abby

Veteran's Day

I have been trying really hard lately to keep the blogs rolling for all of you back home. This way you have more of an idea of what is going on in my life! I can’t lie but I really enjoyed having a day off from school this week. The long weekend was very much needed. It is now Sunday morning and I am dreading the workweek already. I remember a couple of years ago when I was getting ready to go back to college and complaining about the fact that I didn’t want to go to classes. I looked at my dad and said I really hate Sunday nights because I know I have school the next. He then looked back and said it doesn’t get any better when you are done with college because then you have to work. That statement couldn’t have been any more true.

On Thursday I stayed up late so that we could go fishing for pa-low-low don’t know how to spell it in Samoan but that’s what it sounds like to me. This is a type of fish/worm that only comes out in October and November. The fish will come out a week after full moon around twelve and four in the morning. So around midnight all the locals head to the beach. It was the beach that you can find behind the school. I went with Lusi and some of his friends. We sat out on the beach with locals and looked on the beach and waited. To catch this fish you have to go in the water and net them out. The nets looked like the ones you see at the pool only hand made. The pa-low-low looks like a really really skinny worm. To me it looks really gross. Samoans take the pa-low-low and fry it with butter and eat it with rice. I have never tried it and the night we went they only caught a little bit.

On Friday you could say I was a little bit lazy. I spent most of my morning watching movies and cleaning up. So cleaning house here can be quite a task because when you clean you start to sweat so on Friday. If I started sweating I just sat down and watched a movie. Once I cooled off I continued on with the cleaning. After I finished the household chores I decided to go swimming and play with kids. I like to go swimming with the kids once in a while but sometimes I just need a break from them too.

            On Saturday I did my usual Saturday shopping I had to get some food and a new phone. I accidently washed my island on Friday and so I had to get a new one. Let me tell you getting a phone here is a lot easier then in the states. We also decided to stop by the high school football game on Saturday. The football teams are really good out here and the games are usually fun to watch. I think the best part of the football game is the fact that you can see the ocean from the field. So if I get sick of watching the game I just watch the ocean.

            On Saturday afternoon after we got back from shopping I decided to make some banana bread. The school always gives me a lot of bananas so I just froze them so I could make some bread. I really missed baking last year so this I bought all the ingredients to bake so when I feel like baking I actually can. As I was baking my banana bread I ran into a slight problem. The chocolate chips I bought had melted into a big clump. So I broke them into small pieces and put them in the batter. I then started stirring and you know what. My chocolate chips all started melting. Save to say it was really hot on Saturday!

An eventful weekend

After my last blog post my life seemed to get kind of crazy. Early on Friday morning about one a.m I got a call saying that Lusi’s grandma had passed away. I quickly got up and headed down the mountain. Seeing the way Samoan’s doing funerals is quite different than we do it in the states.  When we arrived at the house we had a short family service. Since we do not have a hospital on our island. The men in the family helped carry the body. They put the body into the back of the truck and then we headed to the wharf. We then all piled on the boat and headed across to meet the ambulance. We then took the forty-minute drive over to the hospital. At the hospital we had a service at the chapel. After that we headed for home for the day by the time I arrived back on island it was six thirty and time for me to get ready and go to school. While I was walking through the village my students were already walking to school. It was a long day at school but I survived. After school I headed over to Lusi’s house for another family service to discuss the funeral. Since a lot of people fly in for the funeral they usually wait a month to hold the funeral. On Sunday after church his family had another meeting at the house. When attending the meetings we have to sit on the floor of the house cross-legged. For Samoan’s they grew up doing this but my body is not quite used of sitting like that for a long period of time.

            With all of this going on the events just continued to roll on in. On Friday night I fell asleep very early because I was so tired from the day. I then got a phone call at about eleven from a panicked friend. She was a world teacher last year and is now a contract teacher just like me. She asked me if I felt the earthquake. I was like no I was sleeping. She continued to tell me that we just had a 6.8 earthquake about 50 miles from the island. We were put into a Tsunami watch. Me never experiencing a tsunami or earthquake, I was a little nervous. I had no idea what to expect and there is really no way to prepare for one. Luckily, we had no Tsunami and only a few after shocks, which I also did not feel. I must have been really tired.

            After all of the commotion over the weekend I was ready to head back to school and have some normal in my life. Little did I know I was in for a treat. I got to school on Sunday morning and I was informed that on Tuesday I was getting observed by the DOE, on Wednesday we had parent teacher conferences and on Thursday we were having more people from the DOE coming in. So much for a nice relaxing week, I am really hoping that this weekend will be nice and calm.

Halloween, Puppies, and More

I can’t even believe that it is already November already. Time has truly been flying by since school has started. I apologize for not getting a blog up sooner but I am soon realizing there is a slight difference between being a contract teacher and a volunteer. As I am now a veteran teacher at the school more jobs have been laid on me. By all means I love staying busy, I just don’t get nearly as much free time. My big projects right now are geography bee and history day projects. Being as I may not have paid attention as much as I should have in high school I have been doing a little bit of re-teaching on my knowledge of geography.  

            My students always seem to keep me on my toes too. I have loved every minute of teaching level five and usually enjoy all the energy they bring to the classroom. Though last week one of my students decided to bring five hermit crabs into the classroom. The student had hid the crabs in her pocket and I was in the middle of teaching and I saw hermit crabs crawling all over the classroom. At the moment I was not very happy but now that it is over I find it kind of humorous. I just never know what they are going to bring into the classroom.

            On the past Monday we received what I would call torrential rains. I woke up around five and I have never heard it rain so hard for so long in my life. I went into my kitchen to find my floors all wet and everything in the house just felt damp. I was a little nervous about walking to school since the school bus can’t make it up the mountain. Luckily, the principal came with the truck to save me from the rain. On my way home from school I had to walk through ankle deep puddles of water to get to my house. I also had mini waterfalls outside of my house.

            We got puppies. I always vowed that I would never be that person that bragged about dogs. I got two puppies for my protection as I tell the locals. They seem to think puppies will protect people. The dogs on island are not so friendly. My puppies may be a little friendly because I like to sit and play with them after school. Though the other morning one of the puppies tried to rip my skirt. The other day we decided to bring the dogs down to the ocean for a little swim. On our walk down it started to down pour so here we are walking through the village with puppies and its completely pouring outside. We then took the puppies to the water. Lusi just threw them into the water. I then asked do you think they can swim. His response. I hope so. Luckily they learned how to swim pretty quickly.

            On Halloween I decided to have a little party for my kids. I bought them some snacks and juice and we watched a movie. The perk of giving Samoan kids food they bring you your favorite food the next day. So the following day my desk was filled with snacks. Easy to say the kids really do appreciate everything I get for them. On Halloween we also had Milton’s birthday party. Milton is Lusi’s nephew that was born last year. They had the party all day but I missed most of it because I was busy at school. They decided to have the party without most of kids because otherwise it gets too loud. Which is fine because they still saved some food for me J While I was getting ready for the birthday party I got a nice little surprise. Lusi’s niece and nephew came up to the house to get me. I was in the shower and they were outside the house making noises. They also found where the water pipe is. All the water pipes are above ground here because it never gets cold. Well, they decided to turn the water on and off while I was in the shower. They seemed to think it was really funny to hear me yell at them in Samoan. Even on the top of the mountain my kids find ways to pick on me.

With Love,

Abby

Back to the Island Life

After months of waiting to see if I would get offered the position of being a contract teacher on Aunu’u I finally got the news in August. Two weeks after receiving the news I was on a plane on my way to American Samoa. Spending two months home with family and friends was amazing and I truly enjoyed every moment of being around the people I love. I was also excited to get back to the island and see all people and start teaching again. I was super excited for the school year to start because I felt so much more prepared for this year than I was for last year.

            When I arrived on island I stayed at a hotel for a little over a week. Staying in the hotel was nice but I was itching to get back to the island. During my week stay on the main island I was busy getting all the paperwork completed for my contract. Getting paperwork completed here takes forever compared to the states. Slowly but surely I am starting to get it all completed. It only took a month and a half. I also made my first big girl purchase and bought a car. To make my life a little easier over the next two years I figured this would be a smart choice. My car is nice and I love having the ability to go off island whenever I want.

            Another big hurdle I had to tackle upon arriving on the island was finding a house. I was unable to stay at the house I was at last year because the new WorldTeachers were going to be housed in that house. So my principal and I were house hunting once I had gotten back. We finally found a house that was located in the “mountain”. The mountains on this island are not nearly as big as the ones on the main island. My house is located after the taro plantation. All the other locals live in front of the plantation. The plantation is about the size of a small field and it has a cement pathway through the middle of it. Which leads you to my house. I enjoy the small walk it talks because it’s very peaceful and reminds me of living in the country. The plantation at night is FULL of frogs. You are literally dodging frogs the whole time you are walking through. Luckily I am not scared of frogs but I always feel bad because Lusi is super scared of frogs.  The locals were a little bit concerned about me being placed here due to the location. At night if I am walking up towards my house usually people will walk up just to make sure I arrive safely. I told them it would be fine because I am used to living in the country. It took me three weeks of being here before I was able to move in. The house is a perfect size for me and contains everything I need.

            I was fortunate enough to get three new girl volunteers with me on island. I got the chance to really get to know them the first couple of weeks I was here. I ended up sleeping on their couch since my house wasn’t quite ready. It was nice being able to help them figure out the island and teach them about the culture of the island. It’s also nice to have them to hang out and chat with them after school. Most days I end going to their house after school to hang out with them.

            I was more than excited for school to finally start so I could finally get into routine again. This year I am teaching level five and I really enjoy teaching this grade. My students are great and I feel more comfortable in this grade level. Our school year has been off to a great start and cant wait to see what happens throughout the rest of the year.

            I also have the goal of trying to learn Samoan before the end of the school year. I am definitely getting better at understanding the language but speaking it has been a process. I am just really scared that I am going to mispronounce something. So at night Lusi is always helping me learn some new words. I really want to learn it so that I hang at with locals and I can understand what they are talking about. It also helps me with teaching also because sometimes I get frustrated when my students don’t understand what I am saying but I can guarantee if someone was teaching me in Samoan language I would have no idea what is going on. So this year I try to find the Samoan meaning of words to help my students. This also helps me learn the language. Win/win for me! I spend most of my Sundays searching through the dictionary looking up words for the next week but if it helps my students I don’t care!

With Love,

Abby