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

Welcome Home

On Monday we did not have school due to Columbus Day weekend. We spent the morning going grocery shopping at the big stores in town. The most exciting purchase I made was the pillow. The pillow I have had has not been the most comfortable pillow on the planet earth. Let me tell you the new pillow is like a dream. We also each bought around 25 cans of soup. Since keeping fresh produce would be impossible for about two months we decided that soup would be our best option. We all stocked up on multiple kids of soup to change up what we eat. Our a day of shopping we have to treat ourselves. We went to the ice cream shop on island that makes homemade ice cream. I had a chocolate milkshake because obviously nothing beats those. It was like the best shake I have ever had. Mom and dad we might have to make a few stops there when you guys come to the island.

I was so excited to head back to the island. I was ready to see all the kids and all our friends back on the island. On the boat ride back I felt relaxed and back at home. We sat on the back of the boat watching the mountains of the main island get further and further away from us. We soon could see the Wharf and whole bunch of people sitting there. On holidays everybody seems to go to the beach and swim. We were pulling up to the harbor and everyone was yelling at us and waving. Lima was in the water doing her last swim before she left the island. We pulled up to the dock and the boys were immediately at the boat helping us carry all our groceries in. I remember looking out the window of our kitchen and just seeing a trail of people coming up to our house. We had little three year olds to like twenty five year olds carrying all of our house up to our house. I am really going to miss that when I get home.

We decided to join the fun and go swimming with the locals for a while. We went to the other side of the harbor where there are actually waves. We first had to throw rocks in the water to scare the sharks away. We then went swimming  in the waves. It was real interesting because there were a lot of rocks in the water and they hurt when they hit you. The current was also really strong so we had to be super careful. It was a lot of fun and at one point all three of us were just sitting there giggling because we couldn’t get out of the water because the waves were so strong. The boys had to help us get out of the water.

After swimming Lima told us she would be leaving soon. We decided to wait around and watch her say goodbye. I think it was hard on all of us because it brought back memories of when we left. Watching her say goodbye to everything was hard because it was all too familiar of when we said goodbye to our families. We sat on the rocks and watched her leave on the boat. We all got to talking about how we don’t even want to think about when we have to leave the island and how hard that will be. We also stayed up until 11 to watch her plane take off. We can see the airport from the island so we watched the plane take off and fly right over our little island.

As my parents would say we are back to reality today. I am back in the classroom but I am so excited to see my students and get another week underway!

With Love,

Abby

Columbus Day Weekend

We finally had a long weekend and were so excited to have a day off from teaching. Even teachers enjoy having the occasional day off. On Saturday morning we were planning on heading over to the main island to go visit the other World Teachers. We have not seen the teachers in over a month. We were just finishing breakfast when we got a call from our friend Lima. She invited us over for a BBQ . Her friends had thrown her a surprise going away party since she leaves for Alaska on Monday. We spent the early afternoon sitting in the back yard of one of the locals. The cooked chicken and hotdogs over the fire and it was so good. After that they told us they wanted to head to a private beach and go swimming.

So we headed over to our house to get our swimming clothes on. Lima and her sister came along. The also helped us get ready. We struggle with figuring out how to tie the Lavalava around our waists. It is way harder then you would think. We also put flowers in our hair we looked like true locals. We spent the afternoon listening to music and hanging with the locals. It was so much fun. This place is starting to feel more and more like home.

After swimming the afternoon away we headed back to pack our bags and go to the main island. We waited for the boat for about an hour and were finally heading over to the main island. As we were driving away we could see all our friends waving and saying goodbye to us. I can only imagine what my last boat ride when I am leaving the island will feel like. Good thing I have eight months to prepare for that.

We arrived at the main island and the three of us instantly felt out of place. The main island is much more Americanized than our little island. They have fast food, grocery stores and every thing else. It was weird walking around outside and not hearing the little kids yelling our names. We didn’t know anyone and it just felt weird. The three of us all felt a little homesick and wanted to go back to our home. On the flip side it was awesome to see the other teachers and hear about what they have been up to. It’s interesting how different each of our lives are now that we are at different schools and different houses.

With Love,

Abby

Finding happiness

Ask any wise person and they will say that the main thing in life is to find happiness. All the money in the world could never buy you happiness. It may buy you temporary happiness. Tonight, I had a moment where I experienced pure happiness. Money could not buy the happiness I was feeling inside. We live right next door to a church. We can here people singing inside the church all the time. This week the kids on the island are preparing for “White Sunday.” On this Sunday the whole day is dedicated to the kids on the island. They are in charge of the church service and the parents prepare a big meal in honor of them. Unfortunately, we have plans to go to main island this weekend and will not be here for it. Which is somewhat a good thing because we have been invited to all the churches multiple times and I have no idea how I would ever choose which one to attend. Tonight they were practicing for the program. We have heard them practicing every night this week but tonight we decided to go outside and peek inside the church. Oh my gosh, I felt like a parent. I was outside the church just standing in pure happiness. I was pointing out all my kids and just watching them sing and dance. It was so adorable. I couldn’t help but stare and enjoy watching the kids be in their element having the time of their lives.

Today, I decided to take my kids to the computer lab to use the smart board. Not having a projector in the classroom has been one of the hardest things. We were learning about the colony Jamestown in Social Studies and I found a virtual tour online. The wording on the website was pretty difficult so I knew I had to be there to translate the words for my students. I had plugged in my computer to the smart board and the virtual tour was just beginning. I have never seen my students so focused on the board as I did when we were doing our little virtual tour. It had pictures of what the colony had once looked like and I had my students just describe what they saw. Let me tell you these kids asked me questions that I never expected. They were so intrigued by it! Slowly but surely we are making progress in the classroom!

Yesterday, in my classroom we had a dead gecko in the electric socket. I had asked one of my students to take it out and throw the gecko outside. She grabbed the gecko and was walking around pretending to throw it at other students and then she finally through it out. She came back into the classroom and said teacher her is your pencil that you gave me earlier. I put my hand behind me and reached for the pencil except it wasn’t a pencil it was that dumb gecko. I jumped and screamed and they all laughed at me and thought that it was so funny. My class always keeps me entertained.

This weekend we have plans to go to the main island. We have long weekend because of Columbus Day. So far we are planning to have a grill out on Saturday and go to the beach on Monday. I can’t wait for a hot shower and being able to see the other volunteers.

With Love, 

Abby

Kayaking Adventures

This past week has been anything but easy on us. Some sort of culture shock or maybe homesickness hit all of us I think in the last week or so. Weekends here are always tough on us. We have so much free time and if we don’t plan things for us to do we sit around and think about what we wish we were doing at home. So we have now made it a weekend rule that we have to do something to distract or minds. On Sunday I remember coming home from lesson planning rather crabby. I just couldn’t figure out what to do with some of my lessons, I was hot and I just wanted normal. I walked in the house and told the girls I am sorry I am just crabby so just ignore me. They both soon told me they were crabby and that I was not alone. The next day at school Dana did some research on culture shock. Mostly because all of us were moody, crabby, and always hungry these last couple of days. We did our research and found out this is completely normal and we are just adjusting to our lives. Our bodies are just craving foods from back home but the only food we have from back home is ice cream. I would rather not tell you how much ice cream we have gone through since Saturday.

On Sunday one of the members of the church that we are attending told us that we could use his Kayaks whenever we wanted. We decided that we should totally take him up on this offer. Virginia and I told Reno, a local kid who told us he would help us get the kayak to the water that we wanted to do it after school today. Carrying the Kayak to the water was the easy part. Getting the kayak in the water was another story. So we decided to bring the kayak to the boat ramp. As we were climbing down many locals were warning us about how slippery it is. Word to the wise always listen to the locals. Reno walked down the boat ramp with no problem. I have walked on a lot of ice in my life and nothing was nearly as slippery as this ramp. Virginia was sliding down the ramp squatting trying to avoid falling. I was sitting on my butt just sliding down because I could not stand up on it to save my life. Now Reno is standing holding the kayak in the water on the ramp. Virginia someone how manages to get on. I crawl on slowly sliding into the water. Reno tries pushing us off and looks at me saying,” Teacher I am going for a swim.” Meaning he was about to fall into the water. He jumps onto the kayak to avoid falling in and almost flips us over. Phew. We finally made it on. Kayaking was so much fun the water is so clear we could see the ocean bottom the whole time and they said it was about 90 feet deep. Don’t worry mom. The boats traveling to and from the main island kept a close eye on us and said to wave our paddles if we needed them to help us! After we finished kayaking around we had to get the kayak out of the water…… So Reno was no longer with us. We paddled up to the slippery slope. The second the boat ramp ends there is a big drop off I can’t even touch the ground there. Virginia was at the front and hopped out first. She was sliding down but caught herself before falling in. I tried getting out and kept sliding. It was a challenge but I was slowly getting up the ramp. When a big wave came. The water got me and I was sliding and had no way to stop so I slid of the ramp into the water. The small crowd that had gathered to watch us was now laughing at us and we couldn’t help but laugh along. After quite the struggle we finally got the kayak off the slippery ramp.

Today Virginia and I made a big decision. We bought our tickets for Christmas break. We will be spending our Christmas break in………New Zealand. Don’t worry I would much rather be at home with my family celebrating Christmas but that was just not going to happen. I can’t wait to get there and see all sights and do some traveling around the island. It will be a Christmas I will never forget!

With Love,

Abby