Hiking and more

           Sorry bloggers I have been super busy lately and had bits and pieces of a blog started but never completed but I finally got a chance to complete it this week. I have been busy getting grades done for parent teacher conferences along with getting my application finished so I can start applying to be a contract teacher in Samoa. I fell in love with this island and everything that it has to offer and I am just not quite ready to say goodbye to it yet. So fingers crossed that the application process goes smoothly but this is Samoa and we run on island time.

            On Saturday morning we decided that we were going to try and do one of the hikes. American Samoa is known for having beautiful hiking trails and we better get those hikes in before we head home. Early on Saturday we headed for the main island to tackle this hike. Lusi decided to come along with us and be our tour guide for the day. Going into this hike Dana and I had thought it was going to be an easy little hike we had done a portion of it during orientation and remembered it was easy. When we got to the trailhead and told Lusi we wanted to do the whole hike I could tell that he was less then thrilled about that. I now know why he thought we were crazy. The hike was around five mile hike and since we are in the middle of rainy season lets just say the trail was a little bit slippery for us. At one point or another I know that all three of us had slipped and tried to casually play it off as if it was nothing. The trail also had a few obstacles for us to overcome for instance at points we were hanging onto ropes as we were navigating this trail. I remember clinging onto this rope for dear life because otherwise I was going to start sliding down the mountain. A time or two Dana and I would be sliding down the mountain and Lusi would act as our roadblock and catch us from sliding any further. It was a great hike all and all and we made many memories.

            On our walk back to the bus we had encounter with the infamous dogs on the island. The dogs on our small little island know us now and we seem to have no problems around them. The dogs on the main island are a whole different story. They can be very mean. We were walking to catch a bus when this dog started charging at us. Dana and I have about the worst reaction possible when this occurs. We scream and curl up into the fetal position because we get scared. What your supposed to do is act really big start yelling at the dogs and act like you are going to throw a rock at them. So while Dana and I are freaking out Lusi is yelling at the dog and trying to act really intimidating. Thank goodness he came along otherwise I have a feeling that a dog would have attacked us.

            This past Monday had proved to be a test of patience of living on the island. I had a long day at school and my day got even better when I arrived home from school. Lusi and I had gone to the well to fill up our water containers and Dana had said she was going to go take a quick shower. I got back to the house after getting the water and Dana was like I have some real bad bad news for us. I went to take a shower and we can’t take a shower in there tonight. We have had issues with our pipes all year long. Usually about every two months the pipes get clogged and when you flush the toilet it doesn’t correctly flush. Instead of going outside like it should it comes up our shower drains. Yes, we had poop in our shower and it smelt horrible. We called the “plumber” on island and they said they would stop by tomorrow to help us out. Lusi then told us that the owner of the house never showers in our shower he always showers out side. This is very typical in Samoa. We rigged a hose up on our outside porch and created our own shower. Since we live at the wharf which is about the busiest place on island we don’t privacy with this shower. We just tied and iea around us and went outside to shower. I was very skeptical of this at first. To my amazement I actually liked showering outside a lot better. The water pressure from the hose was way better then what we get in the shower and I can watch the waves and the sunset all while I am showering. The only downfall is I have students talking to me and watching me take a shower. I guess I really am turning into a Samoan.  

            After our outdoor showers Dana and I were watching a movie on the couch when out of the corner of my eye I saw a rat scurry under both of our feet. I have never jumped so fast. I was not expecting to see a rat and it had scared the crap out of me. We had no idea where the rat went and then about twenty minutes later we watched it climb up the coconut tree in our house and scale Dana’s wall. To say it scared the crap out of me would be an understatement. We decided to go hunting for it and failed to find the little devil. I was getting ready for bed and putting water into my water bottle when the rat ran across the counter and past my head once again I jumped and screamed. I was so mad at the stupid thing. I then was heading towards my bed when I heard it trying to dig into a box so I finally just threw a rock at it and closed my door hoping it wouldn’t bother me anymore. I never did end up seeing the rat again. I am not real sure if it left the house or what but hopefully he doesn’t reappear.

            I hope that all is going well at home. As my date towards coming home is getting closer I am getting more and more excited about seeing everyone at home. I just can’t get over how fast this year is going by. I also can’t believe how much has changed over the past year!

            With Love,

            Abby

Bring on March

I can’t believe that it is already march and my year here is getting closer and closer to being over. I am not going to lie I am getting pretty excited to go home and see everyone but it makes me sad to leave this place that I now call my new home. The month of March rolled in with some major heat. This week we finally got back to the heat that we usually have. It has been cool here ever since my parents have been here. It is no longer cool and I am back to the normal of sweating all the time and never being quite comfortable in the heat.

These past couple of weeks have been a little tough in the classroom. It is the time of year where I feel like everyone gets into a slump. My students are definitely in the slump where they are ready for school to be done and to move on to high school. I am in the slump of I just want a break from school. As I was talking to a few friends from back home I soon found out that they were dealing with similar problems and that we are all getting closer to the end of the year and we students have that insane amount of energy.

This past weekend we decided to get off of our little island and head over to the main island. Lusi told us that we should go with him to the cricket game on Saturday. I know very little about cricket but it sounded like a nice get away from the island. We left early on Saturday morning so we could also get some grocery shopping in before the game. We were lucky enough to be able to use Lusi’s family car for about an hour so we could quickly get groceries before the game. At the game we sat under a big tent in the shade with all the rest of the people on our island. It was a girls cricket game and all the ladies on the island play on the team. Our students were very excited to see us at the game along with the locals. They always make us feel so welcome. Not even ten minutes after we sat down our neighbor had ran to the store to get us water, fruit, snickers. She made sure that we were also in the shade the whole game because it was so hot outside. After the game we all boarded onto a bus that took us right back to the harbor. The bus was full of people that were all from our island and they spent a majority of the bus ride chanting and singing along to the music being played. It was a lot of fun and I always like hanging around the locals.

On Sunday we spent our morning sweating it out at church it was so hot. After church we have made it kind of a tradition that Lusi brings over ribs or fried chicken depending on what his family makes and then I make mashed potatoes and sometimes another veggie. This way we can all have a big Sunday meal together. Usually after Lusi, Dana, and I eat all the food we end up all falling asleep on the couches for a couple of hours.  After our Sunday naps we head over to the school for some lesson planning and Internet. After lesson planning we spend our nights watching movies and just trying to stay cool!

Rain, Rain, go away

The windstorm that we were experiencing on Sunday calmed down over night and we were finally able to go outside on Monday. I am not used to being stuck inside a house all day. I was so ready to be outside again. On Monday we headed over to the school to get our classrooms ready for school. When I opened my door my bulletin boards had been blown off the walls along with dust and sand blown into the classroom. I spent most of the day cleaning up the mess that was created in my room. After lesson planning I went out to the water and went swimming. I love the fact that I can go swimming whenever I want to.

On Tuesday morning we were back on to the school grind. It was really nice to have a long weekend. This is our last break we get from school for a while. In the month of March we don’t have any breaks. Hopefully the month goes by quickly but we will see what happens. On Tuesday afternoon in school the wind started to pick up again. I was in the middle of teaching a lesson when a big gust of wind came through my classroom and blew all my papers of my desk. I spent more of my afternoon finding things to put on my papers to prevent them from blowing around the classroom. Soon the VP came by and said that the bus was out of gas and once the bell rings we were to walk our students home from school. It was really windy and they wanted to make sure that all students made it home safe. My students were not in the least bit thrilled that they were going to be walked home by their teacher. I tried my best to walk them home but they just wanted to do what they wanted to do.

We have now officially entered rainy season here. I am really not a fan of the rainy season. I feel like most of the days we are inside due to the poor weather outside. More than once these last couple of weeks I have also go caught in the rain when I was walking somewhere and ended up getting soaking wet. Luckily the rain doesn’t even phase me anymore. One night this week it wasn’t raining so we took this opportunity and went outside to hang out. This is when the boys were trying to teach us how to dance like a Samoan. Little do they know that I am not a dancer and that it will take me years to ever figure out that dance.

With Love,

Abby

Valentines Day and mini hurricane

Valentines day used to be one of my favorite days when I was growing up. I loved the fact of going to school and getting candy from my fellow classmates and giving candy to all my friends. In Samoa they do things a little differently. I honestly had no idea what to expect with this holiday. I had gotten candy for all my students and brought a movie so we could have a little celebration. My students loved the candy and I had gotten cute little handmade valentines from other students. I love getting handmade work from students. I also keep them and put them in a binder so I can look back on them. My students devoured the candy and loved the movie. That is about the extent of the celebrating we did for the holiday. Valentines Day was also Virginia’s birthday so we were also celebrating her 23^rd birthday. We made a big cake and then Lusi and Joe did the cinnamon challenge. This challenge is that you cannot eat a spoonful of cinnamon. Safe to say they both failed miserably at the challenge and were leaning over the sink for a while and the three of us were sitting in the chairs laughing at them.

On Friday we had the Valentine’s dance at the Mormon Church. At the dances they start off the night by having a big potluck. We had so much food sitting in front us during the meal. I have to say I have never gone hungry since arriving on the island. After eating our weight in food they called up everyone who had a valentine to come to the middle of the dance floor. I was casually sitting next to Dana when Lusi came over to me and said let’s go. After giving him the death glare because I knew my students would freak out when we went in and joined the heart circle that had been created by the locals. A small murmur went across the crowd as we got up safe to say I am going to hear all about this on Tuesday when I get to class.

Late Saturday night into early Sunday morning was the start of what Dana and I are calling the mini hurricane. Throughout the night we could just hear huge gusts of winds going on outside. These gusts of winds have continued until now which is Sunday night. Our rule of thumb is if we don’t here them constantly ringing the bells we are still safe.  Apparently they are supposed to last until Tuesday sometime. All day on Sunday Dana and I have been running in and out of the house looking at the crazy wind gusts. Lusi came over for lunch bringing us fried chicken and Samoan food. We all had went outside to look at the damage that had happened so far. I was busy recording and not paying attention to where I was walking when I stepped into something squishy. Little did I know that I had just stepped in dog poop. After I had screamed a little bit I heard Dana and Lusi just dying of laughter. I don’t think that I had laughed that hard in so long. It is now Sunday evening and the wind has gotten a little worse. The locals are walking around boarding up all the windows. Whenever it gets really windy we all run to our screened in porch to look out side. One time we were standing in the porch and we could hear tin coming off our roof, the power went out and Lusi was yelling at us to go into the house. For once I was actually wishing we had a basement here to go to. I am so used to having a basement I didn’t know where to go.

With Love,

Abby

Mid-Service already?!

Yet another week of school has passed already. The weeks here seem to be flying by and the end of the school year seems to be getting closer and closer. This week we also had our mid-service meetings with world teach. For this we spent a weekend together with all the volunteers discussing things we need to complete before hopping on the plane to go home. We also got the opportunity to talk to other volunteers about the struggles of being a teacher in Samoa when you are not Samoan. It was relieving to talk to them and know that all of us our going through the same thing just we have different schools.

Along with the meetings we also got treated this weekend. We got to spend one night at Tradewinds hotel on the main island. This is like the Hilton of the island. It has nice rooms, air conditioning and hot showers. These are all big things for us and we all laid in our rooms and just enjoyed sitting in the cold but we all also froze. I slept in long sleeve and leggings and multiple blankets. It will be quite an adjustment when we get back home and not being in the heat all the time.

School has been good lately the closer I get to the end of the school I try to spend more and more time with my students because deep down I know I am running out of time with them. I also know that saying goodbye to them may be one of the hardest things that I will have to do. My big project of the week is to revamp my classroom. I really don’t like the decorations in my classroom but I also don’t really have a choice due to the fact that we have limited supplies. So I have been trying to get as a creative as possible with redecorating. Slowly but surely I am making some progress it may take me until the end of the year to get it to look like I want but we are getting there. I also created a learning center this week. It’s an area my students can go to when they complete assignments. So far this has helped so much with classroom management. I have a stress relief coloring book that I brought in for them and they love it and are always fighting over who gets to color in it.

My life here is always an adventure and this week was yet another experience for me. I was on my lunch break and multiple students were gathered around this box and eating something. I was curious as to what they were eating so I went over there to see what was going on. They were eating seaweed yes, you heard me correctly they were eating seaweed. I tried a piece it looks like tiny little ball filled with water. It actually was pretty good. It tasted salty but it was really good. If they have it again I will take a picture and show you guys. I also tried sushi. I never thought that I would be a person to try sushi and I really liked it. Yeah, I am even surprised to say that I liked it. I tried some raw tuna it was a little spicy but otherwise it was really good!

With Love,

Abby