Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone back home and I hope that you enjoyed the holiday weekend! Our Easter weekend was full of activities that kept us busy throughout the weekend. It was a much-needed break from school to just relax. On Friday Dana and I spent the day just relaxing around the house and getting things ready for next week at school. We decided to get everything done with on Friday and just enjoy the rest of our holiday weekend. Here is a recap of a few of the things we did over the weekend.

I have recently joined our local volleyball team. The team consists of all people that live on our island. On the weekends we travel to play teams on the main island. The volleyball team is a church activity so only people who attend the church we go to are allowed to play on this team. Last week was our first week of practices. It is a little different then playing in the states. For instance instead of playing in a gym I am playing on an outside court right next to the ocean in the sun. I really enjoy playing on the team. This weekend we had an early practice. Early meaning we started at 4:30 in the morning. I for a while thought the locals were just pulling a prank on me little did I know they were actually being serious. I understand why they had such an early practice because it is a lot cooler in the morning when they sun is not out it is much more enjoyable practice. It’s a good thing that I am a morning person otherwise that would have been a real struggle.

On Sunday morning we had our sunrise service for church the bells started ringing at four in the morning. Thankfully church didn’t start until 5:30 so I got to sleep in a little. The Easter service was a candlelight service. So everyone was holding the candles and it was still dark outside so it was very pretty. Sunday was also Dana’s birthday so we had an excuse to get ice cream and cake and be lazy all day on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon at around 3:30 we had our joint church service. The church that we attend is a pretty big church its about the size of the church we attend at home. All of the people at the village were attending this service. It was quite the experience first of all the church was completely full on Sundays the church usually gets only half full. We all sat according to church so each church had their own little section in which they sat in for the service. Each church had the opportunity to sing a song and then they had a short little service. It never fails that when we attend big events like this they like to call us out. I think it is their way of showing they appreciate us. The pastor goes just have the person next to you translate since you seem to like him so much. Take a wild guess that Lusi was next to us and translating for us.

On Saturday we decided to go on a hike around the island. Our time here is slowly coming to an end and we want to enjoy the beauty of the island as much as possible before we leave for home. Dana and I hiked the whole island and then went swimming for a while. On our way back we noticed the locals all playing a game of cricket so we sat and watched for a while. We were also told that on Monday they were having an island wide cricket one side of the island against the other side of the island. We attended the game on Monday and watched all our students and the adults participate in an island wide game. It was fun to watch everyone together except it was a little hot outside. I have never sweat so much while sitting and watching a game before.

Hope you all had a great Easter!

I miss my car

I have officially gone almost eight months without having my car. Since I was sixteen I have always have the privilege of having my own car and the ability to travel anywhere I want when I want. I had put my trusty old car in the car of my parents since I was leaving and had no use for it while I was here. That does not mean I do not miss my car. I will give you a little perspective of what it is like to travel here. It is not nearly as easy as you would think it would be. For starters many people who live on my island have one family car. It would be all of my dads brothers sharing on pickup. You can imagine that my dads side of the family would not all fit in that one car. Then they go down what I call the chain of command. They first make sure that the older people in the family do not need the car for any reasons. After that they make sure the younger kids do not need the car because taking the kids on the bus would be quite the hassle.

            Lets just say that we were doing this in my family. I will make it simpler and just use my immediate family. I would have to check with my parents first to see if they needed the car if they did. I would be relying on the bus. If my parents decided to stay home I would now ask Jared since he is the oldest and also has kids. If they needed the car and had no room for me to tag along back to the bus I go. Lastly I would have to ask Derek if he needed the car and if he did back to the bus I go. Finally since I am last in line I could ask if I could use the car. So all in all getting a car here is quite a complicated process. Luckily when people have open space in their car and are driving past where you need to go they are more than willing to drop you off.

            All right so more than likely here we cannot find a ride and head for the bus stop. The bus is not always the most reliable since we are so far out on the island. On average we will wait about an hour for the bus to come. After an hour of waiting around hoping a bus will show up we hop on. It’s about a fifteen-mile drive to where we need to go and on average takes us about forty-five minutes on the bus to get there. Once we arrive at the market I usually only spend an hour of shopping and back to the bus stop we go. On Saturday we had a rare experience. We got to the bus stop and we saw some locals and were chatting with them. They told us that we need to get comfortable because they had been waiting for over an hour and a half the bus. For the fun of it I set my stopwatch to see how long we were going to have to wait. At the hour mark of waiting we asked a bus driver who doesn’t do our route to please give us a ride home. Thankfully we got home it was know 1:30 and we made it to the harbor. We left our house at eight and only did an hour of shopping.

            When we got back to the harbor it was now the waiting game of the boat. The coastguard just reinforced a law on our boats saying that each boat can only hold eight passengers. Usually we fit at least ten to fifteen people on these boats and now we are down to eight. We got up to harbor and waited our turn to hop on the boat and finally get home. Around 2:30 we finally made it home and all I could say is I miss my car. With the help of my car my day trip would have only taken me two hours I am guessing instead of six!

From Independent to Selfless

Eight months ago when I arrived in American Samoa I was very independent. I had been living on my own and cooking my own meals all summer long. After finishing college it was a complete wake up call. It was also refreshing and rewarding to be doing things on my own without the help of other people. I wanted to live on my own to prepare myself for moving to the island. I knew once I arrived here I wouldn’t be able to rely on my parents for much besides support. Being six thousand miles away means that they can’t just come over and fix my problems I would have to face it alone. I was excited for this adventure to see how it would all pan out being independent.

            The first couple of weeks here we spent in orientation getting to know the culture as much as we could. I remember one thing that we were told was to always ask for help from locals and to never face anything alone. I remember that going in one ear and out the other. I was thinking I can do this my self. I want to accomplish this year by myself without the help of other people.

            Over the course of these eight months I have learned so much about giving to others and not doing things on my own. I remember in the beginning I would always make food for just myself and my students could not understand why we didn’t all buy our food together and makes meals. For us we wanted to be independent and prove to ourselves we can do this alone. Now on Saturday nights and Sunday noon I am often busy in the kitchen preparing a big meal for Dana, Lusi, and I to eat. I used to be so worried that they were going to eat all my food but now I just make the food and trust that I buy enough groceries to make it through the week. It gives me a sense of happiness knowing that I am helping someone else and making their day a little easier.

            The Samoan was is to give all you got to others when they need it so that when you need something that person will be able to help you. They don’t care about money or how much something costs if a friend needs something you just give it to them without thinking twice about it. People have been bring us food all year long. I have received so many meals from people on the island. They just want to help us out and make sure that we are doing okay. Never fails that everytime we come back with groceries we have a whole bunch of people carrying our stuff. Most of the time I don’t even have to carry anything because they have enough people carrying it already. Multiple times I have been sitting at the bus stop waiting for a bus and a local goes hop in we can take you where you need to go. These people don’t care about themselves they just care about each other and making sure the people they care about are okay.

            That is what I love about this place. I know that if I ever get in trouble that these people will have my back. I have also learned to get/do things for other people just because it feels good and it makes the other person feel appreciated. I know that when I go home it will be hard to go back and not have these people around constantly being selfless and helping others.

We made it through March

The whole time that I have been here the month of March looked very daunting. To start it off March is a long month and secondly we not a single break. Every time I looked at the calendar I would dread getting through the month of March. At the beginning of the month Dana and I decided that we needed to make the most of this month. Keeping us busy and not looking at the calendar thinking about how slow it will go by. To say the least March flew by and now I am kind of sad about. So I am going to list some big things that happened in our month of March.

            I booked my plane ticket home! The most bittersweet moment I have yet to face. I have truly fallen in love with this place and I am not ready to say goodbye to all my friends and students. I booked my flight for June 14. I have two overnight flights and two full days of traveling. I may be slightly dead when I arrive home but I just want to get the flying over with so I am doing all the traveling in one shot. So if you happen to see me soon after that date I may be half dead due to traveling and time change. I am soooooooooooo excited to see everyone. Lately I have been dreaming about home and it gets a little excited to see everyone.

            After booking my flight home I also officially applied to be a contract teacher! I just love this country too much to be completely ready to goodbye to it. The thing with American Samoa is nothing is done in a real timely manner. So I am not sure when I will know if I get accepted. It’s a very complicated process that I don’t even completely understand. All I know is that last year when a world teacher applied to be a contract teacher she didn’t know she got accepted until two days before her flight left. So I guess I will play the waiting game and hopefully I will know sooner!

            Cricket. We have spent our weekends at cricket matches for the month of March. It was fun to go out and watch the games and hang out with the locals. The last game Dana and I got slightly distracted because we had babies right next to us the whole game. I am not going to complain about that one. Cricket games were also filled with packed buses with our students sitting on laps trying to get everyone crammed onto the bus. The last cricket game we went to we left at 5 in the morning and sat through a four-hour game. It was quite the experience and I was really tired after the game!

            Ever since my parents left we have started the tradition of having “family” meals on Sunday after church. At home our family always we have a big meal after Sunday church and I really missed doing that. I had mentioned that to Lusi and Dana so I started making chicken and potatoes every Sunday for them. I may not be able to eat chicken and potatoes again after this year. Lusi also brings us all different kinds of Samoan food and I am starting to get cravings for certain foods. I also tried banana pie this month. If you have never had it you should try it sometime it is really good!

            Lastly we said tofah to Joe. Joe was one of our good friends on island. He spent a lot of time with us since we arrived on island. He moved to the states to go live with his brother and get a job. It has been quite entertaining listening to his comments about the states because he has never been off island until now. He called the other day and said that everywhere he looks he just sees buildings. He also went to Chuck- E-Cheese and said that it was not that great. Lots of kids and screaming!

With Love,

Abby

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