Goodbye;farewell to loved language woes
yesterday evening an entire bus load of people said goodbye to Malu and Sue as they boarded the plane for LA and MO. it was a teary eyed moment. I was sad. They rented a bus and they picked me up from in front of the hotel. I wish them well.
12/09
Malo soifua lau susuga…a formal and respectful way to say hello, good health sir/miss.
Learning the language is only going to happen by using every opportunity to practice, ie..talking with the front desk worker at the hotel, the taxi driver (I took both th
ose opportunities yesterday and today). I noticed that I am the last one to talk in a group…not good trait for learning a language that is so auditory.
Leata (one of the hotel staff) helped me figure out what ladybug is Samoan: fitifiti (in spoken language, replace T with K: fikifiki). It is still interesting to me to observe the debate/conversation/discussion that ensues sometimes when a word needs to be translated. One English word can have many different Samoan counterparts.
I went to Peace Chapel Christian Fellowship church this morning. I liked it. It was very much like a Vineyard service in America—a band with keyboards, guitar, drums and singers. The message was about values. I learned that wisdom in Samoan is faimeatonu.
12/08
Lot’s of things to say…it has been two weeks in the village.
It was a teary eyed time last night as said my farewell speech to my Samoan (training village) family. I gave them the invitation (to the swearing in) and money PC gave me, and a copy of my poetry book. But it feels weird to know that my Samoan mom and dad will be moving to Missouri in three days. I get to see them off at the airport. That will be cool.
I’m getting to spend some extra time with one of the language trainers (about 40 hours), because I did not pass the language proficiency interview (LPI). Well, whatever…I can make excuses, one of them being I wanted to spend more time with my family than our schedule and homeworks allowed. And I also want to talk more with the trainers. So I will be “provisionally” sworn in. Samoa is so big on relationships, I want to know the trainers a little better than I do now. That was one of my feedback suggestions: trainers should share more about themselves, but then someone just said that trainers need boundaries…so what, no boundaries..well, now I’m just babbling. Just lost at chess, and I’m really tired. After a day in the hot sun at the all volunteer day playing soccer, eating fisherman burgers and a hanging out…ahhh..what a way to spend a Saturday—I mean Aso Toanati.
It was very interesting to see what kind of sicknesses are in Samoa. I have seen something called Ati Loto—a skin rash, that my Samoan mom actually is a healer for. She is a massage person, and used a plant she has in her yard to press into the guy’s skin. She made a point to tell me that people have to come to her as soon as they see something. I think he waited a few days too many. Makake is another skin problem that creates white bubbles around the neck. When they complete the full circle, the throat locks up and the person dies. A relative of my family came to visit us and we went to see another Samoan healer in our village, and she massaged the baby’s skin and spit some chewed up plant into his mouth. He was not a happy baby.
Malo soifua lau susuga…a formal and respectful way to say hello, good health sir/miss.
Learning the language is only going to happen by using every opportunity to practice, ie..talking with the front desk worker at the hotel, the taxi driver (I took both th
ose opportunities yesterday and today). I noticed that I am the last one to talk in a group…not good trait for learning a language that is so auditory.Leata (one of the hotel staff) helped me figure out what ladybug is Samoan: fitifiti (in spoken language, replace T with K: fikifiki). It is still interesting to me to observe the debate/conversation/discussion that ensues sometimes when a word needs to be translated. One English word can have many different Samoan counterparts.
I went to Peace Chapel Christian Fellowship church this morning. I liked it. It was very much like a Vineyard service in America—a band with keyboards, guitar, drums and singers. The message was about values. I learned that wisdom in Samoan is faimeatonu.
12/08
Lot’s of things to say…it has been two weeks in the village.
It was a teary eyed time last night as said my farewell speech to my Samoan (training village) family. I gave them the invitation (to the swearing in) and money PC gave me, and a copy of my poetry book. But it feels weird to know that my Samoan mom and dad will be moving to Missouri in three days. I get to see them off at the airport. That will be cool.
I’m getting to spend some extra time with one of the language trainers (about 40 hours), because I did not pass the language proficiency interview (LPI). Well, whatever…I can make excuses, one of them being I wanted to spend more time with my family than our schedule and homeworks allowed. And I also want to talk more with the trainers. So I will be “provisionally” sworn in. Samoa is so big on relationships, I want to know the trainers a little better than I do now. That was one of my feedback suggestions: trainers should share more about themselves, but then someone just said that trainers need boundaries…so what, no boundaries..well, now I’m just babbling. Just lost at chess, and I’m really tired. After a day in the hot sun at the all volunteer day playing soccer, eating fisherman burgers and a hanging out…ahhh..what a way to spend a Saturday—I mean Aso Toanati.
It was very interesting to see what kind of sicknesses are in Samoa. I have seen something called Ati Loto—a skin rash, that my Samoan mom actually is a healer for. She is a massage person, and used a plant she has in her yard to press into the guy’s skin. She made a point to tell me that people have to come to her as soon as they see something. I think he waited a few days too many. Makake is another skin problem that creates white bubbles around the neck. When they complete the full circle, the throat locks up and the person dies. A relative of my family came to visit us and we went to see another Samoan healer in our village, and she massaged the baby’s skin and spit some chewed up plant into his mouth. He was not a happy baby.
posted by bigchainring at 6:59 PM
2 Comments:
Hopefully you can make it in to peace chapel some during your 2 years I ride my bike in if the weathers nice. So far thats been twice during the rainy season.
Iusi
I love reading your blog installments...it satisfy my obsession with all things Samoan since my daughter and son-in-law are over there as well. The mention of your back and neck pain brings a pang to my physical therapist's heart. Hopefully you will get the exercise you need to help with that. Keep up the good work.
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