harder work for rugby makes the third langauge

pics: Three pics of Emmi, the Vice Principal's daughter. She is 6, in year 1, has a very loud voice, and is very outspoken, and is good at teaching me new samoan words.

3/5
I met the pastor (fei’feau) of a village called Falese’ela. They have a house palagià just like in America. Their names are Salika (wife) and Tuitoga. They are really nice. They said I could come over whenever I wanted to eat dinner. They have a computer that is six years old—really old in computer world. They said it is really slow.

I came back to the school to do a workout—and ended up having my first rugby lesson. Leaga mataio lakapi. I’m not very good at rugby, but I’m sure I’ll get many chances to practice.

Fun with rashes…wearing clothes more than once=bad bad bad.

A low grade sweat—not baptiste, I’m always damp—and where it’s dark and damp, yummy things grow.

Year12 at school is reading a novel called “the Pearl” by john Steinbeck…sounds good, and hard.

Observation: I see the power of observation when I see the visitor’s from seattle. The PC training took great pains to instill observation in us. It feels like it is ingrained in me now. Just sitting and watching is so different than jumping in to start a project. I am a watch and wait person—probably fear of disrespecting people.

I’ve realized the different styles of leadership at my last 2 places of work. The ymca in boston: one director was an in your face person, and the other director was very laid back. I had a better relationship with the laidback director.


2/26
So much for working out…after school finished at 2pm, and I was done sitting in on an English teachers meeting at 3pm, I went to my room and laid down. I didn’t get up until 7pm. 8pm is dinner time. I always seem sleepy, thirsty, and stuffed up.

New learning for the day: to’aga means hard worker. The net on the protection of privacy in working life in Finland says an employer can’t Google (do online research) on a potential employee, yeah, right…how does that ever get tracked. I’m sure employers do it all the time—even if from a public computer. I would Google a potential employee.

Everyday it hits me a little deeper—how much different Samoan culture is than my culture. I’m sitting in one of the Lefaga buses, waiting for it to go to my village. I missed the first buy (pasi muamua), so a nice two hour wait for the next one. The bus driver and another man are on the but—talking and talking and talking…I just want to write in my journal and read my magazine. They tell you about it in PC training, but it is so different to sit and listen to it, to sit and daydream about it…to sit day in and day out and live it.

Another example of my eye acting better than my camera—or maybe me just not knowing how to set my camera correctly. Sitting on bus at fish market, three busses from the water. Try to focus in on the pattern of the water—no good/leaga hmmmmmm..ask my friend heather how to get a good picture.

What does the word halfcaste make you think of? A derogative term? Negative connotations? That’s what I thought. A halfcaste is someone who is half Samoa and half something else—NZ, Australia, Chinese, American. Having “connections with palagis” is a good thing, a status thing I guess.

The “why” samoans don’t do why. I ask why and they shrug just because (pau lava). Sometimes really frustrating to me.
Just joking” ahhhhh my vice principal always wants to joke with me. Sometimes hard when I’m not in the jokingest mood.

Mania sitisiti—good weight lifting at Matafa’a, the science teacher’s village, a walk and a boat ride from my school building.

It still amazes me how I can pack the food away and my wrists get thinner, my waist grows smaller—I think I’m a 30 waist now. Tonight I ate yams with coconut sauce, mackerel, chicken in curry sauce and some pig. Then a banana for good measure. I ahd an orange before dinner too.

Before dinner I saw a double rainbow while (tele timu) much rain. Then I went for a bike ride (finally have my old pedals and bar ends on and brakes). It was a good wet ride. Then a dip in the ocean before shower and dinner, then moe—sleep.

New word for the day (pa le manava) means very very fully full—a piggy eyes bigger than stomach.

I’m reading another book I think is pretty good “teaching English as a foreign language to large multicultural classes.” Good advice #1: listen, understand, adjust.” #2: keep your sentences short. (my advice #3: think very carefully about what you write on the blackboard.)

Teaching a skill, having a mentor, learning about your roots. 3 things a friend told me helps kids stay resilient. Hmmmmm…something for later.

English as a second language “computers as a third language”

When I heard my principal say “you know English is our second language,” I knew that I should look at ESL resources more.

Segmentation of language—one samoan word can have 3,4,5 meanings in English. (eg. Malo= ok, good, win, yep). I wonder how the samoan culture would change if there was a different word for everything.