Rugby misses mexican food

pics: fire dancing! we went to a fire dancing contest....even it was the first day of competitions it was still cool...

6/24
One thing I still don’t understand, why is it so hard to get my rugby ball back from the vice principal. I bought a rugby ball so I could practice my kicks when no one else was around. It disappeared on the first day. It reappeared the next Friday at rugby practice with the school boys. Tomorrow night (ha ha ha. I can see into the future) the science teacher will ask for some ice, and I will say please bring me my rugby ball first. I will wait and see if it appears. And wait. And wait. And wait.

…re-reading The Sun Magazine, creating a semi-poem, I came across some advice that I think is good for me right now. Page 15: “why do you always insist that everyone and everything be happy before you can be happy yourself? Don’t you know that’s impossible?” hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…I have tried to make this happen.

“fa’amatala. Fa’amatala. Fa’amatala.” I keep saying this to my students in computer class. I don’t want them to do it for them. I want each student to do it themselves, because I think that is how they will learn best, especially in a samoan culture—hearing the instruction, and using their hands to do the action, double click or dragging text…and then we repeat 101 times. Which I realized we only repeated it maybe 11 times during the practical part of the midterm exams this week. My students gave me many blank stares when I gave them some instructions to complete on their computer. One example… “highlight the text” hmmmmmmmmm we don’t seem to know that yet. Students really want to sit back, relax, and let others do it for them. That is the communal part of the samoan culture front and center, but that is not what will help them (each student) in the long term. I see this in the teachers, especially this week, when we were finishing typing the midyear exams. There were two teachers who waited until the last minute, and then mr. Crichton got to type their tests for them. But the teachers know I won’t do that easily. I don’t really think that me doing it for them—the teachers—will help them in the long term. I remember what Fata (our Peace Corps program director) said, that we are here to transfer skills, I guess even if the teachers are not happy about the process of that.

But I have been helping mr. fualau (the science teacher) to create diagrams, even to edit the scanned pictures in Microsoft paint and then insert them into the MSWord document. That is the most advanced stage we are at so far, and that has done it for all the diagrams in the midyear exams. So if 7 out of 11 teachers really understand how to create and modify tables and create/scan and modify diagrams, that would be GREAT progress.

My mom sent me another issue of New World Finn…. “eating copious amounts of dark rye bread with Finnish cheese.” Mmmmmmmmmm I miss that! A normal Finn mechanic examines some evidence… “a certain lack of social grace, seasonal affective “disorder”, over-intellectuality, far ranging musical interests, a tendency for to unnecessary honesty…” yep, sounds like me.
Wanted on a T-shirt: “what the heck, it’s a living”


6/22
Mexican food came to our fale tonight. I made black bean, refried beans, and cheese n’ nachos for my Samoan family. Ahhh on a scale of 10 I give it a five. Melted cheese is best eaten when it is HOT, not when it has been sitting for 5-15 minutes. The cherry tomatoes were warm—there is no fridge in our fale, only a freezer, oh and cheese does not freeze well. But next weekend I think I’m staying at Sara and Kale’s place to make fajitas. Mmmm…my mouth is watering.

The first person from our PC group (group 79, arrived October 07) is leaving Samoa. He has had some difficulties and I guess decided it could not work. I’m sad, but the statistics say, what do they say, I don’t know, some people leave PC early (early terminate); whatever. We’ll miss him. It is hard to live in a place where you are expected to share everything, and saving isn’t known.

Let me say now that working and experiencing Samoan culture—where all people want to be as close to their family as possible—has made me want to go home right at the end of two years to help my “family.” So as of now, I’m going to head back to America at the end of my two years of service. Let’s see if that actually happens (if I don’t extend my service at all ). I miss my mom and grandparents. 2 years…uma!

It seems weird to read about the $200 barrel of oil, which will change “everything.” Including the price of everything shipped to Samoa, “rising transport costs.” Fun. Things are expensive enough for the people living here. My Pule (principal) told me that a newly minted teacher earns the same amount of money that a veteran teacher does…like one at our school that has taught for 10 years.
This is from a Newsweek article in the June 9, 2008 issue (PC Samoa has a subscription to newsweek, so there are always multiple boxes littering the hallway in the office). “Ford has slashed production of its F-series pickup trucks, an American best seller for 20 years.” Wow. Now shoot to the end of the article “but if you think things won’t be pleasant for industrial nations, think about developing economies, where people spend 50% of their income on food and fuel.” I wonder what percentage of earnings people use for food and fuel.

australian's drink pineapple juice..really me;0

in the pics: Our PC medical officer doing a presentation during our early service conference at FaoFao beach fales...nice; a boy collecting water at faofao; some masina shells..I collected about 60 of them at the beach.

6/21
Another Saturday. Another day to travel to Apia. Here is the rundown of what I did. I’m pretty much in a routine now when I go there.
I take the last morning bus from my Samoan family’s fale in Tafagamanu. I arrive at Apia after the bumpy 1.5 hour bus ride and get off at the fish market. Breakfast consists of keke pua’a (a pastry with cooked pig inside) and an orange inside the large flea market/craft shop. Walking on the sea wall I spy a huge cruise ship (P&O from London) and talk to some of it’s visitors—on a 28 day whirlwind tour of islands. I stop at a small market and get a warm cinnamon roll and bottle of pineapple juice (yum). I would check my email and have posted this blog stuff today, but the internet at the PC office was down, or broken, or choosing not to work. So I did non-internet related things—picked up three books, poetry, GMAT (cause I still have visions of attending UW sometime in the future), exchanged some CDs and DVDs, and relaxed in the semi air conditioned office. I had lunch at Sydney’s café—the local palagi hangout (i.e. lots of white people). The samoan kids know where to try and sell fans, matches, and apples. I bought a bag. I ate spicy tomato soup and a ham and cheese sandwich. Pa le manava (very full). I headed to the vegi market to get cucumbers and tomatoes, but stopped on the way to pick up black beans and baby powder. I get a niu lapo’a (large chilled coconut) for $2 tala. I couldn’t even finish it all. I sat and observed the wildlife at the veggie market. Samoans will test your samoan. I guess I didn’t impress, we had a few sentences, and then they stopped talking to me. Have you ever seen a Samoan in an afro? I mean a big ass afro, at least 6 inches thick it was. I wonder what movie he watched. I walked to Farmer Joe—a New Zealand company that is reorganizing the Samoan branch up to standards…Standards! What are those? We don’t have those here in Samoa. I got cheese, nachos, cooking oil, a 40pound bag of rice (which has seen a $14 tala increase in a very short time). So I dropped $100 tala pretty easily in the palagi store. It was 3:00pm when I sat down at the veggie market bus stop. The lady selling chips told me ‘oh, the Lefaga bus doesn’t come to this bus stop.’ Well, I decided to wait for a while. No bus. So then I took a taxi to the fish market bus stop, and waited some more. Only one bus was waiting, it was 4:30pm. Someone said no Lefaga bus. I guess the “schedule” was changed because of the large boat docked at harbor in Apia. So a girl comes up to me and says I should take the Safata bus because it passes through Lefaga. Good idea I said. I got in. waited another 30 minutes. We were off. We arrived in Lefaga at the four corners well after dark, with my heavy food. There was a samoan man that also got off the bus. He carried the bag of rice on the LONG walk down to my village. I got home, had some whiskey, coke, and lime with my Samoan father. It’s his cherished tradition with Mataio—drink some alcohol before dinner, and laugh when I say I need to eat some food before I drink more. We watched some rugby while we ate—Japan and Fiji. Japan was kicking behind. Leaga Fiti. After eating I had the intention of reading for half an hour, but I laid down and fell asleep within 5 minutes. Usually happens; alcohol is a great muscle relaxer for me.


6/15
I was visiting Ross and Maria, who are “visiting” from Austrailia. I say “visiting” because they brought over a shipping container filled with stuff, and they are totally remodeling Maria’s brother’s fale. And tell me that they are going to “keep” it when they are done. Maria was watching a DVD (part of a 6 DVD! set…I guess she’s been around a while) of some highlights of the Opera show. I didn’t watch Opera in America because I don’t like talk shows, but she is a very interesting person, and does a lot of cool stuff. She keeps a gratitude journal that she showed. Well, here is my 10 minute reflection on gratitude: I’m grateful for: 1) my health 2) the ability to do cool things and help other people 3) being in Samoa doing PC 4) my mom still here and that I have a good relationship with her 5) still having my curiosity. She also said “when you have judgment, you cannot feel/find the truth; to prepare for the marriage.”

Samoan words need shorts to fix computerS

in the pictures: our local McDonalds...prices are high high high..but I usually get the vanilla ice cream; a drawing I did of looking out the back door of a PCV's house on the big island of Savaii; another drawing I did of the coconut tree, the stars, and my room at the school.

6/14
A lesson in Samoan words similar to American words. Power = pauta, telephone = telefoni.

Right now i’m having Poka (one of my year11 students who also is my Samoan father’s son) type two letters Tuala (my Samoan father) wants printed. I don’t want to do, so right from the beginning i will have a villager do it. The teachers know that is my policy. But i’m happy to help. I want people typing letters on their own by the time i leave Samoa.

“Victory at Sea”—a black and white movie about America at war with Japan and Germany. Also featured is the graceful and hard rushing classical music with what sounds like a full orchestra. I miss classical music. But today the TV takes a backseat to the rain, which has been pounding down all night and so far hasn’t stopped. It’s now 10am, there are four bouncing kids, and the two cats have found my room(!) the quietest place in the fale. There are now cinder block walls in the house now. No more open fale:(… the kids can’t get in to my room, mainly because there is board in the doorway.


6/13
It’s interesting what Samoans will do when they are mad. I pushed Fualau (one of the teachers who lives at the school during the week) out of my room last because he walked in smoking, and I don’t like smoking, or the smoke. This morning my white shorts were missing from the drying line in front of my room. I think he wanted to see what I would do. I will only stop giving the little things Samoans keep asking me for: matches, pens, pencils, ice water, soap, toothpaste. The Vice Principal wanted a pencil. I didn’t give it to him, but told him I was angry. Magically, the shorts reappeared about mid morning. Whatever. If I early terminate for some reason, it will probably be because I’ve had enough of the Samoan way of living (ie asking for things). I think everything else is going well. It’s hard for me to live with Fualau and Eseroma.

Speaking of shorts…I just tried on my green and white board shorts—size 32. They fall off my hips now. I’m losing weight and wonder when it will stop. This week at school (first week of Term2) there has not been much to eat. No lunches for teachers provided by parents of students. So today at the end of school I went to my room, locked my door, and made some tuna melt sandwiches—yummy. Then I lied on the floor with warm rocks on my listening to loud music on my MP3 player—very nice. It was nice to have some quiet. I walked to the store to buy some groceries for my Samoan family—whom I would be staying with for the weekend. Included in the list: milk (it comes in paper 1 liter cartons), tea, eggs, tomato sauce, laundry detergent, twisties (chips), and some M&Ms for me. I was told to buy things I like to eat, and it is a good tip. I like tomato sauce with my pig and taro, and fried eggs with my morning bread and tea. I walked to my family’s house and went for a swim (mania ta’aele i sami) in the ocean, right as the sun was setting behind the mountain. I didn’t have much daylight. I taught an informal swim class to some village kids who always follow me into the water. Samoans live surrounded by water, but many of them don’t like the water, have no desire to swim. I love the water and am glad I get the chance to be close to the water. Now I write this as I wait to watch the ALL BLACKS (NZ) and England battle it out on the rugby field. Strangely enough, I never heard the announcer (all in English) mention the name of the English team. The women are at bingo until around midnight. I’m still working on my prayers in Samoan.

Here is one:
Fa’afetai tele le atua ua i’u manuia le aso. Fa’afetai mo au mealofa uma i lenei aso atoa. Aemaise o le o la ma le malosi. Sili le matou fa’afetai mo iesu le alii ma le fa’aola. A o le lenei itula e fa’afetai tuai mo lau foia’i e ala mea ai. O le a matou talia ma le loto faafetai e ala ia Iesu. –Amene

I just noticed that music I really like is much more instrumental. Samoan music has a lot of vocals in it, and good bumping rhythm.


6/7
So FINALLY the 12th computer is working. It has been dead since I got to my school. We got a new power supply, and then it would work with the case off, but not with the case on. I thought it might be a problem with too many wires, or wires stopping the CPU fan, but it turned out that I had not connected the 3-pin system fan connector. All better now. 12 working computers in the lab.

The kids that are really smart (quick, bright…)seem to be bored, and so they express that boredom, which is usually interrepted as cheekiness, which in Samoa will get you in trouble. Suimai was in 9.2 (supposedly the less-smart year9 kids). She was one of my best computer students. She is now expelled because she went to Apia with another student without her family’s knowledge.



Speaking problems…the “th” sound, “r” sounds…Samoans have much trouble with the R and TH sounds in English…we practice a lot in computer class with different words.

pictures from home

ok...here is a post to help me remember all my friends back home. six pictures.

pic with the white board is staff from Training, Inc in boston(YMCA),

pic with the wood stairs in background is my small group at church,

pic with white fridge in background is a dinner party at my old apartment in boston,

pic with windows is my family. taken in portland, OR!

pic with big rock in background are my hiking friends on the top of Mt. Washington (NH). that was a LONG day! I miss hiking.

pic with wierd sunglasses and white frisbee is our ultimate frisbee team after a game (the tournament, I think) in boston.