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.