Culture DAy Pictures

selected pics from our Culture DAy at the end of Term 1.

just pictures

more pictures ...

three of the year 12 students that stay at the school with us overnight. i help them with their english homework. they are really interested in my laptop. right now we are recording their singing with my MP3 player. I want to make a presentation to take back to america with some singing and talking on it..and some pictures!

and food! melted cheese sandwiches with tomatoes and cucumbers; on the boat going to Manono Island to help with a village health day. I measured people's pulse and respiration; a path now separated by a fence and barbed wire. it takes people longer to walk around now; very brighly colored bark I thought was cool.

morning sounds cause rough swimming

in the pics: some of my year 11 students in the computer room. One student was drawing world flags in MSPaint. The others were typing in TyperShark. I think this was after a quiz, and my rule is students can use whatever program they want (including the games I have) after a quiz.

8/13
Morning sounds coming to my ears…the distant roar of the ocean. I want to swim, but have to go eat breakfast and put my school clothes on. The shrill chirp of the birds about in the trees. The faint rooster rousing late risers. It is 7am and I’m sitting on some concrete steps leading down into the ocean. Maybe the time that has past does not do this description justice. I’m writing this a t 10pm, after dinner, and a shower, and my mind turns to sleep.

New samoan words: sou (rough) and malu (calm) as in rough seas (sou sami) and calm seas (malu sami). I went swimming yesterday…awesome, but the water was really sloshy and the tide was going out, so swimming back to shore made slow progress, but I saw my five legged blue star fish that always seems to spy me from the most unsuspecting spots.


Ok….a few ((late)) blog entries, because I haven’t formally written in my journal since June 20. it has been my purple book and directly from my mind into the MSWord blog file.

mother's day loves large rains

in the pics: it's been WET in Samoa recently, large rain drops; the inside of my room at school, with three flags. do you know which ones?

6/20

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve said anything in here. Latest news: I don’t think I’m defending Samoans and they way they do things. I told Maria and Ross (staying in Samoa to remodel a house) that this is the way things are done. (eg. Hitting students, garbage on the ground). I don’t like it, but I found the best way is to just be a good example. Ross and Maria seem to complain about many things in Samoa. I think complaining wastes energy. I don’t like to waste energy. I am working on changing things. I can be a long process.

5/11

Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers, especially to my mom and grandma. It’s hardest to be far away from home and hear that my grandpa had a heart attack. I hope he’s OK. Grandma says he might be out of the hospital tomorrow. Part of me assumed I might not see one or both of my grandparents alive again when I went to Samoa. But just thinking about it and being faced with the reality are two different things. Went for a walk in the morning. Today was a good day. I rode my bike to a pastor’s house to help Norman, a university student. I’ve been helping him with English papers. His dad is pastor of a Presbyterian church (called an Assembly of God) complete with drumset, pianos and bass guitar…nice. They fed me good food (curry, sausage, mamoe). Watched the pink rise off the water and into the clouds. Always nice colors here in the South pacific. I came back to my school room at 5pm, just in time for rugby practice. It was nice to run a little and stretch my back out. I’ve lost a lot of cardio ability since coming to Samoa. Hopefully daily rugby practice (just the drills, not the tackling) will get me back in decent shape. We’ll see. It just feels nice to run. And I guess I’ll be substituting a rugby ball for a Frisbee. I’ll try to keep out of the rugby tackle games. I’m only in it for the training. I came back to my Samoan family and took a shower, ate good food, and watched the current hit—Sa Piling Mo—a soap opera with a lot of crying and yelling—drama. I’m reading my book: Snow Falling On Cedars. Unsophisticated promptHere am I World of whisperingIt’s simply reallyNot much to sayNever above a stroke throat.

4/23

Wow…the last entry says 4/23. I’ve met another palagi—Allen—who’s wife is Samoan (her name is Newyear). They live “down the road”…a few villages over and have a daughter, three sons, and two girls (relatives) who are staying with them. Newyear’s father is a Matai and gave them a big chunk of land. I went over because I want to do work after school, not just sit around. I happened to come when he had just shot a pig—a size 4 pig—well that puts it at about 200lbs or so. I got to carry 30lbs of pig guts back to Allen’s house…fun. But the hike through the jungle was good. Allan said something that made me a little sad or angry.. “all the films that come to Samoa are form the states—it filters down” all the movies? Wow. There’s a lot left out that Samoan people are not getting to see and experience. American movies are such a small slice of the world.

milk's power goes out to the rugby try line

in the pics: rugby is VERY popular in Samoa. some of my students at school during our friday sports time period; picture of the outside of the library in Apia.

I just posted some thoughts about a book ...to kill a mocking bird. I liked it.

http://mrcwriting.blogspot.com/2008/08/to-kill-mocking-bird.html

4/10
Hitting today…James and Ioa, with a bendy stick. Students are expected to just stand there and take it. One day a student will pound back—big changes happen then. It amazes me what I have to do to get student’s attention sometimes. When it’s time to shut down the computer I say uma, time to shut down. If a student is still stuck on the computer (especially a game), I say his/her name three times. A final technique that seems to work is digging my thumbs into their upper shoulder blades. As in a good massage, but they usually cringe. I have their attention now.

I think my body is missing milk. It has felt unsettled the last few days—and eating more taro, fish, and breadfruit doesn’t help.

Seeing a fan (and TV, microwave, and toaster on other occasions) in the garbage bin in front of the houses during my morning walk…I felt like I was back at home in Amerika..



4/9
Eseroma (vice principal) brings a flashdrive to school. I think the teachers want to learn more. This is a step in the right direction. Eseroma’s wife comes to visit him, and brings money (mealofa) as a gift, for everyone. I would rather brings gifts that can’t be found in Samoa, but that is the culture here.


4/3
5:10pm—just felt the earth shake below me. I was taking a nap (malolo) so I could have been daydreaming, but it sure woke me up.


4/1
Mr. Fualau (science teacher) shows me his achievements on TyperShark. He is my star typing student. He is excited about typing—this is good. It helps to have a typing program that is decent. (and being customizable is an even better thing—we will practice typing in Samoan. Maybe next year.)

Tomorrow I’m going to Savaii with some high school students from Seattle—of all places. I’m leaving a lesson with the Eseroma. I think we’ll start with just typing, but this a very important step—having another teacher lead the computer class.

Tonight I also helped Norman for the first time. The topic was summarizing (an article). This is where you throw out all the rote learning for the last 12 years and start imagining and creating. The first sentence in Norman’s notes about summarizing states “summarizing is a process that is complex and has many steps.” I think that adequately describes the challenge.

So I still seem to be working with all age groups in Samoa: Emmi is the 6 year old (vicePs daughter)—she likes the shapes program on the computer. The secondary school students. The university student. The teachers.


3/23
If I were to write about today, what would I say? Lots to think about, nothing to write. A day in Apia—lots of walking, lots of sun. hanging out with Iapela (my sister’s son..from my training village family). Peace corps office, but stuff, fish and chips. I’m learning what the basic basic items are in samoa: chicken, beef, bread, laundry detergent, cigarettes. I’ll take my rum, coke and lime, thank you. Lift some weights, a little bit of Frisbee, swimming in the river, good food, playing suipi (I lose_)—a samoan card game watching stairway to Heaven—the latest TV craze. Then some good reading. Sleep.


3/18
Power goes out again today. 2nd time since I’ve been here. My fridge—leaga(bad). The icy pops (milk and water) w e use for the students at canteen at interval (recess) will melt. We interrupt our daily thoughts to bring you an important message—someone just sent my phone a “creditU transfer of $2.00” then they called and apparently had the wrong phone nu7mber. Hmmmmmm…..back to no power. I think the last one lasted for 20-30 minutes. I wonder how long this one will last.


3/13
The temporary country director George (who is also the CFO for PC) came by the school to visit today. He brought a few items: a snickers, PC patch—and some news: highest number of PCVs in 37 years and mr. bush is kind in funding PC. Good to hear. Fono brought the ripe bananas—the essentials only, please. I was going to take a picture of my snickers wrapper and PC patch, but then remembered reading somewhere that the PC logo cannot be displayed on our blog in any way, shape, or form. Let’s just say that fa’I and Sniickers was good…real good.

I found out what the name of the land our school is on—Masavai. I was told that every family in Samoa has a special name for their land. I’m not sure what Masavai means though.

My friend Maria—a local shop owner—rocks! She gave me a bottle of white wine—a Rex Hill 2002 Pino Grisio from the Willamette Valley—OREGON. Newberg, OR to be exact. Yea! Reminders of home seem to keep popping up. There was also some cheese from New Zealand.

chicken's fire asks why education is important

in the pics: a view of the fale cooker and fale samoa through the backdoor of the staff room at school; flashback to our training: men's slap dance and the fiafia performance...don't we look cute in our purple and white;) although the fabric looks kind of blue in the picture. (the pics are also smaller. I have started reducing the size so they will upload to blogger faster. if there is a pic you really want in a larger size, please send me an email.)

8/6
I practiced some more siva afi (fire dancing)…without the fire. Just the stick. I think I can do the “around the thumb” version (slowly) that Aaron showed me a few weeks ago. Another PCV wants to do siva afi (with fire) for the next new group of PC volunteers that arrive in country. I want to watch.

How a bag of chicken saved the day…my principal was not happy with me for using “too much” electricity…keeping my fridge on over the weekend. But I don’t want my sauce to go bad, and I’m used to keeping it on. Then on Tuesday I went to the store to buy 8lbs of chicken legs (vai moa)…how that brightened the day. Taua(my principal) said “thank you for helping us.” Hmmmmm. I consider helping the village giving the best computer classes I can. Where is the instant gratification in that? Give me my bag of chicken and then we’ll talk. Guess I should do that ever few weeks.

It was interesting the process of watching a student get her quiz torn up. I must have given her 4 warnings. But there is supposed to be no talking during quizzes/tests. At one point she looked straight at me, smiling, and talked to another student. I finally said “mai sugega” (bring me the test). She shook her head and I repeated, a little louder. She brought it to me and I slowly tore down the middle of the paper. And put it on the floor. And I gave her detention. I will not hit my students. But I think that is what they are expecting and what they are used to. Some of them may not know how to operate without the hitting. She was quiet and put her head down after I took her test. No one else had to have their test torn up.

More biking today after school. I took a different route. Straight up up up to the (amost) top of the hill. Then…down down, really fast down. Down a different road that was really steep, but all the same fun. I’ll do it again, soon hopefully. I think it may be finally time to replace the bottom bracket. I heard other volunteers had to get their replaced already. A defect in the bike I guess. I just want my bike to work right when I need it.

I’m finding more and more interesting books in the library at our school (which is also the computer lab…so get to look at it all day, every day). latest book: “Greek Gods.”
“Even in our modern scientific age, we cannot explain all natural phenomena, but we assume they have been or will be explained by someone who has more information and understanding than we have. We do not try to make our own interpretations.” I think we should still try to create our own interpretations. Sometimes our own interpretations are more important than the (esoteric) explanations of science. What is it that really matters to us? “primitive man was always asking questions and trying to find answers; he was challenged by the unknown, and since there were no established laws of science, no acknowledged authorities, he found for himself magnificent answers in the form of stories.” Where are our stories? Who makes our contemporary stories? Who are our story tellers? Story masters?

Tonight’s essay question for English year 12: “the importance of education.”
What does a better future mean to a Samoan? What does a better future look like to a Samoan? I couldn’t seem to get the students I was helping to tell me more reasons than just “to find a good job.” Does it all stem from a “good job”?

faofao's shopping trip finds coconut starfields

in the pics: these small plants are open, until you touch them, then close up...I forgot the name of them; a view of the ocean from inside a beach fale at FaoFao. very nice.

8/4
A good weekend at “Fao Fao” beach fales. The weather could have been better—strong wind and some rain, intermittent sun. the water seemed cold. But it was nice to get away for a few days and talk to some other PCVs from our group.

The Sunday shopping trip to Farmer Joe. Gosh the money goes bye bye fast! Total $81.75 (tala). 4 rolls toilet paper $14.60. Packet of (5) cucumbers $5.50. Pringles $5.25. Pam’s Boysenberry jam $6.95. large skippy creamy p-nut butter: $16.30. large Colby cheese $16.00. lamb sausages (a recent yummy yummy find) $8.90. bag of 5 oranges $8.25. this is my palagi mea ai (food) stash. Of which a few things require a refrigerator. Electric prices are really going up. My principal told me tonight that the surcharge is now 45%. That seems really high. That’s going to make people poorer. I wonder how many people will use less electricity. She told me I need to turn off my frig over the weekend. No. my food will not go bad. No resolution yet. I have not told her that the school is required to pay for 70 units of electricity (about $100 tala I think) . I’m happy to pay for anything above that. But I don’t really think that my room’s electricity is 40% of the last $250tala power bill.


Coconut starfield
My sandles have molded to my feet
Walking through night shadows
I see the outline of coconut
Tree above
Like a silent friend, or until it drops
One on my head. Wide leaves hiding
The field (above).

Far above, stars peek out through
Darkness; blanket of white pricks
Surrounding blackness.

Too many to count.
A few shooting to places unknown.
All together a beauty city dwellers
Seldom see.
Lucky me.

Mataio 4/23/08

a long read..no pics..

OK..no pics in this...I have to get off the internet..

Tshirt: pule oe Iesu




7/31
I’m really seeing how not knowing specific English words limits sentences you can create. Almost nightly I help the 5 students who sleep at the school (and help us by cooking the food and other things) with their homework. Tonight’s activity was describing the literal and metaphorical proverbial meanings. Very hard for some of the students. Another one had literal and M flipped. I looked in my Samoan dictionary (yes I really use it, a lot) and the English dictionary too. Getting to the root word and what it means..almost like a word web—which is also a computer program that another PCV gave me call “wordWeb.” It takes one word and gives the more basic(?) meaning to a word the students understand…down to the essential word, and sometimes beyond, to where it is not at all the original word anymore. Tonight’s word web from the proverb “beggars can’t be choosers”. Beggaràbegàcharityà…and then I just wrote down “desperate”. Sometimes the dictionaries really aren’t that helpful with wordwebs.



7/29
Week 8, term 2. I am doing typing tests this week with all my students. Lessons 4 and 6 in TyperShark. Lesson 6 is REALLY hard for them. I wanted to know if there was a way to change the text that appears for the students to type. SURPRISE! I can change the text to anything I want—rugby, song lyrics—something that will keep students’ attention longer. Also I want more of an intermediate step between just keyboard exercises and whole paragraphs of sentences. That is too big a jump for my students. Something that advances in smaller increments. They were totally lost and frustrated by lesson 6. I’m thinking something like this:

Had had had had had had had had had had had had had
I had I had I had I had I had I had I had I had I had I had
Rugby rugby rugby rugby rugby rugby rugby rugby
Rugby ball Rugby ball Rugby ball Rugby ball Rugby ball
I had a rugby ball. I had a rugby ball. I had a rugby ball.

This is exciting. The most exciting thing since …since I fixed that computer. I am proud of my students for their typing—some of them can 35WPM (words per minute) in lessons 3,4, and 5. Lesson six is still hard. Now I have to figure out how to change the words that appear on the sharks in game mode. My students pause the game as soon as they see the word to prepare their fingers on the keyboard so they can type the word quickly. Very clever.

I sometimes wonder why I’m not working on extensive written lesson plans, laying out step by step what to do. Then I remember that Samoan culture is very oral, and that I have some good computer “texts” already from other PCVs. I try really hard to get my students to understand in the moment, and I usually don’t have much energy left over at the end of the day for more computer time. I really believe that students (even Samoan students) will learn faster if a lesson (in any subject) is tailored to the specific interest and culture of that student. Which is why I’m excited about changing typing tutor texts in TyperShark. In Samoa knowledge transmission usually doesn’t take place by reading in a book. It happens when people are speaking to one another. And in the case of teaching computers, when you explain concepts as simply as possible. One recent example that I think will be challenging is the concept of “default” printer, “default” settings. Even this MSWord program tells me that “default” means missing a payment. That’s not what I mean. Default means standard….ahh, also normal, usual, typical, …that’s more like it.

Current tea experience: ginger, honey, full cream milk. Yum.


I finally finished a book I’ve been working on for a while, mainly because I left it at my samoan family’s house, and I’m not there very often. “Snow Falling on Cedars.” a good book. Some thoughts
Veteran’s cynicism
Professional cyancism of the journalist
Funny little facts floating around
Protocols of island life
Affront to the world
Who never smiled for photographs
There was a war on and that changed everything
She had stopped imagining their future
It was in matter in part of posture and breathing, but even more so of soul
Stoop labor performed in the direct sun
I undertand just now the deepest beauty
Domestic troubleshooters
Aura of manic purpose
“shikata ga nai” it cannot be helped
Spirit of quiet dignity
For purposes of argument
Shape the behavior of men
Deadman’s statute
“decide to tell the truth before it’s too late.”
Spirit of an indulgence
[her] calm was a practiced disguise
Claims of ignorance
History was whimsical
Nothing had changed an everything had changed

That was all, there was nothing more than that, they wanted their farm and the closeness at hand of the people they loved and the scent of strawberries outside their window.
There was a place in him she could not reach where he made his choices in solitude, and this made her not only uneasy about him but afraid for their future, too.
They were fourteen years old; geoducks were important. It was summer and little else really mattered.
He decided then that he would love her forever no matter what came to pass.
“now, to me it don’t make one bit of difference which way it is their eyes slant.”
And all of this was part of his mystery, his distance from what she was.
Giri was her grandmother’s word for it…and it meant doing what one had to do quietly and with an entirely stoic demeanor.
“I’m not asking you to be a detective. I just want to know which is more probable.”
She had discovered when she was seventeen that she could shape the behavior of men with her behavior and that this ability was founded on her appearance.
It was forbidden in her marriage to open up her husband’s wounds and look at them unless he asked her to.
He had indeed achieved a kind of wisdom—if you wanted to call it that—though at the same time he knew that most elderly people were not wise at al but only wore a thin veneer of cheap wisdom as a sort of armor against the world.
All human claims to the landscape were superseded, made null and void by the snow.
The room smelled of salt water and snow and of the past—it was full of the scent of lost days.
“everybody knows what God is. You feel what God is, don’t you?”
“that they arrested him because he’s Japanese.”
“everything else is emotions and hunches. At least the facts you can cling to; the emotions just float away.”
There she stood at the stove ladling soup with the calm ease of one who feels there is certainly such a thing as grace.
Kabuo only pressed himself harder and measured his life according to his success at brining salmon home.
Yes, it would be nice to live in a nicer house and to walk out into the perfume of berries on a June morning, to stand in the wind and smell them.
“when the truth might have done you some good.”
He was, they decided, not like them at all, and the detached and aloof manner in which he watched the snowfall made this palpable and self-evident.
What I see is again and again the same sad human frailty.
“Stay objective, be reasonable.”
You aren’t ever going to get past your doubt so you have to face it head-on.”
For them it might stave off what he could not help but see with clarity: that the would was silent and cold and bare and that in this lay its terrible beauty.
That accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart.




7/23
Close your eyes. Imagine hot water (coming out of a circular massaging faucet) running over your body. Windows start to steam. Muscles relax. (do that record skipping sound) heyyyyyyyyyy the water just turned ice cold and now it is a trickle out of a pipe in the wall. No faucet. No hot. No pressure. That was my shower tonight. I miss a hot shower. So I make two pots of hot water for a “hot water rinse.” It’s doable. For a limited time. Get yours now. I had my hot shower for the month at a friend’s house in Apia. Very nice place he’s got. Hard wood floors, TV, DVD, Fridge/freezer combo, stove, oven…no dishwasher. He works at a bank. Bankers always seem to have a good setup…materially speaking.

The wind../breeze../gusts have felt really good. I feel a poem coming together..about some mania savili. Breeze ruffles the hair, does nice to the ears rattles the …well, that’s all there is right now.

I was reading a computer repair manual. It said that turning your computer on and off is the main way to stress the CPU (meaning it will greatly shorten the life). hmmmmm…our computers at school get turned on and off no less than four times a day because I have my students turn on and turn off the computers for each class—repition is good. I wonder how much life of our computers is lost to the power cycle monster. Well, the alternative is to leave them off (all the time), or leave them on (all the time)…neither of those works very well. A friend from Australia told me that power in Aussie costs 1/4 what it costs in Samoa. It’s expensive in Samoa. He said much of the power is produced by diesel.

I’m learning how to get things done here at school. I have to say a student’s specific name. I wanted a spoon at lunch. So I said “aumai sipuni fa’amolemole” (please bring me a spoon)…to no one in particular. No spoon. Same situation when I wanted a towel to cover my lap (Samoan food is very hands on). So, another good reason to know the kids’ names.




7/21
I spent $163 during my last trip to Apia. Given that the big ticket items were a bottle of rum, large chunky peanut butter, and 30 pictures I printed. These are my things…

Where oh where is my google? Rather irritating…for some reason all the google related web sites (google.com, gmail, blogspot) seemed to be blocked at the peace corps office. Or at least they weren’t working..whatever the case, I couldn’t update my blog. The main way I keep my people at home up-to-date. But I guess it’s OK since my mom called me on Sunday afternoon, so she knows I’m OK.

…a good option when the power goes out in Samoa, which it just did at about 9:30pmàstar gazing. Hey, that’s also one of the crossword answers I think.

Reading the World Wise Handbook, the program for PCVs to work with a teacher back in the states to share information and experiences with each teachers’ students. Some very interesting (ok…thesaurus also says “fascinating”) questions.
What does it mean to become a responsible citizen of my community? How can I become a responsible citizen of the United States and a citizen of the world? How do the media influence my view of peoples around the world? Distill it down to its most essential element: Peace Corps Volunteers are wordsmiths. We arrive in a country offering words about health, words about education, words about technology.We translate, trade, share, and weave words—enwrapping ourselves in dialogues and stories, histories and fables. If peace is a conversation, where words flow fresh and plentiful, then war is a painful silence, where words stop, and stagnate. In the face of ignorance and devastation, what is there to say?



7/15
Score one for me. I fixed computer #5 today. Monitor was not working. I disconnected all the inside parts “floppy drive, harddrive, cd-rom drive, and other plugs, restarted and reconnected one at a time. Ohhh and I also blew out much dust..maybe that was the real problem. I was all ready to go into full researching mode…oh, darn. That requires the internet.

Still listening to music. Right now we have Amos Lee, Ben Harper, Birds flying away, Damien Jurado, Iron and Wine, Seven Swans. I don’t much like this music. We’ll keep listening.

Three things I wish I had researched and brought more information with me from the US: critical thinking, reading (remedial), and maintaining computers without internet access.

Re-reading the computer curriculum prescription for year12, I see it wants students to develop critical thinking skills. Ahhhhhhhhhh! Inspiration is such an “in the moment” kind of thing. I wiiiishhhhhhhhhhh I had the internet right now. To see what google has to say about critical thinking. Thanks to Cale, for giving me some CT research he has done. Three sets of encyclopedias in our library don’t return anything about CT (note encyclopedias copyright of around 1960s). I guess CT was not a topic of interest back then. It did kind of surprise me.


Technology update: the laptop donated by Microsoft is still alive and kicking (it has a different power adapter now), my Sansa MP3 player from my swim team at the YMCA is still swimming with –hmmm..now it’s about 500 songs! Trust me, I’m glad I have some music I really like. I still don’t have any classical, but found one song on one of the computers in the lab. The battery charger I brought from the states has died, I think. It doesn’t work, so I want to take it apart and see if I can fix it…not too hopeful though. Yea to Lisa, who gave me a battery charger—with AA and AAA batteries! The camera given to me by co-workers at the YMCA is still working just fine, you can see the product(s) in all the pictures I post to this blog. I like pictures. The heartrate monitor watch is NOT working;( first the heartrate function stopped working, and then I think the battery died—the LCD numbers got dimmer and dimmer…now I can’t see them at all.

One reason my electronics are still functioning is a moisture eater someone told me about. A small aluminum canister of silica gell crystals. Yea for Hydrosorbent products…which is based in Ashley falls, MA. www.dehumdify.com

Looking at the Peace Corps medical manual…chapter 11 says “emotional health”…hmmm that’s important I think. Establishing a routine; I just wish it included more swimming in the ocean. Disrespect for the culture; especially when teachers hit students. Fatigue and frustration; everyday. Overwhelmed; every time I look at trying to fit all the computer curriculum prescription topics into the time space we have. “learning to live fully and to function effectively in another culture is among life’s most profound and exciting adventures.” And an adventure it has been. Not over yet. “human beings continually strive to fulfill their needs.” “your attitude towards yourself” during the two years is very important …so keep a good attitude will ya? Says something about maintaining positive feelings when you are experiencing let downs/ frustrations/ people laughing at you continually. “small is big in the Peace Corps experience” a different degree of accomplishment you should expect. I guess the run run run type AAA personality is out.
“find the humor in the situation” Samoans sure know how to do this. Even when someone is hurting. “the purpose of writing about them [your experiences in country] is to reflect upon their significance to you.”

Cannibals have midterms in samoa

in the pics: preparing for the midterm; rain approaches; some masina shells I got from the beach.I really like them.

7/14
I’ve been trying not to dread this, but I had to go into our bank today because the ATM “swallowed” (as the woman in the bank said) my atm card on Friday. I said it ate my atm card. Swallow, ate, whatever the case, I need it back. Sorry, atm is time locked and doesn’t open until 2:30pm…when I have to be back in Lefaga. Let’s hope that they really do have it stored for me until Friday when I return to apia for the weekend. I’m getting tired to going to apia. Farmer Joe “a new experience”….on a recent shopping trip the receipt says “wholemeal bread: $2.00; Pringles: $5.25; local cucumber (one cucumber): $2.00.”

Life after Peace Corps….ohhhh yucky…well, yes, I guess there will be life after PC…so I’m reading the lovely yellow career resource manual. Some thoughts I think about:
“doing the important things well”
“translate your PC experience into skills/language appropriate to employers”
“most of us are rather ordinary people”
“strong career utility” I know having utility is good.
“strong action verbs” you mean like zoomed?
“sell with a positive outlook on life”
From a large list of “special skills” I found these were marked most often :
Listen…you can learn a lot from your ears…listen up. I don’t think I have a big mouth personality.
older people…I like to hang out with older people.
Question…I ask questions. If you have been around me, you may have noticed.
Others…I like to know about other people
Details/big picture…I like to deal with details but the big thing is good too

More reflection words: artisitic, people, innovate, technology, personal, instructing, learning..and I’m only on page 15.
I want to read stories about how RPCV have successfully “integrated” back into American life…



7/13
Gal (who was leaving Samoa), had a book called “Sex Life of Cannibals” by Maarten Troost. About a couple who took off to remote parts…South Tarawa, Kiribati to be exact—adventures in the South Pacific. I took a quick read of the last chapter. Some highlights I liked.
“those who had the time, lacked the money. And those who had the money lacked the time. There’s the conundrum of American life in a nutshell.”
“There is no place on Earth where color has been rendered with such intense depth, from the first light of dawn illuminating a green coconut frond to the last ray of sunset, when the sky is reddened to biblical proportions.”
“Do you think they’ll have cheeseburgers in Fiji?”
(our walking adventure landed us some decent cheeseburgers…well, maybe I was just really hungry. The fries needed more cooking.)
“the shopping mall. The American shopping mall. It frightened us.”
“I could not understand how anyone could drive faster than 35 miles per hour.”
Samoans love their speed. On the road we were walking on, I estimated some cars zooming by at 40, 50, maybe 60 miles/hour.
“she found me staring blankly at a display of maple syrup (at a supermarket).”
I’ve done that before…stare blankly at many different options.
“I was wasting my time. As you may have gathered, I am generally amenable to wasting time, but not like this. I felt like I was perpetuating a fraud. (overpaid WorldBank consultant).
“In Kiribati, she had worked with the tangible. In Washington, she worked with the gaseous.”




7/12
“ova!” I hear. Lakapi Aso Toana’i. Must be rugby. I can’t see the game. I sit on the other side of the school. Gal’s school. I’m visiting for the weekend. I see the ball float high into the air over the tree tops. I hear the yelling and laughing. I feel the wind. It has been really windy since we (me, Cale and Sara). I love the wind. Four of us were supposed to visit Namu’a island. I was told we had a reservation. Apparently, there were some other Palagis (white people)—more bodies than us were already there when we walked over this morning. The lady that the reservation was made with was no where to be found. More bodies = more money. At least that’s what I assume. Then we walked down to another beach fale area for lunch and to look for a place to spend the night. No luck. It seemed the whole side of the island was full, booked, no vacancy, all beds taken. Hmmmm…what’s the occasion? Not the weather, that’s for sure. Cold(er) windy! Wet!
So…………3 iPods, 1 SAnsa, chicken and rice, not forgetting the all important Vailima—a rapid music shuffle session. “white rappers enunciate more” someone said. Ahhh…remembering my grandpa “matthew, you must enunciate when you talk or no one will understand you.” Yeah…that sounds familiar. 3rd base is a white rap group.

Dealing with this midterm situation has taught me (well I kind of already knew this) I teach for understanding, not for some test. “your test is too easy” “we don’t do bonus questions” “you need to redo your marks” “no student gets above 80 marks-ever.” Some things I heard my pule (principal) say. I think I made a mistake grading the tests. No worries, all fixed. The top student in year 11 gets a 96 (out of 100). I don’t place much importance on tests. That’s not how life really happens.

feeling cold in Samoa?

in the pics: I'm getting a good collection of sauces (new find--french dressing); good food: dark brown bread, melted cheese, and some stirfry with laupele; and a pic of my samoan family's paopao (boat) and our house.

7/9

We’ve been slammed with rain over the last few days. When the wind blows and the rain falls sideways, I feel cold. Wait, did I say I feel cold?...hmmmm it is a little cooler, but I do feel cold. One of the teachers was wearing a jean jacket today.

Doing some planning . icky.

I'm writing this in my computer lab, listening to the falling rain, as it seeps through everything in Samoa. Hard, heavy rains have soaked us for the last two, three, I don't know ...many days. I got my shower for the day as I rode back from a family I stayed with last night. I went over to help the son with the computer. He is a student at NUS (national university of Samoa), and he is taking basic computers this semester. It is a big advantage to have a computer at home, even if it is an older computer with only 64MB of ram. We watched a movie called "Step UP2" last night. It's interesting the words he asks me about in the movie "what does 'step up' mean? ..legacy..accent..'you have crap on your face'..." it's a lot of American slang, and a big advantage everyone else has to learning english. Most movies in circulation in Samoa are in English and a few popular movies (series) are in Philipino. I don't know much Samoan slang.
I went to the evening church service last night. The father is the pastor of the Lotu Pati Pati church--a lot of music (there was a keyboard and drums! --no one was playing drums, and the drum set needs a new set of drum heads). "I hope you dance" (the Samoan version) was the first song. that made my eyes water. My mom gave me a book with that title and the CDsingle before I left. The family is very nice, and the father said now I am part of the family and can come anytime. I want to try and go every wednesday (there's the typeA/schedule part of me trying to break through;) The one good thing about all the rain is that it's easy for me to fall asleep during hard rain.

I hear the students getting hit...hmmm...sounds like a book this time. They must have done bad on their midterms.

My principal told me I'm not going to be having year11 students for the reading period. The form teachers need to be with their classes for progress tracking purposes. I now have the remedial yr9 students. That's fine with me, but I don't really feel i know how to do a remedial reading class. The students need BASIC basic reading comprehension. So I cracked open my trusty encyclopedia, c1965 (the actual hardcopy book--i forgot how heavy they can be). Book #8, Palate - Roux. It's been a LONG time since I picked up a real encyclopedia. Turn to page 490, the entry called "reading, improvement of." Yup, I'm a computer teacher, not a reading teacher, but maybe we can use the computers to help with the reading. I only have to figure out how to get the computerized voice to work. I go to my trusty library (which is also our computer room) and look for a book. Ahhh, a Cat in the Hat book "would you rather be a BullFrog?" and "Berenstains' B Book." hmmm.."beautiful baboon" that seems like it might be too hard for a remedial yr9 student. I need some help.

There are many random, esoteric (what other thesaurus words can i find?) problems that pop up with computers...that don't seem to pop up when I have the internet..darn that internet. Onosa'i! Hark--do I hear that we might be getting the internet, and turned into a college, all in the next year? we'll see. Well, the internet would be a good thing. The current problem computers: lesson for the day (from yesterday): don't mess with things if they already work fine. I installed new update files for antivirus program AVG on one of my computers. Now Microsoft Word doesn't start...gives error message "the operating system is not presently configured to run this application." bad bad bad, since I will use this program a lot in my classes. and I can't seem to get AVG to uninstall, and I can't open Restore application to roll the computer back to before I added the new files. and, I can't get into "user accounts" I don't know what to do, except rebuild the computer. I think it was a bad idea to add the new updated definition files.



Watching Samoa Start Search…singing with out music, acapella (pese to’atele). I like that the best. The woman had a cool necklace.



7/4
A celebration of the 232nd Anniversary of the Independence of the USA…a party at the Charge’d Affairs (old) pad. It was a swank show (meaning a polo shirt and shorts don’t cut it) but the open bar was nice. Good white wine. How many pieces in the band…a 15 piece police band played the formal selections such as Star Spangled Banner and Battle Hymn of the Republic. Hmmmm I didn’t know the SSB had four verses. I really hope that they spell my name correctly on a thank you certificate if PCVs get one at the end of two years. My name was misspelled on the Fouth of July invite.



6/30

I was just going to give kudos to using the new broadband wireless internet (fast fast fast) at my friend’s house, but today is Sunday and internet doesn’t work. I guess SamoaTel wants everyone to sleep and not work—which includes using/playing on the internet. No points!

But I have had a good weekend in Apia—the food has been yummy! I’ve had fajitas, cream cheese French toast at sara and cale’s house. Also steak and potatoes, pineapple banana papaya fruit smoothies and melted cheese on rye bread at richard’s place. I went to a catholic mass on Sunday and found that even if I bring a book to read, I usually find other interesting stuff to read. This weekend it was a report about Boys Town, stock concepts of W.D. Gann, and a book by a southpacific author (oh I forgot his name…sorry cale).

Oh…and I also just posted a poem I wrote inspired from phrases in the Dec 2007 Sun Magazine.

Jesus's pink octopus

in the pics: two pictures from Savaii, during the rain. Fabulous beautiful and intelligent! says the red shirt...I was at my training village's family.

6/1
I guess eating octopus (fe’efe’e) is not in my future. I tried some today and got one little piece down my throat. Warning sign when it felt rubbery and tough when I cut a small piece with a spoon.

The house where I live (when school is not in session) is getting a transformation form fale Samoa (pillars and nice breeze) to fale palagi (cinder blocks/cement, doors, eventually windows. I’m sad. I really liked the cool breeze that blew through my “room.” My Samoan father says I’ll have a room with a door that locks. I was only really bothered when I wanted to get dressed after a shower and changing my clothes, but I’m with family and I’m sure they’ve already seen everything there is to see. It’s too much stress worrying about that. I didn’t come to Samoa for stress.

I finished another book: Siddhartha (forgot who the author is). A thought provoking book. Some provoking thoughts:
“making a good impression on strange people”
“secret of those people to whom success comes by itself”
“seem indifferent about business”
“he heard much and said little” hmmmm…like me in samoa…listen much, say little.
“to see the high and low”
“instead of only being there as an onlooker”
“ordinary people can love”
“depth of their pleasures and sorrows”
“soul sickness of the rich”
“without teachers and doctrines”
“you have already learned from the river that it is good to strive downwards, to sink, to seek the depths”
“seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free to be receptive, to have no goal”
“and yet it also pleases me and seems right, that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another”

…and now it’s a movie…


5/27
My pink Jesus chews bubble gum
I visited Max for five days during the first school holiday—between fist and second term. (sorry this is not in chronological order. This was getting buried in my pile of papers on my desk.) Max (Masi) lives on the other “large” Samoan island of Savaii. Well, it’s bigger than Upolu anyway. More of the same. FAle Samoan, fale Palagi, and the pink Jesus church. We went walking at night and I saw a church with a large cross built into the front of the church. …lit up with a neon pink color. It might hav been white lights and pink glass. I’m not sure, but it was such a bold statement in the darkness.

It rained most of the time, but it was decent part of the time. We went on a nice walk up the road, that led up the mountain, up to the plantations. I found some strange blue berries(?). checked out Max’s computer lab. Nice network. Had a yummy lunch of toasted cheese tuna and cucumber sandwiches with chicken soup and French fries. Ate the sour stuff off the cocoa in the cocoa pods. Maybe next time weather will be nicer.