world wise has bike will travel

in the pics: a nice day for sports on a friday...a few of the activites...samoan style..yes that is me sucking a bottle of coke...

9/23
I got an email from Peace Corps WorldWise Schools, which matches PCVs with teachers and classes in the US for correspondence. This is part of the third PC goal of helping to educate people back in the US. I’m matched with a teacher and middle school class in Minnesota. The first thing I thought of was the Scandinavian community in MN, and how it’s probably getting rather cold there right now. I was reading through the WorldWise handbook; one of the service learning standards is listed as “improves the quality of life for those served.” That is one of the big things that bugs me about teaching computers just to be teaching computers. How does it help students immediately? What I see are prices for everything going up much faster than incomes/wages of those around me. The “squeeze” on people is becoming tighter, or at least it seems that way to me. What I think would help people the most is helping to bring more tourists to samoa in an organized way, and promoting some of the “naturalness” of Samoa in the world market. The agreement that Women in Business has with the Body Shop is a very good start. More of that please. I feel I’m down here in the village teaching things like how to double click and CAPITALIZE text, and how does that really relate to students and help them better their lives. Is the only way to a “better life” through better economic status? Hmmmm. On a side note, I’m listening to some really good guitar (Satori…Rodrigo y Gabriela) that I think my mom would like. She also sent me my God/Christian cds that I made with music I really like. I listened to them last night. I should have packed those in my luggage when I came to samoa. Very nice.

The NUS student that I help with computers was here tonight. He brought some ufi (yam). I like ufi. It needed some pe’epe’e though—that yummy white coconut sauce. Norman had a Microsoft Access project—create a database for his imaginary travel company—complete with queries, forms, and reports. It was a good preview of what I should do with my students at the secondary school. This week we are introducing MSAccess. I think it is a quite a leap from MSExcel. More complex, which breaks down to “more parts” which means “tele vaega” in Samoan. Norman also gave some of the music he listens to, and a movie (recorded with a cell phone) of a dance group doing a dance to some music that someone spliced together. I thought it was pretty good. He showed me some clips of dancing that he got from another student. I’m guessing he got them from the internet. Maybe I’ll go visit Norman during the weekend. The road he lives on goes up into the plantation. A perfect doubletrack for my mountain bike. I just need to fix the front derailleur, of which I have no motivation to do right now. I want to read my book.


9/22
Oh…my bike is finally fixed…replaced the bottom bracket…requires a special tool, which I didn’t have in my room at school, but had to borrow from the PC office. I rode to the top of our nearby mountain and hung out (tafau) with some men drinking beer. They had been working on the road during the day. I declined when they asked me if I wanted beer; I wanted to make it back down the mountain safely on my bike. Although my front derailleur needs to be adjusted a little. I coasted down the mountain, just in time to sit on a rock and wait during the “sa.” A time when everybody is supposed to sit down and not play, walk, run, dance, but a prayerful time. And I ate my Odwalla bar, almost like it was back home, when I had a hard workout, warm shower, then yogurt and Odwalla bar. They were $1 each at Start Market in Boston. I wonder how much they are now. I miss them.