why so many women make bbq chicken

in the pics...
Fua;patolo (two students at school): two of my students taking a break. The one on the left stopped coming to school shortly before the final exams. I don’t know why. He really wanted to learn about computers.
Studentssportsday: students under the tree during our sports day. many fun activities…
Suckingbottles: more sports day action. Yes, that is a baby bottle, but inside is coca-cola, so at least it tastes good.


10/20
(National Geographic February 1993) 3 articles: Mekong River—in SE Asia; Twilight of Apartheid in Africa; Heart of Appalachia.

Mekong River
In Cambodia “I half-expected the birds in the trees to stop chirping and begin screaming with human voices. [at the mass graves].”
“Rise and fall of the Mekong is a yearly upheaval in south Cambodia, compelling it’s people to live on stilts.”
“why so many women?” I asked my interpreter, Miem, as my own boat darted to and fro to keep out of harm’s way. ‘they have the patience to bargain,’ he said. ‘look how they move around, seeking the best price.”
“he’ll never forget that day: a large plane came flying over his village, trailing four rows of reeking white smoke that coated the earth.”
“my four children, who had been playing outside, came down with fevers. Within two years they were dead, except Khung.”

Apartheid in Africa
“township violence is a legacy of apartheid—a system that is violent in itself. But there was a dangerous glorification of the armed struggle; we romanticized it. Our kids grew up with the idea that you are only a hero in the struggle if you are willing to kill someone. It’s destroying our soul.”
“despite the dire headlines, black South Africans manage much normalcy in day to day living. Babies are born, families raised, weddings and birthdays celebrated. There is work and play, warmth and love.”
“‘I am oppressed by this government, yes,’” a Soweto vendor told me, ‘but I am not oppressed. I have life; I have hope for better.’”
“broken homes. It’s the worst disease in Soweto. Children from broken homes can do as they please.”
“‘When they burn down the schools, that means no future,’ Simon told me with dismay. “I say to them, education comes first, freedom comes next.”
“ ‘Our freedom won’t come overnight. A step here, a step there, another step over here…’”
“the legal right to strike, for example, was given to black workers for no other reason than that they just went on strike and the government judged that stopping them would be too costly.”
“students saw “non white” as non-something, ‘which implied that the standard was something, and they were not that particular standard.’”
“a reporter in South Africa sees so much rage that moments of love seem especially magic.”
We live by a system designed for the benefit of whites.”

Appalachia
“In autumn, slopes and ridges teemed with maples, dogwoods, and oaks—with color that set the land on fire.”
“there is much to be proud of”
“A mountain politician once told me that you can tell a town is dying when thrift shops take over storefronts.”
“still, there is a lingering belief among some central Appalachians that to be educated is to ‘get above your raisin’ a favorite mountain expression for anyone with too much pride.”
“ ‘At first the class complains, ‘Oh, these are like the stories I hear at grandpa’s.’ I say, ‘that’s part of who you are.’ Storytelling keeps the past alive.’”



9/5
I’m visiting my training village family in Lalomauga. Some English words I hear on the radio: “nearest offer, first come, first served, qualifier, new oversize style” I wonder why there is no fa’asamoa for those words. It’s still interesting to hear what words are spoken in English.

Why did you move the banana trees?
Aisea ave ese le fa’i?

My samoan sister made yummy bbq chicken—samoan style. A whole moa samoa sitting on the red hot coals. I ate it with some hot sauce (sosi feu). The man on the radio says “saunoa mai” speak to me.
“fa’atai vai” cross your legs
Pi’ilima” fold your arms
Heads bowed down

O fea sa gata mai ai le lua savaliga?
Where did you two end your walking?

I told them I want to work.
We hiked to the top of a mountain near the village, where Tavale (my samoan sister’s husband) has a taro plantation. The views of the jungle tree tops and ocean in the distance…very nice. I had no camera;( then I was cleaning taro plants—weeding the ivy and grass. I planted some more teapule. Very nice to eat with coconut cream sauce (pe’e pe’e). husking coconuts was a very slippery job. The stick used to get the husk off is called a mele’i. Tavale had to sharpen it three times when I was husking. It amazes me that almost everything a Samoan uses is from nature: coconuts, baskets, stick for husking coconuts. The only thing that is not from nature is the knife (machete), and that allows so much to be done. It amazes me.
The next day I was weeding banana trees.
My Samoan family killed a pig while I was there and I watched the process of cleaning and gutting the pig. I learned what the different parts of the pig are called, and that it is respectful to give the tuala (pig’s back) to the honored guest. I’m just strying to be part of the family. It is a challenge.
I also went to apia with Tavale and bought to bike inner tubes, some patches and some WD-40 for him.