United to be the athletics
in the pics: training for athletics day
7/16
So this morning I’m the only palagi sitting in a meeting to prepare for our Zone D athletics competition tomorrow. I guess Samoa is split into 4 geographic “zones” for secondary school athletics (maybe primary school too if they have big competitions). The island of Upolu has zone a, b, d. the island of Savaii has zone C—that’s a lot of land for one zone. ..but I don’t know how many students. My job at this competition is to write the history of who is da winner (oh my…texting language creeping into my writing)…also known as the recorder. Ok, I’m the recorder’s assistant. I’d rather be running or jumping or throwing, but I get to sit sit sit…fun. I hope our students do a warm up because I don’t think I will be able to lead the warm up—as I have done most days at school. Oh, and the athletics day starts at 7:15am…that’s a bit early for me.
Today is overcast and a gray, blustery day. I want tomorrow to be the same, none of this hard hot sun that Samoa is famous for. Speaking of sun—I saw one of my students putting on sunscreen. I’m not sure if it was for the protecting quality, or the glistening sheen affect it makes on the skin.
I took the bus to Apia this morning. It was filled with the usually twists and turns—but this time “bumpier the bus to Apia.” The road are getting really bad, in our village, and in the big city of Apia. It’s another issue of mainenance—something Samoans don’t
Seem to be very good at. Roads, bodily health, computers, bikes, or otherwise. Teletele pot holes (what’s the faasamoa for pothole???).
But the meeting just finished and it’s 10 minutes to 11am, which means I will have a few more hours on the free internet at the Peace Corps office. Yea, but I have no desire to leave quickly and go out into the pounding rain, which conveniently, just started to fall.
I guess the only reason they wanted me to be a recorder was to use my laptop. Aua leaga tele. I said no, it didn’t work. They said they would find me a laptop to use. We’ll see. My laptop does not leave my room. I really don’t want it to walk away….back to our journey on the but this morning—I saw an old yellow bus—like the school busses in America, and then I saw two more busses. The only thing missing was the sing that said “bus graveyard.” Speaking of graveyards—I’ve seen two or three in Samoa. I wonder if it’s shameful or “bad” to put family members in a graveyard, when I’ve seen that almost every house has 1, 2, 3, or more graves in front of the houses. Samoans like to keep their family close, in this life and the next. When I think about my family—one is buried in my home city. And the ashes of the other family member is floating through the waters of the world. That’s not very close. Or it could be very close. I’m in the water almost every day. The bus passed a church with two bell towers. On top of those towers were three or four cell phone repeaters (I think cell phone hardware). I’m not exactly sure what they were , but I wonder how much the cell phone company paid to the village to use their church. “Have cell phone, will pray.” Maybe they have better reception if they talk to Jesus on their cell phones ;0 oh and finally—the famous (or in-famous) 2-story palagi style house, which looks like it was plucked out of some suburb in CA. it comes complete with a two car garage and—well, I’d like to see the inside of that house. And I wonder if there is a samoan fale in the back.
Title of one of my Samoan father’s sermons Sunday.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Tutu faatasi malosi, fevaevaeai pa’u tu i lalo.
So this morning I’m the only palagi sitting in a meeting to prepare for our Zone D athletics competition tomorrow. I guess Samoa is split into 4 geographic “zones” for secondary school athletics (maybe primary school too if they have big competitions). The island of Upolu has zone a, b, d. the island of Savaii has zone C—that’s a lot of land for one zone. ..but I don’t know how many students. My job at this competition is to write the history of who is da winner (oh my…texting language creeping into my writing)…also known as the recorder. Ok, I’m the recorder’s assistant. I’d rather be running or jumping or throwing, but I get to sit sit sit…fun. I hope our students do a warm up because I don’t think I will be able to lead the warm up—as I have done most days at school. Oh, and the athletics day starts at 7:15am…that’s a bit early for me.
Today is overcast and a gray, blustery day. I want tomorrow to be the same, none of this hard hot sun that Samoa is famous for. Speaking of sun—I saw one of my students putting on sunscreen. I’m not sure if it was for the protecting quality, or the glistening sheen affect it makes on the skin.
I took the bus to Apia this morning. It was filled with the usually twists and turns—but this time “bumpier the bus to Apia.” The road are getting really bad, in our village, and in the big city of Apia. It’s another issue of mainenance—something Samoans don’t
Seem to be very good at. Roads, bodily health, computers, bikes, or otherwise. Teletele pot holes (what’s the faasamoa for pothole???).
But the meeting just finished and it’s 10 minutes to 11am, which means I will have a few more hours on the free internet at the Peace Corps office. Yea, but I have no desire to leave quickly and go out into the pounding rain, which conveniently, just started to fall.
I guess the only reason they wanted me to be a recorder was to use my laptop. Aua leaga tele. I said no, it didn’t work. They said they would find me a laptop to use. We’ll see. My laptop does not leave my room. I really don’t want it to walk away….back to our journey on the but this morning—I saw an old yellow bus—like the school busses in America, and then I saw two more busses. The only thing missing was the sing that said “bus graveyard.” Speaking of graveyards—I’ve seen two or three in Samoa. I wonder if it’s shameful or “bad” to put family members in a graveyard, when I’ve seen that almost every house has 1, 2, 3, or more graves in front of the houses. Samoans like to keep their family close, in this life and the next. When I think about my family—one is buried in my home city. And the ashes of the other family member is floating through the waters of the world. That’s not very close. Or it could be very close. I’m in the water almost every day. The bus passed a church with two bell towers. On top of those towers were three or four cell phone repeaters (I think cell phone hardware). I’m not exactly sure what they were , but I wonder how much the cell phone company paid to the village to use their church. “Have cell phone, will pray.” Maybe they have better reception if they talk to Jesus on their cell phones ;0 oh and finally—the famous (or in-famous) 2-story palagi style house, which looks like it was plucked out of some suburb in CA. it comes complete with a two car garage and—well, I’d like to see the inside of that house. And I wonder if there is a samoan fale in the back.
Title of one of my Samoan father’s sermons Sunday.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Tutu faatasi malosi, fevaevaeai pa’u tu i lalo.
posted by bigchainring at 8:27 PM
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