Thursday, October 22, 2009

felolo le Faasamoa in the fire!











in the pics: white sunday, best dress in white, three boys in my family (a miracle I got them to stand still long enough for the camera); valuvalu taro a special way to make it--faausi; the tattoo; and my culture: Finnish food and the sauna...sweetness.

10/22
Fire in the mouth. OK, so it’s mostly hot outside, but this morning there was a fire in my mouth—no not the hot sauce, but close. A PC staff gave me some supposed pulu (bubble gum). This gum happened to be an atomic fireball. Ahhhhh, brings back grade school memories of seeing who could put the most fireballs in their mouth for the longest time.

10/12
So it’s been two years and I think my Samoan language is about 40-50%, which is pretty good considering I didn’t reallyreally focus on it. Here are some respect words (of which I know even less) when giving food as a mealofa (of which there was a lot of mealofas to my samoan father—the high chief and pastor in our village). Yesterday was White Sunday, a big day for the children—they get special treatment, new clothes, eat first, and I bought the box of ice cream for everyone.

(Folafolaga o meataumafa)
Silafoga maualuga maia
Lau afioga Tuala ma le faletua.
O le a ou folafolaina atu.
Ua iai le vaimalau
Ua faliu ma fafao iai le susuga ia Mataio.
Faafetai teu, faafetai fa’aaloalo.

"there are no more families" in Samoan



in the pics: two kids from one of my Samoan families; Samoan siva, with the fire! dancing that I like

10/6
...checking my email..hotmail..I see an ad for mypyramid.gov in SPANISH. wow..that's impressive. something is changing. this is the first time I've seen an ad on the internet in spanish. Granted since I"ve been in SAmoa i haven't really been on the internet all that much.

I guess you can tell which software is popular on Cnet...zone alarm has 46.4 million downloads. That's A LOT.

I guess it's a good thing to get at least one email contact person before you leave country. I checked my email--i had 150 emails. After scanning them I saw there were many related to the tsunami...asking if anyone had information about such and such village. A volunteer in country already texted me asking if anything happened in my villages. An RPCV wanted to know. sorry I didn't check my email more often...



10/3
“there are no more families” that was a quote I heard on the TV I think. When I sit and think about that, it’s pretty sad. No more FAMILIES. A tsunami can do that to people of samoa. I guess the tsunami doesn’t discriminate. If you are in its way, you will get wet. I heard one family has 13 dead. A woman has lost her three children. There will be sadness for a long time. They are in my prayers.

God thought: “my grace is sufficient for you.” I think I read that in a book called “the shack” I thought it was a really good book. I read it twice.

“everyone has a story” a line from the movie “Reign on me” interesting. Not your normal action.shoot.punch.kick.kill.bang.bang movie I see a lot of in samoa.

“by accepting all of who you are you will be free” a line from Cat woman. Nice movie if you like tight leather and lots of cats. Halley Barry is good looking.

matching bags for preschool


in the pics: road switch: my samoan family, and making waves in the Wall Street Journal (thanks to my grandpa); Two kids from my samoan family; samoan money is very colourful...sorry no $100.
10/1
Tafagamanu (well all villages) need a preschool. I’m sitting in my Samoan family’s house watching the little kids (toddlers?) running around. There would be five kids (just in our house!) old enough for preschool. Oh there are many development opportunities—if I was staying here longer. It seems many times the thing you want to develop is not on the list of the people you are trying to work with.

Samoa may be a good (easy, relaxed, laidback, chill, simple way of life) place to live, but not until I have lost this urgency I have. Doing things….faster. that may not be the best way to put it. Life flows differently in America and other western countries. I want to work with people in my home. Well, in samoa there is this “last minute” syndrome. Many times people have come to me wanting help, but the thing is due or needs to be done that day or the next day. so maybe there is some urgency in Samoa.

Having to change bags (and backpacks) and have less pockets—I no like. Ahhh the English is getting away from me. I really dislike not having lots and lots of pockets to put things in. My old shoulder bag = 4 pockets. New bag = 3. I am grateful to my friend for making a new bag for me. today is just a day to gripe…it’s more about the backpack status…old backpack = 9 pockets. Other backpack = 2 pockets. The zippers on my old faithful are finally giving out. I hope I can get the bag reconditioned when I go home. That’s something that’s not going to happen in Samoa. What can I say? I like to be organized.

The PC experience will find that thing you are timid about or don’t want to deal with, and make you practice it—if you allow it. Wow..that makes it sound almost like a crucible. It’s not that bad. For me, it’s my personality of being quiet most of the time. To be here in samoa and be quiet all the time, will get you no where. I have found I talk louder now. Maybe that’s exclusive to teaching. I don’t know. The other thing is my not liking people asking me for money. Well I get to practice that at least 5 or 6 times a day. my family asking me for money, little kids asking me for money, teachers asking me for money. Well, not really asking—“mai sta tupe” means give me money. PC trained us not to give money, but bring gifts. So that box of chicken I bought for my family is just one example. There are other examples on my blog. But it never seems to be enough, or it’s the wrong thing. I guess it’s hard to be satisfied in Samoa.

Maybe someday the text and pictures on this blog will match. I’ve noticed that I post the text for one thing, and I don’t post pics until three weeks later.




quaking earth...run away

in the pics: well, I already deleted the pics, and blogger only uploaded 2 of the 5 pics...that sucks. One of my students, and "how the road widens" a piece of development?? I guess next is a tar layer? I checked pics on my flash drive = le se mea (there are no pics of the tsunami damage in my village), of which only a deck going out into the ocean got washed, and a few rocks on the road. We were very luckyyyyyy.

9/29
Today’s newsflash-or should I say rumble…earthquake—a pretty big one (my mom tells me later it was an 8.5 shocker and I see on the TV that the center wasn’t too far south of Western Samoa.) walking back to my school during my morning walk I feel the earth start to shake…a sensation from down deep in the earth somewhere. It kind of felt like having too much to drink. Everything shook—a slow shake. Not strong enough to lose my balance. This is the biggest on I have felt. I met the mayor of the village; he told me it was the biggest one he’s ever felt. He speaks pretty good English. I saw some small waves approaching as I was walking back to my school. So I walked faster to my room, and checked my cell phone. There was a message saying find higher ground. I grabbed my emergency stuff and my backpack and was gone walking up the hill—run away run away. I appreciate the phone calls I received—three from PC staff making sure I was on higher ground and was OK. Five friends also called to make sure I was OK.

So here I sit in front of a shop—a very busy shop—for the last three hours. Shops are a very busy place, especially the John Pasina shop, well, at least for places “at the back” in tua, away from the town area—the country. Watching the people and cars. There are some NICE cars (meaning new Toyota trucks for the most part). After being in Samoa (especially Apia), one would think all white vehicles are taxis. NOT TRUE! I saw two white cars pull up to the shop today that didn’t have a taxi sign on top of them. Now the text message—tsunami cancelled…time to go. Then my friend calls and says Coconuts Resort (where our PC group recently had our Close of Service) is no more, destroyed, washed out to sea. I think that whole stretch of beach had a good smashing by the waves because I heard that 2 or 3 other resorts were also taken out by the Tsunami. I saw pictures on TV of palagis (tourists) standing near some rubble. That made me think of how lucky my area was, I mean to not be hit harder by the tsunami. It could have been a lot worse. The water did not come over the sea wall at my school or my Samoan family’s house. the Southeast side of the island Upolu was hit the hardest. That seems kind of weird when I saw the angle of the waves on the map on TV. It would have hit us first before it hit the southeast side of the island. But the waves we got seemed to be the crumbs. I heard that some waves reached 20 feet, but I’m not sure if that was in Western Samoa or American Samoa. I know in AS there was extensive damage—to the village of PagoPago—right in the harbor.

Tonight—reports on TV—some people dead, many injured. Tourists lose their vacations (or at least the vaca they imagined). No one is dead in my village, but I hear a fire truck crashed coming down a road too fast and one person died.

Taeao analela—this afternoon.

Then I hear no school for the rest of the week. no school for just today. I don’t know what to believe.

Firefox woes finds alone time at a school

in the pics: the famous PC office oven, after the remodel (not to fear, we have a microwave and toaster oven now); three pics of my family at the school. The vice principal's family stayed there..well, last term any way. They haven't been back living at the school for the third term. I think they went to Australia--and doesn't want to tell people. Why is it bad(?) to have a secrect in Samoa?
9/28
Tonight is the first night I’m staying at the school building all by myself. The vice principal has not returned from …? I don’t really know where he went. I’ve heard he is sick and I’ve heard he went to Australia. It’s nice and quiet: leaves rustling, birds chirping, distant waves crashing—and…making dinner. The first time I have made dinner all by myself. I started at 6:30pm, and was eating at 9pm. Hmmmm..i don’t know if I want to do that again. The fire took a long time to start. Smolder smolder smolder…and then poof! A large flame. Well, large for my one small pot, but it sure was good chicken, lau pele (samoan spinach), and rice. Ohhhh I had some soy sauce and chili sauce to add some flavor. Maybe dinner will be faster (that sounds so American) next time. Making dinner on the open fire under the moon and stars.



9/27
I’m going through my old notebooks…and find an interesting myth/fact??? Spiders with even number of legs (4,6,8) are good luck. Odd numbers of legs are bad luck.

I like to have extra things, just be prepared for (I hope) anything. Samoans like to have not extras, to not be prepared. I think that may be part of the culture. If you need something, you ask someone else. I can see how that would lead to not wanting to get anything special, or acquire a lot of “stuff”. I think it was a shock when I first got to samoa to see the inside of the ‘palagi’ houses—very bare, not much furniture, if any.



9/18
I went on a "Senior Sneak Day" down the coast with First Lutheran people on a very uncomfortable school bus---- My rear end was sore from sitting on the bus, nonstop, from Tillamook to Astoria. When I finally was home, I mowed the lawn and worked outside to feel better.
…that’s my mom..i think we’re alike in that way…do something physical to feel better.

FireFox internet…problems with posting blogs. Don’t know how to download attachments from hotmail.

The internet is so awesome. My samoan father told me that my mom is concerned about having a stroke. She is a VERY big woman. I looked on the internet and found an English-samoan document about basics of stroke and prevention. So cool.
Direct link to samoan version plus other languages if you want it:
http://www.stroke.org.nz/pdfs/translations/