Saturday, July 18, 2009

big dog speaks english


in the pics: it's good to speak in english, the big dog named symba. i like animals.what can i say? Sepa's family. sepa is my samoan father's daughter. my friend peata. and the LARGE church mormon campus at pesega village.













kitty meets tiger inside the lumbering bus


in the pics: all sorts of things go on the bus in samoa, not just people: baskets of veggies, fruit, boxes, cans, and lumber. making a loooooooong lavalava with some print designs made from x-ray paper. Lotu is funny. he always is so serious, but a rare smile is nice. and the big kitty peering into my camera.













have pics, no text..look look look





















i have a lot of pics and I have no new typings...so here are some pics. enjoy;)

Rugby is life in Samoa, at least for the boys..OK and some girls; the great banyon tree. I'm always in awe when i see one. i like the system of branches that go up the trunk; keke pua'a (pig in a fried blanket) yum; a sports complex built by the Chinese..very large. and it has a nice pool. oh yes, and the drumset I got to play for about 5 minutes. there was a worship conference and they gave sessions for musicians and singers. i miss my drumset.








Friday, July 03, 2009

american samoa 5














american samoa 4


american samoa 4..Carl's JR ( i did not eat there)..seasame street (woops..that was at the samoan airport), big industry (tuna packing), and a good view




















american samoa 3

american samoa 3...american football..and the mix of samoan and the red/white/blue














american samoa 2

american samoa 2..large McDonalds...OK a HUGE one..buying lots of stuff...mountains..sun














pics has american Samoa


set #1 of pics in american samoa.. starting with..a hike..


























nothing evolves us like love,...and hot rocks

no pics this time...

6/20
So I tried to go to a Samoan wedding today. One of our teachers was getting married. Another example of “don’t get your hopes up” in samoa. The taxi left without me. so much for their pictures. Maybe it’s better, because today is a very wet day. I hope the rain stops to I can ride my bike to the hike later.

The movies shown on TV always seems to have a monster of some type involved. I’ve seen a lot of water monsters. Today we are camping with a baby Bigfoot. I wonder where the mommy Bigfoot is. Well, the last few paragraphs were a little down huh?? To balance things out a little-after missing the wedding I had a yummy sandwich with egg and tomato, cucumber, lettuce, and sliced meat. Then my friend Olsen took a group of us on a hike (a trek, and jungle adventure deep into the green, where the wild things are). ..up the 7 waterfalls. We got the big waterfall at the end, I climbed up behind the fall. Falling water is very powerful, and LOUD! I jumped in the water fall. Slam. Into the water I went. I came up and threw my head back and laughed at God. That was awesome. I did it two more times.

So now you are caught up in my journal. I have no more to tell you.


Blog 06/18/09


It’s been a long time since the last writing (or I just haven’t typed up my thoughts I already wrote down). Sorry to those who track these pages.

I just finished reading a book called “the gift” by Hafiz. Some nice poems. A few pieces I really liked:

“nothing evolves us like love.”

“There is nothing in your mind
You have not invited in.
There is no event in your life
You in some way
Did not drive a hard bargain for.”

“You need to become a pen
In the sun’s hand.
We need for the earth to sing
Through our pores and eyes.”

Well…I like the poems.

Watching a DVD called Exploration northwest (even when the picture skips and the sound slurs—bad computer!!) makes my eyes water and my longing to be home …become very big. I found it in the peace corps office. Someone else from that neck of the USA had been to the office and forgot to take it home. But i had to stop watching. The other teachers wanted to watch a Pilipino movie…I’m not so into that, but it’s the current rage in Samoa. And speaking of DVDs…the dvd player on my laptop decided to stop working last night, so I (probably accidentally) uninstalled the drivers…and now I have find some internet to find the drivers, because for some reason I either deleted them from my harddrive, or put them somewhere I can’t find them. since I choose not to have internet at my school (or there seemed to be a problem with finding our schools landline number when I went to the samoaTel office) it will take a bit longer than I’m used to. And NO, I’m not used to not having fast internet at my finger tips when I want it.

One of the teachers is getting married! And I’ve been helping him create an invitation. I think that would be a great lesson for the teachers. It uses many features (and more advanced ones) in MS Word that are good to know.

Tonight is a rainy windy night, and the millipedes are out by the 10s probably many more I don’t see. But where there is rain and millipedes, there are usually centipedes—the bigger, more vicious brother that also likes to bite people. I have not been bitten yet, and I would rather not try for a first time.

So here I sit this night listening to some piano music, that is not remixed with the “DJ OK” bumping the beats. But my friend Norman is mixing his own beats under the DJ Norvia a mix of his name and the girl. Maybe if I come back in 10 years, he’ll be the big name in Samoa. Oh, and I’m eating my sour neon gummy worms my mom sent me, or I was eating them. I gave the rest to the teachers that live at the school…since they seem to like sweet things…but maybe not sour things. Oh well. If I ate the whole package by myself all my teeth would fall out the next day.

Here is some Samoan language, since I still do want to learn some more samoan before I leave, which is growing closer and closer…and closer and closer. The first one is for my cheeky students, and the ones who know I won’t hit them so they push all the boundaries.

There is a time to have fun and a time to work hard.
E iai le taimi e fiafia aia ma le taimi e galue malosi ai.

Hot rocks on my back make the muscles feel good.
E lelei maso o lo’u tua pe a tu’u i ai se ma’a vevela.

And here is a samoan prayer…of which I do not have memorized. Leaga tele huh??? Though my samoan family still asks me to say prayer.

Faafetai Iesu ona o mea ai ua e foa’I e tausi ai lou matou ola, fa’apaia ma e fa’amanuia fai ma fa’amanatuga o lou maliu I aso uma matou te a’ai ma feinu ai. Ona o lou suafa Iesu, Amene

I made a list of what I want to do in the first few weeks when I get back to America. Is it too soon for that:?? Here are a few: read the sun magazine, eat a good Mexican meal (who song and larry’s, or a place called Mazatlan), eat some Finnish fruit soup with rice porridge, take a nice hot sauna—and then eat a big bowl of chocolate chip ice cream, hike/run on Indian Head Trail, get a big hug from my mom and grandparents, play my drumset, plan a yoga retreat, visit my dad, eat a big green salad with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, maybe some salmon, etc… the list isn’t done yet.

It’s amazing how effective “wall sits” are at redirecting students’ attention. When they are cheeky, talking when another student is speaking, 3 minutes seems to be a magic number. Wall sit = sit with your back against the wall. Thighs are parallel with the ground. Hurts the muscles, but it works to ave’ese the cheeky. I usually give them 1 or 2 chances to answer questions or read something in class after that.

My friend Norman was explaining to me about hitting students. “if you hit a student, that does not motivate them to keep trying.” I have hope for future teachers. But change comes slowly.

Sii I luga lou lima pe a e alofa i ou matua.
Raise your hand if you love your parents.

back to school tastes better with toasted cheese

in the pics: english day pictures. the students tried their best with a solo poem, a chorus poem, a drama, and song, and a dance...i think they liked the dance and drama the best...


6/15
So starts another term—actually this is week two, but the training for athletics started this week—meaning I help with training and I won’t get done with school until around 3:30pm. Most days my eyes hurt at the end. (could it be be running in the hot samoan sun???)

One of my samoan families has a DVD player that is broken. I thought it would be easy to find info on the “magic” internet about how to fixx the DVD player. (if I only get one thing out of this two years, might it be an appreciation of talking to PEOPLE to get information, not only the inter-webbed highway). All the websites I visited said to throw it away and buy a new one. In Samoa, that would be very hard (faigata!) there is no money for a new dVD player. Samoa doesn’t know the same “throw away culture” that the western world knows.

I was thinking about computers…I’ve done user interface design, now I’m teaching computers. I wonder if I’ll ever be developing SW, or working with people who do develop. I tried in college. The code and I didn’t converse very well.



6/10
Two Germans came to visit me at my school this afternoon. The weather was not cooperative. This must be the cold week. the weather is bad and there is a “cold” wind that blows. They asked me “what is the Samoan dream.’ ..like the American dream. I laughed. I told them some really want to go overseas, and some want to stay right here in samoa and work on their plantation and make the family. Life is slower here and not everyone wants to speed up western style.

Even though it’s cooler, the mosquitoes still seem to be snacking on me. rugby is big in samoa. Here are the names of the village teams in my district: Savai Spiders, Matautu Ainiusami, Safaatoa Puaanifo, Faleaseela Maroon, Matafa’a ama’ama (a small crab), Gagaifo Jungle.



6/9
Back to school…term two starts this week. toasted cheese with smoked salmon, tomatoes, and gouda cheese—rock. (thank you for the package mom!) Yes, but put too much salmon in the sandwiches. They still tasted good. I’ll never get tired of melted cheese. Cucumbers and French sauce complete the yumminess.

Iesu e, o lau tatalo
Ia o’o mai lou malo
Ia faia lou finagalo
E pei o I luga.
Amene.

OK, so I’m starting to draw tattoo designs around the edge of my journal pages—which is something I can’t show you in my blog…well, maybe if I get a good version I can scan it.








pondering random phrases while cutting thick jungle

in the pics: some pictures from the English DAy BBQ...lots of BBQ and ice cream


6/8
Some food I can add to my list of “liked” foods: faiai eleni (coconut cream with eleni—small fishes in tomato sauce). Failifo (taro or green bananas with coconut cream).

Watching the full moon (actually reduces star gazing by about 80%) slowly rise over the tree tops, my tummy is full of faiai eleni. (I think it’s pretty good and chicken soup with rice and laupele—a green leafy veggie, like spinach). It’s windy—I like these nights, both because I like to feel the wind and it keeps the mosquitoes down. Today was the first day of the second term. only two afternoon. It feels like my time is gown downhill—it’s getting closer and closer to the end of my samoan adventure.

It’s hard to think I took 550 pictures during my school break—only 3 weeks, but I’ve been to American samoa, a computer teachers training, and a visit to my training village family. I don’t get to see them that often.

I see the difference between dropping money on someone or some project and spending time to develop a relationship, sharing your skills and knowledge. I think it really comes down to giving away your love to other people. I chose Peace Corps because of the two year time span, which I thought might be long enough to share some of what I know, and get to know the people in samoa. This was the longest structured program I could find when I looked—other then just moving to a country and living there for a period of time. Peace corps is much different. Volunteers get support when they ask for it and need it.




6/5
I went to a Christian worship conference. Very good music. Rally style. I was wondering when I would get to go to something like that. Yes, they had drums, keyboards, guitars, singers. The music was a little heavy on the guitars…at times it drown everything else out.. the speaker was good “water is to the body as worship is to the spirit.” Well, if you put it that way, with the amount of water I drink, I had better be in worship A LOT more. “everywhere Jesus went, SOMETHING happened.” Hmmmm… to think about. “connection with God is more important than doing your duty.” Really? Well, then if another religion or spiritual way has a very effective way of connection with God, why not at least try it? There’s my openness again, of which one of my friends said she was scared of. It’s not worshipping two gods, as there is only one God.

There is a lot of duty in Samoa. That’s not necessarily, just the culture. “work on getting to ‘encouraging worship’”.


6/1
Five hours of cutting down dense jungle brush, I wonder how I’ll feel tomorrow. When I go visit people I like to do “work,” which in samoa usually means moving rocks, or cutting the grass with a machete, or using that machete to cut and clear jungle. I did the last one for three days straight in Lalomauga. And it felt really good…especially the jumping in the river part after we were done each day and splashing around. My sister and I get up at 5am each morning for exercises. That’s really good. But hot rocks on my back are really gooooood too.

I talked to someone who said “I wanted to make money.” He was a retired computer “everything man” as I understood it. A company or a person had a problem and he found a solution. I think he charged $150/hour. Wooooo…that’s a a lot of the money he was looking for. I doubt I’ll earn that much working at a nonprofit. But you never know. Mix community and business. Never say never. I’ve never really thought about it in terms of ONLY making money. How about helping people find/get/remember better lives in the process…and having fun too is important. I think my gig right now is pretty fun! Even if some parts are frustrating.

Another random phrase I found in my journal “giving up expectations and preconceived notions”…can be hard, and not knowing that I even have the preconceived ideas—although my mom reminds me about some of them regularly. It can be freeing to release our preconceived ideas, but it can also be scary. It’s good to be surrounded by people you care about and trust. Truth = freedom = scary(?)

mom's facebook has warm chinese food


in the pics: some random pics...the hat my mom bought me...in savaii, a sweeeet sunset from the top of the hill i like to ride my bike too; singing for mother's day; some cool refreshment.


5/31
It’s school break now….LALOMAUGA. coming to my family yesterday. Lalomauga means under the mountain—meaning it’s inland, not close to the ocean…well, relatively. It’s hard to walk to the ocean from LM. So that means no swimming in the ocean while I’m here…swimming in the waterfall?

I taught the kids the connect-the-dots-to-make-the-boxes game. The person with the most boxes wins. I don’t know the official name. and we played some Frisbee..of course.

Yesterday: went to watch the rugby games. Lalomauga won both games (team A and B). the A team will be the champions I think. They have not lost any games. I wonder how excellence arises out of the culture of not striving to get ahead.



5/27
In Apia…Some good Chinese food, a warm shower (I washed my hair three times…warm water in my shower (or bucket for that matter) is a rare thing where I live. Warm ocean, cold showers), some stretching (finally), and now writing in my journal—of which I’m doing very much of right now. AND I have some keke saina and yogurt for a snack before bed..yum!

Samoans like to be around and talk to people—all the time. Being around people usually drains my energy. I get recharged by myself. Tonight was a very be-by-myself night—while many other PCVs are out drinking—I’ve been drinking (Vailima Gold—the strong stuff) for the last five nights. I miss feeling healthy.

It is really hard to sit with someone and have them tell you things. ..such as:
“my kids respect me…I think”
“I drink every night to stop the nightmares. The bombs go boom and I wake up screaming if I don’t drink.”
“I lost my best friend and lover. I’m scared to open to someone else.”

A picture in my journal of a compass with some words on it: God, youth, education, yoga, computers, movement, service, inspiration.
Where is love…with God.

Ocean of light—there’s a lot of light for one thing. But swimming in the ocean would be awesome.

I’m in Apia for a few days for a computer teachers workshop. We are at a mormon school compound. Very fancy compared to my school. The room we are in is sealed, has a network, internet, and air conditioning. I’m glad I’m not working in a room with air conditioning. My skin was very dry after just 3 days. I like where I’m working just fine. I taught a session on file management. Other teachers seemed to enjoy it. How much they will take home/back to their classrooms I ddon’t know. I didn’t have a fancy powerpoint set up…but that may have helped them later. My teaching style right now is so “in-the-moment”



5/23
I found a Bible story book in English…and one in Samoan. So I’ve been reading with one of the samoans. He reads the English version and I read the samoan version.

God begins to make things
Amata ona faia mea e le Atua.

The first rainbow
O le uluai Nuaanua

A brave man
O se tagata toa


Almost a month: hmmm many thoughts in purple book (#8) that I’m too lazy to write out, but I will, all in good time. It’s amazing how when you’re in the middle of something you don’t think about how it’s changing you. I was not thinking about teaching, faith and service when I was in college. I was thinking about electrical engineering, digital nose breaks up with my multimeter. Oh, and a little boom boom toot toot of the musical instruments. I’ve been doing the Peace Corps thing in Samoa. It’s been intense. Everyone wants a piece of you, whether to laugh at what you’re doing, or ask you where you’re going, or share some food with you. Have we heard of “I want to be alone, walk alone.” Well, I usually get that time when I walk in the morning. Which is a good thing.

My mom sent me an email “you mom is now on Facebook!” wow mom, I’m impressed. Now how many friends can you stack up? I haven’t spent much time on facebook..usually my meager internet time is taken up with just checking my email, posting blog adventures/pics, and download drivers/software for my computers at school. Such as life in the land of slow internet.

To live gratitude is to touch heaven…hmmmmm.