orientation

Got internet back! For the time being.... also got a phone!! My number is 1-684-258-1488 but keep in mind that I'm about 6-7 hours behind you and what it may cost you to call!! I can call you for $0.17 per minute, but I'm not sure what it will cost you to call me. It's free for me if you call me... so I'd love the calls! But my phone is usually off or not on me. haha.  Haven't managed a bank account yet... one WT volunteer has spent over 6 hours waiting in the bank lobby so far, so it's most important that the Manu'a ppl set up their accounts first. Things take forever but I did do laundry yesterday, wahoooooo!  


Been neck deep in orientation.  With DOE trainings, content specific trainings, lesson planning, classroom management, Samoan lessons, culture shock sessions, etc (name it, we've done it) and waking up around 6:30 to go running every day, I'm tired!! And teaching hasn't even begun yet!  It's pretty stressful so far, definitely not the "fa'asamoa" but it's good to always be busy.  Going to be difficult to say bye to everyone when we move on to our teaching placements in a week or two, we've all gotten close and I like being surrounded by people!


A few new things of the week:
- saw my first fa'afafines (third gender)
- saw flying foxes (fruit bats)
-actually feel like I can maybe learn Samoan! 
         (before I did write that it was really difficult, but I realized that it's actually quite a simple language.  No genders for words, verb conjugations, none of that!! I think I just feel like it's difficult because I've gotten so used to the way I learned German and Spanish in the past, and now we're trying to cram a lot into a few days with the Missionaries who so generously have offered to teach us even though they've never taught before).  It's certainly difficult with not much time to study what we go over each day in class. 


-tried on some puletasis, got the WorldTeach lava lava (fabric/sarong) material to get an 'ie (skirt/sarong) made
-got to yell at and pretend to throw stuff at mean dogs
-had an island tour, got to see where I'll be living and the high school I'll be at, and had a picnic at a beach on the east side
-went to a WWII historic site 

Fatu and Fitu- I've heard the legend told a few ways now, but one of which is that they are two brothers who went into the sea and never came back, and instead turned to rock.  The other way I heard it was that a fisherman went out to sea and did not return so his sweetheart went looking for him and they both  turned to rock.

Josh, Andrea, me, and Melanie at Fatu and Fitu Flower Pot Rocks.

Garrett hiding 

We tried some coconut!

Traveled to the East side where we swam and walked on the rock wall.

wave action was INTENSE... more so than this picture shows.  I didn't even get in the water!

Facing out toward Aunu'u

Jill, Josh, Kristina, and me in front of our soon to be high school! Go Lions!

The weather has truly been unbelievable (again, I am cold because of the wind right now) but I have been warned about the summer months (here that would be Jan, Feb, March) as those are much more humid and less wind.  The temperature itself won't change much (it's been about 80 every day with moderate winds and cloud cover) though, but it will sure feel HOT. 


Trying to remember what else I wanted to write.  I will probably do some kind of Amazon wishlist for school supplies, once I know more about what I need. other volunteers are doing it and have tons of stuff being sent to them.  Will give my postal address as soon as I get it in Leone!


On another note, yesterday at the laundromat I witnessed corporal punishment for the first time.  Even though I know it's the norm here, my first instinct was to leap from my seat.  I wanted to grab the boy away from his mom and yell at her and take him away.  I couldn't tell what he had done wrong, but from watching them for a while I could tell it was nothing that a little verbal enforcement couldn't have fixed.  And then she did it again.  He was helping her with the laundry!  I couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong but all I could think about was how so many of my soon to be students will have been hit so much at home and how violent that is going to make them now as adolescents.  It's a cycle, and although we all want it to be broken, it's a cultural norm here.  Samoans don't understand why we won't use it as teachers, and don't understand why it is not used in the U.S.  It's effective for them to use it here, and they say that our students will respond to it, so we should use it.  All I can think is that it's lazy parenting. Sure, it's effective at one moment, and there are still plenty of people in the US that spank or hit their kids.  Even in my family, spanking isn't out of the question.  But here, hitting kids seems like the go-to form of punishment for a lot of parents, not the last hope of changing kids' behaviors. Pounding a kid on the head seems different than spanking an out of control child, too.  Don't they worry about brain damage?  In AmSam, it just hasn't even been questioned, and other means of discipline aren't even thought of. That incident just made me want a huge hug from my parents, because it didn't look like this mom ever did that for her children.


This is the first place that I've really had to think about cultural customs as well, because word travels so fast if we do something rude and because we will be here for so long.  I have to think about the clothes I wear, how I am sitting, which way my feet are pointing when I sit, you can't eat or drink while standing or walking (definitely taken a few sips out of my water bottle while walking by accident), we say certain things in Samoan when we walk by people, where to sit on the bus, being quiet in certain places, etc.  It's funny because I can use English so easily here, it's easy to forget it's such a different culture and there are many things to be aware of.  Of course, with time all of this will become habit.  Probably good to learn not to eat while standing anyway!!! But it's made us all notice how much we do it.


Also got a good article that some of you may have read long ago, on American Samoa in the 60s.  A lot of this has changed, but it's still a good one to read.
http://etvas.com/history-page/readers-digest-shame/thu-02172011-2348

This week has been some of our most intensive training- we go straight from our sessions around 8 to ending them at 6, and then have Samoan to study, lesson planning, errands to run, group dinners to make, and plenty of material to read.  But we tend to throw in some Boy Meets World or Fresh Prince too.  We played volleyball the other night with a few Samoans...man, they are athletic.  The girl on our team plays volleyball in high school and she was so good!  The boy made fun of us, and we began to learn just how much Samoans love to make fun of people.  Gonna go have dinner now, and lots to plan for the next few days.  Day off on Saturday, I think we are either going to hike to some waterfalls or go to the beach, and then go to Tisa's Barefoot Bar in the evening. Tisa's is the only place on the island where you can wear a bathing suit, but we'll probably still stay fairly covered.

Let me know how you're all doing!! Brucey- how is the academy?  I've told fellow WTers about the "to froms" and the various embarassing forms of punishment when we brainstorm for class (small pink tshirts and pushups, maybe?)

Tofa!