Leone!

Wow, so much to write about right now!! I’ll start with the quick stuff from a few days ago.  While still at Nu’uuli Tech (where we were staying in the classrooms), I got up around 4am one morning to use the bathroom.  As you may have seen in pictures, all of the school is outside except the classrooms. So I walked down the outdoor hall to the kitchen to get the girls bathroom key, walked down the stairs and turned the corner to the bathroom.  I unlocked the door, opened it and turned the light on, and then something scurried out as fast as it possibly could and hit the wall right in front of me.  It was a rat.  Since it was just about as freaked out as I was, it backed up and ran into the wall 2 more times before finally crossing about 6 inches from my barefeet and ran out the door.  Another night, I came down to use the bathroom to find one of the creepy, diseased dogs sitting outside our bathroom and had to rush past it to get to the bathroom and yelled “alu” at it to go away.  After both these incidents, I kept trying harder and harder to hold it through the night until it was light out.

Not to mention Josh’s dog attack incident a few days ago.  He was walking back from the waterfalls and stopped to throw a football with some boys, then continued on his way through the forest alone, where 2 dogs came out of NOWHERE and full out attacked him.  Luckily, he had a stick with him that he swung as much as he could as the dogs took turns trying to bite him until I guess he backed out up of what we assume must’ve been “their territory”.  He went back to the boys to ask them how they got past those dogs, but when he took them to see which dogs, the dogs were gone.  This is the short version of the story, but reinforces no walking alone, carry a stick, and the fact that sooner or later, we’ll all be defending ourselves against dogs.

For my group’s last dinner we made Thanksgiving Dinner for the 30 of us.  We had turkeys, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, cran sauce, and plenty of other things.  So yummy!!!!  We had a session with two fa’afafines also, which was very informative. Such an interesting addition to Samoan culture that they are so accepted.  Explaining fa’afafines is pretty difficult, but to simplify you could say they are transsexuals- people who are born as boys, but act, dress, and take on the roles of women.  Although they would never call themselves transsexuals. It’s just different.

I did my individual lesson on the limiting factors to coral reef formation also, last Wednesday.  Not many Samoan students showed up for our lessons, so we each only had one high schooler in our room and then I presented to 5 of the other volunteers and got feedback from Jen on it.  It went well, and lasted about 40 mins.  Made me excited to teach!  I hope I learn what subject I’ll be teaching tomorrow, since the vice principle still didn’t know what we would be teaching when we went to visit the high school the other day.  The VP’s name is Viper- or at least that’s what we should call him.  It was a very interesting trip to the highschool, we got a tour from a National Honors Society student, talked to the truancy officer (Felicia, who said she is gay, but the other fa’afafines said the term gay isn’t used here.  So Felicia is also a fa’afafine but didn’t use that word.  Sure I’ll learn more.  Viper said there is an absolutely ZERO tolerance policy on corporal punishment….except for him and Felicia, who carries around a 2x4.  If students are bad, they have to hug a pole get 3 hits.  I think they have to do something really bad to get 3, like drinking on school grounds, but missing school can also get them 1.  Viper also seemed surprised that there were 4 of us going to Leone, so hopefully that all works out in terms of teaching what we’re supposed to teach.  He seemed very concerned that we would take our time here too seriously, and wanted to make sure we were partiers.  Little different from the U.S.?  It’s refreshing to have a boss who is so laid back and focused on having fun, but hopefully we can still get things done at school. And we’re all here to take teaching seriously in the first place.  He was very welcoming though, and it seems like Leone HS will be great- after I can control my students. We were there after football practice got out, and the boys were soooo cheeky.  We walked by them, said “Talofa”, and they were all giggling while one responded “Talofa LAVA LAVA”—which is the equivalent of a sassy American boy saying “well, hellooooooooo hubba hubbbbaaaa”, it seems.  You can tell a lot by how people say things.  From the high school, we walked around to the oceanside, where the tsunami hit, and took in the view.  Waves crashing against dark rocks- amazing.  There’s a place over there called “sliding rocks” which we’ll have to get to soon.  Not far from the marine sanctuary, either.

We went to the marine sanctuary on Friday. It’s called Fagatele Bay, and it is a NOAA sanctuary- the only one in the southern hemisphere. Also the most rural one.  It was SUCH an amazing place.  When we went it was high tide and very rough waves- not usually like that the guide said.  But we went snorkeling and had a great time. I had a tough time snorkeling with everyone- I forget that not everyone is as attached to marine life and the ocean as I am, and also forget most people don’t know what I’ve grown up knowing about marine conservation.  A lot of the volunteers were standing/walking on the coral, which KILLED me.  That’s the very thing I spent 7 weeks teaching elementary school kids in Honduras about last summer!  Struck a nerve, especially because it’s hard to politely tell people my age or older to get off the coral because they are killing an ancient animal essential to the wellbeing of the world…

Our guide Emily- from Hawaii but grew up in California- went to Columbia for a masters in fisheries economics, and is basically living my dream.  She came here for 6 months for work, and has stayed for 5 years.  She’s finally headed back to Hawaii in a few months for another job.  I talked to her a LOT about working for NOAA, and it sounds like I’ve thought of all the right grad schools for what I want to do!  She’s really great.  Since she’s moving, she has a huge list of household items she’s selling so us WorldTeachers are all over it trying to get the things we need for our houses from her.

Friday night we went to a party some friends were having at their house- amazing view up on a hill.  We stayed out WAYYYY late and woke up around 8 the next morning to have going-away breakfast with everyone at Sadies- one of the only resort places on the island.  It reminded me of the scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall when he’s eating breakfast at the resort right on the water.  We did those comment cards where you right nice things about everyone and pass them around so that they have them over the next year.  It was sad—we knew we were all saying bye in just a few hours to move on to our placements!  Even though we’re all seeing eachother tomorrow for DOE orientation, we aren’t living together anymore.  Most of us have gotten close so it’s weird to say goodbye!  I had some traditional Samoan dish that basically was a hamburger on some rice with some scrambled eggs.  Perfect for a big day of moving and cleaning!

I picked up my WorldTeach ‘ie (skirt) from the sew shop, we left for Leone in Mata’s big school bus, and got dropped off around 2.  Josh and I are in a house that has 3 bedrooms (and Jessie is staying here for a few days until she flies out to Manu’a with the others).  Jill and Kristina are in the 2br apartment right next to us, also on the Purcell’s property.  Allison, the field director from 2 years ago, is also in an apartment here.  Mel and Moana Purcell’s house is next to us, and their daughter Melicia and her husband Joe and their 4 cute kids live in a house next to us as well.  Another family and their son live behind the Purcells, and they seem to help out with groundkeeping, maintenance, and anything else.  Seems like it’s gonna be one big, busy fun time over here!! There are 3 dogs on the property, all real friendly (a new thing here in AmSam), and it’s so nice to finally have dogs around we can pet and place with!!!  One’s named Tsunami, the other Brownie, and the third I’ve already heard about 5 possible names (nobody remembers what it’s name is).  They’re all just strays, but since the Purcells started feeding them scraps they’re basically theirs now and act as watch dogs.

So yesterday we unpacked, set up, and cleaned.  I’ll put up pictures of our house and property soon.  We have an awesome porch, I took the bedroom that has the backdoor that leads outside and Josh took the master bedroom with its own bathroom.  Jessie is in the third bedroom for now, and I think I might even move in there later because it’s sunnier and cozier than my room which is pretty dark and has a lot of open space. But I love having the backdoor.

There are SO MANY SOUNDS HERE!!!! This whole property is just so full of life.  It’s about 9 acres, and there is a volleyball net!!!! WOOOOO!!!!  There are SO many birds, roosters, chicks, bats, geckos, anything, you name it, we’ve got it (including spiders which we’ve been finding every second as we clean termites, and cockroaches.  There are coconuts, a special type of lemon, papayas, breadfruit, taro, papaya, and banana trees on the property, and Moana told us we can have them whenever but I’m sure we’ll wait til they get them for us.  There are bushels of bananas wrapped in lava lavas so birds can’t get them ripening in the fale  (it’s a faleo’o or something actually, I forget exactly what they call it, basically just an open hut).  And they’re the SWEET TYPE OF BANANA!!! They’re smaller than American bananas (which I learned are at least $10 here…so I will never buy them again) and taste soooo much better. They are the PERFECT size for my mini wheats or whatever cereal in the morning, since I usually only liked using half a banana at home (hahahah Alex…this is an awesome thing for me and you know it).  I always thought I hated papaya, because in Honduras last summer it was AWFUL, but today I tried it and I absolutely love it.

I love that there are always things going on here and I can always hear people, kids playing, dogs barking, chickens, birds, chirping bugs, bats.  Don’t feel like it’ll ever be lonely. But some of the noises are freaky, like right now.  We woke up this morning and all were like “what the heck were those noises?!” and “did you HEAR that THING Last night?!?!”. Hahahah.  There is a little market/store literally in our front yard off to the side (our house is set back from the road which is so nice), and even that has everything. AmSam in general is so much more developed than I pictured.  The store even has some veggies!!!! I saw broccoli, celery, and cabbage there yesterday.  Green are hard to come by here, so that was good to see. I think I'm going to ask the Purcells if we can grow tomatoes in pots (and test my green thumb).

Last night the Purcells took us out for burgers at Carl Junior’s- which I had never been to as an East Coast girl!!!  Those burgers are HUGE.  Riding in the back of pickup trucks has been awesome ever since we got here.  We cleaned all this morning. I’ve never seen so many spiders in my life.  Then today, the invited us over for their huge lunch that they host after church (they are Mormon) and we had the BEST food.  They began cooking around 5am in the umu (a traditional Samoan outdoor oven). They had corned beef and cabbage, chicken casserole, taro leaves in coconut milk, what I thought was ham and pineapple but actually turned out to be spam and pineapple (cooked I couldn’t even tell the difference, which was a pleasant surprise but I tried not to think about it).  Also meatballs, potato salad, breadfruit and taro in a coconut milk sauce, and other things that I’m probably forgetting, plus watermelon for dessert.  After we had totally filled our plates once and hadn’t gotten up right away to get seconds, Mel asked Jessie and I if we were on a diet. HAH.  They said they wanted to do this lunch with us because they wouldn’t be around much (they are REALLY busy people), so at some point I assume we eventually won’t have beyond full bellies all the time here. We met some of their friends and family, and gave them their gifts for hosting us. 

The Purcells are really important on the island and they are always traveling to Hawaii, the states, and other countries.  They work for the Dept of Agriculture, and their daughter who lives here now went to play volleyball and basketball in college in the states.  They are a very athletic family and are really involved in the high school sports.  Mel taught P.E. at one of the high schools for a year as well. Leone High is always trying to get their daughter to coach bball. Josh has talked to them a lot about coaching football, and now that they know I played basketball for a few years and want to get involved in some sports, I think they are trying to get me to help out coaching girls bball too!!!  I told them I’m not very good, and they went on and on about how it doesn’t matter.  Then they asked about volleyball, I told them I’ve only played intramurals and don’t know the rules, and they said I’m qualified for that too then, hahah!!

After lunch, the day got even better today.  The Purcells invited us to their friend’s house up in Maloata Bay.  Leone is the last village before you really get to the absolute boonies, so if you look on a map and go North from Leone, you can see where we went.  The road ends not too far past Maloata.  The family who’s house we visited is the only family in their village, and their property got devastated by the tsunami and hurricanes.  The drive there allowed us to see a lot more tsunami damage.  This side of the island really got wrecked, and people have nowhere to go, because the federal govt wouldn’t give them financial help to rebuild houses or anything back up, for fear that they’d be destroyed again.  This makes sense, but considering any further inland is just cliffs that rise straight up, there isn’t really any place for these people to rebuild.

Maloata was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been.  So beautiful.  When we got there, kids were kayaking, snorkeling, etc, and there was more food out (holy moly!) with many people all around. I looked out over the Pacific Ocean, looking beyond the international date line, and saw a spurt of water up into the air.  At first I thought I was just seeing things, then I realized it was a whale.  I started turning to the people near me, and nobody seemed to care. Then when I said it to the fellow volunteers, they looked out, and were as astonished, amazed, and awe struck as I was.  We all got chills.  We were watching whales!!!!  Right in people’s front yards!!  I think they were humpback whales.  We then went snorkeling, saw some really awesome fish but it was getting dark so it was difficult to see much.  When we got out of the water, Mel had made us more sandwiches (I was still full from lunch but couldn’t not accept the food), and they gave us brownies, papaya, etc.  They also had raw tuna (prepared in a Hawaiian style, because friends there were Hawaiian) and a giant clam!!!!  I didn’t try those because I was too full.  We saw an amazing sunset and drove back through all the tiny villages in the back of the pickup truck, with Melicia’s kids all falling asleep on Jill and Jessie’s laps.

Today was just an amazing day.  Josh and I have heard a little from other volunteers about their placements, and we realize we really are spoiled here in Leone.  Despite the cleaning and insects we’re dealing with, this is a wiiiickked awesome place, and the Purcells are great.  Tomorrow is when it really hits, and it’s pedal to the metal. We have DOE orientation, with the other 2000 teachers on island. Tues and Wed it’ll be setting up classroom, cleaning, and buying things for school (and hopefully lesson planning…. If I figure out what classes I’m teaching…).  Thurs and Fri more DOE orientation for high school.  Gonna be a busy week!

Also, I’ve made it so that anyone can comment, you don’t have to be subscribed or have an account!!!

I’m exhausted and have to wake up around 6 tomorrow for a bus to DOE at Tafuna High School (and hopefully do some ab workouts in the morning, after all this food), so I’m headed to sleep now.  I’m getting nervous about school starting, but I’m sure I won’t forget this day for a very long time.
-Sara