The following is my handover letter, which we write to the WorldTeach volunteers who come after us and have our same placements (the poor ignorant souls!!! Turn back while you can!!! haha...jokes!). It's really long, but I've got a lot to say about Samoa (and a lot more that can never be put into words). Not as exciting as other blogs, but I figured I may as well post it.
Talofa and congrats, new
WorldTeach volunteers!!!!
You've
been placed in LEONE! WEST SIIIIDDEEE PRIDE!!
Right up front I'm going to tell you that it's pronounced
"Lay-oh-nay", so you can avoid looking like an idiot when you call it
"Lee-own" or "Lay-own" like we all did when we first got
our placements, haha! My name is Sara
Cleaver, and I teach biology, earth and space, and marine science to
sophomores, juniors, and seniors at Leone High School.
The
handover letters that I got from last year's WorldTeachers were the best
portrayals of life in American Samoa, so I hope you find this letter helpful
while you prepare for your year here. Everyone's
experience in American Samoa is totally unique, but I will do my best to give
you an accurate representation of what my experience here has been like. I'm
from Lexington, Massachusetts, and last year I graduated from the University of
Vermont with a degree in environmental policy.
I'm 23 years old, and I'm a huge ocean nerd- I love scuba diving,
sailing, snorkeling, fishing, etc, so that was one of the draws for me to come
here. For me, the necessities of living
in Samoa: flexibility & patience, a sense of humor, and lots of water.
This time
last year I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into. I couldn't
believe I had signed up for a year on a tiny rock in the South Pacific. So it's perfectly normal if you have an
insane mix of emotions and are kind of freaking out. It's true for most of us.
ARRIVING IN SAMOA
When you
get off the plane, there will be LOTS of people at the airport. Since flights
from Hawaii are only twice a week, everyone comes to "Flight Night"
to see who's arriving. A lot of people
will know that you're the new WorldTeachers, and it will be your first glimpse
of fame. Since there aren't that many palagis (white people) on-island, it will
seem like everyone knows who you are during your time here, especially out in
the smaller villages. If you are someone
who doesn't like all the attention on you, that will naturally change while
you're here, because once you step out of the house, all the attention will be
on you, because you're not Samoan (at least I don't think you are).
I don't know what the plans
are for your group of WorldTeachers, but the 30 of us spent our first 3 weeks
at Nu'uuli Polytech High School (Voc-tech) sleeping on foam mattresses on the
floor in classrooms. We had our orientation there, where we got introduced to
everything about life on the island from teaching to how to get around, to
language classes. At VocTech you will most likely get your first glimpses into
things like cockroaches, other insects, mice, rats, dogs, etc. Expect cold showers for the duration of your
year here (except for the middle of the day when the water heats up...but I
can't say I've EVER wanted a hot shower here... it's just too damn hot!). They
say the temperature in Samoa is only in the 80s year round, but most days the
humidity and the equatorial sun actually has a heat index of about 105-110. You
will sweat. A lot. Sweat will be part of your life for the next year,
especially once you hit the hot months.
Luckily, when you get here it
will be the "coolest" part of the year. Enjoy that. Because it only
gets hot, hotter, and then you feel like you live on the surface of the sun, except
with like 99% humidity. Because American Samoa follows the American education
system, the school year (August-June) is unfortunately during the hottest part
of the year. Go figure.
The area where Voctech is
located is the more industrial part of the island. You'll get maps at orientation, but
Tafuna/Nu'uuli/Utulei/Fagatogo/Pago Pago are the more "urban" areas.
I didn't really like it over there, even though it is right on the water, but
I'm not much of a city person anyway.
There are lots of stores, fast food restaurants, car dealers/mechanics,
and little strip malls, and people in these areas even dress more American-
shorter shorts, tank tops- than they do in the smaller villages. Also, you
might be very confused when you first get here because you will think you are
in one village, and 10 feet later you will technically be in another. The
villages are tiny.
You will begin to notice very
quickly that American Samoa is this crazy, hodge-podge mix between trying to
keep up with today's American popular culture while at the same time
desperately trying to hang on to Samoan traditional values. Much of the way things work here seems
illogical and just does not make sense. During
my year here, the other volunteers and I decided there isn't really much sense
in trying to make sense of it. Just love it for what it is. That's the only way
to deal with it. Sometimes, you might feel like your neurons are just going to
explode because things are done so illogically and we're used to efficiency and
trying to have things make sense at home.
I often remind myself of one my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs, in which
he says, "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane". A term was
coined a few years back, T.I.S. This Is Samoa. I'll let you figure that one out
on your own.
THE VILLAGE OF LEONE/WEST SIDE
PRIDE
Leone is
a great place to live in American Samoa. It's the last big village before you
hit the real “boonies” of the West Side of the island, which means that you get
away from all the fast food places and strip malls of Nuuuli. But Leone also
has a lot more buses into town the than villages in the North (Fagasa and
Vatia) or on the East Side, which means it is easy (ish) to catch a bus to
town. The West Side of Tutuila is a
gem. It has both beauty and
character. Although the East Side is
beautiful, and you can basically always see the ocean wherever you are on the
East Side (which is true once you get past Leone as well), the West Side= Best
Side. Everyone from Pago Pago> West
says they are "West Side", but they're all just jealous. Leone is the TRUE West Side, since we are the
furthest high school to the west. Leone is nice because it gives you a small
town feel, but isn’t too terribly far from "town". (I use ‘town’
loosely.... Fagatogo and Tafuna are technically “town,” but this is town
according to American Samoa, which only has a population of about 60,000.) I
say the 'True West Side' has character because 1) it really is like a huge
family, and 2) it got hit really bad by the tsunami in 2009 (I will get to that
soon).
On island you will be pretty
famous, especially in Leone because there are not many white people over here.
It's hard to go outside without someone shouting my name from a truck or saying
hey as they walked by. Even if I just walk to the store in front of our house,
I usually see a few students. People will know everything about you. Even
people you don't know will know you, and where you live. Just the other day, after 9 months of being
totally used to it, I started to get creeped out because no joke, 7 people
within 1 hour said "Hi Sara" to me and I did not know who a single
one of them was (and I wasn't even in Leone, I was in town).
There are a few parts of Leone. There is Sogi, which is the part of village
if you take a left near the bay. Then there is Puapua, which is up the hill
from Leone proper (where we live). Leone
proper has two parts, "Upstairs" and "Downstairs", which
are up the hill and down the hill, respectively. You will be living Upstairs,
basically on the border of Leone and Puapua. Leone Bay, where the main part of
the village is (Auma), is about a 5 minute walk down the hill.
The village of Leone was
almost completely destroyed in the 2009 tsunami. The tsunami hit in the morning
of September 29, 2009, and Leone, Pago Pago, and villages on the North Side
were hit the worst, because of the shape of those bays. Even now, 4 years
later, you will still see people on the West Side living in the FEMA tents
beside their destroyed houses. When you walk down to Leone proper, by the bay,
you will see what used to be houses, the old Leone Post Office, and the old
health clinic. All destroyed. There is
also the "Healing Garden" which is a really nice (by the way, you'll
notice the only adjective that will be a part of your vocabulary by the time you
leave is "nice". Everything is, "that's nice") tsunami
memorial and has some (but not all) of the people who died in the tsunami. A lot of students have that morning etched in
their memories, and some lost family members in it. In 2009 they only had a few minutes after the
earthquake to get to higher ground, and there was no warning system in place.
Thankfully, the United States finally remembered it had a territory in one of
the most geologically active places on earth, and installed tsunami sirens all
over the island in 2010. The tsunami sirens go off every first Friday of the
month at noon (and yes, this disrupts teaching, especially since the siren is
right next to the science building). In
September you will probably have an assembly in memory of those who lost their
lives in the tsunami. Though it is a sad part of the island's history, it is a
reminder how resilient people can be, continuing on without their homes and/or
loved ones.
Leone is also the place where
the first missionary landed in American Samoa. His name was John Williams, and
he was part of the London Missionary Society. He spent a lot of time converting
Samoans before he went to the country of Vanuatu and got eaten by the locals
(apparently they did not want his religion.) Anyway, Leone has the oldest
church on the island- the big yellow & white LMS church at the bottom of
the hill by the bay. Legend has it that when the tsunami came, the water parted
and went around the 2 churches in Leone (the LMS church & the big Catholic
church), and they were left undamaged. Believe what you will. As the science
teacher, I have a hard time with legends that don't follow the laws of science,
but ask anyone, and that's what they say. Who knows.
THE PURCELLS/HOME
You will
probably be living with the Purcells in Leone. The family consists of Mel and
Moana, their daughter Melisha and her husband Joe, and their kids Melina,
Julius, Jarvis, and Marceline. Occasionally there are other grandchildren there
that live in Hawaii and come here when they are bad. The kids are pretty
spoiled, and you will hear lots of crying and screaming. At the same time, it's
nice to have so many people around. The
Purcells will invite you to do some things with them, but they never pressure
you. The Purcells are really good friends
with a family called the Gurrs, who live way up on the West Side on the island
in the village of Maloata. If you ever get a chance to go with the Purcells there,
or to their family land in Utumea, (a little bit past Leone) DO IT. It is
beautiful.
The Purcells are a pretty big
deal on the island. They are a very powerful Mormon family, and Mel is a chief
and the Director of the Dept of Agriculture.
Moana is working all the time (she'll tell you ALL about all of her jobs
and volunteer work) and will probably also ask if you want to help out with big
events on the island, like the Miss South Pacific Pageant, Samoa Bowl, etc.
It's a lot of fun to have the "in". On the property there are lime
trees, papaya trees, banana trees, and breadfruit and taro. The Purcells also have 3 dogs-Brownie,
Tsunami and the last one (my favorite) we just call him Blackie, though I've
heard him called Simba, Shadow, and a lot of other names. Nobody really knows
what his real name is I don't think. They
are friendly to the people who live there, but not always to visitors. They are
kind of racist- I've found they love palagis but don't really like Samoans. The
black one can be pretty nippy- he likes to try to get your fingers, but they're
tails are always wagging, so they are just playing. They're the closest to real dogs like in the
states that you'll find on the island, so aside from their barking and howling,
I like having them around. They usually stay right on the Purcells property. There
are also chickens in the yard, and occasionally rats. Hundreds of bats fly
overhead every evening, and it's so cool.
The Malakis live right across
the street from California Mart, Eddie was a senior this year but George Malaki
will be a junior when you are here, so he might be in your class. He's a
fa'afafine (you'll learn all about fa'afafine culture when you get here and
from your literature), so he's a handful.
Students live in all the neighboring houses- the girls across the street
lost both their parents, and one of them, Lizzy, will be a senior next year.
She's great.
Alison also lives on the
Purcells land. She's another palagi and
she works at the college, and was a past field director for WT. Alison is a great resource for all things
regarding Samoa, traveling, and WorldTeach in general. There is also a family
that lives in the green house behind the Purcells house- they have dogs and
children too. Tau and Malo are the two
guys that live back there, I'm not sure the woman's name. They basically work
for the Purcells in exchange for a place to live- the Purcells sponsored them
to come over from Western Samoa. They do all the yard work and basically
anything the Purcells ask them to do.
It's kind of uncomfortable at first, because they kind of seem like
slaves, but you get used to it when you realize they are just doing what most
Samoans are used to doing on a daily basis. It's just weird the way the
Purcells treat them. But they are totally awesome and I've learned a lot about
Samoan culture from them this year.
Definitely make friends with them. Tau was a missionary in Philadelphia
so his English is pretty good, and they're sweet guys. They will help you with
anything and look out for you.
The Purcells have their own
internet, so we've just kind of fed off of theirs all year. Occasionally it
will go out for like a month at a time, but you can just ask them if you can go
in their house and reset the router (Moana doesn't know how to do it
anyway). It's super picky about where
you can get it (like sometimes it won't work if the microwave is on, no joke),
and if you move your computer an inch it won't work. It's pretty slow, but you
don't have to pay for it, which is a bonus.
I wouldn't say it's reliable, but you can also get internet at school
usually, so keeping in touch with people at home isn't difficult.
DOGS
Yes, dogs
get their own category in here. I love
dogs, but not in Samoa. They aren't really "pets" but very few dogs
are actually stray. Most of them belong to certain families, but they just
aren't treated the way we treat dogs as pets in the states. They are vicious,
especially to palagis. One group of
houses on our walk to school we have named, "The Gauntlet" because of
the dogs that come after us there. If dogs come after you, bend down and
pretend to pick up a rock and throw it (or actually pick one up and throw it if
it makes you feel better) and yell, "HALU!" (it means go away). If
you are out by yourself, especially at night, carry a stick so you can whack
them if they come after you. If you find yourself without a stick, pick up a
rock and throw it at them. The best thing to do is just never act like you are
afraid of them- they can smell fear. It sucks if you want to run, because
sometimes there are dogs around and they are attracted to running, so you have to
slow down and walk past them. Usually, they're just a lot of barking but they
don't do anything. It's the sneaky ones that you should worry about that just
come out of nowhere. Lots of students will come to school with dog bites on
their legs, and the dog issue has certainly made running and getting exercise a
bit difficult. Nobody understands why the dog issue isn't taken care of.
Samoans seem to have apathy about a lot of things, and the dog problem I guess
is one of them. I guess to them it's easier to just ignore the problem and put
a bandaid on their dog bites than actually do something about it and solve the
problem. No worries though, no rabies on island. Also, if our dogs (the one's
that live on the Purcell's land) try to walk with you off their property, try
to get them to go home. Brownie followed us down the street at night once and
attracted all the freakin dogs and and then she thought WE would protect her
from the dogs. We had to take her home in a car, otherwise I'm not sure she
would have made it home without being mauled.
RELIGION
Samoans
are REALLY religious. There is no separation of Church and State here. School
begins every morning with a hymn and a prayer. Every event on the island begins
with a prayer. Every meal begins with a prayer.
Almost everyone is a Christian.
The three main denominations are Catholic, Protestant (especially
Assembly of God and London Missionary Society), and Mormon (aka The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; you will often see the Mormons abbreviate it
as “LDS”). There are lots of Mormons on-island. Church is the one place where
you will really see passion in Samoans, and church is a great way to get to
know Samoans. Many of your students will invite you to their church. Even if
you are not religious, you should go a few times, and if you enjoy it, keep
going! It’s a great way to meet people in the community, and get brownie points
with your students. Samoans will be super excited to see you there.
I'm not a super religious
person (I'm a Unitarian Universalist, and no, there is no UU church on island),
but I've kind of just played along and learned a lot about Christianity in the
process. I tell students that I'm a
Christian and believe the same stuff as them, and when they ask what church I
go to I tell them here I've explored all different churches because I want to
see them and because my kind of church isn't here on island. Many things here
make the Samoan version of Christianity seem hypocritical, especially because
they haven't quite made the steps that other Christians in the states have made
(like believing in evolution or even dinosaurs for that matter). For example, the amount of donation money the
churches ask for and how they tell the ENTIRE congregation how much money every
person gave. Another example is there is
a lot of violence (no guns, even the police officers don't have guns) like kids
hitting each other and also parents/teachers hitting their kids. It’s just
something to be aware of. I constantly remind students about what the Bible
says about things like stealing, swearing, respecting each other, and taking
care of the Earth. I try to use their
extreme religion to my benefit in science class- I ask them if they are being
"Good Christians" when they do this stuff. They think if they go to
church a lot they are excused from actually FOLLOWING the Bible in their
actions. I tell them otherwise.
Because church is such a huge
deal here, Sunday's ("Aso Sa", literally "sacred day) can either
be good or bad, depending on the person.
I get really bored doing nothing, I constantly need to be outside and
running around or hiking or swimming or something. So Sundays have been my archenemy
while here. If you aren't going to
church, you basically aren't supposed to be out. Also, because Leone is smaller than other
parts of the island, it is more conservative, and it is awkward to be seen
doing things on Sundays that don't involve church or to'ona'i (big family lunch
after church). Most places you can't
swim on Sundays, but no buses run on Sundays, so you can't do anything exciting
anyway.
Some volunteers who live in
town have it a little better, because it is more westernized in town and they
can run, swim, and be out in the afternoons on Sundays. Some volunteers try to
hitchhike so they can go hiking on Sundays, but I think it's uncomfortable to
get rides from Samoans on Sundays because even if they are super nice they
might be judging you for not going to church. Usually, Kristina and I just stay
inside and lesson plan, read, and watch movies on Sundays (which does make me
go a totally stir crazy). If you don't
mind a quiet day though, you might enjoy Sundays. It's a good day to do laundry
and clean, too. Sometimes it's nice to go to church on Sundays just to get out
of the house. Also, there are a few
English-speaking churches on island you can go to. If you have a way of getting
to Airport Beach (if you know someone with a car), it's a good place to swim on
Sundays because no Samoans will be there and it is secluded- you have to walk
about 20 mins to get to it from where you park.
I would DEFINITELY suggest
that you ask Tau and Malo (the guys that live behind the Purcells house) to
show you how they do the umu (traditional Samoan earthen oven) one Sunday morning.
You have to get up really early, but it's so awesome to see it all and even
help prepare the food. They'll even show you how to weave a basket out of palm
fronds. I've gone back there a few times
and love their insights into traditional Samoan life. It's also cool because
it's one thing that Leone volunteers get to do that not many other volunteers
get to see for themselves. Just another perk of Leone.
LANGUAGE & CLOTHES
During
orientation, we had a little bit of Samoan language classes. I don't know if
they will have this for you, but I found most of the Samoan I learned came
after orientation, during my year teaching.
But don't trust anything the students say- there have been some
hilarious stories about palagis trying to speak Samoan after their students
"taught" them how to say things. Needless to say, it was not so funny
for the people involved. One thing to
start working on is how to pronounce your g's and n's. They both sound the
same. G in Samoan, like the word palagi, is like an n+g sound. But it's not
like the normal way we say it, it's more in your throat. It sounds like the way
"ng" sounds at the ends of words "king" and
"sing". You'll catch on.
Despite the image of South
Pacific islands as half-naked islanders, in actuality, Samoa is pretty
conservative as far as clothes go. The missionaries did their job well. Guys
can still run around in very little clothing, but girls should make sure that
shorts hit around the knee and skirts go below the knee. Technically you can
wear whatever you want, but just keep in mind that your students are not going
to show you respect if you show up in a short skirt and a tank top (although
students might not show much respect anyway, being the little jerks they can
be!). No spaghetti straps! Tank tops
with thick straps are fine for doing stuff around town on the weekends, but I
wouldn't recommend them for teaching.
Even though it's freakin hot, while teaching, the more clothes the
better (if you're a girl). If you're a guy, you can kind of wear whatever you
want because you don't have to deal with the cheeky boys trying to hit on you
all day. Swimsuits are not really worn here; bikinis are basically prohibited
except for at 2 beach bars. Girls and guys both swim in tshirts and shorts.
Guys don't have to wear shirts to swim, but many Samoan guys do. I know this
sounds like it is going to suck, but you’ll get used to it, and before long
you’ll see the tourists getting off the cruise ships in their skimpy shorts and
tank tops and you’ll want to yell, “PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!” Lol. Also, do not
look at the cruise ship people as examples. Often times you'll see them
swimming right in town in bikinis, but this is not respectful of Samoan
culture.
All the literature you get
prior to arrival and at orientation says be super conservative in your dress, but
that's really more because we want to set a good example as teachers. Since
we're palagis, you're going to get stared at anyway. Honestly though, a few months into the year lots
of the WorldTeachers kind of just started wearing whatever they wanted (still
not exactly what you'd wear at home during the summer though), and it seemed
like they were fine. I found the best way to figure out what to wear is look at
what the Samoans around you are wearing, and decide what you're comfortable
with. I personally hate being stared at,
so I wore fairly conservative clothes all year (and yes, this does SUCK for
running when it's like 300 degrees out). A cute dress or two for going out is
acceptable (I was being overly-conservative when I packed and regretted not
having any going-out clothes all year).
If you're a guy, a cute dress is an essential item. Jokes!
Everyone is going to tell you
this, and you should really listen: DON’T BRING THAT MANY CLOTHES. Most of time
you’ll wear stuff you get made here in the traditional Samoan style, and pretty
much all the clothes you bring from home are going to get sweaty and gross and
you’ll end up throwing them away at the end of the year. You can get outfits
made here for $25, and the island has SO MUCH fabric to choose from. Women wear
traditional Samoan garb called a puletasi. Men wear ‘ies/faitagas, which are
basically skirts. Both sexes wear lavalavas when they are just chilling at home
or running errands.
 |
| Me and Kristina in our puletasis! |
SAMOANS
Ancient
Samoans were known for how violent and warlike they were, and it hasn’t really
changed. They will beat each other up for fun, and fights (more like riots, on
occasion) break out frequently at school, both in and out of the
classroom. The good news is, they only
use fists and rocks. :)
Most Samoans are super
friendly and love having palagi teachers on-island. They pick you up and give
you rides, and really want to talk to you about your life both here and at
home. It's totally normal for Samoans to
pass you on the street and ask you where you're going, or yell, "HI
PALAGI!!!" out of car windows, so don't be creeped out. Some of my most
memorable moments in Samoa have just been sitting outside and chatting with
Samoans for hours on end, and hearing life from their perspective. If you get
invited to go do stuff, don't hesitate. The more involved you get in the
community, the better.
Samoans are super blunt, and
they don’t always know that something is offensive for people from off-island.
For instance, they call people ‘fat’ all the time. It’s not an insult, it's
just an adjective, like "brown hair" or "blue eyes". There
are two words in particular that they do not seem to realize are offensive:
“faggot” and “nigger.” They honestly don’t realize how awful of words they are.
They don’t know the history of these words, so anytime you have some extra
class time and feel like giving a little history lesson, go for it. Just think
if you listened to rap music but never knew anything about slavery. Rap artists
drop the “n” word so often that you would think it was perfectly acceptable to
use it, and that's what they think here.
Samoans love teasing, so
hopefully you aren't easily offended. The students will call you out on
anything and everything, and sometimes it will seem like they are TRYING to
make you uncomfortable lol. Although Samoa is really made up of people from all
over the South Pacific (Tongans, Fijians, Melanesians, etc), they have no
concept of racism, so they call darker kids "the black kid", and it's
totally acceptable. Here it is just not a big deal, and so they tease each
other about skin color all the time. It’s almost if they are ignoring race by
making fun of it. It sounds very strange, so I guess you’ll just have to
experience it for yourself.
Let's talk about Samoan men. They are NOT
SUBTLE. When you meet a guy, pretty much the first thing he will ask you is
“Are you married?” I’ll admit that sometimes I would lie and say I was. Older
Samoans will also try to set you up with their sons. Just remember that Samoan
guys REALLY go after palagi girls, just because they are white. Be smart. If
you give a guy your phone number, be prepared for him to call a MILLION times a
day. I'm not exaggerating. I know from experience. Relationships here are SUPER
CLINGY, and they don't know the actual meaning of the word "love". Here,
a guy saying "I love you" is like a guy at home saying that you're
cute. Just don’t be stupid, and you’ll be fine.
Don’t forget, Samoans looooooove to gossip. There's
not much to do on a small island, so gossiping is kind of a hobby here. New
travels fast on the Coconut Wireless, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be
true. Don’t be surprised if there are rumors about you, even if they aren’t
true. It's happened to me, it's happened to all of us. You can't let it get to
you, otherwise you'll go crazy.
FOOTBALL
....is HUGE on-island. I suggest
watching "Football
Island" on 60 Minutes if you haven't. A lot of it is filmed at Leone
(some of my students are in it from when they were freshmen!!). Definitely go and
support your students' at the football games, they're a lot of fun to watch and
the fans get really loud. School spirit
is really big, just make sure to stay clear of any big fights with our rival
schools!
TEACHING- warning...this section
is loonnng!!!!
The kids will be cheeky jerks
who try to test you and drive you LITERALLY insane. My students tell me all the
time they think I'm losing my mind. I tell them it's their fault. You will want
to destroy their souls and love them at the very same time.
Most of the stuff about
teaching here will depend on you and what you're style of teaching is, but also
a lot of things are supposed to change after this year. They are supposed to
redistrict the schools, so there will be more students at Leone, the school
administration is changing, so I can't say much about that, and the teachers
are being reevaluated and reassigned, so I don't even know what from this year
will be the same.
When I opened the email that
said I would be teaching HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE, I totally freaked out. I assumed
that I would be teaching English and be in an elementary school. I was terrified. I love science, but it's not
my strong point. Little did I know, that
did not matter. The high school students are at such a low level that no matter
how terrible you are at a subject, you can get through it just fine. I'm not
sure how it will work next year, but right now science classes are divided into
2 levels. Proficient kids usually speak better English and they are generally better
behaved and have better attendance. Mainstream kids usually don't speak English
very well, have behavior problems, and oftentimes just don’t care about school
or don't show up. However, the students get placed in these levels when they
are coming into high school, and it's really not based on much. I have amazing
students in my mainstream classes, and nightmare students in my proficient
class. Additionally, no matter what level you're teaching, one of the most
difficult things about teaching here is the huge gap between students'
abilities even in the same class. I have students who have over 100% and are
still asking for extra credit in the same class as students who haven't been to
school in 2 months and then come for one day and complain that they don't know
anything. There's not much rhyme or
reason to how they are placed.
The school is about a
20-minute walk from your house if you live on the Purcells land. Usually we walked to school, but people or
school buses that drive by might sometimes pick you up and give you a ride,
which is nice.
When we met with our
departments, I chose to teach mostly the mainstream classes because they were
my favorite subjects; I didn't want to teach chemistry or physical science.
General science (9th grade), life science (10th), and earth & space (11th)
are the mainstream classes for sciences and physical science (9th), biology
(10th), chemistry (11th) and physics (12th) are the proficient classes. Students only have to take 3 years of
science, so marine science is an elective- all seniors, some of whom might have
failed another science class. I taught 3
Earth and Space classes, 1 marine science, and 1 biology. None of the other teachers
have 3 different subjects, and yes, it's a lot more work and kind of unfair
that they make first-year teachers have 3 subjects, but that's their way of
doing things. They just do it because
they know you can handle it, so take it as a compliment if they give you more
work.
If you are in the science department, you are in SUCH
LUCK. It's the best department at Leone (in my unbiased opinion). I absolutely
loved it. Gopal is the department head (though I'm not sure if he'll be here
next year). If you have ANY problems, go to Gopal. He was the American Samoa
Teacher of the Year a few years ago, and he's a part time teacher at the
college. He is from India, and he is
such a hard-working, helpful man, and is so amazing. His wife Beena is the math
DH and she is awesome too. Their brilliant daughter Ambika will be a sophomore,
and although I didn't have her as a student (I had her super sweet and just as
smart cousin Pooja, who is Gopal's niece), I will miss both of them so much.
The other science teachers are Ace, Wayne, Lote, and Subin. Wayne is totally outrageous. Do not be
offended by his incredibly crude sexual remarks. He is harmless and (if you can
deal with his sense of humor) hilarious. I like to say he's my favorite Samoan.
Teacher absences are a huge issue here, and you will end up substituting during
your prep period a lot. But fortunately the science department is pretty good
about coming to school. If you ever need any help with teaching, lesson
planning, or anything else, Mr. Berquist, a palagi history teacher, is a great
resource. He was almost teacher of the year this year (it came down to
politics), and he understands the crazy things about Samoa, so it's nice to
have him here.
I dreaded going to school for
the first few months, and there were days even mid-year that I woke up and just
wanted to stay in my bed all day and not have to face the maniacs. The worst part is at the beginning of the
year when you are trying to pronounce their 18 syllable names. But the first year of teaching, as they say,
is always the hardest, and it gets better every single day. It's also made harder when you don't know
what the bell schedule is until the morning of, when the bells don't ring on
time anyway, when there are emergency assemblies that pop up right in the
middle of your lesson, and when you are subbing for someone's class and trying
to teach at the same time. And yes, the mainstream
students are more of a challenge to teach. They are hard to control, have
limited English abilities, and are lacking the basics of scientific concepts.
But I love them so much. They are the
ones that when they finally do get excited about something you are teaching, it
is that much more rewarding. The mainstream kids a lot of the time just need a
reason to actually try in school- they have no motivation. Since a lot of their
parents don't give a crap about education, apathy is a huge problem. Make it fun; give them a reason to care. Once you have made a connection with the
students and they see that you care about them, they will hopefully change
their bratty attitudes towards you. Some of them are great from the start,
others are little devils all year long. I had a soft spot for my seniors- not
only do I LOOOOVE marine science way more than earth/space and biology, but
those were my favorite students. I had a really tough time with the juniors,
and I think a lot of that was because I didn't enjoy that subject as much, but
we made it through the year without killing each other. The sophomores were
just plain loud and obnoxious, but they are easier to manage because you can
just threaten them with their grades (since they were my proficient class and
actually care about grades).
Some of the students, no matter what you do, will always
be little punks. The kids are a lot worse for palagi teachers than Samoan teachers
because they know you won't hit them. My biggest mistake of the year: Telling
my students I wouldn't hit them on the first day. Of course we won't hit them,
but DON'T LET THEM KNOW THAT. You can always threaten them with it (this sounds
harsh but you will be laughing in a few months about threatening your students
with the lead pipes, machetes, and 2x4s they bring into your classrooms). NEVER
leave your classroom unlocked or kids unsupervised in your room. They will
steal anything and everything. I had a kid steal my computer speakers from
behind my desk WHILE I was in there helping another student with a test. I eventually got them back because another
teacher caught him with them. But they
are super sneaky and love to steal things, even things that don't matter but
are super annoying when they steal them- like your whiteboard markers or
pencils that they borrow from you. I make them give me their shoe when they
borrow pens or pencils so that I know I will get them back. Eventually I had a group of students that I
trusted to be in my room while I wasn't there, but you have to make sure you
really trust them. They are deceptive and manipulative! Each student belongs to
a "crew", kind of a like a gang in the states, but it's based on
villages. There's the Tap Boys, Spunka, Spua, Snow Boys, Tuala (the really bad
kids, but also most of my favorites), Pava Boys, and so on. I like to call them "fia gangsters"
(wannabe gangsters), sometimes to their faces.
Here, the teacher-student relationship is different than
in the states because a lot of times they are neighbors, family members, or
live in the same village, go to the same church, etc. So teachers and students
are a lot more involved in each other's lives, especially because the island is
so small. It is kind of weird at first,
because at home students hardly ever know about a teacher's personal life, but
here you can't keep much from them. Because of this, I don't think the whole
"don't let them see you smile until December" idea works because the
students here like to see that you are a real person. The more involved you are
in their community, village life, sports, church, the better they are in class.
The best advice I can give you is to be strict, at least at first, and never
let them get to you.
Since parents here don't all show affection the same way we
are used to in the states, and tons of the students have really troubling lives
at home, some students are really just searching for someone to talk to, and a
lot of them find this in the WorldTeachers. At the same time, be more of a
hardass than I was. I am a real softie, and it's kind of an ongoing joke with
my classes (now, but it wasn't so funny to me earlier in the year) that I smile
too much and am not strict enough. I realize it has certainly made teaching more
difficult than it could have been for me. It's also allowed me to learn to use
my patience to my advantage, which you have to learn to do if you teach
mainstream kids. Because you will literally spell out the answer for them
678979 times and then ask them the answer and they won't know it. Since I
rarely yell or lose my temper, they get freaked out when I DO get really pissed
off, and they realize they really messed up. Sometimes when they won't shut up
I just stand quietly up at the front of the room and stare at them. One by one
they realize what’s happening, and quiet down. A few times I just told them I
was done teaching and I wasn’t going to teach anymore since they obviously didn’t
care to listen, and I went and sat at my desk. Believe it or not, this works
and eventually they will beg you to keep teaching. Of course, this won’t work
if you do it often. Some Samoan teachers don't really teach at all, and instead
just sit at their desks and give them book work (from books they can't
read). So they do enjoy being actually
taught even if they don't always know everything you're saying, and even if they
don't show it. They will literally ask you every day if they can relax, because
they are used to doing it in some of their other classes. Once they have sucked
parts of your soul out (as I feel they have done to me), it is fun to see them
in pain when you tell them that they indeed will not be relaxing; every day we
are going to do work. Hehehe. :) At one
point during the year, I just wrote across the chalkboard, "NO WE ARE NOT
GOING TO RELAX" because I got so sick of them walking into the classroom
and asking about it.
You will not only see teachers hitting the kids as
punishment (technically corporeal punishment isn't allowed here but it happens
all the time), but you will also witness some very creative forms of punishment
from the Samoan teachers (for example, having to kneel outside facing the wall
with their hands behind their heads).
Also, having to pick up trash is a totally normal punishment here
(which, as an environmental nerd, I don't like because then they see things
like cleaning up garbage as a form of punishment, and not as a good deed that
should make them feel good).
Occasionally I still feel like
I don't know what I'm teaching, but these kids are so far behind that anything
you teach them is a step up. Honestly, I
found the best thing to do was stick close to the standards, but make sure what
you're teaching them is relevant to their lives. If you teach science, I
definitely recommend getting your hands on a copy of the Natural History Guide
to American Samoa. I think I'm going to try to leave it for you in the Leone
handover box. I taught a lot from that, because it's relevant to their lives
and they like learning about their island, since they really don't know much
about it. I felt it was more important to start by teaching them things about
American Samoa (you would be surprised by how little they know), and how to label
the oceans and continents on a map. Yes, these are juniors and seniors in high
school that don't know the continents. On every single test my last question
was "name the 7 islands of American Samoa". Some still don't know. Teaching
here requires going back a few grade levels to catch them up. I'm not sure what
they learned in elementary school, but it's not much. Most of them read below a
3rd grade reading level, so don't expect to get much done with the textbooks
except look at pictures unless you have proficient classes.
A few of us decided on a great
phrase stolen from that Drew Carey show, "Whose Line Is it Anyway?":
"Leone High School- where the grades are made up, and the points don't
matter". You'll see what I mean
when you start teaching. Literally, most teachers just make up their students'
grades. So anytime you feel like you may not be doing a good job (we've all
felt like that at points throughout the year), don't kill yourself over it.
Know that you're better than what your students probably would've had if you
weren't there. And Samoans would tell you you're working too hard anyway-
you're in the islands now! Also, assemblies
are huge at Leone, take up a lot of instructional time, and usually involve
half-naked students oiled up and dancing. I won't say much more about that, I'd
rather let you experience it yourself :). You can refer to my blog if you want
to know more!
Teaching high school as a 23
year old has been difficult here in a few ways: 1) they automatically don't
respect you as much as they respect their elders, 2) because the juniors and
seniors here seem SO much older than in the states, the line between being
their friend and their teacher is a lot more blurry than on the mainland. Don’t be surprised if your students are incredibly
cheeky and sexual (if you're a girl). I had a hard time with this, since a lot
of the time I couldn't punish them since I didn't know exactly what they were
saying in Samoan. Even though I dressed super conservatively I still got
disgusting sexual things written about me in textbooks, and I couldn't do much
to stop it because I never knew who did it.
Sometimes students would scream really sexual things in Samoan to me
while passing, and I didn't know their names and couldn't chase after them
(they literally run away). So gaining respect can be difficult even if you're
doing all the right things. I like to just throw the jokes right back at them
when they come in the classroom and say things like, "Miss, you look
beautiful today" just to be suck ups.
Start a club or after school
activity, or coach a sport if you want to. I had a running club this year, but
it only really lasted half way through the year (it got too damn hot). Some sports they need coaches for, so do
whatever you feel like doing. And you don't have to know a sport at all to be a
coach!
There were times I thought these students were going to
break me. They were a HUGE challenge, but they also made me strong in ways I
wasn't before. A few people who have
been on island for some time and seen their share of the schools here have told
me, "with the exception of ghetto inner-city schools where they have gun
threats and gang problems, if you can teach at Leone High School, you can teach
anywhere". But don't let that
discourage you. Leone is awesome. There are days that make me want to come back
and teach again, and there are days I've wanted to strangle each and every one
of my students. No matter how the kids treat you, know this: These students
need you. At the end of it all, I am
going to miss these kids, both the good and the bad, so much. And you will not only teach them a lot, and
learn so much from them, but you will learn a lot about yourself from them too. By the end of your year, you will not be the
same person you were when you first got here.
Some parts of me wish that I were coming back next year to use
everything that I learned from this year. Cuz man, did I learn a LOT!
Buses
The most
common way you will get around is by the Aiga (family) buses. They run Monday
through Saturday, and usually start around 5 or 6 in the morning. There isn't
any set schedule, but you can just flag them down with your hand. Usually the last bus back to Leone is around
6, but the last bus into town from Leone is around 430. It makes the days feel pretty short when you
can't really get anywhere after 430, but that's life on an island! Just be
observant of when you notice what time buses are going by for the first few
weeks, so you don’t get stranded somewhere.
Taxis
There are
taxis, but they can seem expensive living off of our volunteer stipend. I’ve
been told never to pay more than $10 from Tafuna or Nuuuli to Leone. The taxi
drivers try to rip you off because you are white. Don’t let them get away with
it. There are a few taxi drivers who I've made friends with and they're
reliable and nice. If you can, try to make friends with one and get their
personal taxi number. Mr. Berquist (Doug, who teaches history at Leone) knows a
trustworthy cab driver he always calls, so you can ask him for his number too.
Nightlife
Not much. There are a few bars, which
range from boring to creepy, but fun just the same. There's Runway Bar-which is
laid back and mostly old people. Airport Bar has karaoke. Country Club (CC) is
a popular club with pool tables and dancing. The guys there can be pretty
sketchy. Not really the country club you
have in the states. Toa is a
restaurant/bar in Nuuuli, where a lot of white people hang out. It's expensive
and restaurant atmosphere. Bowling Alley
is the big one. Super ghetto, but also fun. This is the place to go if you want
the top 40 dance hits, cheap drinks, and the usual creepy Samoan guys hitting
on you. There are also bars in town near Fagatogo and Pago, but I’ve never been
to them because they are far away from Leone. There's also a movie theatre that
shows 2 movies at a time. Movies shown in Samoa are ONLY the crazy action ones
like Die Hard, GI Joe, or anything that has The Rock or Bruce Willis in it,
because Samoans love laughing at violence.
Food/Shopping
One of the toughest things about
living here was the lack of fresh vegetables.
A lot of the time you can get things like eggplant, onions, taro and
potatoes, but not much else. CostULess and Forsgrens sometimes have good produce
but it's still not fresh. Luckily, the stuff that is grown on-island, like bok
choy, is cheap. The little Asian stores
like California mart (right in front of your house) and Kristopher Mart (down
the street) carry canned food and mostly junk food. There isn't normal milk on
island, it's all that boxed milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated until you
open it. You can still find things you
need in these little stores, but everything in these stores seems to have a weird
taste- they taste the way the store smells. It's hard to explain but you'll see
what I mean. It bothers some people, other people can't even tell. You should
go to the market in Fagatogo sometime to try lots of Samoan food. My favorite
is palusami (coconut milk with onion and lime juice wrapped in taro leaves
& banana leaf), which you can use to dip breadfruit or taro in.
Bucket List Items:
While in Samoa, you should
definitely go hiking (Mt. Alava), go snorkeling in places like Fagatele Bay, go
kayaking, go to Tisa's, rent a car and drive end to end, see if you can go
fishing for palolo in October/November (ask your students about it), visit the
little island of Aunu'u, and get out to Manu'a if you can (the planes/boats are
a whole other story. They kind of just go whenever they want). Just explore the
island(s) as much as possible, even though it can be difficult to get around at
times.
I could
go on and on (and it seems I have), but I'll leave you to learn all about Samoa
once you get here!
I really
hope you found this letter useful- it certainly is difficult to put life on The
Rock into words. If you have other questions or want to read more (though how
could you, after this long letter..?) you can find my blog: http://sarbear79.blogspot.com/Also feel free to email me: scleave79@gmail.com. I will be in the
states after June 15th so you are totally welcome to call me at 781-248-0034. You
can find me on facebook too. Believe me, I would LOVE to answer questions about
Samoa. I might even be disappointed if you don't have any. Just kidding! But
not really... I called one of the volunteers from last year before I got here
and I was really glad I did. It was
really nice for me to talk to someone who loved it here and successfully made
it through the year (and then she became my best friend since she stayed here
for another year, haha)!
If your
year here is anything like mine, it will be more work than you expect. There are a ton of frustrations that go along
with living and teaching in American Samoa, but I promise you, it will
DEFINITELY be worth it. This island is
like nowhere else in the world. Everything I've written about just seems
totally normal to me now, but it makes me realize how much I've learned,
changed, and grown this year and how awesome/crazy/ridiculous Samoa is (especially
Leone). If I'm being honest, I'm kind of jealous that you get to come and
experience it all for the first time! It will be hard work, but congratulations,
because you're going to love it.
Sara
Cleaver
