first days of school!

FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL: COMPLETE.

Wow, I just need to say thank you to all the wonderful teachers that have been a part of my life. I really have been lucky; there are quite a lot that stuck with me over the years, and adding college professors to that would just make the list soooo long. But Mr. Rogers, Peggy, Amy & Stephanie, Mr. Gimble, Mrs. Lehn- and all those family friends and family members who are teachers- that means you Ms. Silver, Aunt Patty, Grammy, MOMMM!!!! I can’t believe I’ll be teaching for 10 months.  And I know it’s going to get SO much harder, once I actually prep for 3 different subjects, and once the honeymoon period for the kids to be on their “best” behavior is over.  If this is their best behavior, I’m in trouble.  But honestly, I thought this first week would be worse.  I was surprised by how much the students do want to respect the teacher, but I think they just forget that they are being disrespectful all the time.

first day of school in our new puletasis!

in our front yard by the breadfruit tree

SCHEDULES? Nah.

I’ll start on Monday (which at this point, I can’t even remember, this week was such a blur).  Monday was short, we had an hour long assembly and then 30 minute periods, so all I really did was play get to know you games with my classes (didn’t go too well).  The first day was when I learned that there is no real bell here.  Instead, someone (I think it’s the truancy officer), hits a huge oxygen tank with something and it makes a gong sound.  Can I hear it from my classroom across campus?  No.  My classroom is also blocked by the slabs of metal that block off the construction that is “going on” right in front of my room.  Kristina says that from her room on the 2^nd floor (mine is on the first) all she ever sees when she looks into the construction area is people sleeping. And some dogs.  So needless to say, I have NO idea when the bell is going to ring. Makes lesson planning a bit of a challenge!

We have a “schedule” for the classes, and it is the same each week, and each class should be 50 minutes.  School starts at 8:30 and ends at 3:00.  But every day, we come into the office and are given a schedule, which for the most part this week said the class periods had been shortened to 30-40 minutes, and school would get out at 2:00 (or earlier).  Even with this schedule that is created and passed out the morning of (you will find out that morning if there is a staff meeting that afternoon), I have had classes sitting in my room 20 minutes after I thought the bell would ring.  I’ll finish teaching or doing what I need to do/go over (which so far, hasn’t been much), and even go onto new material.  I’ll think that the bell will be ringing within the next minute (because it is already 10 minutes late).  And then it won’t ring for another 10 minutes- by that time I’ve run out of things to do.  Then I’m left guessing when the next period will start/end.  Always on my toes!

School has ended an hour early 3 days in a row now. No reason, just has. May have something to do with football, or just that people don't feel like staying til 3- just go with it.

So far, I’ve learned that not having something for my students to do means bad things.  NEVER LET THESE STUDENTS NOT BE BUSY!!!!  Sometimes, someone will decide in the middle of the day that the school is going to skip a period altogether, because we don’t have time (even though we get out an hour early and nobody can tell us why).  This happened on the first day, when we missed 3^rd period.  Did I know we were skipping it?  Nope.  Found that out as we were skipping it, and my 4^th period students showed up.   Out of all the challenges I had expected to encounter here, it had never occurred to me that knowing when my classes start and end would be one of them.  It’s also interesting because my students always ask me when class is going to end or when the bell is going to ring- I think “ring” is a funny choice of words, because that’s what the bells at home do- but they should know after 3 years of being at Leone that I know just as good as they do.  Why do they bother wanting to know the class schedule when we don’t follow it?  I try to explain to them, “well, class was supposed to end 10 minutes ago, but since it started 20 minutes late, I’m not really sure when the bell will ring”.  They don’t get why I don’t know when class is over. I must be the crazy one.

Josh and I went to school early one day because we were told there was a mandatory coaches meeting (I was thinking of coaching girl’s bball—go ahead, everyone laugh.)  We showed up at 7:30am, which is when the meeting was (which we already knew we were not following Samoan rules—why would we ever show up at the time it says it should start? We should know better than that).  We went to the library, where the meeting was supposed to be held, and the door was locked. We asked around, nobody knew what we were talking about. The principal, who had told us to come that day at 730, was in his office speaking with one football coach.  We still don’t know what ever happened to that meeting. 

Students/Behavior/Teaching in AmSam

My first day of school, a boy came into my classroom carrying his own set of speakers, blasting rap music. Many of the boys have their own speakers that they carry around with them while doing their best thug walk.  I’ll admit to being a strong believer in having a theme song to your life playing constantly. But I’m amazed that full volume Eminem is allowed at school for all to hear.  This is the same kid who told me, “it’s the first day, relax”.  I don’t need to repeat the words I said to him.  Needless to say, I had a tough time getting him to turn his speakers off (because I was already playing music on my computer for us), but he hasn’t brought them back since.

  I think it was Wednesday that was the toughest day.  I remember being really fed up with my class not listening even though I was being really strict.  When I do raise my voice or just stand there until one of them tells all the rest to shut up, or give one of the really disruptive ones my “I’m waiting” glare, they are very apologetic.  But then they do it again. Not to mention my “no Samoan in the classroom” rule is going to go to absolute shit.  There’s no way to enforce it.  I even told them if I hear Samoan at a time that I haven’t said it’s okay, I will just assume they are swearing at me. But when there is a constant lull of Samoan in the classroom, it’s hard to punish anyone.  I’ve told them I want to learn Samoan (and that I won’t believe them when they try to teach me words because I know it’ll be something dirty), and I think they should pride themselves are being bilingual, but that I am here to help with their English as well as science, and therefore they will be speaking English in the classroom unless I say otherwise.  But ha. Joke.

So the one day I was about ready to cry, Kristina came into my room and told me she had already had two fights in her classroom.  One ended with a girl’s head going into a bookshelf.  After that, I felt my day was going rather well.  Some of us teachers have complained about our not-so-great classrooms or about not having a whiteboard, or that our schools have not received any supplies like paper or chalk yet. Then a few lucky volunteers remind us: “uhhh, at least you have classrooms….”  

A few teachers do not have classrooms at all.  Dan does not have any kind of board (chalk or white), so he writes everything on a piece of notebook paper and tacks it on the wall. The other Sara is teaching Samoan history. She’s from Texas.  She does not have textbooks to look to. Rule of thumb with teaching in Samoa:  It could always get worse, so consider yourself lucky.

The boys in my classroom are little shits.  Some of them are nice, but still disruptive, but others are just such smartasses.  Even though it’s mostly in Samoan, I can still tell they’re making stupid adolescent boy remarks to/about me.  However, when it’s in English, I love handling it.  On Friday, two boys were standing in my doorway trying to talk to kids in my class and I was trying to begin class.  I waved at them, said, “Bye!!!! Okay, time to leave now.” in my sweet but listen-to-me-now teacher voice that I’ve often heard my mom use with her 4^th grade students.  They still weren’t leaving, so I walked to my classroom door, say “thank you, come again, see you laterrr”, and shut the door on them.  Since our windows aren’t really anything but screens with some glass rectangles over them that are completely open, I saw them walk away and one responded just loud enough so my class and I could hear it “see you toniiiight”. I heard a few chuckles from my cheeky boys, and then I replied, “In your dreaaammmsss”.  That got a good laugh, as well as some “OHHHH!!!!!”s from my class.  Proud moment.

I’m sure behavior issues in class will get much more exciting, so I’ll skip all the minor issues of last week.  I only sent one girl out of my classroom this week- on Friday.  I’m glad I finally did, I needed to make an example.  I didn’t send her to the principal’s; I just wanted her to sit outside for a while.   I was speaking to the class, and I saw her get up out of her seat, walk completely to the other side of the room, and slap a boy as hard as she could on the head. Then she walked back to her seat and sat down.  Now, hitting is an everyday thing here.  As religious as it is here, girls and boys all hit each other like it’s their job.  Sometimes they’re just playing around, but they hit HARD, especially when they’re mad. I looked at her while everyone else looked at me, waiting to see what I would do, and said, “If you think you can do that in my classroom and get away with it, you are absolutely CRAZY.”  I told her to get out of my room, and she said “No, miss, I’m sorry”.  I just pointed to the door.  A few minutes later, she asked if she could come back in (the truancy officers walk around with a 2 x4 if students don’t have a pass, not sure how often they actually use them though, but if she got caught she would have been sent to the principal). I said no, she could come back when I told her she could.  I looked at the kid who she hit, who was smiling, and I said, “ I don’t know what you said to make her do that, but it must’ve been pretty bad”.  Then I realized how much it sucked that I couldn’t punish him, even though I’m sure he deserved it, because I have no idea what he said.  Not only did I not really hear him say anything, but it was also in Samoan. A few minutes later, I see the girl run away from my doorway.  I go outside to look for her and have her come back in, and she’s gone. Oh well.  Class ends and I’m cleaning up and she comes in, kneels in front of my desk, clasps her hands together, and says, “Miss, I’m so sorry.”  I told her that I went outside to let her back in and she was gone.  She said that she had run upstairs so she wouldn’t get caught.  I, being the pushover that I am and such a sucker for forgiveness, was way too quick to say, “it’s okay, don’t do it again.”  That was when I realized I was too busy trying to get teacher things done to actually address the situation like a real teacher would have, telling her that hitting is simply not acceptable, and getting up in the middle of my class is disrespectful to me as well.  Next time I’ll handle it better.

Now, try and say the following:

Togisia, Petelo Faamanatu 

Tuiolemotu, Asofaafetai 

Ueligitone, Fuluitolo

Naolavoa, Mokenkepleval

Tili, Tiaoali'isolova'a.

No, this is not jibberish. These are the names of some of my students. Tell me how I pronounce and memorize 150 of them. I’ll tell you how- you get them to have nicknames such as, John, O, and PJ.  I even have one student who’s name is Bill Clinton. That is not his nickname.  It’s on his schedule. And Clinton isn’t even his last name. Bill Clinton Tino. I tried hard not to crack a joke when I first looked at his schedule, because I remembered being forewarned that there actually was a student named Bill Clinton at Leone and the presidential jokes were a bit outdated.  Now I’ve assigned seats (which they still don’t really sit in, even though that means I’ve done attendance wrong a bunch of times) to help me learn their names.

I gave my students a choice of a writing prompt (I wanted a writing sample to see how good their English really is and maybe try to figure out how much of what I say they can understand).  They could either write about who the most important person in their life was and why, or what they wanted to do or be when they are older.  Reading their essays was very telling.  I still haven’t finished, but so far, one student wants to be the governor of American Samoa, and many want to be in the NFL.  Which is still a stretch, but not as crazy as when kids in the states say it, because so many more here actually have a chance.  Many more want to go into the military and are already in JROTC. Several want to search for their “real siblings” or “real parents”, and several have lost their mothers or fathers.  At least one has a daughter.  All of the ones who chose the most important person in their life wrote about their parents and how much they love them.  Though this seems typical, kids here have a different relationship with their parents.  Some did write about how their parents never laid a hand on them, but others wrote that they love their parents despite the fact, or even because their parents love them enough to hit and beat them and discipline them.  Or they wrote about how they know that their parents beat them as a child because they loved them.  It’s difficult to read at first, and I’m sure I’d be even more upset if I saw it happen, which I’m sure I will see more of than I have, but it is just a cultural thing.  It’s just what is done here.  And though there are groups of people trying to change this, even the kids say and think it works and that kids here need that discipline.  So, is hitting your kids right or wrong?  I know how I feel about it, but I can’t say I really have an answer for American Samoa where it stands now. 

A lot of the essays were about mothers, and how their mothers were basically older sisters for them. One even gave me advice to have a relationship with my mom like the relationship that she had with hers.  I wrote back that I did, and that I thought she should share her essay with her mom.  Having so many students write about how much they love their parents made me miss mine so much!!!  Family is just so important here.  I’ve thought a lot about how that is one of the main things I think we give up in our hectic American lives. And my family is pretty good about it- we live up and down the East coast and everyone still makes a tremendous effort to visit one another.  But it still does not compare to having the proximity to one another that they have here. This island is not very big, and it certainly made me question why it is that people move away from their families, even for other opportunities.  Whenever I ride the bus there are huge families partying, eating, playing volleyball, and listening to music outside of their homes.  And it’s not a once in a while thing, it’s the norm.  It’s also weird to think of how disrespectful we can be to our parents in the states.  (but of course, I never was ;)   , obviously).  The spoiled kids yelling back at their parents that you see in the states- wow that just soooooo would not fly here.

But the kids also write about their goals and their families with a very different backdrop- it’s always about God.  Even though I’ve asked each of them to either write about themselves or their most loved ones, every essay at some point includes thanking God for what they have and that without God they couldn’t achieve anything that they have or hope to achieve.  One essay, however, did address this.  Her essay said something like, -even though I know God is supposed to be the number one most important factor of my life, I have to say it is my mom-.  It was refreshing to hear someone acknowledge that.

I also had one write, “I want to be like you- a teacher”.  That just broke my heart.  I don’t think she even really meant to direct it at me, since I barely know them yet, but it still made a light inside of me shine a little bit.  Even though neither I nor her really know what it’s like to be a teacher yet, anyone who wants to be a teacher, and I’ll say it now, even as a Unitarian, God bless them.  So I wanted to write (but didn’t…you go girl!!!)

They’re writing is honestly quite weird- I don’t know how they were taught to write the way they do.  Most of them started their essays with, “Well, the thing about me is…..” and they have really strange writing habits.  I think a lot of it must be that so many of them have learned English through hearing it and not seeing it- so words that should begin with “P” instead begin with “B” in their writing.  Also- I don’t know if it’s just here, but why do all adolescents think they are gangsters??  Granted, we do have gangs here in high school, but they are called crews- the Snow Boys (who live in Alaska—the “cold” part of Samoa), SOS (Sons of Samoa), TAP boys, and many others.  I know it’s often a phase, but even the girls here think they are from the hood. Girls stick picks in their hair.  No, they do not have afros.  Some of the guys do, though.  I also had an essay written by a girl who instead of writing “what” and “that”, she wrote, “wat” and “dat” over and over again. I can’t believe that she would actually mean to write that incorrectly on an assignment, but another part of me can’t believe that she truly thinks that those words are spelled that way.  Way too many students also wrote “gonna” and “wanna”.  Like, really?  Another funny but cute habit is at the end they all write, “Thank you for ________(sometimes it’s just thank you, sometimes it’s about the choices or the writing prompt)”. Though it does seem like they are sucking up, I’m pretty sure it’s just another cultural thing they do when they write essays.

Kristina also assigned essays for her English classes, and some are cute like the ones I got but many are also really depressing.  Students writing about being lonely, not wanting to go home, basically all of the typical awful things you hear and just want so badly to help.  One wrote that she thought nobody loved her. Allison, our neighbor who was a past field director of WorldTeach, is a counselor at the community college here. Sometimes I wish I could just counsel these kids rather than having to try to beat the scientific method into their heads to make sure they know what it is by the time they graduate high school (which is what I did Thursday and Friday).  It’s not even in the standards/curriculum for my classes, but I simply cannot start teaching my subjects without them knowing the scientific method.  I refuse to.

One of the weirdest/best/most refreshing things about Samoan students is that no matter how much you yell at them and threaten them and kick them out of class or how awful they are in the classroom, at the end of every period they walk out of the door and say, "Bye, Miss!!! Have a good day! See you tomorrow!" and when they walk in the next day it's, "Hi Miss! How are you today! Fine? Tired? Good?"


When they see you outside of class they are just as happy to see you, and they all say hi/bye when we walk home.  If we yelled/cursed (yes, a few of us have already cursed in the classroom) at students this much in the states, they would hate us, tell their parents, and get us fired!!!  Here, if they told their parents, their parents would come to us and say, “you just yelled?? Next time, hit em with a stick”.

We saw a lot of students at the football game today, and when Kristina went to have lunch, she was waiting for Hannah to get there when some students told her that if she was alone, she could eat with them. Awww.

Also, when Kristina and I walked home on Friday, a student saw us, ran across the street to us, and told us, “I need to protect you from the dogs while you walk home!”  We walk this route every day, and yes, the dogs have come after us (they tried to attack Kristina the other day), but we’ve managed so far.  But it was adorable of him.  Once we got past the house with the meanest dogs, he said, “okay, you should be good from here.”  After he ran back to what he was doing, Kristina then notified me that he was one of her students who was a gangster and had written about the gang he was in for one of his essays (she has learned most of the gangs now because her students taught her the names of them).  Anyway, this thug politely walked us past the mean dogs.  Some thug. Another awwww.

I do have one student (who’s actually not even in any of my classes, but really loved the WorldTeachers last year) who has already made me understand how rewarding teaching is.  He came into my class this week, introduced himself, and started talking to me about school and literally EVERYTHING. He told me that he wishes he had a science class this year, because he thinks science is actually fun (he doesn’t really like his other subjects).  He also told me that he really likes the WorldTeachers.  He was trying to explain what was so good about WT, paused, and then said, “WorldTeachers make learning fun”.

It wasn’t what he had said, but how he said it that kind of jolted me.  Not because I thought I had yet achieved that high honor which he had reserved for only WorldTeachers, but because I could only hope that I could do the same this year for my students.  He kept trying to switch into my marine science class this week, but I don’t think he’ll be able to.  However, he has begun to visit my classroom ALL THE TIME.  Before school, I’m in frantic planning mode or need to use my few minutes to pee for the last time before lunch.  During break (as if we need more breaks at Leone, ha!). I use to go to the bathroom if I did not do so in the morning.  During lunch I’m trying to catch up on entering attendance which takes me about 2 hours every day since they’re names are ridiculous and they all move around seats or pretend to be someone else every day.  Lunch is also when I try to run around school and find a copier/printer, while shoving a pb&j in my mouth and rinsing it down with some water.   I was successful this week- my one goal was to find the printer (decided to set standards low for week 1).  I found the printer I should use the rest of the year!! Yay!  Don’t know what happens when it runs out of toner.  After school this student comes too (my busiest time of the day when I’m trying to be super efficient and get home before it gets dark and the dogs get worse).  And now another kid has started coming at his own separate times as well.  They are both so sweet, and help me learn Samoan words, and tell me about their lives and all of the cool places to go to in Samoa and all the legends and ghost tales.  All the questions I have about Samoa or ideas that WorldTeachers put into action last year, I can ask them.  But I can’t have them I my classroom all the time.  Most of the time they don’t even have questions, they are just looking for someone to talk to. So I feel like I can’t kick them out! But I’m going to have to make limits.  It also probably doesn’t look right that they come to my classroom so often- don’t want coconut wireless spreading any false rumors.

But now they have both basically convinced me I’m going to start a running club at school….another laugh!! Before I hadn't thought too much about it, but I can't really say no when these kids get motivated to do something good for themselves.  I think I mentioned something about running to the first kid who comes in a lot, and he was like, “are you going to start a running club like Miss Quinn?!” (she was a volunteer last year who did the Turkey Trot with students).  I think my response was maybe, but I may be coaching basketball, so we’ll see…. Or that I needed to settle into school first and I was very busy so didn’t have time after school yet.  I guess he spread the word that I was starting the club, because that day after school is when the 2^nd student started showing up to my classroom. This one is actually in my class.  He asked, “so, Miss?  Are you starting a running club? Can we start next week?”  After that, I just started saying yes. So, here I am.  Guess I’m going to start a running club. Going to take a few weeks, but I’m sure it will be happening sooner rather than later.

Honestly though, a running club sounds perfect.  How it happened is funny and just shows how things in Samoa work, but I’m excited because I’ve been CRAVING like never before to run again but I’ve been afraid of the dogs.  So now what better than having a group of Samoan adolescents to run with and fend off the dogs?  There is a pretty good loop that’s about 3 or 4 miles and it goes from the school, past my house, and then along the ocean.  It’ll take some time to get back into shape, but I can’t wait.  Now if only I can streamline my lesson planning/grading/work after school so I can make it happen ASAP.

MORE THINGS...

On another note, Kristina and I baked the BEST BANANA BREAD I’VE EVER HAD this week.  The bananas were from our yard, and holy moly.  Since they are so sweet, it was amazing.  We didn’t have to add much sugar at all.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to bake banana bread every week now. We brought some into school for Rita, the secretary who does everything at our school (Mom, she does the work of Pauly, therefore she is GOD.) I know my thoughts are kind of random right now and not organized, because so much has happened since I posted last, but honestly, all jumbled up and thrown at you any which way probably gives you the most genuine perception of what Samoa is like, haha! 

I have one kid in my class who looks like a Samoan version of Justin Bieber, and I’m pretty sure his ego is about just as big as well.  He has two huge stud diamonds and always has this little, “I’m so lovable” smirk on his face.  What a little charmer.  I see right through it.  Also learned that he’s quite a football star, I heard his name over and over again at our first football game today- we won 35-0!!!!  Leone’s cheers are out of control.  Which reminds me to write about our assembly on Friday.

Leone Lions vs Nu'uuli Polytech Wildcats

Lions won 35-0!!!

Samoans are AMAZING at the arts.  Singing, dancing, acting, drawing, anything with rhythm, they are PHENOMENOL at it.  Apparently the speech festival here is HUGE, which makes sense.  So each school day starts with a beautiful song and prayer in Samoan (no separation of church and state here) once the students get to their first classrooms. This is the only part of the day when I have students volunteer to come up in front of the class to lead something.  In all other ways, they are truly a collective society and will always answer as a group, but when I actually call on one of them, they refuse to speak (another one of my already developed pet-peeves as a teacher).  The song gives me chills, and I’m sure students stateside would absolutely butcher it.  All of these kids can sing.  And they aren’t afraid to, when they do it altogether.  So on Friday, candidates for student office read their speeches, which included them leading some Leone cheers.  Let me just say, I had goosebumps.  My high school could have NEVER pulled off these cheers/chants.  They are all so in sync with one another, and the claps, sounds, and words are so fast.  And it is LOUD. Leone High may be missing chalk, computers, bells that ring, toilet paper, and a way to keep students from breaking in and having a bonfire with the textbooks during the summer, but one thing it does not lack is spirit.  One person (it changes all the time, basically whoever stands up and decides they want to start a cheer does so) leads with a call, and the rest of the school/fans answer.  Today at the football game, I learned how ballsy the girls here are. It’s awesome.  At home I remember high school girls are always too afraid and insecure to begin cheers at sports games.  For example, Lexington High basketball games.  Us girls were always too stupid and embarrassed to even be loud when they cheered!  Samoan girls don’t hold anything back, and I love it.  I’m hoping maybe I can video the cheers some time- our 1^st pep rally is next Friday, since Saturday we will play big rivals- the Samoana Sharks. 

Also at the assemblies, Viper makes a habit of totally shitting on the freshmen.  A lot of it was in Samoan, but the students were constantly laughing and when it was in English, it was hysterical.  That would NEVER fly in the states.  It seems kind of like hazing, but everyone, including the freshmen, laugh.  Teasing is huge here, and it’s just a part of the culture.  Everyone takes it and gives it right back.

Oh, and next Friday I’ll also be dancing at the assembly in front of the entire school.  That’s about 700-800 people. Most of which are students. Many of which are MY students.  Wonder how that will fit into them respecting me as a teacher on Monday.  Don’t know anything else about it, all Viper (our VP, his real name is Dorian), told us at the staff party last night was that we’d be called up to dance. And I thoughT free styling during my 3 years of hip hop and west African dance classes in college was embarrassing.  Here we go.

The staff party last night was at the Bowling Alley- a bar that we’ve gone to a few times as a WorldTeach group.  Usually when we’ve gone out, we’ve gone there around 11 and stayed til it closes at 2am, but with the staff party we got there around 6, had a tailgate in the parking lot, and then went into the fancier side of the bar around 7, so we basically had it to ourselves.  It was great to finally talk to the staff on a personal level, not just about school stuff.  I got to speak more with Gopal’s wife (Murali Gopal is my science department head, and his wife is math dept head) about why they came here from India.  They had been working in the Middle East, she had gone back and forth to India a few times, and then she got an offer here so he came with her.  She was saying how she absolutely loves it here- just how stress free people are meant to be here.  Can’t say I’m feeling quite so easy breezy with my first week of school, but I’m sure those who have teaching experience here now find it quite easy to keep work to a minimum.  Gopal and his wife both work very hard I know, but I can see how it is different than elsewhere, and your sanity, low stress levels, and happiness are the first priority. 2 points to American Samoa.

Some people did karaoke at the party, we ordered pupus (don’t know if that’s how you spell it, but you literally say it like poo poo- just means like appetizers), and hung out. Man, can they drink.  The four of us were exhausted and had to get up early for the 8am football game today, so we say goodbye around 10 and got a cab back to Leone.

So to try to wrap this novel up, I just wanted to touch on old things that I think I forgot to ever write about.  I forgot to take many pictures of where we lived during orientation week, so I stole some from another volunteer.  While we were staying at Nu’uuli Polytech for 3 weeks, we lived in classrooms- I slept in this room with 4 other women – this is Stephanie on the day we all moved out and to our separate placements:

We slept on foam mattresses on the floor- actually pretty comfortable.  Our showers were probably the least pleasant part of staying there- this was them:

It was pretty gross in there, 3 of us could shower at a time (there was a makeshift curtain in there before, but one stall was dark and did not have its own curtain, so only when we were really in a rush did anyone use it).  It made me think of our fancy showers back home- PVC pipe was just fine, why doesn’t everyone use it?!  Save money! The showers were very cold, and showers are going to be cold for the next 10 months still, but if I take them in the afternoon they are much warmer. Plus, it’s going to get SO much hotter I think, so cold showers it is!

I need to mention one of my favorite things about Samoa.  My head is so jumbled after this week and writing so much I can’t even remember if I already posted about this in the other blogs, but the buses here are CRAZY.  You can hear them coming a mile away, they play music louder than my brother played it when he was in his rebellious high school “I just got a car and everyone needs to know it” stage.   They are open air, and always spray-painted in some really cool way.  But they have sound systems like you cannot believe. The entire bus ride your entire body is bumping to the bass (Dad, you would not like it).  But I like the music. It makes me happy, and riding the bus is always a treat J and only a dollar to get most places!  I don’t know how older people sit on the bus with music so loud- maybe they’re all deaf by now from the volume.

I’m going to italicize a section of Jacque’s blog, because she basically describes everything I want to say about these few subjects and I need a break from writing, and I really liked this post:

Jacque’s words (thanks Jacque!):

Religion

Forget about separation of church and state or church and school.  Not here.  There society is still run mainly on their Christian values.  Sunday everyone..and I mean everyone...dresses up in white and goes to church.  Before meals or any big assemblies we always pray.  Even the school day starts off with a song and a prayer. Sunday literally is a day of rest.  The buses don't run, most schools are closed and you aren't allowed to swim or play outside.  At first this was tough for me to grasp.  Sunday is usually my day to run errands and catch up on things I was too busy for during the week.  But when Sunday came along I was shocked by the serenity.  All is calm.  There are few cars in the road.  We can't go anywhere so we would end up playing cards or reading all day.  It is nice to have a day where you don't have any obligations.  I got to do the things that I usually push to the side or don't "have time" to do.  But, you know what, even without my typical productive Sunday, I still accomplished everything I needed to do during the week.  It really puts stuff into perspective.   

also—(this is Sara adding about religion), Sa is something that happens every night around 6.  It’s basically a time to go inside and do a prayer- nobody can be outside walking around.  If you are outside walking during Sa, the men come outside and tell you to go inside. If you’re not near your home, I think you’re just supposed to sit down until Sa is over.  I don’t think Sa is practiced in Leone, but I can hear the bells for it from my house.  I think it’s generally in the smaller villages, where they are even more traditional.

Dress

Think 1800s....long skirts, no shoulders, no knees (apparently the back of the knee is a very risky body part).  Show as little skin as possible.  That is basically the idea here.  Of course there are more westernized areas where girls can wear short shorts (by short I mean mid-thigh) and tank tops (thick strap).  But many villages prefer modesty.  Basically, I had to get a whole new wardrobe before I came.  Women especially are expected to dress with modesty.  Most women wear their hair up in buns and very little make up.  Most of the girls just wear long bball shorts and t-shirts.  It's actually pretty awesome.  To live in a place where it is not only socially acceptable but encouraged to wear gym shorts and a tee every day...pretty sweet.  It literally takes me 5 minutes to get ready now.  Add another 5 minutes for the cold shower that I never want to linger in and I'm good to go.  Now, I still like to dress up but I could get used to this.  They have some traditional clothing here: the lava lava, puletasi and ie.  I found the lava to be very practical.  I bought 6 of them already and wear them all the time.  It is lie a sarong that you wrap around your waist.  This way I can wear my soffees around the house and then throw on a lava lava if I'm going outside.  They also have formal wear which is the puletasi.  It s a long shirt that goes down over your butt with long sleeves and a long skirt that covers your ankle.  Super attractive.  I will be wearing them to school every day.  The men wear a Hawaiian style top and an ie for the bottom, which is essentially a skirt that goes to your knees.  They don't wear slacks or dress pants here.  It is also common for men to wear a lava lava around the house.  It was a little strange to see men in skirts at first but I'm getting used to it.

Buses

My all time favorite part of American Samoa.  Basically, there is only one main road going from one end of the island to the other.  The buses travel up and down the road from 6am to 6pm.  They are made by connecting a trolly type thing to the back of a pick-up-truck.  The windows and doors are completely open the entire time.  From the outside you look like you are getting on this rickety old bus but the inside is all decked out!  I'm talking cheetah print lined interior and a blasting stereo! They love their music.  They can be playing anything from soft Samoan tunes to Lil' Wayne.  And if you are lucky to get the backseat then you have the speakers right under you and are bumping up and down with the bass the entire time.  Some even have a big screen tv connected to the front of the bus playing music videos.  These buses just go with their common theme here which is if it isn't broken don't fix it.  Sure, the buses may be old, but they still work.  So, instead of spending money fixing a perfectly good bus, why not throw a boom box and a big screen t.v. in it.  Surprisingly though with all that noise, bus etiquette is to be quiet.  You sit facing forward not talking, it's very hard for me not to sing along.  They also have an unspoken rule of moving back if someone older than you comes on the bus and give them your seat.  They have great respect for their elders.  Oh, and the buses are only one dollar no matter how far you are traveling.  Not too shabby, considering this is our only means of transportation.  We do hitchhike a lot too.  It's completely normal here.  Everyone has a pickup truck and they're all going in the same direction so you just hop in the bed of a pick-up truck and you're good to go.  I love it. 

Alright, back to my writing--- almost done!!

I also finally took pictures of the property we live on in Leone!!

Moana and Mel Purcell's house (our landlords)

My and Josh's house!

Jill & Kristina's apartment is the left side, Allison (our neighbor who was
a field director of WT) is on the right.  Moana and Mel's daughter, Melicia,
and her husband and 4 kids live in the building on the left.

I’ll try to take pictures of my school and classroom next week.

So Jesse stayed with us for a while before the plane to Manu’a finally went out.  It was really fun having her here and I can’t wait to go visit the outer islands and have her and all the Manu’a crew back to visit!  The last night her and Jacque both stayed with us, and when we got back from school the next day they had left us a note on the counter thanking us.  However, the note ended with,

“P.S. A giant spider lives in your shower.  Welcome to paradise!!”

So naturally, I freaked out a little bit.  I went to look for the thing, and figured if I couldn’t find it, it couldn’t have been that big and they were probably just making a big deal out of nothing. Wrong. When I went to brush my teeth that night, I decided I’d double check and look for it again.  I walked into my bathroom, (I have to walk the whole way in before I can get to the light), turned on the light, and looked around. Nothing.  Brushed my teeth, turned to leave the bathroom, and stopped in my tracks. Biggest. Spider. Ever. Honestly, it was the biggest, juiciest looking spider I’ve ever seen that wasn’t a tarantula.  I knew Josh had just gone to bed, but I called in to him to come get it.  We sprayed it with Raid and I swept it up.  I can only pray tomorrow at church that there was only one of those around here.  (However, the folks in Manu’a are getting their fair share of the biting 8 inch centipedes so far, so I don’t know which is worse).  But yes, I am planning on going to go to church tomorrow, because last week I was asked if I went to church last Sunday and it was incredibly awkward because I hadn’t.

Oh, another tidbit on life in Samoa—so there are HUGE frogs here.  We find them at night if we walk across our grass and they jump away from our feet- we also found tons of them at the Blunt’s Point historic site hiding in the cement structure there.  But we find the most in the middle of the road- squashed!!!!! So besides the dogs, frogs are the other main obstacle we face when we walk to/from school in our flip flops.  I’ve had a few close calls with frog carcasses…and a few hits!!!

We found another cockroach in our cabinet as I was searching for the strainer, but I’m probably going to stop the updates on that kind of stuff since it’s pretty normal.

The geckos join us every night (though last night I saw the biggest one yet in my bathroom), letting us know of their presence by doing their little clicking noises and scampering up the walls.  We just reply, “NO, we’re not switching to GEICO!!!!”

Our dogs like to pretend they are the ambulances that go by, and howl in tune with them. I’ve started sleeping with my head at the foot of my bed so I can get farther from my window since it can get very loud outside with geckos, dogs, frogs, bats, anything else that may be out there!!

So many of the things I write in here, I look back on and realize that without being able to hear my tone of voice, it’s hard to tell that I smile as I write all of this.  Most of this stuff is hilarious to me, and although there have been, and will be, many times that I feel I’m overwhelmed (but when the going gets tough, the tough call Mom!!), all of the petty, silly things I write about are really just humorous, and I like explaining them with a certain style because I know how crazy a lot of this sounds to you all at home.  But here, it’s just how it is.  So yes, it takes getting used to, but none of it is bad.  This is Samoa. And if we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.

coconut bird feeder with our volleyball net in the background

the Purcell's faleo'o

our yard, with Maveaga and his family's house in the back (green)

Anyway, there are naked babies running around in my yard being sprayed with the hose. Gonna go get some bananas!

Will anyone/everyone who reads this PLEASE give me major updates on your LIVES?!?!?!?  Hellooooo I already missed all the Olympics, I don’t need to feel like I’m on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  Oh wait…. I am. J
Here are pictures from Moloata from a while ago that I mentioned in my Leone post.  I also have pictures from a while back at the marine sanctuary and museum but it takes FOREVER to download them so I will probably wait on that.

Older pictures from orientation:

at Blunt's point

breakfast at Sadie's

Simba/Shadow/Rambo/Blackie/Licker Dog. he's our favorite.

Marine science, earth & space, and biology

So, this is going to be short even though there is sooooo much to say. Leone High School is certainly it's own place.  I could go on and on, but I'll keep it brief.  Over the summer, kids broke in to classrooms, drank, had bonfires with the textbooks, etc.  Josh has one of the rooms that got broken into, all the lab equipment destroyed, but he cleaned it all up today and it's a nice room now- 2 rooms actually, 1 lab room and another lecture.  I'll have plenty of updates on Leone throughout the year, so I'll leave that for once I actually know more.  

BUT I finally got my schedule!!! At first, it was my nightmare- 2 chem classes, 3 physical science classes, and 1 biology class. If any of you know me, you know that the first two of those are not exactly my strong point.  BUTTTT since Josh was given my dream classes- 1 marine science, earth & space, and biology, we talked to the right people and made the trade.  Unfortunately 3 preps is going to be a TON of work, but I'd rather do it in subjects I enjoy than those I don't understand at all.  However, I'm a little freaked out about having 3 preps now; that means at least 15 lesson plans per week, all due on the monday before. Interesting that our department says they tend to give 2-3 preps to the new students (us), and 1-2 for the experienced teachers who are not going to have other things like classroom management disasters to deal with.  We also have 2 teachers who will be out between 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the school year, who I think we'll have to sub for in our prep periods. So our schedules will be filled with 6 classes a day. No wonder the students here have such problems, what kind of message does absent teachers send to them? I wouldn't be motivated to show up either, if my teaching being there was a crapshoot.

All I know is, what I can control is what goes on within MY classroom. And although classroom management may be a living hell for the first month, hopefully I can be strict enough in the first 2 weeks to make an impact and set an example for the rest of the year, but I know other Worldteachers have struggled with that and have had it hard the whole year and got walked all over.  But my classroom is my place, and no matter how messed up this system is, nobody can take that away from me.  (although time in the classroom may be cut short whenever admins feel like going home early).

Additionally, so we have lots of geckos in our house all the time, and they make obnoxious noises. Kristina tried to catch one the other day to bring it outside. But she chopped off it's tail by accident. Whoops. 

Gecko's fine though.  Eventually will post picture of the Purcell's property!
Got my address:
     Sara Cleaver
     P.O. Box 982768
     Pago Pago, 96799
     American Samoa

As difficult as some aspects may be, I think it's going pretty damn well.  I'm living in tropical paradise, I have the best bananas I've EVER eaten in my life growing in my front yard ready to pick and eat whenever I want...YA MON!

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