Island Love: Ants, Roosters, and Missing Keys, OH MY!!!

Talofa again! Here I go with blog post #4!!!

I am officially a Faga’ituan… if that is a word. :) I have been in Faga’itua (pronounced: Fahng-ee-too-uh) over a week now. It is VERY different from the Westside, the more urban/industrial side. It is quiet here. I already feel like my lifestyle has drastically changed. It is 9 pm on a Saturday, and I am sitting in bed writing this blog after I failed miserably at making chocolate chip cookies. And I never fail at that!!! :) I had no way to measure the ingredients and didn’t add enough flour… but then I added a bunch of flour to the second batch before I baked them, and they didn’t come out much better at all! After I took them out of the oven they flattened like pancakes. I didn’t have a proper pan to bake them in either. Oh well. They taste sweet, but they look awful. :) I put them in the fridge right after baking them because the many, many ants would have found them immediately if I left any trace of them out. I eventually gave most of them to my neighbors later in the day. The kids apparently loved them. They may have looked bad, but they were still sweet and tasty!

Anyway, I was just getting to the fact that I am enjoying the simple island life. I have met some wonderful people in my village already. My neighbors let me use their wash machine yesterday because I have no way to wash my clothes as of now. I did some by hand but had a TON that needed to be done. We have a washer in our house, but our landlord does not know how to get it working I guess… nor do I. I have called her many, many times for help with it. She usually says that she will be out to help but never comes, and her response is always, “Ohhh Jeeeessica I AM. SO. SORRY. I could not make it out today.” Haha… in the states we would probably throw a big fit about something like that, but here it is just life. I am learning to be more and more patient. I don’t think people do things like that to be rude or disrespectful. They just have other priorities, priorities that are VERY different from what many people may have in the states. Family pretty much always comes first then church activities then relaxing/eating/enjoying life.. something like that.

I had a similar experience at the school this past week. Teachers started working on Monday. After a general assembly for all American Samoa teacher’s in town at Tafuna H.S. we came back to the eastside with Pooch, the head football coach and were supposed to get into our rooms and start working at that time. The key to my room was missing, so I didn’t have access to my room until late on Wednesday… three days later. Once I did get into the room many people kept reminding me to “not work too hard!” In the states if I would have done as much as I did here during the first week I probably would have really been looked down upon if not fired… but so much of it is out of my control, and the expectations are way different. It is not a bad thing to be late here (SO opposite from Boys Town, lol), socializing a lot with coworkers shows respect, not that you are off task or delaying work, and relaxing is okay… even encouraged more than working is at times! :) Even now that I am in “my” room I have been told that it may not be my room because another staff member may want it back once she returns to work… but I have no idea when that will be. I will gladly take the room she is supposed to have, though, because it has a SMARTboard! Faga’itua H.S. just got 10 brand new SMARTboards this year! I will also probably be subbing for the teacher who is gone right now. They do not have substitute teachers. Teachers just sacrifice their prep periods when another teacher is absent… which could be often. I hope not, though. It is almost comical because it all sounds so completely disorganized… and it is… but things are still working out well!!! I cleaned up my room a lot… or I should say the AMAZING janitor and a helpful student really helped me clean it up. The janitor mopped the floors, and the kid helped me move a lot of things! It looks FUN and less cluttered (except all the text books for every English class are in my room right now). I will attach a picture! I did work pretty hard on it with the little time and few resources I had, so I am pretty excited! I even went in from about 8:00 am to 1:00 pm this Saturday because the janitor was in there cleaning and allowed me to come in and have access to my room! It was pretty dirty… and still is, but it is much better than it was!

I have made it about a month now with no TV (no Olympics!! Or ESPN), no facebook, no car, no hot water for showers, no DIET DR. PEPPER!!! (but I have found some diet coke..), no AC at home, and no family…… but I am doing well!!! I miss family and friends the most without a doubt. Then I miss ESPN!!!! And I do miss my car a lot too. I reeeeally don’t like asking other people for help, but I am learning how to do that very well here. I hitchhike a lot and really have to rely on the people around me for help and advice because they are all I have here. They seem to really like helping me, though, or at least they are so respectful that they feel they have no choice but to help me. A math teacher at the school has sort of taken me under his wing right now. I can’t pronounce his name and have no idea how to spell it, so I will just refer to him as math teacher for now. He encouraged me to join them in their volleyball games and come over to his house any time, so I took him up on it! There was one night that I was kind of lonely so I just went outside and wandered around a bit. I felt so awkward, but I slowly inched my way towards the volleyball action, and soon enough someone asked me if I could play and then I joined in! I am pretty sure they were making fun of me most of the time I was playing because apparently they don’t call out, “MINE!” or “I got it!” or “my bad, sorry!” They all were speaking Samoan and would mimic the silly things I would say and laugh… but I just smiled along. They let me join in and were slightly impressed with my skills at times, haha. I am just sound funny I guess. :) Even if they were making mean jokes about me, I have no idea what they were saying so it didn’t hurt my feelings. :)

The language gap here is a pretty big deal for me. A lot of people know English and speak it pretty well, but Samoan is their native tongue, so they just naturally start speaking that. Our staff meetings have been about 75% Samoan and 25% English. I try to listen closely, but there is so much I miss. The other day I was chatting with two other English teachers. They are both about my age, and one, Esther, is a first year teacher like me and the other, Brittany, is a second year teacher. They both went to University of Hawaii. They would talk to me in English but then talk to each other in Samoan. Brittany told me, though, that she only allows her students to speak English in the classroom even though she is Samoan because she had a huge wake-up call when she tried to go to college in California. It was difficult because she was not used to instruction and school work only in English. I want the kids to be able to speak Samoan because I really respect their culture and language, but the reality is that they are competing to get into college with a bunch of native English speaker, and they are ELL, English Language Learners, so they have to work extra hard on their English skills in order to get have a chance at higher education. There is one community college on the island (ASCC American Samoa Community College) but that is it.

Anyway, today the math teacher and his family/friends/anyone who walks into his open house gave me lunch!! It was SO good!! They brought out 4 big dishes of food to me and then papaya and a coconut for dessert! I think when they have guests they feed the guest and the elders/head of the household first and alone and then everyone else (the people who made it/the kids) eat last and whatever is left over. I felt so bad. I wanted them to sit down and eat with me, but it would have been very rude of me to insist on that or wait for them. So I enjoyed some boiled bananas in coconut milk, turkey tail, rice, and sausage in this yummy sauce. The papaya at the end was my favorite! It was so good! They said there are a lot of mangoes around here too!!! I think they come into season around December. I CANNOT WAIT!!! :)

After lunch they invited me to go swimming and snorkeling with them! I saw the COOLEST blue starfish ever. There were a lot of them! It was so much fun. The ocean really is a whole new world to me, and I love learning about it. Boy, the math teacher’s 23 year old son, has been helping me out a lot by showing me around and giving me advice. Boy is his nickname. He is named after his father, but I can’t pronounce the name. When they say “Boy” it sounds like “Poy.” It was so kind of him to teach me about the ocean today. He even helped me swim back in when the current got a little strong and we were farther out where we couldn’t touch at all. He said that there are a lot of turtles that come around Faga’itua, and whales come around December!!!! There are also octopi, stingrays, and sharks in the area. They don’t worry about the sharks, though. It was so funny how he described it to me. He said that the sharks only come around about every six months. They come when it is really high tide. After he said that I said, “Oh!! So we will have to watch for that and never go in the ocean when they are around, right!” Boy said something like, “Oh, no it doesn’t matter. They are fine.” Whaaaaaat? Haha I guess they are little sharks. They are about as long as the distance from a man’s finger to the middle of his chest. The sharks are more scared of humans than we are of them… or I should say the sharks are more scared of the SAMOANS than the SAMOANS are of them. :)

Once we were done swimming and snorkeling I cleaned up and Boy took me to the top of the mountain! There is a paved road that goes to the top and then back down to the other side where there are a few other villages, but it was a very steep walk. Once we got to the top, though, the views were unbelievable!!! They are “million dollar views” as Boy described them. PARADISE is the only way I can think to describe it. He took me to one spot where the blue ocean went on and on and on forever. He said it is a good place to go watch for whales. I can’t wait to do that. It was a gloomy day today, but it was still a gorgeous and peaceful walk. There weren’t too many dogs that bothered us on our walk. I was glad Boy was with me, though! He has two wounds on his legs right now from dog bites. They aren’t really deep I guess, but it seems ridiculous to me. If there is one thing I could come back here and do, it would be to devise a plan to get the dog situation under control! Samoans have learned to live with it and aren’t as concerned about them as I am, but I really do hope something with them changes soon. I don’t want anyone to get seriously hurt. I am learning how to deal with them more and more, and I still have no plans of ever getting bit. :)

Well, it is getting to be my bedtime. I sound so old! :) I get up at about 6:15 am to workout most days and then have my COFFEE and get to work!!! Yep, I purchased a coffee machine this week, and it has made me VERY happy! Thanks to a good friend, Amber, I have an Omaha coffee mug to drink it from too! Tomorrow morning I plan to go to church with my landlord. I hope it works out. Then I have been invited to the Sunday afternoon feast with the math teacher, Boy, and their family and friends. They gathered taro, breadfruit, papaya, taro leaves, and other things for the feast today from their plantation up the mountain. They also plan to cook chicken. They are starting to heat the rocks at 3:00 am and want the smoke to be done by sunrise! I guess it isn’t as enforced now, but if there would be smoke visible by sunrise (which would show they are working on Sunday I think) they would be fined. The village also used to have “sa” which is a curfew or time of prayer. Around 6:00 pm a bell would ring and everyone in the village had to stop whatever they were doing and go inside to pray and be quiet. The village doesn’t enforce that anymore either but in the past they would even have village police or community watch people who would make sure they respected the sa time or they would get in trouble.

I talked to Boy about retaining his Samoan culture and heritage. I mentioned that I find it kind of sad that the island is becoming so Westernized with McDonald’s and a busier lifestyle, and he said that he thinks it is very sad. He doesn’t want his culture to die. Don’t get me wrong, the Samoan culture is very evident in my village, and it is SO different from what I am used to, but it is clearly changing too… and becoming more like America. Societies are always changing. I just hope the culture isn’t lost because it is a beautiful culture, as so many cultures are. I also have to work on lesson plans tomorrow and prepare for my first day of teaching on Monday! Wish me luck!!! I am sure it will be CRAZY. I know I will have my ups and downs, but I am here for a reason and going to make the most of it! Time to fall asleep and listen to the roosters all night… I feel like they never sleep here. :) Have a wonderful day, everyone! Take some time to enjoy the things you love. I miss you all!!! <3

Fa Soifua! (bye!)

Here is you Samoan word of the day: umu (Samoan kitchen.. it is the outside rock oven structure that they will be cooking their feast in tomorrow. Boy also called it “umu kuka” I am not sure that I spelled kuka correctly, though.

Here is on more fun one: fiafia = happy!

I couldn't get any pictures to upload. :( That is the best part too!!! Sorry. I will add them soon... I've been at the school for a little over 11 hours now, and I am getting hungry... plus no one likes it when I stay past four.. I get in trouble. I miss and love you all!! Pictures to come soon!!! And more about my first few days of school!!! I wrote this post but didn't have internet topost it until now.

Someday I want to go kayaking at Sadie's! :)

My classroom after I spent a lot of time cleaning and rearranging!!!

Ms. Jessica on her first day of school. :D It is respectful to just call the teacher by her first name.

I love maps, and I love this quotation! :)

Faga'itua Vikings! There is a lot of school pride here.

I went snorkeling with some friends I made in the village!! They taught me a lot about the ocean! I am obsessed with these gorgeous blue starfish!!!!!! The friends I went with said that they are nothing compared to the turtles, shark, stingrays, octopi, sharks, etc. that are all in the area. I can't wait to see them!! :)

best friends!

lol :)

My village for the ocean looking in.

My Samoan "family" kinda sorta. :) They have been treating me so well!! I love this picture too.

This is a friend who lives near me and has been helping me out a lot. He goes by "Boy." His real name is something I can't pronounce yet. He is named after his father, which is very common here. There are a lot of Jr.'s

This kid cracks me up. I never know what he is saying, but I like him.

Breakfast at Sadie's in Utulei!

soooooo pretty!!!

My front yard!! :)

More of my front yard! When your computer is loading a picture that is a picture (if that makes sense), does the image look like this picture?? Mine does! It is so similar. I kept looking at this picture and wondering what it reminded me of, and it is that standard upload image. lol :)

One of my first days in the village I walked out to this rock and read for about an hour. <3

The devil dogs I don't like!! They are pretty sad looking..

This dog lives in Faga'itua... he's a mess. lol

My home!

Utulei!

My WorldTeach ie!

OKA!!! This is raw tuna in a spicy milk sauce. It is really good!

I was SOOOOO happy to have coffee again. :) SOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!! :) Thank you Amber for the mug!

Looking from the outside through the church to the ocean.

I went to a church service with my landlord, Mausa! It was all in Samoan, so I understood VERY little, but it was nice! The church is lovely!!

Boiled bananas in coconut milk and turkey parts. I like the bananas. I would call them plantains because they have to be cooked and are not eaten raw, but they just call them green bananas I think. They kind of taste like a potato.

The family went up to their plantation on the side of the mountain and gathered taro, taro leaves, breadfruit, and papaya for their big Sunday feast which I enjoyed with them! yum!!! They weave those baskets like it is nothing.