Hospitals, Homesickness and Holidays: April Adventures



Some of my Tap Boyz. I shall miss them.



It is raining so hard right now, and it kind of mirrors my mood. For the last few weeks, I’ve been in weird mood, sad for two opposite reasons: 1) I’m homesick and I miss my family, my mom, dad, sister, nephew and 2) I leaving Samoa in a month and I don’t want to because I’m going to miss my students so much.

As you can see, it’s quite a conundrum. Lol. I guess I SHOULD be looking at it as 1) Excited to see my family in one month and 2) Happy to still have a month left to spend with my students.



Lunchtime Naptime



Anyway. Sorry for no posts in April, but it has been insane. The first week of April was awful, because there were a HUGE fight in my classroom (broken desk, blood everywhere), and that caused all sorts of drama for the rest of the week. I actually broke down and cried during break one day, which was awful, because there are always students in my room during break, and they all saw me crying. BUT, I have to say, they were so, SO sweet about it. As soon as they noticed I was crying, they all moved their desks over to me and surrounded me and were like, “It’s okay, Miss. It’s okay.” And they didn’t even know why I was crying. Lol. So cute. I hate to cry in front of people, but at least it was in front of my faves, and not the students that caused the crying.

I WOULD like to say that I’ve been through some crap in my class, especially in the beginning, and I had some major issues with classroom management, especially with the second period, which is all my worst kids (and like two of my best, God Bless ‘Em.) But I have NEVER cried at school, until this month. Sucked. But! It’s all over now, and everything has gone back to normal.

THEN, the second week of April, I started throwing up, and having these awful pains in side of my lower back. At first I thought I was just sick and had pulled a muscle, but after three days, I finally went into the LBJ Tropical Medical Center (yes, named after THAT LBJ. He’s the only president to ever visit American Samoa. No one ever comes here. Hillary Clinton refueled here a few months ago, but she didn’t even bother to get off the plane. Anyway. Tangent.) So, I went to the “hospital.” They try, but it’s really very sketchy. Blood on the walls and that sort of thing. I was really sick, though, so I headed over there.

Well! As it turned out, I had a kidney stone, apparently caused by dehydration. I do drink a lot of water, but I also sweat a lot, apparently more than I drink.  Anyway, the kidney stone was kind of big, so they thought I might have to go off island (probably to Hawaii) to get it zapped, because they don’t have the technology here. They gave me some drugs to help, and LUCKILY, it passed without me having to go off island. (Off island, by the way, is the generic term Samoans used for anywhere that is not this particular Rock. As in, “Miss, I’m going off island tomorrow to California.”)

Let me tell you…passing that kidney stone was pretty much the worst thing ever, except for that one time my ear drum ruptured. For almost two days I felt like I was getting stabbed in the side, and it was just NOT a good time. After all was said and done, I ended up missing an entire week of school. My kids were all very confused about why I was missing. I heard various rumors as explanations, ranging from I was pregnant (I’m not) to I was fired (I wasn’t.) But this is Samoa. If they don’t know the real reason, they’ll make one up. Lol. All the Taputimu kids that usually hang out in my room were at a loss. Apparently they just wandered around all week, unsure about where to go. Lol.



Some of my senior girls lining up for the Flag Day Parade.



The upside of all of this was that the whole week, I got various messages from kids telling me how much they missed me. A group of them pooled all their money together to put money on their cell phone so they could call me to make sure I was alive. Did I mention I love my students?

Anyway. The week after Kidney Week, as it shall henceforth be known, was Flag Day week. Flag Day in American Samoa is April 17, which is the day that the U.S. Navy first raised the United States flag in American Samoa. Or, I guess you could say it’s the day Eastern Samoa became American Samoa. Anyway, it is a big deal here, and we got Tuesday and Wednesday off for the festivities. This meant we had Monday, Thursday and Friday at school, but it was pretty much a useless week. Most of the kids did not even come to school that week, so my classes were missing at least half of the kids. We did nothing but watch movies and play games.

Tuesday was the official Flag Day ceremony, so all the Leone seniors and most of the teachers participated in the “parade” at the stadium. I was the only Leone WorldTeacher to go, and basically involved about four hours of sitting and six minutes of parading. But they kids go to be on TV, so they were excited. Plus, it wasn’t so bad because I like the seniors and it was amusing to hang out with them for the day.

Some of Leone teachers getting ready for the parade.

After the ceremony, I headed to the airport with Sili and his mom to get his plane ticket to come to States this summer. I had to be there, since he is traveling with me. Of course, some of the Tap Boyz came with us, because, well, they tend to do stuff in groups. Moral support and all that. Lol. Anyway, Sili officially has his ticket, and Peni is getting his this week, so I guess that is really happening. They are both really excited to see the United States. I was talking to them about the differences between Alabama and Samoa, and they were at first horrified by the fact that there are no breadfruit trees or mango trees in Alabama.

Conversation:

“Are there breadfruit trees in Alabama or Pennsylvania?”

“No.”

“Mango?”

“No.”

“Taro?”

“No.”

<disbelief>

“Do you at least have coconuts?”

“Nope.”

“So WHAT DO YOU EAT?”

Lol.

So then I explained we had apple trees and blueberries and strawberries.

“There are APPLE TREES?!?!”

Hahahaha. It’s going to be a hilarious summer.

The Samoan-est Day of Them All

All the seniors are gone today for a field trip to the Fono (Congress type thing), so I just have some free time, which is great, especially since I haven't been feeling the greatest. I think my body is really trying to fight something off. Anyway, I thought I'd take this time, and take advantage of the school's fast internet, to post some pictures from Samoan Day.

Samoan Day is a day that the students spend a month practicing for, where they do their traditional dances and 'ava ceremony and cook traditional food like pulesami and taro. Seriously, for an entire month, we missed an hour of class to practice, and then the last two weeks we missed two hours a day. It was madness. I was a sophomore class advisor, and I really think they had the best dance. But the seniors won it (they always do). I'm okay with that, because I love the seniors.

It was pretty much the best day ever. It was so cool to see all the kids in something other than their school uniforms, and also to see them in their traditional wear. Of course, Samoan high schoolers hit the 12th grade and start looking like their are 25, my mom saw some of these pictures, and was like, "who are those Samoan men you are with?" I'm like, "Um...Mom. Those are my students.

Anyway. Pictures. (Some of these are not mine, but credit belongs to Fausaga, one of the seniors, and Abby, my roommate.)

The seniors boys. The kid with the fro and the red marks on his face is Aladdin, one of my favorite seniors.

Senior boys again



Paulo, one of my juniors.

Junior boys. Students that I have in this photo are Mark (with the braids), Lauaki (in the front with the red marks), and Jeff (tall kid in the back.)

Petelo in the front and Elama in the back, my juniors.

He with the fro is Eneliko, and the kid with the ipod just chillaxing beside him is Rafe. They are two of my seniors. The girl on the right is Lynn, also my senior.

Noke. Not one of my students, but we're pals. He hangs out in my room a lot.

Peni, one of my faves. (I know you're not supposed to say that, but we've all got 'em.)

Sophomore girls. Don't they look beautiful?

Peni and Fale, showing off their muscles.

Joseph and Gabriel, tow of my most cheeky juniors. They wanted to get this picture by this "ride" as they called it.

Esera and Paisano from left to right. I don't have Esera, but I sub for his class a lot. Paisano is one of my seniors.

Me and some of my boys. This is the picture my mom decided was "inappropriate." I'm like, "What, this isn't what the students wear at your school?" lol.

Sophomores for the win!

Anyway. I've already made a kid clean up the mess from his coconut he was drinking from, and had to confiscate a ukulele from another kid who wouldn't stop playing it. It's shaping up to be one of those This is Samoa days.

Living Life in Lovely Leone

Talofa!

Well, we finally moved out of the Nu'uuli Voctech and into our placements. Abby, Quinn and I have been living in the little village of Leone for the last week. Leone is a really cool little village, and seriously, the people here are the best. Everyone knows who we are, and just walking down the street, people stop their cars and talk to us. Leone is on the west side of the island of Tutuila, and boasts such landmarks as the oldest church in American Samoa, and a rather scary monument either to John Williams or Jesus, I haven't actually read the inscription. (John Williams was the missionary that did a lot of work here. Not to be confused with the composer or my road trip friend from Alabama.)Have you ever noticed that a lot of people look like Jesus? Or at least the European vision of Jesus. Anyway. Leone was hit really hard by the tsunami that struck in September 2009, and so a lot of the main village area is still kind of messed up. I guess a lot of the textbooks from my school were lost in the tsunami, which is one reason I don't have enough for every student. On the plus side, American Samoa just installed all these fancy tsunami sirens, and one is right behind our school, so we'll hopefully be more aware of a threat than they were two years ago. I guess the earthquake hit in off the neighboring island of Tonga, and American Samoans had about five minutes to evacuate, which is of course not enough time.

Anyway. On to happier matters. Since the outer islands people (those of us going to the islands of Ofu, Olosega and Ta'u) couldn't go to their islands yet, they all had to stay with us Tutuila folk. Here in Leone, we housed Jessica, who's on Ofu, and Wes and Cat, who are going to Ta'u. We had a blast with them this week. Jessica plays a lovely ukulele, and I freakin' love Wes and Cat. I miss them like whoa. On Wednesday, we had a BBQ at our place, and all the people living in Pava'i'ai came over. It was a lot of fun, but I was seriously sick. For a couple of days this week, I was running a fever of 102 or more. It was awful. On Thursday morning, Cat left for Ta'u, and then on Friday night, Jessica left on the boat for Ofu. And finally, after some delay, Wes left for Ta'u on Sunday. So all our guests have left us now, and Quinn, Abby and I are settling into our lives for the next year.

On the school front, last week was Orientation, and Monday we all went to Tafuna High School (booooo!) for the General Assembly. It was kind of a spectacle, with all this singing and the Governor of American Samoa there, and the whole thing being in Samoan so none of us could understand it. At one point they were praying (AmSam is very religious, which as a Christian, I find it nice that no one makes fun of me for my beliefs like they do in the States), and I didn't even realize it until I heard the words "Jesus" and "the Pharisees." Lol.

Tuesday and Wednesday we went to our schools, and we got our first taste of Leone High School. Oh, man, that place is a trip. Apparently, it's the party school (for the faculty!), and I am greatly looking foward to getting to know my coworkers. They seem like an insanely awesome crew.

Saturday I had to go the Post Office in Pago, and while I was there, Lisa called me to come to Tisa's Barefoot Bar with her and the Samoana group. So they came and got me and we had a blast just hanging on the beach on the east side of the island, where I don't get to spend much time. It was some birthday party or something, and the Samoans were just so welcoming when we crashed their party. They were all, "Come eat some food!" and "Come do Zumba on the beach with us!" Lol. It was great. And it as great to see the Samoana peeps, as they live far away and I don't see them much. And I got to say goodbye to Mitch before he went off to the outer islands for the year.

Today was the first day of school, and it was pretty good. I had this vision of huge, out of control Samoan boys challenging my authority, and it really wasn't so bad. Most of the kids were really nice and sweet. There were, of course, a couple of rowdies, but I can handle them. Of course, half the school doesn't actually show up until the second or third week of school, so I may yet get the punks. Attendence here is really kind of...well, it sucks. Both teachers and students don't come to school whenever they don't feel like it. This doubly sucks for the WorldTeachers, because we signed a contract saying we wouldn't miss school, and we often have to pick up the slack for the teachers that do miss. AmSam doesn't have substitutes, so other teachers have to take care of the kids with the absent teacher. Especially at the beginning of school, there seems to be a "They'll get here when they get here" sort of mentality. It's taking some getting used to.

Anyway. I'll write more as the week progresses, but for now, I think I've written enough. I've including some photos of my house (with a party going on), and of my school.

Po!