Commencing Countdown, Engines On

I personally have been counting down to my approaching departure on a roughly bi-daily basis for the past month or so, but luckily for anyone who actually feels obliged to read everything I write here I decided not to update the site quite as regularly. I can imagine there may be people who are curious about what my experience in Samoa is like, but substantially fewer clinging to news of my pre-departure psychoses. Although my mom has sent me very supportive and encouraging emails about all of my posts so far. Thanks mom, my self-esteem appreciates your substantiation :) That being said, it is officially two weeks before my staging commences, which I feel is monumental enough to share. In NYC public school terms, it’s a “chain-worthy” countdown period. So staging. What is staging? On October 10^th, all of the volunteers in my cohort (group 75 for anyone curious as to how many training sections the Peace Corps has sent over to Samoa since its first program there in 1967) will be meeting at a hotel near LAX for a 36 hour period of registration paperwork, opening workshops, and hopefully some really stellar ice-breaker name games. Then we’ll all head over to the airport where we will get to take a 9 hour flight directly from Los Angeles to Samoa. I’m quite sincere about “getting to”- there is only one of these flights a week, and a common alternate route if one doesn’t happen to depart on the right day is through Aukland, New Zealand. I don’t have flying phobias, but overshooting my destination by 2000 miles isn’t my ideal flight path either. So the plan is to arrive in Apia (the capital of Samoa, and also incidentally where my placement will be) sometime in the middle of the night on Tuesday/Wednesday and begin training the next morning. The first ten weeks that I am in Samoa I will actually be a Trainee, not officially a volunteer yet. My group and I will undergo intensive language, cultural and job training to prepare us for our individual placements. During this fall we will spend some of the time living with families in a village for language and cultural immersion, I believe some time shadowing other volunteers for job skill training, and also some time in Apia. I have ascertained this from what I have read so it is obviously subject to alteration but gives a general idea of the kind of stuff I’ll be up to. After the ten week training period there is an official swearing-in ceremony where our acronym changes from PCT to PCV. Then volunteers are dispersed to their individual placements for the commencement of their 2 year appointments. I have, at least tentatively, been assigned to work as a teacher trainer at a small Special Education school in Apia to assist with curriculum development and assessment protocol, etc. More on that once I have a further developed notion myself. So… needless to say I am quite excited and am glad that my anticipation doesn’t have to hold out for all that much longer at this point! I have all of the million things I decided I “couldn’t live without” for the next two years strewn across my bedroom floor. In the next week or so I’m going to perform an amazing magic trick where I make them all fit inside my duffel bag and frame pack and weigh less than 80 pounds combined once everything’s in. Short of Mary Poppins landing on my front door step in the next few days I’m not sure how in the world I expect to be able to pull this feat off, but there it is. Feel free to start sending me mail at any time- I’ve heard it takes about three weeks for a letter to make the journey from the states. I’ve already sent myself a couple of things just to ensure that I don’t feel like a total loser, but it’s always nice to get mail from “other” people as well. Mailing address is to the left. I’ve even included general postage to make sure it’s super easy. HINT. And there’s also an ultra-convenient link on this page to the USPS postage rate charts for Samoa that some incredibly thoughtful (and charming) young lady created so that if you felt the overwhelming urge to send her packages you’d have easy access to the information regarding that as well!

Overly-Annotated Bibliography

you may ask yourself… what the heck has mari been doing all summer? (most likely you haven’t asked yourself this at all, but just pretend for the sake of preserving my hook sentence.) well, since you’re so curious, i’ll tell you! i have been doing a lot of reading. (i know it’s difficult to imagine i could fit this into my schedule in addition to all of the sleeping and eating, but what can i say, i’ve got talent.) what have you been reading mari? we’re dying to know! well, in that case, i will tell you. i’ve been reading a lot about the history of the peace corps, and peoples’ experiences, as well as trying to get my hands on every book i can related to samoa. my mom even picked up a book and a video on samoan tattoo artistry from the university library. i wish i could have been there to see the look on the face of the student who checked her out trying to figure out what exactly fostered this interest in the assistant dean… but i’m digressing. my point was, i figured in case anyone else out there ended up with three months to kill and an insatiable appetite for peace corps and samoa related literature, i would provide a nice starting point for them. so here’s what i have read…

Peace Corps Reading List

So You Want to Join the Peace Corps by Dillon Banerjee
*question and answer format collection of very useful perspectives from a former volunteer
What You Can Do For Your Country by Karen Schwarz
*history of the peace corps and its development over the course of time (unfortunately it was written during the administration of bush senior so there’s nothing about more recent p.c. history… can you say sequel?)
From The Center of the Earth edited by Geraldine Kennedy
Going Up Country edited by John Coyne
*these two are collections of essays written by former volunteers
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha by Sarah Erdman
The Ponds of Kalambayi by Mike Tidwell
*these last two are individual chronicles of p.c. experiences in africa. don’t worry, i am aware that i’m not going to africa (although i’ve been coming to realize that a shocking number of people assume samoa is in africa), but there wasn’t a book about someone’s pc experience in samoa, so i figured i’d check them out. they were really interesting and well written and gave a good sense of what life was like as a pcv (i’m hoping this is a self-explanatory acronym). so, yeah, recommend ’em.

Samoa Reading List

My Samoan Chief by Fay Calkins
*very entertaining examination of the journey an american woman made into understanding and appreciation of a culture quite different from her own
Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Mead
*significantly more readable than i had anticipated… however little that says
His Best Pacific Writings by Robert Louis Stevenson
*significantly less readable than i had anticipated… win some lose some i guess
Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel
*very beautifully written, by a samoan woman
Samoan Word Book by Aumua Simanu and Luafata Simanu-Klutz
*my first chance to hear fa’asamoa spoken! my dad immediately decided the most important words for him to learn were fruit bat (pe’a) and lizard (pili). i’m sure they’ll get him real far when he comes to visit.
Samoan Dictionary by G.B. Milner
*hope you have friends in new zealand if you want to get your hands on a copy

plus some even more obscure anthropology on language acquisition. but i think the chances of anyone pursuing that vein are minute. e-mail me if that kinda thing does it for ya.

*apparently my highly developed internet technology skills are not quite as highly developed as i would have liked to hope. i couldn't figure out how to indent my annotations. thus the alluring shade of violet. hope it was aesthetically appealing.