The Village (the non-horror movie version)

Wow, a little overwhelmed by the task of trying to sum up the experiences of the past week in one sitting. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know that I have found it an amazing experience and am still in awe of this country and the people here. Maybe it’s the chlorine they put in the tap water to make it potable, but it seems to have the effect of making my glass appear half full these days. I’m just gonna go with it… Last Friday we arrived to be welcomed to our new home with an ‘ava ceremony followed by a huge meal. It was our first encounter with true village food. Including the ever-popular pig cross section (aka, every part of a pig, from the hair to the bone). I abstained from this particular delicacy due to my personal aversion to eating things that used to be cute and cuddly, or ugly and not at all cuddly but walking around of their own accord nonetheless. There was however a fabulous item called palusami which is made from wrapping up coconut cream in taro leaves and cooking it. You use taro to eat it and it’s awesome. It’s pretty universally regarded as one of the best Samoan delicacies and everyone seems psyched every time it shows up at meal time. After massive meal number one we were parceled off to our respective families who took us away to our new homes. I was a little confused at first since my mother took me across the street to the fale (house) that had been designated as the Peace Corps school area. She brought me into the big open structure (a roof held up by poles) with my hiking backpack on my back, nodded at me and sort of walked away. Eventually I realized that all of the houses around this area were part of the family’s communal living area, and there was a fale palangi (white-person style house) next door that would be my home. Double bonus: 1) Mari is never EVER going to be late for class and 2) Mari lives with the trainers, and the medical kits, and the purified water, so has all the resources at her fingertips. I didn’t realize how stoked I was with this situation until a couple days later when I took a walk to the end of town and saw that some of the trainees live a good 40 minute walk down the road. Let me tell you, a mile and a half walk in 90 degree humidity while wearing a puletasi… There are more exciting ways I can think of to torture myself. Within about an hour of being in my new home I was fed another huge meal by my family. I don’t think I went more than a couple of hours all week without eating. My Samoan father kept telling me that I needed to eat more so that I could get fat, because that is the fa’aSamoa (the Samoan way). My family was a little confusing to me at first because there was my mother, and my father, who is actually my mother’s son, which made me a little generationally confused, and then about seventeen children, mostly under the age of ten. I eventually figured out that the reason they were referred to as my mother and father was because they are the only adults who live there full-time, not because I was missing some obscure family tree linkage. All of the children there are grandchildren of my mother but many of their parents actually live abroad in American Samoa or New Zealand, and they have grown up being raised by their grandmother and their uncle. In Samoa, family is family and there is a lot more emphasis on being related to someone than on the specific relationship- raising children is much more a communal activity, and a lot of it is actually done by the older children in the family as well. All of the kids in my family are great. Our first afternoon together consisted of a lot of pointing at the chickens and saying “moa. chicken.” And then laughing because, well, that was about all we had to talk about. But they put me instantly at ease with the inherent awkwardness of such a situation, and we spent the rest of the day playing catch with a koosh ball I brought and having me teach them a bunch of American kids games like London Bridge and Ring Around the Rosy. They especially liked the “you put your backside in” verse of the Hokey Pokey and made me repeat it while shaking my butt at nauseum. We became immediately attached, and many of them never left my side all week. (Literally. Read: children following me into the bathroom, having to be picked up and carried outside so that I could pee alone.) Everyone in the village is super friendly and of course totally intrigued and curious about all of us wacky palagi’s that like to do silly things like go for walks just because, and eat vegetables, and write in journals. We truly are a funny breed, but they tolerate us quite well and are endlessly amused by us- it’s a good thing we can all laugh at ourselves J One of the great things about being in the village was how much more natural the whole language learning process became. All of a sudden we were there and using the language and immersed in the culture and it just seemed to click and come so much more logically. It made me realize how weird it feels to be sitting in a hotel with a bunch of other Americans trying to learn a language that we then turn around and don’t speak with each other outside of class. Being in the village makes it so much easier, and you really start to pick things up a lot more naturally. Especially when you have very patient small children glued to your side who are more than willing to repeat the same word five to twenty times if necessary. I feel a lot more at ease with the little bit of Samoan that I now speak in that at least I feel like I understand what and why I’m saying things, and how to do so, rather than feeling like I’m regurgitating token phrases I’ve been parroting in language class with my peers. There’s obviously a huge distance still to go, but it’s a nice start. I also feel like we got a chance to learn so much about the culture and the Samoan way of life. People are so open and good-natured here (at least after living in Manhattan)- once you get over the paranoia that big city American living fosters in you, it’s pretty incredible. We came back into Apia this morning and we’ll be here for the rest of the week. Tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday we will all be going on job site visits to spend the days at the schools we will be working at to get an idea what it’s like. We actually went for two days last week to our sites as well but I will wait to write more about that until I post again specifically about my school and home because this is already ridiculously long, and I’m ready for bed.

I didn’t bring my camera to the village this week but I definitely will next time. Andrew and Marques both brought theirs so you can check their sites and maybe they’ll post some photos. Otherwise I’ll have some in a couple of weeks.