Dropped Off

This morning we awoke before the sun, packed our bags with enough food to last us the day, and jumped into the peace corps cars. We were then blindfolded and driven around in circles for the sake of disorientation. The cars stopped in the middle of nowhere and let us out in pairs- our task was to find a specific village within the area to go interview people in, and then to find our way back to Falevao by the late afternoon. Andrew and I were dropped in the road and told to find a village called "Tiavea Tai"- tai means on the water so we started down the road towards the direction of the ocean, figuring we were being quite logical about the whole thing. Fortunately we decided to check with a passing Samoan about a quarter of a mile down, who told us that actually the road to Tiavea Tai shot off to the right from the main road further inland than we were dropped off. So good thing we asked :) We then hiked down that "road" for about 45 minutes to an absolutely beautiful little beach with a tiny village right on the water: Tiavea Tai. The little village on the water is made up of eleven families and a church. No cars. No phones. No televisions. No fale'oloa (small convenience store). Even the mayor of the town lives up the hill in the sister village, Tiavea Uta (uta=inland). Within five minutes of our being there half the families had come out to say hello, and one in particular insisted that we come in to their fale and have tea. They welcomed us with open arms into their home and served us food and told us the story of the creation of the village and how it got its name... tia means man and vea means woman and a man and woman came to bathe in their stream and fell in love with the place and decided to stay there and that's how the village started. We got the story in both English and Samoan and it was more extensive and interesting than my portrayal but there's the basic point for you. The family invited us to spend the day and actually tried to get us to stay there and spend the night in the village. We told them we were extremely appreciative of their hospitality, unfortunately we couldn't stay as we were expected back in Falevao, but that we promise to come again and visit when we are able to stay. It was such an incredible experience- people are so friendly and kind and just open up and offer you everything without even knowing you. They welcomed us into their homes and treated us with such honor, it was truly humbling. We hiked back up the mountain in the sun (let me just say, going down is a fair bit easier... we were both soaked by the time we got to the top) and then started walking along the road towards town. We were told the next bus wasn't until noon so we were kind of banking on a car coming by and helping us out. (Hitchhiking is totally par for the course here and people are super friendly and kind about it- they actually thank YOU for hitching a ride from them!) The first car that drove by stopped for us and happened to be going to Apia and we were welcomed into the car by a couple of pastor's wives who were coming into town to get petrol for the sightseeing boat they operate. So we rolled into town with more ease than could possibly be imagined and now here we are. We'll take a bus back to Falevao from the market this afternoon. I have to say I am amazed by how easy it was to find our way when we had no idea where we are, and how much of that was due to the overwhleming kindness and helpfulness of everyone we met on our journey. I am so greatful to be in such a welcoming country with such warm and open people! Lucky lucky lucky.

Fai se Umu (Making the Oven)

Happy Thanksgiving! Today was a hard day to be away from home but Peace Corps did a great job of making the best of the situation and it was a really great day. Instead of being in classes all day today like we usually are during the week, we had a cooking day where we were taught how to make a traditional Samoan umu (an open outdoor oven made by heating up rocks and placing food amongst them, all of which is covered by large leaves to cook). At 8 in the morning all the trainees and members of their families gathered out behind my house, many with live chickens in tow, to get working at the hard and laborious task of making a traditional meal. First, large logs are brought in and placed on top of rocks and then lit on fire. This is left to burn so that the rocks can get hot while the food is being prepared. The villagers had set up a sort of a station deal for us so that we could experience all the different components of cooking the meal. There were taro roots to scrape clean with the end of a tin can. (Taro, an extremely starchy root vegetable is THE staple food of Samoa. It is eaten with absolutely everything, used more or less like a utensil to scoop up whatever else happens to be on the plate. The roots are cooked whole and then people break off chunks of them to use when eating.) There were also fa’i (look like green bananas, taste like plantains- we’re big into starch here) to peel and cook in the umu. There was a large pile of popo (ripe coconuts) to turn into coconut cream for making palusami. This is one of the most laborious processes one could imagine in order to obtain food. First, you have to find a coconut, which just might involve climbing up a tree. Then you need to husk it, which is no easy task, even when mashing it against a pole stuck in the ground (check out my particularly flattering photos of some of the guys in our group at this fun task). After it’s husked, you whack it open with a machete (this is actually easier and much less scary than it sounds). You then take the two halves and scrape the meat out by grinding it against a blade attached to the end of a bench. Once the coconut has been grated, you take some sort of fiber stuff and start scooping up handfuls of the coconut which you then ring out in the fibers in order to extract the cream in liquid form, dumping the dry shreds to the side. It takes a LONG time and a fair amount of muscle to turn a huge bowl of coconut into cream. To make the palusami, which I might have mentioned in an earlier posting, you pour some of the cream into a cupped stack of young taro leaves, which you then wrap up first in a banana leaf then a breadfruit leaf before cooking. A traditional umu also always contains... a pig. Those of you who know me can only imagine how ecstatic I was at the thought of watching my family and friends pull a pig out of the pen in our back yard, suffocate it to death, singe all its hair off, pull its innards out and stuff it with hot rocks, and cook it whole. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time grating coconut and try really hard to look in the other direction and try not to think about it. There was also the killing of the chickens, also by suffocation. Various members of our crew were quite excited to kill the chickens that their family members had given them to bring, and I again tried really hard to be oblivious to the process. Once all the food was prepared, the rocks were spread out, and the taro, fa’i, pua’a (pig) and pipi (two turkeys the Peace Corps staff purchased to make the volunteers feel at home for the holiday) were placed on top of them. Another layer of rocks was placed on top of this and then the palusami went on top. Everything was then covered by giant banana leaves and left to cook. We all went to weave the baskets that are used for carrying the food, and about a half hour later all the food was cooked (maybe Americans should take a hint from the Samoans- their umu managed to cook a whole turkey in about a tenth the time of a conventional oven). We then served the food in traditional fashion to the village matai (titled men). After the meal was over we packed up what was left and the trainers drove us out to a beautiful beach on the south side of the island called Vavau where we had a Thanksgiving picnic and spent the afternoon playing in the water. Not a bad way to pass the day, if I do say so myself.

Hunting for Palolo

Twice a year, in the Spring (Fall up there in the states), just following the full moon, there is a momentous occasion here in Samoa: the palolo rising. Palolo are actually the reproductive sections of worms that live within the coral just offshore of the islands. On only these two nights, for a period of time just before sunrise that lasts maybe an hour, the coral is apparently attempting to spawn and all of these tiny blue slightly wormy things rise to the surface of the water and spread across it. At the appearance of the sun, we’ve been told, the palolo “melt,” or disappear. I’m not sure if this is true and has some scientific explanation or if it is a myth, but at any rate it leaves a narrow window of an hour or so in which these small elusive creatures are exposed to the world at large. For reasons under-appreciated by myself, palolo are a highly prized delicacy to the Samoan people, and are worth significantly more than their weight in tala (the local currency). As I stated previously, they are worms. Very tiny worms (maybe a centimeter in length and a millimeter or less in diameter). And they’re blue. They are usually wadded up into a fist-sized ball which sells for an exorbitant amount of money and served as a treat of honor. I must say that I abstained at my opportunity to taste them the first time that I was in the village. I have heard that they taste like... salt water. Unless you rinse them out after catching them with fresh water. Then I hear they taste like... water. At any rate, Samoans get very excited about them and the nights of the palolo rising are a HUGE deal here, so needless to say we were all excited at least by proxy about this momentous event occurring during our training time in the village. The trainers arranged for our entire group to go out with the men of our village to spend the night at the beach and join in the palolo hunt. We all met at 10 pm and drove out to the beach where we spent a beautiful night hanging out in open fale’s (traditional Samoan houses, in this case more like a raised floor with a thatched roof) on the beach, staring at the stars, and enjoying the peace. At about 4 in the morning we all picked up the nets our families had so lovingly made for us and started wading into the water. We had been told that we were supposed to dress up for the palolo in order to attract them to us, so some were bedecked in full puletasi’s as they waded into the water. We walked out maybe 200 meters over relatively shallow coral. (Let me take this opportunity to state that coral is not easy to walk on in the dark. Not to mention that as a diver who is trained NEVER to touch the coral, I had to go against all my moral stances to tromp through it murdering precious living creatures in my wake. But it was all in the spirit of experiencing the fa’aSamoa, so we were down for whatever that brought with it.) We then stood out on the coral for the next hour or so scooping our nets through the water pretending to be attempting to catch palolo, of which I personally saw none. The main focus of at least my personal energy was to brace myself against the waves that kept coming and trying incredibly persistently to knock me over into the coral. I tried. I swear I tried. Do the palolo really exist? As a group of fourteen, let’s just say the total for the night- 7 palolo. Not quite enough to coat the fingernail on my pinky. Maybe we just weren’t dressed nicely enough. Who knows. When I returned home my family asked me where my palolo were, as they had eagerly been anticipating reaping the fruits of my labor. I hung my head in shame and had to tell them “leai sa’u palolo” (direct translation: “no my palolo”, basically meaning “I don’t have any palolo. I failed ya”). Fortunately they were amused at my ineptitude as a Samoan fisherman. So no palolo for Mari. Won’t quit my day job. But it was a great experience, and I must say one of the funnier nights of my life. Next year I think I just might stay at home and sleep :)

Last Lap

This afternoon we are packing up our bags yet again and heading back to Falevao for our last stretch in the village. We still have three more weeks of training but it definitely feels like things are winding down as we realize that coming back to Apia next time will mean that training is basically complete. We have spent a couple of relatively hectic days here- yesterday was the annual all-volunteer conference where everyone from the volunteers who are leaving this month through us showed up for a day full of presentations and activites and all around appreciation and acknowledgement of what's been going on. It was a fun and very interesting day. We ate about six meals and got lots of fun statistics on random things. This afternoon before we take off there is a Peace Corps Thanksgiving feast since everyone is in town for the conference, so we're going to go there and celebrate our American holiday before immersing ourselves in the Samoan way of life back in the village. Next thurday, on the actual day of thanksgiving, we will have a Samoan cooking day where we are taught all of the traditional recipes and cooking procedures used here. It will be a nice Thanksgiving activity but I must also say I'm looking forward to some slightly more westernized Thanksgiving items this afternoon. Not too much to report, I'm mainly focusing on looking forward to the time coming up in the village. I'm excited to use the time to really immerse myself in the language and trying to practice using Samoan as much as possible and becoming as fluent as I can in the little time I have left in such an ideal learning and practicing environment. I won't be able to get to a computer while I'm out there over the next few weeks but I'll try to type stuff up out there so at least when I come back it gives an idea of what we've been up to. In the mean time try not to miss me and hearing from me too much (I know it'll be hard). Off we go...

A Vacation From My Vacation

Just got back to Apia from my three day volunteer visit. I went out to the Southeastern tip of the island to an area called Aleipata that is famous for its spectacular beaches (pity me, it was a rough few days). I spent my time with a volunteer named Monica who arrived with the village based development group that came to Samoa in June. Her post there is in a sector called Inter-Coastal Management and she teaches marine biology and has been working to attempt to integrate environmental action and awareness into the local community. Right now her students are in exams so she actually had no teaching to do on Monday or Tuesday which meant that we were basically flexible to explore the area. On Monday we went for a long walk on the beach which is absolutely beautiful and ended up hiking up over a rather substantial and rather treacherous patch of jungle to get out to a point called turtle rock. The hike was really fun although quite muddy and slippery- there were some stretched where you were walking along a muddy path about eight inches wide with nothing between you and the ocean but a nice 100+ foot drop of cliffside covered in foliage. As most places that are perlious tend to be, it was spectacular. When we got out of the trees we were standing on a rock that jutted out about 50 feet above the ocean where waves were crashing into its base and spraying water up high enough to hit us. Amazing. Apparently you can frequently see sea turtles at the point and we were looking but didn't find any. There is a Samoan song that you're supposed to sing to make them come out but of course since we're both palagi's we didn't know it so maybe that's why they didn't oblige us with their presence. Even so I have no complaints. We scrambled down the side of the rocks to a beautiful little beach alcove where Monica hung out in the shade of the palm trees while I hung out in the water for a while. Turns out her plan was infinitely more intelligent than mine because I got a beautiful new lobster makeover from my morning in the sun. Even the backs of my hands got sunburnt, a place it had never occured to me it was possible to be that sensitive. Even though I'm still in a significant amount of pain a few days later it was a great day- it was wonderful getting to spend time at the beach and in the sun and felt so relaxing. And she taught me all kinds of Samoan words for all of the creatures that she's been learning and teaching about at her job. Then yesterday (Tuesday) we decided we had gotten enough sun and outdoors so we made it a cooking day. I obviously haven't gotten a chance to cook in the past month because I haven't spent any time anywhere where there has been a kitchen (other than in my village, but my family doesn't really let me help out much there because I'm their guest)- I hadn't realized how much I missed cooking! We made papaya bread and muffins to bring back to the others in my group, and we baked a pumpkin and made pumpkin pie for the Peace Corps thanksgiving party that will be on Saturday afternoon. I've never made pumpkin pie starting with an actual pumpkin- it was lots of fun but also lots and lots of work. We also roasted the pumpkin seeds which was so yummy- can't remember the last time I had homemade pumpkin seeds. Then we made a nice big salad and spaghetti with tomato sauce with lots of fresh veggies in it and garlic bread for dinner. It was a huge feast and her Samoan family loved trying it all and thinking we were crazy for eating things like the seeds of the pumpkin and the raw greens in the salad. They were really eager to try everything though and it was extremely successful. It was really fun to just spend the day hanging out and making lots of food. I think I could probably not eat for a week now and be okay :) The village where Monica lives is actually the village that her group was in during their training time this summer. It is much smaller than Falevao and all of the houses are around one circle. It is right along the ocean and has a beautiful freshwater spring pool that actually mixes with the ocean when the tide comes up that is heavenly to swim and hang out in. It's a spectacular village and the people were extremely welcoming and friendly- they tried to adopt me and convince me to come back there instead of to Falevao! Now I'm back in Apia where we'll have a day and a half of classes. Then on Friday there is an all-Peace Corps conference at one of the schools near where I will be living and working. It should be fun to get to spend some more time getting to know the current volunteers. I'm not sure yet what the day will hold but I'm up for anything. Then on Saturday we will have a Thanksgiving meal and then go back to Falevao for our three week stint. After that training is pretty much over... Wierd to think we're more than halfway done already. Obviously the time in Falevao ahead of us is a substaintial chunk but it also seems so short when I think that after that language training and all the other classes will be over. I must say, though, I am eagerly anticipating not having to live out of a bag anymore and actually having a place to call home. I'm going to go see if I can track down some aloe vera to relieve my poor back and shoulders. I will try to get back here again before we take off for our long haul in the village.

Fun With Parasites (The Return of The Village)

Week two in the village: we went back to our village host families last Saturday for our second week-long stint. That afternoon I took an amazing hike along the road that winds inland up into the mountains with Ofisa, my father. We hiked probably halfway up the mountain (in the sun in 85 degree heat and humidity it felt as though we might as well have been trekking Everest) and when we turned around to look down we could see the most amazing sight. You see all of the valley area where our village Falevao is located covered in lush green foliage, (there is a bit of a monochrome theme going on in Samoa... fortunately for me my favorite color happens to be green so I'm in heaven with it!) the mountains on all sides of you, and off in the distance a couple of miles the ocean. It is breathtaking, both physiologically to climb there and psychologically once you're there. It was one of those moments (of which I have been fortunate enough to have many since arriving here) where I stood in amazement and said "Holy cow. I actually live here. This is my home." The next day I got up early and raced Andrew's brother to the ocean- he kept me honest, which is scary because he was going for our morning run BAREFOOT. Americans are SO not hardcore compared to Samoans. When we got back I got to help my family make the umu (outdoor oven where they cook food on hot rocks covered by banana leaves) for the big sunday meal. I learned how to weave a basket out of a palm frond to carry the food in, and I even got to make the palusami (my favorite Samoan food). Then we went to church and came home and ate all the food we made and hung out being lazy the rest of the day. We went back to class on Monday and got back into the swing of language study which I had felt like it was hard to be focused on when we were back in Apia. I have taken to being more adventurous and asking my family if I can try different foods when they have them since they tend to serve me pretty much the same thing at every meal. On monday evening this strategy came back to bite me in the butt when I unknowingly asked to try something that had not been cooked called miti made from cocount cream and salt water with onions. A couple of hours later I got quite sick and spent a fun night and next couple of days with a very high fever. We think what might have happened is I got an infection from something that got into the food that wasn"t boiled away. Oops. So the majority of the rest of my week in the village was spent kind of out of it and I had to miss a few days of classes. I felt back to myself by thursday or friday in time for our family day to work at the plantation on friday. I asked Ofisa on friday morning if we were going to the plantation and he told me it was too hot so we ended up just hanging around tafaoing (to relax or hang out). In the afternoon there was a big fiafia (party) at the house of one of the villagers because it was his fiftieth birthday so we went and ate a lot of food and danced a lot and had a good time. Then on saturday morning we had classes and came back into Apia for the night. So there was my week. I must say there are large portions of it I don"t particularly remember clearly but the parts that I wasn"t sick I enjoyed a good deal. And now I can say I have had my first of what I am sure will be many bouts with foreign bacteria in my system over the next two years. Hooray for my weak American immune system!

Self-Evaluation

Yesterday afternoon we had our first meetings with the Peace Corps staff to discuss what we think and what they think of our progress in training thus far. We filled out an extensive checklist about how we think we’re doing in terms of the language and the culture and integrating and everything that goes along with that, and the trainers filled out the same survey regarding their opinions of our progress. It was a nice check-in point. The trainers were really positive and encouraging and I think they’re pretty pleased with our group as a whole- they’ve told us many times that they’re impressed and happy with us. Of course it could just be that part of their job is to be positive and motivating to keep us optimistic about the whole situation! It was very cute though- when we met yesterday, the head trainer told me he thought I had bribed the trainers because they marked “always” for everything… I could have sworn I was being subtle about the cookies I was slipping them, but apparently not :) The meeting was helpful- it was good for me to think about what I’m happy with in terms of my progress and what I feel like I could put more into. Being the type of person who holds herself to ridiculously high standards, I’ve been feeling a little frustrated by feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in each day for me to spend as much time learning the language as I want to, as much time learning the culture as I want to, as much time exploring the community as I want to (especially in the village), etc. I keep telling myself that if I spend more time studying the language outside of class I would be able to be learning it much faster. But when I do that then I feel like I’m missing out on the hanging-out-with-my-family-in-the-village time. And the hanging-out-with-other-volunteers time. And then there’s the possibility of maybe even occasionally taking five minutes for myself to write in my journal or read or even just sit and think (perish the thought). So I’ve been feeling mildly perturbed by wanting to do so much more than I can realistically expect myself to do in a day with a mere 24 hours. The self-reflection survey and the meeting was really good to help me stand back and be able to look at the situation through a more objective perspective- I’ve only been here for THREE WEEKS! (That’s pretty crazy to think.) And I’ve learned TONS! And done tons! And given how short a time I’ve been here for, my grasp of the language is pretty decent. Scary to think it probably took about a year and a half of Spanish classes to get to the level I’m at in less than a month here. Although I think that probably says a lot more about foreign language education back home than anything else. But it was nice to reflect on how much I’ve accomplished in so little time. And to focus on not being to hard on myself about the fact that I haven’t learned or done more in the brief time I’ve had. It’s easy to lose perspective of the bigger picture sometimes, and to realize that there’s also life after training. Quite a lot of it in fact. And if I’m not fluent in the language and totally immersed in the culture by December 14^th… it’s not like that learning process stops and I won’t get the chance anymore. So that’s where I want to work on being a little more realistic with myself. Ah, goals :) Anywho, this afternoon we’re heading back out to the village for another week. It has felt like the time in Apia this week has flown by in a flash. I’m excited to get the chance to spend more time with my family and immersing myself in the language and getting to study and focus on that and the culture again (it’s pretty hard to do that in Apia living in the hotel here- you get really easily distracted by flashy things like computers and other Americans and air conditioning). Then we come back to Apia for the night next Saturday from which we take off on Sunday for a three day volunteer visit where we get to go stay with a current volunteer elsewhere in the country and follow them around and see what their day-to-day lives are like and what their work is. I’m really hoping that I get sent to stay with a volunteer on the other (less populated) island, Savai’i, because it’s supposed to be absolutely stunning there and it would be really cool to get a chance to see it. I’m sure wherever I go will be interesting though and very fun to get a perspective from someone who’s been here for a while. Okey doke, time to go pack and change back into my lavalava!

The Homefront

I’ve seen my home! And my school! I got to spend two days this week and two days last week visiting and observing the place that is going to be the focus of my life and all of my work and energy during my Peace Corps service over the course of the next two years. It’s funny because training is so overwhelming and all-encompassing that it’s really easy to lose sight of the big picture and forget that this is just a mini little intro-part to the actual experience that I’m going to remember. It was amazing to me when I first showed up at the school last week. The second I saw the students there, and started getting to know them, it made me realize how much I’ve missed my students in New York even though I’ve been so overloaded with all the other excitement and changes in my life that I haven’t done the feelings much justice. It was a wonderful being there though because that morning when everyone was going around introducing themselves to me, I really truly felt like I was home, where I was meant to be. I knew at that moment how right the place is going to be for me, and it made me really excited for the next and eventually more substantial part of this extremely multi-faceted adventure. The school is TINY… there are only about fifteen students on any given day and they are broken down into three small classrooms. A very large percentage of the students at the school have Down syndrome, which of course I’m thrilled about since it coincides with my personal experience and expertise. It’s so funny how they tell you with the Peace Corps to expect and be willing to go anywhere and do anything, and be prepared for what you do to not necessarily correlate with your personal prior experiences or training. So I psych myself up for whatever it is I might be doing, even if it’s something totally new for me, and then I end up working in a school to aid on teaching strategies and curriculum development for the exact population with which I’ve been working and developing my own strategies and curriculum for the past few years. Funny. So the place that I will be living for the next couple of years is actually on the school grounds… one of the three classrooms there has a second story which is a really cute two bedroom apartment that will be my new home. It is really cute and quite spacious… I’m not sure exactly what I plan on doing with four beds all to myself, but I’m hardly complaining. Maybe I can make up a rotation schedule and move around taking turns sleeping in each one to keep things interesting :) It’s a great location and setup because by being on the second floor it’s at the level of the foliage of all the trees outside so when you look out the many very large windows (it’s really open feeling which is great) you see the trees and hear all the birds chattering away in them. The current volunteer who lives there said her mom told her it felt like she lives in a treehouse. I liked that a lot and I thought it was a very apt description. The location is really nice because it’s in a really quiet neighborhoody area a few kilometers out of town. There’s nothing commercial in the area and you get the feeling that the traffic around there is exclusive to people who live in the area or attend the various local schools, which is a nice feeling. It’s only like a ten or fifteen minute bus ride into the center of Apia though, or probably a 15 to 20 minute bike ride, so it’s definitely close enough to not feel isolated. There will also be five of the other group 75 volunteers within a kilometer or two of me in that part of town or suburbia or whatever you want to call it, so that will be nice as well. Anyways, there’s the update regarding all that jazz… we’re going to be heading back out to the village on Saturday afternoon so I will try to check in again before I leave to tell all about the ten hours of language we’re going to be having each day between now and then. Woohoo!