International Disabilities Day

Samoa is an archipelago made up of two large islands and various other scattered small ones. I will be based on the island of Upolu, the smaller of the two substantially sized islands, and thus far all of my training and experience has been confined to the exploration of this island alone. I just returned this evening from my first excursion to the largest island in Samoa, Savai’i. December 3^rd is International Disabilities Day and every year in Samoa the special needs community organizes an event to honor and recognize Samoans with exceptionalities. This year the event was held in Savai’i and I was allowed to attend. I met up yesterday afternoon with a current Peace Corps Volunteer who works with one of the few special education schools here to head over together with her students. Altogether we were a group of about 40-50 people including students from all of the special needs schools on Upolu, teachers and parents. We took the one and a half hour ferry ride to Savai’i, passing by some of the other small islands that make up the country. We arrived and went straight to the methodist center in one of the villages near the wharf that had offered to put us up for the night. They were incredibly gracious and welcomed us with open arms as we descended upon them en masse. They greeted us in traditional Samoan style which involves everyone sitting together in an open fale while orators express their gratitude to each other through traditional proverbial language (ava is often involved in this process as well, although in this instance it wasn’t). We were served a huge meal and then the school for the blind entertained us by performing- they are a choir and their singing is phenomenal. When it came to bedtime, a bunch of sleeping mats were laid out across the floor of the open fale and dozens of pillows were brought in. Everybody lay down together rows to sleep- it felt like a huge slumber party! It was my first night sleeping outside in an open fale and it was really nice- I have to say I completely understand why Samoans tend to prefer outdoor fale’s to fale palagi’s- in the heat here it’s MUCH cooler to sleep out in the open where you get to feel the breeze during the night. There were a couple of times during the night when the kids decided it was time to wake up and started large scale conversations, so it wasn’t exactly the most restful night of sleep I’ve ever enjoyed, but it was so much fun to feel like a kid at a sleepover party again and by 5:30 everyone was up and ready to start the day. I went down to the water (across the street) and watched the sun rise behind Upolu in the distance. It was great, a sight I don’t often see although I think my total number of sunrises in Samoa has already overtaken my previous life-time total. Then we all had breakfast and gathered for the morning activities. All of the schools and organizations lined up with banners and marched down the main road in town, singing, to the location of the event. Members of the special needs community, the minister of health, and representatives from the various schools and organizations all spoke on behalf of the event. Each school had prepared a performance that they presented to the group as well. It was a really beautiful event and I felt very honored to be able to be a part of it, and so welcomed by the community that will be my future work environment here. After the ceremony was finished we all had lunch (did I mention there is a LOT of eating here in Samoa? You’ll probably notice its effects in my progressive size increase through photos...) and went back to the wharf to return to Upolu. It was a quick trip and I didn’t get to see much of the island other than the villages right by the wharf in Savai’i, but it was so much fun and so exciting and I feel incredibly honored to have been a part of it. Happy International Disabilities Day!