Monday, December 26, 2005

White Christmas


Okay, so there’s not exactly snow on the ground. But traditionally Samoans all wear white to church every Sunday. So at least there was a prevalence of white this holiday season, albeit in a different form. (Sitting here sweating in my tanktop and shorts I have to say I’m fantasizing a bit about “winter” at the moment.) Myself and a few others from the group returned to Falevao this weekend to spend Christmas with our families there. Almost all Samoans are observant Christians since missionaries brought western religion to the islands in the 1830’s. (Needless to say I was not able to dig up a menorah anywhere yesterday. I briefly contemplated fashioning one out of coconuts, but I’ll be traveling all over the country for the next week and it would hardly be portable.) When I arrived on Saturday morning we went to a service at the church where there was dancing and individual members of the village came up and gave little prayers or sermons (my Samoan is good enough to know that the general gist was thanking god and everyone else for life in general and Christmas and referring to bible verses and the like)- it was a nice occasion in that it was an opportunity for members of the community that don’t usually speak at public gatherings since they’re not matai’s to share their gratitude and feelings. Then we went to a big fiafia across the street where there were about four hours of dancing and singing and eating. I was quite excited because my favorite Samoan food was made and served- fa’ausi. It’s taro that’s been boiled in coconut cream and sugar. It rocks. There were also church services all day yesterday on Christmas which was the main activity for the holiday. (I guess when Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday people often take afternoon trips places, but the rule of Sunday here is that you’re not supposed to do anything except go to church and rest and eat, so things were pretty low key.) After morning lotu (prayer), we went back to our houses and had the traditional Sunday “to’ona’i” brunch meal where they cook tons of food in the umu and you stuff yourself at 11 in the morning to the point where you can’t eat again until after sundown. Then you’re so over-full you have to nap to attempt to sleep enough of it off that your brain can function again :) Mainly the weekend consisted of a great deal of tafafao (hanging out). It was really refreshing after spending the week prior to it running around doing errands and cleaning up the house and getting moved in and generally being high-strung. (who me? high-strung?) It was really nice to see my family again and spend time with them and also use my fa’aSamoa that I had hardly gotten a chance to in the past week and a half. It makes me realize that especially during the times when school is not in session so I won’t automatically get time to use it everyday I want to make a real effort to make sure to use the language and not let it sort of drift to the storage lockers in the back of my brain. That’s pretty much it. I came back home this morning and spent about two hours doing my laundry since I’ve been letting it pile up. Doing laundry here consists of filling a bucket with water and some detergent, adding a few items and pounding them around in the soap for a while and then adding more water and continuing to mash them around until soap stops coming out of the clothing when you beat them around. Then you hang them and pray it doesn’t rain until they’re dry. It’s quite the aerobic activity. Given how much I ate in the village this weekend I could probably have stood to do a couple dozen more loads :) Happy holidays!!!

Monday, December 19, 2005

Fun With Bikes


So we got our new Peace Corps bikes last week when we swore in. They're really great bikes and we've been having lots of fun feeling free exploring around town at our own pace on them. Yesterday, being Sunday, there were no buses at all running so it was especially nice to have the bikes and be able to explore around town. Andrew and I decided that we were going to go check our email at the Peace Corps office. We locked his bike up and then attached mine to his with the snazzy new bike locks we picked up at the local hardware store. My lock key had been giving me some trouble all day but we were managing to make it work eventually... we went to unlock the bikes when we were done and "someone" decided that the key was bent and that was the problem, so they attempted to unbend it... while it was in the lock. So, the key broke in half making the lock unopenable. Fortunately we were super-smart by locking our bikes TOGETHER with my lock so that we couldn't use his to go attempt to find a tool to cut through my lock with :) So somehow someone managed to dig up a hacksaw in the Peace Corps office and Andrew sawed through the lock. We decided we had had enough fun and were ready to head home, so we hopped on our bikes to try to beat the setting sun. I'm not sure I've yet mentioned the dog situation here in Samoa. Let me just start this by saying, in case you don't know me, that I absolutely love dogs and think they're the best companions ever. At home. Here, dogs are this whole other breed of terrifying monsters whose sole mission seems to be ganging up on poor unsuspecting pedestrians and ESPECIALLY bikers in an attempt to race them down and bite them mercilessly. I kid you not it's dangerous to bike around without a stick or some other defense implement at arm's reach. I had heard many horror stories from other volunteers including the beginnings of stories from people in our group as well, and was not overly enthusiastic aboutmy first encounter (or any of the subsequent ones, for that matter) with the dog attack. I've heard that the best thing you can do if they chase you is to get off your bike and use it as a defense by putting it between you and the dog. So yesterday la-de-da we're riding down the road heading home and all of a sudden a pack of three dogs runs at me on my bike barking and intending to do harm. Thinking I've got my head on straight I slam on my breaks to jump off my bike and put it between us. Andrew's strategy, however, was to speed up really quickly to "come to my rescue," and he was not expecting me to stop suddenly. So... I didn't get bitten by a dog. But I did get run into and knocked over by him :) A little bit battered and bruised from the incident we have realized we should probably develop both tandem and independent strategies for dealing with this situation, as it is quite likely to occur on a relatively frequent basis. I'm not sure if the bike gods were trying to send us a message yesterday or if this was just a realistic day in the life of a biker here in Samoa, but it sure made for an eventful afternoon. I'm hoping for a little less excitement on today's journey home :)

Home Sweet Home


I am finally officially living in one location! I moved into my house on Thursday morning and have been spending the past few days getting settled in and cleaning up and trying to make it feel like home. It's such a great feeling to have a place of my own after living out of my bags for the past two months! My family in Falevao and the Peace Corps made the experience as pleasant and comfortable as possible, but it's still really nice to have my own home and get started on the settling-in process and really developing a more permanent feel to where I am. I am living on the compound of the school where I will be working. The school consists of a one-story building with two classrooms and a two story building with a classroom on the ground floor and my house on the second (see the picture above). I actually enter my house through the classroom below (there's a back entrance as well but the stairs are relatively precarious and I don't want to test them too much by making it my regular route). The place itself is really cute- it has two separate bedrooms, a bathroom, and a general living area with a kitchen space and a hang-out space, but even though it's split up it kinda has the feel of all being one room because the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling. It's got a lot of charm and I totally dig it- it feels like I'm living in a treehouse :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Becoming Official


This morning the fourteen trainees of Peace Corps Group 75 officially became Peace Corps volunteers. We all gathered together with our family members from Falevao and the Peace Corps staff and current volunteers for a very touching ceremony where we committed ourselves and were sworn in as volunteers. It's pretty incredible to look back at the past two months and how far we have come, how much we have learned, how much we have grown as individuals and as a group on our journey to becoming prepared for this moment. And now here it is and this part of our Peace Corps journey is at a close. The funny little things like receiving our ID cards, our medical kits and our bikes really cement the upcoming transformation in our roles. We have our one last day together at the hotel in Apia and then in the morning we will each be taken to our new homes to begin our lives as volunteers. Yesterday we began drafting our 90 day work plans with our local counterparts and really started to think about the direction our first few months as volunteers would be taking. It's very exciting and really makes one realize how much the past two months have been about laying the groundwork from which to proceed into the real volunteer experience that we will be immersing ourselves in. I am so excited to be moving tomorrow to my new home and beginning my new life here! It will of course be bittersweet as it means saying goodbye and leaving behind a lot of what we have come to know and rely on for support with constantly being together as a group and having the trainers and Peace Corps staff there with us constantly for guidance and support. I feel like I've just graduated and am ready to go out in the world on my own and see what I can do... and I'm so ready for the challenge and the opportunity it presents!

*i just posted some photos from the drop-off a while back so you can check them out if you're interested. as well as photos from today, of course :)

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Farewell Falevao


This morning group 75 hugged their families goodbye and got in the Peace Corps van one last time to return to Apia from Falevao- our village stay is officially over. Yesterday afternoon the village matai (titled men, kinda like chiefs) held a farewell ava ceremony for us. During the ceremony the village trickled in bit by bit until pretty much everyone we knew was at my house surrounding the fale where we were sitting. Some of the young men in the village got up and danced for us and then we performed our fiafia for everyone. This mainly consisted of us attempting to replicate traditional Samoan siva (dance) in its various forms- hopefully not too much was lost in translation. We also put on a play in Samoan to show our gratitude to the village. Then everyone went home to spend the evenings having private farewells with their families. I hung out with my sisters goofing around teaching each other different sivas, and with my family talking about our time together and my trying to convince them not to be too sad, that I'll be back in only two weeks for Christmas. Even so it was a very emotional experience- it's a little overwhelming to realize how long we really lived there and it has been the one place we've been able to call home the whole time we've been in Samoa, and now that chapter is at a close and we have to say goodbye and leave it behind us. This morning we were supposed to meet at 7 and the entire village seemed to gather as we all said our farewells and it was time to go. It was really heartwarming to experience the outpouring of love and kindness that everyone has shown for us over the past two months and really feel it this morning on our way out. It is exciting to be moving on to the next step in this process but it is hard to know that in order to go down that path I have to say goodbye to my family here... at least temporarily.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Proficiency


Today we all came into Apia for the day to have our language proficiency exams to make sure we've retained enough of what we've been immersed in for the past two months to get by when we move to our individual sites next week and become independent entities for the first time since we've been here. It was a 20 minute interview with a woman we've never met- a little intimidating sounding when you think how long we've been using the language for but I think everyone will do great and pass without a problem. I finished mine a couple of hours ago and even though I wasn't worried I must say it's a nice weight to have off my shoulders- leaping that hurdle makes it feel that much closer to the reality of training ending in the coming week. WE'll spend the day here in town shopping for gifts for our host family and then go back in the evening for our last full day in the village tomorrow. We have a couple of training sessions in the morning and then a farewell ava ceremony with the village in the afternoon where we will be performing the traditional Samoan dances that we have been practicing for the past few weeks. Then we return to Apia on Satruday morning for our last few days here as a group before we disperse. I can't believe it's been two whole months already... or that it's only been two months for that matter :)

Mealofa ("Thing of Love" aka Gift)


Tonight the women’s committee of Falevao held a gift-giving ceremony for all the Peace Corps volunteers as we’re nearing the conclusion of our stay here. The entire village gathered on the steps in front of the church as the pastor led a brief service and prayer on our behalf. At its conclusion the women of the village began singing and one by one started stepping forward and laying gifts at our feet. They piled ie (lavalava) after ie in front of us, as well as many other items, including fine mats for all of the trainers that have been living with us and working full time to help us integrate into the culture and the language. There is no way that I could possibly do justice in words to the beauty of this ceremony that was held in our honor. The women’s committee had gone to Apia to purchase fabric to make matching outfits for our entire group- the girls were all given puletasi’s out of the material and the boys all had shirts from it with matching black ie faitagas (men’s dress ie’s, with pockets). It was so touching to see the entire village gather to be a part of the ceremony and their singing was so touching. (The Samoan people are AMAZING at harmonizing and their music is absolutely fantastic. I actually get excited about lotu, the prayer time every evening at sundown, because my family all gathers together to sing and the songs are so beautiful.) After the presentation of the mealofa there was, of course, food. Here’s a new one- spaghetti sandwiches. I had never even dreamed up the possibility of the existence of such an item before tonight, but apparently they’re quite popular here. They consist of chef-boyardee style spaghetti between slices of bread. And I gotta say... not half bad. I’ve been cultivating all sorts of interesting new food tastes since I’ve been here, but I gotta say I surprised even myself with taking to this one. All of the trainees performed a dance we have been learning and practicing in a traditional Samoan style for the village in order to show our appreciation called a sasa, where you sit together with folded legs and perform a series of motions that mostly involve slapping your legs and various other parts of your body in ways that are symbolic of parts of Samoan culture (somehow I have a feeling that was one of those explanations that confuses more than clarifies, sorry). The village found us hysterical as I’m sure we’re significantly less than adept at their forms of dance, but a good time was had by all. It was really a great evening, and again felt like such an honor to be a part of. It’s amazing to think that we’ve been living here for more than a month and that our time really is coming to a close. I think that many of us are getting ready to move on to the next step of our Peace Corps journey but it will still be bittersweet to say goodbye to the village that has welcomed us with open arms as strangers to this country upon our arrival.

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 3rd 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!