Random Stuff

Good news. I found a work-around for my hardware issue and solved the software problem so I'll be uploading photos next week. Few words, lots of pix.

This is just a series of random thoughts and observations. I expect things to settle down soon, which will give me more time to be a bit more organized with posts. Also, I’m hoping to get a landline and internet in my new casa sometime in the next month. Here we go:

I told you in yesterday’s post about the girl with a broken arm. I forget to mention the young boy whose eye is swollen completely shut. I noticed it the other day and it seems to be getting worse. He says he scratched it with his finger in his sleep. It looks like his eye has been replaced by a tennis ball. He does not complain about it.

We had a professional development session this week. We observed traditional meeting protocol, which means that the presenter talks while everyone else continues chatting, texting and talking on cell phones. At first I tried to concentrate on the speaker, who speaks very softly, which is the custom here. Hard for me to hear and harder still to mentally translate. With the distraction of the other conversations, which were louder than the presenter, it was difficult and frustrating. I gave up and wrote ideas for this entry instead.

Corporal punishment is traditional here and although it’s been outlawed in the schools, it still happens. Thankfully, not so much in my school, although one teacher is known as a hitter. She led the assembly yesterday and called one boy over and sent him running into a classroom. He came back with a 3 foot stick, about 2 inches thick. She used it to hit him and a couple of other boys on the behind, hard. Seems they were fighting after school yesterday.

Have I mentioned I don’t have a mirror? They’re expensive and I found one that was “only” $25 tala, but it wasn’t actually a mirror, just a reflective surface and smudges couldn’t be wiped off. So, no mirror. I haven’t seen a full-length mirror since I got to Samoa. I just shower, dry my hair, get dressed and go. I feel beautiful, so I’m going with the theory that that’s how I look.
I wear lipstick, by the way. One of the teacher’s likes the color, so she frequently uses it. We share a lot here.

I think my friend Donna is having an affair with the guy in the post office in her town. Why else would she send me packages so often? She’s been wonderful about sending stuff I ask for along with some cool stuff she thinks I might enjoy.
Like the small packages of salami, pepperoni and jerky. I’d never even thought about it, but what a treat! Plus, small and packable. She remembered that I love peanut butter and salami sandwiches with grape jelly. Have I mentioned I have a weight issue? I also love peanut butter and avocado sandwiches. I introduced my former family to those, since avocados are cheap and plentiful in season here. Sadly, the season is about over.

Donna sent me a package of Tic Tacs. I offered some to one of the teachers. Shook a couple out into her hand and she looked at them. Then she looked at me. Then she looked at them. I popped mine in my mouth, so she did too. She was very surprised at the taste. I had the same experience with other teachers and one of the kids. The boy was clearly leery about putting them in his mouth but thrilled when he tasted it. Candy! I wonder what the reaction would be if I gave them Altoids?

I’m having shoe issues again. Two pairs I brought from the States have given up the ghost. Now a third pair is getting ready to die. Very sad, but I have found a couple of places in Samoa where I can get cheap sandals (not thongs) that I can wear. Just frustrating, but says something about how much I walk.

I was doing dishes last night and gazing out the window over the sink. Have I mentioned what a luxury it is to have an indoor kitchen after five months of not having one? I’m used to seeing the couple of big pigs and flock of chickens rooting around under the trees, so didn’t think anything of it when I noticed a pig. Wait, that’s a HUGE pig. No, it’s too big for a pig. It was a bull. I saw my “brother” moving it to a new place to graze this morning, so I guess we own a bull. I also discovered a horse tethered in the front yard.

I really like the people I work with. We chat before school, during recess and after school while they wait for the bus. Mostly they speak to me in Samoan and I answer in English. Sometimes they switch to English when we get stuck. I use as much Samoan as I know. I’m getting better but still light years away from fluent. Mostly we talk about sex. Specifically, we talk about my sex life. It is actually non-existent, but if you heard the conversations, you’d think I’m the village slut. They find it wildly amusing so every morning when they ask who I slept with the night before I make up wild stories. We laugh a lot. When I told them I thought I might be pregnant with the principal’s baby, I thought they’d hurt themselves laughing.

I sing hymns, on demand. Yesterday I sang Amazing Grace to 200+ kids in an effort to teach them. They’re good singers and learn quickly. We’ll be singing it again in assembly on Monday. I was given 5 minutes notice, by the way, that I’d be teaching an English hymn.

Flexibility. That’s the key to life in the Peace Corps.