I'm Back

Sorry for the radio silence.  My only excuses are the slow internet connection, activities with school/village and inertia.  But, I’m back at it and here are some random observations.

My host brother (Year 8) stayed home from school yesterday with a cold.  He stayed in bed all day.  I know because I look out my front door straight into my family’s open fale.  He’s been on a mattress for two days now, lounging, watching tv, talking to the other kids.  Yesterday as I walked by, I asked him how he was doing.  Can you imagine anything worse than having your teacher stroll by when you’re home sick in bed?

Noticed at the market today a lot more people address me by name.  Some kids, some parents and some people I have no idea how they know me.  Nice to feel part of the community.  I just wish I could address all of them by name.  Or some of them.

Another social gaffe.  A village not far from me was having a big dance competition last night.  Part of a church-sponsored week-long event.  It was being held at the compound where another volunteer lives and she invited me to join her and several other volunteers to watch.  I was very excited about it.  When I mentioned it at school, everyone asked how I’d get home, since busses stop running at 5:30 p.m.  I said I hoped to snag a ride with someone or, worst case, take a taxi.  One of my school friends said “If you can’t get a ride, call and we’ll take you home.”  A generous offer since it would be late and she doesn’t live in either my village or the dance village.

I was tired yesterday and didn’t want to deal with the transportation hassle.  Would have had to arrive a few hours early so I could take the bus, then deal with finding a ride.  So I texted my regrets to the other volunteer.

I got a call this morning from the woman who’d said to call if I got stuck.  Seems she cancelled her plans last night and stayed home to wait for my call.  Another example of how communications sometime go awry. 

I was grading tests yesterday and had to laugh.  The kids had to combine nouns and adjectives.  I gave them a list of both and they had to choose which matched along with the correct form of “to be”.  One sentence was “My balls are hot.”  In this climate, that’s probably true.  The correct answer, by the way, was “The sun is hot.”  That’s also true in this climate.

I was low on cash today, so stopped by the only ATM on the island for my PC bank account.  Mid-transaction, it stopped and spit my card out, announcing it was “out of service.”  No worries, I’d borrow some money from my Florida account that I could access at the only other ATM on the island.  I walked down the road and tried that account.  That transaction was rejected by my bank in the US.  I had just received an email from my financial advisor telling me I needed to get a new card/checks.  Long, boring story.  Didn’t expect my old account to be shut down so quickly.  Very annoying that I took a two hour bus ride to get money and got zip.

BTW- future volunteers.  If you have any financial assets/obligations that will need to be tended to while you’re gone, be sure to consider it carefully.  Small things can be enormously frustrating.  Your credit card/ATM card expires while you’re out of the country?  The bank won’t mail you a new one.  You have to send a signed letter authorizing the card to be sent to someone else in the US and then they have to mail it to you.  That can take months.

I had palusami (taro leaves, coconut cream baked in a traditional hot stone oven) and iced tea for breakfast.  Great cultural mix.

The other morning I walked out of my house at 7 a.m.  That was after sweeping the floor and hanging a load of wash that I’d done in a bucket in the shower.  First thing I saw were three tiny heads and six pairs of eyes staring at me from under the step to my family’s fale.  Three adorable puppies.  Next I noticed the always amazing sunrise over the lagoon, with the palm trees waving in a steady breeze.  Then I saw the kids waiting by the road to carry my bags. 

When we got onto the school grounds I noticed the six piglets our family owns.  As they do every morning, they were looking for food.  And, as usual, one of the tiny Year 1 boys started chasing them.  Seems he’s been given the responsibility to chase them off the grounds and he seems to love the job.  As he ran full tilt, the piglets scattered, so other kids joined in the chase.  All the pigs but the runt of the litter made it safely through the fence.  

It was now mano a mano.  Or mano a hoof, in this case.  The poor little runt had been chased by so many kids and looked like he’d drop from exhaustion.  The kid also looked exhausted but still was in the game.  The kid was gaining.  I was silently cheering for the piglet, knowing what it would be in for if it was caught.  Just as the kid was in grabbing range, that clever little pig did a quick feint and outmaneuvered the kid.  It gave him just enough of an edge to make it through the fence.  The boy didn’t look too disappointed.  He knows there will be another race next week.