Thanksgiving Transportation Rant

It’s 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.  I’ve been up for over an hour.  Not because I like getting up in the dark on the only day of the week I have to sleep in.  But because I wanted to take the 6:00 a.m. ferry to Upolu, where I could catch the bus to Apia, arriving there about 9:00 a.m. 

I  am trying to get to Apia to attend the Thanksgiving Day dinner that’s being hosted by the U.S. Embassy.  All Peace Corps, the few other Americans working in Samoa and some high ranking Samoan government officials have been invited.

I’m dressed and ready to go.  Unfortunately, the taxi my family called to take me to the wharf didn’t show.  I decided to blow the $20 on a taxi because my other option is to take the bus.  That would mean standing by the road, in the dark, starting at 4:00 a.m. and hoping a bus comes.  There are no bus schedules and sometimes there’s a bus for the early boat and sometimes there’s not.  Once, a bus came and the driver waved as he drove past me.

In addition to the crapshoot of bus transportation, because it is considered inappropriate for me to be alone in the dark, I’d have to find someone to wait with me.  My 18 year old host brother volunteered but I figured a taxi would be easier all the way around.  I figured wrong.

Since I’ve now missed the early boat, I’ll try to catch the bus for the 8:00 ferry.  That means heading out to the road at 6:30.  Still dark, but with a bit of light from the east.  I’ll try to slip past my neighbor’s dogs who like to sleep in the empty lot in front of our compound.  They know me, but have attacked me in daylight and I hate having to pass them in the dark.

Did I mention it’s raining?  And I have a bunch of books I’m returning to the PC office in Apia so my luggage weighs a ton?  Am I feeling really pissed and sorry for myself?  Yes!

As to why the taxi didn’t arrive…it’s not the first time.  He could be sleeping or just forgot.  He might have awakened and just decided the fare wasn’t worth getting up for.  Doing things on a schedule here isn’t important.  So what if I missed the boat?  There’s another one.  And if I miss that, I can take the 12:00 pm boat.  Except that’s when the dinner starts. 

If I don’t get a bus by 7:00 a.m., I’ll come home, go back to bed and call it a day.  Happy belated Thanksgiving!

Togetherness

I’ve talked to a number of people about sleeping in Samoa.  Lights, noise, activity don’t seem to deter a determined sleeper.  My host brother’s view is that it’s comforting and makes it easier for him to sleep when there’s a lot of noise and activity.  The sound of people talking, in particular, seems to be a soporific.

 He says “I sleep better when people are next to me, talking, because I know I’m not alone.”  I, on the other hand, can’t sleep when I know I’m not alone.  I prefer complete darkness, silence and solitude.  He thinks that’s creepy.  This is just an example of a basic difference in cultural perspectives.

As I type this I’m listening to my host sister sing.  She likes to sing and does frequently, usually at the top of her lungs.  Luckily, she has a good voice.  Currently, she’s in the family’s fale which is about 15 yards from my open front door.  It’s an open fale, with a roof and floor but no walls.  Another sibling is watching tv in the same space and a third sibling is taking a nap.  The mom just walked in from the shower, wearing a towel.  She’ll get dressed, doing the “pull on the clothes under the towel” trick.   There are also currently 3 dogs, 2 cats and a rooster sharing the space.  They don’t even notice the others as a distraction.

Their fale is a small space where the family spends most of their time, frequently with ten or more there at once.  That means everyone is no more than a foot away from another person. 

Like most Americans, I like my personal space.  Samoans like togetherness.  Yesterday during the rehearsal for English Day I was sitting on a small bench.  Within minutes another teacher sat down next to me close enough that our thighs were pressed together.  She put her arm around my shoulders.  Seconds later, another teacher pressed in on my other side.  She held my hand and put her head on my shoulder.

I appreciate that they want to be close to me and show their friendship, but GET OFFA ME!  They laugh at me and do stuff like this on purpose now, to tease me.  I can even get over the personal space issue but it’s hot here.  I wouldn’t care if it was Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnnie Depp wanting to make a sandwich of me.  It is too hot.  GET OFFA ME!

Prize Giving and Summer Vacation

Prize Giving is a big day.  I’ve seen mini versions after the first two terms.  The teachers make a speech and read not only the rank of each student in the class but also their total score for the term.  Great for the top students, not so great if your kid ranks 42 out of 42 and made 28 out of 500 points.

I’ve been told I’m expected to make a speech, in Samoan, at next week’s event.  I’m semi prepared.  I have a speech and I’ve practiced, but it needs work.  Really, when you see a word like “fa’aaloalo” in a sentence doesn’t it cause you to pause and consider how to pronounce a word with three consecutive a’s?

The top five students for each class are given prizes (hence the name Prize Giving).  The prizes are for the parents of the students.  Mugs, plastic trays and pitchers are what was delivered to the school this week.  I will be asked to take photos of the top students.  There is not a doubt in my mind that at some point I will be expected to get up and do a traditional Samoan dance.  I’ve repeatedly asked teachers to teach me how to do a “real” Samoan dance and they just laugh.

 “Just do what you learned when you were a little girl.”

“But I never was a little Samoan girl.”  I can’t dance but will do my best to be entertaining, if not authentic.

After prize giving, the kids are on summer vacation but teachers have another week for planning for the following year.  I suspect there will be a lot of food and very short days.

When school is out, I’m taking a road trip around Upolu with a couple of the other volunteers.  It should be very exciting since I’ve gotten permission to rent a car so we can drive around.  When I say exciting I mean I haven’t driven a car since October 4, 2010 and then it was on the opposite side of the road as here.  I’m getting insurance with the rental car.

I’ll be back in Savaii for a couple of weeks in December where I’ll continue to try to drum up interest in the customer service training I offered to do for resort staff.  Only one resort has expressed real interest and I’m not sure if that was real interest or Samoan interest.  Time will tell.

For the holidays I’m heading to Auckland.  I’ll be spending Christmas on a dairy farm with a family I met when they stayed in my village on vacation.  Then one of my closest friends is joining me for a week in Auckland.  I think she’s a tiny bit worried that all I’ll want to do is eat spicy ethnic food, hang out in grocery stores and watch the washer and dryer in the serviced apartment we’re renting.   It’s a legitimate concern.

In early January we’ll head to Savaii to spend a week as tourists.  I’m looking forward to showing her my world.    Having her here will also help me transition back into rural life here.  Plus I’ll be happy to have another person who’s visited, so when I mention something about my life here, they’ll be able to picture it too.

At the end of January we have training in Apia for a few days, followed by the start of school.   I’ll be working in the evenings with my church next year to run a reading program.  Last time they did it they had 50 kids enrolled.

I think I know how things are going to work in 2012, since I’ve taught here for a full school year, but I bet I’m surprised.    That seems to be a constant in my life here.

English Day Declared a Success

It’s Friday afternoon and the first English Day ever held at Faga Primary School is done.  In the numerous speeches given at the end of the program, it was declared a success.  In the speeches in the teachers’ meeting after the program, which we had while eating the lunch I provided, it was declared a success.  The kids were happy and the parents seemed delighted.  Best of all, the principal was so pleased that he plans to have English Day every year from now on.

Our goal in Peace Corps is not to come in, do a job and leave.  The focus is on the transfer of skills and sustainability is a major criterion of success.  When I suggested English Day in the first place, everyone said fine…you go, girl.  Getting the teachers to agree that it was “our” English Day and not “my” English day was a challenge.  But the teachers stepped up. 

I think their perspective is that they had to rescue the palagi who couldn’t pull it off alone.  I can live with that.   I don’t care what the motivation, they got involved and are now looking forward to doing it again next year.  And the year after that, when I’m in Florida or Timbuktu or wherever.  The key is that for the first time, the school pulled together, making English the focus and that it is now seen as something worth repeating. 

As with any event involving lots of people, especially lots of people under the age of 13, there were some challenges.  The principal wanted to start on time but the audience of parents was sparse.  No worries, by the end about ¾ of the families were represented.  And we did start on time.

There were two criticisms, voiced by the pastor who spoke at the end of the session.  One was that it was English Day, so only English should have been spoken and I was the only teacher who spoke in English.  I thought it ironic that he pointed this out in a speech he was giving in…Samoan.  Second was that although it was English Day, we’d included Samoan dancing, which he thought inappropriate.

The principal wanted me to run the program, with the other teachers in the audience.  I didn’t want to be the only teacher on stage because then it looked like I’d done all the work and that it was “my” day.  More importantly, I also wanted to teachers to take ownership of their classes performances.  Having me as emcee would solve the issue about teachers being criticized for not speaking English but then what happens when I’m gone? 

They all speak English.  Some better than others, but they all graduated from colleges that were ostensibly taught only in English.  As I said before, they don’t want to make a mistake, especially in front of all the kids and parents.  They would have been as uncomfortable as I am when I have to get up and make a speech in Samoan.  Which I’ll be doing at next week’s prize giving, by the way.  I’m hoping that I can convince the principal to have each teacher direct the kids in English at next year’s program.

The Samoan dancing was added to the program this morning.  At the end of each performance, the music was cranked up and the kids and teacher boogied down.  A bowl was placed at the front of the stage so that parents could contribute money during the performance and the dancing.  Some of the mothers joined the dancers.  It is entertaining and a Samoan tradition.  It is also a way to raise funds.  In this case, the money was divided among the teachers.  $400 was divided among ten of us.  My share covered about half of what it cost me to buy lunch for all the teachers.

During the Year 6 performance, I looked around for the Year 7 teacher.  He seemed to be MIA.  Then I noticed the Year 4 teacher was gone.  They had gone to the store to buy food for the pastor and his wife who showed up unexpectedly.  When the teachers returned they placed plates holding a can of soda, two apples and two oranges and a bag of chips in front of both the pastor and his wife.  They were the only ones to receive refreshments.  They didn’t touch them but it is a sign of respect and pastors and their wives are among the most highly respected people in Samoa.

At the end of the program, when the last speech was being given, a squall blew through with heavy rains and wind.  Since we were in the new hall, it was no problem except for the woman making a speech.  The noise of the rain on the tin roof was so loud she was literally screaming to be heard over the weather.  And then it was awkward because normally that would have been the end and everyone would leave but no one wanted to leave in the pouring rain.  Instead there were a couple of more impromptu speeches.  When the weather passed the principal declared English Day finished.

It was a good experience.  I learned more about how to work effectively with the teachers.  They got to show off the kids and have some fun.  And the parents got to see their kids speak English to a crowd of people.  The kids were proud of their performances and had a good time doing it.   Everyone was a winner today.

I Can't Buy A Clue

I know a guy here, an Australian geologist, who’s lived in Savaii for over 28 years.   He takes tourists on tours and is more interested in keeping busy and showing people Samoa than making money.  I highly recommend him.  He has said on several occasions that even if he lived here a hundred years (and that’s unlikely since he’s already in his 80’s) he would never understand fa’a Samoa.

I’m right there with him.  Next week is the last week of school for the kids.  Teachers have an additional week of planning for next year.  I suspect they will be very short days.  After a full year of school I thought I was getting the hang of things. 

For example, I know that when it’s raining in the morning when I wake up I might as well roll over because everyone will be late.  I know that the teachers are always hungry and will make a sexual joke out of anything.  I know that the afternoon before any event we’ll be told to come to the school at 3:00 p.m. to decorate the hall and that the other teachers will arrive at 4:30. 

But preparing for English Day this week has thrown me.  I won’t bore you with details but I made some mistaken assumptions (some based purely on my Western point of view).   Although this week has been challenging, I think Friday’s show will go well.  The teachers have stepped up and are working with their classes this week.  I think everyone is on the same page that this isn’t Nancy/Palagi Day, it’s English Day and a chance to show what all the teachers and kids have done.   Based on our final rehearsal yesterday, the teachers are as excited as I am in making sure the kids shine and the show goes well.

Some highlights (and lowlights) of yesterdays rehearsal, from my perspective:

The littlest kids in any school event are always my favorites.  It’s why Art Linkletter’s Kids Say the Darndest Things was such a hit.  Year 1 is just darned adorable.

I almost wet myself when Year 2 sang Thumpkin.  You remember the song where you hold up the fingers on both hands as you sing about them?  Pointer, Ring man, and my favorite – Tall man.  The kids proudly raised the middle fingers on both hands, with the backs of the hands to the audience.  In essence, flipping off the school.  At home when we do the song, we turn our hands the other way.  The little kids didn’t know what it meant.  The older kids and teachers do.  I had a street kid in Apia flip me off because I wouldn’t give him money.  I thought it was wildly funny and may start singing Thumbkin the next time someone mocks my Samoan accent.

Year 3 sang The Wheels on the Bus.  They started with the verse “The people on the bus….” but at first I couldn’t understand and for a second I thought they were saying “The beaver on the bus” and all I could picture was a local bus, packed full of beavers.

My host siblings were stellar.  One Year 7 boy is not the best academically.  He shows up every day, is always cheerful and tries.  He’s a charmer.  Today, as they performed a song, he was in the front, dancing.  He loves to dance and turned it on.  At the end he pulled out some break dancing moves.  He brought down the house.

His sister, in Year 4, also is not an academic star, but like her brother, a sweet and cheerful girl.  When the other kids introduced themselves, they tended to shuffle to the front and mumble.  Not this star.  She stepped forward, head high and yelled out her introduction.  Even the teachers were impressed.  Malo galue – good job!

All the classes did a good job.  Years 7 and  8 performed plays I taught them and the teachers help refine this week.  Almost ready for off-off-Broadway.

On the downside.  A part of life here that I continue to struggle with is that it is considered very funny when someone makes a mistake.  It is the norm for people to laugh and make fun of others.   They do it to each other constantly.  That’s why people think it’s perfectly fine to make fun of my Samoan.  They view it as a way to encourage me to learn.  If I don’t make a mistake, they won’t make fun of me.

My American view is that when you ridicule someone who’s trying but making a mistake, they’re not going to want to try again.  I believe it is why so many people here won’t speak in English.  They know English – perhaps in the same, broken way I know Samoan, but are afraid to speak because they can’t do it perfectly.

I’ve said repeatedly how much I love and enjoy these kids.  So it really was hard yesterday to see a child stand in front of the whole school to make a short speech in English, only to be ridiculed.  Then, with tears in their eyes as they tried again, they made more mistakes because they were nervous and upset.  When kids/classes did well and finished their part of the program, I was frequently the only one applauding.  In my classes, when someone does their best, even if it’s not perfect, we applaud.  But that’s not the norm here. 

I wrote some time ago about the fia fia where both palagi university students and local Samoan guys performed.  I’m used to polite applause when someone gets up there to give it a shot.  That doesn’t happen here.  When the palagis didn’t do a great job, they got no applause.  And after the program I was told “They were terrible.  They shouldn’t have tried.”

It is a different approach to teaching than I am used to.  I have to sign off now.  There’s still a lot of details to wrap up before the show starts in 2 hours.