Pictures

Pictures!!

God Bless America...all of America

My first real eye opening experience was our 9/11 tribute at the Elementary School. We had been planning for this 9/11 tribute for the past week.  The students had been preparing songs and activities and discussing 9/11 with their teachers.  On 9/11, all the students came to school wearing red, white, and blue.  They sang God Bless America and America the Beautiful, and put messages of hope in balloons and threw them into the air.  It was a really wonderful experience.  There was so much patriotism all around; actually there are very a few other times where I felt so patriotic.  The funny thing is that here, they celebrate American holidays, sing American songs, and fight for America in the military, yet half of the people in mainland American don't even know that this island exists.  They are proud to be American's here and its important that we acknowledge their presence.  

So here's to acknowledging American Samoa as an American territory, and recognizing their importance.  God Bless America….all of America.  

Fishing, Blessings, and Frisbee

Sorry that it has been so long since my last post, I have been very busy, and I'm still getting used to this blogging thing.  The last two weeks have been awesome.  I have really been settling in here and getting to know my village.    I  have experienced a Samoan pep rally, Samoan fishing and a Samoan blessing.  The samoan pep rally was awesome.  Each grade came up with their own song about Faleasao and performed it for the school.  These kids were amazing.  I have never seen so many young kids with so much rhythm.  Only K-2 needed help with the songs, ever other grade came up with them on their own.  I wish my computer would let me upload the videos, but you'll have to take my word for it that these kids are amazing.  Their songs were not so much songs, but step-chants.  One kid was in the background playing the "drum" and by drum I mean table, with a perfect beat, while the other kids were stepping and chanting along.  These 9 and 10 year olds made my high school all-palagi step team look really sad.  After the songs we had a giant dance party.  It was great, albeit a little risky, but still great.  The kids, down to Kindergarden, had MTV style dance moves, and it didn't help that the D.J. played songs like, "Tik Tok" and, "Oh Hot Damn, This is my Jam." Regardless, it was still a blast!

The 6th grade dance was so good!

The dance party

My class did such a great job!

Level 6, they were so good!


The Samoan blessing was really cool to see.  It was for one boy's mother who lives in the village.  She had been in and out of cancer treatment in the States and she was finally healthy enough to come back to Faleasao.  To celebrate and thank God for her return the Samoans perform a ritual blessing.  We were honored to be invited to this blessing and assumed it would be just a prayer in the Fale.  I really need to learn not to assume things here.  I started off with a prayer and then there was a presentation of gifts.  The kids came in wooden mats and showed them off before presenting them to the recipient.  This is what the mats look like:

At the end we had a feast.  I don't know why i didn't expect there to be a feast, because there always is, but I ate dinner anyway.  Now I know, that if I get invited anywhere I need to fast all day in order to be  able to eat a quarter of the food.  After the feast, they handed out 20 dollars to all the women.  Yes, I was given 20 dollars, along with a feast for a blessing for someone else.  I don't really know why we get the money,  they explained it as a thank you for coming, I didn't question it.  But it was really cool to see how a traditional Samoan blessing goes.

The past weekend I went fishing for the first time, not only in American Samoa, but ever.  It was exactly like I thought it would be...incredibly boring.  You just stand there and hold on to a stick for hours, I don't get it.  But the one interesting part was catching the bait.  My friend, Garret and I went with one of the students in his high school class.  The kid showed us how to get bait Samoan style.  First you have to go into the woods and find a giant hermit crab.  Then you take a big rock and smash the hermit crab's shell.  Then you take the living hermit crab and pull it's "butt" off of it's body.  Since the butt is all you need, you just throw the rest of the hermit crab, still kicking, onto the ground.  I am afraid to say that I did join in and pulled a hermit crab apart with my bare hands.  I would like to take this time to apologize to my old pet hermit crabs: Hermy, Mr. Big Shell, Krull the Warrior King, and Princess Sophia.  I am very sorry about your brother.  I don't know what came over me.  I hate to say it, but it was kind of fun.  It's funny the things you find fun when you no longer have bars or restaurants to hang out in.  Anyway, Garrett and I fished for a while, had no luck and decided to go swimming.  About 15 minutes later we came back out of the water and the 14 year old Samoan student had caught two big, beautiful, blue fish.  I think he felt really bad that we too bad at fishing to catch anything because he gave us his fish.  All in all, a pretty interesting day.

That's pretty much it, in my free time I have been playing a lot of Ultimate Frisbee.  This is a new sport for the Samoans, as well as me.   We play almost every night with the local high school kids.  They just learned  the sport but man, they are amazing athletes.  Other than that more swimming, snorkeling and laying under the stars.  It'a amazing here.  I urge everyone to come visit! Tofa!

Language

The language here is very difficult to understand.  I’m not talking about the Samoan language, but rather the non-verbal communication used on the island.  Here are some examples to assist you if you ever decide to travel to Manu’a. 

What is said: “You will know what time to get there by the ringing of the bell.”

What it means:  The bell may or may not ring, but you should know what time to get there anyway. 

 

What is said: We’re open…as in a we’re open sign on a local convenient store. 

What it means: We may or may not be open, but we just didn’t feel like turning the sign around. 

How do you know if it’s open? Well since all the convenient stores are located in people’s houses you simply just yell their name into their house, if they are there the store is open….don’t bother knocking it will just confuse them. 

What is said: “Yes”

What it means:

A)   I don’t know those words so I’m going to nod my head in hopes that this is the answer you’re looking for.

B)   The answer is actually no, but I’m going to say yes because I know it will make you happy. 

What is said: “You’re allowed to do that.”

What it means:  Not only is that not allowed, but it’s also really offensive to my culture, but I’m going to say yes to make you happy. 

What is said: “It will begin at 1:00”

What it means: It will begin sometime between 1:30 and 4:00 if it even happens at all. 

What is said:  “I know the answer to that question.”

What it means: “I don’t know the answer to that question, but I’m going to make up an answer to make you happy.”

Example:  Q: How deep is the water?

                  A:   Person A – 30 feet.

                        Person B – 50 feet.

                        Person C – 70 feet.

What is said: “There is an important Kava ceremony going on, but there will be a big leaf barrier in the road so you will know where not to pass.”

What it means:  “There is an important Kava ceremony going on but there there will be a small leaf standing upright on the far side of the road to let you know not to pass.  It is indistinguishable whether the leaf has been purposely placed there or had fallen out of the tree that way, but you should clearly know that it means STOP.    

So there you go, now you may have a chance of fitting in if you ever travel to Manu’a.  Quick tip: If you see a leaf standing upright on the side of the road…turn around.