Students Singing Before School

http://youtu.be/hdjRh9UEzWU

Birthdays and Corporal Punishment

Patamea; Friday, March 01, 2013
Currently Reading: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
We are half way through the first term of eight terms we will be teaching here in Samoa. We’ve also been in country for nearly five months. That means I’m about 1/5 of the way through my service and right on track with culture shock. Little things are irritating me and though I try to remember that I’m in a different culture with different ways of doing things, it’s sometime hard to put on a happy face and go with the flow.
Times like the first 30 minutes of every day at school. To be fair, the first 30 minutes also include some of my favorite parts of each day. The students and teachers gather in the assembly hall and have devotion—religion is part of Samoan society and included within their constitution so even public school have religious overtones. During the devotion the students always sing some hymns. Let me tell you something. Samoans know how to sing from a very young age. They even sing in harmony with the girls singing the soprano (I think that’s what it would be called) and the boys singing the tenor (again, maybe that’s right? I’m an applied linguist, not a musician or a singer. Give me a break). It’s quite awesome to witness as the hall fills with the melodies of children singing at the top of their lungs, unashamed to just belt out that song. It’s very different from the Lutheran upbringing I had in Minnesota where excitement for singing in church seemed on par with the excitement for pulling out one’s own hair.
After the singing is over, however, the students who have done something, anything, wrong are lined up behind the teachers where they wait to be beaten with a hand, a large wooden walking stick, or a 6-foot-long stick as thick as my index finger used to whip them. Corporal punishment is actually illegal in Samoa but that does little to change the behavior of teachers in rural schools who are rarely inspected at all. An inspection happened about 2 weeks ago. Five cars pulled up. About 20 people piled out of them and walked around the campus. Fifteen minutes later, after some tea, they were gone. They didn’t inspect any classrooms or even talk to any students. And the inspection was planned with the principal and all the teachers knowing about it ahead of time (of course I wasn’t aware of it). I doubt surprise inspections ever take place. If I do report it, it will be obvious that I was the one that reported it and I can basically forget about accomplishing anything during my time here since I will have broken my principal and co-teachers’ trust during my first few weeks here. It’s really not a fun situation to be in. They try to tell me how it’s “fa’asamoa” (Samoan culture, or the Spirit of Samoa) to beat kids. I wouldn’t be so forthcoming in coopting such a behavior as part of my cultural identity but then again, I’m not Samoan.
I celebrated my 31st birthday on Wednesday which took my mind off of that for a bit though. I had a blast. I originally had just planned on having dinner and playing volleyball with my good friend and co-PCV, Aly who lives in a nearby village. My principal lives in another village past Aly’s so she gave me a ride. We picked Aly up and she dropped the two of us off at a pizzeria in another neighboring village. Then two more PCVS, Madi and Kiri, along with a couple from Madi’s village, surprised us by showing up. It was awesome to see them and they brought amazing gifts of Tang, beer, Snickers, M&Ms, avocados the size of a grapefruit, and a ride to a nearby resort to go swimming. It was a gorgeous beach with awesome company. Later, Aly and I returned to her village to play volleyball. At about 8:30 I got a ride from a neighbor to my village. I stopped by the local shop, bought two beers, and headed over to my host family’s fale to celebrate with them. I gave a beer to my host dad and we drank and talked (ok the conversation was broken but it was entirely in Samoan!). They bought another round for us which was enough to send me off to bed. Birthdays abroad could be lonely times. The two times I’ve been abroad for my birthday though have been tons of fun! (I may or may not have had a drag themed party for my 29th birthday in South Korea). I’m missing home and friends and family but I’m also feeling reenergized for my work here.

Hopes and Fears

Apia; Sunday, February 24, 2013
Currently Reading: Why We Run: A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich
I’ve spent the last three weekends in Apia. The first two were enjoyable. This weekend had some great positives that renewed my resolve as a PCV. It also had a few negatives that really got me to question my volunteer experience. I think the range of these experiences has given me fuel for my service.
The highlight of this week was a meeting that many of the PCVs had with the Peace Corps’ Regional Director for Inter-America and Pacific Regions on Saturday. We didn’t receive much notice that he was coming nor did we have a very clear idea of what the meeting was exactly going to entail, but it turned out to be a very productive, informative, and encouraging discussion. He opened with a brief introduction—he’s had a pretty amazing life having lived all over the world. Surprisingly, he isn’t an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). Most of the staff at Peace Corps will have their dates and country of service printed on their business cards, typed at the end of emails, or told at introductions.  His introduction lacked that and he explained how he had worked for USAID in Costa Rica, later started his own consulting business which has offices around the world, and how he became a Regional Director for the Peace Corps.
Then it was our turn. We went around the room explaining who we were, where we were from, and why we joined the Peace Corps. It was refreshing to hear my fellow PCVs tell their stories. We’d told similar stories before but it seems like a bit of new information is shared with every retelling. I’m in some great company. Finally, we got down to some real business. He asked us each to share both positive and negative feelings and experience with Peace Corps in general and with our experience in Samoa. We really got a sense that he not only cared for us and our safety but also for the sustainability and productivity of the program and the well-being of the countries and people who hosted the PCVs. We had a little laugh as he questioned the placement of another PCV and me. We both speak Spanish (well, I used to anyway) and have experience living and studying/working in Latin America yet we were placed in Samoa. We both love it in Samoa, don’t get me wrong. But it does cause a bit of a raise of an eyebrow that two Spanish-speaking volunteers would be placed outside of Latin America. Being transparent about his curiosity around volunteer placement showed that he cared on an individual level as well as a program level.
After the meeting, we had lunch and did some shopping at the few stores that are open in Apia (or anywhere in Samoa) on a Saturday evening. After about 2pm on Saturday until about 7am Monday morning, Apia is a ghost town. It’s actually a bit amusing to watch the bustling—I’m not sure that’s an appropriate term for a town of about 30,000 people—city go from crowded stores, streets, and sidewalks, to a person or two every other block or so and most of the time they are palagi (“pah-LANG-y”, foreigners). I decided to stay another night. Hotels in town have hot water and often air conditioning. I was happy to absorb the luxuries for another night. However, I was missing village life and after 3 weekends in a row in the capital I was ready to leave early the next day.
My readiness was only exacerbated later on Saturday night when we went out with some former PCVs. Generally speaking, they are awesome people and know how to have a good time. But there is one little thing that gets under my skin about some of them and some of the PCVS from the previous group (all but one of whom are back in the US having finished their service). One of my biggest concerns about joining the Peace Corps was that I would end up volunteering with a bunch of people fresh out of college hoping to extend their college years a bit longer and not take the work or the responsibility of living in a host culture seriously. Some of what I’ve heard from these PCVs and from others including the Regional Director we had just met with confirmed these concerns I had. It appears that many of the people in the groups before us basically used their two years as extended spring breaks. Many of their stories related to the parties they had with each other and few of their stories were about the work they were doing or their lives in Samoa. It was evident from day one in country that our group was different from the last just in how we composed ourselves and what we talked about. Again, don’t get me wrong, many of the people in the previous group were great and I’m sure that they all had impacts at their schools. But when I hear someone say that partying is “what the Peace Corps is all about” it doesn’t make me proud to say I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer. Luckily, the Peace Corps did what the Regional Director referred to as “hitting the reset button” and there was no Peace Corps group last year. That effectively starts the program over from scratch as our group of 13 are the only PCVs in country plus one from the last group who is staying for a third year and teaching at the University. Like I said, we are a very different group with different priorities and I’m happy to be part of Group 84.