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.