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.

Second Week of School, Rain water, Exercise

Patamea, Friday, February 1st- Friday, February 8th, 2013


Currently reading: Why We Run: A Natural History by Bernd Heinrich

Well, I’ve been without water for a full week now. I don’t fully understand why but it has to do with the extreme amount of rain we’ve had the last week or two. It affects the water supply. This is the third time it’s happened since I moved in in December but this is by far the longest I’ve gone without water. Normally it comes back on the same day just a few hours later. I’m pretty sure my neighbors behind me have water back, though, because I think I heard their shower going earlier. When I turn my faucets on all I hear is the hiss of water trying to make its way through the pipes and into my sink but there isn’t enough pressure to push it through. Luckily, living on the school grounds means I have access to the gigantic container they use to collect rain water. It’s not ideal as the rain water is collected after it has pour down the roof of the school building collecting anything that might be on the roof (hint: there are a LOT of birds that hang out around the school). I filter and treat the water before I use it for drinking or cooking which is a bit of a chore involving lugging buckets of water several yards from the container to my house then pouring it into my filter after using a ‘ie lavalava to filter some of the larger chunks and then adding a few drops of bleach to sterilize it. The water then takes an hour or two to filter through so I have to repeat this at least once a day. I take bucket showers, which is actually kind of nice except in the mornings (people generally take several showers a day here) when the water hasn’t had a chance to warm in the sun and the temperature is lower than the normal 80+. But even still, a cold shower isn’t that bad. I mean, I’m living on a tropical island, right? The only real issue is that I don’t really have time to wait for the water to filter in order to wash dishes. So I don’t use treated water to wash dishes right now. It’s better than nothing. I do use antibacterial soap at least.

The second week of school went smoothly. I wasn’t completely clear on where to start with the students because I hadn’t been shown a curriculum, told what topics the teachers had finished with or where they were planning on beginning, nor shown any textbooks that the teachers use. The students don’t really have textbooks here. Normally the teacher will just write things up ahead of time or during class and the students copy it down. This is what many classes consist of and where the students get there “textbooks” from. With this being the case, I revised a literacy assessment from one of my textbooks to use with groups rather than individuals. It wasn’t ideal but it allowed me to gather some information about where the students were as a class and even shed some light on where individuals were at. I had students write their names, current year in school, the English alphabet, the numbers 1 through 20 (digits), and copy a sentence (The boys and girls are going to school). I had them recite the alphabet as a class. Lastly, I had them read basic body parts (head, eyes, nose, mouth, leg, hand) and match the word to a picture for several basic objects (boy, girl, table, chair, car, pencil, book, door, clock). Ideally this would have been done individually with every student but I knew my co-teachers were going to probably pick the groups themselves whether or not I did an assessment. So, I figured I would use a class period to gather as much information as I could to inform my future classes.

It helped a lot but I was still not very clear exactly where the students were with their English and where they needed to go. The students are divided into 3 groups in each year: one low-level, one mid-level, and one high-level. I chose to label the groups “A”, “B”, and “C” rather than the names “weak”, “average”, and “strong” that the teachers wanted to give them (they also regularly refer to students as vaivai, weak or valea, foolish/dumb to their faces). I co-teach 2-3 times per week with each year then meet with each group in each year separately once a week (9 classes). I used these classes to go over basic introductions (“What’s your name?” “My name is ________.”) which was actually needed and informative. I found the groups to be more or less well divided by current English-level although I think it will be a challenge when I try to talk to the teachers about switching students to different levels if need be. My first impression is that once they label a student “weak” or “strong” that label sticks and that is how the student is seen throughout their education. But we’ll see. I didn’t get to meet with all the groups because we had teachers’ meetings during class time a couple of days and then today and entire class was absent and I’m not sure why. All in all I’m happy with how my first week of actual teaching went. I have lots of ideas for where to go and have even found some curriculum books that list the learning objectives term by term, skill by skill (listening, speaking, reading, writing) for each year.

In my free time I’ve organized a fitness competition for the PCVs. Everyone who is participating puts WSD$10 into a pot. They identify their fitness goals for the term making them personally challenging yet attainable. Then we will be keeping track of our progress throughout the term and whoever keeps to their plan the best wins the pot. It’s simple, easy to participate in, and hopefully encourages some healthy lifestyle choices while we’re volunteering. It should be fun! I’ve been using a resistance band and some body-weight exercises I wrote down before coming here 5-6 days a week and running 3-4 days a week. I’m already noticing some changes with energy and weight/muscle so I think I’ll keep to it.

On TV, First Week of School

Patamea; Sunday, January 27th-Thursday, January 31st


Currently reading: Contact by Carl Sagan

So, I was on Samoan TV on Sunday. Part of being a PCV in Samoa means attending church as religion is a huge part of the culture here. It would be very difficult to accomplish much if the members of the community saw a PCV refusing to be involved in religious activities. So I’ve been attending my host family’s church. I’ve also joined the choir and have been going to practices regularly. I have a horrible singing voice but it’s drowned out by the amazing voices of the people around me. Singing is a much larger part of everyday life in Samoa than in the U.S so most (all?) Samoans have amazing singing voices. Now church services in Samoa, in addition to normally happening twice on Sunday (in the morning and afternoon and people usually attend both services), different churches from around Samoa are filmed and played on TV between the other services. So you can go to church all day! Yay! On this particular Sunday, our church was being filmed. So the choir was busy practicing several songs for the filming. The night before we were filmed singing a few of the songs in front of the church. Then the whole service was filmed on Sunday and played later that afternoon. There were even a few close ups of me. It was a pretty unique experience especially for a PCV seeing as though the last time this church had been filmed was in 2000.

My first week of classes as a Peace Corps Volunteer is coming to an end. This has been months, years really, in the coming. Starting school is the culmination of year-long application process, 26+ graduate-level credits, and more than two months of in-country training. However, it hasn’t been quite what I expected.

In my experience as a student and teacher in various contexts, the first week of school is normally rather hectic. Students are searching for their classrooms, teachers are busy printing, handing out syllabi, and previewing the next year of the students’ lives. The hustle inside of American school buildings or in the halls of a Korean hagwon are absent in my village here in Samoa. Instead, the teachers are often found around the meeting room table sipping tea, eating, and talking. The students perform various tasks in and around the school.

For instance, the first day of class, the students picked up “rubbish” around the school yard when they first arrived. Now, you might think that this means that they were picking up wrappers, used cans and bottles, crumpled paper, or other rubbishy items. You would be wrong, though. Rubbish in Samoa is actually dried leaves, mostly from the ubiquitous breadfruit trees. The leaves are about the size of dinner plate (although shaped more leaf-like and less plate-like). They dry out and fall from the trees at the rate of about 5-10 per day and can add up quickly. While the children normally spend the first few minutes of their mornings at home removing the fallen leaves from their yards while leaving what you and I might consider rubbish they are also responsible for this task at school. The rest of the day was spent in the classrooms sweeping, picking up “actual” rubbish, and playing.

The days since that have mostly involved giving the students a simple task of copying introductions off the board while the teachers divided our supplies, set our schedules, and had staff meetings to go over changes for the year (e.g. the new four-term system which will replace the three-term system of years past), rules, and responsibilities. There was also a meeting with most of the parents in the village with the principal, vice principal, and school committee. This meeting took place on a rainy morning during downpour with winds of 25-35 mph. So, when the time came for me to introduce myself to the parents I wasn’t able to hear anything and just sat there as about 50 pairs of eyes hinted that I had missed a cue and was supposed to be doing something. Additionally, I hadn’t known beforehand that I was to introduce myself at this meeting so it was like a surprise within a surprise—a boxed present wrapped and put inside of another wrapped box of surprises!

As I write this, it is Thursday, January 31st. Tomorrow, we are to come in everyday clothes which means an ‘ie lavalava (basically a sarong) around shorts and a shirt rather than the typical school clothes of a puletasi (Samoan-style dress) for women or a button-up shirt and ‘ie faitoga (formal men’s skirt) for men. We’ll be wearing ordinary clothes because the day will be spent pulling weeds, trimming hedges, and general beautification of the schoolyard. Hopefully next week we’ll start classes.

I’m going to be co-teaching with years 4-6 (3-5 in America) on Mondays and Tuesdays. The rest of the week will be spent with smaller groups from within each of these classes teaching literacy. My challenge will be to work towards a sustainable set-up so that the teachers can continue working on English literacy even after I’m gone.

After school tomorrow I’ll be headed to a neighboring village to meet up with three other Volunteers for a night before we head to another nearby village on Saturday to meet up with some more Volunteers to help one of them celebrate their birthday at a resort on the beach. It sounds luxurious, and normally, I assure you, it would be. Unfortunately, this weekend (the majority of the last week) the islands are surrounded by storms clouds and rain. We’re still getting together, though. Many of us are feeling down after the intense high of the honeymoon phase people tend to experience during their first few months in a new culture. I’m sure the rain isn’t helping. It is the rainy season but the Country Director who’s been in-country for 5 years claims this to be the rainiest rainy season he’s experienced here yet. It will be nice to get together.

Nicely decorated pig for the toonai after the filmed service

That's my host dad on the right

Students leaving the school on the first day

This is normally a bone-dry riverbed

The Rainy Season

Patamea, January 17, 2013
BANG!


The enormous clap of thunder startled me awake. I had just fallen back to sleep after being awoken by strong winds and torrential rain when the lightning struck. It must have hit a tree right outside my house or some other nearby structure because the volume of the thunder was unlike anything I’d ever heard before. The flash of light and the roar occurred at the exact same time, evidencing the proximity of the bolt. It echoed through the valley for a few seconds but it echoed in my head for much longer as my heart raced. I wasn’t able to go back to sleep for about half an hour while I tried to calm myself down after the close call.

This was last night. I’m now sitting in the main room of my house at the folding table I use as a desk listening to the next wave of rain march into the valley. The rain hasn’t been constant the last two weeks. Rather, it comes in waves. It’ll rain for anywhere from a couple minutes to a few hours then stop for a similar range of time only to start right back up again. I’m told it’s the rainy season and they certainly don’t call it that for nothing. It has rained so much in the last couple of weeks that my front yard has turned into a swamp and the dry riverbed running parallel to the village is now a rushing white-water river.

Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for nearly a decade one might expect me to be used to relentless rain showers for days on end. However, as anyone who has ever called the Oregon or Washington home for any length of time can tell you, the rain there feels more like a prankster hovering over you wetting you with spray bottle. It’s a weak but constant rain there. Not like in Samoa. Here, the rain falls like it does in the Midwest, in sheets, with strong winds and the occasional flash of lightning and rumble (or BOOM!) of thunder. It’s almost deafening sometimes. More than once, I’ve had to ask someone to repeat themselves (and not just because I didn’t understand what they said).

Another interesting thing about the rain in Samoa is the effect it has on all aspects of life. This morning I went to go brush my teeth only to find the water was off. We were warned that this could happen but this was the first time I’ve experienced it. I’m not sure of the mechanics behind why the water shuts off but it will surely come back on relatively soon. Also, my phone has been telling me that I’m apparently not allowed to make personal calls. “Emergency call only!” it exclaims across the top of the main screen. It has allowed me to get plenty of reading done. I’m currently reading Carl Sagan’s Contact. I haven’t seen the movie for years but I remember being disappointed with it. The book, on the other hand, is better by leaps and bounds as is so often the case. I just finished The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was entertaining. Reading the reviews online is almost equally entertaining with a stark contrast between those who loved it and those who would rather eat rotten eggs than ever even hear the name of the book again.

The rain continues outside my window. I think I’ll go read some more.

Family Reunion, December, 29

Patamea, December 30, 2012

Yesterday, my host family had a reunion. My extended host family live in the fales around my host family and there were people in town from American Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as the family from Apia who were staying with us. They day started with some chatting in one of the fales. I was allowed/invited to sit in on the conversation with the elders of the family. Someone my age in Samoa wouldn't be so freely allowed to do so as it's quite an honor.

Following the tafao (hanging out), we had a small prayer service with the pastor around the graves behind the fale. There was a new headstone for one of the graves which was also unveiled during the service. They said a lengthy prayer (as is the custom in Samoa with some prayers lasting 15-20 minutes. I've even heard of a single prayer that lasted upwards of 45 minutes) and sand a beautiful hymn in four-part harmony (another part of Samoan culture--everyone has a part of the harmony depending on gender and age).

They prayer service was interesting to me because, while the adults were all standing in reverence, the children, teenagers, and young adults were all sitting on or even lounging on the graves next to the one that had been unveiled. Some were taking videos or pictures. Though I had my camera, I felt it would be rude to use it. Cultural differences, I guess.

The service ended and we all made our way slowly to the front of the house. Along the way I started a conversation with a young man visiting from Australia. He was in his early twenties and was ethnically Samoan but this was his first time visiting Samoa. He was planning to be around until February. I continued to chat with him and two other young visitors from Australia. We sat in the kitchen and drank water from the refrigerator since it was quite hot out. We ended up chatting a bit too long and almost missed the beginning of the next part of the reunion.

The entire family crossed the road to another aunt and uncle's house for an ava ceremony and lunch. The ava ceremony was a part of the reunion I could only watch from a distance. It is a traditional and formal ceremony to welcome traveling parties. The matai (titled men and women) go through a somewhat standard or ritual conversation and then, one by one, they drink a cup of ava. Before drinking they pour a bit on the ground as an offering to god. The ceremony varies in length depending on what exactly they say and how long they take to say it but it is normally (in my experience) no less than 30 minutes and often substantially longer. Once theirs was over it was time for lunch.

While the ava ceremony was happening the untitled men and women (mostly the women) prepared the food. Actually, all of the food had been prepared that morning or the night before. During the ava ceremony, the used a work-line to put the food into enough Styrofoam to-go containers for everyone to have their own. The amount of food was shocking. Well, it would have been shocking if I hadn't been in the country for nearly three months at that point and already witnessed the amount of food that Samoans typically present at special occasions. There was chicken, pork, sausage, curry, taro, rice, and plenty more. I wasn't able to finish mine which meant more food for others.

Once the lunch was over the time for dancing began. In Samoa, this normally means a small group of people getting up in front of everyone else to dance (read: make a fool of themselves). This is also normally associated with giving money as that small group dances. This money was used to buy treats for late on in the evening. I was invited to dance with the first group (as well as nearly every other group). After a while, I began to have trouble remembering that it was for fun and to include me as well as give me a chance to integrate a bit with the family. Instead, I was getting frustrated by being asked to dance so much. I felt like they were trying to put me on show. But, again, this was my own interpretation which actually prevented me from getting closer with my family.

After the dance, the adults had a long (three hours) meeting to discuss the time for the next reunion. Unfortunately, it's going to take place just days or weeks after my Peace Corps service is over in December of 2014.

Then it was time for a little malolo (rest). I went back to my fale and read and slept. After a couple of hours I went back to my host family's house where they informed me there would be another siva (dance) that night. The second siva started at 10:00pm and lasted about two hours. There was plenty of music and dancing, however, my forming insecurities and frustrations again got the better of me. I think it was just part of the emotional roller coaster that is culture shock. The dance ended with the entire family holding hands in a giant circle and singing--a truly beautiful and powerful experience. When it was over, I went to my fale for a long, strong rest.

A quick tour of my home in the training village

Follow the link to the video on youtube. It's of my fale, my family's compound, and the compound of the extended family across the road:

http://youtu.be/r9xK7eOEFEY