So I had my most difficult class write a little essay about what three things they would take with them to a deserted island. A lot of my kids wrote that they would take, water, food and some sort of shelter. All relatively normal answers.
Only in Samoan would a kid give this answer.....
I would take water, why because if you work all day you will be thirsty. and the second one is food because your body need energy to work. the last thing it is litter, why? because if you need to cook food, you will NEED THE LITTER TO BURN TO MAKE A FIRE."
ONLY IN AMERICAN SAMOA!
Yes, people are burning their trash here all the time. Trash, leaves, grass. Dead people. Ha. just kidding. But who knows cause the smell is god awful.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Parent Teacher Conference
Last Thursday, we gave our student progress report cards in preparation for Parent Teacher Conference that was held that evening. Each class period came for 30 minutes so teachers could fill out a letter grade and write a couple of comments. It was a stressful day from the very beginning.
The night before I had calculated all of my students grades. I was surprised with how well most of them were doing. Also a little disappointed with how some students were progressing. And then came my really bad class. I have 22 students in this class and I gave 15 of them a failing grade. Most were not shocked at all. Some kids tried to get me to change their grades but after showing them their breakdown and their scores they realized that they deserved the grade they got. I think it was a wake up call for most. No one is going to skate by in my class and get an A for it. Not in Mr. Drew's class. No sir.
After a 2 hour break in which we were supposed to be "preparing" for the PTC the parents started to arrive. I don't think its done like this in the states, but the PTC was held in our "gym." Each department was placed around the gym sitting at tables. Parents picked up their kids progress reports from the counselors and then walked around and talked to any of their kids teachers. The parents asked why their child got the grade they did and some asked if there is anything their kid can improve on. I had heard that some parents would complain to the teacher and try to get their grade changed but that was not the case with me. For the most part, all of the parents were kind, civil and happy to meet me. I met about 25 parents out of the 121 students that I have.
The night before I had calculated all of my students grades. I was surprised with how well most of them were doing. Also a little disappointed with how some students were progressing. And then came my really bad class. I have 22 students in this class and I gave 15 of them a failing grade. Most were not shocked at all. Some kids tried to get me to change their grades but after showing them their breakdown and their scores they realized that they deserved the grade they got. I think it was a wake up call for most. No one is going to skate by in my class and get an A for it. Not in Mr. Drew's class. No sir.
After a 2 hour break in which we were supposed to be "preparing" for the PTC the parents started to arrive. I don't think its done like this in the states, but the PTC was held in our "gym." Each department was placed around the gym sitting at tables. Parents picked up their kids progress reports from the counselors and then walked around and talked to any of their kids teachers. The parents asked why their child got the grade they did and some asked if there is anything their kid can improve on. I had heard that some parents would complain to the teacher and try to get their grade changed but that was not the case with me. For the most part, all of the parents were kind, civil and happy to meet me. I met about 25 parents out of the 121 students that I have.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Culture Shock
In the two and a half months that I have been in American Samoa, I think I have been handling myself very well. Yes the food situation sucks but I feel as though I have adjusted well to the culture, made some new friends and learned a lot about myself. People always talk about culture shock as something that is hard to articulate or define in a concrete way but one certainly knows the feeling when it creeps up on you.
This past weekend I dealt with my first real sense of culture shock here in American Samoa. I was at a BBQ on the beach surrounded by 20 people or so, but I felt like I was the only person around. The other 19 or so people were Samoans who didn't really open up to me. For the majority of the 4 hours that I was there, Samoan was the only language that was spoken. How can I contribute to a conversation when I don't know what is being said? How can we learn from each other and share ideas if you they include me in their conversations?
I hate to say this but the only thing I wanted was to be with my palagi (white) friends. And I certainly didn't come here to meet more palagi's. I came here to learn about a different culture, grow and learn as a person and experience something new. But on saturday all I wanted to do was to curl up in a palagi ball.
This past weekend I dealt with my first real sense of culture shock here in American Samoa. I was at a BBQ on the beach surrounded by 20 people or so, but I felt like I was the only person around. The other 19 or so people were Samoans who didn't really open up to me. For the majority of the 4 hours that I was there, Samoan was the only language that was spoken. How can I contribute to a conversation when I don't know what is being said? How can we learn from each other and share ideas if you they include me in their conversations?
I hate to say this but the only thing I wanted was to be with my palagi (white) friends. And I certainly didn't come here to meet more palagi's. I came here to learn about a different culture, grow and learn as a person and experience something new. But on saturday all I wanted to do was to curl up in a palagi ball.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Saturday Morning Lights
Hello Football!
In American Samoa, high school football is a big deal. You may or may not have heard this amazing statistic but it has been estimated that a Samoan boy is 40 times more likely to reach the NFL than a boy growing up in the United States.. These kids, parents, schools and coaches take this sport very seriously.
Since there is only one football stadium on the whole island all of the high school football games are played there. As there are 7 high school varsity football teams, typically one game is held on Friday night and the other two are played on Saturday morning with one team getting a bye each week. This past weekend the mighty Leone Lions (my school) were playing against the undefeated Warriors of Tafuna, which is the biggest school on island. From the very beginning, the game had all the makings of a close and fierce battle. Every time the Lions scored a touchdown, the Warriors answered with one of their own. Even with some 40 seconds left in the first half the Warriors marched down the field to tie the game up right before halftime.
In the second half, the touchdowns kept coming at first and then suddenly each teams defense woke up and started to make some great plays. Luckily our defense got the best of the Warriors and we pulled it out with a 25-22 point victory! It was a great game. The students, teachers and parents in the crowd were going crazy. The players on the field were ecstatic. To see the pride and joy on their faces was amazing. It was a wonderful moment to witness.
Another truly American Samoan experience.
In American Samoa, high school football is a big deal. You may or may not have heard this amazing statistic but it has been estimated that a Samoan boy is 40 times more likely to reach the NFL than a boy growing up in the United States.. These kids, parents, schools and coaches take this sport very seriously.
Since there is only one football stadium on the whole island all of the high school football games are played there. As there are 7 high school varsity football teams, typically one game is held on Friday night and the other two are played on Saturday morning with one team getting a bye each week. This past weekend the mighty Leone Lions (my school) were playing against the undefeated Warriors of Tafuna, which is the biggest school on island. From the very beginning, the game had all the makings of a close and fierce battle. Every time the Lions scored a touchdown, the Warriors answered with one of their own. Even with some 40 seconds left in the first half the Warriors marched down the field to tie the game up right before halftime.
In the second half, the touchdowns kept coming at first and then suddenly each teams defense woke up and started to make some great plays. Luckily our defense got the best of the Warriors and we pulled it out with a 25-22 point victory! It was a great game. The students, teachers and parents in the crowd were going crazy. The players on the field were ecstatic. To see the pride and joy on their faces was amazing. It was a wonderful moment to witness.
Another truly American Samoan experience.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Ants
Captain we have a problem.
ANTS!! Everywhere. I mean, this is a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, so we should expect to deal with our fair share of insects but I'm convinced that I sleep and eat and live with a family of ants everyday. Whenever I can, I will spray them with windex, bug spray or whatever else is closest to me to kill them off. Less than 2 minutes later a new group of them will appear. FROM NOWHERE. The live in the walls, on the floor, behind counters and probably under my pillow. It's so gross. I thought I was learning to deal with them since they're the least bothersome of all the insects we see on a daily basis, but today there seems to be an influx in them. I just want to kill them all.
Ants go marching five by five, hurrah hurrah. The ants go marching five by five, hurrah hurrah. The ants go marching five by the five, the little one stops when Drew sees him alive. The all go marching down. To the garbage...across the street at Samoa Tasty!
ANTS!! Everywhere. I mean, this is a tropical island in the middle of nowhere, so we should expect to deal with our fair share of insects but I'm convinced that I sleep and eat and live with a family of ants everyday. Whenever I can, I will spray them with windex, bug spray or whatever else is closest to me to kill them off. Less than 2 minutes later a new group of them will appear. FROM NOWHERE. The live in the walls, on the floor, behind counters and probably under my pillow. It's so gross. I thought I was learning to deal with them since they're the least bothersome of all the insects we see on a daily basis, but today there seems to be an influx in them. I just want to kill them all.
Ants go marching five by five, hurrah hurrah. The ants go marching five by five, hurrah hurrah. The ants go marching five by the five, the little one stops when Drew sees him alive. The all go marching down. To the garbage...across the street at Samoa Tasty!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Pep Rally
So yesterday we had our first "official" pep rally at school. Mind you we had a pep rally like 3 weeks ago, but this was the first real one. It was supposed to start a 1:30pm. We were still going to have all our regular Friday classes however they were to be shortened to 45 minutes each. Well after lunch as 5th period was starting a kid brought around a bulletin stating that 6th period would be canceled and the pep rally would start right after 5th period. WELL.... 5 minutes later the vice principal motioned for everyone to start making their way to the gymnasium right away. BUT I had scheduled a short vocab quiz for the day because I knew the periods would be short. That's the last time I'll do that. SO, I forced my 5th period class to stay and finish their quizzes before I let them go to the pep rally. In the end, the pep rally ended up being 3 HOURS LONG!! 3 HOURS!! Are you kidding me?!?
Since kids had been missing my class all week in preparation for this event, I had to see what it was all about. I mean, it was just a pep rally, right? NOPE. It was a super duper over the top pep rally madness! As you can see below, there was banners, costumes and makeup, cheers, skits and so much more. These kids and staff get so into this event. It was quite the production.
My students, the Junior class, celebrating after being declared the overall winner of the pep rally.
Another truly American Samoan experience.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Labor Day Weekend
Well it was quite the weekend here in American Samoa. With three full days off in a row us volunteers knew we wanted to explore the island as much as possible. We had to take advantage of a relaxing and for the most part good weekend of weather to get a break from the grind of lesson planning.
On Saturday we woke up around 8am so we could take a bus over to Vatia where we would begin a long hike up and over Mt. Alava back into the "city" of Pago Pago. When we began, our group consisted of Mike, Leslie, Kelly, Eric, April, Brenden, Rosa, Jenn, Mark, Ethan, Bret and myself. We took a bus to the wall in Aua in hopes of finding a bus over the mountain to Vatia.
We waited. I laid down on the road because I was so tired and sick. And we waited some more. Finally a nice man came up in his pickup truck to tell us that he didn't think the buses were running on Saturday to Vatia but he could send a bus down for us that would take us over the mountain for $2.50 a person. Since it was only $.50 more than we expected to pay, we agreed. A couple minutes later a bus came and took us over to Vatia. Vatia is a beautiful village on the north side of Tutuila that has a gorgeous bay. Jenn and Leslie live there and after we packed some lunches, used the lu we set off on our hike over the mountain. With our group down to 10 palagi's we started the rigorous climb.
It was quite a steep and daunting climb up this side of the mountain. We had to take many breaks for water and deep breaths. We were warned that their would be many ladders while hiking up but I don't think any of us were prepared for the sheer amount of them that we encountered. This is by no means an accurate number but I'm convinced we climbed at least 40 of these ladders at some point. Here is one of them.
The 10 of us finally reached the top a little under 2 hours. We took a group picture and enjoyed a great lunch of PB&J sandwiches and some snacks that Jenn (thanks Jenn!) packed for us. A little after 1pm we began our decent. To be honest it was way more boring but far less treacherous than the climb up because we were going down the front side of the mountain which was basically an old truck route. At the top of the mountain is an old or maybe still working radio tower so trucks or something at one point had to get up there. Anyway, after 2 hours of careful walking we made our way back down and were almost home. It was quite an adventure. One for sure that we will complete again.
Sunday was a nice relaxing day at Tisa's Barefoot beach. Unfortunately only a couple of us made it there due to no buses running on Sunday and a couple rides falling through. But those of us that made it there had a nice couple of hours in the water.
On Monday we again set out early to head to a place called Sliding Rock. It is on the west side of the island near Leone, which is the town that I teach in. I'll let the picture describe it best. We had been warned by many locals that Sliding Rock can be quite scary and treacherous if you are not careful. As we led the group over the rocks to a place that I had previously been to that has amazing tide pools, we stopped and explored the beauty of the waves crashing over the rocks.
A couple of girls were standing on a rock ledge that separated two little pools of water. A minute earlier I was standing with them but had left to find out if anyone had wanted to climb higher to another big rock. Right then a gigantic wave came crashing over the rocks and swept 4 of our friends off their feet, sent them flying in the air and threw them against a rock wall. Luckily everyone was pretty much okay except for some major scrapes and blood. It was quite a scary sight but I am so glad that nothing more serious happened to anyone.
After sending the injured home in a car with our dear friend Jessie, the rest of us continued to swim in a calmer pool and enjoy the beautiful weather. Some of us thought it would be a good idea to try and get to that higher rock that I had wanted to go to before the wave that hurt our friends came a-crash-in. So a few of us ran across the rocks as quickly as we could and made it to the top of this beautiful rock that overlooked the crashing water. On our way back, we again had to navigate the waves that swept our friends away so we could make it back to safety. We made it and started our walk back to catch the bus. A scary trip but beautiful in its own right. I guess when I told the ocean to "bring it" earlier in the day, it did. I will not test it again. But I will certainly visit one of the most beautiful places that I have discovered on this island again.
An exhilarating, exciting, strenuous and fun weekend came to a close. And today we were back to our jobs being the wonderful teachers that we came here to be. ;)
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