Aunu'u

Friday night I left the comforts of Tutuila to go visit my friend Veronica who lives on the small island of Aunu'u. Aunu'u is just off the coast of Tutuila and is accessible by a little boat that takes probably 10 minutes and costs $1. It is a small but beautiful island. You could probably walk the perimeter in under 2 hours, however, those 2 hours would be filled with gorgeous locales and stunning views of the ocean.



Going to Aunu'u was great to get away from the hubbub of the main island. Veronica and I spent the night talking, sitting on the sea wall and catching up. A very relaxing atmosphere. The whole island has a big village feel to it. There is one "road" (with only 5 vehicles on island) that goes around the whole island with lots of mini trails that cut through it which means you end up walking through someones property. But everyone knows everyone out there and no one seems to mind.



The bright spot of my visit was when Veronica took us to a place called Siena and Tigilau. I'll let the pictures show you why it was so amazing. It was a place that I could have sat at for hours, contemplating life and enjoying the natural beauty of the places that surround me. A place to go visit again.

What three things would YOU take with you to a deserted island?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.