Weather and Other Strange Things.

The weather here is a conundrum. As one might expect from a place located in the biome categorized as "Tropical Rainforest" (yes, the science I am teaching has definitely landed in my brain) the weather here is hot, wet, or most often, both. Every day brings temperatures of 86-88, and a humidity factor of around 85%. If you aren't sweating, the air is sweating for you... though truthfully it is not that bad. It usually showers at least once a day, however briefly- which brings about 5 minutes of relief, until the rain starts steaming from the streets, turning the entire country into a spa-worthy steam room.

While a perfect day in the United States is a breezy, 75 degree wonder with a blue sky, a few picturesque puffy white clouds and a steady stream of cheerful sun, here the best days are gray. Not rainy, but gray, with enough cloud cover to ensure a breeze and a temperature drop of 5-10 degrees, and a noticeable lack of humidity in the air. In other words, the perfect day here is the "oh crap, not again" day in Seattle.

All I can say is, it is a good thing that I will be returning to the States in the spring/summer. The idea of a actually wintry day fills me both with longing and with an absolute fear of turning into Frosty the Snow(wo)man from the shock to my system.

The lack of variation in weather also creates an interesting time paradox. Even though it is now almost December, everything looks and feels the same as the day we arrived. This creates a strange sense of timelessness, a weird feeling that I am floating through this experience in one long, sweaty dream. One of the other volunteers, my next-door neighbor aptly pointed out that we will all probably look back on this experience as a really long summer job. So all of you back home, appreciate your seasons, your subtle and not so subtle signs that time is passing and the world is changing, because as idyllic as it sounds (and usually is), being in a land of perpetual summer is slightly disconcerting.

Love from Samoa,
Rosa

Whew.

I am sorry if I worried anyone with my last post (read: Mom and Dad). I was depressed, but mostly I viewed it as a learning experience as a teacher. I am actually glad that I am not so self-centered and egotistical that I never think anything is my fault.
Anyway, it all turned out okay ( I think). I went to the vice principal, who is a very nice lady, and explained that I didn't think it would be fair to count the tests in their mid-term grades. She simply said, "ok." So, problem solved. I have since then been absolutely focused on teaching the formulas and problem solving skills that they obviously did not understand. I have definitely seen a few lightbulbs go off for my students, which gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling, and right now, if everything seems to go well, I will have my students re-test sometime next week.
Speaking of next week, I am so excited! It is slated as "spirit week," and just like in the states, I would bet that various forms of hilarity will ensue. As the schedule stands, Monday is "sports day," Tuesday is "Career day," Wednesday is "international day," Thursday is "Halloween Costume day," and Friday is "black and gold day." I am sure sprinkled in there will be the ubiquitous class meetings filled with learning cheers, and there is guaranteed to be a ridiculous assembly. I am very excited, and I have changed the batteries in my camera in preparation for the tom-foolery. Speaking of cameras.... I have been promising pictures for some time, so it is time to keep my word. Most of the following are my students... ignore the silly poses- it seems to be the "seki-a" (cool) thing to do.
















Everyone praying before an assembly...























Aren't they cute??? By the way... if you click on the pictures, it will make them bigger!

Love from cookie-land,

Rosa

This was going to be a post about the fun adventures I have been having, especially on Columbus Day weekend (it is very nice to get all the government holidays). However, I am instead going to discuss my current teacher crisis. So far, I would say that I think I am a decent teacher- even in the states, I think I would pass muster, and here, well, I try a LOT harder than most. After my first test, enough students did really well to convince me that on that area of subject matter, my teaching was not the problem for those students who did poorly- their lack of studying was the issue. My conscience was not in any way impinged upon.
However, this latest test has me very disappointed- in myself. About two weeks ago, the administration informed all the teachers that the midterms were coming up- in one week. In less than a week, I had to create a new test and attempt to review with my students. This is coming fairly soon after the last BIG test, so I mostly focused on stuff which I hadn't really tested; I thought the midterm that I created was actually easier than the first test I had given them.
When I started giving the midterm, I immediately noticed some problems- students forgot their calculators, which made the formula section both extremely difficult and time consuming. They were making mistakes and also not finishing- I readjusted the test- excluding one page of it and instead having them write only 2 of the short answer questions on the back of one of the other pages. However, now that I am grading these, I am doubting myself.
The grades are dismal. Beyond simple mistakes in the division and multiplication aspects of the tests, the students obviously did not know or understand the formulas- the vocab section and short answer I can attribute to lack of studying, but for the formula section (which was worth 20 points), I must acknowledge that I obviously did not spend enough time in class on. To me, the formulas seemed easy- but I should not have assumed that this was also true to them. Even my best students struggled with that section, which to me indicates that in this instance, the fault lies with me, the teacher, which is a bitter and humbling pill to swallow.
Swallow it I must, however. I know that this year is a learning experience for me as well, and a major lesson has just come through. I know that I need to go back, re-teach the information, ensure that the students know and understand the material. My dilemma now lies with the test- I feel that it is unfair to keep these grades for them. According to the school, I need to turn in midterm grades tomorrow- meaning that many of these students, if I include the test (which I am supposed to) will be much lower than they should.
How should I remedy this? How can I use this experience to be a better teacher?

By Wednesday, I assume many of these problems will be resolved. I hope to update then. But, until then,

A humbled, contrite and very confused,
Rosa

Whoops-a-daisy

Well, er. Sorry about the 23 day lapse in posting... its been busy, to say the least. I will try to at least summarize what has been going on, but first, a clarification about my last post. I was upset when I wrote that- generally, if I write something negative, it is because it is fresh in my mind, and I feel the need to unburden myself and share it with others. It also would not be honest of me if I did not include both the positive and negative experiences I am going through. Transitioning to a new life is definitely not always easy or fun. However, so far on this journey, I can honestly say that my experience has been good. I have done things, overcome challenges, tested myself in ways I could never have dreamed of. I have a job I love right now, and people who I like all around me. The experience has been great, and positive, and I am not doubting my being here.
That said, the list of stuff that has happened (this is in the order it pops into my head, not the order it happens):

1. Went to a traditional Samoan Catholic mass for a Saint's feast day, complete with traditional Samoan dances, half naked men with copious amounts of tattoos, and happy birthday balloons for said saint.
2. Cooked a Rosh Hashanah feast for 14 people. Appetizer: mini pancakes with a topping of spinach, onions and edam. Main course: 3 roast chickens, herbed potatoes, corn with tomatoes and onions, stuffing. Desert: banana carrot cake cupcakes with spiced cream cheese frosting.
3. Tried fasting for Yom Kippur- the heat made this not doable, so I ended up drinking water.
4. Hiked a 7 mile hike to the top of Mt. Alava: the first 1. 5 miles to the summit were the hardest 2 hours I have ever experienced. The trail included tons and tons of basically vertical ladders. Very proud to have completed it though.
5. Saw Salt- the Russian in it was actually fairly accurate.
6. Our football team won their first game OF ALL TIME.
7. Went to a beautiful place called "Sliding rock." Unfortunately, went on a day when the water was very rough and high. Said water picked me up, threw me around and against some rocks. I now have some awesome scars, and a newly found appreciation for being alive.
8. As a result of said win, we had a combination assembly and school dance- I have video to prove it.
9. I discovered that as punishments go, wall-sits are the best; far better than sit-ups, push-ups, or jumping jacks. The reason is this- push-ups are ineffective because most students can do a maximum of ten. Plus, they take up a lot of space, and the students find great pleasure in counting as loud as they can. Sit-ups are good, because Samoan students can all do around 50 of them (though slowly and laboriously), but they whine about getting their uniforms dirty, have to have their feet held down, and also count really loudly. Wall sits are the best- they take up little space, as its pretty much vertical, there is no danger of dirt, the kids hate doing them, and since I time them, they can’t count out loud. Plus, thanks to old softball coaches, I can do wall sits for a looooong time, so if a kid whines too much, I sit next to him and continue my lecture while doing a wall sit. This usually shuts them up- after all, I am a girl. Perfect solution all around. Plus, it helps their physical fitness!
10. Went to a Mormon Church near my house- all two hours of Sunday School, plus the service. Everyone in the village now knows my name. It started at 8 in the morning; apparently, the first two hours, everyone goes to different classes. From 8 to nine, I went to the women’s class. 9-10 was the class for people over 18 but unmarried. 10-11 was the actual service. It was very interesting- I had to get up and introduce myself in the first two classes (they make all visitors do this), and they gave me a copy of their Sunday school book in English, which was very kind of them. They also gave me an English book on the history and beliefs of the Mormon church; from a scholastic perspective (which is by and large how I am approaching all the church services I attend here) and from a human one, it was an interesting, positive, and enjoyable early Sunday morning.
11. Finally convinced my students that I am palagi, and am not at all Samoan. Apparently, my vaguely ethnic features can add one more nationality to their list.
12. Watched the first season of Dexter. It is a really creepy and really good show. For those who don’t know what it is, it is basically about a serial killer, who leads a double life, as a forensic specialist and loving boyfriend and brother (to two separate ladies of course) and as a serial killer with a code of conduct (only kill those who deserve it) instilled in him by a cop adoptive father. Not a great description, but it really is a good show.
13. Hiked to Larson's Bay and swam, read and relaxed. The hike was beautiful- through straight jungle with some sheer rock faces on either side of the trail at some points. I saw the biggest bat ever too... and collected a ton of gorgeous weird shells which I am now obsessed with.
14. Got really sunburned. Apparently, some days the sun is really strong here... even for my skin. It hurts to sit now :-).
15. Almost won at Trivial Pursuit. Stupid Mark beat me by ONE QUESTION.
16. Gave my first test in Science...
17. ... Had to send two students to the office for cheating. However, on the bright side, I think a lot of my students did really well. I am really proud of them, and apparently they are really proud of themselves as well; a bunch of them are in April (my roommate’s) English class, and for their journal prompt on Friday (something that they are proud of this week) a ton of them wrote that they were proud because they studied hard for Ms. Rosa’s test and thought they passed. I have to say, reading some of those entries was so far one of my best teaching moments; I like knowing that my students are caring about my class.
18. Made a breakthrough ( I think) with my English class...
19. Finally got to video-chat with Jeremiah. He got EOD!
20. Started Gear-Up (one hour of tutoring every morning before school)

There is more I am sure, but I can't remember it all now. Later this week, pictures and videos of my students!

I love you and miss you all,

Rosa

A No Good, Very Bad Day.

Unfortunately guys, today had many more dark spots than light ones. I was almost in tears at one point in the day- it just seemed like a situation, much like a boulder down a hill, where once things started, they couldn't be stopped.
We transitioned to a new schedule this week- instead of block scheduling, we see the kids everday, for 50 minutes (40 on Wednesday). This has caused great confusion, and in my opinion, tires the kids out mentally a lot more than the previous schedule. Anyway, I digress.

This morning started fine. I had Jeopardy planned for today, figuring that not only would it be a great review of material, it would be entertaining enough that the lure of the weekend might not impede upon my students' abilities to focus. I was sort of right.
The first period of my day was 6th period. They are usually rowdy, but manageable, and there are a few students in there that are my absolute favorites, like Siaki, who is undeniably one of the cool kids, but is also respectful to me, can sing like an angel, and is nice to his classmates, or Villiam, who is incredibly smart, remembers everything I tell him, and has the cutest baby-face in the world. Jeopardy went well- the teams competed, they got some energy out, the questions were answered. Success. I gave them the last two minutes of class to relax while I tallied the score, and during that time, the unthinkable (to me) happened. Two of my kids in the back, out of nowhere, got into an all out fight- fists flying, yelling, tension everywhere. Luckily all the boys in the back jumped in pretty quickly to pull them apart, but I was still shaken, and I was dreading what I knew I would have to do: take the boys to the office. Essentially, I would have to condemn my students to either a beating from a member of the school administration, or one from their parents at home, which is not something which weighs lightly on my conscience. However, there are certain protocols and rules in school which cannot be broken, and fighting in class is one of them.

No more fistfights occurred, which is the only thing that probably saved what little shred of sanity I had left, but the rest of the day proved just as disheartening. With the exception of my fourth period class (and my sixth), none of the students seemed to have retained anything that I had taught them. They would blindly yell out words as they glanced through the notes, or just sit there, looking at me as if I were expecting the impossible.
Maybe I was. I am trying to get these kids to learn in a way that they have been unaccustomed to from grades 1-8. They are not fluent in English, and yet I am expecting them to understand and apply words like homogenous and flammable.

I know I need to adjust my own expectations- both of my students and of myself as a teacher, but as I found out, that process can be incredibly painful.

A little bummed,
Rosa

Another week, another victory.

Flicking an ant off you and watching it fly through the air to oblivion might be one of the best feelings on earth...

And it is a good thing that good feelings are so easy to come by. The second week of teaching is now complete... the first with actual subject matter and it brought with it some good, some bad, and a lot of the unexpected. I will start with the unexpected first- I am now an English teacher in addition to Science- I was informed of this addition on Wednesday morning- the day I would be assuming these new responsibilities. I knew it might be coming- I actually suggested it to the principal as a solution to the overcrowding that was happening in the English classes, but I had assumed (silly me) that I might hear more discussion about it/be forewarned in order to prepare. The reason for the overcrowding, for those who want to know, is because of an English teacher who is currently on leave for bereavement (for lack of a better term). Her husband, Lt. Brown, was a police officer on island, who was shot about a week after all of us WorldTeachers arrived... it might be searchable in the news. If not, it definitely is on samoanews.com. It made a huge shock wave on the island- murders themselves are very uncommon, and the last time a police officer was killed was over 50 years ago. Anyway, she is still deciding whether or not she feels up to coming back to school, so until she does, I have her students for Sophomore English.
That particular day went alright with my new class. I think they were disoriented enough about the change that they sort of obeyed just because it was easier. On Thursday however, when I had them again, it was a different story. Not only were they awful in terms of behavior, they stunned me with their lack of knowledge. When we corrected sentences on the board, none of the students could give me the past tense of the verb "to say." My class, by the way, is called Sophomore English because of the level; my class right now is about half filled with seniors. How unprepared they are for life after high school worries me. It is a common statistic here that many students try at college in the states, but get too overwhelmed, and having read their writing and observed their critical thinking skills (or lack thereof) I see why. I am going to try and do the best I can to improve their English in all areas (listening, speaking, reading, writing), but I am at a true loss on where to start.
My science classes reveal a lot of the same challenges. The kids have never been taught how to think. They are excellent at memorizing, but they cannot for the life of them apply that knowledge, which is my theory as to why they all do so poorly on the American standardized tests. My theme for this year is definitely going to be "why?" I have already started doing this in the classroom. It is a lot more tedious teaching-wise, because it drags everything out, but I think it is important that at least in my classroom, the answers are not always given to them, but rather are puzzled out. This week, by the way, I taught the Scientific Method, and Experimental Design. The kids had not heard of either one, nor the elements (like a hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, etc.), but at least seemed willing to learn it all. I know I was in gifted programs throughout most of my life, but I was taught IV and DV stuff in 4th and 5th grade. The biggest bright spot was performing the experiment at the end of the week- I decided to run the "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?" experiment, of course making them run through how the experiment was laid out, the components, etc., etc., so that it wasn't just silly. I think it worked- and they definitely enjoyed the experience... licking is just a hilarious thing in general, and especially to ninth graders.
Saturday was football again! I really am enjoying watching the games, even if we do keep losing. I will however, be perfectly happy if we do not have any more 8 AM ones- too early for a Saturday! We also almost won- the final score was 22 to 26, which gives me hope. Maybe our new coach will get the first win in the history of the school :-).
Saturday night (last night) was also memorable, as all of us went to a fa'afafine pageant. In case you missed the blog post in which I explained what that is, it is considered a third gender here- genetic males (who do not get altering surgery) dress and live their lives as women. In the U.S. the nearest thing is transgender or drag. Last night certainly leaned towards the drag side of things- the program consisted of a talent category, a couture puletasi (the Samoan women's style of clothing) category, swimsuit competition (yes, there were bikinis... worn over control top pantyhose) and evening gown competition. The final winner was a woman named Pearl, who, at 39 was the oldest contestant by far. It was a fun evening, including such memorable moments as an incredible rendition of Etta James' "At Last," a Samoan fire dancer, many many many siva Samoa (Samoan dances), lipsyncing galore (to a Grease/Grease 2 medley, Whitney Houston, Beyonce, show tunes and more), lots of feathers, lots of rhinestones, and a few shirtless Samoan men who carried a few of the fa'afafines on and off stage for effect.
By the way- to any and all reading the blog: where is a good place to petition for free supplies? All of my school's science supplies burnt down last year with about 4 classrooms, and I have no idea who to e-mail and pester. Also, any teaching tips are welcome. My e-mail is rosammutchnick@gmail.com, so let me know!
A couple pictures tonight-
Adorable little girl at the football game.
Some of the players....
2 students of mine... also Cheerleaders!
Cheerleaders in action! (we won't have uniforms until we fundraise)

In the stands of a football game...
This truck is always around campus... I have not yet figured out who it belongs to, but the paint job is literally silver glitter in some sort of clear enamel, and yes, the sticker on the windshield says "bling, bling!"
My classroom, mostly finished.

First Week of School and Other Disasters

Hey Everyone!

I am alive- and for me, that is good enough at the moment. The first week of school is over, and while it was certainly an experience, I am grateful that it is out of the way. Before the week even started, all the teachers were instructed by the administration not to instruct- they informed all of us that since many kids who were expected to register had yet to, everything would be shifting around to the point where teaching would be useless. I doubted this a little: silly me. It seems that even when it comes to school Samoan procrastination exists. Kids were being registered all throughout the week, and did not appear to think that this was either unusual or perhaps detrimental. Still, administrative instructions aside, it was an interesting week.
I am currently teaching 5 periods out of the six- my second period is designated as my prep period, although the administration has already warned that most likely, that period will actually be when I substitute for other teachers who are absent. Of the five classes I am teaching, 4 are General science (and are mostly freshmen) and one is Physical Science (which contains freshmen, sophomores, and seniors).
My smallest class at the moment has one student-there apparently was a scheduling mishap which supposedly will be fixed this week. Not including that, my smallest class has about 16 kids- my largest, 26 (which is two more than I have chairs for). These could all get bigger- over the next week, all the kids' schedules will change as they place in or out of certain subjects. It is not uncommon for there not to be enough desks or chairs- students are very accustomed to sitting on the floor.
An interesting aspect of NVTHS is that because the majority of the vocations it offers training for are geared towards males, there is a large disproportion of males to females. In most of my classes, there are a maximum of 4 or 5 girls. In my first period, there is one poor lone quiet girl, who I think I am going to have to work on in terms of bringing her out of her shell.
The boy/girl ration definitely creates an atmosphere conducive to rowdiness, but so far, discipline has, for the most part, been maintained. I have had to send a few kids out of my class for various reasons, and I had to lecture another, but overall manageable.
Part of it, I believe, is also not the kids' fault. This week was full of pep-rallies. We had seven in five days-SEVEN. There was an opening, welcome to school pep rally. Every day there were "class meetings" in which each class worked on cheers for a competition during the planned Friday pep rally. On Friday, there was an extra pep rally in the morning, because the Troy Palumalu foundation/Nike showed up to give football equipment to us (they are giving it to all the public high schools), plus the planned, 3 hour pep rally in the afternoon. With all this going on, its not a huge surprise that the kids did not want to get in the classroom mindset, even for introductory activities or games.
Speaking of pep- Every day at our school, the principal creates a bulletin with announcements for teachers. Tuesday's contained this gem: "All those who wish to join the elite cheerleading team, please see one of the advisers, April Kirby or Rosa Mutchnick, today at lunch or directly after school." Without warning (or agreement), my housemate and I became the cheer coaches. Keep in mind- I might be loud, and April might have been in a sorority in college, but neither of us has ANY cheer or dance team experience. Oh well. So far, the girls (and one boy) have been really fun though- and they have worked really hard. They already have a notebook full of chants, so making routines shouldn't be that hard... right?
We had a trial run at our football game Friday, and I have to say, I was proud- they only cheered for a quarter (everyone had lost their voices from the plethora of pep rallies) but they all tried hard.
(side note: I am sitting on my bed writing this, and without any thought, I reached out and flicked one ant off my sheets and one off my arm... without even thinking how strange/annoying/gross that is. I'm acclimating!)
Friday night, everyone hung out and celebrating getting through the first week of school. After comparing stories I realized I have it pretty good- I have textbooks and workbooks, chairs and tables. I may not have a lab or lab equipment, but I don't have rats in the classroom, or exposed wiring either.

Blog post tomorrow: Nuuuli waterfalls!

and.... pics as promised (more are coming... these are older)
Felicia sleeping on the table after a centipede crawled on her face during the night... she stayed with us until she left for Olosenga, one of the outer islands.
Milana and Bralin- this is the host mom of one of the other volunteers and her grandson.
Another one of her grandkids- all Samoan kids are cute btw, its amazing.
A coconut crab! Thusly named because they can crack a coconut- its one of the main things they eat. You can't tell in this pic, but claw to claw, this thing was about a foot, foot and a half wide/long... and its a small one. Fully grown coconut crabs can get up to 3-4 feet.
One of the many, many, many, many churches around AmSam.
In the back of a pickup truck (an extremely common method of transportation) on the way to the West end of the island for a barbeque, hosted by a member of the AmSam DoE.
A hermit crab hiding in a tree at Fagatele Bay... this thing was as big as my hand!

Catch-up

Sorry for all the blogging delays. Getting internet installed has been… interesting to say the least. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have heard the word “tomorrow.” The Samoan tomorrow, by the way, is a special term, used to indicate a future event with no actual definable timeframe. It feels reassuring, but is deviously ambiguous, and the Samoans use it for everything. Anyway. I know there is a lot to catch up on, and I may miss some things, so I am sorry for that. Let’s see. I think I left off with the new house.

There are no longer five people living here, which is somewhat of a relief, although it was fun for the time it lasted… I am just glad, now that school is starting, that there is a sense of personal space again. Drew and Bret moved in to their house, which is approximately two feet away, after a long ordeal of flooding and cleaning and Kaleo (the landlord) promising they would move in “tomorrow.” Once it was cleaned from the flood waters, it turned out (I think) to be pretty nice, and they seem happy. It is also great that they are so close- nightly spades games have become a tradition, and we are all constantly in and out of each other’s houses. Felicia, the fifth roommate who was staying at our house, left yesterday for Manu’a ( the outer islands) where she will be teaching elementary school. It is especially quiet around here without her. Even more, her departure is yet another sign that the real reason we are all here is upon us…. Tomorrow, August 16^th, school starts.

So backing up a bit, and going back to last week. We finished orientation on Wednesday, and for the first time actually had some free days in which to explore. Thursday, a group of us (Mark, Eric, April, Felicia, Brenden, and I) decided to try to find the elusive Fagatele Bay (pronounced Fahng-ah-tell-eh). It is a small bay, protected by Park Services under federal law as a marine sanctuary… it is, in fact, the only marine sanctuary possessed by the U.S. below the equator. We all had heard about the Bay from a number of people- at the NOAA event we went to, it was constantly talked about, and the National Park Services guys had mentioned it as well. Oddly enough though, none of the local seemed to have any idea about it. When we got on the standard mode of transport, an aiga (pronounced ai-IN-ga) bus, the driver looked very confused at our request to be dropped off there- Optimistically, I announced that there was a sign- and he nodded. He had no idea. Luckily, I had remembered passing it a couple times on the way to visit friends in the Leone house, and so was able to pull the cord in time. I can’t really blame the driver though- for something so lauded, it was only marked by a sign about 4’x5’ on the side of the road- and only directions from someone who actually knew where it was could have led us to go down the street which was across the road from where the sign actually was. From there it didn’t get any easier to find. We walked down a street, which eventually turned from cement to dirt, and passed a landfill, a rock quarry, and a very nice Samoan lady, hanging her laundry out to dry, who gave us wrong directions. Instead of going to the right, where we could see an orange gate with a homemade sign saying [sic] PRIVAT, we took the left path, which as we would find out twenty minutes later, would lead us on a trek through the jungle on iffy paths to….. right behind the orange gate. As we later found out, the owners of the land and the orange gate are used to people coming to see the Bay, and will always unlock the gate for you if asked. Lesson learned. Once past the gate however, it was about twenty minutes more hiking, 15 of which were on wide grassy paths. The last five were on a very steep, stony paths which had some crudely hewn steps, and finally to a very… interesting set of wooden stairs (which luckily did in fact turn out to be very stable) leading down to the beach.

It was completely worth it when we got there. Though the sand area of the beach was small, it overlooked a ridiculous view of blue water, steep black cliffs and dense jungle. It was also completely secluded. With the exception of one random Samoan spear-fisher (who we later found out was not allowed to be spear fishing there) we were completely alone the entire day. As soon as the girls realized this, we all stripped down to our… swimsuits! Not a victory anywhere else, but in AmSam, girls are supposed to wear non-short shorts (like basketball shorts) and either a t shirt or a wide strap tank top to swim in. Compared to that, swimsuits felt both scandalous and amazing.

To the left of the “Small Beach” which is its official name, was another 20 foot beach, this one of coral. I renamed it the Hermit Crab beach, which, though not imaginative, was apt. There were literally hundreds of them, ranging in size from a fingernail to a baseball. There were also a range of shells, among which I found a gorgeous conch shell about the size of my palm. On the right side of Small Beach, there was a mini freshwater waterfall, as well as some climbable areas of lava rock leading up into the jungle. All this was great, but the best part was yet to come. As it turns out, Fagatele Bay contains more types of corals than any other reef in American Samoa, as well as the healthiest. This of course, leads to an incredible array of tropical fishes. At one point, at about 4 o clock, as we were making our last snorkel run, we ran into the middle of a school of over 400 iridescent yellow, black striped fish. Over the course of the day we probably saw over 50 or more different kinds of reef fish, including Picasso fish, angel fish, needlefish and many many more that I am not versed enough to know the names of yet. Even though the hike back was all uphill and pretty brutal on us (we had probably done too much snorkeling) it was one of the best days of the trip so far, and probably one of the coolest days I have had, period.

Side note- in an effort to get this blog back to real-time posting, I am skipping some stuff, none of which is hugely enlightening or interesting, don’t worry.

On Monday, all the public high school teachers and administrators gathered at Tafuna high school, for a morning of long speeches and random music intervals. The idea (I think) was to get the teachers together and united for the school year. Since everything was in Samoan, however, that didn’t really happen for me. That afternoon all the teacher went back to their assigned schools- I of course, went to Nu’uuli VocTech, where I was given a promise of an eventual class schedule, and a room key. I was super excited- finally, to see my room! Well, that crashed as soon as I opened my door. Apparently, my room, which is room 103 was the Electrical Repair classroom last year. Translation: It was amazingly dirty and full of junk. I don’t have pictures of the actual starting point, but to give you an idea, there was a garish red and yellow table taking up half the room (I, or rather my clothes, later found out that this paint rubs off), topped with a broken industrial sized A/C unit, a broken microwave, and a broken computer, as well as a bunch of mysterious wires and bits of metal. There were more random metal parts scattered around the room, as well as some table tops that apparently had been converted to big painted billboard-like things with space to screw in lightbulbs. The walls were a gross industrial and very dirty taupe…. All in all, not incredibly uplifting. I couldn’t do anything about it Monday though- that work would come on Tuesday.

Tuesday, for lack of a better word, was hell. Luckily, the electrician teacher this year, Lou, helped me out, but all morning was basically spent on heavy lifting. The afternoon arrived with a bucket of white paint, a roller, and a paintbrush. The roller was only useful on one wall- the others are cinderblock, so the next four hours were spent painting my entire room white with one four inch paintbrush.

Wednesday was another teacher conference at Tafuna. We were split by subject, so I went with all the science teachers. The morning was fine- not incredibly interesting or enlightening, but fine. The afternoon however…. Well, the DOE apparently invited a Creationist to come and talk to all of us- problem was, he wasn’t really a proponent of Creationism. He made such fun statements throughout his 3 hour lecture as… “Evolution takes the God out of our children,” “according to Science, if you didn’t see it happen, you can’t prove it exists,” “Dinosaurs could have just as easily been made extinct from heroin overdoses and smoking…. We weren’t there!” (he was completely serious about that one, unfortunately). After his lecture ended, a bunch of teachers discussed his presentation, away from campus. All of us basically had the same thoughts- it’s not the idea of teaching Creationism as an alternate theory that truly bothers us. It is that his presentation a) deliberately presented data in a false or misleading way to support his points and b) he didn’t really argue for Creationism, only against Evolution. Furthermore, many of the arguments which he stated against evolution also could be turned against Creationism, a fact which he conveniently ignored. Overall, if the DOE had wanted us to introduce creationism as part of the curriculum, they might have been better served by asking.

Thursday was devoted to room preparation again- Mostly lots of cleaning, making decorations, cleaning more, arranging tables, etc. I did spend a truly enjoyable two hours coloring the Sun and eight planets (I am still very depressed that Pluto is no longer a planet), with crayons, a medium I haven’t really touched since middle school at the latest. I couldn’t put any of the decorations up however, because the adhesive things I had bought to everything up around the classroom proved no match for the humidity.

Friday was VocTech’s first staff meeting- and it proved to be quite an experience. It started with one of the teachers having a jam session on his ukulele, which went from traditional Samoan songs to “Do Re Mi” from the Sound of Music. Then we had the traditional prayer and song, and then breakfast was available. The “continental breakfast” (their words) was actually a pretty impressive spread of food; there was fresh fruit, two different traditional Samoan foods, koko rice, and something made with the jelly from young coconuts and tapioca, as well as boiled eggs, and….. cooked Vienna sausages and Fried Spam. There was also, for an extra element of weirdness, an assortment of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. I tried everything, although in hindsight, that might have been a mistake… I think either the SPAM or sausages were full of MSG and I got an incredible stomach ache and headache. After breakfast, the staff went around and introduced themselves, and if they wanted to, a talent which they possessed- James, who lives next door to us, sang “Imagine,” by John Lennon. Another woman sang a religious song. After all the introductions were done, Ms. Kava (our principal) gave a speech, then decided we were all too low energy for her liking… her solution? Making a room full of thirty adults full of SPAM and eggs to do the Hokey Pokey! No lie though, it was both fun and hilarious. There were more speeches by the administrators, then a minor verbal spat between one of the teachers and the head of Administration- for a second I thought that someone was going to get fired… but luckily that didn’t happen. There was some more administrative stuff, then we were done… I went on a mission to buy tape, which was successful, and I was finally able to finish my classroom…. And begin to prepare myself for the much maligned and anticipated first week of school.

Pictures tomorrow!