All Moved In

I can’t believe that the three weeks of WorldTeach orientation is over.  The time has flown by.  After spending three weeks living, learning, and having fun with 29 other people moving day was bitter sweet.  I am now living in Leone, a rural village on the west coast of the island, with four other volunteers (one of them will be moving later this week to her new home on the outer islands).  We are living on the same land as our landlords, one of their daughters and her family, and their grounds keepers.  There are also two apartments and a house that they rent out.  Jill and I are staying in one of the apartments.  My room is twice the size of my room in my apartment, but it is very sparsely furnished (there is only a twin size bed).  I’ll be shopping for some shelves and storage boxes soon.  Josh and Sara are in the house across the driveway from me and a past WorldTeach volunteer is in the other apartment.  She now works at the community college.  Total I think there are 18 people currently living on the property and three (nice) dogs.

 My apartment is on the left

Josh and Sara's house

 One side of my room

 The living room

 Kitchen

Kiersten can you believe this is my closet?

What is the first creature that I see in the apartment as I’m starting to clean it…a LIZARD!  I can’t get away from them.  I guess God was preparing me when I was catching lizards in my house back home. 

The landlords have been very generous and welcoming thus far.  When we arrived they showed us our homes and immediately fixed and cleaned everything that wasn’t perfect.  They then invited us out to dinner and we were able to get to know the family.  We were invited over today for a traditional umu lunch.  I thought my family had large Sunday lunches, but today there was tons of food.  There was taro, breadfruit, cook bananas, a taro leaf/coconut thing, chicken, salmon, rice, a casserole, potato salad, corn beef with cabbage, spam, watermelon, and cake.  I tried a bit of everything except the salmon.  I must admit I got what I thought was baked ham and had eaten half of the piece before the others were said, “that’s not ham, it’s spam”  AHHH I told myself I wouldn’t eat that, but it is actually pretty tasty.  Lol

Then our landlords took us further west past our village.  We went to their relatives house for dinner and to swim.  They live in the second to last village.  No buses even go out there.  The water was beautiful and we were able to kayak out over the coral.  While kayaking the other volunteers found out that I’m terrified of deep water.  I didn’t stay out there too long.

While driving to that village (in the back of a truck) Moanna (landlord) was telling us about the tsunami that hit in 2009.  We drove past where the wave came in.  Many of the houses are still uninhabitable and the FEMA tents are still up.  She said that the families did not qualify for any government aid because they were rebuilding in the tsunami zone, however, these families have nowhere else to rebuild at.  The only the coast of the island is flat enough to build on.  Moanna told us stories about that disaster that made me want to cry.  For example, after the earthquake the schools sent the students home.  The tsunami came before a brother and sister made it home.  The body of one was found.  The other sibling was never found.  A few hundred yards away a bus carrying student was pinned against the side of the mountain.  However, they were right at the safe zone and the children were able to run to safety.

The village is more remote feeling than I thought it would be.  The house is about a 20 min walk from school, a 25 min bus ride to the closest volunteers, and a long ways to the larger shops and post office (I haven’t gone to time how long it takes).  I’m not sure that I like being so far out, but I’ll adjust.  It may just take a while.

I’m going to try to upload photos, but the internet is awfully slow and random cuts on and off.  Plus I can only get internet if I’m sitting outside of Sara and Josh’s house.

Now let’s go back in time to Friday.  Friday morning we went to Fagateli Bay.  It’s the only National Marine Sanctuary south of the equator. (Am Samoa has a lot of only thing south of the equator because it is the only US land south of the equator.)  The main reason for the trip was to go snorkeling, however, the waves were very vicious looking and the current was strong.  The guide recommended beginners snorkelers not get in the water.  Since I don’t swim well to start with and didn’t really want to drown on Friday I decided to stay on the shore with 4 other girls while everyone else went out.  The people who went said the coral and fish were beautiful.  Maybe I’ll go back on a calmer day and be able to see it.

Friday night I went to First Fridays at the market.  It is very different from the First Friday’s in Richmond.  There was lots of food and it was so cheap I got more than I could eat for only $4.  I’ve decided that Pilipino food is excellent.  There was also Samoan food, but I couldn’t read what the signs said and couldn’t tell what it was.  There were crafts and clothes for sale and a lot of fresh fruit.  There was also entertainment.  Christian music was being sang by different groups and there were dances, both traditional and more modern.

To close this blog, I wanted to share something that one of our speakers said last week.  It has really helped me to understand that it is ok that I’m not using my degree right now and that I’m not a failure because of that.  She said, “When you find something you are interested in and like enjoy it, but when you no longer find joy in that activity put it aside and continue on with life’s journey.”