Banquets, and Pageants, and Concerts OH MY!

 Teacher of the Year Banquet

WorldTeach was invited to attend the Territorial Teacher of the Year Banquet on November 30.  The Teacher of the Year (TotY) nominee from each school was in attendance and recognized.  The Leone TotY, Mr. Berquist aka Mr. B., is a Palagi (non-Samoan) teacher from the States who has been here for 15 years I believe.  Each of the nominees received an award and prizes.  The prizes were awesome, laptops, flowers, and gift cards.  Then the over-all winner was announced.  The Territorial Teacher of the Year was awarded to a man from Tafuna High School.

Sara and Me

Mr. B is on the right

Dinner was served and the amounf of food given to use was insane.  The servers brought out trays and we thought it was one or two trays per table for us to share.  However, it was one tray per person!  There was enough food on there for four meals.  We were given rice, a roll, salad, pasta, chicken, pork, and a mystery meat.  (I’ve learned not to ask what unfamiliar things are.)  We all started eating and then noticed that no one else was.  Later we were told that most people take it home to eat later.  That would explain why there was so much food.  It is being shared with their families.

All the volunteers on the main island, including the two new girls, were at the meal.  We were dressed in our finest puletasi’s and looked stunning.  The best part of the night though was being back together as a group.  We hadn’t all been together since orientation.  It was great catching up with everyone. 

Miss South Pacific Pageant

I volunteered to help backstage with the Miss South Pacific Pageant (MSP) on December 8.  I don’t have any photos to show because we were told not to take any.  However, I should have known that the rules don’t really matter here.  Once we got there we were told we could take pictures.  I’m hoping to get some off of the contestants Facebook pages and share with everyone.

The pageant uniform

There were 10 contestants and the girls were amazing.  They broke all the pageant stereo types that I had.  They were all beautiful, but also had great personalities.  The countries that were represented were… American Samoa, Western Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Hawaii, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Tokalau, and Papua New Guinea.

This wasn’t your typical beauty pageant.  There was not a swimsuit or formal section.  Sarongs, tribal dances, religious songs, and dresses from bark were common.  The stage was covered in sand (which turned out not to be a good idea.  It cut two of the girls feet) and the Siva Samoa was performed.

Being a volunteer for the pageant was frustrating and at times things were complete chaos.  I was told not to let anyone back stage if they did not have an orange badge.  I would stop someone from coming back and then a higher up would be like “oh she is so and so.  Let her come in.”  It got to the point of me not caring who came and went.  The pageant was suppose to be from 7-9:30, but lasted from 7-11:30.

I was impressed that the pageant was televised live to the island.  Up until the morning of the pageant people had been told that it would not be shown.  It was being reserved for the elite.  There were only corporate tables that cost $750 and sat six people.   The majority of the island cannot afford that.  Even the contestants families weren’t allowed in the auditorium unless they bought a table (which most could not afford).

I felt extremely bad for Miss Tokalau.  She was the girl contestant.  Not only did she have the downside of going first, but the pageant committee kept messing up her stuff.  First, they did not give her enough time to change outfits between going off stage from a group performance and back on stage for her individual sarong wear.  Then when she went for the talent portion her mic wasn’t on!  That’s not all!  Her biography in the program wasn’t hers!  The committee put Papua New Guinea’s bio in twice (once under Miss Tokalau).

The Miss South Pacific title went to Miss Samoa (Western Samoa)

1^st Runner Up: Miss Cook Islands

2^nd Runner Up: Miss Fiji

3^rd Runner Up:  Miss Papua New Guinea

4^th Runner Up:  Miss American Samoa

Miss American Samoa and Miss Aotearoa were my favorite contestants.  They were so friendly and grateful to Sara, Amber, and I.  Miss Aotearoa reminded me a lot of myself.  Miss Tonga is a social work major from BYU in Hawaii and wants to get her MSW.  Who knows maybe her and I will be in grad school together.

The pageant was an example of how the world should be.  There were 10 girls from 10 different countries.  Each girl had her own culture, upbringing, and most language (they all knew English though).  However, they were unified.  Their differences made the individual, but did not negatively affect the group.  They were connected for one cause and that is what mattered.

That’s what I want.  I want to be surrounded by friends from different cultures.  I want to experience other holidays, traditions, food, and languages.  I don’t want my future children to go to an all white school.  I want them to be bilingual like so much of the world is.  If people around the world would realizes that the differences are what make an individual interesting and that differences are not a reasoning to have wars, segregation, genocides, or terrorism.  So much could be solved if people embraced diversity. 

At one point during the pageant I became very homesick for a few minutes.  The girls were waiting for crowning and were in the back circled up talking, laughing, and taking photos.  It made me miss doing the same.  I have Sara here, but it isn’t the same as having a group or several groups of friends.  I miss my social work group, the Ghana girls, and of course Kiersten and Elise.

Taumafai Chior

I had heard that the Leone High School swing choir was amazing, but had not heard them sing.  That changed on the 11^th when I attended their Christmas concert.  Now I agree with everyone.  They are amazing.

The choir is made up of students from all four grades.  There is probably close to 100 members, including four of my students Andrew, John, Neemia, and Tala.  The choir sang both Christmas and patriotic songs.  The best song of the night was God Bless the USA.  It brought tears to my eyes.  Sadly though I did not record it, however, I heard that the choir sells CDs as a fundraiser.  They also sand To God Be the Glory in Samoan.  The student’s voices are beautiful and harmonize so well.  The Swing Choir could easily compete with any state side choir.

The students were also extremely focus, more focused than I’ve ever seen them.  My four students in the choir never even focus half that much in class.

The concert turned into a mini fundraiser.  As the students sang people threw money onto the stage.  Throughout the concert the names of people ho donated and the amount donated were read aloud.  I was proud that I was able to translate most of the amounts said.

In typical Samoa fashion we were feed.  As we left we were given boxed lunches of egg sandwich, bongos, and cake.  

Here are two of the videos.