Saturday, December 5, 2009

Prizegiving

Samoan graduation is called prizegiving. Here at Tuasivi College we had our ceremony on Friday. The Director of Education for all Congregational Christian schools, the head of the Education Committee, students, teachers, and parents all came, as well as our most honored guest, Reverend Oka Fauolo, the leader of all the churches in Samoa.

The top student in each subject for each year (Years 9-13) get a prize, as well as the best overall student in each year, the most improved, sportsman and sportswoman of the year, and so on and so on. For computer studies the best students in each year got a 2 GB flash drive, a book on Microsoft Word, some new notebooks, and a few pens. I got the flash drives when I was in America for $10 each and I think the kids were really happy with them because in Samoa they are really expensive, the equivalent of about $60 or $70 US dollars.

After each winning student’s name was called they walked up to the stage and got their prize. Then members of the families came and put necklaces made of candy and other snacks around their necks. I think it was one of my favorite parts of this whole year, seeing parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers so proud of their students.

Tuasivi being a church school and all, we had a minister say a prayer, sang some hymns, and then our guests gave speeches. The principal also gave a report on the whole school year, including how many students enrolled every semester, and other strange facts I don’t think anyone wanted to know. Then the Year 13 students who were graduating sang a farewell/thank you song, followed by the Year 9-12 students singing Christmas songs and ending with a remixed We Are The World by Michael Jackson. After the ceremony, the teachers got together and ate a meal provided by the students’ families. All in all pretty awesome. I’m already looking forward to next year’s.


I had some free time before things started so I took picture of some of the teachers. Here's Koveli Peseta, math teacher, on piano.


Kirisimasi (Christmas) Fiti, history teacher.


Numia, Samoan language teacher, and Kirisimasi (it's a popular one) Sani, physics.


Papu, biology and Olita, english.


I call this one the rookie card. (Note our matching shirts.)


Students sitting in front, with parents in the back. It was a full house.


Year 13 students got upgraded to chairs. The students always sit on the floor so this was a big upgrade I thought. It's nice to be graduating!



Year 12 student Christina, demonstrating the candy necklace idea. She won best overall in Year 12, best in Computer Studies, English, and a few other categories as well.



Year 13 computer student Ieti, counting out cooked pigs donated for our lunch. There were eight!



Each one got cut up in to 5 parts (it's the Samoan way) and handed out.



Half of the Year 13 graduating computer students. From the left, Noruwa, Ieti, Faatafa in front, Vaimoli, and Lagi.


Mugging for the camera with Vaimoli.



Faatafa felt the fence was a better background for our photo.



Year 13 2009 students. Congratulations guys!

Friday, December 4, 2009

The Pulu Tree

It was stormy and windy, so that made me think it was lightning. It wasn't. One of the HUGE pulu trees next to my house came crashing down this week. No one was hurt (thankfully it was after school) but it did block the only road in. With prizegiving coming up on Friday it obviously had to be cleaned up as soon as possible. The next morning at 6:30 I was whisked out of my slumber by the soft hum of three chainsaws. About 12 hours later they had it taken care of. I've never see so much firewood in my life.


The fallen tree on the left, and after it got cleaned up on the right.



There is a line of five pulu trees in a row by the ocean. They are huge (have I mentioned this?). On the left is in 2008 when I first came to Tuasivi. The middle is about a month ago, you can see the tree on the left side is dying. The last picture is the new view. My house makes an appearance in pictures 1 and 3 to the right of the coconut tree.

A Few Pictures


Me with sisters Numia (left) and Paosia (right).



Found these in the store. So weird.



LS, a missionary and fellow teacher, invited Taylor and I over for dinner a while back. She's just an awesome neighbor like that.



The big island of Savaii as seen from the ferry.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Tatou Aiga Faiaoga

I lost count how many times I’ve said to PCV Matt that Samoa is the smallest country in the world. I feel this way not because Samoa is literally small (although it is) but mainly because of how often I run into someone who is related to someone else I know, or worked with them, or they went to school together in Apia. It’s insane really. People talk of six degrees of separation but here it’s more like two.

To illustrate my point, I created the relationship doughnut below.


Every time we have a meeting at school our principal inevitably makes reference to “Tatou Aiga Faiaoga,” meaning our teacher family. I always thought this was a nice way for him to foster some sort of community building. But as with many things here, it goes deeper than that. I found out recently how deep the rabbit hole goes.


Teachers Ioane and Mele are cousins who are related to Fotu, the librarian, because Fotu is married to Mele’s brother.


Our headmistress Fono, is somehow distantly related to Paosia and Numia. Numia and Paosia are sisters (surprise, surprise, I had no idea until about a month ago). The three of them are also related in some way to Magele, but how exactly I don’t know (maybe he is second cousins with Fono??).


Sinapati, the bus driver, is Tiapepe’s father-in-law and their families share a house together.


Now, these are just the ones I know. It’s strange to me how I could have worked and lived here for a year and not known most of this. I talk with the teachers, ask them about their lives, but these things aren’t mentioned outright. Everyone just knows. And now I know the truth behind Tatou Aiga Faiaoga.



Sunday, November 8, 2009

My Roommates

Ocean breeze, palm trees, beautiful views – island life definitely has its bonuses. I live right next to the ocean in what is probably the coolest house I will ever live in. It’s all good, right? Well, part of living on an island with tropical heat means you don’t have real windows, and part of living in a developing country means maybe your house isn’t as impervious to insect and invertebrate intruders as one might like. Holes abound in my siding and life flourishes here. So without further ado, I’d like you to meet my roommates:



The Crab. Usually lives outside, but one night decided to pay me a very neighborly visit and come on in.


The Baby Gecko. Small, cute, gets to be MUCH bigger. You’ll see.



The Spider. Holy crap.



The Black Lizard. Enjoys coconuts?



The Hermit Crab. Apparently not much of a hermit, it prefers my company and decided to join me in the house.



Godzilla. He is longer than two squares of a chain link fence and lives in my bathroom. It sounds like a cavalry charge when he runs thumping along my walls.



The Ants. There is no escaping them. You leave it, they will eat it.