Happy Halloween!

Hello! I hope everyone had a lovely Halloween. Yesterday we met some friends at a bar on the beach called Tisa's. They were having a Tattoo Festival. There were a couple of people there getting the traditional Samoan tattoo, which is done by stretching the skin tight and tapping on it with a boar's tooth dipped in ink to break the skin. You could go right up and see the guy getting it done. It did not look like fun.

On our walk back home 8 of John's students ambushed us from a plantation right by the road (in a fun way) and walked up the mountain to our house with us to get candy. They didn't really have costumes, per se, but they were still pretty cute. After that, we only had one more bunch of trick-or-treaters.

Living here continues to be a challenge, and many of you know that I in particular have been struggling. The good news is that I have been making some positive changes that I think will help. The biggest challenge for both John and I is school. Just staying positive in such a crazy environment. I shouldn't post specific examples in such a public place, but if you want some stories e-mail me and I will be happy to regale you.

Posting pictures soon!

Take care, everyone!

Hi. First, many thanks to all of you who have been so darn nice about your concerns for everyone on the island. Things are still rough in certain parts of the country, but more aid is coming in. FEMA tents are popping up all around, and there are organizations delivering supplies as well. Water is still not safe anywhere, so we have been boiling all of our water.



Many of the other volunteers are affected. Some are teaching in the dark because power is being rerouted. "The other married couple" here are teaching in gymnasiums so many of them are lacking basic school supplies, which is very frustrating for them. The students at the schools where John and I teach are pretty much unaffected since they all live on the same mountain as we do.

One of the volunteers here, Jessie, teaches at a high school whose students have been deeply effected by the tsunami. She has started a relief fund for the students and families at her high school. This is a great way to donate and be sure that all of the money will go directly to those in need. Trying to volunteer here is still difficult because things are so disorganized, but we are hoping to help Jessie purchase and deliver supplies for her project.

Visit to make donations http://www.firstgiving.com/astsunamirelief.

On a lighter note, John and I attended the White Sunday service at a local Catholic Church yesterday. It is a day all over the island where all of the children wear white and put on little plays for the congregation. Most of the service was in Samoan, but we still got the idea. I saw a bunch of my students and it was great to see them in an out-of-school context, with their families at church. I will post pictures from White Sunday soon.

Bye!

Update

Hello all. As most of you know, on Tuesday morning there was an earthquake on a fault line in the Pacific that we felt on American Samoa. First, a little background on the geography of the islands to avoid confusion. John and I live on Tutuila, the main island of American Samoa. The outer islands in American Samoa are called Manu'a. The Manu'a islands were unaffected. There is also a different group of islands called Western Samoa. Western Samoa is often referred to as Independent Samoa or just Samoa. So when you hear the news reporting on Samoa, that isn't where we live, we live in American Samoa. The city of Apia, where there was great devastation, is in Western Samoa. I know it's confusing, I just think it helps to know what is actually happening where.

On Tuesday morning, I got a ride to work with another teacher. We were in a small bakery a little before 7:00 a.m. buying breakfast when we felt the earthquake. We left the bakery until the earthquake stopped. We were able to stand in the parking lot while it ended. We felt the shaking for about 4 minutes. Then we drove to work and got ready for the day. When I was in my classroom, the teachers told us all to bring the kids down for an assembly. We got news of the tsunami and dismissed the students for the day to find their families. I know all of the educators reading this are wondering how you can just let hundreds of elementary students literally run home in an emergency without notifying their parents, but that's just the Samoan way.

I teach in the village of Aloau, which is on top of a mountain and therefore very safe. John teaches nearer to the base of the mountain and we live in-between. By the time I left my school a few minutes later, the top of the mountain looked like a parking lot. Pickup trucks full of people were coming up the mountain for safety. Another teacher and I drove (very slowly, because of the traffic) down the mountain because she needed to pick up her kids and I needed to find John. I waited at John's school with him until all of the kids were picked up and we went home to wait for more news.

John and I don't have a T.V. or radio, so most of the information we got was through the, "coconut wireless," the way news typically travels on the island. Luckily, our Internet was working (it is very unreliable) so we e-mailed a few people back home and asked them to spread word of our safety. We also contacted our Field Director and learned that the rest of the volunteers were also safe.

Yesterday, Wed., we reported to our schools but they didn't need us so we met up back at home. John and I went to the local chapter of the Red Cross in the afternoon. We loaded up some pickup trucks with donated McDonalds and drove into Pago Pago (the capitol city), which is the biggest city on Tutuila. The photos above are from Pago Pago. Then we drove over an hour to the east side of the island, which is more rural and also hit hard by the waves. There is currently no electricity on the east side. There is a shelter (really just a generous guy's house) tucked way back in the jungle. We dropped off the rest of the food there. The relief efforts are really disorganized, but there are people coming from off island soon that have more experience in disaster relief so that should be a big help.

The strangest thing is that some parts of the island, like our village, have been completely unaffected, while others lie in ruin. One thing that has impressed me since we first got here is the way that people care for each other. You won't find any homelessness or street children here because of the incredible family structure. Everyone knows each other or is related, so they watch out for one another. So, from what I can tell, the situation is tragic, but not desperate. The other side to that coin, though, is that almost everyone knows people who were injured or killed or left homeless, so no one is unaffected.

I read an essay a while ago (I don't remember the author) about a family that had been stricken with unimaginable bad luck. The author tells her sister, "What that family needs is grace", and the sister responds, "What that family needs is casseroles". And the author concludes that there isn't much of a difference. The wave of concern and the acts of helping are born of the same spirit. So I think that the best response to these events is twofold: sending lots of positive thoughts, energies or prayers to whoever you believe listens, along with whatever resources you can spare at the moment, to whatever aid organization you trust. I know that the Red Cross and Oxfam both have teams on the way.

Sorry that this was so verbose--I understand that many of you are hungry for details that we haven't been able to provide recently, so I hope this helped. We'll try to stay in contact over the coming days. Again, John and I are fine. Thanks for all of the concern.

We made it.

Hi all. First, let me congratulate our friends Shaun and Marri who (as far as I know) wed on Saturday. I think I speak for everyone when I say, “We need to see some pictures.” Also, have an incredible adventure together in the UAE!

As for John and I, we arrived in Samoa safe and sound. It has been a long couple of days but I am really happy to be here. For now, we are staying at a high school in Tafuna for our two weeks of orientation. We are sleeping on mats on the floor and getting to know one another. I think that we have a really great group, 35 people who are mostly are well traveled and enthusiastic about being here.

Monday, we spent the morning at a cultural center’s summer school, and had some hands on fun learning Samoan dance, weaving, and painting. Everyone was very kind and eager to help us learn. AND, after only 36 hours in Samoa, our Johnny made the front page of the Samoan News! He is weaving with a local woman, like you do…

We have been in lots of workshops but also have some free time to tour the island. It is gorgeous! Infested with mean, eager mosquitoes, but gorgeous. We will get our final teaching placements and housing assignments soon, but it looks like we will be between two clusters of volunteers, so there should be lots of people to hang out with. More later, take care everyone!

Info

Hello! I've decided to keep a blog to keep everyone in the know about our year in American Samoa. As I discovered during my time in India, this is a quick and dirty way to keep in touch. I'm hoping to post about once a week.

As most of you know, John and I got married on June 20, and leave this Saturday, July 18th to spend a year as volunteer teachers. John will be teaching 4th grade and I will be with grades 6 and 7. It is common knowledge that I am better with the little ones, but we are trusting the wisdom of WorldTeach International and going with the flow.

There are a couple of other ways to keep in touch. We are online with Skype video conferencing, which is wonderful! I am also on Facebook, and John and I are also hoping to share a cell phone when we get there. More info soon!

love,
Cynthia