The Tuasivi computer lab took quite a beating in October of last year. A power surge managed to break 13 of 14 monitors and computers had flames coming out of their power supplies that you should only see when roasting weenies, competing in a drag race, or watching a NASA space shuttle take off. Oh, and the printer and switch for the network broke also. Like I said it was rough. Needless to say, 2010 looked like a daunting year from where I was sitting when school began in January. Here, you teach Year 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 Computer Studies (about 65 students) with one computer. Yeah, one.

So rather than pity myself and the students too much, I spent a good part of the beginning of this year applying for some UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supplies – a surge protector and battery all in one) from the main office in Apia. At the same time I received some very generous help from Volunteers Supy, AJ, Koa, and Jordan, as well as Returned Volunteer Dylan to get some replacement parts for what had been lost. So a HUGE thanks to all of you.

I also requested new computers and a printer from the main office and received five brand new computers in March along with the printer. LCD flat screens, 500 GB hard drives, 2 GB of RAM. They are super nice. Compare that to the 4 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM computers that I used all last year and it’s like comparing a Ferrari with a Model T.

However, even though those computers are old (some even from the 1990’s!) they still worked just fine and gave more kids the opportunity to learn. So I set about using the parts I got from those very awesome people I listed above and resurrected those dinosaurs. The lab went from one computer to 12 student computers and the server. Basically the year went from impossible to very doable.

Since the computers have been up and working I’ve been teaching my Year 13 students how to do email within our classroom over the network. They’ve learned how to compose, reply, forward, and send and receive attachments. It’s been very rewarding for me because I think it has been one of the most useful things I’ve been able to teach them that they can use in the future.

That said email isn’t really that cool unless you can use it with the Internet. So I decided to sponsor a field trip for my Year 13 students to use the Internet. Today we took a taxi to the main town, Salelologa, where you can use the Internet at several tiny Internet cafes. For all but one of the eight students it was their first time using the Internet! We went to a cafe at a hotel, where there are only two computers (that’s the usual) and checked out what exactly the Internet is all about.

I had them make real email accounts at Gmail, do some Google searches, Wikipedia, and even checked out YouTube. We saw pictures of their favorite celebrities, watched some music videos, and many students sent emails to family and friends living overseas or in Upolu. I’m not sure who had more fun - me or them! It was so cool and I felt most, if not all, wanted to come back another time.

My Year 13 students using the Internet for the first time!

One of the new computers.

On Friday morning we had a sports tournament for all the Savaii high schools. It was far away, on the other side of the island in fact, so we set off early from school at 6 a.m. The girls were going on one bus and I was riding on the school bus with the all the boys. On our way there, after about an hour of driving, another bus approached coming from the other direction. As we passed, the two buses scraped together with a sound like driving over gravel. Then I heard the yelling. Boys in the back were yelling to pull over the bus. Two boys who had been resting their arms on the windowsill were bleeding all over the seats and had broken arms. Another boy had injured his middle finger. We asked a family nearby for their truck and the boys were driven the hospital. It wasn’t until we arrived at the sports tournament that I heard what happened on the other bus because it had kept driving. An old man had his arm severed at the elbow and it had been lying in the road. It was taken to the hospital from what I hear, but Samoan hospitals even in Apia don’t have the capability to reattach it. As told to me, the old man was lototele (courageous, brave) when it happened and had his arm wrapped in a lavalava (sarong) and was talking the whole time. This definitely took the air out of a day all the boys had been looking forward to and our two best Under 17 rugby players were the ones with the broken arms. I heard today one of the boys is in Apia to get his arm fixed at the main national hospital along with the old man. The other boy is doing well in Savaii at the regional hospital. Our teams still played and the rugby team made it to the semi-final round.

And now some pictures of the tournament and the last month.

Tuasivi girls playing volleyball.

The boys playing rugby.

A spectator from the tournament. This is for the Samoan speakers out there.

Dan, Paul, and Tui watching rugby from the grand stand.

Recently PCV Matt informed me that he was checking out the new Jason’s Visitor Guide for Samoa 2010 and he was pretty sure it was my host brother, Akeripa, on the cover. Matt’s host family is related to mine and he has seen Akeripa many times so I figured he was probably right, but was still a bit skeptical. My skepticism mainly stemmed from the fact that Akeripa lives at his family’s house in our rural host village of Fausaga – how would he end up on the cover of the brochure for all of Samoa?! Who took the picture?? But I got a copy and Matt was right – it’s him! Samoa is a mysterious place sometimes. If you want to read more about Akeripa, click here, and read my short host family profile of him.

Akeripa and I back when I was living in Fausaga.

Sure enough, there he is on the left. Good eye Matt! Malo Akeripa!

He’s doing the same hand sign!

At the end of the school year in 2009, fellow Volunteer Max invited me to visit his village hoping I would act as cameraman for his fa’amavae (or farewell party) at his school. I happily agreed and unsurprisingly had a great time. Congratulations to Max for making it two years and for all the excellent work. Professor Max.

Max with his principal. His lack of smile in this photo doesn't show how much he really loves Max!

In December I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to stay with my host family again. I lived with them the first three months I was in Samoa and loved my time with them. Going back is always refreshing and full of laughs. This time was even more meaningful because I met my namesake Filipo! Filipo is the Samoan translation of Philip. He is the son of my host sister, Tuese, and was born last fall. She decided to name him after me which was quite an honor. I’m sure he’ll do the name proud! (Side note: these pictures are from my 24th birthday!)

Tuese and Filipo

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

AJ came over after the power spike and helped me check the damage to the computers. All told 13 of 14 monitors are dead, along with 10 power supplies, one network switch and one printer. I wrote a report for the Director of Education requesting to get our computers fixed or get new computers. They are having a meeting this month and will talk about the possible options then. So now it’s just wait and see.

Since I last blogged, to say a lot has happened in Samoa would be an understatement of the most severe kind. Of course, like much of the rest of the world we had our Swine Flu scare in September, but apparently that was a warm up. There was a hotel fire at Tusitala that burnt it to the ground, an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the Congregational Church main office in Apia, an 8.3 strength earthquake, and the subsequent tsunami that devastated the southern coast of the island of Upolu.

That was my introduction to my newest blog before this morning. Then something much closer to home struck. Right after fifth period, the power went out, then seconds later came back on, and I stood there watching my computer lab (14 networked computers) go up in smoke. Literally, the power supplies and monitors filled the room with the smoke. Not the mention the flames bursting, yes bursting, out of some of the power supplies. I have little hope the computers are salvageable except for a few parts.

After explaining what I saw to PCV Paul, a man much more experienced in things electrical than I, he and I both felt it was a power surge, and that after the initial power loss, perhaps the power came back unregulated, and obviously too strong. There is a fuse box, but none of the fuses blew, which leads me to believe it’s broken. I had the principal and vice-principal look at the damage. All the other teachers were comforting saying it wasn’t my fault and not to worry. My principal even said I should go relax, there was nothing to do. Their Samoan outlook was much better equipped to handle this sort of situation than mine. I, however, could not help but think was a waste it was. Wasted computers for the kids to learn with, and wasted hours spent working to improve the lab.

As for the next step, I have to continue preparing the kids for their final exams in two weeks. It will be a little harder, but thankfully we have already finished all of the practical work that requires a computer. In the long term, I’ll have to look in to getting new computers from the church. The decision will have to go through several committees and be approved. So I’m not expecting anything until at least next year. I’ll keep you posted.

And now for some photos (Sorry, none of the lab on fire).

Fellow teacher, Terry, came over with his broken printer last Friday. I told him I had no real experience fixing printers. He didn’t care, neither did he, he said. (He’s a funny guy like that.) So we proceeded to take it apart, both of us knowing the other had no clue what he was doing. As you can imagine, we were unsuccessful in fixing it.

Art Benavie, UNC professor and the mastermind behind the freshman seminar The War on Drugs. Crang will remember taking it with me. Three hours a week with Professor Benavie inquiring into student’s drug habits and “personal narratives”. Five years later, by sheer fortuitous chance, I read in magazine that he wrote a book! Drugs: America’s Holy War. I would love to read this book. It would be hilarious.

I just recently finished hanging all of the Year 12 and 13 students’ major projects in desktop-publishing on the walls in the lab. I took this picture this morning – it’s the last one of the lab in working order.

After talking recently with PCV Max, a fellow computer teacher on Savaii, he pushed me to write this blog about all the strange, yet true things that happen with computers here in Samoa. As a computer teacher, that basically means anytime someone’s computer breaks (or fax machine, or copier, or printer) they often bring it to me (or another Peace Corps computer teacher) to fix. And why not? Our help is free, whereas other tech support, only to be found in Apia, is very expensive and not very supportive. Now, if you remember me as someone who was not particularly knowledgeable about fixing computers in America before I left, I certainly won’t be the one to correct you. However, due to the sheer number of busted computers I am forced to look at on a weekly basis, my skills have greatly improved.

First, the laptop with the screen upside down. It looked like this:

What do you do? Well, I looked in display settings; couldn’t find anything. Then I thought hey, System Restore might fix it, so I tried that and it worked. Later, I talked to the above mentioned Max (my computer guru) and he blew my mind by telling me it was a keyboard shortcut on some computers. And then he re-blew my mind when he knew, from memory, that it was CTRL + ALT + Up. Who the hell knows that? And who the hell needs a keyboard shortcut that flips their screen upside down??

I work at a mission school and many of my co-teachers are church ministers. Church ministers are well-off in Samoa and many of them have laptops. Few do anything to guard their computers from viruses. Take for example, the computer of one such person, which contained such crazy viruses that it would shut any window of significance that you tried to open (msconfig, regedit, an antivirus that I tried installing). The kicker is that I only had one afternoon to look at it because said person’s cousin needed the battery charger in Apia the next day. So what do you do? Well rather than waste a lot of time, I reinstalled his operating system. In the process of backing-up all of the files, there was a, how shall we say? - an adult section. Do you copy it? Do you not? Ahh, Peace Corps how you challenge me.

As you might guess, church ministers have many church minister friends. Even though they don’t teach at my school, that doesn’t mean their computers are any less busted. Take this story as an example:

Church minister: “Yo brother Owen, I need you to come fix my friend’s laptop.” Me: “OK, well maybe I can come after school.” CM: “No, we’re going in 5 minutes, I already talked to the principal about it.”

So I get in the truck (I had already finished teaching for the day) and we head over to this man’s house. It’s not clear what the problem is with the computer. “It’s really slow,” the man says to me when we arrive. So I poke around a little bit and sure enough it is ridiculously slow. I mean like god-awful slow. I open the Control Panel and go to Add or Remove Programs, and lo-and-behold there is a program installed called The Amazing Slow-Downer. “What the hell?” I say to myself. “Who would ever put this on their computer?” Anyway, I delete it and boom, the computer is fast again. Good work - I am the computer master. Or so they tell me. But good luck like that can only last so long in Samoa.

The hard drive is also almost full so I delete some more programs, then all of the sudden the computer shuts down right as I delete one. “Hmmm, that’s strange,” I think to myself. The computer reboots and EVERYTHING is in the font Wingdings. It looks like this! The Start menu, every program, even the clock!! I can’t read anything. After a series of failures on my part to remedy this, I Google the problem, export the fonts registry from a working computer, put it in the Wingdings computer, open it, restart and Voila! It’s all good.

When I got my assignment to be a Computer Studies teacher in Samoa, I wasn’t really expecting to be fixing computers left and right. I was more expecting to be teaching (silly me and my expectations). However, the reality is a considerable amount of my time is spent doing just that. Other Volunteers, at least here on Savaii, have similar experiences. It’s not my favorite of living and working here, but it does offer some very unique stories!

And now for some pictures.

In addition to my garden outside, I started growing some things inside, just to give them a head start. Pumpkins, tomatoes, two type of chillies, and coriander.

I was gifted with a sizable leg of pork. Jealous? Didn’t think so.

Somebody’s gotta cut this thing up.

The finished product.

This is a new book that my Dad sent me – no more than 2 months old. Look closely in the red circles and you can see the termites!

This past Sunday there were literally thousands of these tiny bugs flying around inside my house, into my ear, and up my nose. I went to bed, and when I woke up they were all dead on my kitchen table. It was like Christmas in September.

So seeing as how it has been a long, long time since I posted, here are some pictures from the last two months of my Samoan life.

A NZ Air Force helicopter landed in our rugby field yesterday. I couldn't find out why.

PCVs AJ and Paul, and Taylor! She made BBQ chicken pizza and it was delicious.

Late one night I was gifted with a wheelbarrow full of bananas from a small boy. Again, I don't know why.

PCVs AJ, Paul, and I making my backyard look nice by burning some rubbish.

Taylor and I in our church clothes. All white is all the fashion.

Supy and I hanging out on the new bridge at the waterfall.

Taylor and I spending some time in a faleo'o.

My freezer periodically ices over (read: every week). I have to take a knife and hack out all the extra ice.

UNC won the NCAA basketball tournment!

I have crabs. They are all over my backyard, and my frontyard. And they are constantly digging holes which I trip over and in. They piss me off. So one day I threw my machete at one sitting on top of its precious hole and chopped two arms/legs off. Take that.

I discovered an absolutely HUGE anthill underneath my living room floor which I proceeded to nuke after getting over my fear of it.

If pictures are worth a thousand words then that's a 11,000 word blog entry I just typed. Not bad, not bad at all. I'll try and keep them coming more regularly.

This past month we have spent every Friday doing some sort of athletics event. Once it was in Apia, once at Tuasivi, once at Prince Edward Park near PCV AJ's school. This means lots of training after school for the kids, and 4 day weeks for me. Here are some photos from the one at Tuasivi:

This girl is running a relay. She has the baton in one hand and a candycane in the other. She was eating the candycane before, during, and after her leg of the relay.

I was one of the official timers for the day. ~ 6 hours in the Pacific suns sucks.

Cool colors on my camera.

And again.

And again.

Future Champ of Champs All-Star perhaps.

He's stretching! (Note: this is not common...)

Shotput.

Our "track" was cut into the field with a weedwhacker the night before.

Javelin.

And again with the javelin.

Computer student doing the high jump. Yeah!

Athletes.

Some of the boys.

Some student spectators.

The first term of school is finished on Friday. It has been 15 very interesting weeks of getting accustomed to school life in Samoa. This week, there are no classes for the Year 9, 10, and 11 students because we are preparing for Thursday’s Culture Day. It is basically a day where the students dance, sing, and make food in the traditional way. They have to bring live pigs, chickens, fish, taro, breadfruit, and coconuts for the event. The students are divided into four houses: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. Tonight I am storing the pig and chickens of the Green House in my house. Needless to say, tomorrow is going to be an awesome day and trust that I will post pictures next time I blog.

On Friday my Year 12 Computer Studies students have their CAT (Common Assessment Task) – a national practical test for word-processing (using MS Word and formatting paragraphs and all that). Since there are just seven students I think they’ve got enough practice and one-on-one instruction from me to all get 100%. But the thing about Samoa is that you never see some things coming.

Take for example the theory exams I gave my Year 12 and 13 students last week. It was essentially a cumulative test for the first term. Both exams were out of 70 points. I had one student in Year 12 get 70 out of 70. There were some students who got 20-something out of 70. I can’t seem to reconcile the fact that I see them all in class everyday, they all take notes, I check to make sure they all took notes, and then somehow there are students that get destroyed by a test that is taken directly from the notes. Perhaps Term 2 will reveal the answer to me.

However, most of my students did well and I really enjoy teaching them. With the help of PCV Max, the computer lab now has an e-mail program, a Samoan-English dictionary, and Wikipedia Selection for schools on our intranet. That means that even without the internet my students are still learning to be adept with the workings of forward, reply, attach, surf, and research. It’s gratifying knowing that when they reach the internet they will know exactly what to do!

Other than working at school, I’ve been working in my garden and spending time in the faleo’o (Samoan hut with no walls, just a roof) that was built next to my house. It’s an awesome place to read a book or just enjoy the breeze.

As for the title of this post, it means “Perseverance and Love” and it’s our school motto. This term has definitely encompassed both. Some times I love it; some times I have to persevere. I guess what I’ve learned so far is that either way, it all comes out all right in the end.

Last but not least, I’ve got a new mailing address. Write me and I promise to write you back!

Philip Owen Peace Corps Samoa Private Mail Box 7139 Salelologa, Savaii Western Samoa South Pacific

The Year 13 boys. From left to right in the back: Noruwa, Mendeleev, Isaako, and Faatafa. Aleni and Ieti in front.

The Year 13 girls. From left to right: Maria, Ateileen, Vaimoli (front), Senia, Siauvaa, Faamao, and Lagi.

Year 13 students. All I said was “Smile!”

P.S. This is the room where I work everyday!

The Year 12 boys. Tuitagi on the left and Loama on the right.

The Year 12 girls. From left to right: Faateaina, Maria, Vii, Tioata, and Christina.

Our school bus – check out the flames on the front! That kicks the crap out of any yellow school bus.

Just a cool picture I took. Three o’clock in the afternoon and the moon is out. Also, I thought the palm trees looked like they were burning from the clouds behind them.

Faleo’o construction: Day 1 - the posts and the roof.

Faleo’o construction: Day 2 - and it’s finished! It all happened so fast…

Last weekend, after about four and a half months of debating, I broke down and bought a spear to go spear-fishing. I was hooked ever since my host father used to go out daily and bring back lunch or dinner. But I never was able to go with him, and it nagged at my brain. Spear-fishing, I thought – it has to be as awesome as I imagine it. I put it off, and put it off, but still I wanted to try it. On Monday, once my after-school class was finished, I headed out. Rash guard, snorkel, fins, spear, and the instincts of my ancestors all set to bear down on some unsuspecting fish. I spent two and a half hours in the reef behind my house. I caught one (1) fish. I was under-whelmed, to say the least, about the size of my catch. But, as they say, it’s about the pursuit of happiness, not attaining it. And honestly, I was the happiest I’ve been in Samoa when I was out there. This week I have plans to head out again for some night fishing (“lama” in Samoan) with one of my fellow teachers. I am excited about the potential of this trip, and respectfully fearful of heading out into the ocean at night. But not to worry – I’ve got my Samoan guide, Unasa; the fact that many, many Samoan men do this same thing every day of every week; and oh yea, I know how to swim pretty well too! [So really don’t worry Mom, I’ll be OK.] I’ll give you an update on how it goes next time I blog.

As you’ll soon see, I apparently have much more to fear from the land than from the sea. From about mid-February to the beginning of March I had a nasty infection in my right pointer finger. How did this start you ask? I don’t know. How do you not know? I don’t know. All I know is that it got infected a little, a lot, and then basically exploded. As my fellow Savai’ian PCV, Nick, says, “Samoa is like one giant Petri dish. It’s hot, it’s wet, and stuff loves to grow.” Lucky for me, the hospital on my island is literally a four minute walk from my house. The nurses and I are now on a first-name basis. Interesting, hospital care in Samoa is incredibly cheap compared to the U.S. I saw the doctor twice, got three antibiotics, and changed the bandage on at least five separate occasions. It cost me $25 tala (about $9 dollars). Sweet. Not sweet was the minor surgery (I’m exaggerating, but only slightly) they performed on my finger after a week of antibiotics and no improvement. I got a needle (full of local anesthetic) stuck into my already painful, swollen, pus-filled finger six times. This is a pain I had not known before, and hope to never know again. Without getting too graphic, to allow the pus to drain better the part where the fingerprint is was taken off with a scalpel. It felt like giving blood while sticking my hand into a fan blade. It sucked. But before anyone gets too worried, as of today my finger is healed and back to normal! Chalk down another point for modern medicine.

Obviously, while my finger was on the mend I rested and took things easy. My neighbor (an Indian missionary) has a TV, and Samoa has 3 TV channels. So I’ve been watching American Idol on a fairly regular basis, and the Oscars (and Obama’s inauguration back in January!). But other than that the programming is pretty weak. Similarly, my parents sent me a radio and I tried in vain to get it to work. I couldn’t find a spot in the house with anything resembling decent reception. That is until I extended the antenna with a finely-crafted pair of aluminum foil bunny ears. Now music fills the house at all hours of the day and definitely helps pass the (sometimes) boring hours in Samoa.

Teaching is going well, with some troubles along the way (it is Peace Corps right?). I’m teaching Years 12 and 13 and this past week I had to ban some students from class because they haven’t paid their $20 tala computer class fee. It’s Week 8 of school. Being somewhat naïve I assumed that everything was good, all bills had been paid, and that the school year was well under way. Not the case, as my principal informed me last Monday. So my Year 12 class went from thirteen students to seven. Yesterday it went from seven to six after one student earned a two week suspension for fighting. Not cool. Year 13 was a bit better, only one student hasn’t paid. But still, it was really hard to accept the fact that their education in computers was put on pause, or in some cases, all together stopped, and I had to be the one to do it. “That’s the way it is,” in the words of my principal. And I guess it is.

My awesome radio. Check out that foil antenna!

My finger - good as new.

Back at home after meeting the scalpel. Not happy.

Taken on Monday, right before I went out for the first time. And yeah, that spear is longer than I am tall. (And why am I not wearing a shirt in the last two pictures you ask? Because Samoa is the hottest place ever. And when you do your laundry in a bucket, it really matters how many shirts you have to wash!)

The last month has brought some considerable changes to my life, mainly the fact that I actually started doing what I was brought to Samoa to do. So only four months after I arrived I became a computer studies teacher for Year 12 and 13 high school students on January 26. It’s a strange feeling to be the one dishing out facts and definitions in school rather than receiving them.

I also got robbed for the first time in my life. This is a first for the school my vice principal tells me – and he’s lived here for 27 years so he would know. The thief made off with some of PCV Matt’s stuff, who unluckily had stayed the night. After a month of not hearing back from the police, I figured it was a lost cause. Then this past week they showed up at my house, with all of the stuff (Ipod, digital camera, etc) and it all still worked. Amazing. I’m not sure that could happen in the U.S.

I ate shark and raw sea urchins and sea cucumbers. I saw the most beautiful waterfall of my life. I made friends with the two dogs who live on the school compound with me and they stop by the house every night for something to eat. But of course it is not all sandy beaches and swaying coconut trees. Some not-so-pleasant moments have tested me. But so far thinking of them as just that, only moments, has preserved my sanity.

When I get the chance I’ve been swimming in the ocean, or reading, or just relaxing, but school has started to keep me busy. Planning the next day’s lessons or writing a quiz or staying after school to keep the lab open so kids who haven’t caught their bus yet can come and use the computers eats up the hours of the day without me even knowing it. It boggles my mind that in a few short months I will have graduated one year ago. Vave taimi. Time flies.

A stormy picture of the island of Upolu, sandwiched between the ocean and the sky.

Tua, he has a fish pen in the ocean behind my house. Just dropping by to give me a fish and show me the shark he caught. I eat lunch with him and his family every Sunday. (Notice his canoe on the left side of his body in the water behind him.)

The waterfall – with PCVs Dan and Paul on the middle right, about to jump.

So since I didn’t start blogging until the New Year I thought that a description of the people I've been spending most of the last two months with was in order. Here goes my Samoan family:

Kulua – the matriarch of the family. She is Isa’ako’s mother and at age 75 does more around the house than any older woman I’ve ever seen. On a given day you could expect to see her weaving a fine mat, weeding around the house, feeding the chickens, and on and on. She has a bad back for which she drinks a strange Samoan herbal remedy that I would hesitate to try. Apparently she swore off smoking hoping it would help with the pain as well as it being a sort of barter with God. So wasn’t I surprised when I saw her smoking like a Las Vegas gambler one afternoon. Almost two months I had lived with her and never knew. She has lots of sons (4+ maybe?) and some daughters. It’s really hard to pin down numbers and familial relationships in Samoa. It’s all one big family and she is the mom.

Isa’ako – my host father, age 51, balding, an easy laugh, or more like a giggle, and really bloodshot eyes. For a long time I doubted whether he could see very well at all. Then I saw him reading a newspaper. He spends his days fishing in the ocean (fagota) or at night (lama) not with a pole, but with a spear. He is also the treasurer for the Congregational Church in Fausaga, collecting donations in front of the church before morning service on Sundays. He runs Friday night bingo and smokes cigarettes like a champ. His wife, Lefulefua, died in 2000 (?) leaving 6 kids.

Logova – he is Isa’ako’s oldest son, age approximately 25. He works in the plantation growing taro, gathering coconuts, and planting banana trees. He also is a master crab fisherman and goes fishing basically everyday. He loves dancing.

Eni – age 21, an enigma of sorts during my stay. He works in the capital of Apia during the week and I rarely saw him. When we did hang out our conversations revolved around Hollywood movies and how dangerous the U.S. is, his thoughts being that people get shot there every five seconds. It was very hard to convince him otherwise.

Akeripa – age 18. The go-to man if someone in the family needed a chore run for them and didn’t trust a nine year-old to do it. A splash of bleached-blonde hair and a rat-tail with a sea turtle necklace completes my mental picture of him. I burn rap CDs for him that he seems to absolutely love, going as far as to call me once I moved to Savai’i at 11:30 p.m. to make sure I would be bringing another one when I came back to Fausaga.

Tuese – the oldest of Isa’ako’s daughters, age 20, she works at Coconuts Beach Club Resort a few towns over as a waitress. It’s hard to capture her in words. She was such an awesome help to me, explaining things I didn’t understand or just talking and hanging out. She was always trying to get me to try new things or go visit somewhere I hadn’t been.

Tafale – age 19, she just finished school last year and was basically assigned to care for me while I was staying in Fausaga. She cooked many of my meals (quite tasty), ironed, and washed my clothes. I felt bad for her and tried to alleviate as much of that responsibility as possible. That said we ended up spending a lot of time together and becoming good friends. We played cards, watched volleyball and taught each other slang in our respective vocabularies. She’s really smart and I told her I thought she should definitely go back to school. We’ll see what happens.

Fipe – age 12, the youngest daughter, super smart (got third in her class this year) and loves a good laugh. She was cracking up all the time I was there. Except for a week where she got really sick and I thought she was headed to the hospital. But, she pulled through and was back to her old ways. Generally, she plays volleyball in the front yard, squirts her cousins with a squirt gun and is just a kid.

Ta’afi, Soloa, Lili & Ueli – Ta’afi is Isa’ako’s younger brother and is married to Soloa. I thought they only had two kids, Lili, age 7, and Ueli, age 4. I found out in late December after living with them, in the same house, for two months, that they in fact have five kids, three of which are living with Soloa’s family. It blew my mind to say the least, but hey, Samoans’ perspective on family is much larger than my American nuclear family view. Lili starts school next year and seems really happy about it. Ueli runs around the house, takes showers in the rain and plays with toy cars. Ta’afi works at Sinalei Hotel as a groundskeeper for the golf course. Soloa is like Superwoman. Let me explain with a small anecdote: one Saturday I walked to the plantation to get coconuts with her and Tafale. It is a good two and a half mile walk. We headed back and I picked up the stick with 12 coconuts on either end. I’ll estimate its weight at 95 pounds. To carry it you balance it on one shoulder. I walked about ¾ of a mile in the 90 degree heat and 100 percent humidity and just about died. Soloa insisted that she take it. She did. She then walked it the rest of the way home, without stopping, and forever engraved herself in my mind as one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. I woke up the next day with a bruise on my shoulder.

Mele & Elika

Onosa’i, Mele, Winston & Elika – this is another of the small families within the greater extended family. Isa’ako is Onosa’i’s uncle. Onosa’i was raised by Kulua. He is married to Mele and they have two kids. Onosa’i has been my teacher of the fa’aSamoa (the Samoan way). He taught me how to plant banana trees in the plantation, go fishing with a net, tie my lavalava, basically anything and everything. He runs a small store out of the side of our family’s house and hopes it use it to pay for his sons to go to school when they are older. Mele, his wife, works at the Australian Defense in Apia, and has fluent English. If I ever needed to illustrate a specific point she always came through for me. Winston, age 8, does lots of chores around the house, like picking up leaves, and has an awesome siva Samoa (traditional Samoan dance). Elika, age 2, is hilarious. The whole family gets a kick out of watching his antics; usually throwing rocks and running around naked.

All the people listed above lived in the two houses on my family’s property. It is a packed house all day, everyday. It was a definite change to be around people 24/7 but I really enjoyed it by the end. Now that I’m living alone, it’s really damn lonely.

One house down the street lives another of Isa’ako’s brothers, Gasolo. His kids – Lineta, Taua, Sa, Limu and Kepa – were in and out of my family’s house all the time.

I also spent a lot of time with PCV Matt’s family. His host mother, Mele, is Kulua’s sister. Another of Isa’ako’s brothers, Oge (pictured), lives there along with Mele’s daughter, Asolima, and her two kids, Akenese and Leme. In summation, my Samoan family is very, very large and very complex. It took me two months to learn all of these relationships and I’m sure another two months would have been just as revealing. That said, they are awesome and I wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything.

P.S. If you hadn't noticed this blog post is HUGE. I couldn't have posted it with the use of PCV Matt's computer and lava spot pass in Apia. Thanks!

I headed out to end-of-the-earth Savai'i for New Years with some fellow PCVs. Falealupo is one of the closest, if not the closest, places to the International Dateline making it the actual last sunset of 2008 for the whole world. Pretty awesome. Here's where we stayed.

PCVs Rosie, Koa and Supy

Last sunset 2008

PVCs Paul & AJ holding Jim - trying to get some coconuts

A photo for the 2009 calendar perhaps?

Note the family pig, Suka, (sugar) on the left. She eats the leftovers after you're done squeezing it for the coconut cream.

Onosa'i (my cousin) - his name means patience in Samoan. He is awesome.

Kulua (grandma), Fipe (sister), Soloa (aunt) and Tuese (sister)

Tafale (sister)

Tuese (sister) on the left and her best friend Toni