Sala day

Happy end of the school year!!! I survived my first year as Miss Sala (and my first year as a teacher in general). December 11^th officially marked one year since swearing in, and therefore one year in Sili. I can’t believe I’ve lived here for a full year and that the school year is over. Only one year left!

The end of the school year was very busy although no teaching was involved. There were many ceremonies, exams, and cultural celebrations. Our Year 5 teacher at Sili Primary School unfortunately passed away. Mau was only 45 and her three children all attended our school, so that was very sad. I was involved with the funeral and quickly remembered that touching and kissing the frozen dead body is a big part of the ceremony here. Rest in Peace, Mau – hopefully I’ve experienced my only Samoan funerals.

Gorgeous Mau (in black and yellow) loved my dad's visit early this year.

The end of the school year in Samoa involves a large ceremony called Prize Giving. Students are ranked 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc. in their class and it’s announced in front of the whole village. I went to three different Prize Givings this year, which added to the busyness. First, my nieces had their ceremony at the high school. I also attended this last year on my first ever visit to Sili. It was nice to be able to watch two years in a row and see how much more comfortable I was this year. One of my niece’s got first place, so I was a proud Auntie! Sili Pre-School also had a Prize Giving, and I was the guest presenter for this one. The village was so happy to have me present the prizes and I was awarded with a pig at the end of it.

Sili's adorable graduating pre-schoolers!

Finally, it was time for my school’s Prize Giving on December 8^th! This event calls in the entire village and lasts the whole day. We teachers got matching puletasi’s (traditional Samoan outfits) made and each had to present our prizes. I presented prizes for the first place student in each of my ten classes. My prizes were extra special because I teach at-risk students, so they’ve never been called for first place in their lives. It was amazing to see how surprised they were and how happy their parents were as well! I presented all of my prizes while speaking Samoan, so I definitely felt like a member of the village. This time I was awarded multiple pigs, chickens, and cow parts. It was a fun way to end the year with my students and village. I’m going to miss my 8^th grade babies so much next year!

My Sili Primary School crew!

Speaking of ending the year with my village, this past Sunday was declared a holiday called Aso Sā Sala (Sarah’s Sunday). My church dedicated the entire day to me. The children ran the service: songs, bible readings, the sermon, the whole nine yards. Each family presented me with a Samoan gift to thank me for my work this year. I then got up and gave a two-page speech in Samoan! I worked pretty hard on the speech and I think my host parents nearly fainted hearing me speak that much Samoan (I am not good at Samoan). Aso Sā Sala was a huge success and I felt incredibly loved by my village! My niece gave a speech about me and started sobbing to the whole congregation. It’s wonderful to know that all of my time spent integrating this year really did work and pay off. I have my own holiday in Sili now!! I can’t imagine what my permanent departure next year will include.

Family selfie on Aso Sā Sala with all of my gifts.

In life outside of Sili, Group 88 swore in and officially moved to their sites and Group 86 departed and became Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It’s weird being the oldest volunteers here now. We said goodbye to the 9 volunteers who remained in Group 86 and hello to the 20 newbies. Ten got placed on Savai’i, so I’m very excited to make new friends! It’s crazy that this time next year I will be departing for good. It was a fun end of the year in Sili and also with other volunteers. We celebrated Thanksgiving on a private beach swimming with turtles, so we’ve got Samoa figured out at this point. Our second year should be lots of fun and will most likely fly by!

Look at these Peace Corps Samoa pros with only one year left.

I’m currently in the airport awaiting my flight to AMERICA for the first time in 15 months!!!! Tofā Sāmoa, Talofa ‘Amerika!

Girl power

Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) is a worldwide Peace Corps initiative that seeks to empower women and girls through different conferences and camps. It is in coordination with Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative. In Samoa, Peace Corps volunteers have planned annual GLOW conferences for the past 4 years and I was lucky enough to be part of year #5!

Girls Leading Our World!

GLOW Samoa 2016 brought together 20 volunteers, about 70 girls from years 7 and 8, and 22 women counterparts. We came from 22 different villages spread across 3 islands all to the capitol, Apia, Upolu. For my three beautiful girls and one counterpart, traveling to Apia meant leaving our island and going on the ferry. For some, this was the first time ever leaving Savai’i, which is a huge eye-opening moment! The conference was 4 nights and 5 days. It was held at Papauta Girl’s College (an all girls boarding school in Apia). This is a long time to leave your family when you’ve never left home before. I was so honored to accompany these girls and see the impact of this conference.

My Sili girls with the new Miss Samoa!

Day one was career day. We began by traveling to the Samoa Observer, our national newspaper. We got to see how the newspapers are printed and got to hear from several workers about how they got their jobs and what they do there. It was especially great to hear from the women employees who work for the newspaper, proving that these girls can get jobs! After our field trip, we heard from 4 other working women, what they do, and how they got their jobs. This was a wonderful day for the girls! In Samoa, males hold a lot of power and it’s easy to think that women cannot get jobs, so it’s extra special for these girls to hear that they can in fact have a career.

Field trip to the national newspaper.

Day two was health day! We began by taking the girls to hike Mt. Vaea (where Robert Louis Stevenson is buried). Hiking is a very new thing for these girls, but those that made it to the top were so happy and proud! We went from the mountain to the Moanalisa Hotel for a cooking class! Most of these girls have never been to a hotel either, so it was a very exciting day. The cooking class was all about fruits and vegetables. The girls were missing their taro, but happy to help learn and prepare a new meal. After our lunch, the girls got to swim in the hotel pool! Three girls quickly realized they couldn’t swim and I was happy that I’m still technically a lifeguard. Other than that, they had an absolute blast! We came back from the pool to have a visit from the National Rugby League, and a visit from the Special Olympics. It was a very active day, to say the least.

The Samoan Special Olympics visit!

Day three was ending violence day. Violence against women is a major issue in Samoa in particular and this day was dedicated to showing the girls that it does not need to be “normal”. We heard from many speakers about human rights and how to get help. The girls also had self-defense class from a Judo team!! The members who represented Samoa in the Olympics in Rio came and taught the girls some self-defense moves. It was so much fun! We ended the day with a visit from students at the National University of Samoa with a star-weaving project. Australia has put together a project called “A Million Stars to End Violence” and Samoa has agreed to provide 10,000 of those stars. It was awesome for these girls to be a part of the project!

I'm so proud to be part of this in Samoa.

Those were our three big days, and the others were dedicated to traveling/getting to know each other. This was the first time my girls slept in a building with walls! It was their first time sleeping on a bed and they actually all moved their mattresses to the floor because they didn’t like it. We were essentially at summer camp! We stayed up late chatting and playing card games. It was so wonderful for girls from all different villages to be able to meet each other. The girls and counterparts were blown away with the fact that they didn’t have chores to do, so they would diligently clean every building every morning without being asked to. It was such an incredible experience bringing my girls out of Sili and they learned more than I could have imagined!

Me, Leātivā, Momoli, Melissa, and Meaalofa from Sili!

I’m sad our week of summer camp is over, but thankful to be part of such meaningful work here! 

The newbies are here

Happy October (well, now it's technically time for "Goodbye October")! So I guess I really have been in Samoa for over a year, but it’s still blowing my mind. For those of you still following this journey, thank you for sticking with me for a whole YEAR now!

One year dinner with 13 Group 87 members and one Response volunteer!

Group 88 arrived on October 4^th, which really signified the fact that we are now the old and wise ones. One of our medically evacuated volunteers was able to return, so Group 87 is back up to 15. Group 88 came with 21 newbies. They are now in Pre-Service Training, but I am very excited for them to swear in so I can get to know them! Hopefully some will be placed in villages around me, but either way it’ll be nice to have more Americans around. We welcomed their group with an Ava Ceremony and it felt so neat to be on the other side this year. I understood what was being said and done, whereas last year it felt so strange and foreign. It’s crazy to think that one year later I perceived the exact same ceremony in a completely different way. It was entirely normal to me this year!

Group 88 Ava ceremony with 14 Group 87 and 3 Group 86 members.

October in Samoa features the biggest holiday of the year: White Sunday! Growing up, I always wondered why Mother’s and Father’s got their own day, but there was no Children’s Day. Well, Samoa has that figured out because White Sunday is Children’s Day. It’s a day where the children all get new church outfits and lead the church service. Last year in Sa’anapu, I was part of a dance and a play, which made me so nervous; I remember feeling completely out of my comfort zone. This year, I was part of 4 dances and a play, but none of it phased me at all! I’m so used to Samoan performances now. My entire church applauded me after my 2 lines in the play, so they still find it hilarious to have me perform. I did a pretty darn good job, if I do say so myself (and this year I even understood it).

Sala answers the telephone!

We are about halfway into Term 4 now. Samoan standardized tests have begun and it’s mostly preparation for the end of the school year. Standardized testing is a huge deal here in terms of food preparation. We had two visitors administering the tests, so naturally myself and the other teachers spent an entire week preparing meals for them. There were at least 4 pigs and 7 chickens each day that we had to hack up in the teachers’ room; it was quite the scene! Testing lasted about 4 hours each day and the visitors got 5 meals in that time. I’m not sure how the children did on the tests, but at least the visitors weren’t hungry. One morning they even got Palolo! Once a year (every October), Palolo come up from the sea. I’m not sure what they actually are (and don’t have internet to check), but they’re basically bright blue sea worms. Palolo is a very fancy meal here and a huge deal. This year I tried it for the first time! I won’t pretend that eating live worms was fun in the slightest bit, but here’s to me being a true Samoan!

Mmmm nothing like worms for breakfast.

Aside from casually hacking up pigs and eating live worms, I still have some American left in me! Today, I went to coordinate with the volunteer in the village next to mine (Ga’utavai) and we threw a Halloween party for the kids. Halloween is completely unknown here, so we were really combining cultures. The kids absolutely loved making costumes, carving pumpkins, and going trick-or-treating. These are the really fun moments where I’m able to share my childhood with my students.

Miss Sala and Miss Tiana as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Happy Halloween, America! In six weeks, I’ll have officially survived my first year as a teacher.

One year later

ONE YEAR ago today I boarded a plane for Staging in Hawaii! I cannot believe it’s been a full year since I left – this is definitely a huge milestone! Also, Term 3 has come to a close, meaning I’m ¾ of the way through my first year as a teacher! This term I got a lot done within the classroom and really found my groove with teaching primary school, so I’m looking forward to finishing off the year strong.

My precious students during class.

This term featured Literacy Week, which was an entire week essentially dedicated to our mission as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was exciting to promote reading within the whole school! We even had a district competition, featuring a guest appearance by Miss Samoa. We had other district get-togethers (about 8 primary schools), including a Cricket tournament and a professional development day for the teachers. The professional development was extra exciting for me because it was the trainings I had prepared with the Ministry of Education! It was really rewarding seeing our trainings in Apia being executed to the villages.

Miss Samoa reading to the students!

This term, a volunteer two villages away completed a grant for a Creative Learning Center and I was able to help her with it. She obviously did all the work, but after school I would run to her village and help paint. Those of you who know me know that I’m the least creative person there is, but for some reason she trusted me with a paintbrush! It was really exciting for her village and I got to attend the grand opening as well.

Gataivai's new Creative Learning Center!

With my downtime recently, I’ve been spending lots of time at the plantation and doing other Samoan chores. I learned how to make cocoa from the seeds, I perfected my machete skills, and I also improved my carrying coconuts ability. Aside from plantation time, at home I’ve been learning how to make Samoan mats. This is quite the process! So far I’ve learned how to get the leaves ready (trim them, cook them, dry them, and roll them). We haven’t even gotten to the weaving yet! I’m loving the integration and definitely bonding with my family through it all.

Carrying coconuts back home from the plantation.

I was able to have a very nerdy moment away from site as well. A few volunteers and I went on a geology tour of my island (Savai’i). I had seen the island multiple times already (plus I live here), but the tour was wonderful! I learned so much about where I live. To make sure I don’t bore you, I’ll just summarize it. My island is volcanically active and we have over 400 craters. Because of all the volcanic activity, the soil is not old enough for crops to really prosper here, which is why our population is so low. The rise in sea level (from climate change) is actually making Savai’i rise as well. There are parts of the island that have broken off and fault lines where other parts may easily break off as well. Basically, I was wishing I had studied geology! This place is a landmine for it. As part of the tour, we were able to climb the biggest crater on Savai’i: Tofua Crater. Of course, there were plants growing inside of it, but you could still see how deep and wide it was! Living in the crater, there are diurnal bats, meaning we were hiking with bats. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of bats, so I wasn’t too excited that they were awake during the daytime.

On the side of a volcanic crater!

Also on the tour, we went back to several places I love here: the Taga Blowholes, the Saleaula Lava Ruins, etc. I got to see the Letui Peapea Cave for the first time! It wasn’t as crazy as the Dwarf Cave, but still neat to see. Once inside, if you turn off all the flashlights, it really is freaky! I’m not the biggest fan of not being able to see what’s one centimeter in front of my face, so I got out pretty quickly. The geologist tour guide also knew some secret pathways to the coast, which were gorgeous. The coast on this side of the island is all lava rock, which forms really pretty arches as it breaks down over time.

Secret spot on the Savai'i coast.

All in all, ONE YEAR later and I still love exploring and integrating here. There’s always something new to learn and see. I can’t believe it’s been a full year since I’ve been on American soil, but I’ve learned a lot about myself and this beautiful country.

It’s time to welcome in Group 88!

Twenty three

Hello from the older and wiser Sala! I am now officially 23 (and still the youngest volunteer). My 22^nd year of life involved more change than I ever imagined possible, but I’m excited to see what year 23 has in store for me.

I’ve done quite a substantial amount of exploring since my last Samoan blog post. This country really is gorgeous! I was able to see the Papase’ea Sliding Rocks. They’re pretty nifty waterfalls that you can slide down. It was gorgeous!! Of course, me being me, I didn’t end up sliding down any but I figure I still have a while here to try that if I so choose. I also made it back to the Taga Blowholes, which never fail to amaze me. It’s such a gorgeous coastline with water blasting into the air every time there’s a wave!

I'm obsessed!

While my cousin visited, we went all the way to the end of my island. We got to see the last sunset in the country from Fale’alupo. Also down that coast is the Lover’s Leap, which is a legend about a mother and daughter jumping off this very steep and gorgeous cliff. I don’t want to die, so I will never actually jump, but it’s a pretty spot on the coast. We got to see another Samoan legend, Moso’s footprint. The legend is that his right foot is here in Savai’i and his left foot is in Fiji. It was essentially just an indent in the lava rock, but hey it works. One really neat spot at the end of this coast is the Canopy Walk. It involves crossing a bridge made out of ladders connected with cable ties, so it’s a little iffy. We all luckily made it. Once you cross and walk up into the trees, you get a gorgeous view of no man’s land Samoa.

Undeveloped Samoan land.

Along with exploring, I did quite a lot of integrating this summer. I was finally accepted as one of the boys in my family (and super proud of myself for this accomplishment)! As one of the boys, I got to go to our two different plantations. One is rather close, maybe a mile away, and is where we get our coconuts to feed the pigs. I wasn’t allowed to climb the trees (which was a very smart restriction by my family), but I was allowed to carry coconuts back! I brought back 8 coconuts on a stick on my shoulder. My brothers each carry around 20, but 8 was plenty for me. Don’t judge, they’re heavier than they look! Our other plantation is our taro plantation. It’s about 5 miles into the Samoan bush! I honestly would’ve never made it home. There’s so much land that is completely undeveloped here, it would be so easy to be lost for weeks! I’m thankful I had my tour guides (although they decided I couldn’t go to the plantation without my morning tea so yes, they carried a full teapot 5 miles there and 5 miles back, and no I don’t like tea). At the taro plantation, I wasn’t allowed to pick the taro, but I was allowed to weed. I like to tell myself that I saved about 100 taro plants that day. The truth is, they probably would’ve survived even with the vines around them, but I’ll keep telling myself that I helped my family!

I didn't have a camera at the plantation, but here's some of the family!

Once I proved myself at the plantations, my brothers decided it was time to take me fishing! I was ecstatic!! Keep in mind, I am scared of fish, so this was really quite the scene. Our fishing rod was a bamboo stick with mosquito wire tied to it. First, we had to go in the river and catch crawfish for bait. This part wasn’t too bad, but then I was in charge of holding the LIVE crawfish. I had to break them open (still alive) and pull out the meat to use for bait. I tried to be manly, but was definitely out of my comfort zone. Catching the fish was surprisingly easy!! They love crawfish meat, I guess. We caught a total of 6 fish! The one time I was in charge of the bamboo pole, I accidentally flung the pole up and the fish got caught in a tree (oops). Needless to say I wasn’t the best fisherwoman, but I held my own! The fishing trip came to a halt when I caught an eel. Remember how I’m scared of fish? Well, just imagine how I am with eels! One word: no. I held it together pretty well until the eel scenario. Once I pulled up the bamboo and saw the eel, I flung it around and started screaming. The eel got off the hook and essentially became a snake in the grass! This didn’t help the situation and during my panic I actually mis-stepped and nearly fell into the river. My brother ended up tackling me and then finding the eel (heaven forbid we go home without it). So, all in all, we came back with 5 fish, 1 eel, and a couple bruises.

My fishing partner, our fishing rod, and our catch!

To finish off this summer, I had an amazing birthday celebration!! Myself and ten other volunteers rented an island (CASUAL)! Samoa has a bunch of smaller, uninhabited islands and one off the coast of Upulu has huts on it and can be rented. The island is called Namu’a and it is actual paradise. There’s no electricity and you sleep in open huts right on the sand. It was literally just the 11 of us – we actually had our own private island! We made bonfires on the beach at night and went snorkeling in the crystal clear water during the day. We made homemade kanjam and had card games going as well. It was such an incredible celebration! There’s a makeshift path up to the top of the island that we walked up. At the top, you can see 3 other Samoan islands; it’s absolutely breathtaking! There’s also a colony of bats that live up there, which weren’t exactly my favorite. Namu’a is small and secluded, but actually turns out to be bigger than you would think. We thought it would be awesome to walk around our own private island (duh), but that idea didn’t turn out so well. We made it about halfway around when we realized how dangerous it was with the tide coming in. It was us against the Pacific Ocean, which didn’t seem like a good battle to fight so we turned around and luckily made it back safely. Maybe one day at low tide I’ll make it fully around!

Not a bad way to spend a 23rd birthday!

In conclusion, Samoa is beautiful and I had a wonderful first birthday here! I’ve still been teaching all summer and we currently have 2 weeks left of the term. Unfortunately, we lost 5 volunteers this summer. Four went back to the States for medical reasons, but it’s still sad to lose members of our group. I lost my best friend, who I went to New Zealand with, so the rest of my time will be different without her. We now have 14 volunteers left and only 5 on my island.

Forever missing my Samoan twin.

Here we go, year 23!

Culture shock

Two years ago, I solo traveled around New Zealand and fell in love with the country. At the time, it was my favorite place in the world. Well, I’ve recently verified that. I’m still in love with NZ! As Peace Corps Volunteers, we get 2 days off per month, which we can save and add together for a total of 48 days during our two years. It’s not much when I think about wanting to travel back to the States for Christmas and also wanting to explore the South Pacific. But, another volunteer and I decided to use some of our days and give ourselves a trip to New Zealand during the Term Two break.

Annise and I started in Auckland, on the North Island. We were immediately in culture shock and climate shock. It’s currently winter in NZ, so coming from our hot humidity to wearing long pants was quite different! In Auckland, we saw the famous SkyCity tower and walked down to the water to see the Harbour Bridge. Nine months in Samoan villages makes Auckland seem like the biggest city in the world!

So many tall buildings!

From Auckland, we went to Matamata to tour Hobbiton. I’ve never seen any of the movies and opted out of this tour on my first trip to New Zealand, but it was so worth it! Without any movie references, the set was still incredible! It’s located on acres and acres of rolling hills, which are just stunning. We got to learn so much about the creation of the Hobbit houses and all of the scenery for the movies. It was a great day!

We're too tall for the Hobbit houses!

We then made our way to Rotorua. This is a town full of geysers, bubbling mud, geothermal pools, and sulfur! You can smell the sulfur from anywhere in town – it’s pretty crazy. We made our way to Te Puia, which is a geothermal site on the edge of town. The geyser there was insane! Then, we went to the Redwoods, which is a different part of Rotorua, completely full of Redwood trees. Rotorua is pretty neat because you can go from geysers to a forest in a matter of minutes. It made for some great exploring!

Sulfur steaming in the air!

Our next stop was Wellington. Auckland felt like a huge city when we arrived, but Wellington was essentially New York City to us. It’s huge!! There were so many buses, trains, skyscrapers, etc. I was pretty overwhelmed. This is the southern most point of the North Island, so we caught the ferry to the South Island. Annise and I both live on Savai’i, Samoa, so anytime we have training or want to do shopping, get groceries, etc., we have to take our ferry to Upolu. It’s 1.5 hours of feeling like you might flip at any given time. We boarded the Wellington ferry skeptical at best, but we were blown away. This was a cruise!! There were cushioned seats, tables, and televisions. Not once during the ride could I ever feel that we were on the water. It was incredibly smooth. It was also insanely gorgeous. Once arriving to the South Island, the boat was weaving among mountains until reaching Picton. It’s safe to say that was our best ferry ride in 9 months!

The view approaching the South Island.

From Picton, we went to Christchurch. The drive was incredible. Each way you turn, there are rolling green hills and tons of sheep. I could drive the hills of NZ forever; the views would never get old! Christchurch is another large city. I never got used to the big cities coming from Samoa – it was still culture shock every time. In Christchurch we found the beautiful botanical gardens. There were flowers, fountains, and a peace bell. It was a great city to walk around!

Picture perfect New Zealand hills.

Next stop was Dunedin. This was one of my favorite places on my first trip to New Zealand and that remained true this visit. I love Dunedin! The Cadbury chocolate factory is located there, so we got to tour it! I definitely felt like I was Charlie in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The smell was incredible. We got to see a literal ton of chocolate be poured into a machine and got to try every type of chocolate they had (the best part)!

Posing with the Cadbury car!

Our final destination was Queenstown. We made it just in time for the closing of the Winter Festival (which we had no idea about). We arrived to a motorcycle show with men flipping in the air and then landing, giving me heart palpitations! There were also live bands and lots of crafts. We got to see a man drawing with sand, which is actually much cooler than it sounds. Also in Queenstown, we took a gondola up the mountain to overlook the town. It is absolutely breathtaking! Since it’s winter, there was snow on the mountaintops above the lake. I couldn’t convince myself to leave!

The amazing Queenstown!

All in all, New Zealand was incredible!! It was even more amazing going there from nine months in Samoa. Hot showers and actual restaurants were such a great feeling. We ate so much cheese and chocolate, just because they actually exist there! The trip was of course much too short, but a great halfway point to the school year.

Now back to Samoa and it’s time for Term Three to begin!

Bridesmaids

Term two is officially over, meaning I’ve survived half the school year! That’s crazy. I’m almost at 9 months in Samoa and it does not seem possible. It somehow turned out to be a busy term, so this will be a rather long post. It’s going against everything I believe in blog posts because I would never sit and read this long of a post, but here we go anyways. Thanks for reading!

School had some exciting moments this term. The U.S. Embassy contacted me and arranged to bring the dance group iLuminate to visit! They came in third place on America’s Got Talent. They’re the group who dances in the dark with lights on their costumes. Anywho, it was awesome! They came and performed at my school and then my students got to teach them some Samoan dances. It was one of those surreal moments seeing two cultures come together through dance.

My students dancing with iLuminate!

I was also busy this term when I got invited to work with the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture (MESC). It’s an honor to be attending meetings with the directors of education for an entire country! MESC is bringing six of us volunteers on board to do professional development. We’ll be training teachers on literacy and numeracy along with creating assessments to be used with both. It’s pretty crazy to think that I’m involved in creating a math assessment for an entire country!! I’ve been missing my math, so this is the perfect cure.

MESC professional development team.

More exciting school news came when I attended a training with SolarSPELL. Professor Laura Hosman and Bruce Baikie flew all the way to Samoa with solar paneled digital libraries and tablets for all Peace Corps Group 87 volunteers. This library requires no Internet connection or electricity! It is pre-programed with all different resources targeted for developing countries, and more specifically, Samoa! There are teaching resources for every subject as well as Wikipedia and a Medical Dictionary. I am amazed at how much time and energy was put into designing the contents and hand-building each SolarSPELL that was brought to Samoa! I’ve already begun professional developments in my school to train my teachers how to use it and I’m excited to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Thanks Dr. Hosman!!

Along with school life, my family life was also quite busy recently. My host cousin got married!! I was able to attend a wedding with my Sa’anapu family during training, but it wasn’t a real Samoan wedding because the bride was from New Zealand. This time I got the full experience! The pre and post wedding ceremonies were all held on my family compound, so we had lots of weeding and painting to do to prepare! My Kingsley Pines professional painting skills came in handy as I painted every chair and bench in our four family houses. I’ve never seen more fine mats, pigs, cows, and corned beef than I did the week of the wedding, and the ceremony hadn’t even happened yet! To my surprise, I was chosen as a bridesmaid, which was such an honor. Of course, I had no clue what this meant. The night before the wedding was the dress rehearsal, where my partner and I perfected our walk down the aisle. He had to kneel and I had to put beads on his head! Don’t worry, I crushed it. At around midnight I saw my dress for the first time and had my dress fitting. I’m not sure what we would have done if it didn’t fit since the wedding was 8 hours away, but all worked out. I guess it’s tradition to not sleep before the wedding because that night we also learned four new dances to be performed. Needless to say, I was quite exhausted when the actual wedding came around. I seemed to do everything right and as far as I can tell my host cousin got married. Of course I didn’t understand much, so it’s still unclear. After the church ceremony, there was lots of food, cake, and dancing. All in all, it was a very fun experience and I’m super happy I was able to be part of it! 

All pink everything!!

To finish off this massive blog post, I also had family visitors!!! My real, American cousin came to Samoa with her husband and four kids. Her husband is Samoan, so that just happened to work out in my favor. I went to stay on their family compound in Lotofaga, Upolu and then they were able to come to Sili! My host family was ecstatic and we had a dance night where my real family showed Hawaiian dances and my host family showed Samoan dances. It was another neat instance of two cultures coming together through dance! Having family visitors is so incredible – thank you, Maile!

My American/Samoan visitors!

In other news, I'm off to New Zealand! Fā Sāmoa.

All the eels

Well, Term Two started with a bang (and by bang, I mean massive cyclone). Cyclone Amos headed straight for Samoa and sent Peace Corps Washington into a panic. We were brought to our national consolidation point, which is a sturdy hotel in Apia. Three volunteers had to be helicopter rescued because the ferry shut down before they could make it over (pretty epic). Once we were in the hotel, the roof was strapped down and planks of wood were nailed to our windows. We weren’t allowed to leave our rooms, although I didn’t mind. I took this opportunity to take at least 6 hot showers and catch up on sleep. The cyclone luckily veered off and missed Samoa, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as expected. I came home to a flooded room and no electricity, but everyone was safe so no complaints here!

I guess Amos didn't like this road!

I’ve spent more time lately on Upolu (the other island) exploring. I found a real New England-esque hike and felt right at home! Although there are lots of mountains in Samoa, I think Mount Vaea might be one of the only ones with a path that people can go up! The peak of Mt. Vaea is where Robert Louis Stevenson was buried. I guess he was a famous writer, but hey, I was a math major. Anywho, the hike was gorgeous and had a really neat waterfall at the bottom to swim in!

The view at the top of Mount Vaea.

Speaking of waterfalls, I found the Falefa Fall. It’s not nearly as gorgeous as my Afu Aau spot, but I’ll still spend anytime I can chasing waterfalls. The Falefa Fall creates a natural exercise pool because I spent at least half an hour trying to swim up to the waterfall and made no progress (probably a funny scene). I also went to the Piula Cave Pool. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a pool in a cave. It’s a nifty spot, but swimming with an enclosure over my head is a little freaky and once someone spotted an eel, I was out of there!

Picture being trapped treading water in this cave with an eel!

One of my favorite spots on Upolu is the To Sua Trench. I’ve already been here, but it was certainly worth another trip back (and many more in my two years). It’s a salt water swimming hole formed by the collapse of a lava tube. Swimming in the trench is a surreal experience. For some reason Upolu eels are out to get me, though, so I jumped out of the trench the second an eel was spotted. Maybe someday I’ll overcome my fear of fish, but eels really push that boundary. 

Casually swimming in a lava tube!

In other news, I promise I do actually teach still. It’s nice being in a real routine and knowing everything about the school procedures now that a term has already passed. With the evacuation excitement of the cyclone, I was able to catch up with many other volunteers and it’s super interesting to hear about the different experiences we’re all having. My group unfortunately lost another volunteer who decided to go home. We’re down to 19, which isn’t too shabby. I truly cherish the time I get to spend with other volunteers (and try to convince them to come to Afu Aau Waterfall as much as possible).

My favorite getaway spot!

There's only 6 weeks left of this term and then I'll be heading to New Zealand!

The evil mosquito

Several things about this blog post make me feel like a real Peace Corps volunteer. First and foremost, April 1^st, 2016 marked 6 months of living in Samoa! It’s insane that I’ve spent half a year here already. That’s 2.2% of my life (yes, I’m missing my daily math)! With half a year gone, I feel like I’m really a part of this country now.

Another unfortunate occurrence that makes me a real volunteer is that I officially got Zika (the mosquito illness). As a volunteer in Samoa, it’s a right of passage to get Dengue, Chickengunya, or Zika. They all come along with the territory. Luckily, Zika is the mildest of all. With that being said, it was still not fun. I had a 6.5 hour journey between islands before I could even see the medical director and then 6.5 hours home as well. The disease only lasted about a week and I survived, but I’m hoping not to get any other sicknesses while being here!

My beautiful Zika skin (head to toe).

With the 6-month mark, April 1^st was also the last day of Term One! There are four terms in the school year, so I’m ¼ of the way through the year. Teaching has been going really well and my library is still a huge hit. Easter involved an entire week of dance choreography instead of classes. The lack of separation between church and state was very apparent when a student was being strapped to the cross as Jesus. These kids are great singers and dancers, though, so it makes for a wonderful performance!

Jesus on the cross for our Easter production!

With the end of each term comes a two week break!! No matter how much I’m enjoying teaching, it’s always nice to get a break. I spent a weekend staying in beach fales (huts) and snorkeling with some other volunteers. It was great to celebrate the end of term one and beginning of break! There was real snorkeling on this part of the island, which was really cool. I’m absolutely terrified of fish and learned quickly that screaming in a snorkel doesn’t exactly work. While staying here, I ran into a camp counselor of mine from 7 years ago. She’s from Ireland, so you can just put together that coincidence yourself. It was crazy!!! Even living on the other side of the world, I’m still amazed at how small it is.

It's hard to smile in a snorkel.

The first week of break, I spent at Gataivai Primary School (two villages away) helping out with a camp. Myself and 5 other volunteers helped run an “Olympics” Camp! There were about 100 kids who attended and they got to learn all about different countries and sports. We had an opening ceremony and everything! I even demonstrated ribbon dancing and looked like a real ballerina (I hope you laughed when you read that).

Some kids with their Olympic medals (and some sore losers).

The second week of break, the Gautavai volunteer (one village away) and I ran our own camp. I chose some of my best students and walked them to Gautavai Primary School in the mornings to meet up with her students. We ran an “A Healthier You” camp dealing with washing your hands, brushing your teeth, exercising, and nutritional eating habits. The walk is only a little over two miles each way; however, it does involve braving the Sili River. I like to think that I have become an absolute pro at this river. On the down side, the first day of our camp involved torrential downpour and all my students and I fell in the river. In hindsight, it was hilarious, but at the time when I had to use a stick to pull a kid away from the waterfall drop, it was a little terrifying. Needless to say, I’m no longer as cocky about my river-crossing abilities.

I love my students!

All in all, it was a great first term and break. It’s really refreshing how much students love school and blows my mind that they were ecstatic to walk over 4 miles each day to school to learn how to brush their teeth when they could have been enjoying some down time.

Bring it on, Term Two!