This term ended on a positive note with our district sports
competition. Sili rugby and netball both advanced to the semi-finals and the
finals! We were completely undefeated walking into the finals, which is
incredible. Unfortunately, my rugby boys had a sad loss, but my netball girls
are the district champions!! Sili netball is first place for our district! It
was a very cool event because the girls had hundreds of people cheering
alongside as they played. Once we won, the girls got a giant trophy and as we
rode the bus back to Sili, they held the trophy out the window singing at the
top of their lungs. Once we entered our village, the bus went slowly and every
family came out to the street to cheer as we drove by. In a male-dominated
country, it was such an amazing moment to see these girls get so much support
and attention. I was a very proud cheerleader (although, I still don’t
understand this whole no backboard concept).
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| Check out our trophy! |
The end of the term also featured a Science and Math
competition throughout the country. Every school had to submit essays to the
Ministry of Education. I was able to work on this essay with two of my Year 7
girls and it was a blast! Of course, math is something I miss dearly, so being
able to do Algebra with my girls was so much fun. Math is a universal language,
so it was surprisingly easy for the girls to complete the problems. The hard
part was writing an essay about it, but we got it done and maybe we’ll win! The
one thing I’ll forever cry about, though, is that it’s called “Maths” here and
I now actually say that awfully wrong word.
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| Samoa's future mathematicians. |
We also got a new teacher at school! Now every classroom has
a teacher, which is amazing. To celebrate our new teacher, we had new uniforms
made. It’s quite the process to get 11 staff members to agree on a fabric for
uniforms, but finally we came to a decision on brown (I say “we” very lightly).
The next issue was the pattern for the seamstress to sew. Of course we couldn’t
just do a normal puletasi (Samoan outfit). We decided on a nice design with a
stripe down the front. This wouldn’t normally be blog worthy, but in this case
it is because what a process all these decisions were! Of course I don’t just
have a casual seamstress laying around, so one of my teachers arranged for mine
to be done for me. I am ecstatic with how it turned out because it’s my first
puletasi that’s not skin-tight to my body. Naturally, this means no one else is
pleased with it. Many suggestions have been made to have mine redone, but I am
staying strong and attempting to keep this less-tight puletasi, hoping that
means I will sweat less (fingers crossed).
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| The ladies of Sili Primary School in our new uniforms! |
Outside of school, my family compound has also experienced
some change this month. When my house first became a shop, I said that it
changed from pink to green, but I was mistaken. I walked home from school one
day to find a neon green house and that’s when I learned the true meaning of
green. So now instead of pink or teal, I live in a neon green house with neon
yellow trim. It’s quite the statement in the village! The inside of the house
and my room also got revamped with new “carpet” and fabric. It’s been an
exciting month because it feels like I have a brand new room. The other houses
on our compound also got revamped. Most are the same neon green/yellow combo,
with the exception of my sister. She was able to make her family a house with
walls (a big deal here in Samoa) and they painted it red and white. So, all in
all, our compound is pretty much all over the place, which accurately describes
the uncountable amount of family members we have. At least there’s never a dull
day on this compound!
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| My new, real green house. |
Outside of the village, Samoa’s still a really fun place to be
a tourist. June 1st is Independence Day here and this year marked
Samoa’s 55th year of independence from New Zealand. I got to go into
the Capital for it, where there were parades and lots of dances. It wasn’t
quite the 4th of July, but hey the 1st of June was still
fun. We had a long weekend with the holiday, so a bunch of volunteers and I
then rented our own island to celebrate! It’s the same island I casually got to
rent for my 23rd birthday, but this was my first time going back.
Namu’a is a beautiful island and it’s such an amazing experience to be the only
people on an entire island. The last time I was there, I failed to walk around
the island because of high tide (huh, who knew that was a thing). However, this
time I made it around the island!! It’s a mostly untouched island, so walking
around it is not a casual, sandy walk. It’s mostly walking in the water
alongside cliffs, which is incredibly beautiful and a little terrifying! But,
now I’ve officially walked around and up this tiny, private island. Every night
we sang around a bonfire; those are the moments I’ll definitely cherish and
miss after this Peace Corps journey.
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| Casual private island surrounded by beautiful water. |
That wraps up Term 2 here in Sili. TOMORROW I will go to the
airport to pick up my American mother, sister, and two close family friends. MY
FAMILY WILL BE IN SAMOA! I cannot believe it and I am absolutely thrilled to
spend the next two weeks showing them around. The funniest part is that I have
to leave Sili about the same time they have to leave Maryland in order for us
all to get to the airport. That’s a little insight into transportation when you
live on a developing island, but it’s beyond worth it.
Welcome to Samoa, Mom, Sam, Rich, and Anna!!!!
