August 21, 2010
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.
I know I just gave an update a day ago but I have the time right now and had a marvelous day to share with all of you.
The day actually started out like crap, literally and figuratively. Saturday is the day of cleaning in American Samoa and Josh and I decided we really need to take part in that. Right now we have about eight trash bags outside our house that was left from last years volunteers. We have an old refrigerator on our front step. We also have four or five boxes in our house filled with trash. The problem is that our neighbors took our trash cans out front and when we arrived last weekend they had them filled so we couldn’t take them back. Also, we have yet to get a straight answer as to when trash will get picked up! Since it rained every day a couple of times a day we don’t want to leave the trash outside to become damp. Currently all the trash is where it has been and we have added two or three more bags to the pile. Samoans like to litter around properties. I cleaned the inside while Josh took the outside duty. I opened the front door to throw out what I swept to find a surprise. Dozens of flies were swarming around me. I recognized the smell and looked down to see that the local dog left a bowel movement on our front step. Unfortunately I had to clean it up. Not a great start to the day!
After the cleaning up of the dog poop I decided to take a break from the cleaning and relax around the house. Around 10 o’clock I was reading the book I received on Samoan grammar when there was a knock on my door. Suanoa is a retired Vietnam vet who lives out past the high school. He grew up in Hawaii and has come back to Manu’a to take care of his 81 year old mother. For the last two years he has taken the WorldTeach volunteer’s under his wing and explored the island with them. We have past him on the road a few times and were waiting for our first adventure with him! He was over visiting his mother (our neighbor) when he thought about giving us an island tour for the day. Fitiuta is a village on the western side of Ta’u that I planned to walk to today (about two hour walk). I told him I planned to go out around 11. He invited me on an island tour of his truck instead and I accepted. I called up Crystal and we went to find Josh (who was swimming in the ocean) to come along. Finally around 11 we hopped in the car and started our tour.
Saunoa is a very interested and funny man. He is a complete radical and believes everything in AS is bullshit. Everything is corrupt and no one cares about anyone but themselves. Truthfully I can see a lot of what he spoke about going on on our little island. Unfortunately I see a lot of the same things happening in the US. He spoke a lot about the Matai System which is the chief system in each village. He spoke about how it has to do with who has the most money and how they can get their hands on more of it. I haven’t met our chief yet as he is on vacation but hopefully this week he will come back. I am interested in seeing if what Saunoa says is really true about the leader of Faleasao. Within the school system you also see and mostly hear about the unqualified receiving jobs over qualified individuals. I don’t know enough to speak about my school in particular but there is a definite family lineage that I notice within the school and DOE.
Besides sharing with us all of his views, Saunoa also drove us past the paved roads in Fitiuta and deep into the jungle. If you look at a map of Ta’u, we traveled down the east coast as far south as possible on the dirt road. Once we stepped out of the car, Crystal and I continued on foot a little ways south to see the tall cliffs. The cliffs on the southern coast are some of the highest cliffs in the world. SauNoa said that he would bring us even closer the next time we go out that way. He also wants to bring us back for sun rise sometime soon.
On the way back to Faleasao later that day we stopped at Saunoa’s place and stocked up on some fruit and veggies that he grows in his yard. He gave us tomatoes, peppers, apples, eggplant, tea, and whatever else he could find. He also told us about some cool trails that we should go on throughout the year. There are some amazing falls that he wants to bring us to, the summit of the mountain, some star mound sites, etc. Once I returned to my house I decided that I wanted to walk around in the water but not swim. I didn’t realize that it was high tide though and pretty much went swimming. The waves were knocking me down and trying to pull me to the left. A little off center towards the left of the beach there is this strong tide that grabs you and pulls you out to the ocean. When I went in I felt as though that is all that water wanted me to do so I decided to get out.
As I was leaving I ran into Doug. Doug is the quirky guy from California. He is on a two year contract with AS DOE. Last year he was working out on the main island at Samoana High School. This year he volunteered to come out to Manu’a and help with the applied tech. classes. I was telling Doug about the day and about Saunoa. He seemed excited to join us on the next adventure. Saunoa also told us about a trail behind our house that brings us out to our own secluded beach. Doug and I were talking about maybe walking it tomorrow when I got back from doing lesson planning at the school. As we continued to plan I asked, “Why don’t we just go now?” So we did.
At 5:15 we left my house and began the trip. After about a five minute hike you get to the beach. The beach was nice but would probably cut your feet up with all the broken coral. We decided to continue in the woods to see what else we could find. We ended up finding these awesome cliffs and a few caves within them. We stopped the walk sitting out on a cliff that jutted into the water. We watched the sign slowly descend and then quickly got home before we could no longer see. Amazing day :-) Tomorrow we are talking about continuing that path to see where it takes us!
Fa,
Gretchen
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