dogs and jewelry

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.

February 27th

Let’s take you back to Valentine’s Day. One of my students had me hide his Valentine’s Day card he made so that no one would steal it… After school, I headed up to Saunoa’s. He had been talking to Josh and I about going into the bush to find some sua’a. I think I might have mentioned this before, but it is a banana that you eat only when it is cooked. It tastes sort of like a sweet potato. When they are ripe, they turn a burnt reddish color. Lastly, they grow straight up into the air, not like the rest of the species of bananas that fall off to the side. I walked up to his house with a trail of four dogs following closely behind me. We talked for a bit and then went for a ride to where there is a lot of sua’a. He decided to invite the dogs in the back of the truck but they didn’t seem to get the idea so they just followed closely running behind the car. We reached the plantation and walked through looking for sua’a. Unfortunately, the birds beat us to it so we decided to enjoy some coconuts instead. Upon driving back we stopped at Saunoa’s and he made a Valentine’s Day dinner for us! It was just some pork chops, but still very exciting.

On Wednesday, Saunoa was leaving for Tutuila to meet up with his friend so I wrote a bunch of cards and letters on the weekend and Monday night to have him send off for me. When I arrived on Tuesday to drop the cards off after school, we jumped into his truck and headed to Fitiuta. He helped me pick up some coral rocks along the beach so that I could do some carving at home. It was a very nice trip; we spent about an hour on the beach collecting things. We again stopped at his house on the way home. This time, he cooked dinner and then gave me a bunch of supplies to make jewelry out of the shells I have been collecting from the beach. He gave me a few clasps, some metal wiring, a couple of more shells, a file to sand down the one edge, and a point to a compass that I have been hammering into the shells to make a hole. Hopefully you were able to see the photos I sent on Snapfish recently of some of the bracelets and necklaces.

Wednesday was a pretty bad day at school for me. During my algebra 2 class, the secretary and computer teacher thought it would be funny to pick up rocks and throw them at the dogs that follow me up to school each day. My class was taking a quiz and I went out to tell them I didn’t appreciate them throwing rocks at the dogs and they turn around and start mouthing off to me. I closed the door in their faces. It just made the rest of the day bad. A lot of the students came to me throughout the day and asked what happened because they know that the dogs follow me every where. The principal was gone that entire week so the other staff members think they can rule the school when he is gone. Blah! We had a three day weekend coming up after that so I was definitely looking forward to the break. I spent the rest of the week trying to mind my own business.

On Friday night, we had a junior class fundraiser in Fitiuta. The dance was interesting. There were a lot of drunk men from the village that decided to attend. I was a little disappointed with some of the men that were drunk because it was their son or daughter’s fundraiser and they had just ruined it. I was followed around at one point by a man wanting me to dance with him. After that, I decided to stand next to the principal the rest of the night. The dance went on for about four hours which made it a long night. One of the students had a seizure, yet the dance still continued! One of the students’ has rheumatic fever and I was told (don’t know how true this is) when he gets overexcited, his body can’t control that and acts out in a seizure. He seems to be doing well and has been at school all week. At midnight I made it home to an empty house and passed out. Josh went to go visit Holly in Aunu’u for the three day weekend.

At 6:40 AM Saturday morning I woke up to what sounded like a crash in my room. I sat up and looked around but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I looked out my window and still saw nothing. I planned to wake up twenty minutes later so decided just to get out of bed at that time. I stood up and found this obscure object on the floor. I picked it up to realize that it was a blade to my fan!!! The three blades split apart and went flying around my room! I had taken the cover off when I first arrived because it was all rusted out and uncleanable. Luckily, the blades didn’t actually hit me!

On Saturday’s, I teach a praxis course up at school. Since the JROTC room has laundry facilities, I use the washer and dryer while I am teaching. I ended up staying from 8 AM until 2 PM doing laundry and working on lesson plans for the week. It was nice to feel caught up for the week. After Tautua dropped me off at the end of the day, I went out into my fale and worked on carving out my latest rock. For two hours I worked on it and then cleaned it and placed it in bleach water for a few nights. I also took time to organize my shells because I planned to spend Sunday making some jewelry. It took me much longer than expected to organize the shells and for most of the night that is what I ended up doing.

On Sunday I woke up relatively early and started working on a few bracelets. I made a necklace on Saturday night and decided to wear it to church. Not too many people noticed, but they don’t particularly notice me in general so it isn’t much of a difference. I went home and continued working after church. Trish called me about an hour later and invited me to brunch. I am the only palongi (white person) that still attends church and so no one else was invited to brunch. I would say it was a little awkward but I don’t know why because I have gone over for dinner by myself a few times without much awkwardness. The rest of the afternoon I made a few more bracelets and cleaned the house a bit.

On Monday we had no school which made it a great, relaxing weekend. I started off the morning with a long run. After the run, I went to stretch in Leafa’s fale just like I always do and ran into Doug. Doug bought about $3,000 worth of equipment to go kite surfing out here. He has never kite surfed and doesn’t know how to do it. He wanted my help so that he could go. After saying no quite a bit, I reluctantly said I would help. For almost three hours I helped him untangle the strings, bring all the equipment to the beach, and throw the stupid kite in the air. It was a workout! I had to hold the kite into the wind and then let it go but since the gusts of wind are so unpredictable, it would sometimes come crashing down on me. The wind is also coming off the ocean so when it did go up, it would drag Doug into the elementary school! It just wasn’t safe by any means. At one point it drug him ten feet before it plummeted and straddled the basketball net. Doug’s knee and arms were bruised and bleeding after that. I don’t think I will ever be strapped into that thing! Very dangerous!

Many things happened after Monday so I will have to share it in another blog entry for ya!

Love,

Gretchen