The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.
February 17th (part two)
For the week of January 31st nothing too eventful happened. I did have a not so pleasant meeting with one of my student’s parents. I have two of her students in classes. Her girl, Jasmine, and I get along really well. I helped her out when she got into a fight at the beginning of the year and the next day she signed up for another math class with me. She isn’t the best student, she doesn’t like to do homework but she tries when she is in the classroom and so I like her. Her son is another story. He was one of the six students that I gave a D to in geometry. He was doing really well for the first part of the semester and then started acting out. He received awful grades after the midterm and spent most of the time getting kicked out of class. On the final exam he received a 12/100. He received the lowest grade out of all of my students. I explained that I believe he deserved the D – that he got. She was a very ignorant lady blaming me for her son not learning anything. She even complained that I gave him a D – and not an F. She kept coming at me with excuses saying that I didn’t understand Samoan’s and that’s why her son didn’t do well in my class. I explained that her daughter seemed to like me but then she complained that Jasmine received a C. Everything I explained to her she had some kind of argument to throw back at me. It was a very draining 45 minute meeting. In the end she said that she was going to force her son back into the geometry class and I said okay let’s see how that works. The next day I spoke with the vice principal and the mom never went to sign him up for the class.
The only new item of the week was that I decided to begin a running club at school. Just two or three times a week. I was given word that the tutorial schedule for the week would be during the school day which allowed me more afterschool freedom. Instead of enjoying the freedom I decided to make more plans. But I enjoy running and I asked a few students that I knew would be interested. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday that week I took a girl, Alava, and a boy, DJ for a couple of runs. DJ has a much longer stride then Alava and I but I have been running longer so can keep up with him. The only problem is that if I keep up with him, then I leave Alava in the dust. I decided to rotate between who I run with at each of our practices. They are both participating in an upcoming event through JROTC, Cadet Challenge, so it is helping prepare them.
In the middle of the week I was approached by Trish, the English teacher, about helping on Saturday’s with a Praxis course for all the elementary and high school teachers. She started it the weekend before and most people had questions about math. She doesn’t feel comfortable enough in teaching them so I said I would help. From 8:30 – 10:30 there will be tutorials with English for one hour and math for the other. I have done two sessions so far and don’t feel as though it is too much work. Now I also get a ride up to school every Saturday where I can wash my clothes in between sessions. There is also a dryer which is a rare commodity and it helps make my clothes not smell like mildew so I like it!
For this first Praxis tutorial, I ran the first hour since I was leading a group of students on a hike later that afternoon. Josh and I run a tutorial group called Upward Bound for three hours afterschool each week through the community college. Instead of the normal three hours of tutoring, we decided to take them on a three hour hike. I thought that it would be safest to just walk through the National Park in Fitiuta. I was surprised how enthusiastic the students were. All morning they were calling Josh’s cell phone to tell him that they were ready to go. They didn’t seem to listen when we said we wouldn’t start picking up until after 9 o’clock. Once we arrived in Fitiuta we couldn’t find any of the students! They ended up walking to the end of the village where the National Park begins ready to go! It was nice to see them have enthusiasm for something. The hike was very interesting. Every time Josh or I would speak these two girls would hush us saying that were going to anger the ghosts. At one point someone came up to me to tell me my hair needs to go up higher on my head or the ghosts will haunt us. At one point a bird flew by and they exclaimed that it was going to now eat us because it wasn’t happy. They eventually died down with all the ghost talk.
I literally walk everywhere out here and am not the slowest walker by any means. These kids put me to shame though. I wasn’t going as fast as I typically go but they were much further ahead than either Josh or I. About half the group kept by our side but the other half was far ahead. We eventually stopped for a couple of water breaks. Even though I warned them to bring plenty of water, Josh and I were the only ones to bring water. Obviously that didn’t last too long. The students brought a few bags of chips and a soda though! Highly nutritious. Our plan was to walk the length of Fitiuta until we hit the beach but we also weren’t planning on the speed walkers. About two hours from the beach you can hike to a waterfall which all of the students desperately wanted to see. Trying to be a leader of the group I had to explain to Josh that there was no way we could do that. No one came prepared for that sort of hike. Also, I knew that we still needed to make the hike back which would be a lot worse. The beach is the last point of the eastern coast and then you curve around onto the southern coast to a coast of lava rocks. We decided to show them the rocks so they could see the nice cliffs that line the southern coast. Some of the boys decided it would be a good time to run up ahead past the rocks into the bush. I left Josh with the girls to run up and retrieve them. They were hiding in the bush along the trail when I found them. We eventually met back up with the girls and sat down to eat our snacks and finish up the water.
The walk back was a lot more of what I expected for the hike. One of the students took out a cap gun and chased the girls around with it… Everyone was complaining of not having water and I stopped while a few of the girls had to sit down and rest. We eventually made it back and it totaled a three hour and fifteen minute hike. When we reached the road, I called Tautua to see if he could come pick us up. He let me know that he was playing bingo and wouldn’t leave for at least another hour. Faleasao is a good thirty minute drive from Fitiuta so we would be there for a long time! Two and a half hours later and we were finally picked up! We ended up stayed in one of the students’ fales towards the end of the village waiting around. While driving back we stopped at the school for an hour where I was able to get some of my lesson planning done but I knew I would need to go back the following day.
The next week was pretty crazy with everyone missing classes due to a million and two things they were involved with. JROTC had an inspection on Tuesday so for the past two months they have been first in everyone’s hearts but mine. I had a math competition that I needed to prepare students for on Thursday which was proving to be quite challenging. It was a constant battle since all the JROTC top students were also the top math students. Those students missed classes all day Monday, Tuesday, and half the day on Thursday which makes it challenging for the smaller classes. The schedule was altered some how each day to accommodate all the activities. The DOE was supposed to show up on Wednesday and then quickly took the boat ride to Ofu and Olosega instead. Everyone (but me and the other volunteers) prepared for their arrival and then had to remake everything the next day. Thursday was cut to a half a day unexpectedly so that we could sit in a meeting with all the DOE officials. I was able to talk with the elementary math specialist for a little bit about the struggles that I see amongst the students. It doesn’t seem like the talk would truly make a difference though!
On Saturday, I arrived back up at school for the PRAXIS to find out that there was no water to wash my laundry. That was a bit disappointing! Once the tutorial was over, I went onto my computer and booked my flight home! I will be home on June 14th!! Yah! I walked up to Saunoa’s to waste time until my 1:30 phone interview and he took me on an excursion into the bush. We went looking for sua’a which are a type of banana that turn orange when they are ripe. Once they are ripe, you take them out and then fry them or boil them and they taste sort of like sweet potatoes. We were too late though and the birds got to them first! We did bring all of my dog friends into the bush with us and I think they enjoyed the adventure; we even drove them in the back of the truck! Very exciting stuff!
Sunday was filled with a very similar experience as Saturday. I walked up to do laundry, still no water, worked on some lessons for the week and then walked up to Saunoa’s with Josh. We spent most of the day there, he made us a nice lunch and we relaxed before heading home. He dropped us back off at the high school around 5. I stayed only for about ten minutes before heading home and running into Doug and a guy Kelly who were driving around. They were going on a trip to Fitiuta and invited me along. It was a nice relaxing ride.
Finally, I arrived home and wiped out for the night.
Yah, I have updated you for the last month!!!
Love,
Gretchen
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