birds, birds everywhere!

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March 30th (part three)

This past Saturday, the 26th of March, I had to go and teach a praxis course up at school. Since Trish taught a course entirely by herself before spring break, I was to teach by myself for this session. We started an hour late with only two teachers present. We went the full two hours and then some. I felt as though they learned something during the session but I have no idea. I really needed to do laundry but I had other plans for the day. Before spring break, I wrote an essay for the Rose Atoll contest. Rose Atoll is a National Wildlife Refuge about 70 miles off the coast of Manu’a. You need to have a permit to go to this remote atoll. The contest was through the Marine and Wildlife Services to all Manu’a Schools. They wanted to take one student and one teacher from each school on this 36 hour trip. The flyer didn’t have any stipulations about who could apply and it wasn’t until I was rejected that I found out they wanted local teachers on the trip. Monica, the girl I went to Western Samoa with, shares an apartment with the lady in charge of the trip. Monica told me she would help me get on some how. I ended up calling her roommate Alice on the phone but it didn’t seem like I would get on the trip. Besides teachers and students, the trip was open to high chiefs and some government officials from Manu’a.

My plan from the beginning was to sneak onto the boat. Unfortunately as the time was approaching I began chickening out from that idea. I sat around all afternoon after I returned from school waiting for the boat. Finally, around 5 PM I heard the whale call. When the boat docks, it rubs up against our wharf and sends out screeching noises which we decided sound like a whale call. I had packed a bag in the beginning of the day and when I planned to sneak on I was going to bring it with me. I kept it packed just in case. I left it at my house when I walked down to the wharf because I didn’t want to look desperate. I did have two packages arriving on the boat so I at least had an excuse to walk down there. When I arrived Tautua was down there ready to board. He said that our student just backed out of the trip so there was a possibility that I could go. I ran home and grabbed my bag.

I felt a little awkward since I really shouldn’t be going on the trip but I just stayed close to Tautua. Alice was very disappointed that the student, Alvin, backed out and so her and Crystal ran around trying to find another student to go. After two unsuccessful attempts, they finally got Talalelei to agree. She quickly packed a bag and walked down to the wharf. Luckily she lives in my village so it wasn’t too difficult to find her. After unloading everything for about an hour they started lining up to get on the boat. Tautua told me to just stand over by the boat. They called out everyone that should be on the boat and then the rest of us (mostly the white folk) stood around waiting. Tautua stood by trying to help and eventually I was asked my name. It was a little awkward because they couldn’t figure out why I was there and eventually just let me on and directed me to a Marine and Wildlife staff member. He asked a few questions, mostly whether Alison let me on or not. I didn’t lie and told him that I didn’t talk to Alison today but did apply two weeks ago and wasn’t accepted. Somehow he let me sign a waiver. He informed me that they might kick me off before we leave though.

I went up stairs and sat with Talalelei hoping they wouldn’t kick me off. Five minutes later Josh comes walking up the steps. None of the high chiefs from our island wanted to go so they had some extra room. Since Josh had also applied and was standing on the wharf, Alison ran up to him and asked him if he still wanted to go. I relaxed from there because I knew I was now safe!

The first night was the roughest. I took sea sickness medicine early that day which was probably the only thing that saved me. We had a meeting downstairs to go over the instructions and schedule for the week. In order to walk on Rose Island you must quarantine your clothing. If you didn’t freeze your clothes for the past two days then you must wear what Marine and Wildlife Service brought for clothing. They broke the group up into three. If you were number 1, you were the first group to go to Rose Island. I was obviously in the last group and was told I will only get the chance to do some snorkeling. It was repeated that nothing must go on this island and nothing can be taken from it. I believe it went in one ear and out the other. I listened and was very excited to go.

As we sat there for almost an hour the smell of exhaust started to irritate me. I decided I needed to walk around so I went into the back room to use the bathroom. As I went back I got the whiff of dinner and it sent my stomach haywire. I ended up with my head over the side of the boat. Fortunately, that was the first and last time that would happen for the entire trip. Luckily I got the best bed in the house after that! I went and napped on the second floor on one of the benches in the middle. Each bench has a cushion which made it somewhat comfortable. Lying down I felt a lot better. They eventually brought me food but I only had one bite of it before I gave it back. The rest of the night I slept off and on. At 3 AM we were all woken up to ferocious rain. It was angled so that we were getting drenched. We pulled the tarps down on the sides and were still getting wet. The ground was completely soaked and we were cold. I was afraid to pack too much in my bag and didn’t pack anything warm enough! For the next few hours we wandered around the boat pretty miserable. Eventually the rain turned into a drizzle which made it manageable for all of us. At 6:30 AM the first boat started to leave for Rose Island. The big boat was too big to bring inside the atoll.

Rose Atoll is shaped like a square donut with a channel on the one side. The atoll is mostly submerged by about two – five feet. There are two islands on the atoll: Sand and Rose. We were going to Rose Island that day. The plan was to have two small boats going back and forth to bring people. The first boat was filled with the high chiefs and the second was filled with some NOAA people that flew out for this trip and a few Marine and Wildlife people. The first boat went out without any problems. The engine went into the second boat and then decided not to work. We thought we would never get out there! I went to lie down since I felt too anxious to keep watching. A little while later, the boat in the water punctured and gas, life vests, and paddles went out into the ocean. It was a very frustrating scene. Eventually two boats started bringing people over to the island. I was on the second to last boat and was very excited. The boat ride took about a half an hour. My life vest was so big that I couldn’t turn my head to look around! We eventually got off and were given a brief introduction.

Plans changed quite fast and the park people let us do whatever we wanted. I started off snorkeling. Rose is known for its giant clams which I saw plenty of. I also saw about a four or five foot black tipped reef shark. He just swam on by. The reef was nice because there were spots that you could stand and rest and the reef surrounding us broke all the waves. We were swimming in a nice calm swimming pool. When I got out of the water, I decided to take a tour of the island. The island is quite small. I would say I could walk the circumference in ten minutes if there weren’t thousands of birds squawking at me! As you can see from the photos I sent out when I returned there were thousands of birds! Rose Atoll is the breeding site for 97% of American Samoa birds! There were eggs and nests and chicks all over the place. It was a pretty awesome experience. You could tell the birds were very confused by our presence and didn’t care for us all that much. At some points there were so many birds that I was afraid to look up thinking they were going to poop in my face. I was fortunate not to have that happen to me.

For over five hours I swam and explored this little island very grateful for the opportunity. Josh and I were on the second to last boat to head back to the MV Sili. Tautua and Talalelei went back a couple of hours before us. I think they were pretty tired and hungry. The longer I stayed off that big boat, the better! When we did get off though, I was extremely hungry. They saved some lunch for us which I was very grateful for. Once the last boat arrived back, the MV Sili started up and we headed back for Manu’a.

The boat ride takes about eight hours depending on the seas. At 11:30 PM we were passing Fitiuta. We aren’t allowed to unload at night so we just cruised in that night. The sea was nice and calm and we had no trouble. We sat outside of Faleasao the rest of the night waiting for the morning sunrise. When the sun did rise, the engines started up to bring us home. We had a nice, warm reception when we got off the boat. Josh and I walked right home to shower and eat breakfast. It was a little after 6:30 when we got off and we were expected to be at school that day. We both caught the bus up to school still swaying with the boat.

In each class I spoke a little about the trip and what we did. The kids seemed real excited and a little jealous that they didn’t get to go. A lot of teacher’s came up asking me about the trip. Everyone was interested in going the next time but they could have gone this time if they had just written an essay! It took me until around 11 AM to stop swaying. It was very frustrating and hard for me to teach when I didn’t feel like I was on stable ground!

Speech festival is on Friday. Speech festival is a huge deal and we are sending 24 students this year. Last night was the showcase up at school. Each act performed among other students, staff, and parents. I was the coach to probably the worst performer. She wasn’t really into it and she couldn’t do a Polish accent so we were doomed from the beginning. Classes were cut short the last two days for them to practice for the big event. Some students left today on the plane and the rest will leave tomorrow. Everyone seems very excited about it. Tautua is staying at school so hopefully the week won’t be too crazy.

That’s all for now.

Love,

Gretchen