food appreciation week

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

May 20th

When I last wrote I was going into teacher appreciation week. During each day of the week students were in charge of providing breakfast and lunch to the teacher’s and staff members. Each day a different group was in charge of the meals: Monday was student council, Tuesday was the sophomore class, Wednesday was the freshmen class, Thursday was the junior class, and Friday was the senior class. Each meal was very similar to the next. Chicken was the meat of choice for each meal along with some rice and taro. Chop-suey, slippery noodles mixed with corn beef, was another side that you couldn’t miss. It was very nice of the student’s to provide us with all the food but it was difficult to feel appreciated. Throughout the week I was hassled for my food. Student’s would come in and say, “Mmmm, that look’s tasty” or “Can I have some?” It was very annoying. On Thursday I had a student follow me around waiting for me to open the food and then I sat down and he stared at me. I told him how it was impolite so he turned to the side and watched me from the corner of his eye. I finally gave him food to shoo him away and he ate it and came back for more! The worst part was that he is the junior class president, he made the stupid food! After the teacher’s and staff were served, the class in charge of the meal was invited to eat the rest! One student did bring me a gift from home which was the nicest present for the week. She gave me a mug filled with a soda, chips, and earrings. She wrote a little note in it as well which was very nice of her.

Along with teacher appreciation week, we had a visit from the community college. The program, Upward Bound, that I had been tutoring through all year, was making an end of the year visit. On Tuesday afternoon they arrived and settled in. After school, they gave the students a standardized test and then invited the parents to the high school for a meeting. Josh and I joined in on the meeting as the student’s GPA was discussed. Overall there was an increase in the student’s GPA this year which is the main focus for Upward Bound. There were some angry parent’s complaining about transportation which has been an ongoing issue throughout the year. For about an hour we discussed transportation and what alternatives there are. Josh and I have made so many changes to the tutorial schedule to accommodate for the transportation issue yet nothing is good enough. We’ve done morning sessions. We’ve let the Fitiuta students leave on the bus and get credit for an hour tutorial when they were only in the tutorial for twenty minutes. We’ve changed tutorial to twice a week instead of three times. We’ve spoke to parents willing to drive the student’s home and last minute their car broke down and they didn’t call to tell us. We’ve gone above and beyond to make it work, but nothing helped. The biggest problem is there is no support from the school for this program. There is no one offering a ride and tutorials are completely inconsistent with our schedule. In the end the decision was that Becka, my boss, would talk to the principal about transportation. Last week in tutorial the student’s still walked the two hours home.

After school on Wednesday, Josh and I jumped onto the school bus headed to Fitiuta. Upward Bound decided it would be a good idea to do a sleepover with all the student’s so we could have more discussion. The bus broke down from Faleasao to Fitiuta and so the big sleepover started a couple of hours late. We first started out with a “light” meal. It was by far one of the best meals I have had here. There was a hot dog, cheeseburger, soup, chips, potato salad, and juice. I don’t remember the last time I’ve had a cheeseburger let alone cheese!!! It was very delicious. After dinner Tautua spoke about why culture is important and what it means for Manu’a. After him, a gentleman from Tonga spoke about his life for a bit. He grew up as a punk that got into fights and was into drinking and smoking. Eventually, after much talk about God’s influence in his life, he spoke about why he was a guest speaker. He works for a video production crew in Tutuila. He went to school in Hawaii and came to American Samoa a few years ago. The kids were pretty excited and wanted to learn more about working with film. After the speakers the students showered and then broke into small groups doing role playing. Eventually, 11 o’clock became “lights out.” The lights didn’t go out until much later than that. I was originally told that I would be sleeping in a hotel. Instead I enjoyed the luxury of sleeping on a concrete floor outside without any mosquito protection. I slept so well. The student’s were excited to have me sleeping next to them and liked to play footsies with me which aided my lack of sleep. Soon enough the morning came and I wanted to go back to sleep. The next day my prep period was dropped which was challenging in itself. To teach without a break and no sleep is dreadful!

On Thursday evening, Josh and I went with Tautua to Fitiuta for the farewell dinner. We were hoping that the food would be ready by the time we arrived and then we could eat and head home. That was not the case and we stayed in Fitiuta for another late night. I got home a little after 9 o’clock, showered, and fell right to sleep. It wasn’t enough sleep though and I was exhausted on Friday. The Upward Bound staff came to school that morning to recognize Josh and I before they headed back to Tutuila. That weekend I slept a lot. I almost thought I was sick I slept so much. In between sleeping I wrote the end of service documents and turned them into WorldTeach.

The end of the year is quickly coming…

Love,

Gretchen