sorry for the delay...

I am very relaxed right now, seeing that I am writing this post from the pool with no one around. Quiet time here is not common so hopefully I will have enough of it to finish this post you all have been longing for. I am a very busy person here people!

So nothing to interesting happened to me at the end of last week, nothing worth telling you all that’s for sure, until Friday night. Fia Fia night! Group 81 and 82 put a nice little party on for us with some dances and my favorite part…fire dancers!!! It was a great bonding moment for all of us and we enjoyed meeting all of the volunteers. The fia fia continued on over to a bar just down the road and from there it was just a bunch of palagis doing what palagis do best.

Palagi= white/foreign people J

Saturday was a very lazy day for all of us…us girls decided to do a True Blood marathon. We were even joined by some fellow male pcv’s even though they may not fess up to it. Vampire Bill has us all addicted.

Saturday night was a fun night of group bonding with some vailima and chatting on the balcony.

The week is back and it’s full of long days with mini presentations and some not so mini presentations. The language classes are starting to help, but it will be a long while until I feel comfortable with it. The more we talk about our classrooms and students the more excited I get. Ideas are just constantly flowing through my head and I want to implement them now before I forget!!!

I don’t really have much to say so I know this will be disappointing for those of you who having been biting your nails waiting for my fascinating posts. I do have a lot of pictures and videos that I hope to upload…but for now I will give you all a heads up for my next big journey…

So if you didn’t already know, right now I am in Apia staying in a hotel. I have hot showers and air conditioning and access to the internet. All of us in 83 keep telling each other they are buttering us up for what about to happen next.

Saturday I leave for the training village. There are four training villages and they are all right next to one another. There will be 5 volunteers assigned to each village along with a language instructor. We will each be living with a host family where we will have our own room, but like I have said before the idea of privacy is not practiced here. The goal of the training village is to integrate with the community and learn from them as much as possible. We have language training everyday and we go into Apia once a week to have full group sessions. I am excited but nervous. Right now it feels like I am in college living in a dorm and surrounded by people who have become my really good friends. On Saturday I will be taking a huge leap out of my comfort zone and stepping into the Samoan zone…

I plan to be open-minded and like sponge, just absorbing everything from my host family and village. Optimism and patience is key for this upcoming experience.

I will not have my computer for the next 8 weeks. So if I am able to get to an internet café on Fridays I will try to upload posts but no pictures. I will have a link to my e-mail on here so feel free to e-mail me with any questions or words of encouragement.

The Weekend

Every morning I wake up I still feel like im in my bed and then I look around at our 2x2 room and remember where I am. Don’t be thrown off by the description of my room because all I have to do is walk 10 second away from my room and see the most beautiful view ever!!! Each day gets more exciting and I am reassured that this was the best decision I have ever made.

So to get you caught up in my weekend events….

Friday was another long day of presentations and group discussions, that are always so delightful J. We had a whole session just on diarrhea….enough said. We also talked about our observations and assumptions of the culture here in Samoa. That will be a whole other post….

Once we were finally released on Friday we had plans for a Peace Corps Samoa tradition of boys and girls night. The girls would be going to PCV Blakey’s house, and the boys went to a male PCV house. We were able to talk to the volunteers and ask them any remaining questions that we had that maybe were too embarrassing to ask in front of staff. It was very comforting to talk to people that have been in our shoes and to see where we will eventually be. The night included food and drinks and then we met up with the boys at a place called Zodiac. The atmosphere was awesome, outside seating and a live band. A good time was had by all!

Saturday I woke up pretty early, 6:30 AM. I walked into the main part of town with my roommate Natalie. We went to the food market and the flea market. I also went into the McDonalds and was very tempted to get a egg McMuffin. The food market was full of produce I have never seen before and of familiar things as well. I bought some cucumbers and the young girl gave me a free papaya in return. Such nice people here! I made my first big mistake by buying another sim card for my phone, I was under the impression that to add more money to your phone you had to buy a new card each time. By buying a new card I was given a new number which was no good because everyone including staff already had my first one. No worries though I got help from a current volunteer to switch it back and everyone in group 83 was able to learn from my mistake!

We only spent a couple hours at the market because Blakey invited us to go to the beach!!! Something I have been waiting for all week. I was nervous because the weather was cloudy and rainy but as soon as we got to the other side of the island it was the most perfect day. The beach was everything I expected; gorgeous and just a picture for a postcard. I posted some pictures…mainly the one picture all my friends are dying to see…me in the one piece!!! It wasn’t horrible guys. The day was so relaxing and fun, it was just what we needed. Some of the boys were proving themselves to us girls by cracking open coconuts. Danny attempted to climb the tree but sadly failed. Some of us took naps in the Fale’s when we were tired from the sun. We all did a little kayaking and around 5pm the taxis were ready to take us home! After a little rest and some showers a group of us went to a local Italian place for pizza. It was delicious! We walked back to the hotel and to drop some people off and pick others up who wanted to go to a local bar for some beers. There is only one kind of beer here, and its not the best and at times you can get a skunky one. So far I have had pretty good luck. It was a early night for everyone and we were home by eleven and soundly asleep by 11:30.

Sunday was white Sunday, a day for the children. We were invited by a PC staff member, Tavita, to attend his church. He goes to a Anglican church and lets just say it was a little different from what I am used to. The first hour it was the children performing different songs, skits, and lots of interpretive dancing. I regret not bringing my camera. The children were all dressed in white and ranged from about 3 to 20. The first thing I noticed is that they teach children to sing and harmonize at a very young age. It was amazing to hear all these young children singing so perfectly together. There were other performances that were interesting. There was an interpretive dance to the popular American song, Just the way you are. There was also one child who ran through everyone’s performances hitting a balloon around and then throwing what we would call a temper tantrum in the middle of the floor. It was the day of the children, so there was no reprimand for her actions, they just turned up the music louder. After the show was done there was a quick ceremony, about 15 minutes and church was over. We were invited to tea after where there was lots of food and even ice cream! We all felt welcomed and enjoyed every minute we were there.

Once we got home there was a lot of laying around and computer time. I was able to Skype with my family and some friends. It was wonderful to see their faces J. A small group of us went next store for fish and chips and then watched a movie in one of the rooms. Well I attempted to watch but fell asleep after an hour. Tevi commented that it felt like we were in college again, and our rooms do have a dorm feel to them. I got up and walked down to my room to get ready for bed. Natalie and I watched the first episode of true blood and were fast to sleep after that.

Today we are going out on a boat for our water and safety class.  I hope to get in the water and do some snorkeling. The day is beautiful so we should run into any problems.

I have posted some pictures below and I hope to have a link to albums soon!!!

More pics!

OH YEAH ONE PIECE

Just arrived in SAMOA all smelly and tired!!!

The Ava ceremony...our very first lava lavas

Primary School

Things I forgot (October 7 2010)

Last night I bought one hour of wireless time, it was not enough to do what I wanted and talk about everything for my first experience in Samoa. I was given the brilliant idea to type all of my blogs or e-mails before on a word document and then all I would have to do is copy and paste!

I am not on the internet right now so I am not sure what exactly I talked about last night. I want to mention a few things about the bus ride from the airport to Apia. First of all, they drive on the other side of the road here which is interesting because they decided to switch to the opposite over a year or so ago. I got to see a lot of different styles of homes and lots of different schools and beautiful churches. It was interesting to see the public buses. They were all full to the max and apparently if there are no more seats available, people offer their laps to you. Yes, I may have the opportunity to sit on a complete strangers lap. I current volunteer told me you get used to it after a couple times.

The morning ceremony we had yesterday was called the Ava ceremony, which is also the name of the drink that we were all given. Last night the dinner was INCREDIBLE!!! We had a whole roasted pig and lots of authentic Samoan side dishes. There was potatoes and fish and coconut milk cooked in Taro leaves. I tried bread fruit, which doesn’t have much taste as well as taro which tastes like a undercooked potato. Each dish was full of different flavors and all so filling. For all those who think I am a picky eater…think again!!! J

After dinner, most of group 83 met up with some members of group 82 and 81. They gave us so do’s and don’ts and some things to look forward to. The bar was very similar to the ones back home and played American music and even had pool. One big difference is that it closed at 10pm, which was okay with everyone because we all needed a good night sleep for today. Around 10:15 we all took the scenic 5 min walk back to our hotel and finally got to bed.

Today I woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the days events. Breakfast was served at 7:00 am, which consisted of fresh mango, bananas and toast. We started promptly at 8:00 with a quick ice breaker and then a presentation of what to expect during training. We had a tea break around 10:00 and started another presentation on our goals and expectations for training. We all had very similar goals, expectations and fears. Learning the language was high on everyone’s list. We took a break to play 7’s ( the game most of us know as buzz) and only made it to 27. Our goal was 50 but that might have taken all day. We had a lunch break around 12 where I was able to speak with my mom, although there was a delay and hard to hear at times, but it was nice to hear her voice. Fellow PCT (peace corps trainee) Lindsey and I were set to do some currency exchange before eating but then realized we had no idea where to go after wondering around. Once we realized we were out of time we went to the food market next store to grab a quick lunch where we found some no name brand of ramon noodles. Not the best choice after hearing what other people had for lunch.

The rest of the day was filled two more sessions, one about medical issues and another about safety procedures. There was another tea break separating the two. We are finally finished for the day so we are able to do our own things. Karen and Dave (married PCTs) offered to cook dinner for everyone. We all just had to chip in 10 tala…which is around 5USD. Not quite sure what they are preparing for us but I hear dave is a amazing cook.

Another long day tomorrow but I will be excited for Saturday! We have the day of and are planning to go into the center of town where they have many markets and things to see. I am also excited to buy some fabric to get some Puletasis made! Sunday is white Sunday and is a church day in honor of children.

I hoping to be able to add pictures on here so everyone can see a little bit of what it is like here!

Tofa!

Talofa!

Malo everyone!

I know  a lot of you have been waiting a long time for the first post! It is finally here.
After a amazing weekend with family and friends sending me off I flew to LA on Monday October 4. I met a lot of group 83 and they are all awesome. Tuesday we had staging all day where I met the rest of the group, we were also paired with the Tonga group. Staging was long and intense and I couldnt wait to get on the plane that night! I was struggling a bit with the time change and I knew it would be rough once I got here!
The flight was a long 11 hours. I slept a lot of the way. I was lucky enough to sit next to a native Samoan women by the name of Soli. She has been living in the US for about 30 years but shared memories with me of growing up in her village and the PCV that her family actually hosted.
We finally arrived in Samoa at 6:30am...thats 12:30pm for all you St.Peters. I was exhausted but blown away as soon as a I walked off of the plane and saw the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen.
We were greeted by PC staff and other volunteers at the airport. We had about a 45 min drive to Apia which is the Capital as well as where our hotel is. We are staying at the Pacifika Inn. It is very cozy and the staff here is wonderful for carrying my 70pound bags up three flights of stairs. We had  no rest time and were thrown right into a ceramony where we were joined by the staff, other volunteers, and some locals. We drank a special drink that kinda tastes like dirty dish water and numbs your mouth. It was a very interesting experience and a wonderful way to be welcomed to the country.
We all recieved our puletasis ( the skirts) to wear for the ceremony. Mine is purple with green and white flowers. We have the most amazing view from our hotel, it looks like paradise and it all still feels so surreal to me.
After the ceremony we had a wonderful lunch provided by the hotel and then it was back to more informational meetings and then language class!!! The language here is beautiful and unique, i am excited to learn but it will be a challenge. We are broken up into small groups of 5 and my language teachers name is Onofia. He is amazing and very helpful but intense. He will make sure I learn as much as I can! After language class we had a short coffee and tea break and then we had another presentation on money and bank accounts and cell phones. We recieved walk around money as well as enough to purchase a cell phone . The plans are cheap and pay as you go kinda thing. I am finally on a break before dinner which we are eating roasted pig!!!
It is quite a culture shock being here but I am already having the most amazing time. I hope to get up some pictures before my internet time runs out!!!

Tofa

PS...my samoan name is Sene :)