Peace...Love...Samoa: June 2011

Australia

Sitting on the flight to Sydney

“Enjoy your holiday?” – some random Australian asks me

“I am actually going on my holiday now” Followed by the explanation of what I was doing in Samoa.

Its always amusing when someone asks you how long you have been in Samoa or planning to stay. But this post is not about Samoa!

Australia was amazing. Landing in Sydney I had butterflies in my stomach and tears rolling down my cheeks. It reminded me so much of America. I walked slowly towards the baggage claim looking at the different stores and restaurants. Traveling on a Peace Corps budget helped me to restrain myself from going on a shopping spree…just in the airport I know!

Once I had all my belongings I walked outside, my body got confused “where in the world have you taken me”. The cold dry air, was pretty much the opposite of Samoa. My skin immediately dried up and my toes were looking forward to closed shoes. On my way to the hotel I just starred out the window in shock, feeling like a child who just arrived to America for the first time.

It was so good to see Colleen and Summer, they greeted me with cupcakes. Our agenda started as soon as I put my bags in the room. First was a bike tour around Sydney, which was an amazing way to see the city. We looked around some different stores and had a lovely dinner. The next day we breakfast with a Koala and a walk around the local Zoo. Then we headed up to the Blue Mountains, beautiful scenery and quaint little towns. We saved the best for last, the Sydney Bridge Climb. We were able to have the most amazing views of the city, and cheers to Colleen who conquered her fear of heights!!! And to all you seniors who are reading this, we had a women celebrating her 80^th birthday who joined us the bridge climb! A more extreme but awesome alternative to watching soaps all day wouldn’t you say?

The next part of our trip was The Outback (and for all those who are wondering, no I did not go to a outback steakhouse while I was there), a definite change of scenery from Sydney. It was a scenic place. Cold mornings and nights and breezy afternoons. We saw Uluru (large red rock) and learned about native people whom they do not call Aboriginals, but I can’t find my paper to tell you what they do call them (sorry). We did a Camel ride into the sunset and woke up early one morning to see an Outback sunrise, we may or may not have been freezing our butts off to enjoy it. We had a afternoon BBq where we tried Kangaroo, it tastes like steak, and learned about the stars.

Our final destination was Cairnes (pronounced Cans as we were told). I felt like I was back in Samoa a little bit. The jungle and the coast was similar. The people, food and accommodations were slightly different. We took a train ride through the jungle and the a sky rail over the mountains. We went to a cultural center where we learned more about the Aboriginal people and saw some of their native dances and music. We were also given the opportunity to throw a boomerang. The last day in Cairnes we went to the Great Barrier Reef. One of my favorite parts of the trip! It was so colorful and the picture I have below do not do the reef justice but you can get a idea.

Okay now, a major event happened on the boat ride out to the reef and I must talk about it. You know when you’re young and your parents won’t let you do certain things and they say “one day you will understand” or “you just wait until you have kids…”. Whatever the issue might be, you don’t believe them and think their horrible parents for not letting you do what you want. Listen to your parents kids they know all.

So there was a group of maybe 40 or 50 girls on the boat. If they were blondes, it was an awful dye job showing black roots, and more like white not blonde. When I looked at their makeup I thought maybe they might be going to prom. And then there were the clothes, the “booty” shorts if you will. Most of these girls were attractive, but then they walk past you and you see them from behind, and see their actual behind hanging out of the shorts. Come to find out that these girls were from a beauty school. Go figure….

Thank you Mom and Dad for not letting me wear makeup and even when I was allowed, keeping it limited. Thank you for not letting me dye my hair. Thank you for not letting me walk out of the house looking like as Grammy would put it, a coodavee.

And last but not least….I finally understand why my Dad got so frustrated when we were on trips and we would be on our cell phones constantly or wanting to watch TV or play video games. All these teenagers were on this boat like the view was something they see every day. Their eyes, glued to their Iphones the entire time.

So parents don’t worry your time will come when you can turn to your child and say, I told you so.

All and all it was an amazing trip, can’t wait to go back some day.

Enjoy the pictures…

Peace and Love

Can you find the Koala?

This guy was so hungry he wanted to eat my camera

Three Sisters...in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge

Sydney Bridge at night

Me and my Camel riding in the Outback

Uluru at Sunset

Sunset in the Outback

Uluru

Train ride in Cairns

Cultural Center

Me Summer and Colleen

Great Barrier Reef

Peace Love Australia <3

June 11 2011

I was riding on the bus the other day, one of my favorite things to do (if it’s not crowded), and I was looking out the window. Sometimes, well most of the time now, I forget how beautiful this place is. It’s not until I am alone on the bus looking out the window that I realize where I am and how gorgeous it is. The coast is one of the things that can make me feel better on a bad day, but it can also make me feel claustrophobic realizing how small the piece of land I am on is compared to the ocean surrounding it. There is nowhere to go…

The honeymoon in paradise is over. There is a reason why Peace Corps are here. We are lucky not to have the threat of infectious diseases or for the most part criminal activity. The fear for me is the effect I have on the school, students and teachers and how well they will be able to sustain on their own. I know I am making in impact now, but part of our project is to leave the schools with the tools to maintain on their own once I leave. They are more than grateful for having me here. I don’t see the enthusiasm or motivation I would lik,e to learn new methods of teaching. I am not expecting to see results after only one term of teaching, but I can’t help the frustration. The last three weeks of school are super slow. Some teachers are giving exams; some are planning them so the students are doing nothing. It feels like there is meetings everyday which causes school to end early. I gave my English exam to my year 7 class. No one got a zero, which is an improvement, but I was a little disappointed in myself because it wasn’t the results I thought. I confided with another teacher, here response “I’m hungry”. Many of my conversations during a school day consist of the following….

Fia ai?= want to eat?

Fia moi?= want to sleep?

You go to salelologa?

The constant feeling of fia moi is because they are always “aiing”(eating, aiing is not a real word). I would also like to challenge the guy who does Man vs. Food to come here and have one of our lunches. Ten pounds later I am done being culturally sensitive with the food aspect of this culture. My host parents worry about me now because of my new portion size at dinner and my teachers are ecstatic because it means more food for them. Those of you who had this picture of all these fresh fruits and vegetables every day, well I wish. I guess it comes down to priorities in a sense. Many teachers feel that their daily mood over rides the students education. Lots of work to do, but it’s a good thing that we are here. There is so much potential for education, the schools just need a kick in the ass to wake them up.

Looking forward to the three week break. My group has a conference for the first half, then the second half its off to Australia with Colleen and Summer!

Peace and Love