Sunday and Monday

Began my Sunday morning with a video chat via the webcam with my parents. We chatted for about 30 minutes. It was nice to catch up more face to face, although they both are keeping plenty up to date following my blog. They had already read about all my excitement from Saturday. Here's a photo with Mom and Dad from last summer when I was working at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines. Some of you may have followed my blog from that summer as well.

After the video chat, I headed with a few others to the laundromat. Could have made it a few more days if it weren't for a few important things... like a clean towel. ha Got an ice cream cone for 50 cents while there. I love me some plain old vanilla ice cream. It hit the spot.

After lunch our leaders arrived with the grocery supplies for our last week of WorldTeach orientation including these delicious frozen organic fruit juice packs. I had one apple-concord grape on Sunday and one apple-cherry on Monday. They went pretty fast.

After our last WorldTeach teacher training sessions Sunday afternoon we had an old fashioned (American stye) grill out at the park across the street from Nu'uuli Vocational Technical School, where we are staying. Burgers with all the toppings, potato salad, and baked beans. It was nice to just sit, chat, and enjoy ourselves. I was intrigued by this tree here right by the ocean. The "fruits" hanging from it looked like hallow onions. One of these days I will figure out the names to some of these plant and animal species that I am seeing.

I decided to take a photo with the tree and the ocean and island in the background. I had nice bright outfit on today. My red i'e lavalava with some blue accents with my matching blue top. One of my fellow volunteers commented on my matching style for the day. haha

I also noticed the moon while I was sitting on the ground eating my cook out dinner. I found this nice angle where the moon appeared to sit just above the top of these coconut tree leaves. I had to take a photo from that angle. I thought a bit about juxtaposition - placing two things next to one another that you don't originally make a connection between. It sounded cool in my head when I put the moon next to a coconut tree. It's also nice contrast between the white of the moon and clouds to the silhouetted tree in the foreground.

Worked a little on my lesson plan for my teaching practicum before watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" and turning in for the night.

I awoke Monday morning with a bit of a sore throat (not surprising as some people seemed to have been picking up something), and I planned on picking up some medicine to start kicking it out before it gets worse. Even in another part of the world, I can still catch the common cold. haha Our first workshop of the day was with Ula who manages a non-profit organization here - The Alliance for Strengthening Families. She told us a bunch of stories, made us feel very welcome to the island, offered her services as a resource (including stopping by to print things if we need it), and thanking us for being here to do what we have come to do. 

Our second to last language class preceded lunch before heading to the public library to meet Diana, who also offered us a lot of help in terms of librar services and general questions about the area. She was a very friendly person, and I cannot wait to head back to the library and read some books. I found one section with books on religion in America, ethics, and food policy. All shout outs to some of my courses at Morningside College. I was a bit excited, and then I found plenty of books that may be helpful no matter which science courses I end up teaching. Those who know me well know I love a good book and enjoy reading a variety. I couldn't help but purchase one of the 50 cent books they had for sale. It's called "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" and is about som Native American women. Sounded interesting, so I'll give it a shot and was glad to support the library even before I start using it :-)

We stopped at the post office to check for any packages volunteers had received, and my package came from home today with a few things I had requested. My first mail delivery in American Samoa. Took it about a week and half to get here. Yay mail!

We came back to campus, and I walked to a store to pick up some medicine and juice. Beth walked with me as she was picking up her WorldTeach skirt at the sew shop. Found what I wanted, and instead of plain orange juice I purchased some pineapple orange banana juice. It's rather good :-) Double score.

When we returned I had a chance to speak with one of the volunteers who worked at Tafuna High School last year through the program. He has signed a contract with one of the private schools this year. It was fun to talk with him and gain a little more insight on the school I will be working in from the perspective of someone who was in volunteer shoes like mine.

I finished up with my lesson plan for my teaching practicum before dinner. We are all supposed to be ready to go Tuesday afternoon, although some will also take place on Wednesday and Thursday. I am presenting a lesson on the basic scientific method including defining "science", making observations, writing questions, and formulating hypotheses. I'm excited to try it out with some actual students and get a real taste for this teaching business I have committed to for a school year. It will be good :-)

Dinner tonight included chicken cooked in a brown sugar and garlic sauce, baked potato bar, and cooked banans. Now as I finish my blog, I plan on taking some Robitussin Nighttime that I purchased at the store today and heading to bed.

One last thing. I learned about HDR photogrpahy in my Creative Photography class my last semester at Morningside, and I decided to play with it a bit a few days ago. Here's one of the results.

Amazing Adventure

Be ready for a long post everyone. I have a lot to share from my Saturday Adventure. Woke up and headed with 6 others on a hike to Nu'uuli Falls this morning. I had been super excited for this adventure since Wednesday! My friends know I love to hike, and just generally walk in nature. Was nice to get out of town for a while. I had read about Nu'uuli Falls and had a feeling it would be a place I would hike to more than once while on my year of service here. Yep, I'm going back. Even though it was a bit wet from all the rain yesterday, it was a great hike. I hada big smile on my face the whole hike up to the falls. Then, as soon as the falls were in sight I became as giddy as a school girl :-) These photos were all taken with my basic point and shoot camera. Next time I'll take my Nikon D70 and do some real photographic work ;)

We took a hiking group photo together. One person stayed out for the photo, and it wasn't me this time.

We got in to swim, which was amazing. Dejavu moment for me... Flashback to Cascada de las Latas in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador, May 2009. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and were able to swim in the pool beneath it. I found myself just looking up at the waterfall enjoying the light streaming in and water falling down on me in the pool. What a great feeling! Here again at Nu'uuli Falls in American Samoa.

After taking in the moment, I got out to take some more photos and I even tried a little video as photos don't quite do it justice.

I noticed a little falls a bit to the right of Nu'uuli Falls as we were up there, so I walked over that way. The trees surrounding me reminded me of the Olympic Peninsula. My good friends will understand this reference though I've never been to the Peninsula. I took another little video and took some more photos.

After the hike we took the bus to Tisa's Barefoot Bar on the East side of the harbor for lunch. Really cool little place with lots of character. This place has been standing for 18 years in the village of Alega run by Tisa and her husband Candy Man. (He also built the place.)

I had been told they make the best pina coladas here, and boy I think I have to agree. Yummy.

Figured I'd take a photo of my barefeet with my pina colada at Tisa's Barefoot Bar with the ocean in the background.

They also had some grilled swordfish available for lunch that day, which had just been caught the day before and marinated overnight. My first time having swordfish, and a good experience. Look  at the delicious plate - a fresh salad with olive oil and lime juice, fried green banana slices, and grilled swordfish.

After lunch a few of us picked up a ride with a nice couple in the back of their pickup (photo in the back of the pickup below) to the village of Fagatago, where we did a little shopping. I picked up a new i'e lavalava. The turtle caught my eye, and blue is my favorite color.

We had some ice cream at Samu Ice Cream Shop, recommended to us by former WT volunteer and one of our teachers Jenn. Good stuff, and then grabbed a bus. I stopped at the fabric shop next to pick up material for my one maroon Tafuna skirt and some material for a puletasi. I pick those up in a week and half, and I'll post photos then so you can better understand what I'm talking about. Stopped at Steven and Son's little convenient store on our walk back to Vo Tech (where we are currently staying), and I picked up a little pineapple pie that some fellow volunteers raved about.

As we we walked up to Vo Tech, I couldn't get over the beautiful shades of blue on the ocean and in the sky today. Nice calm water and a photo worthy sight. Grabbed my Nikon D70 and took some photos. I've mentioned before how that view is never the same all day long or day to day. Clouds are always different and the lighting changes.

Finally took a nice long shower, came up wrote this blog post full of my amazing adventure for Saturday, and now I am headed to watch a movie on my computer and go to bed. Feel so rejuvenated after today.

Wet Friday

Had a presentation Friday morning on a general overview of some teacher trips before our language class. Only three more to go. We reviewed some basic structures of some simple sentences. Then those of us who will be teaching at Tafuna HS headed that way as we called and had a meeting with the vice principal currently presiding as principal, while the principal is in Hawaii. He went over some basic logistics, showed us some classrooms, and welcomed us to the school. A little football scrimmage between Tafuna and Nu'uuli was taking place on the field as we walked in, and some students asked as we walked in if we were the World Teachers. Yes, sir. I snapped a photo of the team as we were walking out (in the mist). When it wasn't raining today, it was rather misty. Came back with some slightly wet clothes and rather wet hair. Welcome to Samoa. haha

After our little meeting there, we had some down time before we headed into our half of the partner lesson session, which went well. I talked a little too fast, go figure, but I'm working on it. Usually is worse when I'm speaking in front of my peers. Other than that, had good feedback on how I presented myself in the classroom and had some good ideas.

Finally the weekend began. Went with Hannah (from California) and Beth (from Michigan) to KFC for dinner, where we just sat and chatted for a while. Nice to be in a smaller group for a while and just relax. We also grabbed some ice cream. On our walk back we were offered a ride, which we kindly accepted as it was still raining a bit out. He asked if we were teachers. Yes, sir. Second time being asked that today. They're used to having these World Teachers around. He also asked where we were from, and when I said Nebraska he said that he almost went to University of Nebraska Omaha to play football before something else came up. Nice way to wrap up my day before sitting down to read a book for a while and hit the hay. What are the odds that the person who gave us a ride almost came to school in Nebraska?

Tired

Super full day today. I was busy from 1pm-9pm straight today. Had a little break in the morning, but I am beyond ready to hit the sack as I write this. Kind of weird to think about all the time when I am writing these posts you are all asleep. You are ahead of me in time. 

Speaking of time, remember I said I feel like I went back in time a bit with this cell phone I have here. Check it out, and notice how small it is. haha My hand is in the photo so you have a reference point for size.

Met with a nurse practitioner this morning, and she covered some basic services the hospita and health centers offer here and basic daily practices and tips to keep ourselves healthy and avoid certain things. Had a little break, and then went into our next language class working on days of the week, months of the year, and times of the day. One of my colleagues mentioned today that every time they say something in Samoan he thinks of a Spanish response in his head, as he had learned some of it previously. I said that I've been doing the same thing. I continued to think about the idea, and I realized I am now working on a fourth language to add to my list. English obviously is the language I grew up with. Through my high school and college education I have become rather fluent in Spanish. My liberal arts education also led me to be able to read some ancient Koine Greek. Now here I am learning some native Samoan. Four languages....

I tried to Skype one of my best friends Karena today, but for some reason our connection wasn't quite there as we both tried to log on. Guess we'll have to try again soon. My best friends and family have been sending me emails though, which I'm really enjoying. I also love logging onto my blog everyday and checking the statistic for how many people have viewed the page. Crazy that it can do that, but it makes me feel good that there are people out there who are following my story. I'm not just writing to write. Thank you :-)

This afternoon we broke into our content areas again, and we worked on some lesson plan ideas today and discussed some activities. I am working on a lesson plan about observation, question, and hypothesis - the first steps in the scientific method. The lesson has been festering in my head for about a week now, and just today a cool activity hit me. My colleagues enjoyed it in our class today.

I would like everyone to try my activity. (Literally do it, please). I'd love to get you all involved. Follow these directions:

1. Take out a piece of paper.

2. Draw a square on the paper.

3. Draw a triangle on the paper.

4. Draw a rectangle on the paper.

5. Draw another square on the paper.

6. Draw a circle on the paper.

7. Write your name on the paper.

8. Take a picture of your paper and email it to me at jessb2008@hotmail.com

Then in a few days, I will explain what we do next. Should be fun and educational :-)

After our big session working on lesson plans, we had our final World Teacher Training Session working on classroom setup. We worked with a partner designing a classroom and building little models of them. Here's the room Melanie (from Chicago) and I assembled today.

I was on cooking crew tonight, and we made jumbalaya. It went over really well. Took some prep time, but everyone enjoyed it. Finally, I worked on a little lesson with my partner for this project as we present these tomorrow (well by the time you all read this it will technically be today/Friday).

Busy Day

Rather full schedule today, but first thing is first. We learned how to sing "Happy Birthday" in Samoan today. Tuesday was my Mom's birthday, and I did give her a call that day. This song is for you, and the enjoyment of everyone else.

~Manuia lou aso fanau    x3
Fa'amanuia le Atua  (God's Blessing to you).~

We actually didn't start our day until 9am this morning, and it was nice to have a little extra down time before we started. I slept in a little, but then had a chance to look up some info and read a few emails. Our first presentation today was with a guest speaker from the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office. He talked about different services they can provide in education, what their office does, and a big overview of the history of this territory, which was really interesting. There are two National Historic Landmarks here in addition to about 800 sites that the preservation office has on file. Pretty cool. Archaeology is one of my secret interest areas. May have something to do with Indiana Jones but interesting, nonetheless :-) This presentation was followed by another language class, where we practiced our basic conversation skills and objects in the classroom vocabulary.

After lunch we met with in our content areas again- science for me - with the local teacher. Today, we discussed standards and benchmarks and how you unbundle them for your classroom. Our local teacher also showed us some examples of projects she incorporated with her students including a music video on a marine phylum (or group of organisms for  those of you who do not know the technical terms in taxonomy). The video we watched was on Echnidermata, which includes sea cucumbers and sea urchins. This was a three hour long session.

Finally, we had a session with one of our WorldTeach leaders on Teacher Talk Time (TTT) and Student Talk Time (STT) in the classroom, finding the balance, and encouraging your students to be involved in discussions. Nice little informative session before breaking before dinner.

After dinner I did a 25 minute workout including some shuttle runs and strength exercises for my legs and thighs in between. Then, I decided I wanted to play around with some light painting using the moon as my light source. This means I left the shutter open and moved the frame around during a 13 second time period. Here's some of the results:

I did a few light painting shots using the building lights:

This last one used some street lights:

Ua lelei. Tofa soifua. (That is all. Okay, bye.)

Internet is Back!

One way of saying “welcome to American Samoa” is random days without any Internet access and it mysteriously coming back at some point. That’s what happened this weekend. It was funny to watch people constantly check for a connection throughout the day on Sunday, as we had free time until 2pm. Still no Internet on Monday either. This is going to be a slightly long post covering a few days. I still wrote a bit each day and saved it in my word processor to keep my story flowing.

 

We started early Saturday morning and we are on our bus at 8am for our island tour. Headed east along the coast and made a stop for a photograph at a location known for these two major rocks – Fatu ma Futi. The story is told that these rocks are two brothers. I’m sure you can search for the whole story online, part of the history. It was cool to drive farther down the coastline and actually wrap around the harbor. This island has some really cool curvature to it with the mountains in the middle.

My fellow WorldTeachers were making comments about my nice camera today and asking  about it. Photography is a hobby. I’m just an amateur, but I really enjoy it. It is the one form of art that I have really worked with. Most of the time, I just learned things as  I went, but I did take a few classes while at Morningside which pushed me creatively and made me think more about people photos and portraits. I haven’t done a whole lot of that yet while I’ve been here on the island, but I have some ideas in the mind and have plenty of time to try them out. Currently, one of my favorite things to do is take photos from an unexpected angle. Try to make the normal postcard photo a bit different. I’m also noticing that I am digging some black and white work right now. Here’s a cool shot I took of one of these rocks. I purposefully shot it at this diagonal angle. What do you all think?

As we were driving along the one main road of American Samoa, you could tell when we reached the more remote end as we headed east. Not as many buses out and about, or vehicles in general. We had a picnic lunch at a spot known as “the wharf” and had our first opportunity to do a little swimming in the ocean. The only other time I had been swimming in the ocean was three years in the Galapagos Islands. As soon as the water touched my lips I could taste the salt. Wowza. Little waves also kept coming in, and we could see coral below us. Nice little spot. After I floated a bit in the ocean, I of course had to walk around and take some photos. Wouldn’t be Jessica Boschen if I didn’t ;-) I have a feeling my friends would laugh at this comment.

I’m finding it difficult to get over seeing how blue the water is here. The blue changes some throughout the day depending on where light is streaming in from, but at the wharf today it was truly blue. Check it out:

It was also surreal to see how clear the water was. The last time I was swimming was back in a lake in Nebraska. Definitely not crystal clear, not bad, just not crystal clear. It might be hard to even realize there is water in this first picture, but you can see the ripple sand light a bit where my foot is.

Along our way schools were pointed out where some of our volunteers are placed, as well as the roads that lead to their housing. We also had some really nice views out the window as we headed down the road from our fun bus. My butt was defin itely ready for a break from the wooden seat by the time we returned, though. haha

I did a little strength and conditioning workout with a few others at the playground just across the street tonight, which felt good before heading down to Tosa Grill for a little social time and some grub. Nice little spot, and our field director recommended it. Little bit of a walk, but that’s  something I am really getting used to here and enjoy. It was only about a 15 minute walk to this place we went to Saturday night. Another good example Sunday morning laundry trip. A small group of us girls headed toward the Laundromat – about a 30 minute walk one way. After we walked about halfway back, we were offered a ride the rest of the way, which was really nice. I had been offered rides a few times before, but wasn’t far enough away that it really mattered. Vehicles don’t drive past 35-40 mph here on the island, so a lot of passengers ride in the back of pickup trucks. I remember doing that on the farm a bit, and I felt like a true Samoan after doing that now today. We had some fun along the way and chatted a bunch.

Just chilled down by the ocean for a while before some sessions Sunday afternoon, and I find myself saying today that I am more of a mountain girl than an ocean girl. I still love the ocean, but I ‘d rather go hike up the mountain than walk along the beach. I’m excited to check out some of the trails here. It is cool to be in this location where I literally have ocean in front of me and a mountain behind me.  It was also nice to have this nice relaxing day - the day of rest. We still saw some people out and about, especially toward the evening as several families were out at the park. I like this idea of spending time with your family on Sunday. This is one thing I have been excited to experience here is the stronger observation of the Sabbath than what I am accustomed to back at home in the States. I cannot wait to further experience the importance of religion here. I mean come on... Religious Studies was one of my minors and I am on track to go to grad school for it.

Final couple of notes on the weekend. Once again, sorry I did not get this posted before you all awoke on Monday morning, but “welcome to American Samoa.” :-) After coming back from our trip to the Laundromat, I reorganized some of my stuff and decided to set a couple more of my photos out of some of my family and best friends. I already had one photo sitting behind my bed – with my brother Sheldon when we were much younger. That photo is in the teddy bear frame, which may be a bit hard to see here.

Speaking of my brother… I literally spoke with him on the phone today for a bit. I had originally planned to try to Skype my parents Sunday morning (my time), but then the Internet was down. I have not had a chance to pick up a cell phone here yet, but one of my fellow Tafuna teachers offered me hers to make a quick call to let them know I wouldn’t be able to get online today. Sheldon answered Mom’s phone, and he couldn’t believe I was calling. “How are you calling me?” he said.  Haha Costs us about 0.17 a minute for outgoing calls, but incoming calls I can get for free but someone back home is paying for it. I still hope to use Skype most of the time for things like that, but a phone could be handy to call or text quick and say hey get online.  Here’s one of my favorite photos with my brother just for fun. I’m all about the pictures (recurring theme in this post haha).

Still no Internet Monday (not until Tuesdsay afternoon for that matter). If I’m not posting on any given day or string of days, your first assumption should be that our Internet is down. We had a teacher session on long term planning first thing this morning, followed by a break allowing me to go pick up a cell phone. I talked with both Mom and Dad on my new phone. It’s a basic track-phone. Taking me back to those junior high and early high school sporting event days.

Monday afternoon we headed to Blunt’s Point, an overlook in another village, for a session on cultural adjustment. It was a steep little hike up to the point from the road and had a great view. This was a nice session introducing us to some things we might experience. A few things were pointed out that I’m really liking about this area. For instance, on the roads, vehicles will stop to let others into traffic all of the time, they stop for pedestrians all of the time, and they honk or wave at one another to say hello all the time. All the time! It’s a pretty cool phenomenon. Made me think of the Nebraska driving wave but on a whole new level. The biggest thing is how they just stop and let other traffic go in front of them. How often do you see that back home? Maybe coming out of a crowded parking lot after a football game or something. Here’s a few photos I took from up at Blunt’s Point:

When we came back to campus Veronica and Jenn (our two leaders) brought out some examples of different puletasis (formal wear) for us to see. There were even some donations from previous volunteers that we were able to take if we wanted any. I found one skirt that I can use some while I am here. We were also given WorldTeach fabric so we can have a skirt sewn out of that to wear to certain things together, and I will even use mine for school. I will be having one Tafuna High School skirt made, and I plan on at least one puletasi. You get to have some fun with your puletasi designs picking out fabric and helping with a design idea. I’ll be taking care of that sometime within the next few weeks, and then you will better understand what I am referring to, but all include ankle-length skirts.

Finally, I joined one of my fellow teachers who had the idea to take some dinner down to our security guard, who is also the principal at Nu’uli Vocational Technical School. We had a nice chat with him, and I was particularly intrigued as he taught at Tafuna High School for 11 years, coached football there, and served as their vice principal before moving to Nu’uli. Definitely some nice reassurance on setting your level and respect in the class and it should run more smoothly. “Show ‘em who’s boss, he said.”

Tuesday morning we met with some local teachers in our content area, and the science teacher we had has been teaching at Samoana high school for 5 years, and she gave us an example lesson, which was a lot of fun. We worked with land management and the environment. We get to work with her some more over the next few days, which will be really helpful. Next, we had another language class followed by lunch. Then, I went with two of my colleagues to Tafuna High School to meet a few of the vice principals we will be working under. They were very friendly, and it was nice to meet some folks there and get a better feel for the school.

Here's a photo of the outdoor gym and cafeteria at Tafuna High School:

After that I went with a few others to drop off our WorldTeach material at a sewing shop to have a skirt made. Came back, and we had Internet. After a session on teaching with limited resources, I sat down and responded to some emails and updated my blog. Sorry again for the delay, but I hope you all enjoy this long post.