Full Friday

Did not roll out of bed until about 7am this morning, which felt great! After a Nice short breakfast I decided to go snap a few more photos off the coast. The clouds are never the same in the morning, the lighting is always different, and the mood of the photo changes. (I don't suppose you can tell that I have figured out a few things when it comes to photography over my years. haha) I decided I liked these shots the best in black and white. Nice silhouettes of the coconut trees int eh foreground.

We had a full schedule for today starting with a meeting with a few ladies from the DOE (Dept of Ed) that work in the Teacher Quality department - Ruth, Jocelyn, and Tui. They were very kind ladies and initiated fun and informative conversation. All three of them have worked in the school systems here throughout their careers prior to their DOE work serving as teachers and administrators.Tui was actually here the day we flew in to help greet and welcome us. To finish our day, they taught us a little song.

~Savalivali means go for a walk.

Tautalatala means too much talk.

Alofa ia te 'oe means I love you.

Take it easy, fai fai lemu.~

After a little break, we had our third language class with our teachers, Lieberts and Conklin. Lieberts' father is Dutch and his mother Samoan. Conklin is from the states. They both find lives in the region as missionaries through the LDS church, but they are doing a fine job with our language lessons. We just need some basics to give us a foundation.

Next was lunch before our full afternoon of teacher business. We had a couple hour session on "multiple intelligences" as outlined by Howard Gardner. Gardner once said "It's not how smart you are; it's how you are smart." He outlined nine different intelligences - verbal/linguistic, mathematical/logical, musical/rhythmic, visual/spacial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, and existential. A good teacher finds ways to incorporate all of these various types of learning into their lessons throughout the school week. We all self assessed in terms of these 9 multiple intelligences using a questionarre one can find online rather easily. 

We were split into groups yesterday to come up with a 20 minute group lesson on anything to teach to our class utilizing the 5-step lesson planning process we learned. All 6 of our groups did a great job of incorporating these different intelligences. My group decided to share a lesson on how to use a lavalava, which is the rectangular piece of fabric. I purchased one the other day - a red one. We had fun with it, and all groups had some fun activities. Oddly enough, we had three lessons on some paper folding techniques.

Finally, after our full day of sessions, I was part of the cooking team for dinner tonight. We had decided on "brinner" (breakfast-dinner). I was really excited for the fruit salad we put together in addition to scrambling eggs and frying pancakes. Several others were very excited to see a fruit salad finally in addition to the breakfast favorites including bacon and sausage. I enjoyed my two pancakes, scrambled eggs, and scoop of fruit :-)

After some clean up, I did a little workout by myself. Felt good to blow off some calories and sweat it up before I showered and sat down on my computer. I had been doing a little bit, but finally made myself go for a chunk of time again. I love to quote the movie Legally Blonde here. Those who know what I am referring to shall enjoy, and I hope there is a smile on their faces. "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy..."

Manuia le aso! (Have a nice day)

Thursday

Woke up about 6am this morning and put on one of my to-the-floor skirts courtesy of Omaha mom Nancy. I had some extra time this morning since I woke up earlier than needed, and I decided to go sit down by the ocean just across the street from where we are staying. I even remembered to take my nice camera down there with me today, as I noticed some interesting lighting coming through clouds.

I even set up the timer for a few shots, for those of you are anxious to see me in one of my long skirts. Plus, I hadn't really taken photos of myself yet with the island background.Then, I just relaxed up against a coconut tree and took in the breeze rolling in off the ocean. One of my most tangible memories from my trip to Ecuador 3 years ago was very similar to this moment.

First item on the agenda today was meeting the director designee and other officials at the American Samoa Department of Education office located in the village of Utulei (roughly a 30 minute bus ride from where we are staying). This is the 5th year that WorldTeach has worked in this territory. Mostly a meet and greet deal.

Came back for another language lesson, and today we worked on some pronouns, possessive nouns, and numbers. Next after lunch, I was part of a group that needed to go grocery shopping today for dinner supplies. We went to Cost U Less, which is very similar to a Sam's Club or Costco back home - buying things in larger quantities.

Finally, we had another teacher training session today where we learned the 5-step lesson plan method that WorldTeach likes us to use -Opening, Intro to New Material, Guided Practice, Individual Practice, and Closing. We then worked on little mock lesson plans in groups before having dinner this evening. Tonight's cooking group put together a pasta bar, which worked out really well. That's my story for today.

Learning

Today was all about learning. I got about 9 hours of sleep last night. Felt pretty good. I'm not sure if our days are just so full that I'm tired, but it's probably some of getting used to the the time difference. Oh well, it's going smoothly. Day started with a session from some men who work in the Department of Education office here. They discussed some basics of standards and expectations from their department OICA - Office of Instruction, Curriculum, and Accountability. Next, we had our first Samoan language lesson. We have two instructors, and we covered vowel pronunciation and greetings today. The vowel sounds remind me of Spanish, and each letter has only one pronunciation like Spanish, which is handy. Otherwise, the words look completely different. Not many cognates here. Cognates are words that look the same as their meaning in English.

Made myself a sandwich for lunch today, and then went with Sarah to try to open our local bank accounts. Too long of a line today, but we'll have plenty of time to take care of that later. I really enjoyed talking with her. She's lived many places throughout her life and decided to do this program on a bit of a whim like myself. I know some of you are probably curious what the ratio is of our volunteers. We have 8 men and 22 women volunteers serving here in American Samoa this year, 10 of whom will be on the outer islands. Our cohort also includes 3 married couples.

As Sarah and I were riding the bus at one point together today, a gentleman behind us introduced himself. Tye was a lot of fun. His nephew currently is playing for the New England Patriots and previously for the Cincinati Bengals. He's actually a Dallas Cowboys fan, just like my brother. Tye also said he's a Cornhusker fan when I told him I was from Nebraska. He has a niece who teaches at the school I will be working at and said one of his other nephews currently plays football there. Tye was born in American Samoa but lives in North Carolina. He's down here for a while though visiting some family that still lives here

Finally, our field director Veronica engaged us in a session on our role as WorldTeach volunteer, some expectations, and introduced us to some ideas for classroom management and challenges we may face.

Right now is the coolest it is going to get here all year long. It was rather sticky out today, but still not hot temperature wise. Still cloudy out a lot, and rain comes and go throughout the day; it rains for 5-10 minutes, stops, and comes back. Here's a shot of rainbow that popped up right behind the school we are staying at yesterday. Can you see the double rainbow?

Tonight was our first smaller group cooked dinner. Had taco salad with tortilla chips for dinner tonight. Very delicious! Was nice to have some lettuce and tomatoes. I was part of the dish cleaning duty tonight, and it resulted in a nice conversation with David, one of our volunteers from the UK. He volunteered with WorldTeach three years ago in Guayana. We talked a little about his experience there and what we are teaching here.

First Full Day on the Island

Realized today that the school we are staying in for orientation is in the village/town of Tafuna. We actually are not too far away from the high school I have been assigned. Sounds like we might have driven past it on our way to orientation when we arrived late last night at Tafuna International Airport. Later this week, we are taking a tour of the main island getting the chance to see most of the schools our volunteers are placed. I am 1 of 30 volunteers here with WorldTeach in American Samoa. This is the second largest group WorldTeach has placed in this country. We talked about a bit of the history of WorldTeach in American Samoa this morning in Pango Harbor. WorldTeach only enters a country when invited by the Department of Education or Ministry of Education of the area. It was nice and cool in the harbor this morning. I learned all the names of my fellow volunteers and know which ones will be teaching at the same school as me.

After introductions and some discussion on the program history we broke into groups for a little scavenger hunt to get us out in the area and make us ask locals questions. Ate some lunch from a family owned food stand. They were really nice to talk to. I had the lunch special - turkey tails, potato salad, boiled bananas, and cucumbers. It was good.

Part of the scavenger hunt included purchasing what is called a "lavalava" here. Some of you back home may recognize them as "sarongs". This is a photo with Andrea, who will be teaching English at Tafuna High School, and she is from Lincoln, NE. Go Big Red :-) It was a nice walk. We even walked down to the National Park visitor center, and the lady we spoke with was very nice. All sorts of ideas on things I can use in class, and the NPS is there as a resource. In addition to some walking we took the bus back on the main road from Fagatago to Tafuna. The buses here fit the description I had read about and was told by our field director - loud music the whole way, but it was cool.

3:15pm local time as I finish this post, and I have a little down time before we meet back up for some more orientation and dinner.

Let Orientation Begin

Woke up this morning and got my first glimpse of the beautiful island that I will be living on for a while. It was dark when we arrived last night. Behold... the view!

Some cool colors I viewed from the plane around 7-8pm local time:

Here's my bed for all of orientation:

This is the school we are staying in for our 3 weeks of orientation:

I woke up for good about 6:30am local time, and our orientation begins at 9am. We are headed out into the town I do believe. Took a quick cool shower last night. No hot water, but it was refreshing that way. A little different, but all good. I slept good. Feel much more alive this morning after all that air time yesterday. 

Here!

Landed in American Samoa at about 9:30pm local time, and then spent over an hour waiting in Customs lines. We are now at our Orientation site, where we are picking up some Internet tonight. I'll see if I get time to post some photos tomorrow or another time soon. I am really beat. Being up for 24 hours with a few naps will do that to a person. Lol. Just wanted to let you all know that we have arrived safely. Have a great week!

Flying all Day

Currently sitting in the Honoluly airport at 2:40pm local time, which would be 7:40 at home in Nebraska. Met up with most of our American Samoa WorldTeach cohort at the LA airport. We are all chatty and excited. I cut my flights pretty close in LA, though. Landed and then had to claim my bag, check it in with Hawaiian airlines, go through security 10:30am local time, and it was scheduled to depart at 10:40am, but then we delayed a bit anyway. When I checked in with Hawaiian Airlines, she told me I better rush. Haha Oh thanks. Made it!

If anyone is curious what airline food is like, here's some shots of what we were provided on our 5 hour flight from LA to Honolul. The first is the snack, and I had passion fruit guava juice with mine. Guava was one of my favorites when I was in Ecuador three years ago. The second shot is lunch - curry pasta... Finally, is Hawaii water. I guzzled a whole bottle when we landed in the airport.

Okay short and sweet post, but the whole not sleeping much last night thing is starting to catch up with me. I got in about a good hour nap on the 5 hour flight and dozed a bit in addition to that, but hopefully I'll gain some more on our last 5 hour leg. Then it's off to camp in a school for 3 weeks for Orientation! I'll post again when I get the chance. Night all!