Swimming with the Turtles
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Turtles & More
This week marked midterm for our ITEP class. We handle whatever develops during the course of a week. A few of the Primary School children like to come by our office after school to say hello. We have to encourage them to find their parents who come to pick them up.
Friday night movie for the dorm girls was "The Last Airbender".
On a social note, we've made friends with Elder & Sister Deffense, another Sr. missionary couple on Savai'i whose role is leadership support to the young full time Elders and Sisters on this island. That includes everything from missionary housing maintenance to medical help and even helping stranded tourists. We got together for Family Home Evening Monday night and potlucked our dinner and played table games.
Then Saturday we drove to the site, "Swim with the Turtles", and we literally did swim with turtles, nine of them. The day was perfect; the water clear. The turtles love eating papaya. Their teeth aren't razor sharp and don't hurt. They were gentle creatures which liked to be stroked or to nuzzle. Little fishes were about in the water as well. We spent a few hours there and met visitors from Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and Chile.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Rugby National Championship
This week our teaching responsibilities included a review for the midterm exam and administering the SLEP test. SLEP is a Secondary Level English Proficiency test and is a standardized test required for international Samoan applicants to BYU-Hawaii.
A highlight was the banquet Friday evening to honor the teams from Vaiola College who won the boys' Rugby Samoan national championship and the girls' Net Ball championship that took place in Apia the week before we arrived. As you can imagine, this is a source of pride to this school. Every effort was made to arrange a grand celebration. To give you an idea of the effort, they decorated the "hall" with fronds and draped cloth. One teacher with the help of others stayed up most of the night sewing chair covers. The meal was catered and every detail planned. Parents came with their athletes; presentations were awarded and accolades given of deserved praise. It was really nice seeing how dressed up mom and dads were and how they beamed with their son or daughter. It was our privilege to be invited.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
Taro & Coconuts
Monday a family invited us for a Family Home Evening to teach us how to collect, prepare, and cook taro. We traipsed behind the houses where Brother Tufuga, using his machete, pulled up taro out of the ground like a huge sugar beet and topped it, and then picked off the ground a few coconuts. Back at the house, Ron was volunteered to husk the outer shell off the coconuts by banging them on an upright, three-foot pipe to penetrate the husk. The hairy coconut fibers on the coco-nut itself were pulled off and saved. The coconut was split open and we sampled fresh coconut water. After the meat was shredded, the mass of husk hair fibers is wrapped around the shredded coconut and squeezed; discard the coconut, wrap some more, and squeeze. The process is repeated until all the milk is squeezed out.
Meanwhile, the mud and outer skin of the taro is scraped off---let's just say it is an art. Then it is sliced and put into a pot of boiling water in the outdoor cooking area. Once cooked through, water is drained and the coconut milk is added. The starchiness of the taro makes it like a gravy. Taro is similar to potato but denser. The taro was accompanied with a delicious pot of soup bone soup made with onions, carrots, and bok choy. We sat down at the table for a wonderful, typical Samoan dinner.
Afterwards, the young family held a short FHE as the two oldest children recited in unison the first two articles of faith in Samoan and then James 1:5-6 in English. They have four delightful children.
Blowholes
On Saturday we drove to north central Savai'i to witness the majesty of blowholes. As the ocean waves splash into the black lava coastal rock, the water splashes up through holes with a tremendous force. It is a breathtaking experience.
Banana Tree
A few pictures along our drive to the blowholes.
Bananas and the "flower" that grows dangling under the bunch of bananas.
Mother's Day Holiday
Of course, it is Mother's Day weekend---a three-day holiday here in Samoa. Imagine our surprise at the Friday 6:30 a.m. faculty meeting to find that only the "Sister" teachers were invited along with a couple of the men assisting for the special motherhood recognition. As usual, administration began with a hymn and prayer and a spiritual thought followed by a couple of fun videos, a balloon activity, and karaoke. Ron was taken back when it was announced that he was doing the karaoke with pantomime. He was a good sport and his dramatics earned him laughs and applause. Then they led us outside, down and around to tables set up with tablecloths, adorned in fresh flowers and balloons. There in the outdoors overlooking the plush green valley, we feasted on omelets, fried eggs, bacon, bread, and cocoa Samoa prepared by the men. Felt like paradise for sure! Before we left they passed out bakery made chocolate cupcakes. I asked a few if they were usually pampered like this, and they said no. It was a treat we won't ever forget.
Weekly Devotionals
Both the primary and secondary schools each held a Mother's Day devotional this week. Students sit on the gym floor, girls on one side and boys on the other. Students, young and old, conduct the devotionals taking turns by class. They are well prepared and do everything by memorization. Music is a key element. Students come alive when it is time to sing and they sing out and sound wonderful. We are amazed how serious they take their role when at the microphone. Every participating student steps up to say or sing their part with confidence. In each devotional, a PowerPoint was shown honoring mothers, especially the teachers who are their mothers by day; they loved seeing their teachers on screen.
Teaching
We continue teaching our ITEP class focused on student disabilities, and Ron continues making student teaching observations.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Samoa
This has been a week of introductions, organizing, and lesson planning. Ron conducted the first ITEP class on disabilities for staff and Karla assisted young people needing help with applications to attend BYU-Hawaii.
Since some questions have arisen about Savai'i, we thought we'd post some geographic and historical information about this island in Samoa. It is the largest area and highest island of the Samoan islands. It is fifth largest in Polynesia, behind the two main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian islands of Hawaii and Maui. In Savai'i, Mt. Silisili (see-lee-see-lee) is about 6,096 feet high. Savai'i is mountainous, fertile, and surrounded by coral reefs. There are also caves, blowholes, rainforests, and waterfalls. Annual rainfall where we live is about 180 inches; considerably more at Mt. Silisili. Savai'i is the largest shield volcano in the South Pacific with recent eruptions in the early 1900s. It is dotted with more than 100 volcanic craters and contains most of Samoa's native species of flora.
The ferry terminal is in the village of Salelologna, the main entry point to the island; it is on the east end nearer to where we live. A paved road serves as the one main highway, connecting villages, and circling the outside perimeter of the island so everywhere you drive you see ocean.
Villages are organized into districts. Within villages are ties of kinship, history, land, and chief titles. An extended family can have a number of chiefs with different chief titles. Men and women in Samoa have equal rights to chief titles which are bestowed by consensus of the extended family. Women play an important role contributing to family decisions as well as village governance. "Chiefs" are respected with a high regard in every aspect of their living, even in church and social relationships.
Behind the coastal villages are the plantations with crops of taro, cocoa, yams, fruits and vegetables. Families are supported by plantation crops and fishing. A brother told us that the daily dinner for most families is meat and taro. A friend is coming over tomorrow to show me how to prepare taro. She cooks it in coconut milk and onion so we are anxious to try it. We buy irradiated milk in cartons from the shelf. Eggs may or may not be refrigerated.
Amazing that the food channel had a show about the fruit bats in Samoa that weigh five to ten pounds and are supposedly a delectable meal. Well, they aren't on our agenda.
School terms run from February 1st through mid-December. The National University of Samoa is located on the island of Apia or Upolu. Savai'i has 9 secondary schools and 48 primary schools. Most parents prefer and try to afford to send children to church schools as opposed to government run schools. As was explained to us, the government pays a meager wage and some teachers in government schools don't feel inclined to put forth their best. For example, our church school pays substantially more than what a government teacher earns.
As far as fruits and vegetables, the fruit is plentiful in their season. We had a neighbor pick and bring us six lemons that are the size of grapefruit. There are mangos, papayas, bananas, coconuts, and pineapple. The most common vegetables are cabbage, carrots, eggplants, bok choy, cucumbers, grape size tomatoes, onions and occasionally very long string beans. Generally, we do a bleach wash and rinse vegetables with our filtered water just to be on the safe side.
Animal life is interesting as chickens and pigs tend to roam. We've seen the cutest chicks and piglets. Horses and cows are usually tied up to a tree in the front yard. They ride the horses to their plantations. We've had a few kitties nearby. As mentioned before, the dogs are feral, not pets.
When you live here, life is good. We enjoy going to the fish market and the open air market. Thank goodness English is known by most. Hope this gives a glimpse of Savai'i.
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