Flags and Fa'afas

April 17th is Flag Day in American Samoa. It celebrates the first time the U.S. Navy raised the American flag and the island became a U.S. territory. It's a pretty big deal and there are lots of sporting events, fautasi (longboat) races, and concerts. This year April 17th fell on a Tuesday. The governor decided Wednesday should also be a holiday because of all the events taking place. That meant we had school Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Essentially, to quote a coworker, it was a "dead week." 

Events started on Saturday with fautasi races in the morning. Each boat represented a particular village, but there wasn't one from Leone. I think there were about 6-8 boats racing, but there were different heats so there were more on monday and tuesday. We asked tons of people, including students, other teachers, taxi drivers, and bus drivers,  what time the race would start and where would be the best place to watch. We never got an exact time on the race but heard anywhere from 8-9am, but most people said 9am. We decided to meet some other world teachers for breakfast at around 8:30 at a place that was near the finish of the race so that we would be able to keep an eye on things. It's a good thing we got there when we did because at around 8:40 am people starting rushing onto the beach, waving flags and cheering for their teams. We joined the crowd and could see boats coming in the distance. Within about 10 minutes the race was over.

The boats were so far away it was hard to see them. But the winning team from Nu'uuli pulled their boat up right at the beach where we were all standing and watching. The team and all their fans were dressed in red. Everyone was cheering and waving their red lava lavas and flags that they had made. We got to see the boat and all the paddlers up close. All day, especially around Nu'uuli, there were pickups and buses full of people waving red and doing their special Samoan cheer that sounds like CHOOOWOOO!

Next we went to watch some rugby at the stadium. They were playing sevens and there were teams from different villages, as well as teams from Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji. I've only watched rugby maybe once or twice in my life and that was the club teams at Oberlin. I don't really know much about the rules or strategy of the game so it was hard to tell what was going on especially since most of the announcing was in Samoan. However, there were two main things that I picked up on while watching: First, the teams from western always looked stronger and played better than the teams from AmSam (even to my untrained eye), and second, for some curious reason Samoans think rugby is hilarious, and, although there was very little cheering, every two minutes the whole stadium
(which was packed!) would erupt with laughter. Most of the time I couldn't figure out why. Neither of these observations really surprised me, though. The men of western Samoa are generally a lot more fit since their country is much less influenced and corrupted by American ways, such as driving their SUVs through the drive-thru twice a day. Also due to the American influence, football has edged out rugby as the favored sport here in AmSam and more little boys will grow up playing football as opposed to rugby. As for the hilarity of rugby, well, Samoans think everything (especially physical humor and people getting hurt) is funny so it makes sense. I doubt I would have the same experience sitting in the stands of a rugby game in any other country.

Anyway we sat in the stadium watching one rugby game after another for about 6 hours. We kept thinking that the next game would be that last and that it would finally be the championship game, but no. Again, this problem was somewhat caused by not being able to understand the announcer, but even the Samoans sitting next to us told us confusing information. We thought that since we had stuck it out this long it would be a shame to miss the final, but finally, with no end in sight, we hobbled away to find a taxi, our bodies permanently contorted and sore from sitting on concrete bleachers without moving for 6 hours. But at least we got our money's worth (which is always important as a volunteer) and I've watched enough rugby to last me for a long time. It's a good thing that we left when we did because we were almost late to our next event: the SOFIAS pageant!

Roughly translated: have virtue and pride in your identity

SOFIAS stands for the Society of Fa'afafine in American Samoa (http://assofias.webs.com/). Literally translated, the word "fa'afafine" means "the way of the woman." Fa'afafine are Samoans who are biologically born as males, but identify themselves as female. It has long been a recognized and important part of traditional Samoan culture. Fa'afafine were considered sacred because they embodied both the male and female spirits. They performed both male and female duties within the family and the household. Since that time, thought, there has been a lot of western influence and things have changed. Fa'afafine are not considered gay and the best way to describe them may be transgendered, but really it's more of a third gender. It can be hard to explain and understand because we don't really have the equivalent in western society and culture. It is interesting to me that fa'afafine are so widely recognized, accepted, and generally respected in a society that is so predominantly Christian and anti-gay. Anyway I don't think I'm really qualified to explain too much about it but, the role of fa'afafine in Samoan culture is very interesting to read about so just google it!

Every year the SOFIAS have a pageant to pick the next Miss SOFIAS. For lack of a better word, it is basically like a drag ball. The ticket says "Exotic by Nature. The pageant is back with more swag to brag and tease your entertainment appetite. Witness the heat of competition as this year's girls fiercely compete to portray the essence of the following categories: red, white, and blue swimsuit; talent; and signature evening gown." We watched 6 fa'afafine compete in all three of those categories. As could be expected at any type of drag ball event, it was wild and over the top, all of which made for a a very entertaining evening.

Also, one of the teachers from Leone high school was competing (contestant number 4) so we were all rooting for her. Anyone could see that it really came down to just 2 contestants in the end, one of whom was from Leone. Their outfits, talents, and interviews were just a cut above the rest of the contestants. Alas, it was contestant number 6 who was crowned the new Miss SOFIAS. In our opinion and many of the viewers', our fellow teacher from Leone was robbed of the crown! She was the first runner up. We were disappointed in the result, but it was an excellent pageant!

Spring Break

I've obviously got some blog backlog here since spring break happened about a month ago! Better late than never, though, as I often tell my students. Spring break was pretty relaxing and low key. I spent most of it in American Samoa just doing things I can't normally do during the day. Quinn and I hiked up to Aloao which is where the Snow Boyz hail from. I think I mentioned them in a previous blog. It's a pretty long walk up there, but there are really great views. And it does seem to be a little bit cooler and the air is a little bit crisper, although it might just be that it feels good to finally get to the top and not be trekking up a steep hill in the sun anymore. From the top you can see down into the villages and all the way out to the water. It would be an awesome place to have a zipline.

Panoramic view from the top of Aloao

The view across from our hotel room in Apia

Quinn and I then had plans to travel to Western Samoa for 3 nights, leaving on Tuesday and coming back on Friday. We made reservations for the flight on the phone about a month in advance, as usual, but didn't play for our tickets until we showed up at the airport on the day we were supposed to leave, also as usual. However, the women working at the desk told us our reservation had been canceled. Why? Because we hadn't paid for our flights 48 hours in advance. This was strange because we had done this exact same thing, same airline, same destination, at least twice before, and we knew for a fact that friends of ours had also done the same thing earlier that morning so it wasn't like it was just a new rule.

So this was a pretty frustrating, but also not a very surprising turn of events. After talking to woman at the desk some more (this was only her first week working which also seemed suspicious) about how this could have happened and asking what our flight options were now, and after several shouted phone conversations through bad connections to change hotel reservations in Apia, we were pretty sure that we could do the same trip but move it back 2 days. We would now be leaving on Thursday and coming back on Sunday. Then we got on the bus and went back home. On Thursday we grabbed our already packed backpacks and headed back to the airport to try again. We made it onto the flight this time!

The highlight of our trip was probably all our visits to the huge markets of Apia. The market in Pago Pago is nothing compared to the markets in Apia. There are endless aisles of fabric, lava lavas, dresses, earrings, fans, necklaces, kava bowls, and anything else you could imagine could be made out of either coconut or fabric and sold to tourists. Quinn and I had a great time, if a bit overwhelming, trying to pick out gifts for all our friends and family back home.

The turtle-shaped swimming pool

As I said, the main point of this trip was to go to the markets and to relax. We enjoyed swimming at the pool at our hotel. This was the first time we had been able to wear actual bathing suits in a really long time. We were very cautious at first, checking to see if anyone else was at the pool, what they were wearing, if they were samoan. We had a long conversation about whether it would be better to be seen wearing a bikini if it was inappropriate, or to be seen swimming in shorts and t-shirts (the Samoan bathing suit) if bathing suits, were, in fact, considered normal. Either way we would turn out to be the stupid tourists. Thankfully there weren't very many people at the pool.

Another essential part of our relaxing was delicious food. Actually we ended up eating at the same restaurant 3 times in a row! But we ordered different things each time and were always more than satisfied with the food, the prices, and the atmosphere. It was located right next to our hotel and had a great view of the harbor. We also enjoyed some local beer! Valima is popular here, too, but for some reason it tasted infinitely better while on vacation. It's really not very good so we hardly ever drink it, but it's cheap and we're on a budget!

Some banana fritters we shared for dessert!

Our lunch one day: giant coke and banana bread

Also during our trip we ended up seeing 2 movies at the theater that was within walking distance of our hotel. There's not that much to do at night or on Sundays so we thought we might as well enjoy the theatre while we could. One of the movies we saw was 21 Jump Street which was hilarious and I highly recommended it.

On Sunday afternoon we met up with one of Quinn's Samoan friends whom she might while studying abroad in New Zealand. She gave us a little tour of Apia in her car and took us to get ice cream at a little place near the harbor (I had passion fruit, yum!). She was really cool and it was nice to meet her and I'm sure it was great for Quinn to see her after 3 years.

View of American Samoa from the plane

We had such a nice, relaxing time that we didn't really want to come back and start teaching again the next day, but, of course, we did. It was pretty hard for me and the students to get back into the swing of things after break. A lot of students just check out after spring break and think that school is pretty much over. As the fourth quarter continues, I am seeing where this attitude comes from. We have so many holidays, special events, standardized tests, and other things that there really aren't that many instructional days left. Only 6 more weeks to go!

Student projects

The best way for my students to be engaged in the classroom and understand the concepts I am teaching them is to do hands-on projects. The only problem is usually not having any materials and not having the money to buy any. The best way solve this is to get creative and use things that are readily available and free, like the paper bags we used in the chemistry lab I wrote about in the last blog. I can also sometimes get students to bring in materials especially if they get extra credit for it, but it typically takes a lot of nagging.

In biology we've been learning about mitosis and meiosis. I read about a project online somewhere that involved making cells out of paper plates and then using other materials to create chromosomes and other parts of the cell. I was able to get a few kids to bring in styrofoam plates (paper plates do not exist here which blows my mind because there is such a huge problem with trash) and I had some colored pipe cleaners, a few markers, and Quinn let me have a ball of purple yarn. The kids made chromosomes and spindle apparatuses out of yarn and pipe cleaners and drew the rest with marker. I'm not sure if this helped them learn about the process of meiosis better or if they were just replicating the picture in the book, but most of them had fun anyway.

In period 2 we stuck all the plates up on the wall above the chalk board using tape and glue. They looked pretty good when they were all organize together. It was the first thing all the rest of the students noticed when they walked in the room and they all thought it was pretty cool. Period 6 saw them and were immediately jealous that their plates were not yet up on the wall, even though the only reason for this was because they hadn't had class yet. The glue didn't hold on the chromosomes that well and every couple days I find another lost chromosome lying on the floor, but so far the plates have stuck to the walls pretty well. I was a little worried because the wind usually knocks down everything I put up after about a week.

One of the best projects

Before we learned about meiosis we learned about mitosis. This was right before midterms so I had them do a midterm project on mitosis. All of my students are always begging me to do a "cake project" especially since the beginning of the year when I had the freshman make edible models of the atom. So I had all the biology students work in groups to make an edible cell in one of the stages of mitosis. I made it clear that it did not necessarily have to be made out of cake, it just had to be edible. Of course most of projects were made out of cake or cake related treats, such as brownies and rice krispie treats.



Some students obviously put a lot of time, effort, and planning into their projects. Other students were asking during class if they could go to the store to by M&M's because they were just now assembling their cakes and need them as centromeres. Of course, it was never their fault. "Miss, Peter ate all our chromosomes and now we have to go buy more!" One of the most creative projects was from a student who used a bowl of jello for her cell and pieces of candy floated around inside representing the chromosomes and other parts of the cell.




Of course, the best part was when everyone got to eat all the projects. They could hardly get through the presentations because they were so excited about the prospect of shoveling all the cakes into their mouths as fast as they could. During the presentations I could see kids sneaking gummy worms off their cakes and slipping them into their mouths. If group members caught them they would either be slapped and glared at with a disapprovingly, or, more likely, the group member would do the same thing, until, by the end of the presentations there were just bare cakes left.

My student's science fair poster board.

This semester was also the time for the island wide Science Fair. Science teachers helped students with projects and then helped them write reports and make a poster board which they could then present to the judges. Most of the students who asked me for help I could tell did not really want to do a project but they just liked the idea of having done a project. They really didn't want to put in the time and brain power it would require.

I ended up mostly just helping one of my students. It was difficult for both of us. She didn't have the experience or knowledge about how to even begin to do a science fair project and she also didn't have many resources. But she was pretty persistent and enthusiastic about doing a project. It was hard for me because I wanted her to do the project mostly on her own, but I found this wasn't really possible. Then it was a question of how much time and effort I was willing to put in and who's project was this anyway? In the end, she did not create a winning poster, but I think she learned a lot about doing an experiment and presenting it in a poster and report. She's only a sophomore so she'll be able to use these skills to compete for two more years.

This girl goes to a different school, but I know her because we play soccer together in Leone.

What's crackalackin?

A paper bag from our lab

This week has been pretty interesting. In Chemistry we’ve been doing a little biochemistry (which I often find is more relevant and therefore more interesting) and learning about carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. We did a lab on Monday in which they had to determine whether foods contain fat by rubbing a small amount on a brown paper bag. Foods that contain fat will leave a translucent mark on the bag even after it is dry. For extra credit all the students could bring in a food to test. As kids were calling out what they brought, I compiled a list on the board. Of course I was doing a billion things at once, like I always am, and so I was not fully focused on my spelling. I heard some laughter from a couple of troublemakers in the back and turned around. They were laughing on pointing at the board. I looked at what I had written. It said “Bong.” I was trying to write “Bongo” a popular chip-like snack here, but I guess I just missed the O. Of course it was those two boys who noticed, too. When I asked them to write what they did over the weekend one time, one of these very same boys wrote “Smoked Chilled out.” As soon as I realized what I had done, I corrected it, but I couldn’t stop laughing about for about 5 minutes while I finished filling in the list on the board. The 3 of us just had our own private little joke session for few minutes there. I got things back on track and I think all the kids enjoyed the lab.

Also this week I introduced the phrase “What’s crackalackin?” to on of my freshman. This freshman boy is one of those who has not lost all his baby fat yet and still looks like a cute little boy. He has a cute laugh and is always smiling and giggling about something. I would describe him as roly poly. Quinn shares these sentiments and commented once, “He’s so cute and roly poly! I just want to push him down a hill!” much to Amber's and my amusement. Anyway he loved the new phrase. Every two minutes (no joke) in class he would raise his hand and ask me, “Hey Ms. Abby, what’s crackalackin?” and then erupt in a fit of cute giggles. I stopped calling on him, but this did not deter him from asking, nor detract from his amusement. I couldn’t help but laugh even though after about the 10^th time I was getting a little annoyed. Every day this week he has walked into class and asked me what’s crackalackin.

In biology, we have been learning about mitosis and meiosis (the processes by which new cells and gametes are formed). I also taught them a little bit about what happens if a baby is born from a gamete that does not have the correct number of chromosomes. For example, people with Down Syndrome have an extra chromosome number 21. There are also some very severe disorders children can be born with if they have chromosomal abnormalities. This got me thinking about abortion and the reasons that people are for or against abortion. Could 15-year-old kids handle a discussion about abortion? Especially coming from a culture that is so deeply religious and where it is taboo to talk about anything that remotely has to do with sex? I thought I would give it a try.

Before the discussion I had each of them write 2 paragraphs about their opinion on abortion. I thought it would be good for them to have time to formulate their own thoughts before diving in to a discussion. Before I told them what the topic was I told some students we were going to be writing and received the expected groans in return. “Don’t worry! It’s going to be interesting!” I quickly added. One girl looked at me and said very genuinely, “All your lessons are interesting! Your class is always so interesting.” It’s not just me that thinks so then!

When they started writing I could tell from their faces and the questions they were asking me that some of them were really thinking. One student kept asking me thoughtful questions and then commented, “This is the only time I ever ask questions. This is so interesting.” The same student asked me at the end of class if he could finish it for homework, and I asked why he hadn’t finished in class like everyone else. He replied, “I just have so many thoughts in my head. There’s too much. I just need to go home and finish.” I let him finish it for homework.

The next day we had small group discussions in class. I wanted the groups to be smaller so that everyone could hear and so all the students would be more comfortable sharing their opinions. I wrote “Discussion Rules” on the board that included things like, “Respect everyone’s opinion.” As I wrote rule number four, “Keep your hands to yourself,” I started to question whether these students were, in fact, mature enough to handle this. As they started talking I walked around and joined in the discussions, prompting them with comments like, “What about rape?” or “What if pregnancy endangers the mother’s health?” Most students started the discussion by saying that rape should always be illegal no matter what, citing that it was wrong in God’s eyes. This was pretty much what I was expecting. However, when I started asking tougher questions, a lot of them changed their minds. A few surprised me by saying that the woman should always have the right to choose no matter what. A couple kids were obviously very uncomfortable and/or giggly and claimed they didn’t know what they thought. Overall, though, things went very well. The best part was that I could tell they were actually thinking and using their brains. Kids here are not often asked their opinions about anything and are just told what is right and wrong. It was refreshing to see them formulate and express their own opinions, as well as process the opinions of others.

Standardized cheating

Last week we had SAT10 standardized testing for the 9^th, 11^th, and 12^th graders. This took up 2-3 hours in the morning for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Some teachers were assigned to be proctors and the rest were supposed to chaperone the activities for the sophomores in the gym. I was glad that I was assigned to be a proctor for the 11^th graders because, let’s face it, as a small, white girl, I would not have much authoritative power over 200 Samoan kids running around in the gym. So I sat in my classroom using my computer, while 25 juniors tried, or at least pretended to try, to take this standardize test for hours every morning.

Most of them could only focus for about 30 minutes before they started talking to their neighbors. I mostly ignored it because even though they were talking in Samoan, I was pretty sure they were not talking about the answers to the test. If they were, there was a pretty good chance that they were just sharing wrong answers anyway. I think a lot of the kids didn’t even understand what most of the questions were asking them let alone what the answers were. One girl asked me to explain an earth science question to her because she didn’t know what the word “boulder” meant. But at least she was trying. One extremely antsy and disruptive student went to the “bathroom” at the halfway break and never came back for the rest of the test. When I looked at his answer sheet I saw that he had already filled in the bubbles for the all the sections. The next day I saw him filling in the answer sheet without even opening his test booklet.

I tried to combat the talkativeness by playing music on my laptop. They were all begging me to play music anyway. And I know from experience that music has a very calming effect on. Since I was facing away from the hallway I couldn’t see when the test administrators from the DOE were coming to check on us. Apparently I had the music on a little too loud. Students started looking at me with big eyes and gesturing toward the door. I turned around a little too late to see the test administrator walking up to my classroom. I quickly turned off the music. She walked in and started yelling at all the kids about being too loud and how she could hear us from the hallway. Then there was some more yelling in Samoan and all the kids were silent and she left. Haha oops! I turned the music back on when she was out of sight, but turned the volume down a little. The students worked out a better signaling system. We didn’t have any other close calls.

But really these tests results don’t really mean much. A lot of the kids are tested on subjects that they’ve never taken. For example, the science section includes questions about earth science and chemistry, but a proficient student will never take earth science and a mainstream student will never take chemistry. I also found out that many of the teachers just give all their students the answers. One student asked me, “Why don’t you just give us the answers like the other teachers?” Another time a student was hanging out in my room before the test started and I saw he was holding a half sheet of paper with numbers and letters on it. I asked him what it was and he said “Oh it’s the answers to the spelling section for today. So-and-so gave us the answers after the test yesterday.” I also found out that the test scores are organized by what teacher the students have. So obviously teachers want the test to show that the students that they teach did well on the exam. Not surprisingly Leone usually scores higher than the other public high schools on island (but I would think that this answer sharing would happen at other high schools as well). However, compared to national scores Leone is still far below average. To me it seems like this testing is all a big waste of time.