Papaya Seeds

The third week of school came and went, but not without its share of chaos. For the first two weeks of school, I had been enjoying my two small (8-10 students) biology classes. I had heard rumors that I was going to have to absorb about 5 more students from another bio class, but that would still leave my classes pretty small. I had been looking forward to being able to give more individual attention to these students and planning labs that would be a lot easier to do with fewer students. But all that changed when I received a note from the office Monday afternoon:

Abigail:

Your 2^nd period is now Earth Science.

Your 6^th period is now Earth Science.

At first I thought it was a mistake (I am constantly confused with Amber, my housemate, because our names both start with “A” and we both teach science), but it turns out it was not. They wanted to take my bio kids and give me earth science instead in order to solve the problem of having very small bio classes and enormous earth science classes. I told my 6^th period bio kids about the situation the next period. Their unanimous response: “Miss! Go to the office and complain!!”

So I went to the office to see what I could do. In the end I was able to keep both my bio classes, but I had to take all the bio kids from 3 other classes. Throughout the rest of the week my numbers gradually increased from 8-10 to 21-22 students in each class. This is not too bad, but I had really enjoyed my small classes. It was disruptive to my teaching since over half my students missed the lessons, and it was disruptive to the students because most of them had to rearrange their entire schedules.

I decided to just forge ahead with what I was teaching and hope the new kids could get notes from other kids and catch up. For the benefit of the new students, each day I tried to have a student recap what we had done throughout the week, which was hard when their summaries for 2 or 3 days of class were “The scientific method!” or “Hypothesis!” The entire week I had been going over the scientific method and how to design an experiment because the following week I wanted them to design and do their own experiment involving growing plants. I needed them to bring in materials like seeds and cups to grow them in, and if you want kids to bring stuff in for class you need to remind them at least 5 days in a row before you get anything. By Friday 2 of my 43 students remembered to bring materials. Anyway, we had a long conversation about where they could get seeds and what kind of seeds they could bring in. One student in particular was very enthusiastic and excited about the activity.

“Miss! Can I bring in a papaya, like a whole papaya, and then we can eat it in class and use the seeds?!”

“Um…sure. I like papaya. But how are we going to cut it?” (Papayas here are giant, at least the size of a rugby ball.)

“Don’t worry! I’ll bring my machete, too!”

“Uh…ok?”

I have no idea what the school policy is on machetes. I’ll have to check on that.

Another interesting exchange with a student occurred on Friday during chemistry, the last period of the day. First of all, it is nearly impossible to keep the kids’ attention long enough to teach anything on Fridays. I made a deal that I would teach the first half the class, and the second half we could relax or play games. A few students needed to go pick up their student IDs so I let them do that. One of the students I let leave is one my favorites. I would describe him as very large teddy bear. He is always smiling and laughing about something. He is one of my nicest students, and also probably my tallest and largest student. A few minutes after I let them leave to get their IDs, I saw his smiling face pressed against the screen on the other side of my classroom.

“What are you doing out there? I thought you went to get your ID.”

“Oh…yeah…the line was long.”

I look down and see his hand patting the head of a small elementary student who is about a 10^th of his size.

“Who’s this kid?”

“What kid?” his hand still patting the head of the small student.

“That kid right there! Is that your brother?”

“Oh this kid?”

“Yeah!”

“Oh, I don’t know.”

I just laughed and told him to come back in the classroom.

Sometimes students make me so mad I don’t know what to do, sometimes they do things that make me laugh uncontrollably, and sometimes I am touched by their generosity and kindness. It definitely keeps me on my toes!

A Typical Day

I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking, “What’s your life like now?!” Well, I will tell you!

Every weekday I wake up at 6:45 or whenever the loud pack of dogs or neighborhood roosters decide it’s time to wake everyone up. Then I make my lunch which is usually typical American fare: sandwich, apple, carrots, maybe some chips. And I have cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. I’ve also been eating a lot of kiwis from New Zealand. American Samoa has to import most of its food so a lot of what I eat comes from New Zealand and California.

Then comes the difficult decision of what to wear. I don’t really have many choices but I tread the line between trying to dress conservatively enough and trying not to sweat to death. The standard teaching outfit for women is a puletasi which consists of a long, wrap-around skirt that goes down to the ankles and a matching fitted top with short sleeves that zips in the back. They can get pretty hot since the temperature is usually around 90 with very high humidity and only one fan in the classroom works. To get a puletasi made you have to go to a fabric store and pick out your fabric. It’s usually pretty cheap and there are many to choose from, but, unfortunately, a lot of the fabric is very thick and not very breathable. Then you must take your fabric to a sewing shop where they will measure you, ask you how you want it designed (although they tend to take liberties and be pretty creative with things like the neckline, the sleeve length, and extra things like piping). You can then pick it up in about a week. It costs about $25 total. I got pretty lucky and inherited a bunch of puletasis from a previous volunteer who just went back to the states.

Leone high school is about a 20 minute walk from our house so I usually leave at around 7:30 because teachers need to be there by 8. Sometimes other teachers or parents of students will pick us up and give us a ride the rest of the way, but in the morning it’s not a bad walk. School starts at around 8:30. I say “around” because I really never know when the bells are going to ring. And by “bells” I mean someone whacking the empty oxygen tank outside the office. All the clocks at the school are set to a different time and the person who whacks the tank sometimes just forgets. Anyway I have about half an hour to prepare for the day. Students hang around outside talking to each other in Samoan, laughing, and playing music loudly from their cell phones. I have a group of students who likes to sit right outside my door. Every morning at 8:30 I open my door and the same boy who is always leaning against it falls into my classroom while looking up at me with a surprised look on his face.

There are 6 periods in the day plus a 15 minute break after the first two periods and an hour lunch break after the first four periods. The order of the periods switches every day so that can get confusing for both me and the students. I teach one 11^th grade chemistry class of 18 students, two 9^th grade physical science classes of 15 and 17 students, and two 10^th grade biology classes of 8 and 10 students. However, these numbers are subject to change. At the end of the second week of school students are still switching their classes around or maybe just showing up at school for the first time. My biology classes are my fave because there are so few students and I love biology. All of my students are behind grade level compared to the US and a lot of it has to do with the fact that their English skills are lacking. So patience and creativity are key.

I get one prep period during the day and I like to spend it in the library where there is air conditioning and internet. But if teachers in your department are absent for some reason you have to spend your prep period subbing. (You can also end up subbing for a class during your normal class, so essentially you are trying to teach your class while trying to keep another class from being disruptive in the back of the room.) They don’t have subs on call like in the US. If they did they probably wouldn’t have a need for world teachers like us. When I have to sub we usually just play games.

School end at around 3 but teachers are required to stay until 4. I usually spend this time in the classroom or library grading or preparing for the next day. It’s nice getting a ride on the way home because it’s usually pretty hot by then.

At home we are bombarded by pack of 5 dogs that lives on our property and all they little kids that hang around, too. I’m not exactly sure where they all live but our front yard seems to be the cool place to hang out after school if you’re in elementary school. They always want to talk to us and play with us. But the first order of business is always to change into shorts and a t-shirt and stand in front of the fan for 10 minutes. Then the kids will see me sitting at the kitchen table and yell for me to come outside. Our conversations usually go like this:

“Quinn! Quinn! Quinn! Quinn! Quinn!”

Then I’ll finally reply, “I’m not Quinn!”

Pause.

“Oh. Abby! Abby! Abby! Abby!”

Me: “What?!”

“Where’s Quinn?”

Clearly they like Quinn the best.

They usually go home when it gets dark. Actually they are all really cute and fun to play with. And they like to teach us Samoan words.

Quinn and I will sometimes go running in the late afternoon. We’ve managed to find some dog free routes. There are a lot of vicious dogs all over American Samoa so if you’re not careful you could easily get bitten. The best solution is to stand your ground and throw a rock at them (or just pretend to throw a rock) and they will usually back down.

The rest of the evening we’ll just hang out, make dinner, lesson plan, read, watch DVDs. Nothing too exciting on a weeknight. Well, I’ve run out of steam to write anything else today.

Friday Night Lights

Football is a big deal here in American Samoa. In fact, a Samoan football player is 40 times more likely to reach the NFL than a player from the U.S. So of course everyone at Leone high school was pumped for the first game of season: Leone Lions vs. Samoana Sharks.

The excitement was contagious and my housemates and I bought bright yellow Leone t-shirts in preparation (We had to dig through piles and piles XL and XXL shirts to find mediums). I asked all my students who was on the team and what their numbers were so I could watch for them. Only half my class showed up for the last period of the day because football players and cheerleaders were excused for some reason.

After school we changed into our Leone gear and walked across the street to catch a bus to the stadium. There is only one football stadium on island so that’s were all the games are held. We got picked up by a school bus. It’s common for people to stop and offer rides even to people they don’t know, but I’ve never gotten picked up by a school bus. We were the only people on the bus besides 2 little kids. The bus driver was very chatty and had a nice conversation with Quinn (who later confessed she could not understand a word he was saying), and then dropped us off right at the field.

The game was complete with an excited student cheering section (one student had a drum that he played continuously through both JV and varsity games) and obnoxious fans for whom the ref can never make the right call. JV played first and couldn’t manage to put any points on the board. By the time the varsity game started, the field lights needed to be turned on since it gets dark here at around 6:30 every day. Unfortunately, the varsity team could not pull off a win either. I don’t know much about football, so I can’t say for sure what the problem was, but they weren’t catching very many passes, I can tell you that. However, the highlight for me was when a dog wandered onto the field sometime during the second half. No big deal. Dogs are everywhere and it wouldn’t have seemed like a Samoan football game without one.

At the end of the game we started looking for a ride home. The buses stop running at 6 and we didn’t want to pay for a taxi. Somehow we ended up on another school bus, but this one was packed (people were standing in the aisles and on the stairs) with cheerleaders and football players. The 3 of us piled into one of the seats in the front. Needless to say, it didn’t smell the greatest. It brought back some memories of riding home on school buses after soccer games in high school. We were dropped off at the store in front of our house as the whole bus yelled, “Bye Miss Abby, bye Miss Quinn, bye Miss Amber!”

It was a fun event, and I’m looking forward to the next game. A week from this Friday we are having a pep rally before the game so that will be exciting!

What I did this summer

During the first week of school I had all my kids write essays about what they did over the summer. I wanted to asses their writing skills and was also curious about what high school kids in American Samoa do during the summer. Most of the essays were not all that interesting, but there were a couple that made me smile. Here's my favorite one from one of my sophomores:


On the first day of summer I asked my first cousin to cut my hair. I thought he knew how to cut my hair. Unfortunately, he did not. Everyone liked my new hair cut but I didn't because I was bald. I wasn't bald completely, but my hair was rather very very short.


Two weeks later my hair started growing back but it was hot. I waited until my other cousin came back from volleyball because I saw how he cuts hair. When he returned he cut it to a much better version than the first one. He said I have a receding hairline and that I was going to go bald.


I was very nervous so I went swimming to ease the tension. I completely forgot that I could not swim at all. I jumped into the ocean and soon realized that. For five full minutes I was swimming. That was until a wave hit me and then I wasn't swimming anymore. So this is a part of what I did in the summer.

It's about time!

A month after arriving in American Samoa I decided I should finally start a blog! For those of you who don't know, I am volunteering as a teacher in American Samoa through a program called WorldTeach. I am teaching science (chemistry, biology, and physical science) at Leone High School which is in Leone on the main island of Tutuila.

Twenty-two other volunteers and I started our adventures on this island with a 3-week orientation at Nu'uuili Votech High School. We lived together in the classrooms there and went through some intense training classes to prepare us for teaching. We also learned a lot about Samoan culture and language and did stuff like get cell phones and set up bank accounts.

Orientation went well and by the end I felt like I had known all the volunteers forever, but we were definitely all excited for move out day! Amber, Quinn, and I moved into a small house in Leone which is located on the western side of Tutuila. We have a lot of friendly dogs that live around are house and a bunch of neighborhood kids who love to hang out with the new world teachers! We also have banana, lime, lemon, breadfruit, papaya, and coconut trees in our yard.

We started teaching on August 8th. My classroom was a mess: lots of dirt, broken desks, broken fans, and ants and cockroaches. I spent the weekend before school started cleaning everything which was pretty tiring and gross. So far teaching is going well, but the first couple weeks are mostly busy work. A lot of kids won't register for school until a week or two after school has already started, so everyday I get a few more kids in each class. I think things will get a little more interesting once my classes are settled and I actually start teaching.

More updates and pictures to come! But it took me a month to even start this blog so don't expect too much!