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.