Side of sewage?

At the beginning of this week almost all of the teachers had phones installed in their rooms. The phones can call other classrooms and the office and announcements can be broadcast from the office. You can only be connected to an outside line by going through the office. Of course I was one of the few teachers who did not receive a phone. The vice principle told me my phone was in the principal’s office and I could just go get it. I asked the principal if he had my phone and he replied, “I’m working on it.” Who knows what that meant.

On Wednesday morning I was teaching as usual when the bell rang about 13 minutes early. This was not that unusual. I poked my head out the door and all the kids were headed towards the gym. It was time for their break so I thought maybe the vice principal had called a school meeting or something. I asked one of my students what was going on and she said, “Something blew up near the cafeteria. I think they’re sending everyone home.” Immediately I thought bomb threat? In the U.S. that wouldn’t be so surprising but here there aren’t problems with weapons. Kids fight each other a lot but no one ever pulls a gun or a knife. So I followed the stream of students to the gym.

As I was asking other teachers what was happening they replied, “You didn’t hear the announcement?” Of course, the day after everyone gets phones except for me, there’s a critical announcement that the school is blowing up! Apparently there was a problem in the cafeteria. Waste was coming up through the drains and out of the faucets. It was a mess, and they weren’t going to be able to serve the kids lunch so they were sending them home. The principal announced that everyone was going to be dismissed for the day and the buses were coming to take students home. There was a slight hesitation and then the students erupted in a cheer: “Yaaaayy!” Then the principal announced that all the parents had been informed and the students were supposed to go straight home. This time no hesitation: “Booooo!”

They fixed the cafeteria by the next day (although I am never eating food from there), and I ended up getting a phone on Friday. No important announcements yet, but I’ll be ready! Also on Friday maintenance workers came back to replace my fan that they had fixed. And they even happened to come during my prep period so they didn’t interrupt my teaching! So Friday was a pretty good day. 

In chemistry we made models of ionic compounds using raisins, mini marshmallows, and toothpicks. They all love projects involving food. I passed out generous handfuls of both raisins and marshmallows. Of course some students could not resist eating them as soon as I turned my back. Five minutes into the project I had students raising their hands, “Miss, I need more marshmallows.” When I looked at their models they contained maybe 5 of the 20 mini marshmallows I had given them. When I asked what happened to the rest they would put on an innocent face, point at their models and say, “I used them all.” I took some pictures of the models, and then students got to eat them, as well as the extra materials. One boy polished off the rest of the raisins like he hadn’t eaten all day, but the rest went for the marshmallows.

Froever Friends

This week I came down with the flu on Thursday night. Yep, sick again. I take all the precautions that I can—exercise, eat healthy food, take vitamins, sleep, stay hydrated, only drink boiled or bottled water, use hand sanitizer—but it still doesn’t really surprise me. At school I always have sick kids in my classes and soap, not to mention toilet paper, in the bathrooms is a rare surprise. I also don’t think most of my kids understand how sicknesses are spread. Anyway, today’s blog post is going to be short and sweet.

One of my classes of freshman is driving me crazy. It’s like babysitting 23 5-year-olds. They talk all the time, yell at each, hit each other, don’t do their work, etc. It’s very energy draining. On Wednesday I finally just lost it with them. It takes a lot for me to outwardly lose my cool but as I watched students hitting each other with already falling apart physical science text books, it was the last straw. I screamed at them as loudly as I could (my throat hurt for the rest of the day). That shocked some of them and seemed to do the trick for the next 10 min of class. Kids in my later class periods asked me what had happened because apparently they had heard me yelling from whatever classrooms they were in at the time. So yelling probably isn’t the way to go, but haven’t quite figured out the right approach for them yet. On the bright side, my chemistry class thoroughly enjoyed making electron dot diagrams out of mini marshmallows this week. So much so that none of them fell asleep. Victory.

As I mentioned before, despite the copious amounts of vegetation here, fresh vegetables are hard to come by
and often very expensive. I decided to start a garden and last week planted some seeds in an egg carton and set them buy the kitchen window. I currently have some little lettuce, basil, and tomato seedlings. Maybe next week I’ll transplant them outside. I guess the only worry is they might get trampled by the dogs. But there aren’t any pests like rabbits or deer here. In three months maybe I’ll have some delicious vegetables!

 

Our cute little 7-year-old neighbor has taken to drawing pictures of us doing various activities. His most recent piece of art is a picture of our house with all our names listed on the side. Notice “Cat” one of the volunteers who stayed with us for a week before she moved to the outer islands is listed, as well. And I am listed as “Appy.” It is proudly being displayed on our bulletin board.




 
I received an interesting gift from my housemate Amber a couple days ago. All the students here are obsessed with slap bracelets. I remember them being popular when I was in elementary school. They are thick bracelets that are cool colors and say things on them and coil around your wrist when you slap them on. Given their propensity for hitting, their love for things you slap isn’t all that surprising. Since we all try to fit in as much as we can with the Samoan culture, Amber got me a slap bracelet. But not just any slap bracelet. This one says “Froever Friends.” Knowing Samoans, this could easily be a typo. It could also not be a typo. Either way it is hilarious. A lot of Samoan boys have fantastic fros. They are really incredibly and I need to put a picture up of one. All in all it’s an excellent gift.