Pep Rally

This has been a difficult week at school - the students have been hyped up as there were practises every day for the Pep Rally which was on Friday afternoon. A Pep Rally is a bit like cheer leading to build school spirit and class spirit. For this one each of the four year groups practised songs and chanting - the songs based on current pop songs with words/shouts about how great the school is and how great their year group is. This is accompanied by heavy but intricate drumming. My school is the home of the mighty warriors, so WARRIORS features a lot. These four groups are practising out of doors in different corners of the school, so it is a bit like being at a football match with the supporters trying to drown out the opposition chants.

Then on Friday afternoon the whole school gathered to have a competition - with external judges. So a quarter of the school at a time went up on stage to dance, sing and shout their anthems. It is mostly the boys who like to really show off with their dancing, some dress up with body paint and leap out from the crowd to do a special spot (mostly in explicit style).

Some good things about it all were the wild enthusiasm of all the students, that the song practises were led by a small group of students, so it was student led - also the whole event started and ended with prayers - you could hear a pin drop (1350 students).

school photos

not my classroom but the only picture of me in my ie - eeay - like a kilt. I wear this on Mondays and long shorts the rest of the week. In case you're wondering, I wear my blue swimming trunks underneath

David's school at a quiet time, with mountains in background

Kate painting over the graffiti in her classroom

Circus, snorkelling

More of a jolly report this week!

After a tiring week, David's school got to visit the circus on Friday afternoon - it was just across the road from the school. The school had negotiated a special price and a special show just for the school. There were acrobats, high wire, spectacular juggling, rhythmic drumming on tables and chairs, excellent magic, some quite amusing clowning - the kids were wildly enthusiastic. For the knife throwing act they got one of the students out and strapped him in on the board - they were pretending to throw but just stuck the knife in next to his face - the student was quite a good sport.

Today Saturday we had a bit of an outing - got the bus over to a good snorkel spot. The main problem here is that the sea is either massive waves on vicious rocky coastline, or placid lagoon about six inches deep. This spot is within Pago Pago harbor so is calm, but the sea is deep enough to swim and there is a small beach with golden sand and palm trees to sit under (but don't sit under a coconut in case it drops on your head). Sounds idyllic? Yes - well I guess it is really - you can swim around a bit a find where the coral starts and spot pretty yellow white and black angel fish, tiny intensely blue fish and massive blue starfish about a foot wide clinging to the side of the rocks. In the UK I've seen starfish which sit on the bottom looking boring, but these are kind of clamped onto the rock and with such a contrast of color.

Bird spotting this afternoon, there was an black bird with a bright red head which was sipping nectar from the hibiscus flowers in the garden - has a curved beak. David is patiently waiting to get a picture of it.

How different things are!

I managed to get all my lesson prep finished yesterday, so today has been a proper day off which has been great. We went down to our closest church for the service and afterwards were invited to lunch with the pastor and his wife. They were very welcoming and kind to us.
They came over from Western Samoa to start a church (congregational) 18 years ago. They started off fund raising in the US. They were allocated some land by the chief of this village who is a lovely lady who is currently a Senator. The chiefs take it in turn to serve as Senators in the government. The church was built and a house for themselves next door. They also have a church hall. The church is massive, with the most comfortable pews I have ever sat in (upholstered).
They have quite a small congregation - they said this was because the church has split four times, with groups going off to start their own churches. We asked about funding for the upkeep of the building. They run bingo in the church hall with massive cash prizes. Other churches also hire their hall for bingo paying a massive rent.  I asked if it was women who played bingo, the pastor said that both men and women play, he said that one good thing about bingo was that it kept the men from drinking.
We had a lovely lunch for the four of us with dishes contributed by members of the congregation. Their grandchildren (12 and 13 years old) waited at table and fanned us as we ate.
On leaving they presented us with a Samoan hymn book so we do not need to borrow when we come into church.

Challenges at home

This weekend has been a bit of a challenge as I was not feeling well, but I'm back to normal now. So we missed out on going out anywhere for a proper break - I did get lots of time to prepare my lessons though. Sunday church was the nearest Samoan Methodist (dress in white) with marvellous hymn singing - we can follow just about in our borrowed hymn book. The preacher did a special bit of sermon in English just for us, and mentioned our names quite a few times, a bit in English but mainly in Samoan. We were invited to sit right at the front and made a fuss of.
Some of the things that I'm missing about everyday life in the UK -  ways that I normally relax - like going for a walk. Here if we want to go for a little wander we risk disturbing a band of dogs who let loose a tirade of barking and are very intimidating to me. Not at all relaxing. So the option for a quiet walk is to go down the main route out of here, the same way we go to school. It does open up after a while to give views to the mountain, and also has the massive tree to admire. We can spot a bird maybe although there are very few different kinds - they can be pretty - saw a parokeet yesterday - just like London!
Kate

Labor day walk and immigration

Day off for Labor day Monday and very welcome so we took the bus towards the west of the island and walked along the coast a little. The sea is very rough there and there's no place to swim. We were told that the day before, a five-year old boy was drowned along there. We caught the sun, underestimating its strength because it was quite overcast for most of the day. My neck is quite red but not quite burned.  Today, Thursday we had to attend for more immigration bureaucracy.Again, we waited and waited but eventually we had photos and thumb prints done and we got our magic pieces of plastic that make us official. It cost $30 each but that's a lot better than someone having to fork out $2000 each as a kind of bail bond. Being a glutton for punishment, I went to the bank and tried to open an account. Kate took the bus back to her school. After a mere half hour, my details were taken and I have every chance I believe (after another interview in a few days!') of getting an account! Fa'a Samoa - the Samoan way! David

Sunday evening

Sunday evening - but Monday morning your time which still feels strange. David did not mention that his school social was held in the school meeting room which is the garage workshop - I don't think it was Garage music but it was mightly loud. We were treated to some displays of extreme dance styles by some of the male teachers - they can dance in all styles - both the traditional Samoan hand waving type and the local version of disco dancing which was beyond words. We joined them in a more sedate style and enjoyed a meal of a standard take away augmented by some local specialities: coconut cream baked in leaves which were like spinach - this is my definite favorite, mackerel in coconut cream baked in a half coconut shell - scrummy, baked breadfruit which really is like bread, and a cup of something indescribable which turned out to be raw tuna in a kind of sauce - seemed like eating slug. David's head of department made us feel welcome and was kind enough to wait around to give us a lift home.
Since then it has been a deluge on and off, but we are well served here with our veranda porch so we can sit outside even when it is tipping down. At least it has been cooler. This morning I went to church but in places the road was an inch deep in water so I did not do the long walk to English church, I just popped into the Samoan one at the end of the road. I met a welcoming lady (all in church white clothes with the elegant hat) who explained that it was a special Sunday to commemorate John Williams who was the missionary who brought Christianity (London Missionary Society) to Samoa. The singing was fantastic. She later told me that she is the chief of this area, so that was great to meet her.
I am trying to get braver about going running on my own, which is tricky as I can't really take my umbrella to feel brave about the dogs.
Today I did some extra work as it was too wet to go out much - I made a blackboard ruler, protractor, set square out of cardboard boxes, and I made a Pythagoras puzzle diagram - I also started my next World Teach module which was about Positive Behavior Management and suchlike. I find it useful stuff as long as I am not under pressure to get it done to the deadline.
Made a coconut and lemon cake today - it is tricky to get ingredients here - you can have anything you like as long as it is Korean. The only cake spice in cinnamon. But the coconut worked out OK, I just dropped it on the concrete a few times, then grated it and soaked it all day.  
Tomorrow is a public holiday for Labour Day, nothing special happens here so if the weather bucks up we are hoping to explore a bit more coastline, maybe even get the snorkel out.  Kate

David's third week

Ended the week on a disappointing note when I looked at student performance on some very very basic math. They are not ready for much of the actual syllabuses yet. But there are occasional signs of thinking so I have to be satisfied with that and hope! Thursday was first meeting of the new chess club. I was expecting 20 students but only 5 turned up, and none had played before. We learned the moves of king, queen, rook, and bishop, then started playing. This led naturally to looking at K+Q vs K forced win. I've been trying to order some sets from online but the postage does seem to be prohibitive despite what I first thought. I may have some sets delivered to mainland USA and sent on from there - fixed price $15 mailing box should work. Meanwhile we're making do with a couple of cheap sets. Yesterday, Friday, teaching periods were shortened in the morning to make time for student dance performances after lunch. Some were quite entertaining and the WorldTeach teachers may be expected to dance at a future event - aaarrgh!  Kate and I did get some practice making idiots of ourselves at karaoke at the staff social last night singing 'My Way' with a respectable score of 94/100!. We enjoyed ourselves after surviving, parched, until the drink arrived a bit late. And the first drinks to arrive were not soda which was what was needed then, but huge bottles of cold wine! Got quite sozzled by the end of the evening! Food was good - breadfruit and various coconut dishes.Today we had arranged to hike to Nu'uuli Falls again with a local couple we met last week, but they cancelled, which is fortunate because it has been bucketing down with rain all night and morning and shows no sign of stopping.