Transition time

This week I have been convalescing after the flu. I got all my mid term exams marked and entered all my grades, which felt like quite an achievement.  I was very pleased to hear that my school has managed to find a local teacher to replace me - with a bit of juggling around of the classes. This teacher starts on Monday, so I do not need to do any more teaching before we leave. This is a great relief. 

Now I can concentrate on building up my strength, catching up on some reading and enjoying keeping up with the BBC World News - a great lifeline.

We are busy planning our trip to Western Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. We will keep up with the blog as we go, so watch this space!

Kate 

Leaving Samoa

David and I have resigned from our teaching placements here. I have been finding the work very stressful and it has been affecting my health.
We finish teaching on November 9 and fly out on November 12. We plan to go to Western Samoa for a couple of days, then on to New Zealand for two weeks, then a week in Australia before flying home via China (just for 4 hours layover). We will be back in the UK just before Christmas.
Kate

Kate off sick

I have had flu this week, I had to leave school on Monday morning as it hit me like a wall. Got a taxi home and have been laid up ever since. What I should have been doing was my Mid Term Exams with my classes. My Head of Department has been very good in making sure my classes all got a cover teacher, so they all got it done, which is great. I'm now trailing through the marking very, very slowly. At least it gives me a bit of a hobby. I am missing Radio 4.

Columbus day hike from Blunt Point, photos

from Blunt Point, Pago Pago

views over Pago Pago harbor

handy ropes provided for the steep bits

quite dense forest

Exams, Alaska hike

This week at school was a bit easier as we were revising for the mid term exams which are next week. It is difficult to get the level right for teaching (and for exams) particularly for my Geometry classes as the students have such a vast range of ability, both in understanding English and in math. I have to make up all my own work as the textbook is much too hard for the students. My Algebra 2 classes are more advanced - the level is more consistent so I can keep closer to the syllabus and use the textbook quite often.
Today three of us had a go at another trail. It's great to get out into the jungle for a day at the weekend, although today was a bit extreme. We hitched a ride in the back of a truck up to the top of the mountain - great views back over to the coastal plain where we live. Also in the truck was a local guy who was kindness itself, giving us a running commentary all about his village. It's much cooler up there so they nickname it Alaska! Then we set off down a trail towards Massacre Bay, where some Samoans and some French sailors were killed in an altercation is the 1700's. On the map it showed a dirt road all the way, but this fizzled out after we passed a few houses (and tribe of barking dogs). We ended up on a narrow downward ridge path which was often difficult to follow. It was billed to be a two hour trek down to the Bay, but after an hour's walking we had torrential rain and the path was getting steep and slippery so we decided to call it a day. That seemed the wisest move as we were in such a remote area and I was nervous about twisting an ankle.  A good trip out though - makes a quiet restful afternoon into a treat.
Kate

Good hiking on Columbus Day

We had some terrifically loud thunder in the early hours and torrential rain, so I was thinking we would not be able to get out for our hike, but the weather cleared and we had an ideal day - cloudy and breezy. We met up with some other volunteers and went up Blunts Point. It is where the gun emplacements are. It is the nearest thing they get to history in these parts. American Samoa was used as a naval base for the US until 1960 - it was important as a refueling station for the US to Australia route. The trail has been extended quite a bit and now goes right to the top of the ridge, then follows the narrow ridge with many steep little up and down climbs, all in thick jungle. There are newly placed thick ropes for some tricky scrambling spots. I think they are trying to improve some of the tourist sites - they are still very poorly marked and you need to be pretty fit to get round them. It was quite cool and breezy up the top - as we dropped down towards sea level we suddenly hit hot humid air. Glad that we could get a swim just there.
Columbus Day in a national holiday in the US, but I was reading on the news that in South Dakota it is not celebrated as Columbus is regarded as the murderer of American Indians. Here it is just an excuse for a day with the family.

wildlife on the hike - photos

crabs are in the forest

not just on the shore

one of those black lizards

David after a bad week

photos from hike - Sliding Rock to Fagatele Bay

Sliding Rock - looking for start of trail

on the trail - most was through forest

overlooking Fagatele Bay 

one of the vols recapturing his lost youth

paw paws

Rainmaker mountain in the background

bananas

Hiking trail

We have a public holiday on Monday (Columbus Day) - this is the nearest to half term that we get. The week after that is Mid Term Exams, grading and parents afternoon. School has had ups and downs this week so I'm glad to be able to relax a bit more this weekend.
Today we joined some other volunteers to do a major trail from Sliding Rock to Fagatale Bay. Sliding Rock is a coastal area with smooth rocks (as opposed to vicious volcanic rocky coastline). Another volunteer said that it is basalt which had been formed by volcanic activity underwater - there are geography and science exemplars all over this island! Amazing blue sea, white rollers coming in and crashing on the black rock. We walked along the beach hunting for a trail that we had heard about. Fagatale Bay is a national nature reserve so is meant to have some trails, if you can find them... I do have a map but the trails and paths marked on it are very out of date, they don't bear much relation to what is on the ground. We found a trail and were rewarded with a good path following the coast through the jungle, climbing up steeply to go along the rim of an ancient volcano. It was an exhausting climb, very hot and humid - we saw some black lizards 5 inches long, some hermit crabs about 4 inches long, and a massive toad which posed for the cameras. We could see the beach that we were aiming for - it was great to climb down the steep slope and get down on the sand. We went to this beach on orientation when the tide was high and there was loads of tree debris in the waves, but this time it was much calmer and a good swim in medium waves. A bit of snorkel opportunity with tiny electric blue fish and bigger stripy jobs. It was great to catch up with the other volunteers who we had not talked to since orientation. It was tricky with the buses today as there was a cruise ship in so the buses were busy making a lot of dosh ferrying them around on island tours and so not so many were available for everyday dollar rides. Kate

David's week

Two of my lessons were observed this week by the WorldTeach field director here. Afterwards some of the Samoan male students remarked how much they 'liked' her'.She got a good idea of the low math level of many of the students.  Thursday was chess club and I had 5 students, up from 2 last week. They are all beginners, quite a contrast from Guyana when I had half the school interested with some of them being very competent players. This weekend we went to the Post Office to collect the chess sets that I 'd ordered online after approval from the Principal - based on my estimate of 10+ members. They were sent via Ohio so as to save a huge amount on postage compared with sending them here direct. So now we have 6 very nice sets and a few books between only 5 players - I hope more students will turn up in the weeks ahead as the word spreads. I went to see our football team lose 62-0 to Kate's school. It was 56-0 at half-time and I was wondering if Kate's team would reach 100 but the second half was more even and we came very close to a touchdown. Kate's team's quarterback threw some very accurate passes and we were outclassed. Also this week was a display called 'blast from the past' which consisted of student models relating to key events in Samoan and world history and which took the students many weeks of effort and caused them to miss many classes. Was it worth all the time and effort? No of course not but they learned a little and enjoyed doing it and I enjoyed visiting each student's project and chatting to them. I had become unpopular earlier in the week by being unreasonable and insisting they didn't miss math class to work on their projects. Actually, the first I knew was when only 2 out of 7 turned up for calculus' and I told the Principal who had them rounded up eventually. She agreed with my old-fashioned view that math time should be for math. But the next day in Precalc class there were several students missing too - very annoying and apparently this happens every year. My neighbor teacher also had lots of students missing but some teachers knew what to expect and planned accordingly for fewer students.