OJT in Faleu

July 31 -
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have a place like this to live in! My house is RIGHT on the ocean, like 20 feet from the water up on a bank of lava with a mini lagoon on one side and banana trees separating it from the house next door on the other side. I can sit in my corner room and look out at the azure water breaking on the coral reef just offshore. The boat dock is one house down on the other side of the lagoon and across the "road", which is really a path that alternates between sand and lava outcroppings, from it is the Methodist church. Between them is a large sandy area that is used for sports and ceremonial activities.

The house itself is quite large. Two thirds is an open fale that the family uses as their living/sleeping room when they come out from Apia on weekends. The rest is enclosed and divided into three rooms, my bedroom, then the kitchen in the middle, then another room on the other end of the house where they store their sleeping mats and other personal possessions. My room is quite large with it's own locking door AND a bathroom with flush toilet and a sink. Yeah! I don't have to get dressed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night anymore. The kitchen is great. There is a range with oven, refrigerator/freezer, two burner counter top propane stove, a stainless sink and counter unit, a table with granite type top, and lots of cupboards, all of which need a thorough cleaning and disinfecting, but I'll deal with that when I actually get moved in.

It is an absolutely perfect day today. The sun is shining and there is a stiff trade wind blowing from the southeast off the ocean so if you are in the shade it isn't hot at all. It also seems a lot less humid than my training village, which is a blessing.

The village mayor and the lady whose family owns the house picked me up in Apia. She speaks excellent English, he doesn't speak much. We stopped by the house to drop of my bags and show me around then went to the neighboring village to a funeral. Afterwards we walked down the road back to my village and had some lunch served us. After lunch we walked around the village a bit meeting people and finding out where things are. It seems the biggest issues are their health center and the water supply. They have a new building for the health center but no supplies. I was fortunate that the government visiting nurses were there that day so I was able to talk with them about what was needed to actually turn an empty building into a real health center. This will probably be one of my higher priorities.

My pulenu’u has set up a committee of two women who are to be my guides while I am here. This afternoon they walked me down the left hand side of the village from my house so I could begin my job of mapping the village and where everyone lives. They stayed for dinner, which was brought to us by the pulenu’u and his wife. When we finished eating they left after agreeing to meet again at 9:30am.

August 1 -
Since my host family lives in Apia and only comes here on the weekends I am being "taken care of" by the pulenu'u and his wife. Last night, in spite of my efforts to assure them that I would be fine alone in the house (the kitchen has locks front and back plus my room has a locking door from the kitchen and there is security wire on my windows) they insisted I must let them sleep on the floor outside the kitchen. I finally gave in but it's not something I want for the next 2 years. I'll have to work on it when I come back.

They were gone when I got up so I walked around in my pajamas, made a cup of coffee (instant) and sat in my room admiring the view. How nice it is!!! There is a small grassy area outside the kitchen and my room where I might be able to plant some veggies and a spot where I can put a small table and chair to sit at in the mornings. It is screened from the house across the road by the water tanks and the shower building and is shaded by the main house which is important because even at 7:00am the sun is very hot.

Did I mention that there is no water on this island? It all has to come from the sky via runoff from the roofs that is collected in big water tanks. This house has 3 tanks on the ground and an electric pump that pumps water to a 4th tank up on a platform which then has pipes to the house, hence running water for the shower, kitchen, and bathrooms (2 of them).

The assigned time of 9:30 came and went and my committee didn’t show up. That is not at all unusual when operating on Samoan time so I puttered around until 10:15 when the pulenu’u showed up and we went looking for them. One of the ladies lives clear at the other end of the village which is quite a distance so we stopped at the other's house and found her sleeping. We decided that while she got ready we would go and talk to the Methodist minister to see if he had any thoughts about what needs to be done in the village. I talked to him and his wife for about 45 minutes then we went back to K’s fale. She was ready so the pulenu’u left and we began the long walk to P’s house. She apologized profusely for being late and went to get us some koko Samoa.

While I was sitting there I looked up at the “ceiling” of the fale and was duly impressed. This was no ordinary fale. It belonged to P’s father (she is 62) and is around 100 years old and retains most of the original craftsmanship except that it now has a tin roof instead of being thatched. I took some pictures and they described how they were built. The wood is cut from a variety of trees depending on where it is to be used. The big posts and beams are a hardwood that grows in the mountains. The main roof supports are segments of breadfruit limbs, and the pieces that are spaced about 2 inches apart that the coconut fronds were tied to are from yet another tree. All pieces are bound together by twine that is made from the fibers in the husk of a coconut. All the pieces were soaked in the sea for several days to soften and cure them and the coconut fibers were then braided together to form the twine. It must have taken a long time to get enough twine! I hope you can tell from the pictures how much was used in this one small fale. I just stood there in awe. It’s the same old story everywhere I guess. Modern craftsmanship just doesn’t match up to the old ways of doing it.

Anyway, we finished our mapping project and went on home. They left and I had lunch then in the afternoon I went up to the Primary School which I had heard needed repairs. Not true. It’s only about 8 years old and in good repair, but what it does need desperately is books for the library. There is one short wall with shelves and some very old reference books but NO picture books that a primary student would enjoy reading. I foresee that as one of my early projects

August 2nd and 3rd –
Uneventful days. No one from my “committee” came to show me around. I did wander down the path to the next village stopping along the way to chat with a woman who was working in her yard. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found that she speaks excellent English. She has lived in the US off and on for the last 30 years, returning to Manono to care for her aging father. Apparently she and her brother rotate. I’m hopeful that I will be able to use her as a translator in the beginning. The rest of the two days was spent in relaxing, reading, playing solitaire, and enjoying the view.

August 4th-6th –
Returned to Apia, repacked the bags, and went back to the training village for my last two weeks there. It was good to be “home” with my “family” but not good to be back in the humidity and lack of trade winds.

August 7th
This week and next will be less focused on language instruction and more on review. We have a practice Language Proficiency Interview on Friday and some role playing scenarios on Saturday where we put ourselves in various situations, riding in a taxi, going to the market, talking to a man on the street, and visiting a chief at his home, to see whether we can get along on our own. Should be interesting. I guess I’ll find out just how I am doing with language. I do feel better about it lately although those pronouns and indefinite articles will be the death of me!

My computer continues to give me trouble. It worked great in Apia after I paid the big bucks to get it “fixed”, then I used it one night here in the village and it was OK. The next day I tried it and it crashed again! Aaaargh!

August 9 –
This morning when I got up at my usual 6:30am it was really actually cool so I decided to test my theory that the computer problem is caused by temperature. It booted right up! So for the rest of my stay in the village I am only going to use it at night or early morning when there is a good breeze to cool things off. Since the trade winds blow all the time on Manono, hopefully I won’t have the problem once I get to the site.

We continue to practice our songs, dances, and play for the fiafia (going away party) which we will present next week. Only two more weeks until swearing in! Then my two years really begins.

August 11 –
I had my practice Language Proficiency Interview today. It’s 20 minutes of conversation with the tester, all in Samoan of course. Fortunately our trainers know what will be expected of us and have coached us pretty well. Anyway I PASSED with a score of Mid-Intermediate. Low-intermediate is required to pass so I am really happy about it. Now if I just do as well with the real thing.

August 12 –
Tried the computer again because it’s fairly cool this evening and, obviously, it is working fine. At some point I suppose I should try to find out why it is overheating if that is what the problem is, but right now I’m just going on wishes and luck. I don’t have time, knowledge or energy to deal with it right now and the village is not the ideal environment to be opening up a laptop to see what’s inside.

My little brother and sister had their “graduation” today. It’s actually an annual final exam in the morning, and then at 1:00pm the parents and kids go down to the church and listen to all the kids scores being read. My 11year old sister was second in her class and my 8 year old brother was 3rd in his. Their mother was very proud! Apparently the kids with the highest scores get some kind of prizes. We will find out tomorrow after church what those are. I haven’t quite figured out if this is something the church sponsors every year to encourage the kids to do well in school, or whether it is an official school function. It’s very hard here to differentiate between church and state roles.

August 17
Language proficiency exams today. That's why I'm here where there is an internet cafe. Assuming all goes well, we leave the village Saturday morning and then are sworn in on Wednesday the 23rd. Then the fun begins.!