Too Busy for Bloggin

Welcome back to the story of a volunteer worker in Samoa. I haven’t posted anything for a several months because I’ve been occupied with many different things. So now that I have a breather I’m sitting down to put my current situation in words for all you interested readers.

I believe the last time we got together I had mentioned that I had just turned in a couple grants. This was on May 1st. The first and “big daddy” of the grants was for a new primary school which the school committee and I submitted to JICA (Japanese aid agency). Five days later I received a call from my JICA contact who informed me that the proposal had been accepted. An enormous amount of excitement and a very long sigh of relief came upon me as soon as I got of the phone. I immediately spread the word to committee members who replied “good Simi”. (Simi is my samoan name). Let’s just say a Samoan’s reaction to good news is quite subdued compared to an American’s. Now, the way this process works is we still have to submit another proposal. This one includes a design of the proposed school, an estimate of goods and services, letter support from the government, and a strong argument of why we need the new school. The first proposal only included the strong argument. We still had our work cut out for us. Over several meetings May, the committee and I worked on getting the letter from the government and figuring out who would design the school and what it would look like. I have a friend who is also a volunteer that has an architectural background. She would not be able to come until the beginning of June to assist us in designing the school. No problem I thought, JICA did not give us a deadline. Ya see, my parents had planned a vacation from the 22th of May to the 1st of June. During this time we would be traveling to New Zealand. So on the 20th I made a random trip to Salelologa (village where office is) to print some stuff for my host brother. I also checked my email to find that JICA was now giving us a deadline to turn in everything on May 29th. All of the relief and excitement I felt a few weeks earlier melted into very explicit jibberish. Initially I didn’t think it was possible to put together a school design, come up with all the materials and prices, and get the letter of support from the government all in a day and a half. So I did what we Americans do best. Multi-task and get on the phone. Luckily I knew another volunteer who is good on adobe photoshop. He designed the school. I also knew the carpenter of the village. He and several others made a list of all the materials we would need. My host brother knew a guy who worked for the government who could get us the letter quickly. I am perfectly willing to admit that I know squat about desigining a school. But as you just learned, I do know who does. The next day we got the quotes from suppliers and I made it on the boat to the main island just in time. My parents would arrive early the next morning. We went straight to the beach were they could relax and I could stress more about organizing the proposal before submitting. To wrap up this story I was able to turn everything in to the JICA office and enjoy my time with my parents in New Zealand.

In pertaining to the other proposal, which was for sewing machines for the women’s committee, that was also accepted. The women are very excited to start learning how to use them and ready to make me some more clothes.
I think I may have found my niche here. During my first few months here you may remember that I was very busy gardening. I used compost basically because there is so much stuff here that decomposes. Lots of animals and vegatation. So I made some pretty good dirt. The same volunteer who came to my rescue on the school design is working with a group of women on a communal vegetable garden. He asked me to do a seminar on compost. So together we did a presentation which went over very well. I have become familiar with a guy from the Ministry of Agriculture who is interested in us doing more seminars in other villages.

Well that’s enough. I’m tired of typing and you’re tired of reading. Take care all and good luck.

I also want to wish a big thanks to all of you who sent books.

Jim

Happy Cinco De Mayo

In the last month I’ve been working on the library at the primary school with many of the books sent over by all you wonderful people. The principal, Mrs. Manase, is very appreciative and putting them to great use. As far as my other projects go I turned in the new school proposal to JICA (Japan’s foreign aid fund). Their initial response was that it was a good proposal. Music to my ears. If the current proposal is accepted for consideration we have to prepare a much more detailed proposal with an architectural design, estimate, and recommendation letters from the government. We are a long ways off but things are going smoothly so far.

The women’s committee has thrown in the towel in peanut production. This was Billy Ray Cyrus music to my ears. I offered to do a demonstration garden for them but they weren’t interested. The other program option for them is a sewing program. We put together a proposal for sewing machines and are awaiting a response from New Zealand Aid.

I’ve been here almost a year and it’s almost vacation time. My parents are coming in a few weeks and we’re heading off to New Zealand to enjoy the scenery of Lord of the Rings and the company of the Kiwi’s.

Chicken Wars

The chicken war is on. Since moving into my new place I have also moved my garden to right behind my “shop”. I share the fenced in area with the chief of the family who plants tobacco. Right now I have some tomato plants and green pepper seedlings. I went into Apia for a few days about a week ago and when I returned the chickens had dug up almost everything. I put up a reinforcement fence inside the existing fence. A few days ago I biked over to the neighboring village to talk to the School committee president and came back 30 minutes later. They got in again. I had an idea to build some kind of scare crow. Fences are not full proof. These chickens can fly high. I have my doubts about the “scare chicken”. But we’ll see. My host family has given my permission to kill the chickens. I have almost been attacked by one mama chicken for throwing rocks at her chicks.

A great solution would be to coop them right? Then we could fence in the pigs too eh? Not so. These animals get all their nutrition by scrounging around the village all day. I was sitting around last night thinking about how I wanted to have a dog or maybe even a cat. Since dogs are banned in my village it would have to be a cat. But then I looked around and saw all these animals just running free. I never liked cats anyway. So I have lots of pets. Pigs, chickens, a horse, a few alley cats as we call them back home.

March Madness where are you?

My parents called me the other day and informed me that the final four is set. In my last communication with the outside world they were still playing the conference tournaments. The point I want to make here is how much faster time flies out here. I was thinking the other day about “long winters” and how I couldn’t wait for them to always be over. In a place with no “long winters” there is nothing to wait for. It is a challenge remembering what day and even month it is sometimes. Since I don’t have a calendar, hate watches, and I’m always misplacing my phone, I actually have to think about it. Some of you are probably saying, “Wow, I think the sun is getting to him”. Personally, I think it’s living in a culture that could care less what day it is, except Sunday. I also blame the lack of Big Monday, Big Ten Tuesday, ACC Wednesday, Thursday’s on TNT, and Sunday Night Hoops.

Now that I’m finally settled in I’ll give you an idea of what a typical weekday might look like in Samauga.

6:30 a.m. Cock a doodle dooo

6:45 a.m. One of the big mama pigs gets an itch on her side. Using one of the wooden poles of my house, she relieves herself by rubbing back and forth. This usually gives the house a little shake. The old man comes and checks his tobacco plants (“Old man” is not considered offensive in Samoa. People take pride in their old age).

7:00 a.m. I roll out from under my mosquito net, get an update on the tobacco, and go check my garden in the plantation. Recently I’ve had fresh tomatoes and peppers every day. Sometimes there is a ripe papaya which I pick for breakfast. I plug in my electric kettle and heat water for coffee and rolled oats. I use a rubber band and piece of thin cloth for the coffee. It seems to work just fine. I throw some sugar or fruit in the oats, spread a little Skippy’s extra crunchy on some crackers and eat it. By this time I’ve cracked open my laptop and either listen to some music or watch an episode of “The Office”, or “Flight of the Conchords”.

8:00 a.m. If it isn’t too hot yet I do some work in the garden. If there is a school committee meeting I go to that.

10:00 a.m. Recently I’ve been spending my mornings working on the proposal for the new school. The committee changed their plan so I had to start over again. I’d rather not get into details in the blog but just know that I’m trying very hard to do this right. A few days of the week I visit the women’s committee. We talk about their peanut garden, village gossip, and when I’m going to settle down and get married to a nice Samoan girl. When they wrap all that good stuff up I sometimes visit different families in the village that I’ve gotten to know pretty well. By this time I’m well hyped up on cocoa Samoa (Local hot chocolate).

12:00 p.m. I return home to eat lunch. I either eat tuna sandwiches or cup-o-noodles which are great with the fresh tomatoes and peppers I picked earlier in the day. But, this will all change soon. I just got a gas stove so bring on the homemade tuna helper.

1:00 p.m. It’s hot. “Time for rest”, as the old lady always says (Remember, calling someone an old lady is cool in Samoa). Since it’s too hot to sleep, I usually do some reading or lately I’ve been working on additions to the house.

1:30 p.m. School’s out. Kids start coming for help with homework. Visits have significantly increased since I got my place. Before, when I shared a house with the high chief (who is also the old man), people did not come and visit out of a certain kind of respect for the chief. It’s not that he would have cared, but the rest of the village did.

4:00 p.m. I go to the homework center from Monday through Thursday. This is a nice break because I get to speak English. They don’t always understand me, but this is how languages are learned.

6:00 p.m. Go home and play the guitar or work in the garden until curfew. Curfew is a twenty minute period starting at 6:30 when villagers are in their homes praying. No one is allowed to walk through the village during curfew.

7:00 p.m. Dinner time with the high chief and his wife. We always eat first, followed by the rest of the family. I really enjoy this meal. Since my host family is so use to me being around, I get to see the real Samoan way of life.

8:00 p.m. I take a ride into the future in my Space Shower.

8:30 p.m. Relax, read, watch a movie on laptop, or play guitar with Va’a (see picture of Va’a on photobucket). Occasionally a kid will show up to get some homework help.

10:00 p.m. Roll back under the mosquito net and fall asleep to the itching of the pigs.

Moved in

I’m finally all moved in to my hut. I had an enormous amount of help from a local carpenter named Vaiasa. This week we are adding on a porch to do my cooking and keep my gardening tools. The homework center is well under way. I’ve been very happy so far with the kids who come. When I graduated from Lincoln High in 2001 I thought I had seen my last of algebra and chemistry. Not so, because I’m doing it all over again here in Samoa. My proposal for a new school building is almost finished. The application process is long and grueling but hopefully patience will pay off and a year or two from now they will have their school.

Welcome Back

I've spiced things up here bit to make it more interesting. Now you can check out what other volunteers are doing in Samoa as well as see what I'm reading and watching. Enjoy!!

My House is here

So I’ve got great news. My “fale samoa”, or hut, is finally built. The day was March 3, 2009 and it was a glorious day. The “mayor” who put this off again and again finally came through (with a little pressure from the high chief). This morning the muscle of the village and I went to the bush to get wood. The frame was up and sturdy in four hours. Samoans are very resourceful when it comes to construction. The nails were reused so there was no cost in getting this thing up. Finishing touches are applied by the use of a chainsaw. Coconut leaves are weaved and used as a roof. It took one day. The “mayor” made a comment along these lines. “Ua. Oh Simi. Samoa very strong, fast build house, one day ehheheh.” I replied, “more like five months buddy”. Everybody laughed, even him.

I’ll get some pictures up soon. Take care and thank you to those of you who are sending books.