Happy Birthday Colleen!

Picture: Marci, Melinda, and I at their final Sunday at church after the goodbye ceremony.


Today is Colleen Ashley's birthday and you should all know that. She is the daughter, also a sophomore at ACU, of the missionaries that I am now staying with. There are two missionary families at the church that we go to and the wives of the family are sisters. I moved upstair into the Ashley's house on Sunday when the Willis family left with Marci and Melinda. I am on my own here now, but I have been spending every waking moment with Colleen. While the Willis' were here, I spent my time with them, but now I am a part of the Ashley family. It is all sort of confusing to understand. Right now I am working on some homework from my Maymester course. I have to do several projects this summer for that. I was finished with about 80% of the assignments when I got here, but I am finishing them up and putting the polish on them yesterday and today. I hoping to email it in fairly soon. Email is a great thing, but sending in papers and projects all summer long is not. Anyways, back to the story of my life.

Picture: Some of the members of our church, mostly the kids I have been working with.

Yesterday Colleen and I hung out around the house for most of the day. We ran a couple of errands, but mostly stayed home and did homework and wasted time staring out the window. I am reading a book called Captivating and so I read that a little too. Last night we went out for Colleen's birthday and I got some steak. After 6 weeks of very little beef, it tasted fantastic! I was so excited to have a potato and steak, I could hardly hold it in. I am glad I decided to indulge. Then we came back and both fell asleep watching the first Harry Potter movie. We are planning on finishing that movie after lunch. I think I am going to take Colleen out for lunch after we run errands here in a little while. I did laundry yesterday for what might be the last time. I don't want to take dirty clothes to Hawai'i, so I am trying to get it all done here. 

I have been talking to Ruth about the end of this week and I think I am going to go out to Nu'uuli Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday to have a Bible study and chill with them. I am going to miss the teens there a lot. They are so fascinated by my blue eyes it absolutely cracks them up. 

Picture: Fae and her baby Angel. She had her Wednesday night almost a week ago. She was 3 days old in this picture! 

Well, I guess this is how you vacation in paradise (minus the homework). I hope everyone is doing well. Please don't think that I am being too lazy; after all, my internship was technically over Sunday night. 

Love from the middle of Pacific Ocean, 

Kate

Dance Dance Palagi Revolution

Here are a video I thought you might enjoy seeing!

Is it that time already?

This week has been filled with really and truly great authentic Samoan adventures and making of relationships that are going to be hard to let go. Yesterday we spent all morning at Nu'uuli with Ruth playing volleyball for the Good Samaritans. If you know me at all, you know that my athletic ability is comperable to that of a four-year-old. Having said that, I had fun playing and the Samoans had fun laughing at/with me. We had a great time. Lynn, Ruth, John, Simon, and countless other Nu'uuli Samoans have made this week so special. I will not soon forget them. Then in the afternoon we chilled and went over to Fae and Tasi's house. They had their baby. She is a little 6 lb. 5 oz. little girl named Angel. And she is one, let me tell you. She is so tiny and beautiful. She was just born on Wednesday morning at midnight (she couldn't decide when she wanted her birthday to be). Then we went upstairs for dinner with everyone. 

After dinner, Colleen took us out for one last hurrah and we went to a haunted old girls school. Upon arrival, we were asked to leave the premises and we played helpless tourists looking for Sliding Rock (on the other side of the islands). We played our cards right and no one got hurt. Then we went to KS Mart and the movie rental place. We decided to give Colleen a "Middle School" themed birthday party. We rented Sleep Over and talked about everything a good middle school would talk about and even did a prank call. It was a lot of fun. We chilled with her and then went to bed. Oh yeah, our middle school names were Reny (Rainy- Colleen), Clowdie (Cloudy-- Melinda), Storql (Stormy-- me), and Apel (Apple-- Marci). We decided a good middle schooler would have code names. 

Today at church, it was really emotional. I have one week left, but Marci and Melinda leave today. They did another good-bye ceremony with gifts for us and I got like 4,000 more lavalavas. I actually did tear up a bit even though it is not my last week. I am going to be a basketcase next week. The bad thing was they had the kids in my class give us the gifts and then we took more pictures and everyone was teary by the end. They sang some very sentimental songs too.

This afternoon I am packing to move upstairs for my final week here. I am trying to weigh everything out and I think that I am going to have to deflate Wilson (my volleyball) and ship some stuff home too. While I am packing, I am listening to some Samoan songs and it is making my teary again. I miss my family a lot, so I want to see them; but, I love my island and mostly my islanders. I think that it makes it harder basically knowing that I may (probably) never see this island or these people again. It makes little sense to become so attached. I am trying hard to get used to the ebb and flow of life and people in our lives, but that doesn't make saying good-bye any easier. 

I am finding out that I am more attached to everything in my life than I would like to think I am. I am discovering how much I will miss people all the time, no matter where I am. Getting on that plane will with out a doubt be the most bittersweet thing I have ever done. Now before I start crying again, I am going to get off and keep packing. I am making it my goal to remember where I've been and look were I am going, but mostly to be wherever I am.

Is life allowed to be this good?

Last night was absolutely a blast. We went to the little village to "help" with the umu. They didn't kill the pig in front of us but they did have us do most everything hands-on. We washed our hands and got right to work squeezing out the coconut cream from the meat (not the juice inside). And then we pealed some green bananas (they are a different kind, so you have to peal them with a little tool). Then we "helped" scrape the breadfruit. It was like pealing a giant potato with a sharp can lid. It was a little scary but we got it done. Then we helped make the palesami. What you do is take a banana leaf and put it in the fire for a minute and then take a ripe taro leaf and fold it into a little green cup. Then you take the coconut cream stuff that you squeezed out and you ladle it into the green cup. Then you wrap it up and seal it with the banana leaf. Then you put the bread fruit leaf around the whole thing (that now looks like a ball) and fold all the little arms in and seal it by tucking the stem around one of the mid-ribs. It was really fun and I don't think we did it too badly. You can replace the coconut and banana leaves with tin foil too. But Tia (one of our elders at church and umu teacher) wouldn't let us get away with the tin foil. Then we husked coconut by driving them onto an iron pike thing (a little scary). We had some more coco Samoa (like coffee but with coco). Then I was chosen to help the boys with the fire and so I got to be suffocated by smoke as I threw the lava rocks into the fire. Then they got the coconut scraper out and we got to do that. I scraped a whole coconut but Tia said that was because I was dedicated not talented. It was like a sharp spoon thing nailed to a bench that you sat on. See Pictures. After that we tried a ripe coco bean and it tasted like lemon. It was kinda good but definitely not chocolate. Salvation (one of my kids in my class) taught Melinda a SaSa (sit down dance with coconut shells, which we had helped scrape). I watched them seal the umu by throwing all the food onto the lava rocks, putting more hot glowing lava rocks on top and then putting like a million banana leaves (huge ones) on top. In the end all of the heat is sealed inside and the food cooks like it's in an oven.

Then we went home and got ready for the night. We got into our puletasis and dressed up a little bit. We went to the lectureship and that was all fine and dandy. We had to dance after that and my stomach was in knots. I think we did okay though,

 despite the fact that one of the pastors put a ula (Hawaiian le

i) around my neck that was REALLY itchy. We danced anyway and had a good time (once it was over). The guys did a SaSa and the girls did a dance that they had tried to teach us. They are just so much more graceful than we were. Then Luao called us up to the front and all of the guys that had danced (younger guys, about age 17-25) came and gave us gifts and kissed us on the cheek. There were lots of cheers and laughter from the Samoans. We were so caught of guard that Melinda was the only one that could speak. I got like 7 lavalavas, a tiny figurine fale, a necklace, another sei (hair 

flower), and earrings to match. One of the guys brought me a chair to put all of my stuff in. He started folding my lavalavas for me. His name is John. We met him when we played volleyball the

 other day. When I grabbed a lavalava and started folding it, he asked, "Do you know how?" I said, "Yes, I

 guess so." He said, "Ohhh OK!" with a really adorable look on his face that seemed to say he was surprized I wanted to help fold my own gifts. We chilled for a little while and took lots of pictures. We came home and watched the beginning on "Independence Day" to commemorate the Fourth. 

It was a great day!

Love from Am Sam~

The pictures (in order): 

Me about to dance (posing for Ruth)

Husking the coconut on the pike thing

Our little posse!

Pealing Breadfruit

My coconut I husked

Tearing out the mid-rib

John and I after we both had danced and folded my lavalavas.

Poor Father Abraham!

I thought that people who read my blog knew me pretty well, but never mind that! Father Abraham is my ALL time favorite song to sing. Lord's Army and Baby Shark are a close second, but Abraham takes the cake on that one. 

Anyways, I was so tired last night that I neglected to write on my blog. But we had another full and fun day yesterday. We woke up and I made myself and omelette. It was magically delicious. Then we loaded up and headed to VBS. The ground under the tent was still wet, so Colleen brought large mats for them to sit on. That worked  fairly well, until it started raining and the mats got wet too. The kids were so cute. When they went to sit on the mat, they took there little shoes off and we had an enormous pile of slippers (flip-flops) on the side of the mat. The Samoans are very respectful of things that like that; it is ingrained into them from a very young age. 

We talked about Gentleness and Kindness yesterday and it went fairly well.  I am learning how hard it is to get kids to be calm when you can't get them sitting down. We were told by the pastor of Nu'u Uli that we were being too loud during our game of sheep tag. So, we had to sing for another 30 minutes at the end because we couldn't play our game. That was too bad. I was sad about that because the game was really fun and the kids were running around and it was alright with us. 

After VBS, we went to a Korean restaurant and I had some lo mein that was really good. Then we went home and I fell asleep for about 2 hours. I napped for too long though because I didn't want to get up at all.

We went to lectureship that night and heard more about the importance of being under the 2nd covenant of God instead of the 1st. It was interesting. We came home and everyone came to our apartment for taco soup. Danielle left on the plane last night, so Danna and David left to see her off and we went up-stairs for our last dance lesson. We are performing tonight...that will be very interesting. 

Today is not the same old game plan: We are going to VBS and then we are going up to a little tiny village to watch one of our members cook an umu(umu is the style of cooking). It is cooked in the ground and has taro, bananas, bread fruit and a pig. It is going to be fun. I hope they don't kill the pig in front of us. 

Then we are coming home and getting ready for the little fiafia night after lectureship. There is one other group that is performing; but, I don't know who they are. 

More about the rest of my stuff later on!

Love from AmSam!

Full Full Day and a Little Tragedy!

Today was by far the longest day that I have had since I have been here. It started with waking up extra early, about 7:30, to get ready and have time to call my brother for his birthday. We talked for about 10 minutes and then my phone went out and did not turn back on until, well, I didn't try before I left, but I presume it is working now. Anyways, we went to VBS and had a great day. It had rained over there all night, so the pavement under the tent was completely wet. The kids didn't want to sit down (I can't blame them; I didn't either) and so it was hard to get them calm enough for a story. We talked about patience and faithfulness. Colleen was Ruth and Marci was Naomi and it was great. We did a couple of crafts that I thought went really well, until Salvation showed me he used a nail for his clock center thing instead of gluing them on. No one got hurt, so I guess it was alright. We tried to do relay thing for faithfulness, but that didn't go too well, and the little ones on my team ended up in tears and having to be rescued from the fury of the game. Sulu and I had to take a couple of minutes before she was ready to go back under the tent. 

After VBS, we ended up staying in Nu'u Uli for the afternoon to play volleyball. I am so glad that we did. We went to two Samoan houses and got to see the culture in action. The kids were walking on the roofs, lighting long sticks on fire and running about with nothing better to do. It was scary, but the parents weren't concerned, so neither were we. We changed clothes and started playing with a couple of kids. Before we knew it, there were like 30 people all wanting to play. They also stopped rotating spots, so if you were on the front row, you were there permanently. I didn't like that so much. It started raining, so they pulled us off the court, but resumed play in the rain. We insisted we didn't mind getting wet, but about 10 minutes later, after playing in the pouring rain, I was glad to get under a little shelter to dry off. 

Then we changed back into our jeans (not easy when you are wet by the way) and Ruth (from last night) gave us lavalavas to dance in. We went to what we thought was the girls dance practice for an upcoming meeting thing, but it ended up as the girls teaching us a dance and laughing as we did it wrong. I got to hold the baby Gideon Luke again and he was such a good baby. We kept dancing and we got pretty good though, but then Ruth sent us back to her house because the pastor, her father, had bought us McDonald's for lunch and had it waiting there for us. This is the tragic part of the event for me though. I decided to stop drinking "dark colored" sodas last March(2007) and hadn't had one in over a year, but today Luao had gotten us all Coca-Colas and I wasn't in the position to refuse it. I drank it and I have to admit, it tasted really good. I was sad to break my streak, but at the same time, it wasn't really my fault either. 

After that, we went back to the little fale and danced more. We did the chacha slide with them and I taught a couple of the girls how to salsa (very hard without partners) and they loved it. Then we kept dancing for about another 3 hours non-stop and were completely worn out by the time we got around to the evening lectures. 

We went to the church for those and hung around a little bit afterwards. We beat Danna and David home, so we couldn't get into our house first thing. I really just wanted a bed and a bathroom, but I had to wait another  30 minutes.

Today was one of the very best days of my life. I had a blast with the girls and I think they had fun too. Ruth and I put the dance we learned to "Testify to Love" by Avalon and it totally worked. She is seriously like a Samoan me. She is precious. We are for sure going to work on that dance so that we can both show our friends our other side. I am going to have to get Marci and Melinda to record it for me to show all of you. 

I am coming closer to connecting with the Samoan inside of me. I feel like I have been sworn in now. I even wore my lavalava(on top of my jeans) to church tonight (very Samoan thing to do).

Thanks for reading and more later!

The Joy of Puppets and the Peace of Parachutes!

Today was the second day of VBS and it went great! We got there just in time for the herd and started singing immediately. We learned "Baby Shark" and then sat down for the first story. We did "joy" first today and talked about Paul and Silas praising God in jail. Melinda was Silas and I was Paul. We had a tiny little puppet stage and the kids could totally see us, but they loved it anyway. I think we lost our place on the script like 14 times, but they totally rolled with it. They laughed and laughed when the puppets sang "I got the joy joy joy joy..." and my mixture of a Texan-New Yorker accent gave Paul a flair that I am just not to sure the real Paul had. The kids loved it. Then we did a craft and split up into groups. We then gave them raisins to make a hapy face with on a plate and I was sorry to see that some kids thought that raisins were just as gross as I think they are, so they went without snack. (I would have too). We then taught them how to make a rainstorm with their hands and feet and used that in the story of Jesus calming the storm for peace. They had a lot of fun with that. After that, we split back up into our groups and did the other craft. We used crazy scissors and little Dora (age 3-4) in my group had quite a hard time cutting with them, but drew some really good rain. Lisone and Matthew (also in my group) had a hard time sharing, but I think we are all still friends. Then we did the parachute to talk about the rain storm. One little girl (age 3) was scared of the parachute and I can't blame her. It was over her head and 50 kids around one parachute gets a little crazy...I held her during it and she was much happier then. We watched and Ruth took our picture. I'll put that up when Ruth emails it to me. Little Rachel does not speak any English at all, but the fear and then contentment was communicated through her larger-than-life brown eyes. After all of that, we handed out their crafts for the day and let them go. Most of the kids live in the little community behind the church, so they just walked to their house, but our Tafuna kids found their parents at the church building. As we were gathering everything up, one of the older girls walked out with a new baby. The little boy, about 4-6 weeks old, was sooooo precious. His name is Gideon Luke and he is the pastor of the Nu'uUli church's new son. 

This is one Samoan culture thing I can't wrap my brain around. You can ask for your sibling's kid. Cialolo, the pastor's wife, didn't have any children of her own, so they asked her pregnant sister for the baby, and the sister pretty much had to give it to her. I mean it is not polite to ask for a first born but the sense of family possessions goes all the way down to kids. For example, if Wade got married and had a couple of kids, and I got married but didn't want to get pregnant I could ask my sister-in-law for her baby and she would pretty much have to give it to me. Family is so important here. Did I mention that Cialolo's sister lives in Samoa (not American Samoa)? Well, anyways, Luke was precious and it was a lot of fun to get to hold him.

This afternoon we went back home and I got a nap. It was great. I slept for about 45 minutes and then went to the night lecture. It was interesting tonight. There was a little kitten outside crying the whole time so that was rather distracting. Then we went to Danielle's apartment with two girls that we met, Katie and Ruth, and played Harry Potter Scene It! Colleen and I dominated and won with the answer "Hermione Granger". That was fun. We ate frozen food and felt like college kids. Ruth and I have decided that she is my Samoan half and I am her palagi half. She is so funny and laughs at everything I do. Colleen and I shouldn't have been on the same team for the game, we knew we would win, but we did anyway. 

I am happy to report that the use of raisins for the snack eliminated the jam hands problem for now. 

Love from AmSam, 

Kate