Pictures!

Here are some more pictures that I stole from Marci and Melinda's blog. Three with plants are of the garden we went to and the two with children are our tween activity that we did. From left to right: Marci, Joe, Douglas, Brenda(back), Ray (front), Kate (me), Roseta (front), Mua (back), Steven (back), Salvation (front), Melinda. The bananas do grow upside down like that...I am guessing it is because we are south of the equator, but I could be wrong...(joke). More pictures to come!

Plucking Pineapples Proves Painful -or- Tautalatala *too much talk*

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all well and good and that you are finding your summer satisfactory thus far. Today was a very full day and I am quite tired actually for one of the first times since I have been here, besides the time change adjustment. We started off our day quite early with a McDonald's breakfast sandwich and the decisions by my coconspirators, I mean teammates, that today should be "Surprise Day!" We decided not to let David tell us where we were going at all today so that there would be mystery and intrigue and guessing involved all day long. We started off by picking up and dropping off brochures, very exciting and then drove again toward our house. This was merely a deception though as we missed the turn-off for our driveway and kept going on past the house. A couple of coconut moves down the road (This is where a coconut is obstructing the path and the driving assistant (front seat passenger) gets to get out and chunk the coconut into the nearest neighbor's yard. It is very exciting.) we arrived at a house with a large yard. We got out and just as we turned the corner, and passed the shack on the right, we were in the most amazing vegetable garden I have ever or may ever see. There was cabbage, papaya, sugar cane, cucumbers, green onion, tomato, beans, taro, bananas, and coconut but the surprises were not over. In the front, Fae and Tasi (the caretakers of the house and garden) led us past a beautiful flower garden to the front garden were the most deadliest of all plants lived. You guessed it: Pineapple. There were little green baby ones and big ripe yellow ones. It was incredible. If you don't know how pineapple grow, you should look it up. Marci and Melinda got a picture. It is like this razor sharp circle of serrated green knives offers it up to the sky and the stalk is attached only to the bottom of the fruit part. If you have ever cut a pineapple, you know that you must be careful or you will get poked or stabbed by the top leaves. You have NO idea what the long leaves out the side of the plant can do to your legs. As I wove my way around the plants very delicately, it wasn't probably 30 seconds before I was bleeding. It hurt, but boy was it worth it. You could smell the pineapple from feet away. (If you know me well, you know that pineapple has lately been giving me funny reactions, but this was too good to miss out on.) We are having the pineapple that Tasi gave us for breakfast tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait (granted that my leg wounds, battle scars if you will, heal soon).  Did I mention that the lady in this story, Fae is 8 and a half months pregnant? No? Well, now you know. Her first baby, a little girl, is due this month. Maybe we will get to visit them after she is born. All of there family is in mainland China too.

We then went to Patelo's house for the reading of the Bible and his wife and daughter were there. He and his daughter are great singers and song writers and he had his 9-year-old daughter record the song that he had written for a funeral on a tape recorder while we were there. It was beautiful and those who understood what she was saying (it was all in Samoan) were in tears by the end of the song. The little girl, Emmy, is just precious. Patelo has David come every Wednesday and translate a paragraph or two of Scripture back into English from Samoan. Patelo recently picked Revelation to re-translate. This week we had Bibles and we read the Samoan and English with them. I sat by Emmy and she shared her Samoan Bible as I shared my English one. It was a really cool experience. We are getting better at reading Samoan, although we still don't know what we are saying. It is like the Let's Start Talking program, but reversed. We sang Patelo our Samoan song, Savalivali, and he wants us to record that for him next week. More about Patelo later.

This afternoon, after lunch, we went and did water aerobics at the pool. There was a swim lesson in progress for a bunch of Kiwi (New Zealand) stundents, so although we had to stay at the side of the pool, we got to listen to their AWESOME accents. The little Kiwi kids are so cute. 

Tonight we had only two other people come to church besides the missionaries and Marci and Melinda. We tackled, or attempted to tackle, the question of suffering in the world and why God doesn't do anything to stop it. Rebecca, the only Samoan that came, had some great insight and yet some great questions about it. She deserves to though, she has taken care of her husband, 24 hours a day for the past 3 years. Her husband, Eric, is in the first stages of Alzheimer's disease. He is at the stage where he looks fine and healthy, but he might wonder off or get really impatient. Rebecca is such a sweet lady and she loves to come to church because it is her escape from the stress of taking care of her husband. Did I mention that she is a breast cancer survivor and suffers from Diabetes as well? No? Well, now you know. Please pray for Rebecca as she is in need of a lot of patience to take care of the failing health of the man she loves. If there is someone who knows suffering, it is Rebecca, and she still loves God and loves her church family. 

 

Thanks for reading. I would make it shorter, but every part of today was just too special for me. Less might happen tomorrow...

No Snakes in Samoa

That's right kids: No snakes in Samoa. But that is a lie. There is only one species of snake in Samoa and it is the smallest snake in the world, not to mention that it is blind and does not bite. Just thought you ought to know that. Now on with the blog. 

Yesterday was a quiet day and henceforth, there was no reason for me not to blog about it. We did go and get our puletasis started at the seamstress place. That was exciting. When we told the kids that we were getting them, they were quite flattered and excited that we were partaking in their culture. Everything that Americans or palagis can do to embrace their culture, is very appreciated and does not go unnoticed. 

Today was wild and crazy and henceforth, I had good reason to not blog until now. We started off the day with a fairly early start, about 8:30 or so. We drove to the mechanic to pick up the church van and then I drove the missionary's mini-van to "Cost-U-Less", a Samoan Sam's Club or Costco, to get snacks for the kids for our outing. We then went to KS-Mart, the Super K-Mart equivalent, and got water balloons for our activity. Then we went home and filled up the water balloons, which is always a fun and exciting activity. As our morning activities came to a close, we brainstormed about object lessons for the kids and came up with one for the water balloon toss. 

About 1:00PM or so, we began picking up the kids. David drove the church van and it took about an hour to pick up all 8 kids in my Sunday School class. Most of them live in villages fairly close, but the roads in the neighborhood are so bad, that it takes quite a while to get down them and back.

Once we got to the house where our activity was, next door, we started the festivities by dividing guys and girls into teams. We then did the wheel-barrel race and a dizzy bat race. The score board was tied one-to-one at that point and we went to the final event: The balloon toss. We all paired up and got across the lines from each other. In America, we might have had problems getting in pairs and choosing out friends, but with this small group, I didn't see any discontent from anyone and that was really nice. The kids were so excited that a few of the balloons popped before the toss started. My partners and I did very well, coming in 3rd and then 2nd (see pictures to come). We then all grabbed balloons and had a really fun water balloon fight. It was great. After we picked up the pieces, we had snacks and the kids were so excited about the prepackaged cookies and crackers. Again, in America, if you ran out of mini-Oreos, there might be a few tears or grabbing of someone else's Oreos, but here it was a mere, "O.K. then, I'll just have Chips-Ahoy." No hard feelings, just happy to have a good snack. We also had the personal favorite, Capri Sun...no explanation needed there. 

We then talked about accountability and staying close with our church friends so that we can strengthen each other. We used Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of yours mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing, and perfect will.", as our theme verse for today. We are calling the series of events for them, "Swimming Upstream" because Mara, one of the missionaries mention the peer pressure from friends and unchurched family that these kids have. We are trying to emphasize that we, as Christians, are different and we have a reason to live differently, by God's standards, not the world's. I would just ask you to pray for these kids as they try swimming upstream and for us as we try to encourage the bravery needed to do so.

I really thought that our event went really well. The kids, all 8 of them, really enjoyed getting to hang out with us and with each other on a time different from Sunday mornings. That notion, of getting together during the week, is completely foreign because of the trouble involved in coming together. It is quite different than in the States. 

Thanks again for reading, posting, and emailing us. There will be plenty of pictures to follow.

Church and Dance Lessons?

Is it possible that you go to both a conservative Church of Christ church two times a day and manage to get in a dance lesson or two, all in one day? It is certainly not "ACU kosher" but it is possible. And I just proved it!

This morning I went to the most special and different church that I have ever been to. Danielle showed me to my class room, a circle of chairs with songbooks in them on the back porch, and then walked inside and left me to my own devices. I sat there and learned the children's names as they came along. I had about 10 students ages 9-13 in my class. We sang some songs, led by Salvation, one of my very charismatic students, and the class really seemed to enjoy that. After one of the songs, Ray, a student, said something in Samoan that I could clearly not understand and then all of the students turned and looked at me and laughed. I asked Roseta, the student sitting to my left what he had said, and she looked at me and seriously considered. I was worried. I had no idea what this child had just said about me that was so interesting and funny. I turned then to Mu'a the girl on my right and asked her what Ray had said. She looked at me and said, "He just said, 'She has pretty eyes. They are blue.'" Now I am not sure, nor will I ever be if that was the whole story or not, but I am thinking that if the worst thing they can find to make fun of me is my eyes, then I am in pretty good shape. 

After about 30 minutes, we went into the main room (I was quite glad to be out of the hot sun) and class started shortly thereafter. Roseta and Mu'a stayed close at hand, guiding me in proper church behavior and encouraging my Samoan singing. They would warn me if fast or hard parts were coming up, but laugh and smiled when I tried to delicately sing something like, "fa'alese'fatafata" to the tune of Holy Lord. It was really interesting. We sang in English and in Samoan and the sermon was translated sentence by sentence into Samoan. Communion was held in Samoan completely and so I took it only knowing that "Iesu Kriso" (Jesus Christ) and "ame'n" (amen) were said. I assumed the rest was alright. The "bread" was a flat cracker with an almost sweet taste. It was a great experience and I didn't mind the Samoan at all. 

We walked around the golf course next to our house this afternoon and then had evening church upstairs with the Ashley's (vocational missionaries). We talked about the second coming of Christ and urgency and death. The Sunday night time is for the palagi (white) Christians and is a chance to dig a little deeper. It was good spiritual food for thought. After dinner, Colleen took us to her room and taught us a dance. She taught us a Hawai'ian/Tahitian dance and then we are learning a Samoan dance. She thinks that we should all get together and perform at Ethnos, the culture show at ACU. We'll see about that. We also designed our puletasis and we are going to get them made tomorrow. I hope that mine turns out alright. I'll post pictures of it when it is done. 

Tomorrow we are going to start hard-core planning for our "tween" activities and the VBS. After getting to know the kids today, I am really excited about the church leaders that they are going to turn into. I ask for prayers for Salvation (that's what his Samoan name means) and Roseta. They need positive influences in their lives. I just hope that these few short weeks I have with them, might make a little difference. 

Today the kids asked me how long I am going to be here for. I said another 5 weeks. They asked me when I am coming back on island after that. I told them, I had to finish college first, and I wouldn't make any promises, but when I mentioned wanting to be a doctor, they said, "We need one of those! I would call you if I was sick!" The children really need to have positive young outside the church examples. I hope that what they see in me in the next 5 weeks is worth their imitating.

Love from American Samoa...

Rain, Rain Go Away!

If the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, then the rain in Samoa falls mainly on the island. I know that doesn't make sense, but that is about all I got right now. We started to wash the church van on Friday and it started raining just as we "windex-ed" the windows. The rain was cool and refreshing, for the first hour. But now, 24 hours after it started raining, it's a little different. I am not complaining though. Anyway, last night we went to watch the bats come from their trees to gather food during the night. About a hundred or so bats flew right over our heads as we stood there on the top of a foot hill for one of the mountains. They had about a foot long wingspan. They were Samoan flying foxes, one of the largest species of bats in the world. As the world got dark all around us, the bats kept flying out. It was incredible. 

This morning we selected material for our puletasi (traditional Samoan dresses). David and Danna, our missionaries, say that it will mean a lot to the Samoans if we try to learn some Samoan and we wear the puletasi to church when we get them made. We are trying to learn the culture the best we can, without being offensive to the Samoans. 

We saw a few of the kids that we will be working with today when we were out and about. The Samoan governor elections are coming up and everyone is very excited. Seeing the kids today really got me excited about seeing them at church tomorrow and other times this next week. We have had a pretty relaxed week, to adjust to the time change and all, and now it is time to start our work. I am ready for that. The kids have so much to teach me, I can see it in their eyes, and I can't wait to start learning. 

If you read my blog and have a chance, comment on a post of mine, or shoot me an email (kah07a@acu.edu) so that I can know that you are reading it and begin praying for you.

I would ask now that you begin praying for the "tween" group at our church. These are the kids that I am going to be teaching and working with during the week. This set of kids is the first set that were raised "in the church" and the older members of the congregation are hoping that these will be their next church leaders. We are learning about the conversion of Saul tomorrow and I am hoping to have the kids sing with me. I am so excited about their sweet faces and voices!

FiaFia the Gecko

This is FiaFia, my resident baby gecko. He is about the length of 3/4 of a bobby pin, including his shortened tail. He is missing all five fingers on his left hand and part of his tail. I just thought I should fess up about who I was really living with. Fiafia means happy in Samoan.

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