Last update of 2006
Trip Start
May 12, 2006
1
13
22
Trip End
Ongoing
Vailoa,
Samoa Western
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Ray has finished the workbench for the secondary school. The wedge vise works really nicely. As much as he hates working with wood it came out really nice. Now he has to convince the school committee to pony up the money to build 9 more. It will be about 100 tala per bench. One of the reasons it took so long to build was that he was working out the kinks and figuring out lesson plans as it was built. Now he can supervise a few students in building the next one and then they can supervise other students and so on.
School has finished for the year. It starts up again the end of January. We have been to prize giving ceremonies for the pre-school and the Methodist secondary school so far and will award two scholarships at the local primary school on Thursday. The local Rotary Club teamed up with the Peace Corps to solicit applications for 100 tala scholarships to cover school fees. There were only 22 scholarships available to the whole country and our school got two of them. The prize giving consists of a lot of speeches, giving the prizes (donated goods and trophies), eating, singing and dancing. Each dance includes a donation bowl to collect money from the people who come up to dance. If you dance you put money in the bowl but you can also put money in and sit down. Often the people dancing are clowning around quite a bit. These ceremonies can take quite a while. The pre-school one was almost 2 hours.
An oxymoron
We are moving into the rainy season which has so far been drier than the rest of our time here in Vailoa. The heat and humidity is coming along nicely. Vailoa is getting to be quite a palangi (foreigner) place. There is a new PC computer teacher coming to the secondary school in a few weeks. Craig seems very nice though we haven't been able to spend much time with him. He is 53 and from Sacramento. They are building a small house for him at the school. One of his hobbies is making Mexican food. He also has a buddy who is a big wig at FedEx or one of those so he can get all the necessary supplies sent to him.
Thanksgiving came early here. There was a PC meeting on the 18th and then a potluck dinner at the Charge d'affaire's house on the 19th. About 75 people attended. It was really nice, lots of food. I made English muffins. Not really traditional but good comfort type food.
Things have really quieted down for us as Christmas gets closer. Everyone is very busy cleaning up and getting ready for an influx of visitors. Ray and I are making plans for next years projects and visiting with other PCV's. We spent a night in Samalaiulu where Vik lives for his birthday. Lots of good food and fun with about 16 people. Some of the group was riding around Savai'i and I met them in Taga a few days later. There are some cool blowholes in Taga. It was about a 1 hour 45 minutes to ride there but about 3 hours to ride back. We were all pretty tired and there was a flat tire to fix. The area is really pretty, see the pictures. We are going to join a group of volunteers at a beach out at the end of the island for New Years. I hear that the sunsets are incredible so I will try and get some good pictures.
Happy Holidays to everyone. Keep the letters coming and we have an extra room with a mosquito net for those who want to visit.
Comments
Camp Vista
We will miss you there this winter but we will know you are having fun.
Tom, Nancy, Karly and Natasha O'Brien