Lotofaga Part 2

My time in Lotofaga was only 8 nights but felt eons longer than that. Every day was jam packed with things to do. I would walk to school with the kids in the morning and they would drop me off at Jackie's house (my teacher and Academic Director). We would do our language courses in the morning, have a traditional samoan snack (papaya and pankekas were my favorite!) and then in the afternoon do an activity like cooking, weaving or a field trip like hiking up to the taro plantation in the mountains.

 Jackie's Daughter as she teaches us how to weave a traditional fine mat made from cooked and dried banana leaves.

I took a turn, i don't think I'm cut our for it though. they can take upwards of a month to make.

I would walk home with my fellow volunteers and either do my chores with Valelia and Lole or on a good day we would go to the beach. Most days we did both. As we walked down to the beach we would pick up neighborhood kids along the way. The water was crystal blue and green. The rocks were the perfect diving block and the waves, a perfect way to cool down. The beaches were lined with white sand and perfect shells and coral. the fun thing about Samoa is that it is surrounded by a coral reef and the waves crash on the reef, about 50 yards from shore so it makes for perfect swimming conditions.

 

 Me and a few of the awesome friends I made.

We got to go on a few fun adventures in Lotofaga like a hike to a waterfall. It just so happened that when we went a rainbow was literally coming out of the waterfall. It was a quick hike but from the top of the waterfall you could see miles down river. There aren't really any safety guidelines so we could get as close to we wanted to the ledge, it was honestly an insane feeling to have the water rushing by you in that moment. Being the adventurous group that we are, the bamboo children (as we were so appropriately named) decided to find the end of the river. We drove down the road and went for a swim in a few of it's natural pools.

it's wildly beautiful in this country as you can tell 

The view's pretty nice from up top. 

SIT Samoa Spring 2013

having fun in the river

Possibly my favorite part of Lotofaga was the day I got to teach in the Primary school. Walking hand in hand with Valelia and Lole, I was shocked as I entered the schoolyard. The quality of the structure was clearly not high and it got worse the more I looked around. The classrooms didn't have desks, just fine mats for the children to sit on so they weren't directly on the concrete. The walls had minimal decoration and were dark and dingy. I couldn't find any books no matter how hard I tried. Blackboards were cramp with information that the teachers couldn't erase because they were serving as an aid like we would use a worksheet. There was no art visible in the primary school and no materials to even use for our lesson besides the broken fragments of chalk lying sadly next to the board. The rooms were uncomfortably hot and many had pillars in the middle of them, leaving an awkward obstacle to work around. 

I taught class with my friend and roommate Mickey. We had the 2nd grade class, which happened to be Valelia's class. We decided to teach the alphabet and alphabet song. I brought "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" with me which worked out nicely. We read the children the story after being introduced and had them join in for the repeated title phrase with hand motions. All of the kids were so enthusiastic and wanted to take part and show us what they could do. After the story we gave them all a slip of paper with a letter on it and we would race to put everyone in alphabetical order. We sang the song upon completion and then would repeat. The kids seemingly loved this activity but were excited for the other games we had planned. On the bank, in the creek, Red light Green Light, and Down By the Banks were some of their favorites. Teaching was so rewarding there because it provided great instant gratification because the kids had such a desire to work with us.