Saul and Chelsia: Over the Moon and Back: April 2014

Yesterday was the first day of school we’ve had in a very long time that’s been completely normal. By normal I mean that I have more than 50% of my students in attendance, we get out at 2:45pm, there’s not an impending holiday and there’s not an epidemic threatening our school population.

A couple weeks ago we had the American Samoa pink eye epidemic. I kid you not it was declared an epidemic by the department of health. The conjunctivitis was brought from Western Samoa and quickly spread to the majority of our population. Something like 3,000 students and 200 teachers had it. The department of education decided to cancel school but it was too little too late. There ended up being six days of school cancelled to try to quarantine the outbreak a bit.

The following week was a three-day week due to Flag Day/Good Friday but due to the lingering pink eye and the impending holiday I had something like 15% of my students in class. My week was pretty much two days of review and a movie day. The kids loved it but it doesn’t do much in the way of teaching.

Saul and I were some of the very few that didn’t get pink eye. I attribute it to the excess amount of vitamin C we take but it probably had more to do with not touching our eyes.

"The first American flag was flown over Tutuila on April 17, 1900. Samoans celebrate with a special ceremony. The Flag Day is the biggest holiday in American Samoa. Every year there is at least one day, and some times two or three days, spent honoring the political relationship with the United States and the first raising of the American flag."

Flag Day was this past Thursday, April 17^th with festivities all week . Unfortunately all of the activities (which we had been looking forward to since we got to AmSam in July) happen early when we were at school or in the evening when the buses stop running. We took the bus to town just to see the festive decorations everywhere. This also happened to be right after the fautasi races (long boats with many men). Nu’uuli had just won so we saw the makeshift “parade” which we were on the bus. It was pretty neat. On Thursday we were able to make it to the stadium for the official “celebration” which was a big show with dancing (siva), singing, floats and other festive activities.

On Saturday we went and saw Captain America. The movies have become part of our routine. They’re cheap, air-conditioned and a nice escape from Leone. We see far more movies here than we did back in the States. You realize how amazing things like air-conditioning and big T.V's are plus at $5.50 a ticket, it's a cheap date.

Sunday was Easter. We had been looking forward to it for quite some time. We made a delicious/spectacular/fabulous brunch with Blueberry Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast with homemade whipped cream, Spinach and Mushroom Crustless Quiche, Pan Roasted Potatoes, and REAL bacon (we usually eat turkey bacon). Of course we also had cranberry mimosas. It was seriously the most delicious homemade brunch ever. After stuffing ourselves we kicked back and watched Home Alone to let our food digest. Finally, we dyed some Easter Eggs (aka hard boiled eggs). It was a fabulous first married Easter (sorry, I’m really emphasizing our first everything because our anniversary is coming up in two weeks and I won’t be able to say it anymore!!).

-C