Our last lunch in AmSam at Lyon's Park. Spam Musubi//Lamb Bun//DC. Nom.
It wasn’t until it was about time to leave we started realizing that saying goodbye would be harder than we thought. We are not sure where the last month of our time in American Samoa went. We went from counting down months, to weeks, day, and finally hours in what felt like the blink of an eye.
The last week or two in American Samoa couldn’t have gone better. We got to eat some good food, make a new friend, attend our last (and second) church service, and say our goodbyes.
Throughout the year, my office systems and applications class (basically an entrepreneurship class) was working on a class project where they created their own business. The business was supposed to create and sell T-Shirts. Due to some logistic issues, they were never able to actually raise enough money to make shirts to sell, but did raise enough for a class set and a pizza party where each student got their own large pizza. You read that right, one LARGE pizza for each student (and one jumbo pizza for me and Chelsia to share). We turned on a movie and everyone tried to get through his or her pizza. Surprisingly enough, not one person finished theirs. Then it got really interesting. We got to see the differences in their personalities really come out as we watched some kids take their pizza outside openly to share with their friends, while others folded up their pizza box and stuffed it in their backpack so they wouldn’t have to.
Office System's Pizza Party.
Wearing the shirts that the student's designed.
Lei and Ula. Twin students, twin pizzas.
Everyone got their own pizza with the money they raised throughout the year and we split the jumbo.
They loved those pizzas!
Computer Applications Class (5th Period)
Normajean and Daniel modeling my new air conditioning unit.
Fiona, Molo, and Valu playing cards while one hard working student (Fiso) is working on his typing.
Zech and Joanne saying goodbye.
Algebra 1 Freshmen.
Kinitoni, Maletina, and Christian on one of the final days of class.
Aleluia, Jeanette and Ana in 2nd period Algebra 1
One of my sweetest students, Loto. :)
One of the student's notebooks. :)
One morning, a week and a half or so before our departure, we heard some extremely loud meowing at our back door. We knew that it surely couldn't be a cat because our compound had so many dogs. We went to investigate and as soon as we opened the back door to peek out "Little Cat" came running into our house. I quote Little Cat because that's what we decided to call him in fear of becoming too attached. He was just about the cleanest domestic animal that we saw our entire time in AmSam and the most obtrusive. We had a surplus of Starkist Tuna that became Little Cat's breakfast every morning until we left. This only encouraged him to come to our house. It got to the point that whenever we would open the door, even if just for a fraction of a second, Little Cat would dart into the house and find somewhere comfy to take a nap. Most of the people on our compound took a liking to him and he ended up getting overfed, a flea treatment, and even some milk. Spoiled Little Cat. Lucky for us
A " lake" on one of our final walks home from school. This is usually somebody's lawn but with the help of some pretty strong rain showers it was transformed.
Little Cat :)
Little Cat's breakfast. He even kept the dogs in check.
We had a wonderful goodbye lunch with the staff at our school. This was capped off with a touching speech by our principal and a literal showering with gifts. It was the most special gift presentation I have ever been a part of. Let me start by explaining the assortment of gifts. The principal asked each teacher to bring a gift for the World Teachers. When we arrived at the lunch the gifts were piled on the table at the front of the room. There were so many I couldn’t even count them all. So many that Chelsia and I thought they were giving gifts to other teachers too. We were wrong. There are about 50 teachers at Leone High School and only 5 World Teachers. Most of the teachers brought multiple gifts; I’ll let you do the math. After everyone finished lunch, all of the teachers started signing one of the traditional Samoan songs while the counselors and principal and a few of the more involved teachers brought each of the World Teachers gifts one by one. I know I speak for both of us when I say that it was one of the most touching experiences that we experienced all year. It felt so good knowing that all of our hard work this year had been appreciated. We had received thanks from our students before, but getting that genuine show of appreciation from our co-workers was truly heart warming.
Take note of Tiapepe's Black Mamba T-shirt haha.
Teacher's Edition ;)
Rugby in the field between our classrooms.
We called her Schleppy Girl. She might look mangy but she was the sweetest dog. It always looked like she was smiling.
One of the student's burning trash on the final day of school.
Mika and Lei.Valedictorian and Salutatorian of Leone High School c/o 2014.
Principal Te'o and the buffet that our coworker's provided for us. Te'o was incredibly appreciative towards us. When we turned in our final paperwork and keys he asked us if we were sure we didn't want to stay and said that if we ever had the desire to come back we were more than welcome to. We might have to take him up on that some day. :)
Teachers of Leone getting their grub on.
We racked up on gifts at the luncheon in our honor. It was pretty amazing.
We called him Mr. Obtrusive. He lived at one of the houses on our walk to school and would always stand in the middle of the sidewalk when we would walk by. Most dogs in AmSam will run or bark when you walk by but not Mr. Obtrusive. He stood his ground and would even wag his tail a bit.
We had to close our ANZ bank accounts so we thought it was the perfect excuse to take our last trip into town (Pago Pago). However, in classic American Samoan bank form, we spent over two hours waiting to be told that we couldn't be helped and that we would have to come back on the Monday we flew out. Our trip was anything but a waste of time though. It gave us an opportunity to bid our final farewell to the island that we called home for a year. It also afforded us the chance to get our final fix of Samu's DELICOUS ice cream. It's amazing ice cream, tiny island or not.
Our compound.
One of the little markets we used to shop at.
Our "post office" in Leone.
Samu's is the best ice cream on island. Seriously nom worthy.
Our last trip into Pago Pago.
The day before we left we attended the Baccalaureate Church Service that our school put on for the senior class. It was much better than the first church service that we attended and had a graduation-like feel to it, which actually wasn’t a bad thing at all. Graduations are much more entertaining from a teacher’s perspective. Usually you only know a handful of kids at a graduation. When you’re the teacher you know most of them (and I knew a lot since I had some classes that only had senior students in them). Overall it was a great service; we got to hear our kids all sing together one last time and there was an awards ceremony where my kids absolutely cleaned up. I’m proud to say that my students took honors in academic, sports, and military categories including Valedictorian, Salutatorian, and top student athlete. It didn’t hurt that the ceremony took place in a Church that resides in what we think is one of the most beautiful villages on the island. We took the opportunity to walk along the coast (the long way home) and see the ocean splash against the cliffs of American Samoa up close and personal for the last time.
The church where the baccalaureate was held.
The baccalaureate program.
Johnson reading a scripture from the bible.
All of the graduating seniors.
One of our cohorts who had already spent a couple of years in American Samoa and went back off island told us that when you go home and get back into your daily routine the whole experience feels like a dream. Almost like it never happened at all. I don’t know if that is exactly how it feels for us yet, but it does feel surreal to be back on the main land and there are so many things that we miss already.
It wasn’t until it was about time to leave we started realizing all of the little things we would miss. Drinking Diet Coke on the porch with a beautiful view of coconut trees against a cloudy blue sky while we browsed the web using our insanely slow Internet (aka “kome” time). Our peaceful walk back and forth to school every day (rain or shine). Watching movies in bed with a bottle of wine on an eventful Friday night. The dogs on our property greeting us as we walk up the path to the house, and following us to the store but pretending they were going anyway. Staying in bed all day and watching four movies (or a season of a show) because it felt like you weren’t allowed to do anything else on a Sunday (okay, okay, maybe we did this on some Saturdays too). Having some of the most beautiful hiking/snorkeling destinations in the world walking distance from our house. Hearing our kids sing the morning prayer. Working with my spouse. Being able to complain about my job/people at my job to my spouse and have my spouse understand exactly who/what I’m talking about. Eating bowls of Saimin (BowlNoodle) at lunch in an air-conditioned classroom (while maybe watching an episode or two of The Amazing World of Gumball on the SmartBoard). Having our kids asking hilarious questions and saying hilarious things in general. Kids singing/dancing in class (even though it could get annoying at times).
Our life, packed into 4 suitcases. (the 5th is Addie's)
Saying bye to Blackie.
All of our stuff in Moana's truck. She was kind enough to drive us to the airport.
Our lovely landloard, Moana.
And because we no longer have to see it on a daily basis, Samoan roadkill for you viewing pleasure.
-S and C
