Talofa!
I have arrived safely to American Samoan. I must admit, my journey has begun. I had a great conversation with a 73 yr. Samoan tutu on the plane. Lily is visiting her family because she lives in Ewa. She told me that she has 30 grand children and 45 great-grandchildren. I then said, "wow! you have a village". She looked at me with her loooong silver ringlet hair as said, "why yes". A that very moment...I got it!
See it is all about the family....your village. This island has several villages and naturally everyone is related within each village.
As I departed the plane at 10:00pm., I watched and listened to Samoans recognize each other on the plane...many were their own relatives. For example, Lily saw her cousin who lives in Honolulu. Since there are only two flights per week to Samoa naturally I can see how and why the family encounters occurs on the plane! Questions and conversations were heard all around me as we waited a nice 5 mins. before we could depart. I heard...hey...bla bla...how long you gonna be here? I heard tautala all around. I saw them happy and shocked when they recognized each other. These awesome bilingual people went in and out of their main language, tautala and English.......[by the way, there are two languages here, the other one is aaaloalo]. The language sounds like I'm definitely somewhere off the Pacific ocean.
Mene, one of the American Samoa University of Hawaii (ASUH) cohort coordinators meet Deb, the multicultural ed. professor and I at the airport. He made sure, we received our Toyota Yaris and our gorgeous lei! My car is blue and Deb's is silver. No worries, I am taking pics. The lei I received from Mene is real interesting. I forgot the name of my lei already! sorry... It has three different plants and flowers going on. Anywho...I followed Deb to the hotel. She has been here for over 5 years. Her husband is an air traffic controller for Hawaiian Airlines. I can imagine she must be on her fifth passport by now! Well the drive to the hotel was literally a straight shot and about 4 mins. So I am in my hotel room. I am at the Tradewinds Hotel...you can check out the hotel website.. go to http://www.tradewinds.as/
Well it is 1:40am. I must meet Mene at 10:00 am in the lobby. He is one of the American Samoa University of Hawaii (ASUH) cohort coordinators. There are three total. Tomorrow, I will meet the other coordinators, locate my shipped teaching materials, locate my classroom and simply tighten up a few loose ends before I teach at 4:30pm.
Good nite and sleep tight,
Paula
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Go P! I hope that I get to join you on one of these teaching trips one day soon. Post plenty of pics.
ReplyDeleteI am very proud of you my friend. Keep doing big things and most important keep sharing those experiences. Q
ReplyDeleteDear Paula,
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing me to this blog so that I can join you on your trip. I am excited and honored to do so. I am so proud of you and your focus on the kinds of things that matter most in life. Good grounding...from good roots...nurtured and watered by your father in heaven. God bless you and your time there with His measure of success. I love you.
-- "the favorite uncle" :-)
NCB....You will be mad at me! I forgot to bring my camera cord. I'll post as soon as I return. For now please picture it in your mind.
ReplyDeleteQW....Thank you my friend. I know we have not talked in a while but you are always on my mind especially when my birthday rolls around. I'll never forget that birthday from when I turned 30!
My favorite uncle...I thank my grandparents who raised my parents well! God is truly blessing me. All I can do is push myself to be the best I can..and for me serving others is the best way...
Love you three above!