Boomerang Retreat

I hear that I'm not the only one that has been bad about keeping up my blog lately and I guess this tends to happen when you live somewhere for over a year - things become "common" and "everyday" that there is not much to write about. But really, that isn't very true because in Samoa there is always something to write about.

For many months I have been considering an offer from my pastor to stay in Samoa and work at their high school: Fa'atuatua. I would become the computer teacher with non-existent computers or a place to hold them. Frustrated with my stagnant prayer life along with my indecisiveness about where I would be next year, I decided to escape for a couple of nights to a safe place.

Thursday morning I jumped on the Saleapaga bus and sat there for an hour and a half before we started moving. After making a few rounds in town we headed down East Coast Road. We stopped at the petrol station to fill up and most of the bus jumped off to go shopping. Another half hour later we were finally on our way. I arrived at Boomerang (the beach I was staying at) four hours after I got onto the bus.

I dropped my stuff off and went to the beach and opened up my getaway with some dialog with the Lord. I dedicated the entire retreat to Him and continued to listen to music, read the Bible, pray and contemplate my big decision. After dinner I meditated on Scripture using Lectio Divina. The Lord spoke to me through Luke, "Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it." I felt He was telling me to be in full submission of His will whatever that may be.

Friday morning at breakfast a couple that was staying at Boomerang offered me a ride to Lalomanu and I was all over that (Lalomanu is one of the best snorkeling spots on the island and is an incredible swimming beach). I grabbed my journal, Bible and mp3 player. God showed me that He wants me to wait on Him for a few reasons: to cultivate patience and endurance and to teach me that He answers in His own time and not when I tell Him to. Those things may seem obvious to you, but for me it was illumination. When we got back to our fales, I noticed that my door had been opened and my cell phone and big bill money was taken. I went to the staff to tell them what happened. As we walked over to my fale to look at the door the owner came running to me with my cell phone and some of the money in his hand. His 7 year old daughter found the money and cell phone on the front porch of my fale...mysterious...but oh how blessed I am to have only lost $20! The remainder of the night was reflecting and meditating upon Psalm 37.

The first hour of Saturday morning was spent praising God while gazing into the endless ocean as the sun rose. There is nothing comparable to spending your quiet time and praising God with no one but the waves of the ocean. I realized that this retreat was an answer to my prayers for intimacy with God. I wasn't hearing from God because my prayer life had become mundane and lifeless. God is speaking to me and is going to reveal His will about what to do next year in His time. He has calmed me with His peace and that is just what I needed.

The Samoan Way

It happened again, but this time I reacted differently...I actually opened my mouth. On Friday the same teacher that I witnessed punching students in the head walked into my computer lab while I was having a class. I was helping some students at their computers when I heard pounding. I looked up, and to my surprise, there she was, punching one of my students. I
yelled her name and then stood there shaking in utter shock. I approached the student that she was beating and asked her what she did. She told me that she was playing around and then I asked her how it made her feel and she told me it made her sad and I told her that it made me sad too.

We had a teachers retreat over the weekend and I prayed for not only the right words to say, but the right timing for her to receive. I didn't feel that any time was right over the weekend, but when she came into my lab today I knew it was the right time. I told her that I appreciate her generousity but I was upset about what happened and that I want to provide a safe environment for my students so I asked that she would not do that while the kids are under my supervision. I knew that there was nothing I could say to her to make her change her mind about the abuse, or what she considers "the Samoan way", but I know that I can provide an hour a day of abuse-free adult interaction and that means a lot to me.

Today after school the student who was beaten in front of me on Friday came into the computer lab after school to sit and chat with me. That is the first student to come and hang out with me! I am blessed and honored that she feels comfortable and I'm sure protected with me.

Maybe I can't change the world, but if I can change one person's world then my two years of service would be worth it all.

Recruiting

I was asked to do an internship with ENLI (Every Nation Leadership Institute) Samoa. I and another girl have been asked to help out with the administrative duties for the year one class that is beginning this year. This will be my second year enrolled as an ENLI student. My class will be on Thursday nights and the year one students will be on Tuesday nights. I am really looking forward to the job for many reasons including, making new friendships with year one students; sitting through year one material again; discerning the will of God concerning next year (am I supposed to stay, move to NZ, or move back to the states); the scholarship I will receive towards my student fees.

Sunday was the first day that we started recruiting the year one students, and I was asked to share the first testimony of how ENLI has changed my life. I told the full-house church that before ENLI I followed people (pastor, friends, etc.) without even knowing it and during the course the Lord rebuilt my foundations by convicting me in many areas of my Christian walk. After the service, we put on our cool T-shirts and stood at the door, handing out brochures and encouraging church goers to pray about attending the school.

I am really looking forward to this year’s one class. I just know that God is going to do amazing things in the lives of the individuals, the group and our church!!

School Update

Before the school year started, I decided that I wanted to be more involved with school activities, my homeroom class, etc. I am an assistant homeroom teacher for one of the year 11 classes. The main teacher has been sick for over a week now, so I had to learn what my job was the hard way. There are many rules that I was unaware of: the students are assigned to cleaning areas and are supposed to clean in the morning and afternoon; students that are late are supposed to pay $1; prayer is supposed to happen at a certain time; etc. I finally found out the details today (apparently you have to ask the right questions :P) and decided to talk to the house captains (the leaders of the class) and have them control the other students to make sure that they do their cleaning duties and don’t leave without doing them…if they leave, they are supposed to tell me their names. This will help me during the time that I don’t know their names.

My year 10 students are really cute. Can you imagine students that have never touched a computer? That is how some of these students are. On the other hand, there are others that are as experienced as some of my year 13 students! With some students I have to literally hold their hand as they try to use the mouse, others roll their eyes when I try to explain to them how to save something. My first assignment for them is for them to draw a keyboard on a piece of construction paper and then color-code it according to which finger they are supposed to use to type.

Not so coincidental coincidence

So on Sunday, I was walking to church with a fever (sick from Indian food the night before) and suddenly I hear “excuse me, can I ask you a question?” I turn to see a guy standing there, “yes” I said. “Are you married?” “No”. “Can I be your friend?” In Samoa, ‘friend’ means boyfriend or girlfriend so I replied “no” again. He continued to try to ask more questions when I interrupted telling him that I was late for church. He asked if he could come and I told him “yes” – hoping that God would speak to him in church. He sat next to me, I could smell stale alcohol on him, as if he was partying the night before. Then during the service, he kept trying to touch me using that old not-so-smooth move (think…yawn, stretch, arm is around the girl). Right before church was over he asked me if he could talk to me after church and I hesitantly said “yes.” My friends surrounded me after church telling me that he was trying to touch me during the service. They kept me away from him and then told me that they were going to give me a ride home so that he wouldn’t follow me. I told him good-bye and got into the car with Lorna and Fila. When I got home I told Candice what happened and then went to bed to try to sleep off the fever. Shortly after, someone knocked on the door. Candice was guarded and explained the guy later and it was him! He was apparently looking for a “Tongan” (he is a Tongan visiting Samoa for another week) – she was very stand-offish and sent him to our next door neighbors who are from Tonga.

Mid Service Conference ~ Group 75

Friday:
All of our group except for Julya and Ryan left for the wharf around 8 AM on Friday morning to catch the ferry to Savaii. We were missing Julya because she lives in Savaii and we were picking her up on the way to our beach fales. Ryan, unfortunately, was still in the states. We arrived in Satuiatua, ate lunch, and settled in. I roomed with Julya and Dianne and our fale had a big deck. We came back for a few sessions: medical, safety and security, administrative and language. We finished all our sessions in a couple of hours and then Teuila offered to take us to Falealupo (the "end of the world") to go for a swim and collect seashells. Only Dianne and I took her up on the offer. Leata and Lesina joined us. The white sand of the beach was covered with an ample amount of colorful seashells and the waves crashed onto the lava rock to create momentary waterfalls. I enjoyed picking seashells for Teuila and Dianne, but soon found myself holding onto some for myself...in fact, I think I found a new hobby! On the way back, we ran into Maka (group 74 VBD volunteer), who was riding his bike. When we arrived back in Satuiatua, Tim (group 76) and Derek (group 74) were there to visit. Dinner started around 7:30 and lasted until 9:00. We all got to choose from a menu what we wanted for dinner, and there were some mixups - Julya was the last one to get her meal at 9:00. I went to bed shortly after, as I didn't sleep well the night before because of a slight fever. I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the ladies room, and on my way back I looked up at the bright lights shining down from the sky. It was breath-taking - the well-defined Milky Way was luring me to lay down for some star gazing.

Saturday:
After breakfast we started what was supposed to be a full day of sessions. We started at 8:30 and finished at 8:50. We talked about the process of extending and what the next few months were going to look like for us. When we finished, we all clapped, as we were excited to have a lazy day. My day was filled with snorkeling, Sudoku, reading, listening to music, and chatting. Maka showed up in the afternoon to hang out for the rest of the day and to spend the night. Apparently our group is so cool that the other groups couldn't leave us alone ;-)



Sunday:
We woke up and had fresh bacon (left over from the pig for dinner the night before) for breakfast, got ready and left for the wharf. Most of us attempted to sleep on the ferry back to Upolu and then the Peace Corps dropped each of us off. It was sad to say "goodbye" to the rest of the group - there is nothing like just being around your group, and it felt too soon to be apart.

New Year’s Resolutions (sort of)

Since I've been back from the US, I have realized that this year I really need to be here. I should not wonder about what I'm missing in Colorado, rather I should consider what I may be missing here. Someone once told me that he doesn't ever miss anyone or anything because he puts his energy and focus into his current situation. I don't want to go back to Colorado and question if I made the most of my time here…I’m just going to do it. I’m going to invest time, love, my heart into the people and the country this year.

With that being said, I am SO excited for this school year. I hope to be more involved with the school activities now that I know how they work. I am planning on spending more time in my homeroom class and do all that I can to fill the students up with positive and encouraging words; God knows they need it…

Something disturbed me today. A teacher was telling me that her entire homeroom class was filled with cheeky, misbehaved students. I was thinking, “of course they are ‘cheeky’ and ‘misbehaved’ – if that is all that they are told about themselves, they will become that way.” Then, after they were dismissed, she pulled two girls aside. She was speaking to them in Samoan, so I’m not sure what she was saying, and then she punched them both in the head. The only thing I did was gasp. I was shocked. What do I do in that situation? I don’t know what set her off because it was all done in Samoan. I was talking with Candice and Holly about the situation and we were throwing around some ideas. I am going to do all I can to build these girls up and help them to start believing that they are worth something. I am going to pray with them every morning to promote a good start to the day and I am going to start asking questions to the teacher that is abusing them. I don’t know if I’ll be able to change her mind about what she’s doing, but maybe I can get her to start thinking about it.

Natural Disasters

How fabulous it was to be reunited with my Samoan spiritual family on Sunday. There were a few people that I just wrapped my arms around even though it is not fa’aSamoa (the Samoan way) – they just do a cheek-to-cheek kiss. Praise was nothing less than anointed and spirit-filled. After service I got to go “home” to celebrate Toana’I (Sunday brunch) with Pastor Samoa and his family. Sally and Julya got to be guests, while Janita and I helped serve and ate second with the kids (which may sound crazy, but I consider a privilege). I can’t remember the last time that I had lunch at their house, in fact I couldn’t even remember where the glasses were :-O

Today was the kickoff to our school year and I was so excited to see the girls. It was orientation for years 12 and 13. We finished at noon and then Candice and I headed to the Peace Corps office so I could go give my PCMO a big hug. We sat in her office and she told me about the cyclone that is heading towards Samoa. I gave her my cell phone number and then a few hours after I got home, I got a call from her telling me that we are on the first stage of our emergency action plan: the stand fast stage. Apparently we are currently in a cyclone depression. How funny that I went from one natural disaster to another? I thought that leaving blowing snow for a tropical island would be a relief; however I have only gone from one natural disaster to another ;)