Mother's Day weekend

I think I am finally back into the swing of things. It was nice the day I arrived back at home on Savai'i, Saturday, it was nice and quiet around the compound. I traveled over with a few friends, so it made lugging my big bags around easier and the boat ride is always more fun with a friend.

So, Saturday was chill, but Sunday was Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is a huge holiday in Samoa. So big in fact that we have that next day, Monday, off as well. I headed to church like usual that day only I was there for 5 hours. That is right. I was sitting in that church on those pews for 5 hours. In our village, they split the women into 4 groups and after the sermon, each group of women got up and sang a few songs, put on a few skits and sang a few more songs and danced. It was entertaining, so the time went by a little quicker.

It was nice because I realized that even though this may seem long to me, I won’t probably ever have this opportunity again to be apart of this aspect of the culture and experience this. So, I stayed the whole time and took pictures. It was fun to see some of the women I know act out some hilarious scenes and have a blast. Even my counterpart at school was in one and danced and sang. I got some great pictures. And then, afterwards, there was some great to’ona’i. That is the huge meal after churches on Sundays.

And then Monday was a day off, so I had the day to do a ton of errands… but I didn’t do them. There was a huge storm that rolled in Sunday night and didn’t go away until Tuesday morning. The thunder was so loud Sunday night that it woke me up a few times. When thunder wakes you up in the middle of the night it is sort of a start and you aren’t sure at first what it is that woke you, you just know it was a loud noise. I think one of the times it woke me I sat straight up and thought it was a tsunami before I realized it was just the thunder. The whole day it poured rain; and it was cold rain. I felt like I was back in Seattle…except it was still hot and humid and I was surrounded by palm trees, but other than that the same.

So, school started back up for me on Tuesday, but it is really chill because it is just finals this week. All I am doing is monitoring finals of my classes and helping a few other teachers monitor theirs. It is pretty easy. I am glad that I didn’t have to jump right back into teaching after being away for awhile. I got to ease into it slowly.

Next week is the beginning of a 2 week break; the end of Term 2. The school year in Samoa is from January to December. So, I get another break after I got back from my other one in Mexico. Maybe I will make it back to Falevao for the second time since I finished training to visit my family there.
Until next time…