Talofa from American Samoa!

Talofa (hello)! I finally made it to American Samoa!!!!!!! After spending the night in LA we took an early flight to Honolulu, Hawaii and then from there caught another plane to Pago Pago (pronounced sort of like Pango Pango).  The group of us volunteers (there are 21 of us) arrived  Monday night around 10:00pm (Tuesday 5:00am EST). After going through customs and such we were greeted by our field director and were given welcome necklaces. While packing our suitcases into the school bus, a women came up to some of us and asked if we were a group. When she found out that we were the Worldteach teachers she got very excited and pulled out a recording device and proceeded to interview us for a radio station that she worked at. Apparently Worldteach volunteers have a bit of a celebrity status here on the island and people have been asking about our arrival for weeks. 

After we loaded all our stuff into the bus we were off to our new home for the next three weeks, Nu'uuli Voc-Tech High School. While we are here we are sleeping in classrooms on mattress pads and living out of our suitcases. I'm in a room with four other girls (I'll try and attach pictures in my next post).

Today (Tuesday 8/4/15) I woke up pretty early because of the time difference (American Samoa is 7 hours behind the east coast) so I walked around and explored the high school and ocean that is right across the street. This was my first time actually seeing the island because when we arrived it was pitch black out. Even though we are in the more industrial part of Samoa, the views are still spectacular. You look one way and you see the ocean and palm trees and the other way you see huge. lush, green, tropical mountains. 

The next three weeks (including weekends) will consist of mainly orientation. Today we had training from 8:30am-7:30pm with a couple breaks here and there. We learned mainly about basic Worldteach information and then we had different classes on Samoan culture, norms, beliefs, etiquette, and the language (which is super difficult and has a lot of vowels). 

We have a rotating chores schedule and one of my chores for the day was to buy and make dinner. So a group of us found our way to a grocery store and bought some things for a stir fry meal. When it came time to cook we realized that we only had one small frying pan and two bowls, which was not enough to cook for 21+ people, so we had to get very creative. However after dealing with the lack of materials, some mold, and having to boil any water we used for 20+ minutes, we managed to make a pretty decent meal for all 21 of us and some extra for the principle/security guard who work here at Voc-tech. 

Ive only been here a day but it feels like much longer. It's definitely been a bit hard adjusting to some things but I can tell that I'm really going to like it here. I'll try and attach some pictures in my next post! The rest of be week will be pretty similar as today was, full of different classes and training. Either Thursday or Friday we will get to tour more of the island which I'm really excited for. And one of our guest speakers invited all of us to go to church with her on Sunday. Church and religion is probably the second most important thing in Samoan culture  (right behind family), so I'm really looking forward to it. 
Hopefully the wifi will continue to work here a Voc-tech and I'll be able to post again soon!! (Also sorry if this is rambly and there are typos but I most likely won't be rereading and editing all my posts). 

Tofā, soifua!