Like a Moth to a Flame

Life here in American Samoa continues on. We are officially ¾ of the way done with the school year. This week, my students take their midterms, then it is off for spring before beginning the final stretch. In fact, as of tomorrow, I will be exactly 3 months from leaving the island; very possibly for good. The past few weeks have had their moments and some are definitely worth sharing. So, here are the highlights.

Cooking

Without many fast food places or restaurants that are open at reasonable hours (some are closed by 2pm), it is imperative that I make my own dinners. Typically I stick with the simple stuff: hot dogs, pasta, frozen pizzas, even a veggie burger now and then. I’ve never really been that into cooking. It takes up time and, here, it is nearly impossible to get all of the necessary ingredients in a timely manner. You would have to know what you wanted to make a week ahead of time and spend a number of hours travelling to various stores trying to find what you needed. It is that or stock up on essentials early on, fill up the freezer, and then improvise as necessary.  

Unfortunately, months of hot dogs and pasta can get a little bland. So, I decided to try my hand at the culinary arts. My first foray was actually quite successful: Banana Cream Pie. In American Samoa, bananas are easy to come by. Ripe bananas, not so much. Untainted by pesticides and what not, the bananas here go from being green and sour to brown and mushy in a matter of 48 hours. So, when my roommates wound up with 8 pounds of bananas, we had to get creative. Some of the bananas we froze and are now using to make berry-banana smoothies (so delicious). The others I used to make the pie. Honestly, I was pretty impressed by myself. I know banana cream pies don’t involve much effort or skill but I got fancy. I used some of my Nila wafers to make a fantastic Nila wafer crust AND I topped the pie with a stylish banana star. Check it out!

My second attempt at cooking was a little more difficult and not quite as graceful. Over Super Bowl weekend, Melanie made homemade, personal pizzas for the group (the weekend prior, I coordinated ordering delivery Pizza Hut for us…just saying, I do my part) and it didn’t seem all that tough. So, I asked her for the recipe and gave it a try.

All in all, the prep process went pretty smoothly. It was what happened after that would make even the worst chefs scoff. Apparently, before cooking a pizza, the dough needs to rise. And, apparently, dough rises slower when placed in a cold place. So, when I thought it was a good idea to put the dough in the fridge for a half hour so that it could rise without being swarmed by flies, I was really making things worse. Of course, I didn’t know that until the first bite. Because, while the crust was a beautiful light brown and the cheese was slightly burnt but smelled delicious, the inside was still nice and doughy. Of course, I still ate it. I couldn’t let perfectly good pizza go to waste but I did learn a valuable lesson for next time.

Speaking of valuable lessons, American Samoa, like any inhabited land mass, does have a McDonalds. In fact, it has two. Knowing full well that Samoans, with their “big bones”, love to eat, the McDonalds’ on this island develop some of the greatest/most ridiculous meal options imaginable. When we first got here, there was “The Buddy Meal”. Two burgers, two fries and two sodas for $10. In the states, a great deal if you’re splitting with a friend. In Samoa, your friend can buy his own. We were asked on multiple occasions if we wanted just one. Completely serious.

Excited?

            For the past few months, however, the special meal has been “The Family Box”: 2 Big Macs, 2 Quarter Pounders, a 10 Piece Nuggets, 2 Medium Fries, 2 Small Fries, and 4 Sodas all for $23. Perfect for feeding a family of 4…or, 1-2 Samoans. Well, last night, Mike and I decided it was time to challenge ourselves. Before going to the movie theatre, we bought ourselves a Family Box and split it. It was by far the greatest/worst idea I have ever had. With 3 nuggets, a small fries and soda left I thought I was going to explode. My final 20 fries were the most difficult. Every bite was a battle against my stomach. But, in the end, we beat the box. And, to be honest, despite some initial adverse effects, the rest of the night was not all that bad. After months without fast food, it seems my stomach was strong enough to take down the giant. I can officially check that off my bucket list.

Animals

Being an island, there really isn’t a huge variety of land animals in American Samoa. True, the ocean is teeming with some of the most beautiful, vibrant fish I’ve ever seen but the island itself only has a few staples that everyone knows about: bats, chickens, dogs, spiders, termites, ants, cockroaches, and geckos.  While I think that geckos are actually really cute (especially the babies), there is one animal that I had never heard of until I came to this island and goes rather unnoticed: the Casebearer moth larvae. While most of the volunteers have never even seen these guys, our house is full of them. Most of the time, they just look like diamond shaped pieces of dirt that are stuck to the wall (sometimes, that is all that they are because the larvae has left its case behind) but, occasionally, you can catch them moving around as I managed to do a week ago. Check out the video. I know it’s just a worm and most people find it pretty gross but I think that they are absolutely hilarious! It is this tiny little larvae dragging this huge shell around. Maybe I’m a little weird, but when I see them crawling around, it always brings a smile to my face.    

School

            With another quarter almost finished, things at Samoana have been bearable. Every day is a continual battle against a poor education, apathy, and a lack of ability to be a good student. Every period is a gamble. Will my students be calm, cooperative and ready to learn or will they be talkative, rude, and ready to run around? Mentally preparing myself for the unknown is extremely taxing. I cannot wait to be back in the states. Until then, I am still going to give it my all.

See anyone familiar in the left drawing?

Using supplies sent by Ms. Browne.
Thank you, so much!

            These past three weeks, I have covering the topic of Evolution. Despite what I was expecting, my students are pretty open to the idea of Evolution. It is certainly a challenge to their preconceptions but they seem to be starting to understand and accept the theory. Of course, some of them still fail to grasp the concept that humans are animals and many of them are only open to the idea of Evolution until the conversation moves to humans. We have not specifically talked about human evolution yet but whenever it is mentioned I am immediately bombarded with comments like, “That’s not real,” and, “we didn’t come from monkeys.” Typically, I just tell them that that is a topic we will cover next semester. Can’t wait!

My class of monsters

            One of my favorite activities this quarter was in our study of variations. To help them understand variations within a species I did an activity where they each had to draw their own monster but pick from specific variations. For example, their monster could either have purple spots or no spots. Once they had finished their monsters, I told them which variations were helpful, harmful, and neutral. The student with the most helpful variations won a prize. The students really got into the activity. One student even incorporated his “favorite” teacher into his drawing. Check it out.

My student on the right.

On a final note, last weekend Samoana hosted the island Wrestling Championships. Since the competition lasted the entire day, I didn’t stay around for the whole thing but I did manage to see a few of my students wrestle their first round.