Happy Easter!

Hi all! Happy Easter! Guess it is time for my monthly update- are you noticing a trend? First of all, I am so happy that I was able to talk to many of you for Easter. So nice you hear everyone’s voices and hear how things are going back at home. July is coming fast too, definitely looking forward to seeing everyone and tafaoing (hanging out)—I have definitely mastered that here, no need to worry about that! The plane tickets are already booked 
I had an enjoyable Easter. Certainly much different than in the States. Very much based on the Christian holiday (as is Christmas here). Not everything else that happens in America. So, no Easter Bunny (no Santa Claus). I went to one of the teacher’s houses to spend the long weekend (no school Friday or Monday). She is my age and also has 2 sisters and a brother around my age. Also, her 2 cousins were there. We went swimming in the ocean, made salati vi (a salad made with vi, a Samoan fruit, coconut cream---Of course!---and peanuts; it was the first time I had ever tasted it and certainly will not be the last..yummy!), and spent a lot of time with the autalavo, the youth of the church. They had a program at church where they performed dances and did skits (I was in one of the dances with them  ). On Monday, they had a barbeque---cooked chicken and made the saka, and played rugby and volleyball. Yikes, guess all my volleyball playing in my village didn’t improve my skills—one of the teacher’s cousins came up to me and told me how bad I was. Hey, well, I guess I am glad they are honest! Good thing people here are so friendly (the land of the happy people…) so they still let me play! Fun to meet more people, and the teacher’s brother wants to learn how to play piano, so I will be going back there to teach him.
Another bunch of fun weekends. One weekend, I went to a birthday party that my Samoan family was invited to. Wow! So different than any birthday party I have been to. The people that go to the party give gifts but then the family of the person whose birthday it is give gifts as well, and especially to relatives of the person or to people coming from overseas, which in this case included me. So I went to this party for a girl who I did not know at all (who actually lives in New Zealand but her uncle had a party for her here because she lived here for awhile) and came home with a lot of fabric (used to make puletasis), a case of eleni (canned fish), cookies, etc. Incredible the way they treat people who come from overseas in this country! I went to Savai’i one weekend to hang out with another volunteer. I met a few of her students, saw her computer lab, and of course went to church… and to the beach (a big plus to being on a tropical island) I also went into to Apia 2 weekends for meetings. One was the 40th anniversary meeting. For 40 years in Samoa, Peace Corps is organizing events for each month, sports days, fitness days, crafts days, etc. Also a battery project. We are collecting old batteries in our villages to send overseas to be recycled…let me tell you---it had been quite a hit so far and it definitely a game for the kids! I have 2 boxes of batteries already! The other meeting was Avanoa Tutusa, in which we are currently working on doing something for literacy day in September and some sports/ exercise related events. One amazing thing about Peace Corps is the amazing flexibility that there is. We all have our primary projects (teaching reading for me), but then can do whatever secondary projects we want. And if one Peace Corps volunteer has a good idea, they bring it up and it is open to anyone (such as the battery project).
The SOUND OF A HAMMER is in the air! The village signed the contract with JICA, the Japanese organization giving us money to build the new school in the middle of March. So we moved out all of the stuff from the classroom (with the help of 30 strong Samoan guys!) into different fales around the village. Now, each class is in a different fale in the village. Being that I am teaching years 4-8, I walk to each fale---it has been quite fun, to be able to meet more people on the other side of the village. The guys in the village are currently tearing down the old school, and then will begin building the new school using those materials as well as others. Really cool how the village comes together, the guys build away and different families provide food for them each day. I got an email from an organization I had emailed asking for books saying that they had shipped a box of books and am receiving books from family too (Thank you!!) so the library is slowly growing in my room for now haha, and then will be put in the new school. Also, with Avanoa Tutusa we are trying to find different ways of getting a lot of books for primary schools all around Samoa. Outside of teaching in school, the number of kids who come to me asking for help seems to be continuously growing. I had a few girls in secondary school come over asking to learn computers (I busted out my laptop!). Also, a matai just bought a new computer for his children so I went to help them. In Fasitoouta, a village a few villages away from mine, I am helping a girl with English (whose father is friends with my Samoan father…connections, connections…). Needless to say, I have never been bored here, which also means that time is going by so quickly here!
One funny story, and then enough for now… so after I was done helping this guy in my village with his computer (which actually I didn’t really help him, just realized how great it is that there are so many Peace Corps in this country that know computers to call to ask questions!), I was walking home, when one of the guys who lives next to me screams to me from across the street at the workshop “Sau, Sally!” = “Come, Sally!” So I walk over. He is there will 2 other guys who live next to me just hanging out. He runs to grab a pillow to put on a chair for me and then grabs a cup and the tea kettle filled with koko samoa (my favorite). Haha, aren’t I treated like a princess here? (Watch out when I come home haha just kidding!) So I sit down, drink the koko, and talk with them, and then get my bag to walk home. One of the guys takes out this umbrella for me (for the sun)---but let me say the umbrella is for a 3 year old. He holds it over his head and we joke about how it only can cover your head. (picture this 30 yr old guy holding a miniature umbrella with this huge grin on his face---goofy, goofy). He tells me to take it to cover my head, I say Na, that’s alright, he laughs and tells me not to be ashamed, so then the other guy grabs it and says he’ll hold it. Haha…so now I am walking back to my house, with this 22 year old guy holding a miniature-sized umbrella over my head and walking me home (of course carrying my bag for me as well). Maybe this doesn’t really justify how funny the situation was, but it is these moments that really crack me up and I know I will always keep with me.
One of my cousins gave me a journal before I left for Samoa with a note that said “it’s not always the big ‘life-changing’ moments that shape who we are, sometimes it’s just the day to day ones.” I am definitely learning how true that really is. It is these moments that I am truly grateful for. I love you all so much, thank you so much for all the support through your letters as always, and will be seeing you very soon.
Alofa ia te oe! Sally