A Year Ago Today

It was exactly a year ago today that I was applying to join the Peace Corps. At the time, I thought I may get in, but I wasn’t sure. After applying, it was a long road ahead before I even came to Samoa. And it is on this day that I have decided to do a Peace Corps tradition and blog my timeline of application to Samoa.

January 27^th, 2016-Applied for Peace Corps

            Under the new application system the Peace Corps implemented, the application became shorter, streamlined, and I got to pick which country I wanted to apply for. I only chose Samoa.

            With the application, I had to also do a health history form, which I completed the same day I submitted my application.

February 11^th, 2016- Placed Under Consideration for Peace Corps Samoa

            Essentially this meant they liked my initial application and were considering if my qualifications met the needs of Samoa and would interview me. Or that’s my understanding of this stage.

March 16^th, 2016- Invitation for an Interview

            I received an email to arrange a web chat or phone interview.

March 31^st, 2016- Interview

            I was scheduled to interview via web chat, but due to technical difficulties did the interview over the phone. At this point I had done research on the typical questions asked and was feeling pretty good about my interview.

Sometime between the interview and my invitation I received a call from a Peace Corps nurse asking about my Celiac disease as it could hinder me from getting medically cleared.

May 5^th, 2016- Invitation

            I received my official invitation, but it was contingent on medical and legal clearance.

June 28^th, 2016- Legal Clearance Granted

            Of course, this was of no concern to me…I don’t have a criminal record that I know of…

July 6^th, 2016- Medical Clearance Granted

            This was the one that I was concerned about. Given that I have Celiac disease, I was afraid I would not get medical clearance. Since I am a healthy Celiac and I have been able to live well with it for the past two years, I was able to get medical clearance.

September 7^th, 2016- Flight Scheduled to Staging

September 30^th, 2016- Flight to L.A. for Staging

October 2^nd, 2016- Flight to Samoa

October 4^th, 2016- Arrive in Samoa

            That crazy International Date Line…

December 9^th, 2016- Sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer

Manuia le Kerisimasi

Translation: Merry Christmas

I have now experienced a Christmas and New Year in Samoa. I am, in my opinion, one of the luckier volunteers in the sense that it is not my first holiday away from my family. I am able to cope with the fact that I am not with my family during this time. I also had an interesting Christmas that kept me too busy to think about my American family. 

I spent Christmas with my host family in Savai’i, which is the larger of the two main islands in Samoa, but the less populated one. For the week leading up to Christmas, I spent my nights with the church youth group working on songs and dances for our Christmas production. The hardest part of all these practices was trying to learn songs in Samoan without actually being able to read them. I had to listen to the group sing, then try to decipher words. If you have ever listened to a song in a language you’ve never spoken, you can attest that it just sounds like a jumble of words.

Finally, on our practice on Friday night, we were given a book with all of the songs we would be singing. I finally had some clarification to what we were singing and realizing I had been practicing singing (or more lip syncing) very incorrectly. Luckily, I had been standing at the back and planned to stay there for the performance. The only exception for this was that I was asked multiple times if I wanted to sing a solo. In my new “Yes, man” attitude, I decided “Why not?”

Saturday rolls around and I rush to get a new ie (essentially a skirt) to wear for the Christmas production that evening. When I asked what time it started, of course no one knew. That is just the Samoan way. It ended up starting after dark (how real Samoans tell time). We sang and danced for close to two hours and during special performances, they put out bowls for people to donate money to the church. When it was my turn to sing my solo, they had the bowls out. I was nervous, but my host mom was up hooting and hollering so much that it immediately calmed me down. For my rendition of Jingle Bell Rock, I raised a total of 8 tala. Big money….

After the production, my host mom asked me if I wanted to join them to walk and sing to bring in the birth of Jesus at midnight. Once again, my “yes, man” attitude kicked in and I went with it. While the experience was nice and definitely a good part of integrating into my community, there is no way I would do it again. At midnight we started walking with a group from my church, singing Samoan Christmas songs. It was beautiful at first. Eventually, however, it became a drain. We sang basically the same three songs and finished around 2 am. I went to bed around 2:30 am and needless to say, I slept through church the next day.

On Sunday, Christmas Day, we had another production, which was much more about songs about the birth of Jesus. No solo for me that night. There were still special performances that raised money for the church. And even when Christmas was over, I still had people wishing me a Merry Christmas until the New Year. Occasionally I will still get a Manuia le Kerisimasi and definitely still hear Christmas Songs….It is January 11th...

From Super Palagi to Teine Samoa in Ten Short Weeks

Palagi: Samoan word meaning white person

I knew coming to Samoa that I would be a minority in many obvious ways. My white skin and my red hair just to start. I did not realize just how fascinated some Samoans would become by my freckles and the explanation I had to give when I said that I don’t tan. During just the first week in our training village, I had gone to another trainees home. The next day, he explained to me that his host mom could not believe how palagi I was. She called me a super palagi.

I, of course, thought this was hilarious. I definitely stand out and take no issue with being called a super palagi. It was almost like being a weird superhero. Over the course of training, my obvious palagi-ness was there, but seemed to fade as I became more of a presence in my training village. I became a part of my family and the community that I was living in. I stepped out of my comfort zone.

For starters, I had to get used to the idea that the sun was unavoidable and given that I am a fair skinned, red-head, I liberally applied sunscreen every day so that I could actually spend my time outside. That was step one.

After I could actually go outside without the fear of being sunburned every second of every day, I began to join in activities that I had never regularly done or never would have thought to have done in America. First activity? Going to church. This may seem so small, but it is such an important part of Samoan culture. One of the first questions a Samoan may ask you is “What church do you go to?” Everyday life in Samoa revolves around the foundation of religion. Church in Samoa is actually quite beautiful. All of the singing and joy that is brought to it makes it an enjoyable experience.

Next up? Joining the church choir. Did I mention that church is important in Samoa? Well, it is. My host father in my training village said to me one day, “Sana, you are joining the choir.” My response was to laugh because I thought it was a joke as many things are in Samoa. Church, however, is not something to be joked about. He told me I was going to be a part of the choir for the rest of my time in my training village. Even though I had grown up with the idea that I was a terrible singer, I said yes because it was all about the experience. I found out that my singing isn’t so terrible.

Now that I had my religious bases covered, it was time for some typical social activities. So the first social gathering I regularly attended was…BINGO! Oh yes, bingo is very serious business in Samoa. I would go to the bingo my family hosted every Saturday. And it became my routine. Saturday was church choir practice and then bingo. I would get home by midnight and be exhausted.

So what else was there to become more Samoan? Obviously volleyball. This is probably one of the most popular sports in Samoa next to rugby. I had played some volleyball in America, but I didn’t like it much. I tried it in Samoa and it was fun. When I messed up, which was regularly, everyone laughed, including myself. That’s just the way it is in Samoa. And if the team really wanted to win and knew you were bad? They just avoided letting the ball anywhere near you. That was always fine by me.

There were little day-to-day things I did to turn into a teine Samoa (Samoan girl). Two showers a day, bucket washing my clothes, putting flowers in my hair, wrangling in cows in the middle of the night, bathing in the ocean, drinking a ton of tea, eating a ton of taro, and I’m sure the list could go on. I know I am still not quite a full teine Samoa, but I am already a far cry from the super palagi who stepped off a plane in Samoa 13 weeks ago.