Tomorrow I'm giving a mini flute recital at a music school near the college here in Samoa. A few other PCTs are going to sing or play piano. AND a few ambassadors from the American Embassy are going to be there. Jesus, no pressure or anything. We really just want to raise interest in music and let the music school know that we support them. Music isn't taught at primary levels at all, so it's really hard to find a Samoan musician who was trained in Samoa. The title of this blog is a quote that the orchestra conductor said to us: we might be the answer to his little dream without words, meaning both that it was a dream that he never spoke aloud, but also that we are answering his dream without words, with music. If I've learned anything from playing the flute it's that music transcends language. The same holds true here.
Here are a few things I've jotted down:
-It rains a lot here. You know the scene in "Forrest Gump" when Forrest talks about the rain? Yep, that might as well be Samoa. Sometimes it rains so hard that we can't hear the trainers talking. My language class has been outside in a little building next to the pool and every time it would rain while we were in class, I couldn't help but smile.
-This next story comes from Kilisi:
Yesterday he was walking downtown and a boy was pushing an old man in a wheelchair. The wheelchair just tips and the old man falls out. So the kid tries to hold the chair while lifting the man; Kilisi runs over to try to help, but the two of them still aren't making any progress until twenty Samoan firefighters run out of the station and take over.
-This one comes from a story Kilisi was told:
Last year when the tsunami hit Samoa, a man heard the warning to get out of Apia (because we're right along the ocean) and just booked it out of here in his pickup. He stopped at a stoplight and about fifteen Samoans jumped into the bed of the truck. The man didn't say anything and just drove to higher ground.
-Last night a few of us went out to dinner at a place called Seafood Gourmet. Next door was a small fire-dancing show, which isn't uncommon in Samoa. The cool part was that little boys were fire-dancing! Also at Seafood Gourmet last night, Danny had a huge bowl of chowder and...wait for it...a glass of tap water! Living on the wild side.
-We've also got a little mixture of languages going on that we like to refer to as Spanmoan. Spanish and Samoan put together.
Oa mai oe?
Manuia. Fa'afetai. Y tu?
-On one of the sheets on my bed is a faded tic-tac-toe game.
Friday night was our welcome fiafia. Groups 81 and 82 did some Samoan dances for us and we had fire-dancers down by the pool. After eating, most of us went out to a bar called Why Not. And really, why not?!
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| By the Pool for the Fire Dancers at the Fiafia |
Saturday we move into our training villages. We'll each be with about four other people who are roughly at the same language level as we are. (Apparently I'm rocking at Samoan. It's that crazy memory thing.) What this means is that I probably won't have internet access for a while. Maybe here and there.
Plans for tonight: dinner and maybe a little swimming. Probably a convo on the balcony; that tends to happen.
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| Mika, Danny, Jeter, and I before the Fiafia |
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