Chanel Feast Day (Written 4/29/06)

Friday was an interesting day at school because it was kind of like a holiday without actually going on holiday, meaning we had no classes but the kids still came to school. Yesterday we had something called a 'Feast Day' which, from what I understand, is a celebration of the patron saint of the school – in our case, a man by the name of Peter Chanel who is the patron saint of Oceania. So the first part of our day was spent in a mass where Father Kevin gave a little history lesson on who Chanel was and why he is important not only to the school but also to the whole of Oceania.

After the mass, the kids broke up into one of the four houses and competed in games against each other. The boys played rugby and the girls played netball – this was my first time seeing the kids play their sports because when they play against other schools, I usually have to stay behind and tend to the computer lab. I learned that I made the correct decision about not playing rugby with Samoans it gets very intense and bone crushing. Think of how American football players would feel and look like if they did not have pads and you'll get some idea of how rough these kids play rugby. People were slammed on the ground, thrown to the ground, balls ripped from their hands with little care for physical damage – it was quite a sight and sound experience. The best part about the whole day is that it made me feel like I was back at camp – which is close to starting up in a few weeks. I had a video camera in hand, was walking in the hot sun and was moving between various sports played by kids – it was perfect! The netball wasn't quite as intense as the rugby, but it was still interesting to watch. For the girls netball, Aana house (which I incorrectly named Vaana before) won but I don't know who won for the girls. So it was kind of a relaxing day of just getting out of the classroom and seeing the kids do something they really love (because being in the classroom with the students, I've never seen them as energetic as they were doing Feast Day games). It also goes to show that no matter where I go – I can't help but have some kind of video camera in hand.

For the night activities, I had a cooking lesson with Sarah and Leah (Group 74 volunteers) and while one of the reasons they came over was to help me learn how to cook a few more meals, they also wanted to bake cookies (I'm not a baker yet, so I was more then happy to be offered free cookies). We made Mac & Cheese with Meat (I needed some guidance with meat after the great Chili experiment) and it turned out really well. I have a stove that runs on gas, so the funniest part of the night came when my tank finally ran out of gas (after about 5 months of use) but we were right in the middle of cooking when it went out. So I had to go down to my local faleoloa (store) and see if they had any tanks – they did not. Fortunately I go to this store a lot (and one of her son's goes to my school) and once I conveyed to her that I really needed a tank she offered to drive me down MoaMoa Road (the road that leads directly to my house) in search of a propane tank. After going to about 6 different faleoloa's we finally found one that sold tanks – if I had walked it would have taken about 2 hours for me to walk to this store and then walk back – so just another example of Samoan generosity. So despite the 30 min intermission, all the food turned out okay in the end and everyone went home full and happy.

So while I have no idea why they call this a 'Feast Day', it was truly a feast of food at my house and it gave me my favorite meal for the next few days: leftovers!