Ahhh, there's nothing like getting away for a little bit on a tropical
island. And when you live in a tropical island 24/7, there's nothing
like getting away from your site for a bit to just relax and not have
to worry about anything. That's exactly what we did this week – got
away to some beach fales on the other side of the island and just
relaxed from our first 7-8 months of Peace Corps life.
This past week was our Early Service Conference/High Intensity
Language Training at Boomerang Creek Beach Fales in Saleapaga.
Basically it's an opportunity for us (Group 75) to refresh a few of
our language skills and talk about how things are going at our various
sites. Unfortunately, not all of our group was able to attend the
conference this week – only Bob, Josh, Mari, Julya, Dianne, Candice,
Holly and myself (with Andrew dropping in for two days) were able to
attend, but it was still a fun time. The first three days (Monday –
Wednesday) were the HILT portion in which we got to spend a lot of
time with the trainers again and that was a lot of fun. Even though we
see them in the office a lot, this was the first time we actually got
to spend a lot of time with them outside of training. Since we know
them really well and they know us really well it was a very relaxed
language learning atmosphere – we could choose which topics we wanted
to cover or if we just wanted to sit on the beach and relax we could
do that as well. So that was a nice reminder of how far we have come
from training. Then on Thursday and the first half of Friday, it was
the ESC portion in which we covered some administrative, security and
medical stuff. The best part about this portion was the fact that they
basically just left us alone out there at the beach fales and we truly
had time to just relax and enjoy where we were. During training, the
trainers were basically always there for us – kind of like our parents
so when you don't have them around and yet you're at a Peace Corps
conference, you kind of feel like an adult – like they trust you now
to take care of yourself. So that was refreshing.
One of the cool things about the fales we stayed at was the owner,
Steve. Bob, Josh and myself got to talk to Steve a lot and he's a
really nice, down to earth guy. He really went out of his way to make
us feel comfortable and he was a pleasure to talk to and said that we
were a very relaxed group – not taking ourselves too seriously, but
enjoying the time that we have here. That was a nice compliment. The
food was great (especially since I didn't have to cook anything for an
entire week – that's always a plus in my book!) and on the final
night, they even had a fiafia for us. The amazing part of the fiafia
was the fact that they had a 12 year old girl do siva afi (fire dance)
which was very impressive (the girl is one of Steve's daughters). All
around it was just a very relaxing, calming atmosphere – exactly what
you need after going through the most disorienting 8 months of your
life. It was also a good time to just talk to other people in the
group about our problems, while we are a pretty tight knit group since
we're always so busy we rarely have time to just sit down and hash
things out – so that was another side perk to having this week of
bonding.
But now, it's done – but I still have one more week of holiday to go.
So next week (hopefully) I'll be biking Savaii with a few other
volunteers – I'm a traveling man!
BTW, at the beginning of the week I experienced my first ban: Samoa
has banned "The Da Vinci Code" from being played in theaters or being
available for rent from the movie stores. That just made me miss home
so much more! But on a positive note, when I got back from my
conference, I had a package in my mailbox and inside was a Chicago
Bulls playoff t-shirt from my grandfather. Since I've been here all 3
of Chicago's major teams (Cubs are cursed forever and the Blackhawks
don't count) have done exceptionally well – I hope that doesn't mean I
have to stay here in order for them to win. I don't think my family
and friends would like that at all. L8r!
No comments:
Post a Comment