Principal Return (Written 5/4/06)

Before I tell you about the rest of the day yesterday, just so
everyone knows Peace Corps got in touch with all the volunteers and
everyone is fine. If you were unable to get in contact with your PC
Samoa volunteer, your heart can now go back into your chest.

Before school was cancelled yesterday, we were scheduled to have a
former principal of Chanel come visit the students and then have a
nice little lunch with him (little in Samoan equaling a feast in
America). With school being cancelled, I thought the meeting would be
cancelled until Thursday but because people had already prepared food
and created umu's the teachers decided to go ahead with the welcome
meal. So at 11am we welcomed Father Falani Terry back to Chanel
College. Apparently this was his first time back in Samoa in 8 years
and he was quite impressed by all the changes that have taken place at
Chanel in that amount of time. We hung out on the front porch of the
Marist priests house and just chatted with the former principal – he
was the principal here with a lot of the current staff members (even
marrying two of them to each other) so you can see what a big deal it
was that he was returning to have a look over the place. While all the
teachers could not be there (once school's cancelled, it's hard to get
a hold of some people because they might not have phones at their
houses) it was also a good time of just teacher bonding simply because
once school ends we usually go our separate ways until the next day of
school. The food was good and the joking about the incoming Tsunami
was relaxing – everyone had a different story about it. Some people
did not feel it at all, while others started praying because it lasted
for so long (supposedly the tremor last about 3 minutes) – so everyone
had a good laugh over the experience. BTW, since the quake took place
near Tonga if a tsunami were to hit Samoa it would have done so about
an hour after the initial tremor so by the time school was to take
place Samoa was out of the danger zone – but better safe then sorry.
I'm not complaining, another unexpected free day! One person did bring
up the fact that I've had quite an experience since coming to Chanel:
my first night there was a black out, then we had a week of flooding
and now an earthquake – let's hope this is the end of my 'interesting'
times up on Mount Doom. Anyway, it was nice to talk to the teachers
and Father Falani and get a glimpse of what Chanel was like before my
time. L8r.