For the past 4 days I was being the host for two male volunteers from Group 77, Larry and Craig. They were two older guys, so it was definitely going to be an interesting experience seeing how we all clicked together. All 3 of us probably came into this situation with different preconceptions – since I don't drink or smoke (which I told the group during my visit to see them) I'm sure when they heard they were staying with Marques, they were like 'Oh boy, we're just going to sit around and read the Bible all day and have no fun'. Oh contraire!
They arrived on Tuesday morning, right when school started so I let them drop their bags off in my house and we went straight to work – I just wanted them to go into the situation as fast as I could. It's more interesting that way. Anyway, I took them on a tour of the three computer labs and we had a chance to just chat and get to know each other a little better. I was free for my first two periods of the day on Tuesday, so they just bombarded me with questions about how I deal with certain situations or what I thought on certain subjects. And as I was talking, I was just thinking to myself 'Wow, I've only been here a year and here are two people just raking my brain for as much information as they could get – it was the same position I was in a year ago'. It's definitely a different view from the other side of the glass window. So after we chatted and they checked out my network setup – I had my first class of the day. I wasn't so mean that I just threw them out in front of the students without so much as a how do you do, but they did introduce themselves (it was a Year 12 class) to the students and any new faces are amazingly interesting to students. So they got to see how I conduct a class and how I relate to the kids. After that class was done, I threw them to the wolves – to my two year 13 classes. It was fun watching them talk about different computer concepts but at the same time realizing that they need to not speak over the kids heads – it's a skill that's hard to learn but important to know, especially for here. During both classes, I stayed in the room to help if needed and keep the students under control – kind of like a real teacher. Weird – so weird. So they conducted the two year 13 classes and I conducted the two year 12 classes. Now some people may say 'Marques, you were so lazy having those two trainees teach class for you' and my reasoning was that this was the only time they would have an opportunity to try out their teaching style and mannerisms in a real school setting with real students. You can't replicate that kind of occasion – also I was there to guide them if they were a little bit lost or didn't know what the kids actually knew. The next time they're in a real setting like this, they'll be the one in charge with no backup. After school, we went up to the Father's house and had a massive lunch – it was probably the largest lunch I have had during my time at Chanel. It was amazing and Craig/Larry were highly impressed. As we were eating, Father Kevin really seemed to get along well with Larry and Craig which was a great benefit for me and the trainees. We were all just bursting with food by the time we were done, but it was time to be on the move again. Kevin gave us a ride into town where I had to do a little shopping in order to have breakfast for them in the mornings. While we were shopping it dawned on me to let them know which stores tend to have certain items which they may want to buy regularly, such as Chan Mow is the only place in the downtown area where I have consistently found cheese. Larry was looking for Soy Milk and Craig wanted to know where he could get some raisins, which were both available at Malosi's grocery store – so while it wasn't meant to be one, it turned into a little grocery field trip. After the grocery shopping, we went to Siva Afi practice so they could have some idea of what I do after the school bell has rung. We did that for about an hour and then headed to the fruit market to catch the Moamoa bus home. It was during our bus trip home that it was revealed to me that this was their first actual bus trip in Samoa – I remember my first bus trip being early in my service, so it was quite a shock to me. So I had to remind them how the bus payment system works and let them know that the buses are kind of small for bigger people. We got home at about 6:30pm, did a little showering and headed over to the Father's house again for dinner. We were all still a little bit stuff from our lunch so we didn't eat much – but the dinner was fantastic as well. So on their first day they had a good day of teaching and two good meals – but that wasn't all. Since they're older guys, I was a little bit worried about having them sleep on my floor in my house (since I don't have extra beds) but Kevin offered to let them sleep in the guest rooms up at the Father's house – which meant they each had their own room and a hot shower to go to, something they hadn't experienced in country since they arrived. It was quite a treat and I was so thankful that Kevin offered to do that. So we said our good nights and that was the end of the first day.
The second day was full of teaching, but this time the kids got to ask Craig and Larry different questions about computers. While they should have been studying for their exams I realized that it was a special treat to have these two guest (who combined have over 40 years of computer knowledge in them) so it was better for them to learn something new on the last day and really get to interact with the trainees. It was also a chance for the trainees to really have control of the class and see how they would work in a classroom setting – no notes to go off of, just the knowledge in your head. It was a lot of fun for the students, you could see the renewed energy in their eyes which I couldn't get because they had started to tune me out towards the end. The second day was also the last day of class, which meant I gave the prizes to the winners of the quiz game from last week – amazingly enough, not a lot of students showed up so I still have a lot of pictures left, so we'll see if people come to claim them after the holiday. On the second day (which was Wednesday) I usually go to a bible study at night time, which neither Craig nor Larry wanted t go. So it became a day of just resting and enjoying the scenery, which was nice. During the training period, you don't have a lot of down time so it's nice to catch a bit here and there. So I didn't abandon them – I just let them recover from the first day. One both the first and second day, they also did a little bit more then just teach – I'm not above asking for help, so I asked them for help on fixing a Compaq desktop that has mysteriously stopped working (the keyboard/mouse ports don't work anymore). We were unable to get the thing to work which only solidified my resolve to never again buy a compaq/hp product – they're just horrible machines. But I digress…the second thing I asked for their help on was fixing a virus problem I had on the office computer. Apparently people have just been sticking in USB sticks and floppy disks that had viruses on them and it was just massively slowing down the computer. Unfortunately, the office computer is not connected to the internet so there was no way to directly download virus updates to it. But by talking with Craig/Larry, I was able to look online and find that you can download the virus definition separately for almost all anti-virus programs, this was an amazing help to me and means that I'll be able to install an anti-virus program on almost all my computers and still keep them updated. So I eventually fixed the virus problem on the office computer, but while Craig was trying to help me the virus jumped to his computer – no good deed goes unpunished apparently.
But onto happier times. Thursday was the end of the year mass at the big catholic cathedral in town, so Craig/Larry got to see a school function as part of their stay. We went and had a good time – took a bunch of photos of the service and the Year 13 students who will begin taking their national tests on Monday. We got done with the service at about 11am and came back home to rest for a bit. I had to do some things with the office computer (related to the virus) and was going in town to do something the trainees didn't want to do, so I asked Kevin if he could take them on a tour of the island. This was the result of him getting along so well with Craig/Larry that it wasn't a problem to ask him to do this – and he graciously did. He took them to Virgin Cove for the day which was just awesome and they had an absolute blast just going there. So while I couldn't go because of prior commitments, I made sure they were taken care of. That's just how I roll.
So on Friday (today), it was a national holiday (Arbor Day) and the last day of the volunteer visit. I took Craig and Larry to see the waterfall behind my house – it's in a forest area, so it was kind of appropriate to do it on Arbor Day. Didn't take to long to do since we didn't swim in it, but it was still a special item in my area. The rest of the day was spent getting ready for them to go, saying goodbye to some of the people they met here and trying to get the virus off Craig's laptop. We accomplished 2 of the 3 (stupid virus!) Amazingly enough, Norton and AVG antivirus caught this virus BUT Computer Associates (which is on Craig's laptop) did not catch it….so Norton may charge an arm and a leg, but at least they get the job done. Craig will be stationed over on Savai'i close to the area where Josh use to live and Larry will be in Faleula which is about a 30 min drive from town – so he'll be relatively close and wants to stay in touch with the school, which would be awesome. Kevin liked him and I could use all the help I can get.
Overall, I would say it was a very good visit. I was a little nervous at first, worried I wouldn't be able to be a great host and make sure they had a great time but it all worked out perfectly. Hopefully I exceeded their expectations on what their visit would be like (since I'm not a party type, I probably blew away their expectations) and they definitely helped give me some new ideas on how to do things around the lab. After a year of doing the same thing with no form of imaginative stimulation around you, you can get sort of bogged down in the mundane things. Most importantly, it gave me an opportunity to get to know 2 future volunteers who I may not have gotten to know under normal circumstances ( i.e. passing in the office) – so it was definitely a give and take volunteer visit. Heck, they were treated so well here their fellow trainees may be a little bit jealous – might make them hate me. Ah well, 2 out of 14 ain't bad!
So now the countdown to the trip to New Zealand begins – school is out of the way and nothing but clear sailing from here on out! Woohoo! Another event took place this week, which I'll talk about in another blog post (remember to remind me about it) that took Samoa by storm and I haven't seen anything like it in a year. Stay tuned…..
No comments:
Post a Comment