It’s a Celebration (Written 11/25/07)

Note: This is a long blog post – Viewer Discretion is advised.

This has been a crazy busy week with so many events in my life wrapping up. Of course there was the farewell ceremony on Wednesday, so let's catch up on the days after that.

Thursday was a fairly plain day. Dave (Group 77) came up to the school for a more in-depth tour of the computer lab and equipment. He will be coming to Chanel next year as the Computer Studies teacher and I really feel that he can take this program to the next level. While I focused on hardware expansion and the development of the year 12 curriculum, he will be focused on improving the curriculum for the Year 9, 10 and 11 students. We call those classes "Junior classes" and they are not as rigid as the "Senior classes" which are Years 12 and 13. Hopefully during that time, Pio (the new principal) will hire a counterpart that Dave can train next year. Chanel has to hire about 2-3 more teachers (we lost a lot this year) for next year so it might happen. Thursday was also the day when a lot of classes had their class party/picnics. There were only a few classes that held their party at the school – one of them was Year 12.2 which is Pio's current class. As I was showing Dave around the school, Pio invited us to come back and have lunch with his class later on, which we agreed to. After that invite, I showed Dave the upstairs area of the Marist community and that's when I got a Thanksgiving Day call from my Dad. It's always a great treat to hear the voice of family on an American holiday – especially on my last one in Samoa. So we chatted for about 30 minutes (with various other family members saying hello throughout the conversation) and when we (Dave and I) went back downstairs we realized that we were late for our lunch with the Year 12.2 students. They had joined two long tables together and it really looked like they were having a traditional thanksgiving dinner (except it was barbeque and sausages instead of turkey and stuffing). It took me by surprise because it was a Thanksgiving type meal on thanksgiving but Pio said it was just a coincidence. So we sat down, had some food and ice cream and then Dave headed back to town while I went and took a nap – this school year has made me very tired.

Friday was the school prizegiving which is like a high school graduation – without the fancy robes. The prizegiving was held in the FaleSamoa (my front porch) and it was the largest gathering of parents I have seen at Chanel this year (for PTA meetings and stuff like that, we usually rent a hall in town). As always, it was a great time of just seeing the students attain the awards that they have worked so hard for over the past year. The most important award the school offers at prizegiving is called 'Dux' (sounds like 'Ducks') which is kind of the valedictorian of the Year 13/Graduating Class. The Dux for this year was a girl named Denise Simeona, who was one of my Year 13 Computer Students. She's a very bright and joyful girl and I watched NFL football with her dad last year (before I knew he was Denise's father). I am very happy for her – she takes 6 subjects while most of the other year 13 take 5, so she worked extremely hard to get that award. The hardest part of the prizegiving was having to say goodbye to my Year 13 students. These are the students that I have spent my 2 years with and I care deeply about them. But as the old saying goes – you learn something new everyday. I found out that one of my brightest students, Agnes, is actually an American citizen. She was born in American Samoa and has been living in Samoa since she was 5 years old – I found this out when I asked her what she would be doing next year and she said she couldn't get a scholarship to go to the National University of Samoa (NUS) because she wasn't a Samoan citizen. Seriously, that one took me by surprise and I told her 'I knew there was a reason I liked her personality from the moment I met her'. When I come back to Samoa she will be high on the list of people to track down. After the prizegiving, it was time for the end of the year staff party which was held at the Chanel Old Students Association house located right down the street from the school. The food was curry, rice, chicken and something I can't easily name (after living here for 2 years, you just eat anything that doesn't move). It was fun time of just eating and talking – especially for the four of us leaving. Once all the staff had finally arrived, the staff presented monetary gifts to myself, Kevin, Sione, and Mika as a show of their appreciation for us. Once the gift offering was done, each of the four of us had the opportunity to say a little speech to the staff. I was the last one to speak and I just thanked for the staff for being such a great help to me during my first few months in Samoa and always being willing to help me understand how the school system worked in Samoa. I also told them the story about how I had the choice of going to St. Joseph or to Chanel College when I first arrived in Samoa, and I chose Chanel College – and I have loved working here. That killed! But it's true – there have been rough patches just like any job, but I am extremely happy that I made the choice to spend 2 years at Chanel College. I really feel like I made a difference in the life of the school and in the lives of the students I taught. During the staff dinner, I also learned something new – apparently the Prime Minister of Samoa comes from my training village – Falevao. One of the staff members told me that he holds a Matai title from that village…in my two years here, this was the first time I was hearing this shocking news. Even at the end of my time here, I'm learning new things about Samoa all the time.  After the staff dinner, I went out with Kevin to meet with a group of ex-pats who usually have dinners together on Friday night. This would be Kevin's last time going to this dinner so I thought I would join in on the fun. While at the dinner I ran into Michael and John (Group 79) who might become a part of this ex-pat group once they swear in as volunteers. They were going back to the village on Saturday afternoon and just by talking to them you could see that the honeymoon period is over and they're ready to get out of training – ahhh, I remember that feeling well 2 years ago.

While we were having dinner, I spotted in the distance of the restaurant Kirstin, Charlotte, Brianna and Karissa; 4 girls who all attend Peace Chapel and were apparently having a girls night out or something like that. I didn't join them because I didn't want to leave the group I was with, but once we were all done eating (both my group and the 4 girls) the girls invited me to go on a little road trip with them across the island. It's been a while since I went to the south side of the island – and it was like 9pm at night so I had time to kill – I joined their road trip. We went over to Maninoa which is the beach resort where Tim – another Peace Chapel member – lives and works. It wasn't until we pulled up to the resort that I asked the girls if Tim knew they were coming…he didn't. So when we found Tim he was sound asleep and we woke him up – good thing Tim is a good natured person, otherwise it could have been like waking a sleeping giant. It was a beautiful full moon out and we just sat there for like an hour or so just talking and laughing. Once we were done there, we hopped back into the car and headed back to Apia – thank goodness for the Cross Island road which makes it so much easier to travel around this island. I could not imagine the amount of effort it took to get to the south side of the island before the cross island road was built – you had to travel around the island to get to the south side which could easily take like 1.5 – 2 hours, but with the cross island road it's just a 30-45 minute trip. Amazing.

And then we get to Saturday. This was a busy day. It all started on Friday when I got a text from Eugene telling me that he might have to close the store for the day because of a big party his friends were throwing for him and his family (a farewell party before they head off to Tanzania). He tried to get in contact with Dave (Group 77 – the same Dave who will take over for me at Chanel) on Friday to see if he would be willing to watch the shop for a few hours during the morning/afternoon. When I woke up on Saturday morning around 7am, I text Eugene to find out if Dave accepted the offer. He had not been able to get in contact with Dave, so I made a call to Dave and got everything all worked out. Dave agreed to watch the shop from about 9am to 2pm which was pretty nice of him. So Eugene came up to Chanel to pick me up because Dave was staying at Bryan's house and I needed to tell him how to get there. We picked Dave up at Bryan's house and then came back to the shop and opened at around 8:45am – about 5 minutes later we had our first customer – so ClickNet is definitely gaining a good reputation around here. I gave Dave a tour of all the various aspects of the business (this week I was Dave's personal tour guide. We've come to the conclusion that Dave will be literally stepping into my shoes once I leave. They are pretty comfortable shoes folks.) Now you may be asking yourself 'Marques, you usually watch the shop for Eugene, why couldn't you do it?' Well that leads me to the second event that occurred on Saturday.

For the past 2 years, I have been attending a Bible College called Every Nation Leadership Institute (ENLI). It is a bible college/leadership development course run out of an Every Nation church in Auckland, New Zealand. This was the church I went to when I was in New Zealand, I spent my new years with that congregation. During these 2 years, I have been attaining a greater depth of knowledge about the character of God, the Bible, and what it means to really live a Christian lifestyle. When I started this program last year (my first year in Samoa), I was very tempted to quit because it took a lot of effort and I thought I could be doing something better with my time and money while in Samoa. But then I remembered, before I came to Samoa – I found out that this was a Christian nation – I prayed that God would use this 2 year opportunity as a time for me to grow closer to Him and gain a better understanding of Him and His Word. This was before I knew about Peace Chapel or ENLI; and when I arrived in Samoa was when ENLI started and it was just the right amount of time for me to do it. I didn't talk about it in my blog because I wanted to complete the course before really talking about it so that I could give an accurate presentation for it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that doing ENLI was the best thing I could have done for my own spiritual growth and I was amazed at how the character of God has just been planted deeper into my spirit over these past two years. I didn't realize how much ENLI had changed me until I was sitting at ClickNet and Eugene and I were talking. On my desktop I had a calendar which was counting down to the ENLI graduation. Eugene saw it and began asking questions about what ENLI was, so I told him it was a bible college I had been attending for the past 2 years. He then began asking very thought provoking biblical questions and I was able to respond back with the Word of God and the tools that I had acquired through ENLI. The strange thing about it was the fact that my answers were just flowing – like God was just guiding my words – there was never doubt or hesitation in my responses because I knew I was speaking from a sound biblical foundation now. 2 years ago I would not have been able to say that. While the spirit of God did dwell in me, it wasn't being enriched in the manner it needed to be – this course helped me understand how to allow God to enrich my soul and make me a better Christian. While I was talking to Eugene I didn't get angry or get flustered, which might have happened 2 years ago and it was at that moment that I realized how much God has changed me through ENLI. This comes into play later, so keep reading.

Back to Saturday. Saturday was the graduation for ENLI Years 1 and 2 (I was in Year 2) which meant that I couldn't watch the shop because I was had to go and help setup the church for the ceremony later on that night. So I stayed at the shop until about 10am and then headed over to the church to set it up – fortunately there were a lot of people there so it didn't take to long to do. Once everything was in place, I headed back to the shop to help Dave until the end of the day just in case there were any hiccups. Once I got back, that's when I realized that even though this is a small internet café it really requires 2 people to run it properly – especially now that the place has gained a good/quality reputation. So I hung out with Dave until about 2pm which is when we closed the shop and I headed home for a quick shower, shave, get nice clothes before heading back down to the church.

For the ceremony we were allowed 5 formal invitations (although we could invite as many people as we wanted). 3 of my invitations went to Paul, Vivi and Jewell (who are my Samoan family; Jewell specifically asked me to give her an invitation at the beginning of the year). The other 2 went to Eugene and Jackie – those invitations were a direct result of the conversation I had with Eugene regarding the Bible. The amazing thing is – he accepted it. I know he did it mainly because he wanted to support me and my accomplishment, but I thought it was extremely cool that he accepted. It was only the 3^rd time in a year that Eugene stepped foot in Peace Chapel, so it was a big deal to me. The ceremony started at 7:30pm and the church hall was packed. The Year 1 students were dressed in a white top and black bottoms, while the Year 2 students wore any sort of nice clothes and a blue graduation gown (we had made for this special occasion. I've graduated so much and worn so many gowns like this one that it almost feels like a second skin now). There were 28 students total for Year 1 and 2. The numbers start off extremely high in both years, but we've lost a lot of people over the course of time but the two people I'm most proud about are Sara and Teuila: we started this course together and we finished together. It's even more impressive for Teuila because she had to balance a family, an extremely demanding Peace Corps job and school work. So the ceremony started with the Year 1 students getting their certificates (of Christian Leadership) and special awards. This was followed by a video recap (made by Sara) of ENLI (years 1 and 2) over the past few months. After the video, the Year 2 students (including Sara, Teuila and I) got their certificates (of Christian Ministry) and Special Awards. Now as part of Samoan tradition at events such as this (in schools, this is called a Prizegiving, not graduation) the person receiving an award is given a necklace made of various things: sometimes it can be made of leaves, money, candy or whatever items are easily taped together and made into a necklace. One of the Year 2 students, Ruta, got overloaded with these necklaces (called an 'Ula'/'Ooh La'). She's not a very tall lady but the necklaces were literally towering over the back of her head – it was a miracle that she was able to walk with so much weight on her shoulders. When I received my certificate I got hugs from the Pati and Phillips family which was awesome – my Samoan families were very proud of me and that felt good. It felt even better when Eugene came up to me (in front of the church) and gave me a hug of congratulations – that really meant a lot to me. After we received the certificates, as I said – it came time for the special awards. There are 3 special awards in ENLI(3 a piece for Year 1 and 2): Leadership, Discipleship and Academic – Academic is the only award we (students) have control over, the other 2 are chosen by the ENLI administration (which consists of Lorna – whose wedding I am staying for – and Fila – who won 2 medals in the SPG a few months back). Last year, we only had 2 awards: Leadership and Academic which were won by Teuila and Tim, respectively. I came in second place to Tim last year in the academic award. Now Tim's a nice guy and I like him, but I hate coming in second place. So it was at last year's graduation that I was bound and determined to get the Academic award in Year 2. And if you know me, once I put my mind to something I'm like an unstoppable juggernaut. So all throughout Year 2, my main focus has been on getting the knowledge and the grades to get the academic award. When it came down to Saturday, it was a tight race between Sara, Teuila and myself for the academic award. In the end, though, I got the award by 2 points. So the graduation had an even bigger meaning for me because I got what I set my mind for. For Year 2, Teuila got the leadership award and Tim got the Discipleship award. Once the special awards were given, I had the opportunity to give my testimony about the impact ENLI has had on my life – the story I gave is very similar to my previous statements in this blog entry. I even told the story about my conversation with Eugene about the bible (but left out his name) and that got a good laugh out of him.

After the ceremony, it was time of fellowship and eating a lot of food. Oh yeah, in addition to Eugene attending the ceremony, Candice came as well and that was great. We got a picture of all of us together wearing our amazing blue. It was a fun night but I'm happy to finally be done with yet another 2 years of school. While I do not know what the future holds for me when I get back to the states, I really hope it doesn't involve another 2 years of class work – someday I want to know what it feels like to not have homework due. That should be a nice feeling.

On Sunday (today), I went to church and Pastor Todd (a pastor from the Every Nation Church in Auckland) was preaching the message for today. The regular pastor, Pastor Samoa, was in New Zealand taking care of church matters. After the service, I went over to Uaea's house – which is where Todd is staying – for To'onai (Samoan brunch). It was a guys brunch type deal – we had about 5 guys from the church over just to hang out and talk as only guys can talk. The funniest part came when it was time to eat brunch and Todd was doing something else away from the table, but all the Samoans were standing up – no one said a word. I was like 'What's going on?' because with Todd there I kind of slipped back into a Western mindset but then it hit me, in the Samoan culture the most important person at the table is the first one to dig into the food. In this situation, that important person was Todd – but Todd didn't realize this was happening. So I had to tell him that he has to get his food first before everyone else. He tried to be humble and tell everyone else to go ahead – but that doesn't work in Samoa, so he ate first. The food was great and there was a lot of it – as there tends to be at To'onai's. After the brunch, we sat and watched the movie 'Luther' which is about Martin Luther and the Protestant reformation. This was my first time seeing it in about 3 years, but it took on an even deeper meaning to me after going through ENLI. Once the movie was done, it was time to head home and bring this amazingly long and complicated week to a close.

Man, a lot has happened just in the past 4 days – it's amazing. While this week will be better in terms of not having to run around all crazy like, it will be difficult in that I have to start saying goodbye to members of the Marist Community this week. Mika left for New Zealand today so that he could pick up his Visa for the states (he's going to spend the holidays in California with his brother before heading to Fiji for further studies). Sione will be leaving on Tuesday to return to Tonga for a holiday before heading to the Solomon Islands for his next missionary assignment. Kevin will be leaving next Saturday (Dec 1) for a holiday in New Zealand and after that heading to Fiji for his next school assignment. So it's sad to think that by this time next week, the 3 men that I have been such a big part of my time here at the school will be gone. The times – they are a changin'. But that's why it's a celebration – to celebrate the joy (and hardship) that have occurred over the past 2 years. The Peace Corps slogan goes 'This is the hardest job you'll ever love' which is not true. What it should say 'This will be the hardest and most rewarding experience you'll ever love' because during my time here, the job has been secondary to the personal impact I have had here. That will last and that's worth celebrating!