On Wednesday, Dave (Group 77) – the Peace Corps volunteer who will be replacing me – moved his stuff into my house. Amazingly enough, he didn't have a lot of items to move in (and I'm finding that I have way to much) so it was a pretty quick move in process. Peace Corps brought the truck to help Dave move in, so I decided I would use the truck to help me move some items out of my house. Specifically, the bottles that I have collected during my two year period in Samoa. These bottles mainly come from the Fiafia's that we have twice a year and I have been holding onto them until the end because I was like 'I know these things will help pay for my flight somehow'. So we loaded the bottles into the Peace Corps truck and headed down the place where you turn in the bottles. Dave gave me the lowdown on how the bottle refund process worked and in the end I got about 50 tala from the deal. Now what part of my flight did that pay for? It paid my departure tax – which is 40 tala (and yes, you have to PAY to LEAVE the country – amazing really). After we were done with the recycling, I headed back to the office for what I thought would be a quick second.
When I arrived, I dropped off a few items and was just about to head out the door when Jessica (Group 76) asked me to help her with a computer problem. The problem dealt with trying to organize music on her computer using Windows Media Player (which is almost impossible to do). After a little bit of convincing, I got her to put on Itunes (which is a better music organizer) and then we were trying to get all of her music into Itunes – it sounds like a pretty easy problem to deal with, but we only scratched the surface and she made an appointment to see me on Friday. So with one computer problem solved, I headed off to solve another problem which involved a computer.
Vivienne is going to start a crafts business sometime in the future (hopefully next year) called 'Pacific Jewell'. She wanted me to come in and help her design her logo and business card. I thought that this would be a fairly easy process, but as with anything regarding computers it was a lot harder once we got into the details of the project. Using Adobe Photoshop (which I'm decent with) we came up with a basic design for the background of her card and what her text would be, but the logo was a bit of a pain. She wanted the logo to be slightly see through so you could put it on any background. This was something I did not know how to do in Adobe Photoshop, so I was constantly going on the internet to find solutions to what I was trying to do. It was impressive to Viv because it was the first time she had seen someone run into a problem and just go online to solve it immediately (ahhh, how I love the knowledge base on the internet). So we spent a good 1.5 hours just working on getting the logo right and ended up having to postpone dealing with it until Friday because I was just getting frustrated not knowing how to do what she wanted. After working on the business stuff, we had our last homegroup of the year (and my last home group meeting at the Phillips house) which was a sad occasion – the end just keeps getting closer and closer.
Thursday was a partial day of rest. Instead of running into town during the afternoon, I decided that I needed to stay home and work on my Description of Service (DOS). The DOS is the official record Peace Corps will keep about what a volunteer did while serving in a country. It's an important document because while Country Directors will change over time, your DOS remains the same and very accurate of your accomplishments in country. Basically, it's you writing a recommendation about yourself – or it's like creating a Peace Corps-centric resume. At best, it should cover everything I have done from when I arrived in country to when I leave the country – quite a long period and a lot of jobs. I was quite impressed when I wrote down all the things I have done while serving in country…you'd be amazed at what you can get accomplished in a third world country in only 2 years. So I got that done by the afternoon and sent it to Kim (our country director/big boss) for review. Later on Thursday night, I made my way to the Hotel Kitano for a staff dinner for Fa'atuatua College. This would be the first time that I met the entire staff (I've met the principal and the secretary of the school before) so I was kind of nervous when I arrived. The Principal, Selepa, introduced me to the staff and one of the staff members said 'Wow, I didn't even know we had a computer teacher.' That's how in the shadows I was working this year. It was Fiafia night at Hotel Kitano (the same Fiafia night I came to with my mother in May) so it was an all you can eat buffet – free of charge (I could get use to working for Peace Chapel). The meal was terrific, just like last time, but the FiaFia portion of the night was terrific. The first surprise I got was when they had a couple of boys come up onto the stage and perform the Siva Afi (Fire Dance) and I noticed that one of the boys is a student in Year 12 at Chanel College (Uitime). I did not know that he could fire dance – our kids have a lot of hidden talent they don't like to show very often. The second surprise of the night was when the MC called up two people to the stage – one was an American male and the other was a Chinese female. This Fiafia was even better then the one I came to in May – primarily because of the Chinese woman. Her English was not all that great, so the MC asked her what the number 1 was in Chinese, which is 'e'. He then asked what was the number 2 in Chinese, which is 'ah'. So to say 1-2, the Chinese woman said 'e' – 'ah' which in Samoan means fish. That just had the crowd rolling in laughter and overall it was just a great show. Afterwards, the principal said a few kind words to the staff and thanked me for bring computer studies to Fa'atuatua for the first time and giving them the information necessary to bring it to the school next year (instead of at someone's house). It has been a long year of pulling double duty as a teacher (oddly enough, I did extra computer studies after school during my first year as well – it seems I was destined to teach after school) but it was great having the chance to provide these kids with a course they could not get at school. Hopefully Fa'atuatua finds someone qualified to be a Computer teacher next year (they are not getting a Peace Corps Volunteer).
Then came Friday. The weather decided to really emphasize that this is the rainy season so I had to wait for the bus in the pouring rain. It's time like this when I really wish the buses were on a regular schedule that way I would not have to wait fruitlessly for them in the rain. After waiting about 30 minutes in the rain, the bus finally came and I was headed into town (which is when the rain stopped). I stopped in ClickNet for a bit and then headed to the Peace Corps office for my appointment with Jessica. I arrived there at about 11:30am and didn't leave until 1pm – I spent about 3 hours just providing this girl with technical support. I didn't mind at all but before she had told me she had been frustrated by these computer problems for months and I was the first person to really try and help her – and it definitely showed with the 3 hour marathon. Hopefully someone is willing to give her a helping hand with computer stuff after I'm gone. Heck, even up to the last minute folks are asking me for computer assistance – this place will fall apart without me, mark my words! Anyway, after helping Jessica with her computer problems I left the Office and headed for the Phillips house. Of course at this time the rain decided it needed to get to the ground faster and just came pouring down very hard. I made it to the Philips house, but was soaking wet. I put on a lavalava (i.e. sarong) and Vivi gave me a shirt to put on. This was the first time the kids (the Pati and Phillips) had ever seen me in a lavalava, so they had a few laughs at my expense. Again, I was there to help Vivi create her business card and gift card designs. Thankfully, between Wednesday and Friday I had time to work on her logo and got it the way that she wanted it which was a great relief. After the logo was done, then came the look of the text and that took forever – not as forever as the logo, but it took quite a bit of time. Thankfully at the end of this day we were done with both designs and I have officially helped yet another small business in Samoa – not bad for an old Peace Corps Volunteer like myself.
So the last few days have been dedicated to helping as many people as I can before I leave – it's at the end that everyone wants a piece of your time. While it seems I have been super busy these past few days, you want to know what the best part about leaving – it's getting all this free food and meals. For a person like me – who can't stand to cook – it's been a Godsend. I need to leave places more often!
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Peace Corps pays for your departure tax, so you have an extra $50 tala...
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