My First FiaFia (Written 10/15/05)

Well tonight we had our first FiaFia and it was a very interesting experience. The FiaFia is like a huge traditional welcome party in Samoa. There’s food, dancing and singing to be had by all – its kind of hard to describe (but I’ll try) so hopefully you’ll get a better understanding of this event through the pics that I post (eventually). This FiaFia was thrown by the PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) that are currently serving in Samoa – so while it was a huge undertaking, it was great because its like one of two times that they get to do this kind of shindig (one for the Oct Trainees and one for the June trainees). The festivities were a blast with the PCVs doing Samoan dances and songs for us that were specially tailored to the Peace Corps experience. The highlight of the night though was when we had a professional fire dancer come in and perform for us – it was amazing to say the least. He was twirling his fire stick(s) all over the place – never felt endangered, but it was definitely a sight to behold. Afterwards, we had a HUGE Samoan/American dinner prepared by the PCVs and Peace Corps Staff – it was overwhelming. There were hamburgers, spaghetti, octopus, sushi, pig, coconuts and more food than I can possibly list here. It was just a lot of food and from what I hear this is the type of overwhelming food showing we can expect from our host families when we go to our training village on Friday. Once the food was done and the staff left we had a chance to hang out with the current PCVs (Groups 71-74), including the group that we are about to replace (Group 71). It was a chance for us trainees to get a better understanding of what makes Samoa, ‘The lottery ticket of posts!’ according to some. We also got to talk to a lot of the volunteers about our fears about fitting in and understanding the language, but to know that they’ve gone through the same thing relatively close to when we have was comforting in that we were interacting with people who were in our same spot 4 months ago! That’s crazy to think about. It was also in a way like we had just started high school with us being the freshmen, still finding our way around – trying to see where we fit and what we can possibly expect from our time here. The crazy thing is, in about 6 months we (Group 75) are going to be doing the exact same thing for Group 76 – we’ll be sophomores! Also, this was a good time to see the wide variety of people that the Peace Corps attracts – we’re all different but at the same time we’re all alike in that none of us are really here for monetary gain and we all have a heart to serve others. We just know how to party when the times right!  Especially since FiaFia’s are mainly thrown for incoming Trainees and its about that only time in which a lot of volunteers (especially those from the island of Savaii – pronounced like ‘Hawaii’ just turn the ‘Haw’ to ‘Sav’) are able to party with each other. Great night, great times! L8r.