Village Voice (Written Oct 24 2005)

Today we got first hand experience on how fast word travels around a Samoan village. Today was Julya's birthday, but she couldn't tell her family that directly – because in the Samoan culture its very rude to forcibly give information about yourself, but if someone asks you that's fine. So last night (Sunday) we told Holly's father that today was Tala's (Julya) birthday. He told his daughter (who is my aunt) who then reconfirmed it with me. By morning of the next day (Monday) word had reached Tala's family because they asked her when her birthday was. Before we came to the village the PCTs chipped in to buy Tala 6 more hours of internet time at the cybercafe in Apia – we never knew how much she would need it after this village stay. So we had a little party for her while at school, but the surprise of the day came when Tala's father came to our school and invited us all to a birthday party for Tala (keep in mind that less than 24 hours before they didn't know it was her birthday). In Samoa though, its disrespectful to eat at someone else's house without asking permission from your aiga (family). So when I got home, I was going to ask my mom if I could go but she already knew about it and asked if I wanted to go. I was shocked by how fast this news wildfire had spread! So when I went to this party, all the other trainees were there and dressed in new clothing their families had given them for the occasion. It was also amazing because the pastor also came to the birthday party and gave a mini-sermon for the occasion. Afterwards we had ice cream and a fall meal – including new lavalavas as a gift. So we definitely found out that no news stays secret for long in this village. By the way they went all out for Tala you would have thought the prime minister was coming to town. I think today was good for Tala to wipe away some of the bad experiences from the first few days and temporarily replaced them with good memories. Luckily we'll be out of the village all day tomorrow – so it'll be a good chance to recharge and see what my future PC job may look like. I'll give more details on that later but my choices are down to teaching near Apia or teaching on Savaii – I'll know by Saturday. You'll know as soon as I write it down. L8r!