The Last Day (Written 12/7/05)

Today was officially the last day of language for our training because tomorrow we take on the Language Proficiency Interview. So for this final day, we actually did a min-written exam to see how far we have come in our 9 weeks of training. The first part was pretty easy because it dealt with vocabulary and I have picked up the vocabulary pretty easy – as I like to say I know what they're saying to me, I just don't know how to respond. So of course the rest of the test dealt with sentence construction and for the first sentence construction part I did pretty good but it was all down hill when it came to sentence constructions we hadn't gone over in class – which made me realize that right at the point where I got a decent handle on Samoan sentence creation it was time to review for the LPI and cover new material through handouts instead of a full class. We've been told that we're the shortest pre-service training ever and now I'm wishing we at least had another week to really go in-depth on sentence construction – but at the same time I think we're all ready to leave this village. After we did the test, we went over the answers and it was quite evident who the advance people of the group are and who the intermediates are and for the intermediates we kinda checked out once the questions referred to things we hadn't covered in class. So while a good exercise, all it did was help those who are already good at the language. This exercise also reminded me that it's hard for me to think in the Samoan structure which emphasizes the verb over the subject – so a sentence like "We will go to the meeting on Saturday" reads in Samoan "Go we to the meeting on the Saturday" and that's an easy example. My brain has thought one way for 24 years – it'll take more than 9 weeks to change it. Anyway, that took up all the morning. Oh yeah, also in the morning a lot of mail was delivered (I got none L) and Ryan got Star Wars Episode 3 and Batman Begins. So after we got back from lunch the trainers said we were done with language because we looked so tired (we were, you have no idea how hot this village is) so after doing a little FiaFia practice for Friday we had the rest of the day off and watched Star Wars until we had to go home. As we were watching the movie on our projector screen of course kids came to see it but I started to wonder if any of these kids have ever gone to Apia to watch a movie on the big screen? Even in a country so small, there might be some people who still have never set foot in the "local" movie theater. Crazy. So later on tonight we will watch what might be our last movie in the village – Batman Begins. And if that's the last movie we watch in the village I'll be happy. This was my second time watching it and it reminded me of my first time seeing it at the theater this past summer – and that memory definitely brought a smile to my face. After watching SW earlier I asked Isaia if he understood what the movie was about and he said no – he also watched Batman Begins with us and something tells me he didn't understand this one as well. But at least he knew who Batman was – so that brought hope to me. And even on the second viewing, Batman Begins is a great movie. It's ironic I saw both Star Wars and Batman Begins for the first time during the summer in the northern hemisphere, then I saw both again in the summer of the southern hemisphere – not to many people can pull that feat off!

One thing I learned today that I forgot about is the Rock's village in Samoa – Saleilua.

 

The sign to the Rock's village

 

That's the village Diane and I had to walk through during our drop off. I knew one day I would get to that village but I never thought it would be during training and I thought I would remember. Oh well, I blame the heat. So I've visited both islands and been to the Rock's village – once I go to Falelupa (the last place the sun sets) I'll be able to leave Samoa a satisfied man.

And the most intriguing thing we learned today is that if all 14 of us swear-in next Wednesday we will be the first group in 5 years (10 groups) to have everyone who was at staging become actual volunteers. At this point (with only 2 days left in the village) no one should want to go home – hopefully we'll finish this part of the race together as a team. The LPI awaits!