Sports Day 2007 (Written 6/15/07)

So yesterday (Thursday) was kind of a strange day for me because it was Thursday and I had no school that day. We had our inter-house athletics competition (featuring the 4 houses of Chanel College: Aana, Fata, Saga and Tuna) which we did last year but this year was special because we had the competition at Apia Park. Last year, Apia Park was under renovation for the South Pacific Games – so since it was available this year that meant that we would be able to do the full complement of athletic events (which in Samoa means track events). I woke up at about 7:20am and was considering getting a ride to the park from the Marist Fathers – they left at 7:30am though and I wasn't going to be rushing myself. So I decided to take my time and I took the bus into town instead. Instead of heading directly for Apia Park, though, I ran a few errands around town and got some things off the internet connection at the office. I didn't really head to Apia Park till about 11am. When I arrived, Father Kevin told me that they didn't really start the competition portion of the day until about 9:30am – so they hadn't been doing everything for long when I arrived there. Since I'm the guy that takes photos for the magazine (and subsequently for this blog as well) I tried to make sure I got a variety of events in my pictures – I was able to get hurdles, shot put, relays and a lot of different things I wasn't able to get at this same sports day last year when it took place at Chanel College. It was fun watching the kids compete, but the sun was definitely taking its toll on them and they didn't do enough training before hand to handle being in the sun for over 6 hours – so there were a lot of kids getting cramps and passing out on the track. It was quite a sad sight, really. As the kids were coming in and out of the stands, you could visibly see some kids limping and my thinking was 'Man, it's going to be hard to teach these kids tomorrow because they're going to be so very tired!' I was kind of hoping Kevin would give them a half day so they could rest up – but that didn't happen. Anyway, I stayed at the Park until about 2pm and then headed back to the office (I later found out that they didn't get done at the park until about 6pm – so they were there from 8:30am to 6pm…now that's a long day).

One of the best things about going to the Peace Corps office is the fact that they have a hot shower. Now I don't take advantage of this hot shower all the time – I think this is my 3^rd time using it in my 2 years here, but when you take cold showers all the time it's a great feeling to take a hot shower. So I was pretty gross after my 4 hours at Apia Park and greatly appreciated a nice hot shower to clean me off. Another side effect of not taking a hot shower all the time is that when you do take a hot shower your body just gets very relaxed and you become tired (whereas a cold shower wakes you up), unfortunately I had something else to do later on during the night so I couldn't just pass out and take a nap. But it was good to have a shower that gave me that option!

The next day (Friday) came and I was quite surprised that a majority of the students showed up to school. A lot of them were limping around and walking gingerly but for the most part they were all there. Now it was difficult to teach some of the classes because you could just see it in their eyes that they were checked out and not really up to the whole learning deal today. I usually get good participation out of all my classes – but today they were all just dead. But the day flew by and before you know it, I was once again headed into town – but this time for a meeting. I met up with Jackie's husband (Jackie is one of our Associate Peace Corps Directors, she's over the village program) to talk about some IT possibilities here in Samoa. He has a bunch of ideas for creating work for himself in Samoa and one of them deals with starting an internet café, which means bringing computers into Samoa from somewhere. Fortuantely, I've become somewhat of an expert on bringing computers into Samoa so it was a good conversation. It was definitely good talking to him about all the potential possibilities and share with him some pitfalls to just be aware of – hopefully he'll be able to bring something new to Samoa because there's a ton of untapped potential in this place…even though there's a very limited clientele.

So after that crazy week and a ton of food later, I arrive at the weekend basically unscathed. Now the only crazy choice I have to make is whether to see Shrek 3 or Fantastic Four 2 tomorrow (I usually go to the morning movies to avoid the crowds)…odds are I'll see Shrek 3 before it leaves the theaters, who knows Ocean 13 may be coming out here next week. Ahh, yes…the greatest summer movie season ever totally rocks! L8r.