Another Day, Another Dance

Emma performed in an end-of-the-year recital with her dance group, Siva Maia, on Memorial Day evening. Some of the costumes may look familiar, as they performed literally every dance they know. Emma performed in six different dances.
It was a very rainy day, and “very rainy” in Samoa means that it poured and poured all day. It was the kind of rain that floods the roads in five minutes. There was even thunder and lightning, which is rare here. It was pretty spectacular. The thunder was so loud and could be heard echoing off the mountains. As evening was approaching I called a veteran dance mom and asked her if these things were ever cancelled due to the weather. She said that in her 10 years of having daughters dance in all kinds of tropical storms, a cancellation would not happen.

Emma got all dressed up and we headed out to a pavilion in Fagatogo. The rain let up a bit as we got to the other side of the island. Everything was wet, but luckily the stage and seating were all covered. The only glitch in the night was that the sound system would not work. It may have been due to the rain or just a random bad wire, but we were somewhat relieved to not have ear-deafening music for once in Samoa. Instead, a boom box was placed on the stage that turned out to be too quiet. Maybe one of these times there will be a happy medium on the noise level.

The sound issues didn’t stop the dancers, though. They all did a great job! Emma’s six performances included a “solo.” She practiced very hard to learn a brand-new dance for a solo, but it ended up being a trio. Emma still referred to it as her solo, though, so we didn’t argue. It was a beautiful, slow dance. I believe it was Hawaiian. Emma danced and swayed her hips with a lei in her hands. She did a fabulous job and we were very proud as she initiated doing a solo, on top of getting ready for her swim competition.

The performance ended with a group dance, featuring all of the girls in their various costumes. This will be the last performance for a few months, as many families leave the island for the summer.

Samoa Nationals Swim Competition

About two weeks ago Emma was invited to compete in the Samoa Nationals Swim Competition. She is in a swimming class that meets twice a week and some of the children were selected to represent American Samoa in the competition. We had two weeks of swim classes 6 days a week to get ready. The competition was to take place in (formerly Western) Samoa so imagine the excitement of all these kids getting to fly together on a plane! Here is the group, parents and all, at the airport.It was actually quite lucky that the majority of us were able to keep our flights because the Head of State of Samoa just passed away. There was a huge funeral planned for the same weekend and at one point the competition was even going to be canceled. We arrived in Samoa after the 25 mintue flight and piled into 2 big taxi buses. The drive from the airport into the capital city of Apia is over an hour long. Samoa is different from our island....there is so much more open space, people have farms with cows and horses, the roads don't have potholes, the speed limit is 45, there is not a lot of litter, there are stop lights and tourists, and the list goes on and on. Needless to say, it was refreshing to see a change of scenery.

We checked into a bed and breakfast and then waited to receive word that we could go to the pool to practice for Saturday's swim meet. The kids were really anxious to practice in the pool. Our swimmers are at a huge disadvantage as they swim in either a 8-meter pool (it literally takes about 5 strokes to get to the other side) or the ocean. Samoa is hosting the upcoming South Pacific Games and they have an Olympic facility with two 50-meter pools and a high dive pool. After a few hours of playing around the bed and breakfast (thank goodness we were the only guests!), we went over the pool. The kids got to practice in the outdoor warm-up pool. They were excited about the big pool, but not too sure about the diving blocks. The indoor facility was closed, but they peeked through the windows and became nervous and excited for the competition.

We got up bright and early on Saturday morning to a torrential downpour. We get a lot of rain here, but it had been a while since I saw such a powerful, steady rain. By the time we left for the swim meet, many houses and businesses were already fighting flooding with sandbags. We got to the stadium and it was so exciting! Our competition was several other swim teams from Samoa, and there were race officials everywhere. There was at least 50 officials. I was impressed by how organized everything was. The only glitch for the day was that the power was not working. That meant that the kids would not be seeing their names and race times up on a huge tv screen, but they didn't seem to care.

Emma competed in 4 events, all 25-meter races: the kickboard, breaststroke, freestyle, and backstroke. She was in the 9-10 age category, and each race had 8 swimmers. Emma got 3 bronze medals!!! They had a medal ceremony halfway through the competition and another at the end. It was so cool to see her get up on the podium accepting her medals. I couldn't help but imagine Emma on the medal podium at the 2016 Olympics!

Fun in Vatia

Yesterday was one of my favorite days so far on the island. Our day was spent in one of our favorite places on the island, the village of Vatia. To get to Vatia you drive up and over two mountain passes. Unfortunately, I did not take our camera along so pictures of the amazing scenery will have to come later. Anyways, the drive takes you through the National Park and it is truly spectacular. We see lots of birds along the way (Mom, you are going to love it). Our favorite birds on the drive are the banded rails that dart across the road. They run really fast with their heads tucked down, and the sight just makes you giggle.

Our main purpose for going to Vatia was to scuba dive. It ended up turning into a bit of a circus with a total of 10 divers, but we had a spectacular dive. Once we swim out of the village (and away from the run-off) into the National Park, the water is crystal clear and the coral coverage is excellent. We have hundreds of underwater pictures that Paul took before our camera was stolen so I will have to go through them and start posting underwater pictures. So again, no pictures of the scenery here. My friend, Liz did get a picture of me in my scuba gear, though.

In addition to the diving, the other great joy of the day was kayaking! I absolutely love to kayak, but I haven't done it much since living in Marquette. Liz and Markus (our newest friends from Oregon) have 2 kayaks, and after getting done with our dive, we discovered that Emma had been kayaking the whole time (supervised of course, by our non-diving friends). She had no fear and quite a bit of skill. It was so cool to see her out on the water.

Paul and I grabbed the other kayak and paddled out to her. If you can't tell from the pictures, let me tell you that these kayaks are small -- definitely not sized for 2 adults. Emma challenged us to a race and I started paddling as best I could with Paul basically sitting on my lap. I'm going to blame it on him and not my rusty kayaking skills, but we ended up flipping over! Emma beat us by a mile, and would have won even without Paul and I going overboard. I really wonder how much money it would cost to ship a kayak to American Samoa. I think I could live here a lot longer with a kayak.

PHS Arts Festival

Every year Pacific Horizons School celebrates the end of the school year with an Arts Festival. Each of the classes prepare a performance; some choose Samoan dances, while others perform a play or song that highlights what the kids have been learning.

Emma's class has been studying human anatomy. Her class made up a play in which their teacher, Mr. Snyder, was a scarecrow who needed various organs. Emma came home from school one day and announced that she was going to be a kidney. My first thought was that I was going to have to sew some grotesque costume, but thankfully the kids didn't actually dress up as body parts. They just had a drawing of an organ, and after saying their lines, they placed their organ onto the scarecrow's body.

The 3- and 4-year-olds, "the guppies", are always the cutest class. Their teacher, Leti, is a well-known Samoan dancer and she taught the kids a Samoan dance. Some of our friends' kids are in the class so I thought I'd post a few pictures.

Tofa Party

Yesterday there was a huge tofa party for two of my friends that are leaving the island (tofa is Samoan for 'goodbye'). The party was at a beach resort called Maliu Mai. Remember that this is American Samoa so the term "resort" is used pretty loosely. We don't have much tourism and we certainly don't have what the average person would call resorts. Here is Jenny (soon to be rejoining the real-world) me, and Deepa.
For many months now, I have been taking a Polynesian dance class. A group of my friends that are in the class together decided to perform a dance in honor of our friends who are moving. This was my first time performing so I was quite nervous. There were over 300 people at the party and many of them know me. It's much easier to embarrass yourself in front of strangers, but dancing in front of all those people I know was nerve-wrecking.
The dance is from the Cook Islands, but we call it "the yellow dress dance." The dresses were chosen by our dance teacher, who is from the Cook Islands. This dance has been around for awhile and it seems to be the one that most of the white women in the dance class end up learning and performing. We just don't think our teacher gets that yellow, especially blindingly bright yellow, doesn't look good with white skin. We now chose to learn dances in class based on what dress we could wear someday!
Anyways, the dance went fine. I had a few little "what am I doing up here?" moments, but we entertained the crowd and had a fun time. We've even been asked to perform at another upcoming event.
The party was a kid's dream! There was a bouncy castle and waterslide that get rented for many parties in American Samoa. Plus, there is a tide pool at Maliu Mai that made for some great jumping. I managed to get a good action shot of Emma!