A Tearful End and Lessons Learned

So I'm writing this not exactly when it happened, but as soon as I was able to get to a computer. So after we played volleyball on Saturday, the next day was our last day to be in American Samoa. We taught our last bible lesson for the little kids. As I sat in church singing it finally hit me that I was leaving. I was listening to the Samoans sing and thinking about all of the relationships that I had formed over the last 5 weeks. I was overwhelmed with emotions and started crying. At the end of church, Tia, got up and asked us to stand at the front of the church. Again, just like with the Nu Uli church we had another tofa (goodbye) from the Tafuna church. As I was walking up to the front I lost it again. These kids who I had got to know mean so much to me and I wasn't ready to say goodbye. The kids brought us up gifts from the congregation in a line and they kept coming and coming. After this happened we said our goodbyes and took lots of pictures. We exchanged addresses to write letters to each other and parted ways. The rest of the day was spent packing. Marci and I filled up a suitcase each with gifts that were given to us. The thanks we received again was very touching. We went to the airport that night and even had some kids meet us there to say goodbye again. We left hoping to one day return. I will never forget the last 5 weeks for the rest of my life. I have learned a lot about love, kindness, and respect from the Samoans. I want to live my life trying to love other people even if I do not want to or am scared, or do not know them. I want to treat my friends, family, and everyone with kindness. I do not want to have to think or to try, but for it to be effortless because it becomes habit. I have learned a lot about respect. I think that in the United States we forget about this action because discipline is not enforced as much anymore. To show someone respect is to truly go out of your way for them. The relationships that we have with these people were real and powerful. Thanks for reading, we look forward to living out the rest of our lives by the things that we have learned from the people we met and the things we experienced in American Samoa. God can really teach me so much in so little time!

The Good Samaritans

So after an overwhelming unforgettable night...we woke up earlier than we have probably the whole entire 5 weeks we've been here. And David took us to NuuUli to start the Volleyball tournament. We played with the Good Samaritan Team. It was all girls today..the boys played Friday. We played for like 5 hours...not a joke. The court is just cement and the Samoan way is of course...Do you wanna guess?? Yep, your right without shoes. So, Melinda and my feet are red, sore, and got some pretty sweet blood blisters. It was lots of fun..I haven't played that much non-stop since high school. Taking me back in the day. We then said our final goodbyes and got on the Inga bus...this was our 1st time...yeah we were definitely a little nervous, but we got there perfectly and you have to knock on the side of the bus (which is actually a truck with a huge wooden bed with benches people sit in and the radio blastin'). It was a really good experience. I'm not ready to leave...it seems like right when we are getting accustom to America Samoa we have to leave...bummer...but I take with me memories, unforgettable experiences, God's beauty in a different light, lessons learned, and new friends. I'm aquiring a taste for some of the food too...funny/scary the girls who don't eat any vegetables.

Tofa! (The Goodbye).....I Can't Stop Smiling!

Thursday:

We started out with the classic purple soup song that we use to pass out the kids name tags. It is a simple song with a few funny movements like cha cha and boogie woogie. Then we talked about kindness and gentleness. For gentleness we performed the lost sheep skit, which the kids really enjoyed. We had Colleen hide in the middle of the kids as a sheep, while the rest of us were shepherds looking for her. We would ask the kids if they had seen our sheep. They would reply yes yes yes....she's right here. We would pretend like we didn't see her and keep looking else where. At the end we carried Colleen (the lost sheep) and showed how we were gentle with her. This was funny to explain because they didn't know what a sheep was. We made sheep hands with cotton balls. For our snack we decorated cookies to look like sheep. This was probably one of the cutest things ever, all of the kids had icing and cookie all over their hands and mouths. Don't worry though, we remembered to bring baby wipes. Once we got home we practiced our dance till the wee hours of the night. Marci and I wanted to have everything down perfectly since we would be performing it the next night. So we got kind of frustrated, but we went to bed after we ran through it perfectly.

Friday:

The last day of VBS, and boy did it go by really fast. We've had such a great time with these kids. We were without two of our helpers today, but the day still ended up a success. We talked about self control and goodness. For self control we talked about how Adam and Eve did not have self control in the Garden of Eden because they ended up disobeying God. For our craft we made snakes out of paper plates. This was a very cute craft and the kids loved their really cool super long and slinky snakes. For goodness we told the story of the fiery furnace. All of the kids gave us hugs at the end after we finished the day and passed back all of the crafts.

Right after VBS ended we went to a family's house from church to watch them prepare for the umu that night. It was so fun to be a part of, and we could tell that they enjoyed us being there. First, they offered us some cocoa samoa. This was the second time that we tried it, and this time it was amazing! I loved it, I think it was a little sweeter this time. First, we made coconut milk by wringing out the meat of the coconut into a bowl with the husk of the coconut. After that we learned how to peel breadfruit with a the edge of a can. Next, we learned how to peel bananas with a hand made wooden knife. After that, we scraped the meat of the coconut out by using the hand made metal scraper thing that was attached to a seat. We also learned how to make this dish with taro leaves and coconut milk by taking leaves and putting the coconut milk in them and then rolling the leaves into a bowl. Then, you take the breadfruit leaves to cover it. Finally, we learned how to get the coconut out of it's husk by using the metal pole that was sticking up out of the ground. This was quite a scary task because it almost seemed as if we were going to stab our hands as we tried to get the coconut out. We also tried a lot of things: coconut milk, cocoa beans (which tasted very tart like a lemon....weird, but very good), mackerel with coconut milk, and the meat of the coconut. We watched them get the fire ready. They put the food over the hot rocks, and then cover it with banana leaves and let it cook and heat up for a long time. The smoke was very strong. Salvation also taught us part of a sasa with the coconuts. The umu is something that Samoans do on a regular basis. It was great getting to see and experience what all goes into preparing one. They served the food at the Tofa tonight.

After the food was passed out, we were up. Yes, we had to dance in front of everyone. I was so nervous that I had that yucky feeling in my stomach. We went first and we did our dance without any mistakes. They appreciated us for doing the dance they yelled and clapped once we were finished. I felt so much better once that was over with. Then, we got to watch the Nu Uli church perform a couple of dances, and they were great. After that, Lu Ou called the three girls from Abilene up to the front. He thanked us for helping and said that him and the church wanted to present us with a gift. Then, he said, "Men come on". I looked back and there was a whole line of men coming from out of the house they started with Marci.... they gave her necklaces, earrings, and lava lavas they just kept piling it and piling it on. They came in one by one and would give Marci a kiss with each gift. All I could do was smile and laugh. We could not believe the thanks and what was happening. The last guy tied a lava lava around Marci and gave her a kiss. Before I knew it they were all lined up again and did the exact same thing for me. We were and are still in shock. I don't know if I've ever seen or experienced appreciation like that before. After that, he asked if we wanted to say anything, so I said a few words, and then we walked off with all of our gifts. Once again lots more smiles and us saying thank you. The guys came over and put all of our gifts into a bag for us. We then took a lot of pictures with everyone, even though we're going to play volleyball and see them one last time tomorrow. The tofa is a big goodbye or send off that is a Samoan tradition. I really can't describe the feelings that I'm feeling right now. I know that I will never forget these few weeks, and am so thankful to have formed all of these relationships.

What We Live For....And A Little Bit of Dancing aka Lots of Dancing in Between

So today's VBS attendance was in decline because it was raining pretty hard some of the time. We had 53 on Tuesday and only around 30ish today, but it was still lots of fun. We sang songs at the beginning and sung songs like I Wanna Be Like Daniel...who would have thought that a VBS song could give you that much of a workout?? I mean you do about 20 squats at a very fast pace. We also learned Ish Conbie Conductor..(totally misspelled) for all of you fellow Blue Haven goers. They really liked it a lot!!! We then talked about patience with the story of Abraham waiting for a child. They got to make paper clocks and also we played the quiet game. Melinda and I would go around to the children and make funny faces and noises. My personal favorite was my pig, monkey, and chicken noises. I got lots of kids out with those. We then gave the kids the wonderful Tootsie Roll Pops and they had to be patient and not bite but just lick. One kid tried to count how many licks it took to get to the center...not really. We then talked about Faithfulness and we laid out beans and leaves and the kids had to go and pick up the leftovers like Ruth did. They then made really cute Welcome signs. Then came the only kind of stressful part. We were trying to play a game where 2 kids are back to back and there was a b-ball in between their back and they had to go from point A to point B. The problem was trying to get the teams even. It was like we were speaking a different language..oh yeah we were. But everything was ok.

We then got our bags because we were invited to play Volleyball. We changed and the neatest thing was that the picture frames we made on Monday were up in their living room proudly. Wait it gets even better...The other crafts we have made were taped up on the wall of one of the rooms. It was just really neat to see how they showed off the stuff we had made at VBS. Usually as I remember when I was a little girl we would just hang stuff on the fridge for like a week but then it would be thrown in the trash. What I'm trying to say was that it was neat. Then I had to go to the bathroom...very interesting they did have a toilet, but no seat and there was a string to flush it. I had to get Tofoi to help me learn how to flush it. Then we were home again on the court. We hadn't touched a volleyball since Spring Intramurals. So we were a little rusty, but they were impressed I think...but the Samoans were very good as well. We won like 3 games in a row, but then the big shots came...The boys/men that were amazing!!! So we didn't win after that. It started raining (this is rain that is not just a sprinkle but a good solid rain), but they said to keep playing so when Melinda and I both tried to set and the ball went straight through our hands. We got laughed at pretty hard, but I didn't feel terrible because they would laugh at anyone when they would mess up Polongi: White Person or not. The guys were so good...It seemed like an Olympic Preview..I'm only exaggerating just a tad really they were all college v-ball material. I have to say there was one time that I just had to dive and remind you we were playing on cement I fell pretty hard and got a pretty sweet banged up knee to show for it. Then to top it off I dove one more time. I was then forced to go clean up and they put Baby Oil on my wound then it was back to the court for me. We then watched the guys play some more...SOO FUN!! Even if you don't like Volleyball or sports in general...you would have liked watching this. Yes I know that's a strong comment.

Since we were soaked they wanted us to change clothes they thought we would get sick because it was so cold let me remind you that the weather gets nowhere less than 75 degrees F. So they gave us all lava lavas that we got to keep and then it was time to watch the girls practice their dance that they will perform on Friday. The Samoan dance is very graceful it was beautiful to watch. Myself on the other hand would be the opposite of graceful, which would be awkward, stiff, and silly looking. They practiced for lets say 5 minutes and then they pulled us up and said that it was our turn. I was like Whoaa this was supposed to be dance practice for ya'll...apparently I was wrong. We had to learn this dance and we all got private instructors...there was 2 girls helping me Tofoi and Nai. We then after 30 minutes learned the routine and then performed in front of everyone. Embarrassing, yes, but fun, yes. We then did the whole cycle over again with Tahitian style dancing, which is all about the hips darling.. Then Luuao had got us McDonalds for lunch while we had been dancing...he's like one of the only ones with a car in the NuuUli village. And guess what??? Give up ok I guess I'll tell you. Melinda and I both ate a Big Mac with lettuce, yes I'll repeat LETTUCE!! We have tried lots of new foods so lettuce was not that bad. Then it was back to dancing...we got to do the Cha Cha slide which was fun since it was a dance that I did know. We then danced until it was time for church we approximately danced for at least a good 2 1/2 hours no joke non-stop. Fun filled with laughter and might I add pain. We are now sore all over but I must say it was definitely worth it and we got an invitation to do it all over again tomorrow...so we'll see what Thursday has in store...

p.s. i'm tired so sorry if stuff doesn't make sense...

"It hit me......I'm tired."

So today we talked about joy and peace, it was another successful day! We started out singing and they love to sing, again we sang the classic church VBS songs. And we even had more kids today, it's not like in the States where you have to sign up for VBS. More children were able to come which made us excited, but that meant even more cute little kids running around. We had 53 kids today. I'm not for sure if we mentioned this in the last post, but only the older kids know Samoan, so we have a translator. We split up into groups to do crafts today, so it was kind of chaotic when I was trying to get all of my kids seated and helping them know what to do, but somehow we managed to get it all finished. The first thing we did was a puppet show of Paul and Silas being joyful even though they were in jail. Kate and I did the puppet show, and this was my first time doing puppets so I made a few mistakes. It was hard for me to read my lines and move the puppet at the same time. I even lost my place a few times....ooops! They understood the story after it was translated and laughed a whole lot at our silly puppet moving skills. After that we split up into groups and made happy Paul and Silas faces in a jail. After that we had raisins as a snack so they could make a joyful face on the plate and then eat them. Raisins....some of them liked them while others didn't. I guess we should have thought that over a little more, I'm just glad I didn't have to eat them. Then we told the story of Jesus Calms the storm for peace. We even had the kids do a rainstorm during the story. It sounded pretty cool! Then we made little boats and waves for the second craft. We got back into the same group for crafts. I had a few kids that were able to do theirs on their own, but the rest needed help. I was tapped by the little kids the whole time and got the cute little kid face as they handed their papers to me. I also had a kid drop his boat in a little stream off of a little ledge, which then had all of the little kids standing by a dangerous place where they could fall. I was like AHHHHH, get back please and they sat back down again....a little scary though. At the end when everyone was finished cutting and pasting I had one little boy that kept going around to all of the other groups and picking up their rubbish (trash) and come hand it to me with a proud face saying, look at me, I'm so helpful! After that, we used a parachute to make waves and the storm. Oh wow......they loved this idea and game. We only did it a few times because it was so crazy and we were about out of time. At the end we handed back all of their papers which was again chaotic. By that time the parents had got out, so they were eager to run around. Everything got passed around and we finished another great day.

The kids are so sweet and I just smile and laugh whenever I'm around them. They loved just being around us and talking to us. The ages range from 3 year olds to 8th grade. I'm just so thankful that I'm able to be around them. It makes me pray and desire for the sweetness and love these children have. I should be more like them; loving others without questions and being a friend to those I don't even know. I thank God for the kids here in Samoa.

In the car after we were leaving from lunch I said to Marci, "It hit me, I'm tired." Marci then proceeded to hit my face two times, once on each cheek. She thought I said "hit me, I'm tired" We got so tickled and laughed for a long time, once I told her what I really said. Don't worry though, we took a nap so we're all ready for the night lecture and tomorrow morning. We even already made more things for our crafts since we will probably have even more kids tomorrow.