The PiCED Fam

As you may have gathered, I heart working at PiCED. People always dream of having a job that you love to get up and go to in the morning, and so far I’ve got that. Work is fun... probably because I truly love what I’m doing, the cause I am working for, and the people I work with. We are so fortunate to be part of an awesome group of co-workers. Everyone is unbelievably nice and extremely hardworking and responsible (something that can be quite hard to find on island)! And, luck for us, they have accepted and welcomed us with open arms. Immediately we felt like part of the group!

Ruth!

Ruth was Ethan’s best bud and fellow student services coordinator, but she was only with us for a month before heading off to law school in California. We nicknamed her Makilaki... Ethan forgot how to pronounce her last name and made up the first Samoan sounding thing he could come up with... and she had all the sass Ethan could ask for in a work buddy! We miss Ruth!

Pule! 

Pule is our awesome Office Manager, and I’ve adored her ever since she pole danced and took shots like a 21 year old at our Talofa/Tofa party. She’s the sweetest, and we’ve promised to open up a secret Millionaires’ Matchmaking service in the back of PiCED so we can find her a deserving, hunky, rich man! Her daughter, Lili, and nephew, Nathan, are the bomb. Both in 7th grade, they hang out around PiCED everyday after school and teach us Samoan....Nathan recently taught me the very important phrase, “E mana’o a’u ise vali lanu samasama!”.....This translates to “I would like yellow paint.” What would I ever do without that phrase!? 

Nape!

Nape is our receptionist that will one day conquer all of Samoa....ok, maybe she won’t conquer it but she has the brains and ability to do something pretty awesome. Nape makes me laugh, teaches me about the culture, and helps me gang up on Ethan! She’s our Leone homegirl, and I hope we will continue to hang out with her (and her bf Sami) a lot. 

Moe, Dora, and Nometa!

Moe, Dora, and Nometa make up the ASPIRC (Parent Information Resource Center) division for PiCED. They handle all the parent trainings and PIRC Parent Centers scattered around the villages on island. The girls (Dora and Nometa) seem to always be smiling and happy...and this, in turn, makes me happy. Dora’s 9 year old daughter, Lovie, has also proclaimed me the best friend she’s ever had. This also makes me happy. (It’s also probably not that hard to score well in her book, as she told me that her brothers like to pick on her.....last night they locked her out of the house and made her sleep outside in the cold.....talo fie (poor girl)!) Ethan and I have nicknamed Moe Father Earth. He is very Godly and makes you want to be a better person. He’s the sweetest man and is ridiculously soft spoken. He truly exemplifies a Samoan elder....in a slightly Americanized way.......because he wears slacks to work everyday instead of the Samoan i’e fitaga (formal man skirt). We want Moe to take us in and teach us the true ways of fa’asamoa. 

Earl 

Earl is our IT Manager and the only other palagi at PiCED. He’s very friendly and I think that he’s really happy that Ethan and I (but especially Ethan) know computer lingo, as he can explain what he’s up to and working on and we legitly understand and can be impressed. 

Ritah!

Ritah is also super cool. She works in the computer labs in the evening and has some rad tattoos. She’s trying really hard to convince me to partake in Samoan culture and get tatted up too. (Don’t worry, mom...I haven’t done it yet!) 

We’ve got 4 new staff members starting this week so I’ll let you know if they meet the high standard of PiCED’s awesomeness.

Part of the office: Ethan, Sandra, Nape, Me, Ruth, Earl, Pule