Samoana Beginnings

This past week was spent at orientation training, Thursday was my first real day acting as a Samoana teacher. We started off the morning with a 9 am staff meeting where, of course, I had to give my usual speech: “Talofa/Hi, My name is Jessie and I am a World Teach Volunteer. I am originally from Texas, and this year I will be teaching architecture and drafting!” Not that I truly mind, but we are treated as quasi-celebrities here in American Samoa, so everywhere we go the WT volunteers are highlighted and asked to introduce ourselves. After meeting much of the staff, my VP showed me to my classroom! I was so excited on our walk through campus but kind of had my breath taken away once we entered. The room was filthy! Pepine took one look at it and yelled for the painters who started adding a “fresh” white coat to everything immediately. After Pepine handed me a broom and trash can, I stood there for a moment just taking it all in. It was my room, all mine, and I was ever so thankful for that.....But......There was a 1/2  inch layer of dirt covering the floor, with another layer of rat droppings covering that. All the posters from years past were still stapled up. Trash was everywhere. Coke cans from a year ago were still sitting on desks. So with no other choice, I began to clean. The first think I did was rip down all the old stuff and add it to a trash pile. 4 huge garbage bags later, most of the trash was cleared from my room. After an hour and half of sweeping, the floors looked the same. Feeling overwhelmed, I went with some fellow teachers to go school supply shopping. I needed chalk, erasers, papers, pencils, and all the works! 

Friday morning we had an island wide teacher induction to kick off the new school year, and a Samoana HS staff meeting followed that. After a morning/afternoon of sitting, it was time to get back to my room. I swept again for another hour and a half before I decided to start working on clearing off the desk to change up the pace..... Bad idea. Rat droppings and pee were everywhere, and I filled another garbage bag full of papers that were still piled inside. The desk is missing half its drawers, so where they once were now lies the old teacher’s dumpster.....While cleaning it out I came upon a DIRTY DIAPER! Yes, a dirty diaper just tossed into my desk!! Needless to say, I used about half a bottle of lysol on my desk alone! At the end of the day I was feeling discouraged. I felt like I still needed an army and another 48 hours of solid cleaning to make my room beautiful from top to bottom.

This morning (Saturday) I came back up to the school at 7am to get cleaning. After 3 hours of sweeping, arranging my desk area, setting up the desks, and unloading/organizing all my supplies, it was time for breakfast. WT was providing us with one last group get together before the year started. Sadie’s By The Sea is probably the island’s nicest restaurant, and we had pancakes (can you believe it!?) for breakfast. After a while of catching up with volunteers it was back to my room for a few more hours of cleaning. By 2pm I decided to give up. The floors would just have to be dusty and there was nothing that could change that! Besides, I needed to start deciding on how I would conduct my classroom and what I was going to teach!