Grants

Grants..
Our program for the Peace Corps is a combination of the jobs that people in the Peace Corps have had prior to us coming. They decided to combine the teaching aspect with village development. We are to spend approximately 25 hours teaching English and working on school projects and about 15 hours a week doing village development projects.
For the first two months we are to get accustomed to our community and get to know people by doing little projects. School is on break for the holidays, since I guess it is summer break, although I guess you would call this the rainy season break. We have to do surveys of the people in the village and write reports about them. Our village development is not supposed to start until May so we have time to get settled in (and so that way Peace Corps can train us on the how two’s of grant writing).
So after being in Foiluga I was surprised when my tina who is also the pule (principal) of the school came to me with a packet and told me after lunch I am to finish filling out the grant application for a new School building after eating lunch. They had done a lot of the work to get the application and filling out the application form and were heading to Apia the following day to turn in the application.
I helped Muena finish filling out the forms, created a letterhead for the school, and helped her type up a report about the school building. I don’t consider myself to be a good writer, especially because growing up that was the subject I struggled the most with. But apparently on Samoan standards, I am a grade A typist.
After filling out the application, me and my uso, Sharlene, went to the school to take pictures of the state of the building to support what I just wrote about. I later put captions on the pictures so they were ready for Apia.
Apparently our team did a great job with the forms and JICA recognized that it is an unsafe school so they asked for me to write a letter myself to support what the pule was saying.
I didn’t know where to start. I had only been in the building a handful of times. Only twice during a “normal” school day. I told about my nerves of going up the cracked staircase to the row of classrooms. I explained about the holes in the walls and in the ceilings. I talked about the leaks that were sure to happen and my fear of the building’s support beams not touching the ground. The classroom’s windows were all missing and wire was in its place, and for a few windows there was no fire and only a few logs to protect the safety of the materials inside.
When we went to Salelologa to send an email with my letter, I realized that I forgot the e-mail address in my fale. I called the JICA office to find the e-mail address. I think I was expecting it to be an office like we would find in America, and was a little shocked over how Samoan it was. They told me the person I needed to talk to was not in and would be in the afternoon and she was unsure of that person’s e-mail address, so I would have to call back in the afternoon. I was used to in America being put on hold so they can give you the information needed, or at least offer a call back when they find it out.
A few hours later I called back and the person still was not in, and apparently was not coming in for the day. In American offices it seems as though people can always give you the little bit of information you are needing, such as an e-mail address. However within a few months time of bring here in Samoa, I learned it is waaaaay different. Instead I got that person’s address and hopefully my letter was transferred. I guess the only way to find out is after the holidays when the falavalava’s are over.