Father's Day is a Weekends for the Girls

Father’s Day is a Weekends for the Girls

For Father’s Day, I decided to skip the time with Dad, and spend a weekend with the girls.  It was really a fun weekend because I only spent time with group 83, the Newbies (I often feel bad for them for they will always be the Newbies for us, since we will not be getting a new group of volunteers for another year.). 

After Salelologa, I continued my biking adventure by heading the 45 minutes to Faga and had a great time with Nancy (She has the blog “There are Rocks in my River”) and Chelsea. 

Faga is a beautiful area.  It is known for having the bluest water in all of Samoa, and they often shoot advertisements for Samoa there because of it. 

The three of us had an amazing weekend playing card games and just catching up on each other’s lives, and brainstorming different teaching activities that might work in each of our different situations.  (I learned about a game that is so addictive!  Monopoly Speed, or something similar for the title….it is so much better than regular Monopoly!)

Like good Samoans, we gave Nancy’s father candy ulas, and went to church.  I was surprised about the church service, as I was hoping for it to be more entertaining (is that bad to say?).  For Mother’s Day and Children’s Day (White Sunday) there are many performances of singing, dancing and skits.  Although last year I did not see any of that on Father’s Day, I was still hopeful since we were going to the congregation that I think always has the best singing and dancing…..however this weekend it wasn’t so.  Instead, all of the men came to the front to give speeches…..ALL OF THEM!  When people speak rapid fire Samoan, I do not always catch all of what is being said, and with well over an hour of speeches, it can get boring when you are clueless as to what everyone is talking about.  Finally at the end, the children performed a song with dance moves. 

Besides the great company, the best part of the weekend was the food.  Nancy is an amazing cook.  What she is able to do on an electric burner with a water boiler is amazing.  I felt as if it was Thanksgiving with how well I ate during the weekend.  My favorite meal, eggplant parm-so delicious!

On Monday morning, we all woke up before sunrise, Chelsea to take the bus back to Upolu, and me to begin my journey back to my village.     

(For those of you not familiar with the Samoan calendar, our Father’s Day is two months after Father’s Day in America.)