Wrapping up the last few weeks of school was fun, but also
exhausting. Because my time on Manu’a was dwindling at nearly the same speed as
that of school, I had to crunch everything in; work, family, friends and
community.
It all started Saturday, May 25, 2013 when the family was
prepping an umu to distribute to different families in the village in
celebration of Feagai’s graduation. I’ve seen umu’s before, so I wasn’t
expecting much, but boy was I in for a surprise. Like everything, the family
went BIG. There were two umus—one for the recently slaughtered family pigs,
including my beloved Wilbur, and then one for the typical veggies. Also, there
was a frying chicken station, girls in the kitchen making salad, and about
everything else you can imagine. Here are some photos of just how much food
there was. After we made all the food, we went around family by family and
distributed the food.
Then on Sunday, May 26, 2013, we had Baccalaureate for the
seniors, the reason we were making all the food in the first place. It was a
beautiful ceremony taken place in Ta’u. We all went to church as a family and
took many pictures afterwards. Here are some family photos, the boys wearing
all white with a little black are the graduates.
Baccalaureate essentially kicked off a week of parties.
School was a joke, we watched movies and cleaned. I was fine with this because
I wanted to spend as much time with these guys as possible. On Tuesday, Papa took
me and Madeline out to Saua, the place where we go fishing that’s off the
National Park. The tide was low, so fishing with the net was out of the
question—we went Octopus hunting instead. We didn’t catch any, but we did come
across two mullusks. Papa bashed one open and we just ate it right there on the
spot. While we were there is started storming and it was so nice to just stand
in the rain, look over the oceans and mountains, and know that this place is
truly amazing and I’ve experienced to it’s fullest. Here are some photos of my
last trip to one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
On Wednesday was 8th grade graduation. There are
only 5 8th graders, so it was a quick and painless ceremony that
actually made me sad. I realized how quickly the end was approaching. I was so
proud of the 8th graders and how far they’ve come this year.
The next day was Thursday and high school graduation. The
high school is for all of Manu’a and there were only 17 kids in the graduating
class this year, 7 from Fitiuta, including my brother Feagai. Charlie- the
youngest in the family was serving for the color guard, so it was great to see
them both in their glory. A little different than graduations back home, but on
the walk out of the gym, the graduates get mauled with candy ula’s and it was
funny to see some of the ula’s go all the way to the top of their mouths. That
day we made another two umus, but this time with 2 gigantic pigs. It was a day
of celebration and it was wonderful. My papa and I shared a Vailima (Samoan
beer), while sitting back at the umu waiting for the pigs to cook. It was so
nice to spend some quality time with him before I left.
That Friday (this past Friday) was the last day of school
and our staff party. This was by far the hardest day I’ve had here. The morning
started out like all last days of school—a lot of fun. We had a field day, ate
a bunch of junk food, and watched a movie. The hard part came when it was time
for our awards ceremony. After giving away the awards to the kids, the principal
recognized me and Madeline and then insisted on us doing a traditional Samoan
siva as the students sang our school
song. This is when everything hit me. I was leaving for a long time and I was
leaving some people who mean so much to me. As I was dancing and tearing up, I
realized how much pride I have for my school and my village. Immediately
following this, the principal gave us time to say anything we wanted. If I get
emotional, I don’t like talking because then it gets worse. As I stood up to
say my final goodbyes and to say thank you I was overcome with so much emotion,
gratitude to those who’ve helped me, love for the friends I’d made, relief that
I actually made it through the year, and sadness that everything was coming to
an end. It was really difficult to hold it together, but somehow I managed to
get a few words, including a few Samoan words that made everyone laugh. The
staff party was a much more celebratory mood, with lots of food and laughs. I
received a few gifts that I will be bringing with me back to the States. While
their were times that I wanted to pull my hair out this past year, I love so
many of my coworkers and I’m so glad to have met them.
Saturday was spent packing for the first time and cleaning.
Disaster. That night I had my choir going away part, and as always it was great
to spend more time with friends.
Then came yesterday. A really hard day and a day I will
remember for a very long time. The day I had to say goodbye to Manu’a, my
beloved island. The morning started out
with Mama insisting I come over early so that she could make us a goodbye
breakfast. We had eggs, toast (!!), steak, and my favorite suafa’i. We went to
church as a family and pretty much as soon as that was finished we had to
leave. I was really sad and so I didn’t bring my camera for obvious reasons,
but there are some farewell photos of me at the airport on my facebook. Fortunately,
some of my family will be here on the big island this week so I can spend time
with the before I leave, but I did have to
say goodbye to Papa for a really long time and that was hard. I love so
many things about Manu’a and so much of that is because of him. It was hard
saying goodbye, but that makes me look more forward to when I will be coming
back and seeing him again.