It's July Already!

July 1, 2007

We are back in Apia after our first two weeks in Manunu, our training village. It has been an intense, but good experience. We are here in Apia for one week (well, sort of - more on that later) and then we go back to Manunu for three weeks. I think we are all having a very positive experience thus far, language challenges, strange food encounters and all. The village of Manunu is beautiful. It's inland, but there is a river with a waterfall and natural pool to swim in nearby.

I have come to know and like my family and I expect that I will want to keep in touch with them as long as I am here in Samoa. I fit in very well being in the pastor's home. I can call up all my early life experiences. There is a lot of church. We have Sunday morning service of course, and Sunday afternoon service at 4:00 pm. And every evening there is prayer time and Bible study at 6:00 pm. It all helps to learn the language though.

On that note, the language learning is going well. I got a good grade on my first oral competency exam (interview). I just need to continue to practice and memorize. I don't totally understand the grammar, but bits and pieces are falling in place. I find myself getting to learning plateaus and then having a break through of sorts when something clicks and then I can go to the next level.

A typical day starts with a walk down the road if I get up early enough. It doesn't get light until 6:30 am. Then breakfast and get ready for class. Class for the day starts at 8:00. Each day of class is language and/or work and life classes, medical classes, or safety and security classes. We have a half hour tea break morning and afternoon and an hour and a half for lunch. Class ends as 5:30 pm. Then there is homework to do each night. And studying vocabulary and preparing for tests.

On Tuesday this week we go on Volunteer Visits. Meaning we go to visit current volunteers in their villages for three days. Then back to Apia on Friday and back to Manunu on Saturday. I'm going to Tafitoala. The village is on the south side of the island at the beach (Apia is on the north side).