Today was very long. I spent last night with one of the Samoan students at her sister’s house so we had to wake up at 6am to catch the bus to Apia and then another bus from Apia to Alafua. Instead of meeting at 8am as on most mornings we were meeting at 7:30 because we were going to visit several schools and wanted to see assembly for the first one.
Our first school was Don Bosco, an all-boys vocational school located about a mile away from the USP campus. It is run by the Salasian Priests and has a current enrollment of around 250. The boys range in age from 16-21. I’ll be honest. Visiting did a lot to restore my faith in religion here in Samoa. I’ve spent the last couple weeks seeing a lot of the financial corruption of religion here and it had left me wondering- where are the Catholic priests? What happened to the missionary spirit that so inspired me when I read the stories of the Jesuits who came to North America? Do people actually believe what they are preaching here? What I saw today convinced me that yes, the Catholic Church is still very much alive here and interested in helping the people of Samoa. I’m sure you know the story of Don Bosco. He founded an oratory to help trouble boys; to give them something to do and take them off the streets. This school fulfills much of the same purpose. In the 1980’s the Catholic Church did a survey in the country to see what needs were not being met and they realized that large numbers of boys were dropping out of secondary school which was really limiting their ability to get a job. In 1989 (?) Don Bosco Vocational school was opened to train young men and give them the technical skills necessary to obtain jobs. I finally saw what I wanted to see here in religion. A place where ability to pay is not an issue. Term tuition is WS$130 or approximately US$50, but even that is too much of a financial burden for some students. Rather than turn the away the boys work for a few hours on Saturdays at the school to earn their tuition. As a side note, all of the other religious groups in Samoa have followed the Catholic’s lead and now have technical schools of their own. We spent about an hour and a half at the school. The first half was spent observing assembly. They sang for us which was great because they won the Teuila Festival competition so many years in a row they have been dis-invited. In other words, they are pretty darn good. Father also gave a speech in which he thanked us for coming, especially since we brought so many girls. I don’t think everyone else in the group found it as amusing as I did. After the assembly we toured the workshops- a mechanic shop, work working, and metal.
After Don Bosco we went back towards Apia to visit a special needs school. They mainly deal with deaf students, but there are also some other physically handicapped students. Once again, most of the money for the school comes from private or overseas sponsorship. Another interesting thing to note is that there is no Samoan sign language so they use Australia’s. That means that in order to translate they must first go from Samoan to English to sign. Very complicated. Also, sign language was not introduced into the country until the 1980’s. Most people still communicate using their own personal language. Jackie also mentioned that there seems to be a disproportionate number of deaf people in Samoa. Is there a reason for that?
Our final visit of the morning was to NUS- National University of Samoa where we had a lecture on education in Samoa. I wish I hadn’t been so tired because I might have gotten more out of it. I was just wishing that the next door neighbor’s baby had cried all night. :-P
The afternoon was spent doing research. I went back by EPC and talked to the head engineer. I have a very good chance of being able to go to the island of Apolima in November. I really hope it works out because it’s a very hard island to access. I think I also have a much better idea as to what my research will cover- which is always a good thing. My meeting at EPC finished early so I had about an hour to kill before the research center at SPREP opened. I knew it was straight up the road but wasn’t sure how far away it was so I decided to start walking and catch the first Vailima bus that I saw. Many busses passed by, but not a single one said Vailima. I walked for just under an hour and still no bus. By that time though it didn’t matter because I was where I wanted to be. My best guess is that I walked about four miles. Nice little walk. On the way back I caught the bus, but not before stopping by the hospital to say hi to Kate (whose foot is looking ever so much better) and leaving my nalgene at a corner store (that makes me very sad.)
And now, off to do some more research.
