HS Prize Giving

            It was thee funniest things to see all the male teachers run out during intermission of the prize giving. Intermission is when music is played and crazy ladies from the crowd come and ask male teachers, administration or presiding bishopric, to dance. The guy next to me, after returning to the room after the intermission ended, leaned over and said: “I learned the hard way.” When these ladys dance they get CRAZY. Like border line inappropriate but all in the name of fun.  Elder Budgett had said the day before “Samoans dance for fun with no inhabitations, I wish sometimes America was like that – you could dance with a person just cause you liked dancing.” I don’t think that’s what Elder Budgett was thinking when he was a really good sport and got up to dance with one of the ladies who then proceeded to put a wig on him and dance circles around him.

 The prize table

Elder Budgett dancing with the bunny-ear lady

 Sister Obley (his mom), Ray and Sister Taleni. Yes, that is a lot of lei's and I'm sure he's very hot under there : )

 Me and some of the teachers

 Mala holding a baby, Grace just touches everyone's heart : )

 Sia and I

 The school counselor, Sister Obley, Me, Sister Taleni, Pres/Principal Taleni

           Sia sat next to me and was crying because she was thinking about how her children one day will, Heavan willing, get prizes like these. I this was such a cute display of affection, she really does love being a mother. Other Samoan sentiment I don’t always understand. Like the song “mama you gave life to me…say goodbye” played during the awarding of the prizes for the salutadictorian and valedictorian. Most of the time songs are played because people like them- regardless of whether they have anything to do with what’s going on. The one I thought was funniest was when a girl thanked her parents and teachers for thief examples and then sang the song by Kelly Clarkson called “Because of you” which is a song about blame and regret written to her parents I wonder if people actually understood lyrics if they would still sing things… sometimes the boys know exactly what a song is saying and I have to be the one to have them turn it off. One time Taia was making umu and I asked if he knew what MM was rapping about and he said “I was just about to change the song, its just my hands are all wet.” lol

            I’m learning a lot from the missionaries about our perceptions often being misconceptions. My thoughts on this remind me of a poster I once saw (talking about how inaccurate archeologists could be) where a archeologist (1000 years from now) had found a skeleton and placed toothbrushes were earrings would be. In all actuality its not our fault that we look at things the way we do, its just a product of using our own culture as a lens to view others. Like when the ‘clowns’ (women who go crazy as their child gets an award) go up and dance right in the middle of a dance presentation by the students. In our culture that’s extremely rude – you’re taking the attention away from the students dance that they have practiced so hard. Yet when I was showing a short clip of the dancing to the Fulumu’a children they said the clown should have gone to the front to dance – they expected her frolicking and encouraged it.

            A common misconception of the senior missionaries and myself, that isn’t cultural, is that kids want to go to BYUH… to us its THEE best option (The university of the South Pacific and Samoa University aren’t recognized anywhere other than the small islands). The parents and students here, for the most part, don’t agree. They want to stay here- it is their country after all and the Church wants them to build up their country. A large problem with BYUH students is they marry mainlanders and then move to the mainland or return to their home county’s can’t find work and so return to the USA. I think part of the draw to the mainland is the job opportunities but I think another portion of it, that people don’t talk about, is that some students, by living in America, have been permanently changed and have a hard time adapting back into their own culture. Those who leave for BYUH are usually self selecting in the first place- putting themselfs out as different and wanting different for their futures. A commercial came on offering tickets to go anywhere in the world you wanted to and I asked Tala if she one where she would go. She said “Samoa.”

            I watched “Beauty and the Beast” with the kids, for our movie night, and I realized why Kasia and I aren’t married yet. We’re waiting for a man, like Gaston, who “use[s] horns in all of [his] decorating!” Didn’t realize how much B and the B is about lack of education and Frances turbulent history- that was often driven by fear. On the way to the castle one of the lines in the song is “what we don’t know scares us.” Watching the movie with subtitles caused me to realize just how tough and cheek Disney could be.