New Jack Pretty

I now have internet in my house. I have uploaded this post to Blogger while I sit on my couch. Yes, it is dial-up. But dial-up isn’t half bad. During the 1990s, we all bulked up our modems faster than internet service providers could keep up. Near the end there, just before DSL became affordable, we all had 57.6kbps modems that were connecting to modems at the AOL hub that were only 14.4kbps. We all remember dial-up loading pages at a snail’s pace, but it’s really not that bad.

Skype works. Sure, there’s more of a delay than there is with a broadband connection, but I’m still talking to The States at a rate that is cheaper by a factor of 6. I downloaded the NPR Shuffle podcast last night (Approximately 20 minutes long, approximately 9MB big); it took about 20 minutes. Not terrible.

In any case, it makes my living situation feel pretty darn complete, with the exception of the cinderblock shelves that have yet to be purchased. I think I might wait on those anyway since I’m pretty close to coming in right on target budgetarily for January. Also, truth be told, I’ve always been a little intimidated buying lumber from the hardware store. It’s so raw; it’s not wrapped in plastic and hung on a rack. How do I deal with that?

This sense of completeness is good with school starting. We finished the schedule yesterday, but the yardwork wasn’t complete, so I go to hang around with a group of boys. I was supposedly “supervising,” but I just watched the machetes swing back and forth. It has that hypnotic allure that is also inherent in things like squeegeeing a windshield or vacuuming a dirty rug; there’s no real reason to watch, but for some reason it’s just so interesting to see the windshield go from splotchy to crystal, the floor from dusty to fresh, the plants from overgrown to hacked-to-death.

They did focus on the area around my house today. They picked up a lot of the trash that was here when I moved in, and one of them climbed my tree to hack the branches that grate against the roof when it’s windy. So that was nice.

My interaction is still minimal. Every student I see on my walk to the teachers’ lounge in the morning says “Morning” to me. Not “Good morning,” just “Morning.” Sometimes I echo it back to them, sometimes I respond with a Samoan “Mālō.” The rest of the day is a series of raising my eyebrows and more mālōs.

I printed out the final schedule today after school. This is the second time I’ve worked in the lab afterschool and another teacher asks if they can come to work and brings his/her children. I’m totally fine with it, and watching the kids use the computer give a bit of a preview for what I’ll be working with once classes start next week.

On Monday I introduced the art teacher’s niece to Microsoft Paint. I went back to working on the schedule, and after about 5 minutes, she called me over to help her. She hadn’t figured out how to click the mouse.

All things considered, this isn’t alarming. She’s a freshman so there’s not too much that is expected of her coming in, and the freshman year curriculum is incredibly basic. I also should emphasize that, while many of my students have never touched a computer before, others are pretty savvy. I’m not trying to tell a horror story or insinuate that all of my students are computer illiterate; I just want to give you a flavor of where we’ll be starting from.

In my interview with the Peace Corps when the recruiter floated the idea of me doing Information Technology, I balked a bit. I don’t have a lot of background in building computers, working with hardware, or troubleshooting operating system errors. But the recruiter explained to me that because the classes are so basic (e.g. “To click the mouse, you press this button”), many people who have a strong IT background aren’t interested or effective in teaching such classes. They’re way too overqualified.

It’s a weird position though. On one hand, we are teaching incredibly basic computer skills, on the other hand, we are expected to maintain derelict computer labs on a shoestring budget. Okay, so my computer lab has flat screens and a few dual core processors. But the great majority of my Peace Corps brethren (Supy, Blakey, Phil, Koa, Jordan, Sara) are trying like mad to pull a rabbit out of a hat. It’s high level IT work (and praying) mixed with teaching at an incredibly basic level (and praying).

We have our first Volunteer Action Committee meeting on Friday, which means tomorrow is my last day of work before school starts on Monday. I need to get chairs up in my lab and I need to figure out how I’m going to teach on Monday without a whiteboard. Or maybe we’ll just jump off that bridge when we get there.

I hope things are well with you, loyal reader. Or site newcomer. Have a great day. Pictures below.





















Guys from SamoaTel installing the new jack.
















Weeding my front yard.





















Brown-noser's on his way to an A.





















This book is displayed in the school library. Those of you who were also in Ms. Dalton's class will remember that this was our text book in 4th Grade Social Studies. And it's even the same edition! Maps include Yugoslavia. I didn't check whether East Germany is.
















Another book in the library is this one called, "On Monday When it Rained," by Cherryl Kachenmeister and Tom Berthiaume, which is full of pictures of this same kid. Wait. Is that you, young Carter?





















This is the head of the maths (yeah. Maths.) department at my school. Wait. Is that you, Samoan Barack Obama?

Getting to Know the New Boss

It may have been the air conditioning. It may have been the electricity of D.C. on Inauguration Day. Or maybe it was the copious snack food, the mimosas, the excitement of Bush leaving office, the pleasant conversation, the domesticated dogs, the real couch, the game of cards, the hotness of Soledad O’Brien’s voice, the smooth confidence of Michelle, the genuine charm of Sasha and Malia, or maybe it was the gravitas of Barack Obama himself. Whatever it was, it made the last 20 hours really really fun.

After I posted yesterday’s blog, I met up with Koa and Blakey for dinner, we grabbed some snacks, and then headed up the mountain to the Charges-Affairs’s house. PCV Hannah was already there because she’d been housesitting at the house for the 3 nights prior. I had been looking forward to last night / this morning since Wednesday, and I was a little nervous at first. Word had spread among Peace Corps volunteers, and I worried that we would overwhelm the house of poor Robin (the Charges-Affairs) with a bunch of dusty hooligans who were looking for a chance at a pool swim and a hot shower. These fears grew when Robin told us to put our cokes in the refrigerator next to the sparkling wine that we’d use for the mimosas.

In the end, 5 additional volunteers showed up: Kate, Christian, Ben, Erica, and Casey. Robin had to go to the airport to pick up some cargo for the embassy, so the 9 of us made ourselves comfortable. And the Charges-Affairs’s house is comfortable. Like I mentioned above, the entire house is air conditioned, the toilets function like toilets, and the couches are big and comfortable. Blakey, Koa, Erica, and I played some Euchre while the other guys watched some TV shows that Casey had on his computer.

When Robin returned, we turned on the movie “Volunteers,” which she has on VHS. I had never seen it before, but given that the movie is about the Peace Corps, it had a whole extra dimension of humor. Perhaps the best part is when Tom Hanks narrowly escapes the throes of a goon by slamming the airplane door, only to turn around and see all the volunteers in coach singing “Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore.” Although also funny, and more true to our experience was when a diligent but exhausted Rita Wilson sees apathetic Tom Hanks speaking perfect Thai. She asks, “You learned to speak Thai?” And he replies matter-of-factly, “How else do you expect me to communicate?”

We had heard that things would get started between 3:00 and 3:30 Samoa time, so I only got about an hour of sleep (if you can call it that). And then I proceeded to watch 9 hours of banter and pageantry. Some observations I made were:

• Michelle Obama has an impeccable sense of fashion;
  
• Wolf Blitzer is an idiot;
  
• CNN spends far too much time highlighting bizarre new-fangled technologies that don’t translate well to TV (e.g. the 3-D picture that was not really 3-D and the exclusive satellite pictures);
  
• Anderson Cooper sounds like Bill Maher;
  
• Bill Clinton looks really good, George H. W. Bush looks frail; and
  
• Having Yo-Yo Ma and Itzak Perlman play at your inauguration is way cool. We should have had them play our Peace Corps Swearing-In.

The poet laureate was not good at reading her own poem. The content sounded interesting, but her diction was ridiculous and distracting. I was also happy to hear that it was John Roberts rather than Barack Obama who flubbed the Presidential Oath. It was funny, but awkward, and it showed that both Obama and Roberts are human. But still, I’m happy it was Roberts’ fault and not Obama’s. Finally, I wanted to give Orrin Hatch a hug when CNN reporters were grilling him on Ted Kennedy’s seizure. Poor Orrin Hatch. Sure he’s a conservative idiot, but who wants to go on national TV when his/her friend has suffered a seizure?

In any case, we did get to go in the pool, and we did get hot showers. We left promptly at noon today. The event was a complete success as far as I was concerned.

The evening/morning was such a good time that I felt a little depressed when we had to leave and return to our solitary lives in Samoa. At first I really thought it was the Obamas. I thought that I enjoyed watching their family so much and that I enjoyed Barack Obama’s cool, confident smile. Between the inauguration coverage, the air conditioning, the domesticated dogs, and the comfy sofas, things felt like home. And admittedly, it was a sad little awakening when we left to head back to Apia.

Oh well. Apia is fine. It’s been very hot the last two days.

I hope things are well back home with you and your new president. Hooray! Pictures below.
















The group pre-sleep. Left to right: Kate, Koa, Blakey, Erica, Christian, Ben, Casey.
















John Candy in "Volunteers"
















The group once things started to get underway. Left to right: Robin, Kate, Blakey, Ben (sleeping), Koa, Casey, Erica, Me, Hannah.
















Our spread this morning. Left to right: Seal-printed glasses, sparkling wine, orange juice, bloody mary mix, vodka, sugar doughnuts, milk, chocolate doughnuts, coffee.
What do you think: I realize that bloody marys are normally served in the morning after a night of drinking, but we didn't drink the night before. Not sure if bloody marys are still appropriate in this situation. Are they strictly a morning-after drink? Or can they just be a morning drink?
















Me at the pool when things got slow.

Adventures in Simple IT and the Quotable Matt

A lot of us were intimidated when the Peace Corps told us that we’d be working in IT here in Samoa. In fact, most in our group who came to do Informa- tion Communications Development have very little technical experience. Sure, I know Microsoft Excel inside and out, but when it comes to hardware issues, I’m clueless. That said, I’m pretty functional when it comes to fixing computer problems here.

I was walking past my principal’s office today when he sprinted out to grab me. “Can you help with the computer?!” He was a little frantic. I had nothing to do, so I came in to look at his computer. It turned out that he had somehow printed the same two documents 6 times each, and this was wasting printer ink since the documents totaled 7 pages between the two. I opened the printer queue and canceled all of the remaining print jobs.

Problem solved. I AM GENIUS.

Less than an hour later, a friend of mine at the Congregationalist Church headquarters called me to ask about a Microsoft Excel issue. He had a hard time articulating the problem over the phone, and I was going to be walking past the headquarters soon anyway, so I told him I’d stop by. The gridlines in his spreadsheet had disappeared because the cell pattern had been changed to white. So I changed the pattern to “No color.”

Problem solved. I AM GENIUS.

The ironic (isn’t it?) thing here is that the only computer issues I can’t seem to solve are the ones I get myself into. The Microsoft Office 2007 I have on my computer is a Trial version that needs to be purchased before January 31. I have no problem paying for it, but every time I try to pay for it, it doesn’t let me. It just keeps asking me to pay.

I also was unable to get the printer in my computer lab to print. I’m unclear if it’s just not on the network, or if there is a bigger issue than that. Really, I have no idea how the network works at all.

Right now, the plan is Max from group 79 is coming to town on Wednesday to help me configure the network in my classroom. I am counting on this being an enlightening experience. And really, how hard can it be? Afterall, I AM GENIUS.

In other news, I was sitting in my computer lab today trying to print, and I found the copy of Grosse Pointe Blank that I had copied on to my flash drive from Casey from group 80. The computer I was using didn’t have the correct codec (or any codec, for that matter) loaded, so all I could do was listen to the audio track. And when I gave up on printing, I played a little minesweeper while I listened to the movie, and the dialogue is sharp. I always knew this, but cutting out the video portion allowed the dialogue to shine more than usual. Also, how underrated is that cast? Dan Akroyd, Jeremy Piven, Joan Cusack and Alan Arkin are all solid. I love that movie.

I also listened to Ben Kweller for the first time last night. Erik described him as “fun,” which seemed odd to me—I’d always assumed Ben Kweller was some emo white kid who wrote songs about the misery of growing up a northeastern elite. But he is pretty “fun.” Who knew?

The school librarian called me aside today to chat. We spoke some Samoan… kinda. My Samoan isn’t good enough that I can carry on full conversations the way Phil and Koa did on various phone calls last week. My biggest problem is comprehension; my brain still has to convert almost every word into English and then string the sentence together. I never quite got to the point in training where hearing what was being said was second nature. But anyway, with the librarian today, I peppered the conversation with whatever Samoan I could throw in.

She seemed pleasantly amused. I AM GENIUS.

Who’s not pumped for the inauguration? I’m hoping for a timeless catchphrase a la “Ask not what your country can do for you…” Here are some Mattisms from the Daily Concise Advice I’m willing to lend to Barack Obama:

• Singing along helps you learn the words;
  
• Don't jump ship until the next is on the horizon;
  
• Shiny pennies are still only worth one cent;
  
• Every free moment should be spent flossing;
  
• A belch can be key in breaking up the tension; and last, and maybe greatest…
  
• You can't make a burrito without spilling beans.

Yeah, you’re welcome.

Hope things are well back home. Pictures below.
















This is the black currant jam I was talking about yesterday. Hard to see the little grape-like fruit, but they're there. But yeah... hard to spread.
















This store is at the end of Palagi Alley, so known for the white tourists that frequent the area. I really like it because it's called "Imagelab Photomart Camerahouse." 3 compounds words, all of which are not real, and each would be sufficient on its own as the name of the store.





















These guys are standing in front of a Mamma Mia! poster, which is showing again at the only movie theatre in Samoa. It's been playing on and off at least since we arrived, and probably for a couple months prior to that. Eagle Eye has also been playing here forever (Eagle Eye?).