So where were we?

I've been terrible at keeping this blog up and running due to internet resources giving me grief. If you tune into Facebook you can check out my site there and see my pictures and make any comments or notes there and I'll try to keep you up to date.

The facebook site is:
http://www.facebook.com/charlie.will

I'm sorry this didn't work out as well as I had planned. Thanks for your patience.
~Charlie

This is going to be a long one folks. Sorry in advance.

This sign has a whole new meaning to us now. We are alive and well. We do appreciate all of the thoughts prayers and packages we've been recieving. We will definitely have some stories to tell when we get back home. Jess and I have been through quite a bit in the past months and due to little to no internet access I have not been able to keep you all apprised of the goings on here. I will try to sum up a lot of the important events and some not so important events.

There was a rather large earthquake that originated southwest of our tiny island. If you've seen video or news footage you will understand the extreme damage that the resulting tsunami caused to Tutuila island. Jess had already gone to her elementary school when the earthquake hit. I was getting ready to go to my school. At this time she did not have a cell phone so I couldn't get in touch with her. This is what scared me the most. I was walking to school when I was picked up by one of the members of our host family that was on her way to work at the hospital on the far side of the Pago Pago harbor. She drove me a short distance when we saw cars honking their horns and making their way uphill to where we came from. We pulled over and I got some video of the wave receeding out of our former village of Alofau.

At this time I was taken to a small mountain where Jess' school was evacuated. Everything else was a blur. I remember getting back to our new home; and I remember being grateful that it is up high on a hill. It is hard to deal with seeing so much tragedy in such a close-knit and small area. Our music teacher took me on a tour of the island the following day where I took some of these images.











Power issues are still prevalent as we have roaming blackouts due to the generators that need to be refilled with diesel. The first week after the tsunami we did not have school. The second week we taught without power. Jess definitely suffered the brunt of this. Without power there was no fan to cool her off and she was dealing with temperatures up to 100 degrees. I was not allowed to teach in my building as there were some stress fractures found between the first and second stories. It was my great pleasure to hold classes in the gymnasium, which is outdoors, and along with six other teachers we spent the better part of that second week telling our own personal stories and helping each other cope with our losses.

Even though there was heavy looting, people have a lot of their villages in order...to a degree. As no one here has house insurance, people have filed claims to FEMA which has resulted in checks given to families who suffered structural losses. I have seen in several cases where this money has been spent on large flat-screen televisions and even new cars! There have been a few cases where I have personally witnessed houses being repaired. This is definitely teaching some of the youth here a terrible lesson.

On a lighter note, one of the largest holidays here in American Samoa is "White Sunday." It is a day to celebrate the youth. Children are dressed in their Sunday best and they get to lead the church services as well as perform skits and songs. Ther is also a large meal after this service, which was fantastic!

I'll try to get more pictures up soon. I've got to head out and get back to my loving wife! We are leaving off around mid-October. Maybe with the next couple of posts I can get you up to speed.

Much love,
Charlie & Jess

Where were we? September 28th

Hey wonderful blog followers!!! Jess and I are doing fine, thanks again for the wonderful packages that we keep receiving. It makes it feel like Christmas here! We got to go swimming this weekend and the dog who is now part of the family came too. His name is "ooch" and he's been dubbed "ooch the pooch." I think that living as we do, so far on the east side of Tutuila island keeps us seperated from the noise and havoc of the west coast. But, then again, we are also far away from fresh food and other fun things. We do have local stores that allow us to purchase dry and canned goods, but vegetables are a rarity. We are also dealing with a mini-fridge that makes us constantly rearrange things so that we can fit leftovers, etc. and it makes it hard to keep food that we might normally keep for a while.
The insect problem has not been very bad here. I did have a run-in with a wasp that was very ill-tempered and he left me a nice welt. Apart from that, the mosquitos are only out at night and don't tend to bother us very much.
School is keeping us both very busy, writing lesson plans and continually adapting them to meet our students' needs is hectic work. We do enjoy our students and I am really hoping that we've made a small difference so far.
I've gotten everyone on campus using Google Earth, it is a trip to see all of the teachers looking for their houses and their families with this. I've also been lucky enough to have a projector in my class and we've been doing all of my lessons with PowerPoint! My students are in the process of painting their favorite author's portraits on my classroom walls. I've definitely got some future Picasso's and Cezanne's.
I know what everyone wants to see is our new pad. You will have to wait until we get it nice and clean before I attempt photo postings of this. As it turns out video posting is not feasible due to firewalls set up at our school. I'd use a bypass proxy but I'm really trying not to get into trouble here. So, no video or pics of our home, but I hope you like these photos.








The first photo was taken a short walk from our new home,








there is another of a tiny roommate of ours (a very well behaved gecko),










another shows jess getting ready for our snorkeling adventure this past weekend, lastly you can see Ooch as he wanted to go swimming too.









We love you and miss you folks bunches,
Charlie & Jess

September 8, 2009

Hey Folks!!!! This is just a test. If this works you should see a video that you can play. It is a short guided tour of our new digs here in Am. Sam. I hope all is well with everyone, and we thank you for all of your support and packages you've sent. Thanks again, Charlie & Jess

9/1/09

Whoa, has it been that long? Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been stressed out at school, just trying to accomplish a lot with a little. Amazingly I just got a digital projector for my classroom and I think I'll be doing great from here on out! I've got so many lesson plans that are written for projectors from my years of experience working with Dare county. Thank you all for your warm wishes. Jess and I are in our new digs and we love it. We are in a clean place, the weather is not killing us, the neighbors are very quiet (and not too close), and we are very comfortable there.

School is getting a little better for Jess too. She is on a roll with her lesson planning. Even though math and science are still difficult subjects for her to plan for; she is working extra hard and it appears to be paying off.

I hope all is well with you! Thank you very much for sending packages. It really makes us feel that we are not so very far away. We miss you all very much. I will try to keep you posted on upcoming events and I'm still trying to add photos and video.

Much love,
Charlie & Jess

August 13th

Whoa! It has been a while hasn't it? Sorry for the delay on my part. I have been trying to work out a schedule to bring my laptop to school and have it coincide with the internet allowing me to access this blog.

Everything has been well since my last post. Jess was a little under the weather with a cough that has cleared up nicely. She does have to get up at 5:00a.m. every morning to catch a bus to her elementary school. I do not envy her in the least. I have had some minor knee pain due to the dislocation that I had way back in 2003. The knee has acted like a gravel mixer in it's noises and feelings, most recently causing some irritation. I think the more I walk and excersize, the more it will clear up.

We do appreciate those of you who have sent care packages! We hope to receive them soon. We have yet to move into the "resort" as I like to call it. The construction portion (adding doors and windows, a stove, and a refrigerator) should be complete by the end of this week. The rest of the house's contents may not be complete for a couple of days after the construction. The both of us are very excited about getting into the new place and settling down. It seems like we've been living out of our luggage for quite some time now. We don't yet know if we'll need any other supplies sent, but we'll let you know if something comes up.

Jess and I are approaching the end of our first week of school. It has been very good for the both of us. We are a little bit more informed about the way the classes and the schools are run. My school has a rather large pep rally this Friday. We are also participating in our first football games of the season this Friday and Saturday. If I were to place a bet it would be on our team!

Sorry for the lack of pictures. Right now the school computer does not allow me to upload images. I'll try to put them on another site and then attach the link to the blog. We hope everything is going well with all of you!

~Charlie & Jess

July 30th

Hey folks,

Sorry It's been a while since the last post. It has been raining and we have been in classes for the past two days so no pictures and nothing really to report on those days.

Today Jess went into town and taught her first lesson to some Samoan students and Bobby and I rode public transport out to the east side of the island to check out our future accommodations.

It looks to be a great year for us! The room and bathrooms and everything look like we are staying at another resort!!! Let the pictures do the talking. We are about 15 minutes out of the small village of Alofau (pronounced "Ah-loh-fow"). It is up on top of a hill so the breeze is very cool so we won't be sweating all of the time. All in all it looks great.

We have some great views from our "resort".

The school that I'll be teaching in has approximately 600 students and I believe it to be the smallest one on our island. We are the Faga'itua Vikings (pronounced "Fahn-gah-ee-two-ah")

We are also the island / state champion football team here too. Our principle's name is Elvis and our Vice Principle's name is Pooch. Pooch is also the head coach of our mighty Viking team. It seems to be a very small, but very cool school.

Bobby will be staying in the village, and until our rooms get furnished, we'll be staying with them for a while. He is staying on a woman named Maria's property. She has two awesome sons named Alex and Rain. Her sons and their friends Mos and Frank went with us up to the site where we were staying and filled us in on some of the local legends.

I'm getting ready to go to our "tea time" session so I'll sign off for the moment. I'll let you know about the living situation as soon as there is anymore movement.

Much love,

~Charlie & Jess