Saturday, December 18, 2010

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

October 11th was White Sunday, Samoa's equivalent of Children's Day. It is the one day a year that children do not have to do chores, get to choose the menu for meals, and are served before adults. Normally, kids are working hard to serve the adults in the family, so this is supposed to be their "day off." Naturally, because this is American Samoa, the day revolves around church services. For weeks, children are practicing bible verses, song and dance routines, and skits to perform at church throughout the day. In the morning, there is a service for children to share what they've worked on (they ALL recite a bible verse and participate in numerous other routines). The morning service lasts anywhere from 3-5 hours. Then, families go home to have their Sunday tonai (BIG lunch), where children are served first. Then, after an afternoon rest, families return to church to participate in more skits and songs.

My school had an assembly to celebrate White Sunday, and I want to share with you a video of one of my favorite Samoan songs. I have no idea the title, but this is the 5th and 6th grade classes dancing to the song, cutting away to my students Solomona (boy) and Asenati (girl) participating from the audience. One of my absolute favorite things here in American Samoa is seeing Solomona dance and sing to religious music!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jenn,

    I was one of the volunteers in Vatia last year. I was justing talking to my roommate about the dogs that would hang out in front yard. I was wondering if you still see Mulan (we called her Pegs and the previous volunteers called her Long John Silver). If you've seen her, you'll know what I mean. Thanks and good luck in the spring!
    - Steve

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  2. Hi Steve! So good to hear from you! I hope you're off on many new adventures :)

    Yes, we do still see Mulan - Love her! :) She's so sweet... accompanies me up and down the village. We actually don't live in your house this year, but rather with Mata (Craig and Cathy) right behind. We had an... interesting... start to the year which called for the change.

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