Is a teacher supposed to protect the kids?

I'm just going to throw this out there. For all of you who I gave my address to, I gave you the wrong one. I didn't give you the wrong address but instead the wrong zip code. The correct one is...

Pacific Horizons School
P.O. Box 326
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799 (instead of 97699)

In about 2 hours I will have been in American Samoa for a whole week. It feels like so much longer than that. It could be that I haven't seen the "tropical paradise" weather yet. It has rained on and off since I arrived, but it has rained non stop for the last 36 or more hours. All I can hope is that Mother Nature is getting all the rain out before the weekend. As long as we have a pretty Saturday I could care less. We have big plans for the beach this weekend. One thing that I have been told about the beaches here is that to get to the good ones there is quite a hike, but I don't care. I have a great backpack that has been waiting for "outdoorsy" action, and I think this will be a great opportunity. It will also make me look really cool. The only bad thing about the rain is that rain = more mosquitoes. I don't know if I have any skin left that hasn't been bitten by the swarms of mosquitoes here. I am doing my best to protect myself. I start spraying myself down with off when I get out of the shower in the morning which basically cancels out my shower, I take Off towellets to school so that I can reapply during the day, and I spray myself down before I get in bed at night. I should be bite free, but these are smart suckers, and they will get you the second you let down your guard.

So today I had a somewhat entertaining morning at school. I discovered how far I will go to protect the kids in my classroom, and it's to the closet to hide. Our school is a series of old barracks with a lot of windows, but we have to leave the doors open for circulation. The door is on the left side at the front of my classroom, and this morning I was at the back of the classroom grabbing something when it happened. A huge bird flew into my classroom. It was confused and got out after a few laps around the room. The kids started screaming "it's a bird" and I actually ran into the closet. If there would have been a kid in my way I am positive that I would have taken them down (and not thought twice about it). I don't know what surprised the kids more...a bird in the classroom or me running to the closet. I tried to play it off like important math stuff was going to fall of the shelf and I was the only one who could stop the destruction of so many important lessons, but I'm not so sure they bought it. For those of you who don't know, birds are my biggest fear in life. I know it seems illogical, but one incident with a family of Blue Jays and you will be in the same boat. I have been known to hit the ground after hearing the sound of threateningly close wings.

I have a girl in my class that is teaching me a lot about the Samoan people and culture. We eat lunch in our classroom, and I was talking to this group of girls and I asked one of them what their favorite food was. I don't even remember what she said she liked because she immediately started talking about how her mother loves to eat horse. Yes you read it right...horse. I was trying to not act shocked, but I asked her if you can buy horse at the store so that I could get more information. You would think it would be an absurd question, but you haven't been to KS mart. (the main "grocery store") She said that they don't buy the meat because the grandad killed the horse, which I guess is supposed to make it so much better. They are actually Tongans, and let me tell you that they will eat ANYTHING...horse, cat, pig, chicken, dog. I don't know how authentic this is, but someone told me that they like black dogs the best. Something about black dogs having the best meat. I'll have to take my picture of Stella down before the mom comes in for a parent conference.

Last night my team teacher came over to talk about stuff for school (she lives next door, so she didn't come far) and when she was leaving she left me with some disturbing information. She said that she noticed that I turned my porch light off at night which I do because electricity is 3x's electricity in the states, and I am poor. She proceeded to tell me that I needed to leave it on because when they moved here three months ago they had a problem with someone trying to get into their house at night. That's just what I wanted to hear because I live by myself in a land of the largest people I have ever seen. I have felt really safe up to this point, and then my sense of security was crushed. The Ashleys have a large gate around their property in the front, and bushes between the house and the golf course in the back so I think I'm okay. I would think if the bushes or gate wouldn't stop someone the dogs would. All I know is that I was temporarily freaked out. When I got ready to go to bed I took everything of any value, put it on my bed, and locked my bedroom door.

I can't get my camera to work with my computer so I can't post any pictures as of yet, but I am working on it.