Redhead Jumps Over a Fence...

aye, aye!...captains!...alright, ixnay on the ialorsay alktay...anyways, its been an interesting weekend...i dont want this post to be too long...so im just gonna write about my injury (redhead + fence = ouch!), and then ill briefly discuss one aspect of the american samoan culture (im actually starting to run outta topics!)...well, full steam ahead...

the above picture was taken at lions park...actually, all the pics in this post were taken here...its a park on island near the ocean where people go to play soccer, baseball, football, rugby, tennis, volleyball, cricket, and basketball...theres also tons of cookouts and barbeques that go on here...even though its kinda a ghetto, polluted park (theres garbage everywhere and the equipment, including the playground, is falling to pieces and the ocean shore at this park is disgustingly brown and milwaukee-like), its still always nice to visit every once in a while...especially cause theres so much to do...the last time i was here was for a night of drinking vailima...and that turned out to be one helluva drunk fest...at any rate, william and i went to the park on saturday to play some soccer...it was fun...that day i, honestly, walked about 5 miles...i walked to a workshop, then to school (for speech festival practice and soccer practice), then back home, and then to lions park...i know you guys have no idea the distances between these places, but theyre all pretty far apart...but the day was beautiful...it was exceptionally hot but it would also begin to sprinkle cool rain every hour...so right when i was startin to sweat my little butt off, the rain would come and chill me down...it was wonderful...best weather ever!...

by the way, i love the top picture...for some reason, satelites and satelite dishes are so extraordinary to me...i think i even went through a stage where i wanted a space satelite tattooed on my body...dont worry, i probably wont go through with it...but if you think about it, satelites are pretty damn amazing...unfathomably smart and impossibly brilliant...

"we understand a lot of things,
about modern technology
but not about dreams.
our hearts are on the shelves,
we cant fix ourselves...
but we can fix
a satelite."

-guess the song and the artist for ten points...and dont let suzy get it again, people!...

oh, that reminds me...i heard you guys got snow...and since youre all upset with me not swimmin in the ocean, then y'all better play in the snow for me...go sledding and make a snowman and have a snowball fight in honor of me...think of me...just please dont make a snow angel...i think snow angels are so wrong...youll look like a fool...flappin your arms and legs like a eagle...and by the time you get yourself up from that position, with your foot prints everywhere, it looks pathetic anyways...so dont even try it...dont even think it...snow angels are wrong...so, so wrong...

okay...on to my injury...so while walking home from lions park and williams house, i decided to take a little short cut...to take the short cut i have to climb a high, dangerous fence...with barbed wire and everything...if i didnt take the short cut, it wouldve taken me probably 30 minutes longer to get home...and we were gonna go out that night so i wanted to get home quickly to shower and stuff...anyways, ive jumped this fence many times before...but lately, the police or whatever have been cracking down on fence jumpers in this area...so theyve added wire and more length to keep people from jumping it...well, i am an intelligently, adventerous super man so i knew i could still jump the fence...even with its new deadly consistency...i climbed up it with no real probems...it was wobbly and tall, but i still got to the top and balenced myself at the peak...i had to jump far out so i wouldnt hit the bushes and some wire on the other side of the fence...so, like a unicorn, i flew my beautiful body out as far as i could...and landed...landed hard...i didnt fall or anything, i think i just landed on my foot badly...i had to walk home with a limp cause it hurt...but it didnt become awfully painful until i got home and rested it a bit...then it became extremely, agonizingly sore and tender...i couldnt walk on it for the life of me...so i had to hop around on one foot...i couldnt move it at all...i began to think i broke it or something...we called a friend up and asked her if she could take me to the hospital...she said "yes", and off we went to see what happened to my injured foot...

well, it turned out to be really nothing...the doctor, though many tell me that the on island doctors arent really considered "doctors", told me it was just a bad sprain...and that i needed to rest it for the next 72 hours with ice and elevation...she said it would be in pain for the next week...i hopped outta that hospital with nothing but a 20$ bill...i shouldve known not to go to the doctor...hospitals suck...my dad was right...theyre just a waste of money...this hospital on island is so ramshackle and poor that they didnt even have any crutches or bandages for me..."they ran out"...but i suppose im glad i found out what the problem was...she said it was a "soft tissue injury"...whatever that means...so now im hobbling around like a nerdy tiny tim with a stick up my sphincter...youd half expect me to start spoutin "god bless us everyone"...

nevertheless, i didnt do anything for the rest of the weekend...gave my foot rest and read my book...its still hurtin a little bit...and walking is difficult...but ill survive...luckily a friend of ours said she'd drive us to school tomorrow...otherwise i wouldve had to walk a mile...lookin like the other sister...

well, id said that i would talk about some aspect of the culture in american samoa...and i decided id write about the gay community here on island...like i said, im runnin outta topics...

anyways, ive really only came out to one samoan here on island...everyone else seems to still be in the dark about my sexuality...the guy i told is gay himself...his name's jon...i think i mightve talked about him before...he's a fafafina...but only on weekends and for entertainment purposes...(i saw him perform one time in stillettos and a coconut bikini...sorta wild)...after i confessed to him my "secret", he told me that the only reason he began to dress up as a woman is so that he could become part of the gay community here on island...he said theres no gay culture on the island except for fafafinas...(ive talked extensively about the fafas and how much they are a part of the samoan culture)...he said that "youre not considered gay unless you dress up as a woman"...otherwise youre just believed to be "in the closet and confused"...i talked to him about me wanting to just come out to everybody on the island...that i didnt really want it to be a secret, but i also didnt want it to be the only thing about me...i actually think that many people here, including the students in my classroom, would be pretty open, understanding, and caring about it...once again, theyre all okay with fafafinas and they all have one in their families...and its actually seen as acceptable for men to have sex with fafafinas...i told him i think itd be easier to be known as gay here than it would be in the states...jon informed me not to come out...he said "people wouldnt believe you and it would be the only thing about you"...it would take control and swallow me whole...forget "joe" or "mr. neman"...the only thing samoans would know about me is "gay" or "in the closet"...i guess ive come to the conclusion that if people find out, i dont really care...i wont really just come out and shout it out to the world...but im not gonna keep it a secret either...and knowing this small, gossipy island, now that ive told somebody im sure it wont be a secret for long...if it becomes a horrible experience and the samoans hate me for it, i can always leave...and come back home...to wisconsin...where its illegal for me to get married ;-)

i cant remember if ive told this story or not, but im sure some of my students have questioned my sexuality...afterall, im not the most masculine man...ive probably become like those teachers in my high school that we always questioned to be gay...mr. becker in the hizzouse...theres been some students who've even told me kids think im gay...which i dont say yes or no...i just kinda laugh it off...anyways, one of my students came up to me one day and told me that a rumor was going around about me...i suspected what this rumor was about...but she told me something shockingly funny...she said that someone saw me kissing another guy in front of the KS Mart...thats a popular korean store in tafuna...the first thing i said was "the KS Mart?...why in front of the KS Mart?!"...i started laughing but then realized that i probably just gave my secret completely away...i didnt question her on the whole kissing a guy part of the story...only about the store i kissed him in front of...i thought for sure she'd pick up on my slip...but, since she's samoan and intelligence isnt really inherited in regards to samoans (i know that sounds cruel...however, its true and they joke about their mental slowness all the time)...she didnt realize that i didnt get upset about the whole kissing a guy thing...i thought it was pretty hilarious though and kinda laughed it off...i guess ill always have to be that teacher that has a dirty little secret...and kids will discuss me in study hall for years to come..."is he or isnt he?"...until that day comes when i can be openly gay...maybe i should start a gay alliance here on island?...if i was brave, i would totally do something like that...but im a weak, small, scared man...with a secret...and a soft tissue injury...

alright, im sorry that this post wasnt very enlightening...but im doped up on ibuprofen...here's some websites for hotels in the area...shawn actually sent me one of them...looks gorgeous...we might be staying at a hotel like that when we go to western samoa during spring break...i guess we're sleeping in beachside falas...im so excited!...ill for sure swim in the ocean during that vacation...

http://www.south-seas-adventures.com/samoa-resorts/Sinalei-Reef-Resort.php

http://www.tradewinds.as/

http://www.american.samoa-hotels.com/turtle-shark/Index.html

k...bye...love ya and miss ya...

-JOE

"A treveler without knowledge is a bird without wings."

-Sa'di