Samoan Men Can't Jump Rope...

sole...i am exhausted...i apologize for taking so long to write...its midterms this week...and along with soccer, i am one busy palagi...this post will be pretty random...i dont exactly know what i want to write about and i dont think its gonna be very illuminating...or life altering...so if youre looking for oprah-like inspiration, you wont find it here...anyways, lets begin with todays blog entry...by the way, "sole" is "man" or "dude" in samoan...its pronounced so-lay...

all of todays pics were taken during our trip to a'asu...theyre the left overs...i think the above picture is kinda cool...with the tree jutting out of the hill like that...and the cloud thats sorta mimicking the tree...i think its always amazing when you see mirror images created by nature like that...its also kinda dr. suessy...i swear i can spot a Who in that crooked, madcap tree...

john and i at the beach...do i look fat in this picture?...come on, tell me the truth...i can handle the truth...

the other day at soccer practice i had the boys jump rope...well, i tried to...you see, the boys need to work on their endurance...they get tired really fast...so we decided to have them jump rope...jump roping has got to be one of the best exercises...it sounds silly but i need to start jump roping...but where do you do that?...in the living room?...is that possible?...anyways, you should have seen these samoan boys try to jump rope...it was absolutely hysterical...they could not do it...i asked them to do like 100...and the boys couldnt even do one!...they kept trying to hop over the rope but their feet would get all tangled in it...and theyd fall or stumble...i really should have recorded it cause i cant explain in writing how funny it was to watch...i told the boys that in the states we learn to jump rope at a pretty early age...so i was surprised to realize that they havent really learned how to do it...i guess jump roping isnt a big thing here on island...i taught them to listen to the rope...when it hits the ground, thats when you jump...it helped a little bit...but they were still tripping all over the place...some of the boys were getting so frusterated...and began to swing their rope around and yell...i couldnt help but laugh my head off...here's a group of teenage, athletic, strong, incisive, and agile men, and they couldnt hop over a pink rope...and, yes, the jump ropes were pink!...making it even more amusing...i was laughing so hard i almost peed my pants...then one of the boys, who almost never speaks english because he doesnt know it that well, said to his jump rope, in complete exasperation, "mother fucker!"...i, of course, scolded him, but i couldnt wipe the smile off my face...i began to laugh afterwards...i couldnt stop myself...it was so funny...it was a most excellent laugh...and ill never forget that moment...twenty samoan guys attempting to jump rope and having a helluva difficult time and cussing like sailers...and, me, the palagi pointing and giggling...

Vent of the Week:

okay, you know all those scenes from movies and television shows where a character is walking down the street and a car drives past through a puddle and the muddy water splashes all over the character?...it usually happens when theyre already having a horrible day...cant you see that scene in your mind?...well, i never thought id become one of those characters...honestly, i always would watch those scenes and think "when does that happen?...does that really ever happen to anybody?"...maybe its cause ive never really lived in the city...(besides my year in chicago)...but i never thought that that scene ever really happened in real life...well, apparently it does...and it happens to me almost every morning...you see, i walk to school in the mornings monday through friday...and our village is constantly flooding...so the streets are literally like rivers here...sometimes even the side walk is...every single gosh darn morning i get drenched by passing cars driving through disgustingly mucky water...its the most infuriating feeling in the world...not only because ive now become one of those pathetic characters from the tv and movie shows, but also because i get showered inconsiderately with nasty ass puddle water...i arrive at work wet and angry almost every morning...some drivers are smart and slow down when they get to the huge puddles...but some dont at all and let the wave hit...i get so pissed off...and theres no way of really avoiding it...i could scream and shake my fists at the driver...but that might please them...i sometimes will use my umbrella as a shield...but im thinking of putting myself inside a plastic bubble and just rolling to work...like a gerbil...id stay nice and dry in that thing...either way, try not to drive through puddles and splash pedestrians...its very annoying...oh, wait...i forgot...that only happens in the movies...and my life...

i feel sorta ashamed to admit this...but ive made like 3 of my students cry this week...and ive made many more than that over the course of the year...i dont know if ive discussed this with you guys but i think the samoan teenagers are a lot more likely to cry than teenagers in the states...theres a few reasons why and ill explain them with my three incidents...

1. one of my students today forgot his journal for the midterm...ive been warning and reminding the kids to bring their journals the day of the midterm for the past 2 weeks...if they didnt turn in a journal, i told them i wouldnt give them the midterm...anyways, he forgot or lost or didnt do his journal...(it doesnt really matter what happened in my opinion...he forgot his journal so i have to follow through with my word...i guess, im evil like that)...he began to cry...not like boo-hooing, but tears began to fall from his eyes...i did feel bad for the kid...but i wasnt about to break down...his reason for crying though was heartfelt and forgivable...i truly think he felt ashamed for not bringing his journal...he was heartbreakingly upset with himself...i dont think many kids in the states would feel this way...i think many kids in america have this sentimentality of carelessness...not only with their school work, but with everything...they hardly ever feel ashamed because nothing really matters to them...they also have been told (a classic american mentality) that THEY arent guilty...i think many students in the states would just get angry at their teacher and blame them...tell them, or think, that its a stupid expectation or whatever...im sure their parents would even defend them...theres a sense, in my humble opinion, of personal irresponsibility in the states...and theres definetly a lack of feeling self-shame...we're always afraid to make our children feel ashamed of themselves...we have this idea that everyone should always have self-pride and self-empowerment and self-confidence...even our kids...and i think its very rare that a teenage boy would cry because of feeling guilty...or ashamed...and i thought it was actually kinda redeeming and earnest...after he apologized and wiped away his tears i eventually gave in and im letting the boy take the midterm tomorrow...IF he has his journal!...

2. another one of my students began to cry after i informed her of her grade...she was getting a B on her progress report...since my kids are all perfectionists, she was saddened to hear that her parents were gonna see this grade...i know her mom is extremely strict and i know she probably gets physically abused when she comes home with bad grades...though "physically abused" is known as discipline here on island...and im not gonna discuss again whether this type of behavior management is right or not...but i will say that it made this high achieving girl terrified of getting a "poor" grade...so she cried...right in front of the class...which i also thought was kinda startling...this would be another thing that would be unheard of in the states...she'd be made fun of up the wazoo in the states if she cried at school...the kids here didnt say a thing to her...in fact, many comforted her and didnt humiliate her at all...i was shocked by this...it was like a high school twilight zone...was this truly happening?...doo-doo-doo-doo...(that was me humming the twilight zone song)...

3. the final incident occured yesterday at soccer practice...i had just finished coaching a scrimmage game and we gathered in my classroom so i could give them an end-of-practice pep talk...suddenly, in the back of my room, two boys began to argue and they both quickly got up and were about to begin fighting...now, ive broken up many fights since being a teacher...especially in a milwaukee middle school...but its a lot more frightening and confusing to stop a fight thats happening in a foreign language...since the two boys were yelling at eachother in samoan, i had no idea what was going on and who started the fight and who was instigating and making it worse...as a side note, i now can understand how scary and baffling occasions like this are to our soldiers in iraq...violence and arguments in a foreign, incomprehensible language are distressingly complex to stop and make peace...its like watching a car slip on a patch of ice and theres really nothing you can do but watch...i finally had the boys seperated with no punches being thrown...and you should have heard the lecture i gave them!...it was all "you should be ashamed of yourselves!"...and "you guys call yourself a team and your battling eachother!?"...and, obviously, for the third time this week, the two boys began to tear up...as i got them to shake hands, their eyes were welling with tears...i know they felt angry at themselves in the end...and thats where the genuine despondency came from...again, i cant help but wonder if kids in the states wouldve felt this type of shameful emotions...dont you think theyd be a lot more defensive?...and act more arrogant and pompous?...it wouldnt be their fault...and they, for sure, wouldnt feel ashamed...maybe theyd get mad because they might get in trouble...but would american kids sincerely get mad at themselves?...

what do you guys think?...is there a lack of shame being put on our kids in america?...or is that feeling of shame harmful?...does it hurt our children's confidence and self-worth?...or should we be doing like samoans do?...and feel ashamed every once in a while?...or am i just on crack?...

and one final thing for todays blog...im gonna start a new weekly column...it probably wont be weekly but yeah...anyways, im calling it...

I Want My Kids To Be Just Like This Student:

i have this one student named josie that loves to read romance novels...im constantly seeing her with her nose in a book...and its almost always a romance...with a image of fabio romantically embracing a beautiful woman on the cover...i always tease her because of her romantic reading interests...ill sometimes even read the back of the book in a melodramatic voice making fun of the book's premise and stuff...and she always giggles...dont worry, i also always tell her how proud i am of her for reading so often...and thats one reason why i want my own kids, when i have them, to be just like her...i love kids that are readers...for some odd reason, i think its extraordinarily special and unique and wonderful when a kid falls in love with reading...especially in a world of television and computers and video games...the question is how to teach that love for reading to your children?...or is it something inherited?...i kinda remember watching my mom read and having her read to us...and i totally remember that book shelf we had in the hallway...i remember grabbing books from that shelf with excitement...but i know that dana doesnt like to read that much...so was my love for reading something that my mom instilled in me somehow?...or was i born with this interest?...was the love of reading in my genes?...was josie and i born book lovers?...why wasnt dana?...well, whatever the explanation is, i want my kids to be just like this student...

okay, i gotta go...but y'all have lots to ponder...and i wanna hear your thoughts on some of my ruminations...why dont samoans know how to jump rope?...have you ever been splashed by a passing car?...or have you drenched a pedestrian while driving through a puddle?...is shame something most americans feel?...should more american teenagers cry at school?...or are samoans just whiners?...or am i just a horrible, power hungry teacher that likes to see his kids cry?...and how do you teach your children to love to read?...oh, and do i look fat in that picture?...

thanks for reading my blog...and listening to my random ramblings...love ya and miss ya...

-JOE

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson