My Struggle

When my Peace Corps recruiter interviewed me, nearly two years ago, one of the things he mentioned was that I may be placed in a remote village. I arrived in Samoa with the expectation that I would be placed in the middle of nowhere, far from other volunteers. During training, Peace Corps staff gave us a site placement form where we listed our preferences for our permanent village. One of the questions asked was which island we preferred. I checked that I preferred to be placed on the island of Upolu, but was fine with Savai’i, as well. Why did I want to get placed on Upolu? Because Upolu is where the Peace Corps office is located, and I thought I’d need to go to the office often. Plus, the impression I got from training is that every village in Savai’i is way out in the bush, away from everyone and everything (this is partially true. Some villages are remote, but so are some villages in Upolu), so Upolu seemed liked the more convenient island. Well, my preference wasn’t met and I ended up getting placed in Savai’i. While I had a host family in Savai’i (PCV’s in Samoa are required to have a host family), I had my own house; therefore, I cooked for myself. Also, my shower (tiled floors, I must add) and toilet were inside my house, and I had two sinks: one in my kitchen and one in my bathroom. I know, I know, very “Posh Corps.” Like I’ve mentioned in several blog posts, my house was right on the sea wall, so I loved showering, cooking, and falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing beneath my house; it was perfect.

So what’s my living situation like now? I live in my host family’s house. One room is my bedroom and one room is my kitchen. My kitchen doesn’t have a sink, so I use my host family’s sink, located outside. The shower and toilet are located behind the main house, in a separate structure. I share these facilities with the five people who are members of my host family. Going from having my own indoor facilities for 6 months, to sharing outdoor facilities, is an adjustment. But, on a positive note, I’m thankful that I have running water and plumbing.

My old host family in Savai’i gave me freedom. I came and went as I pleased. My current host family is protective over me, which I appreciate, but I feel like I’m 13 years old. I’m not saying that they’re bad. They’re great, actually. They took me in (when I moved from Savai’i) and I think they genuinely care for me. I just hope they cut the cord. In my new village, I still come and go as I please, but it’s more complicated. For instance, a few weeks ago I needed to walk to the next village over to catch an afternoon bus. It’s only a 10-minute walk, but my host mother insisted that my host uncle and host cousin walk with me. Why? Because “the dogs will attack.” I didn’t see a single dog on route, so I think she just used the dogs as an excuse, so I wouldn’t walk alone. Plus, I now know how to handle dogs that are about to attack—you have to pick up a stick or rock and pretend you’re going to hit them (or really hit them, like I’ve seen many people do), and scream “ALU!” (GO!). If you’re quick enough, you’ll scare them away. If you’re not quick enough, then most likely you’ll get bit. There’s no rabies in Samoa though, so while getting bit would be unfortunate, it’s not that big of a deal. Anyway, back to walking with my host uncle and host cousin. We got to the neighboring village, and waited for the bus to arrive. My host relatives refused to leave my side because they said that they knew I would walk and get attacked by dogs. I explained to them that in Savai’i I was always walking alone, and that I hitch hiked numerous times, so I’m fine being left alone. After waiting for the bus for two hours, I got frustrated. I flagged down a car, asked the occupants if they were going to Apia, told my host uncle and cousin goodbye, and hopped in the strangers’ car.

This leads to my next topic: The buses. My old village in Savai’i had several buses an hour, so about 2-3 times/week after school, I’d go into town for shopping or to use the internet, and by 6 pm I was back home. When I needed a bus, all I had to do was look out my window and wait for a bus to pass. Then I had to be outside within 10 minutes because the bus would turn around at the end of my village, pick me up in front of my house, and go to town. Plus, Savai’i has buses on Sundays because the buses run with the boat schedule. The buses on Upolu don’t run on Sundays, which is extremely inconvenient. It’s inconvenient for several reasons, the biggest being that if you go to Apia on a Friday, you need to leave on Saturday morning. If you decide to stay in Apia on a Saturday, you can try to hitch back to your village on Sunday (which I think would be a difficult thing to do from Apia), or you can pay for a taxi. It costs $70WST to take a taxi to my village. No thank you. That’s a lot of money here. A few times I’ve been lucky enough to get a ride back to my village on a Sunday.

My village in Upolu has one bus. It leaves to Apia once a day, Monday-Saturday at 6 am. If I’ve missed that bus, I can walk to the neighboring village and catch their bus at noon, Monday-Friday, or at 7:00 am on Saturdays. Like I mentioned above, sometimes the bus doesn’t show up. There’s no way to tell if the bus will show. Once I’ve lost hope that the bus will arrive, I stop waiting and hitch. This isn’t even the most frustrating thing about the buses. The most frustrating thing is that my village is about an hour and a half ride by bus from Apia, but last Friday I sat in the bus for 4.5 hours! Why? Because the bus driver waited for the bus to fill up before we left, which is understandable. Then we went to a hardware store so the driver could run an errand, then we stopped at four stores so the driver and my fellow passengers could food shop, then the driver stopped for gas. What’s amusing (sarcasm) is that when I lived in Savai’i, it only took me about three hours to go from Apia to my village, which consisted of 2 buses and a boat ride.

So after my long rant above, you know that the buses/transportation in Upolu are what I’m struggling with. I’m so close to Apia, but it’s such a hassle to go and come from there, I feel like I’m an island away. I might as well be. Days like today, I’m really missing Savai’i, and how easy my transportation situation was. Some weekends I’d meet friends in Salelologa, and we’d spend the day at Lusia’s, until the last buses left town at 5 pm, then I’d be back in my village by 6 pm. Now that I’m in Upolu, I’m staying in my village weeks at a time, compared to leaving my village several times a week to do errands or spend time with friends. Life as a PCV isn’t about always hanging out with other PCVs. Spending time with your host family and villagers is important because it helps build relationships in the community, which will help with secondary projects, but it’s nice to spend time with other people who can relate and understand what you’re going through; it’s needed for my sanity.

What’s nice about my village in Upolu is that I’m within walking distance to three resorts. I don’t spend much time at them, but it’s still a great option to have. If anyone from Group 85 is reading this, word on the street is that one of you will be placed in the village next to mine. This excites me because on days like today, when I’m bored out of my mind and have no work to do, it will be nice to have a fellow PCV within walking distance.

It’s funny how things work out: I wanted to be placed in Upolu, and eventually, I ended up here, in a relatively remote village, something I was expecting from the get-go, yet here I am ranting on about it. Humans are never content with their situation. It’s not like I’m miserable. I’m just remembering and comparing it to how easy my transportation was in Savai’i. But there’s not one person in my group who has a perfect living/site situation. I moved from Savai’i for personal reasons, so the perfect transportation is something that I had to sacrifice because I traded it for happiness in my new village. On days like today, when I’m bored out of my mind, and feel like I’m a million miles from civilization, I remember how much I wanted to be a PCV when I was in the application stages, and how hard I fought to be here when I almost got sent back to America. While I’m struggling with transportation in Upolu, I’m learning to accept it. The positives in all of this is that I’m saving a lot of money living the simple village-life, I get to spend time with my host family, keep on top of my workouts, and catch up on my sleep, something that I love doing.