The Good and The Bad

American Samoa is one of the most beautiful places I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. The empty beaches and uninhabited mountains created such a serene and peaceful experience, it felt like my own private island. The process of training on island before being assigned to our locations allowed me to create strong bonds with my fellow volunteers in a very short time. Between the people I was able to befriend through the program and the beauty of the island, I had one of the best years of my life there. The things that were a struggle there were partly the support from our program director and the cultural issues at work. The program director we had that year seemed to brush everyone's concerns under the table and was really hard to get in contact with. The location they placed me at to teach was over a mountain from where I lived where buses didn't go regularly so I would have to stand by the side of the road, sometimes up to an hour, trying to hitch hike over the mountain to get to work in the morning (which in the torrential rain really sucked). At work I was put in charge of 7th and 8th graders which posed a challenge. The students didn't treat me very well because the saw me as an outsider and would tell me they didn't care what I had to say because i was white and a woman. That was a constant battle the entire year. I also didn't live in the very remote village so I wasn't apart of their community so I never came in contact with their parents to be able to hold the kids accountable for their behavior. The main language spoken on the island is Samoan but school is taught in English so a lot of the conversations happening in class I couldn't understand which also posed challenges. There were a number of challenges that I faced on the island but it was still the best time of my life. If you are resilient and love to connect with other people who have a passion for adventure then it is a good program to choose. If you are looking to really make a difference with children's education then this might not be the best place to do it.