Woop woop! We have a winner!!

I just received CDs from two people who decided to take me up on "the offer you cannot refuse", and they've made my week. Lauren and Lisa take the grand prize!! You guys have no idea how happy I was to receive those... and how jealous I made all the other SIT kids in my group (BOOOHAHAHA)

Favorite Tracks...
From Lisa's: "Herbs, Good Hygiene, and Socks" -Lovage
From Lauren's: "Quit Playing Games" - Backstreet Boys (And no. I'm not afraid to admit it!)

Thank you guys again! And anyone else who hasn't done so yet, get on it!

Let's say, if I can get 10 CDs, I will post pictures of my armpits when they're in more of a "Zoolander"phase than "Don King".

(I also hope that by this point my professors/former employers/important people either have a good sense of humor, or have stopped reading my increasingly vulgar blog altogether)

Rat-tails and Mullets

P4190107, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

My new favorite activity is to make Meredith go stand near someone with a killer mullet/rat-tail. This way, it looks like I'm posing her for her own photo so I don't look like a snob from the states who thinks its funny to take pictures of rat-tails and mullets (even though that's exactly what I am).

I have enough photos I could almost make a slide-show.

Reflections from the girls ocean

Before I came to Samoa, I came upon a former Independent Study Project that inspired my studies here. The girl wrote a series of pieces that were meant to be performed orally and narrated through the eyes of a Samoan girl. This one was my favorite. I think she articulates exactly how I feel about Samoa and my interests here.

THE OCEAN by Shannon Sonenstein

In school we learned that most of the earth’s surface is made up of water. It’s funny to think of it that way because all Mr. Smith, my teacher, the pisikoa (peace corps), ever talks about, focuses on, is the land. I’ve heard the human body is like that too.

Even though I can’t see it, can’t imagine it, I’m mostly water.
Fluid.
Flowing.
Liquid and changing rather than confined to a solid.
Mold.
Role.
Form. As I’ve been trained to think.

Do you know what else I learned today? There are more women on earth than men. I told that to my sister and she laughed at me. She asked, “If there are more women, then why do we only learn about men — what they do? what they think?” And I tried to tell her that women must be like the ocean.

Deep.

Unexplored.

Fluid.

And it would make sense then that the body’s mostly water because that’s where we come from. When I think of my sisters, I think of water. Of nighttime. After supper when we gather under the pipe in the yard and bathe together. All of us sleek and shiny with water. Lavalavas clinging, scrubbing our underpants together. Sharing the water and blowing soap bubbles. Helping each other wash our long, long hair. Surrounded always by water.

That’s how I think of Samoa too. Of being nourished, washed, wiped clean by the ocean. Kissed on all sides by her waves. Protected from the rest of the world. Safe in the ocean’s womb. That’s how I feel after school when all of us girls run to the beach to cool down in our sami, our sea.
Safe.
Protected.
Rocked.
Calmed.
And surrounded . . . by my sisters.

Indigenous Fijian Music: Video!

Here's a video of some contemporary indigenous Fijian music. Those are flip-flops they're using to play the panpipes.

American Samoa (in a nutshell)

My study-abroad program is actually considered to be a "Pacific Islands Studies" rather than just Samoa, so I have been island hopping a bit to American Samoa and to Fiji.

In American Samoa, the first thing I noticed was how many obese people there are. There's McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and all the things we now see as mistakes in the States. My host family served me spam, fried egg, and mayonaise sandwiches. They have an abundance of resources as far as crops go and the Starkist tuna cannery is in Pago Pago, but they don't really tend to their crops like they do in (Western/Independent) Samoa and the fish that they catch are canned and shipped to America. I never had fresh tuna... only canned! Isn't sat vierd?

I also felt as though perhaps the people (specifically the girls) weren't as confident there. My host in American Samoa kept telling me she was trying not to eat so that she could be thinner. In (Ind.) Samoa, the big girls are like "yeah I'm fat! look at all this food I can afford to eat!"

The pollution was also a bit disheartening. In Samoa, they don't really have a very effective waste management system. When I'd help out around the house and pick up the rubbish, they'd have me dump it off the cliff into the ocean (or to roll down to their neighbor's yard). But I was picking up leaves, peels, and other decomposable things (they have plastic bags that are made of starch and decompose after 60 days). Vailima is a Samoan beer, and the only beer anyone drinks here, so the bottles are just rinsed and re-used. On the other hand, American Samoa is a US territory, and therefore has all kinds of US things imported. Packaged things with individual wrappers. Wrappers that don't decompose so readily. What a circus.

I was talking with some of the girls who were poli-sci majors at American Samoa Community College about women in politics (or lack thereof, in American Samoa's case), and in the course of our conversation, I thought it was interesting when one said she thought that most women aren't running for political office because they aren't taught that women can do the job, but that if Hillary were to win the elections in America, then perhaps that would set an example for women in American Samoa.

American Samoa also felt much less communal. On my first day of classes there, I was THREE HOURS LATE because no busses would stop. Apparently, this was because they were all full, but I was so confused because there is no such thing as a "full bus" in (independent) Samoa. Later that day, I learned (through an awkward trial and error) that "stacking" (sitting on another's lap) was inappropriate. Bah Humbug.

List of blunt points #3

1). I thought my waterbottle had a dent in it (it looked like a windshield that had been hit with a pebble) and continued to drink out of it for a few weeks. As the "dent" grew and got greener, I learned that I had been drinking the algae that was growing on the inside of my waterbottle.

2). I re-opened my already-infected hand when I fell in a pool of standing water. Did I mention that in a previous semester, they sent a girl home half-way through the course because she developed an infection that became resistant to anti-biotics?

3). Contrary to popular belief, I haven't surfed once. More on that later?

4). I've been using a sock turned inside-out as a wash-cloth since I got here... and I certainly won't elaborate on what that sock looks like now.

5). My armpits look like I've got Don King in a headlock.

The (inhabited) island without cars

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P3211127, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

A few of us went to go stay on a neighboring island via this boat. The ride wasn't too bad, and my stomach has become pretty strong on the water since I've been here.

In Manono there are no cars, and only one real "road" circling the island which can be as narrow as a footprint at times. The villages there were very traditional, and we were confined to our rooms on good friday:( But on Saturday, we circled the island by foot.

A Samoan Mr. Miyagi.

Picture 577, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

Silao could be one of the coolest teachers ever. He's very reserved and calm, but when he speaks it's either profound or absolutely ridiculous. I will post videos later...

cool AND unusual

Picture 639s, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

Oh, the busses in Samoa. This one's nicer cause it's charter, but it still captures the essence.

Here's a list of some phrases seen on the front of these busses:
"Loose Kids"
"Legalize it"
"Sa Piling Mo" (the title of a popular show from the Phillipines)
"Island boys"
"Ill-da-noiz"

"I'll be back"
... and I'm at a loss for others. But they're good, ok?

And my favorite has been the bus with a huge blown up pic of Tupac in the front, and on each side is a smaller pic of Jesus.

Cat-calling at cute boys

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P4061374, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

Last weekend when I visited American Samoa, the girls I stayed with taught me how to cat-call. I was in culture shock as we were driving around in a rented pickup on a Sunday. First, because they had their own personal car. Second, because we were outside of their palagi-style air-conditioned house on a SUNDAY. But for girls to be cat-calling at boys (and not the opposite) did seem very Samoan to me.

Just when I thought I was comfortable speaking Samoan, I come to this place and find out that the youth have a language all their own. It's like a mix of English and Samoan... and yet I didn't understand it at all. "Dob-Dob Che-maaa!" is what you yell at a cute boy. Their favorite game was to make me yell it at anything with XY chromosomes within a mile radius.

They took me to the McDonalds there and when we were finished I wanted to say "I have a food baby, and my baby daddy is Ronald McDonald" in Samoan (Ua ko ma le mea'ai, ma le tama o lo'u pepe o Ronald McDonald)

I was worried it wouldn't translate, but whatever I said sure was funny.

Puppies!

Picture 328, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

One of the most difficult adjustments I've had to make here has been the handling of dogs here. There's very few registered vets in Samoa, much less clinics, so dogs aren't spayed or neutered. Where's Bob Barker when you need him? They're a lot more aggressive and are notorious for attacking people. At the same time, the people are brutal towards the dogs. It's a vicious cycle. One of the first things I was told when I got here was that if I saw a dog approaching me, I should throw a rock at it as hard as I could, "it's even better if you kill the thing!". It has been rumored that some villages eat dogs. You'd better believe that shook my wannabe-vegan-bones.

H'okay. So as most of you know, my dogs mean the world to me. They are my best friends. When I'm home I spend almost all of my time with them, and when I'm away I spend all my time talking about them. So this has been a real conflict for me.

This picture was taken at my homestay in Lotofaga. One of the strays had a litter of puppies outside our house. When I would go and play with them, my family thought I was CRAZY. Initially, I kept a demeanor that said I was a happy always-friendly, never-angry palagi. But the first time I saw one of the little boys pin the puppy's tail to the ground and then kick her, all hell broke loose. I went off on him in English, and then Samoan. And if that didn't work, I used gestures to indicate exactly what I would do to him the next time I caught him hurting any of the puppies.

A pig getting stuffed: explicit content

P3301220, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

Sorry for the blunt and un-creative heading. I thought it would be courteous to people like my mother. I've been here for a while now, and I've seen many pigs killed, and I suppose that now is the time that I've been de-sensitized enough to not only take a picture of this, but to post it on the internet.

A lot of things have changed for me since I've been here.

From living here, I think my biggest shift in beliefs has been in my own conception of death and how much control I really have over my own life and the world around me. In Samoa, it doesn't seem like people avoid or fear death like we do in the States. When someone dies, the family lay touching that person... even sleeping with them. And then they bury their family members in their front yard with these HUGE and elaborate tombs. And years later the family members lay on them while they're gossiping about the neighbors. Or they lay on them and think about their deceased family member. Either way, it seems like the deceased are always remembered in daily activities.

At this point, this post looks like a huge digression. But in reality, it's these thoughts that help me make sense of the food chain and my own place in this great big world.

In the words of William Shatner,
"Life life! Live life like you're gonna die!! ... Cause you're gonna..."

An offer you cannot refuse

I am having SERIOUS music withdrawals. The computers here won't play mp3s, so I will travel to American Samoa this Thursday where I'll probably purchase a CD player. Right now I have a single CD (from Ron Artis's family band in Hawaii) that can hold me for a little while, but I'd really like some fresh tunes.

So here's my plea to you (yes, you! the person who visits my blog but probably never comments!):
If you send me a mixed CD, I will mail you a souvenir (or hand it to you, depending on our geographic distance) as soon as I return.

Mandy Mantzel c/o S.I.T.
P.O. Box 9268
Apia, Samoa (Western Samoa)
South Pacific

I probably won't be able to receive any packages, but if you slip the CD into an envelope and mail that way, I'll get it sooner.

I would be thrilled to hear any music that you like, or things that you've been listening to.

But if you're at an absolute loss for things to put on the CD and/or you have a free music downloading service, here's some songs that I happen to like:

Puh-puh-puhleaze?