Manoan nuers make ya wanna slap ya mammy

One thing I love about my job is that it gives me the freedom to share and teach my otherwise useless hobbies/interests. My liberal arts education is paying off, and I absolutely love teaching them this junk! Lately, they've been learning:

• Greek mythology
• issues in human rights
• how to crochet
• how to do different gymnastics related things
• how to do the "stanky leg" (since they don't have access to the radio, I try to keep them updated on hip-hop culture)
• government formation-- ex: why we have a House of Representatives AND a Senate through metaphors and role playing
• yoga!-- I'll take them to the pond and talk them through the benefits of meditation/being aware of the body
• how to tell what time it is by looking at the stars/other astronomy things (thank you, astronomy class from SU!)
• what it's like for Samoan girls their age (I read them Sia Figiel's Girl in the Moon Circle)
• how to speak Samoan-- I've assigned each of them a number from 1-10 in Samoan, so whenever we "huddle up", they go around and say their number so I can get a head count.
  

One night, I had a "chuckwagon"* where I taught the campers basic samoan phrases/commands that could be used at camp, how to sing a song in Samoan, and then showed them pictures of my travels while I narrated the events. The kids got so into it and had so many questions that we went almost an hour past our education time. This was one of my best nights at camp and it made me so happy to see how much the kids got out of it.

For instance, meet LaKendra**. She's not the brightest of the bunch... she is 13 and has trouble with addition (7+7 is 12?), and yet she has soaked up the language better than anyone else. Unbelievable! She rarely turns in notes for chuckwagons, but she did on this occasion:


1. The nuers (numbers) in Manoan (samoan) are so pretty dat it'll make ya wanna slap ya mammy
2. some old lady making a dress or skirt out of bark!!! (this references the picture I showed the campers of fa'amuuli making tapa)
3. Special letter to Mandy
Hey chief how you doing? good? hope so. me? gucci. I'm just wanting to let you know that manoan is a glamorous place to be at and me it hot! Just stay out the ocean don't hang around dolphines/sharks/whales/fish/jellyfish/ i guess turtles.

Thank you, LaKendra. Alofa ia te oe.

*chuckwagon is an education period that a different chief takes on each night-- all groups participate and take notes for education credit.
**Names changed due to HIPAA