The Ofa/Alofa/Aloha Spirit is Alive in Euless, TX

High school football is big in Texas. I always expected to grow out of it, but now that I'm living back home, my favorite thing to do is to go to my alma mater's pep rallies and football games. And I don't even like football.

Lately, my high school has been getting tons of press coverage on the football team(not just local, but NPR, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS, and BBC! *). And it's not because of the football. It's because of the Haka, and all that it symbolizes within this school:


I remember entering middle school and wondering why my friends' parents were transferring them to other districts. You'll get... shot/pregnant/into drugs/turn gay/dye your hair/in a gang... if you go to Trinity. That's what I heard. Our rival high school made T-shirts that say "I was going to go to Trinity, but then my dad got a job." And to be fair-- yeah, there were kids that went there who got pregnant/shot/into drugs/etc... but then there's... me. And I didn't join any gangs. The point of it is that there are people of all kinds in the world who may do things differently from you, but all you can do is build a community and show each other love anyway.

When I went there, I felt at home. I wrote several editorials for the school newspaper about how much I appreciated our diversity, which is kind of funny to me now because I had no idea how unique my high school was until after I graduated and left to go to a private liberal arts college (white-ville, USA). While I was there, I became aware of and sensitive to racial discrimination. There were so many kids that were adamant about ending racial discrimination, but it felt like we were all walking on eggshells all the time, which in reality I think segregated the community even more. This period in my life just left me depressed and hopeless about ending discrimination.

I came home right before I left for Samoa and went to a pep rally to watch my little brother in the drumline. Being back on campus and watching the kids interact brought back so many memories... and I got a little emotional. Looking around the gym, it seemed like there was so much potential for discrimination, and yet the sense of community there is indescribable. Here's a clip from the pep rally:



So now that I'm back home, I love to go to the games. I don't even like football, I just like the atmosphere. It's so cool for me to see the "Dallas mom" (with her big hair, excessive makeup, etc) get high-fived by the 75 year old Tongan grandmother every time Trinity scores a touch-down.

As I was leaving the pep rally last Friday, I saw mobs of kids congregating in a circle on the mall. In my day, this almost always meant a fight was breaking out. But as I got a better view, I realized that the times, they are a-changin'... :)


Before, I generally felt that racial tensions were heightening, and that any resolution was hopeless. That even on a national level, there are some things that are just irreparable. But this school is a prime example that a little bit of ofa / alofa / aloha can go a long way.

* Here's some news clips- I've said what the haka means to me (as a Euless "insider"/Trinity alum/white girl), but several of these clips illustrate what it has done for the city of Euless/Polynesian families/Trinity HS.
NPR
bbc clip
NY Times
CBS

On living at home...

"As a general rule, we detest what resembles ourself, and our own faults when observed in another person infuriate us....It is because the similarity is too great that, in spite of family affection, and sometimes all the more the greater the affection is, families are divided." - Marcel Proust, The Captive.

Yeah.

The time I ran into a kid from my high school... in SAMOA

P2180448, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

My very first day in Samoa, our academic director dropped us each off in random places around Apia and told us we had to find our way to the market. I was wandering around a village for a while, and this man was sitting down eating and asked for me to join him. I really didn't want to, but he mentioned that he had seen me get off the plane the night before (yes, Samoa is THAT small). And so we talked for a while, and he helped me get to the market. On our way there though, he kept telling me he needed petro for his car. I was trying to play dumb, but he kept pushing me and saying "Do you understand? I need YOU to help me so I can buy petro!" So finally, I gave him 5 tala, and he was like you don't have a 20? And I was thankful that I honestly DIDN'T have a 20, opened my wallet to prove it, and after that he left me alone. But he did help me find the market, so to make sense to a westerner, I was basically paying him for his assistance. But in Samoa, people are very generous, and I now see that that kind of exchange is normal-- and I keep telling myself I wasn't really getting scammed.

As soon as I found the market, I was walking around looking at things and I heard someone say "Where you from?" Already being nervous and frustrated about being in a strange new place alone (and at the time, I kept worrying that everyone was going to scam me like that guy or have other bad intentions), I walked faster and ignored him. But he followed me and finally I bluntly said "The States" and kept walking. Then he said "what part of DALLAS are you from?" I stopped dead in my tracks and flipped around... slack-jawed. He said "I went to Trinity. You were a cheerleader. I graduated in 05, played football-- #37." I was still in awe. He told me he was on his mission for LDS, and I had talked to my friend Tevita (who's Tongan/ a LDS missionary) the day I left for Samoa to see if he knew anyone there, so I wondered if he just told this guy to look out for me. But then he started naming all the different people we both knew, and I'd say a first name and he'd say their last name. This guy really went to my high school. And picked me out at the market in SAMOA!

As I write about this two weeks later, I'm still in shock.

An actual letter written to a good friend

"You're studying in Samoa!? wtf x 120"

Back when I thought I'd be studying abroad in China, I never encountered such confusion from my family and friends about my decision to do so. I don't think I would have needed to say a reason for studying in China. It would probably be obvious that it's a pertinent country to most focuses in the academia, and above all, it would probably lead to financial stability through multiple opportunities in the business world.

But now, I'm not going to China. My forms were late and I didn't get into the program (SIT has rolling admissions and they filled up too fast). I'm pretty sure I received my letter of rejection during some capstone crisis, so I just signed on the website to look at what else was open... and without even thoroughly looking through any of them I just told the lady to switch my application to the Pacific Islands program. BUT my curiosity led me to the pacific islands program before other countries for these reasons-

1. My high school/hometown has a huge Tongan/Samoan population (they're actually probably the nicest people I've ever met! just don't piss em off... they're big mofos) and it's been getting a lot of coverage for some of the traditions they've brought with immigration.


2. At the time I still thought I wanted to apply to a pacific relations graduate program (UCSD). But since then, I've kind of been leaning more towards graduate programs for political theory... we will see if this trip pushes me one way or another.

3. While this may not obviously be useful in political science, I'm interested in the gender dynamics in Samoa specifically. In some families, if there are not enough girls, a boy will dress and live with a feminine identity to help out with domestic duties. I stumbled across this article (after I signed up for the program) and it kind of sparked some questions in my mind. Specifically, if you just read the section called "The Ocean", I think it's interesting how she plays around with associating the idea of land to the masculine-- as a solid form worth exploring and discovering.... while linking water (deep and fluid) to the feminine and to Samoa-- remote and unexplored. The fact that the Pacific Islands are seen as irrelevant to international politics intrigues me. Why aren't the Pacific Islands studied more in the academia?

In short, I'm very curious about the places I'm going to go. But at the moment, I really have no objective for what I want to find. Which is a good place to be in, I guess.