Today we took a Sunday afternoon drive over the mountain to the north side of the island. It was my second time to the north side; the first was yesterday when I went to Massacre Bay. It was pretty cool to drive on top of the mountain and be able to see both sides of the island at the same time. Looking to your left, you saw the Pacific Ocean. Looking to your right, you also saw the Pacific Ocean. Looking down, well, you really did not want to look down. . . It was a long way down.

We went to yet another bay. I don't remember the name of it, but as soon as I found out, I'll change this posting and include the proper location. The village was a bit more isolated than the others I've visted. A lot of people were lying under fales sleeping. We went to this particular village to visit the oldest known church that is still standing. It's a Catholic church, and it is still being used for services. We tried to find the priest in hopes that he'd let us inside, but when we found him, he was lying on a mat in his home asleep. We did not want to wake him, so we snapped photo graphs throught the windows of the church.

Ok, this is a historic building. You would not know it to look at the outside. Recently, someone decided they would "beautify" it by adding some kind of fencing around the front and nailing a red cross above the entrance. They also nailed red tinted plexiglass at the tops of the widows. I guess to give it an eerie effect in the evenings when the light glows through it from the inside. Who am I to judge? I'm sure someone finds it just lovely.

I went hiking yesterday with some other teachers and friends to Massacre Bay. In the late 1700's, a group of French exporers were greeted on the coast by a host of Samoans. They did not stay alive long, hence the name.

They hike to get there was a little more than I'd bargained for. It's pretty steep. I would not say that getting there was easy, but it was much easier than getting away. If any of you have ever hiked to Kibiro on Lake Albert, you can imagine what it is like hiking down the escarpment. It's about the same distance. While the trail to Massacre Bay is a bit steeper than the one to Kibiro, it is shaded by the forest. The sun fries you climbing up from Kibiro if you do not leave early enough in the morning.

It was a great work out. I was a little out of shape for the hike, so my legs cramped up a lot last night in my sleep. Ouch. I've not had much of a chance to run like I like to for the past month, too many stray dogs. I don't want to get bitten again. I have a friend who has invited me to start running with her at the track this week. I hate running tracks, boring. However, I don't have much choice, and I think if I'm running with someone, it will be better.

My favorite day of the week: F-R-I-D-A-Y. Thank God it's Friday! School lets out in half an hour. I'm out on the playground with the children who were well behaved and earned enough good behaviour points to earn an extra recess on Friday afternoons. It a program that I do together with the 3rd and 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Innman. We alternate weeks sitting outside with the students on Fridays. Last week I stayed in and had a free period, and she went out.

Elementary school teachers have no preparation periods at Pacific Horizons School. We teach all subjects to the children, including PE. We just take time when we can to mark papers, make photo copies, and do other small errands. I'm so happy that I got hooked up to the internet in my classroom this week. Atleast that makes researching material for lessons more convenient.

It's my roommate Nicole's birthday today. She's 24, I think. She's going out with her parents first this evening, and then a group of friends will go out later. Maybe we'll go dancing!!! I need to get my booty on the dance floor and shake, shake, shake it a bit.

Stupid bitch!!! I finally figured out how to post photos on my blog. Not rocket science. Here are some photos of my leg where the dog bit me last Friday. I took my class of PE yesterday, and one of them noticed the bruising on my let and yell, "Mr. Hatcher, what happened to your leg? There is a yellow, green and black sore on it!" It honestly had not noticed the bruising until that moment. I only knew that it was not too swollen or pus fill, so I did not fear an infection.

Really, it looks worse than it is.

Mr. Kato Erisama sent me an email today! He is the headteacher at the primary school where I worked for three years in Uganda. I love this man. I think that he is one of the greatest men walking this planet today. I consider him one of the best teachers in Uganda. If every teacher in Uganda were as dedicated, honest and capable as this man, there would be no more problems. It would work.

Enough gushing. . . We are trying to link our two classrooms, maybe create some kind of penpal program or more. I'm excited about this possibility because I think that both sides of the deal would gain. His email came on a perfect day. I'd sent him an email a few weeks ago pitching some ideas I had about how we could work together. He delayed in responding, so I thought that maybe he thought that it was not such a great idea. Well, today, my class was lauching its new unit theme on exploring
Africa when I checked my email in the classroom, and there was Mr. Kato's message expressing his interest in my ideas and providing information about some of his students.

Things have a way of working out.

Just watched "Once More With Feeling" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. About three years ago, that was the one show that I regularly viewed. Now, I'm in television limbo. I don't really have a show. I'm getting close to finding one. I really enjoyed season one of Lost. My favorite character was Shannon until I found out she slept with her step brother. Ew!!!

I got an email today from my friend Raymond in Uganda. He's a secondary school teacher who just graduated from the National Teachers' College in Masindi. He's hoping to join university next year if funding comes through. I miss Uganda so much. I miss village life and all my friends in Bulindi. I miss Murungi and Ssekate and Innocent. I miss Doreen and Monica. I miss cooking outside and going to my neighbor's house to get hot coals to light my charcoal. I miss warm Coke and going to the duka to buy popcorn, chapati, and biscuit. I miss late evenings on Mr. Kato's veranda talking his ear off and him listening. I miss weekends in Kampala and dancing till the wee hours of the morning. I miss Kyazze.

Life goes on. . .

Exhausted every day. . . It seems that no matter what I do, I cannot get ahead. Everyday, I swear that I am going to finsh working early and go to bed at a decent hour, and everynight, my head does not hit the pillow until at least 12:30am (if I'm lucky), then a new day begins at 6:24 the next morning. No sleep is no good.

Today was my most difficult day yet. I really felt like crap this morning. I'm not sure what was wrong. My head was so conjested, and I had a headache. That led to me feeling naseated. I had a well planned day, but I did not feel like I was executing anything properly. I felt like the students were bored with what I had to say. A ray of light began to peek out in the afternoon. The sun finally came out, and my headache subsided. Language arts lesson went well--finally, a lesson that went better than planned today!

I went for a walk with Nicole (one of my roommates) this afternoon. We visited the huge Catholic church behind our apartment. It has some beautiful stained glass windows. I'm going to try to figure out how to post and/or link photos to my blog, and then I'll include some for you to see. There was also some interesting artwork in the church.

I'm enjoying American Samoa more each day. When I got here, I worried that maybe I'd rushed into my decision to come. The culture is foreign to me, and there were not "culture matters" session to help prepare me for what I would encounter. I was not sure how I would adapted to life on such a remote island, but so far so good. People here are great and have been very friendly to me. I appreciate that so much. I miss not being able to walk around freely or run and not worry, but them damn dogs!

My first blog. . . It seems like everyday is full of new experiences for me here in American Samoa. I've begun my stint as an elementary school teacher at Pacific Horizons School, a small private school in an area called Tafuna, about 15 minutes from Pago Pago. I teach a mixed class of 5th and 6th grade. Right now, I have 16 students in my class. It's very multicultural. There are Samoans, a Taiwanese, a New Zealander, an Austrailian, a Cook Islander, an Argentine, a Filipino, and Americans of various ethnicities. I think that’s neat. Anyone who knows me knows that I respect and enjoy diversity, and I love living in and learning about different cultures. I guess my goal is to be able to feel "at home" anywhere I might find myself. "Variety is the spice of life," as some people say. I cannot wait to have more opportunities to explore the American Samoan culture.

So, I've been wearing the hat of a school teacher for two weeks now. I've worked in the education sector for four years, but this is the first time I've been in the classroom with children everyday. I'm used to working with adults, so I'm slowly getting used to having to confiscate paper airplanes and poppers in class, comforting a young boy who was being teased by girls calling him, "Monkey Boy," and having to very specifically spell out my instructions. Working with children also has its perks. True to the cliche, I get apples from my students almost daily.

I must admit that I was terrified the first day of classes. I really had no idea what I was getting into. Sixteen pairs of eager, anxious eyes staring at me almost made me want to retreat and head for the hills. American Samoa has plenty of hills that are thick with leafy vegetation, so I could've hidden out for years and lived off the land, being a nut like that inconsiderate brat of a guy Krakauer wrote about in his book Into the Wild. I realized that I had no choice but to stick with my commitment and educate the children. To be honest, I've really enjoyed the last two weeks, and I hope the rest of the school year continues to get better.

The place is beautiful. I've not had much of time for exploring, but what I've seen so far is pretty amazing. Ok, not as great as the tiny semi-sovereign island of Zanzibar which is the closest place to paradise on earth that I have visited, and each person reading this blog should put a visit there on your "Things I Must Do Before I Die" list. Today we went to Fagatele Bay, google it, and went swimming on the reef. I love snorkeling on reefs. It's like visiting a whole new world. The friends I went with saw a small shark swimming around. I'm glad I did not see that. I want to be a man of steel and say that I have no fears, but I do fear sharks. I realize that the ocean is their home, and I'm treading on their turf. I respect that. I just don't want to be an unsuspecting dinner guest. Surprise!!!

I have two new roommates. We have fun together. It seems that the only people we hang out with are each other. I wonder how long it will take for us to get sick of each other and rip each other's throat out. Ok, that does not have to happen, and most likely it won't because I'm a pacifist, the other two are great people and we like each other. But if it does happen, hopefully I'll be the one to survive. Maybe I'd be able to sell the rights of my story for at least $500,000. Wouldn't that be a great plot for a made-for-television movie. "They thought they were living in paradise. . ."

Yesterday I was bitten by a dog! I was walking from our apartment to the main road where I could catch a bus, and I was bitten by a mangy mutt with a limp. They came in a pack, I only remember three, but there could've been more. At first, I thought that they would just pass on by. One did, and then it barked, I turned, and the pathetic looking black one latched onto my leg. Not only did it bite me, but it put a hole in my favorite pair of Donna Karan jeans. Stupid bitch. A kid, who I assumed owned or had some control over the dogs came up. I asked him if they were dogs, but he did not answer. I kept walking, wanting to get as far away from the beasts as I could in the least amount of time. The kid called out to me, "Hey!" I turned around expecting an apology. He called, "Hey!", again. I looked at him, then he simply said, "Run." I turned around and kept on walking, trying to figure out in my mind what had just happened.

Well, that about sums up the last two weeks. I hope to regularly update my blog and keep you posted on my experiences and thoughts. I'd love to hear from you, what you think.