in the states. The trip was great and as most of you know the weather
back in the midwest was terrific. Now I am back in Samoa, getting
back into the swing of things, including getting used to the heat
again. In fact as I write this at 5:30am, I am sweating. I sure do
miss those 70 degree weather days!
Work at the Red Cross is pretty much back in full swing. We have had
to do some revisions to the program we are working on developing that
is going to delay the process and the start date of the program.
While it is a bit disappointing, it is not that surprising so we are
working towards the proper solutions now.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health held a celebration for national
health week at their compound. Everyone from the Red Cross joined
representatives from other government ministries, students from a few
select schools and some of the big wigs in government including the
Prime Minister in attendance. There were a few speeches by some
prominent Samoans, sorry i don't know their names or positions because
it was announced in Samoan, promoting heath in Samoan communities. I
only know this because of the few words I could pick out in the
speeches and the short summary they provided in English though out the
speech for us non-Samoan speakers in attendance.
The colleges (that's high schools here) that had student
representatives also had one student from each give a speech about TB
prevention. I am sure it was an exciting opportunity for the students
and they all did a very good job speaking in front of a large crowd.
I am not sure how the speeches to be presented were selected but there
was a disappointing aspect to them and that was in the content of the
speeches. Two of the three speeches were at least in part in English
and I could understand the basics of the one that was presented in
Samoan and they did not really talk about TB prevention or as was the
case for one speech, were for the most part wrong in the methods of
prevention. Sadly it can be reasonably assumed the students were
obviously misinformed by the teacher(s) that were to help them with
the research.
Beyond that, there is not too much to report. Misa and Lelani are
building two more houses on their land just across from my house so
who knows, I could have some neighbors pretty soon. They started
building the houses before I left and they will probably be finished
within the next two weeks. Well, I'm off to get ready for work. Oh,
and I forgot to mention as the title of the post indicates, I have
officially been in Samoa for a year and a half now. It has really
gone by fast and with only 8-9 months left I will be back in the
states before I know it. So that means I have 8-9 months to actually
come through on my hollow promises to post more often. We'll
see.........
0 comments:
Post a Comment