Samoa

June 1971 Linda was six months pregnant with April and we were on our way to Western Samoa with three little boys and a new adventure. We flew from American Samoa to Western Samoa on a old DC-3 airplane. The cockpit door was left open and I could see right out the windshield of the plane. As we were coming down I was wondering where we were going to land, because all I could see ahead was trees and grass and then only grass. The runway was a grass field. Even as old as this plane was it seemed to be air conditioned, for when they opened the door it about knocked us back in because the air was so hot and humid. We thought we are going to live in this for three years. The ride from the airport to our new home was interesting lots of bare naked little kids running around. Most of the homes were 12 post thached roofed fales. When we arrived at our new home, it was really new. As a matter of fact they were still painting it and hanging the doors. We moved in with our suit cases. We thought that our belongings would be there a head of us but they weren't. Our car had arrived ahead of us and some one took us the next day to get it out of customs. Our belongings arrived about a week later and we got it through customs and started to get settled in when one of the school administrators came to the house and wondered when I was going to show up to work and start teaching. I hadn't even thought about it. I thought they would be on the same school schedule that I just left and it was summer vacation. I was wrong and I started the next day. I was shown where my shop was and given a role of the students names and the class schedule. As I looked around the shop there was lots of power equipment that appeared to be in ill repair and not bolted down and very poorly organized. The shop was also filled to the ceiling with half made lava lava boxes. These are kind of like a cedar chest here in America only much cruder. The teacher just before me felt that these students didn't need to learn how to use any power tools because they didn't have any at their homes. So he taught them to use just hand tools and then let the teacher come in after school and use the shop any time they wanted. I changed that polcy the first week I started teaching. The other teachers were not real happy with me at the time, but I opened up the shop for about a month prior to Christmas for them to make presents if they wanted. I went through the shop and organized it and bolted all of the equipment down so it was much safer. I then tore apart all of the equipment and made a parts list of everything that I would need to get the equipment up and running properly and took it to the superintendant of the school and presented him with the list of parts. He was shocked that I didn't want all new equipment like the last teacher. So he expidited the order of these parts and they came in record time. Usually it takes months to get any thing there that you need or want. It was the desire of basicly every student that I had to leave the island at some point and seek a better life. Once they could see the value of what I could teach them they were excited. They realized they could take these skills with them and have a better chance of making better money in America or Australia or New Zealand. My shop was a wood shop and they learned how to set up and use the equipment properly and safely. They learned to make plans for a project and then follow the plan and to build what they had designed. It's too late tonight will have to tell more later. Dad