Barriers

One problem I've been havin is the language barrier. I guess its really two problems. First, there is the language barrier between myself and many of the locals. Now most Samoans between 5 and 35 speek english pretty well. But that still leaves a large segment of the population out. And then there are the people who can sort of speak english like James. James is the fix-it guy at the school but more importantly James is a member at our Church. Really I am a member at James' church as his extended family make up a good portion of our membership. Now James is a sharp guy. He is an excellent craftsman, landscaper, and electrician who fixed the fan in my classroom. James also speaks three languages. He is origianally from Tonga (Tongan), moved to Am. Sam (Samoan) and can speak some english. But its still pretty difficult for us to have conversations. But we do.

The second language barrier is on Friday nights. Fridays after school some of the highschoolers have started inviting Shaun and myslef to play Halo. Now I've been playing Halo (video game on X-Box) for a while on Thursday nights with some of my best friends for the past few years (Kyle J., Mark G., Josh M., Jesse S., David K., and Chris T.) . Over the past few years we have developed names for everything and everyplace. We could say one sentence with lots of strange and sometimes anatomic nouns and know exactly what was going on. The promblem is the knew crowd has no idea of our vernacular. And they're all students at school so I can't really use it all, especially in front of their parents. Words like Powned. Anyways Its been difficult to communicate. That doesn't mean I loose.

The next barrier I've encountered is the reef. And I do mean encountered. We went snokeling today and had a tough time. The current was vicious. Worse it was going out to sea. Now I wouldn't call it a rip tide but it was nasty. Philip thought if it hadn't been for the rocks we were able to grab onto we might not have made it. We'd have made it but it would have taken a long time. The reef was great though, coral was good. We saw a school of fish about 100 strong. But the reef was behind the breaker waves so at one point I contacted it. My leg is sorta scraped up. But it was worth it. Furthermore while Colt was swimming some kids came up behind me after I had climbed a rock. They were holding plastic lids. You know, the kind that go on top of mortar and compound buckets. They were using them as frisbees. So I joined in and threw with them for a while. There are now some kids in Leone that have a killer OI flick. They were all impressed with my mad disc skills. Disc is probably the one thing that I miss most about the mainland. I dream about playing, and often think of when I can make a tournament. There's one in Hawaii in November but I won't be attending. But it'll be alright. I think the one thing that will eventually get me back home will be frisbee. I can always talk to my parents and family and friends, but it takes a team to play disc, two infact. Well Its time for Julia's birthday party

Paul (Grandpaul) Murphy

Many members of African Traditional Religious groups in southern Nigeria have put a hex on Steve Spurrier rendering him only capable of mediocrity.