American Samoa, May 28, 2009
One of the good things about traveling alone is finding and redefining one’s margins. On this trip, I have located my absolute outside margin for solitude, and it appears to be four days. Aside from class time and a couple of social contacts with Maria and students, I have been quite alone. I hate eating alone! Traveling solo could be a great diet plan for me, but I wouldn't last long without getting depressed. Even the beauty all around me is starting to make me feel sad.
Therefore, I will distract myself, and you, with wonderful pictures of my students. Above are some of the folks I have been working with this week. They are all dressed up as several were presenting last night. The traditional dress for women in Samoa is the puletasi, a modest, two piece garment that replaced cooler, more comfortable bare skin and little else (thanks to the missionaries). Puletasi are custom made and quite gorgeous. In fact, getting clothes here means buying fabric and taking it to the tailor who measures you head to toe and produces your garment in a day or two.
A wonderful thing about Samoan culture is tolerance for individual expression of gender and sexual orientation. One of our students identifies as fa'afafini, or third sex. As I mentioned a couple days ago, the prefix fa'a means, "the way" or "in the manner of." Fafini means either sister or woman. I could not get an absolutely clear answer on that. Males with orientations that differ from the norm have always been valued in Samoan society. Although Fa'afafini do not suffer the kind of deep misunderstanding and discrimination that we see in the states, I could still detect some derision in the voices of students as they discussed the issue. However, could you imagine an open transexual, gay or lesbian school administrator in the United States? Fa'afafini have valued roles in the arts (what else?) as well as in education and business here. I would say the attitudes of people range from tolerant to accepting to embracing. This is a long way from the good old U.S. of A. where attitudes range from tolerant to rejecting to murderous rage! Just goes to show you that gender truly is socially constructed. Each culture has its own take on these issues.
There is a myth that some boy children have been selected by their parents to be raised as girls in the past. I searched the web and didn't find any evidence for this. To an extent, Samoan boys are permitted to define their own gender preference. Like all matters at the core of a person's identity, sexual and gender orientation can be joyfully expressed, or repressed and distorted, but it can't be extinguished.
To fracture an old saying, for every silver lining, you can anticipate a big, 'ol' gnarly cloud.The picture is not nearly so rosy for women and girls who are lesbian or transgendered. But, as my mom always told us when we were kids, life isn't fair.
See you on Day 5, the last day of class.
When I traveled and trained on consecutive days I dreaded the loneliness. The Bob Sieger song "Turn the Page" and Jackson Browne's "Play Just a Little Bit Longer" both exemplify life where you are away from the familiar and feeling out of place and lonely. I feel for you, Marj, because being in an exotic and beautiful place with other people - even co-workers, is no substitute for being with the ones you love.
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