Cinderella's Ball

Okay, so you may be puzzling over the title a bit...Rest assured, I am NOT the Cinderella in question!  I'm not even the prince, or the fairy godmother.  Just keep reading, and I think you'll see why the title fits.

This past week, the school kids of Samoa had a reason to rejoice--school was canceled for the week!  I'm not completely sure why; it must have been some kind of holiday.  ABC Christian Academy did not close it's doors, however, so our schedules remained on the hectic side.  But all of the teenage girls in the church are in the public schools (naturally so, since ABC only goes up to fifth grade), and they were a little bit lost during their break.  Miss Emi told me that a lot of these girls lives' consist of school and chores; when school was taken out, they didn't have much left besides work.  Come on, we all need a little break for fun and games now and then, right?!  That's what I figured, anyway, so Hannah and I organized a small (very small) party for Thursday afternoon after we were done teaching school.  Let me just say that it went over with a bang!  The girls had never been to a 'real' party like this--just girls, food, games, and laughter.  Actually, I hadn't experienced anything like it either, come to think of it.  It made a fun evening for everyone, and someneeded a bit of fun more than I had thought.

Check it out! 

The refreshments--potato chips, oreo-ripoff-cookies, and iced tea.  Oh yes, and popcorn later on.  It doesn't look like much, but there was plenty of it, and all of these things are expensive here.  It was the first time all of these girls had tasted iced tea.

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Me, Luisa, and Melalina.  All of us are wearing lava-lavas, if you notice!  I had a terrible time tying mine--they just don't stay put like you'd want.  There's always the threat of them coming undone, which is why you always wear shorts (or in my case, culottes) underneath.  The wearers are constantly fiddling with them to make sure they stay up and stay tight!

Let me introduce you to each of our guests.  Hannah Peacock needs no introduction, so I'm just going to skip over her (sorry, Hannah), and start with the oldest, Luisa.  Luisa is 18--she's the oldest of five children, the youngest of whom is Penina Sopo, one of the adorable kids in my 'Masses in the Classes' post.  Luisa's goal is to graduate from high school (here, it's called college), go to University, and get her degree as an elementary school teacher.  Her dream job is to work here at ABC Christian Academy.  Luisa seems shy at first, but once you get to know her, you realize that she's got a dry, slightly-sarcastic sense of humor that I think is a bit unusual over here.  She's terribly sweet, smart, and she speaks the best English of any of the group.

This is Hannah, Luisa's younger sister.  Hannah, who seriously told me that she wants to be called Christina, as it sounds more American, is 17.  She is VERY shy around me, though I've noticed that she has a lot to say when she wants to. 

This is Sesa.  I know you've already seen her in my last post, but I just had to put this one of her in!  She was very excited about the popcorn; here it's a treat!

This is Melalina, also known as Cinderella.  Well, okay, I call her Cinderella in my head.  Why?  Here's her story--her father died when she was in the first grade.  Apparently he cursed at a 'sacred' witchcraft site, grew sick, and died a few days later.  They say that the ghosts killed him.  Yes, there is still a lot of demonic activity in remote Samoa!  After he died, Melalina's mother panicked and left her two young children.  Why did she panic?  Here, widows and fatherless are not treated well--their property is confiscated, their rights are ignored, and they are, in general, second-class citizens.  It's not right, but it's unfortunately often the case.  Melalina's relatives continued to let her and her older brother live with them, but it's the story of Cinderella all over again.  Melalina has to do most of the house-hold chores; Melalina has to watch the little children while everyone else goes to a social function; Melalina has to do everything that no one else wants to do.  Her older brother, a good friend of Joe's, has broken away from the family and refuses to obey his relatives, but Melalina still functions as the family servant, always playing second string to the more favored kids.  So this was Melalina's party as much as anybody's, and I'm tickled that she got to come and laugh, eat, take pictures, play games, and be like any other teenager for one afternoon, although, since no boys were allowed, she didn't get to meet 'Prince Charming'. 

With the exception of Hannah, photographer extraordinaire, this was the party.  Afterwards, I taught everyone the classic game 'Spoons'--only problem was, we didn't have any clean spoons up at the house, so we re-dubbed the game 'Forks'.  Hey, any utensil works, as long as it's not a carving knife!  We had a riotous time--after many, many rounds, the tied winners were Hannah and...well, Hannah, actually.  Wherever you're reading this, give a quick round of applause for both our winners!

Ah, there's Hannah; she knew she couldn't hide forever!  Doesn't she look marvelous? She's always saying I post the most unflattering pictures of her on here.  Nothing could get more unflattering than my smirk in this picture, however, so she's safe....for now.... :)

Thanks to everyone who reads and follows this blog!  Do email me at annalperkins1@gmail.com and let me know how you like it!  We're starved for mail here!  We LOVE your comments!