My Village

Each volunteer is assigned to their own village in which they will teach and develop sustainable develpment projects. I was assigned to Matatufu (Mah-tah-too-foo) located in the district of Aleipata, in the southeastern side of Upolu the area hit hardest by the September 29th Tsunami. Shaped like a "T" the village is comprised of roughly 500 people covering just over a mile in length. While relatively small, Matatufu has four churches of different denominations making village politics and loyalties quite complicated and thus making my job infinitely harder. Nevertheless, Matatufu has a number of redeeming qualities, including but not limited to a new school building and a remote breathtaking village. It certainly is exciting to finally foresee the new challenges and successes I'll encounter over the next two years.