Peace Corps Adventures in Samoa

The Last Fun Football

2010-08-16T14:27:00.010-11:00

The highlight of every week for me is Fun Football, an hour with the kids being coach. I usually get kids the kids who are 6-11 and they are just the right age. They aren’t the cheeky teenagers and aren’t too young you can’t do anything with them. I have fun with this age group.

Last Saturday was my last time with these kids since I’ll be leaving Samoa next week. It was always a fun tradition when I was a young player to play Butts Up with the coach as the target, so I let these kids do the same. For those of you who don’t know what Butts Up is I’ll explain. Every player has a ball and they all line up shoulder to shoulder in front of the goal. The coach, or losing team, stands in the middle of the goal, turned around, and rear end facing the players. The fun for the players is to see who can shoot the ball and hit the coach’s...seat cushion to put it nicely. Needless to say, I think that was the highlight of the hour of football for the kids, especially the ones who had good aim.

The Business House Tournament also finished up last week. The Peace Corps team didn’t win anything, but considering we always struggled with numbers and most of the players hadn’t played either in a long time or ever, I’m proud of the team. Well done team!

The staff here at FFS held a dinner for me on Saturday night. That was a lot of fun and I enjoyed dinner and cocktails with them. Although, I’m not used to cocktails much anymore since they are usually unaffordable on a PC budget and I am not used to sugary drinks...tummy ache. The dinner was a nice send off though, as was tea this morning. I will miss the staff and being involved in football in Samoa. It has been quite an experience seeing the administrative side of football and I am glad I had the opportunity.

I started packing up my room on Sunday. It finally hit me I’ll be leaving next week. I think getting on that plane next Friday morning will be a bit difficult. This has been home for 2+ years and even with all the ridiculousness of my time here in Samoa, a part of me will never leave the islands.

So this may be my last blog from Samoa, not sure after my sister comes Wednesday if I’ll have another chance to write again. I might continue the blog for a while after I get back to the States, detailing my shock and awe with re-adjustment. We’ll see...too far in the future for now. If this is my last blog, thank you everyone for reading. I have had a good time telling my misadventures as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Some more Futsal action

2010-08-12T13:54:00.009-11:00

I wrote last week about the Futsal tournament being a big success and everyone enjoying the change of pace. Well, now I can be included in that group. Our head groundskeeper is the president of the Adidas Soccer Club and asked if I would play for them in the Futsal Tournament. I didn’t know if I would be allowed to play since I work in the FFS office, but the powers that be approved me playing because at the end of the day I am technically a volunteer and am not paid by FFS.

So after Fun Football with the kids on Saturday morning I headed up to the NUS gym, put on the uniform, and strapped on my indoor boots. I didn’t really warm up since I was a little late so my touch was off in the first half, but I eventually found it and had a good time playing. I kept trying to lead other players with passes and quickly found out that forethought in passing/making runs doesn’t often happen and my passes more often than not ended up out of bounds. We eventually worked it out and I had an assist or two. I’m not a shooter, even though in a small game like Futsal I should have blasted the ball instead of not shooting at all, but I tend to be more of a play maker and defender than a forward. I had fun nonetheless and look forward to the next game on Saturday.

There’s an article in today’s Samoan Observer regarding the Futsal action...photo credit: me! After my game, I was handed the camera to take photos. I really enjoy using the super nice camera, so I had no problem messing around it and pretending to be working.

I’m leaving the office next Tuesday since my Peace Corps service is almost up, so I’ve been trying to finish out projects and transfer files I have that the office staff will need next year. We are having a goodbye dinner for me on Saturday, so that should be fun.

Futsal comes to Samoa

2010-08-04T12:53:00.003-11:00

On Friday, Vaigaga Primary School had a festival here at the FFS fields. We set up two rotations, one for the older kids, one for the younger kids. Again, I was in charge of one of the playing fields. This is much more fun than running the drills. The kids can be really funny when playing too. They all have a good time kicking the ball around and some are more serious than others, taking competition very seriously.

We had just started a new rotation of kids, so I handed the red bibs/pennies to a team of six and the others were in white t-shirts. The kids must have been Year 3 or so, around 8 or 9. The red team gathers in front of the goal, hands in, and cheer “Go Red!” Well, not to be out done, the team in white t-shirts sees this and they too gather around their goal, hands in, and yell “Go White!” I was cracking up. The games are only about 4-5 minutes before they rotate, but that group of kids was into it.

The Football Federation just started a Futsal tournament here. So Saturday after fun football with the kids, we headed up to the National University of Samoa gym to watch the competition. Futsal is such a different game from outdoor soccer. It is even different than indoor soccer where you can play off the walls and do a give and go with your self. In Futsal, there are out of bounds and you must kick the ball in while the ball is stationary on the line and you only have 4 seconds to pass it in. This caused lots of problems and teams were penalized often for improper procedure. The goals are smaller and only 5 on a team play at one time. The game is so fast paced, as in indoor soccer, but the ball is smaller too. It was really fun to watch the games and everyone seemed to enjoy the change of pace.

We just had special visitors from FIFA and OFC here. Reynald Temarii, OFC President and a FIFA Vice President, and three others from FIFA and OFC were here for a visit. They had an ava ceremony with the head of state, so all the stops have been pulled for them. It is a big deal though; the VP of the international soccer body came to visit, pretty cool.

My sister comes for a visit in a couple of weeks. I’m excited to see her since it has been nearly 2.5 years since I last saw her. So I’ve been busy making reservations and deciding on what we need to do before I leave; what kind of fun I’ve missed out on and not done in the past 2 years that I need to squeeze in now. I think I’m most excited for her to ride a Samoan bus...can’t wait to see that craziness. I’m a cruel sister I know, but I am the younger one and I’m sure all younger siblings will agree that it is our job to pester the older siblings; it’s what we do best. But in all seriousness big sis...I am very much looking forward to seeing you.

You’re really important

2010-07-30T12:21:00.009-11:00

I was at work yesterday morning when the phone rang. I answered it and the guy speaking wanted to talk to my boss, who wasn’t in, so I told him I’d take a message and pass it on. The guy then says, “This is Misa Telefoni.” An alarm went off in my head saying...this guy is important. Misa Telefoni is the Deputy Prime Minister, basically the Vice President of Samoa. So that was pretty cool yesterday. I don’t think I’ll ever talk to someone that important in the USA.

The Peace Corps soccer team is still playing, just 2 more games left. We’ve struggled with getting numbers for every game, even had to play down a player on several occasions. Injuries have also taken their toll on the team. We are for the most part having fun playing, there are some teams though that really need to take it down a notch; this is after all a social tournament, not an official league or anything like that. I can be competitive, but I’m not out for blood like some teams are (or to give people concussions like one of our players received). I enjoy watching my teammates, some of whom have never played before or aren’t athletes, play soccer and I’m quite proud of our team. We have to work much harder to get numbers every week than businesses based here in Apia since most of the volunteers aren’t in Apia. We manage though and have a good time getting some exercise.

I promised one of the players who doesn’t usually play we would go for pizza after the game if she played; we were in desperate need of players so I had to do what I had to do to get players. So we went straight into town for pizza at Italiano’s. Afterwards, we went next door to On the Rocks to split a couple of pitchers of Vailima (the local beer). It occurred to me as we were sitting there just how great of a country this is...I can go to a bar in soccer shorts having just played a soccer game and no one thinks anything of it. Awesome! That is one of the things I will miss about Samoa, you don't really have to be dressed up to go out on the town here. That is perfect for me since I hate dressing up.

Monday was a sad day. Three of my fellow Group 80 members left the country to head back to the USA. It is weird to see your group leave, makes you wonder where 2 years has gone. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago we were newbies and just getting into the country, all of us still strangers to each other. Now we are really good friends and splitting up is hard. It is amazing how close people can become in 2 years in a foreign country. Their departure also means I’m the sole remaining member of Group 80 on my island of Upolu. There are still 6 on the big island of Savaii, but I’m the only one on Upolu...it’s an odd feeling knowing your time is coming soon too.

It isn’t that I don’t want to leave necessarily; I’m ready to go in many ways. However after 2+ years, Samoa is just as much of home as the USA is, so in some regards I’m leaving home too...I’ve gotten used to island life. But it is time for me to go and I know that; got to move on to other things and let life continue. I’m still not looking forward to taking the GRE and applying to grad school; something I need to start preparing for. But for now, I’m still on and island and going to faifai lemu (take it easy).

This is just bizarre

2010-07-26T11:16:00.002-11:00

I wrote about how after the tsunami last year, certain people in my village chose to loot my house and steal anything which I might have been able to salvage. Well, this is a bizarre story of just how far my things reached.

Last Friday, one of the PC staff members had a dinner for Group 80 since we are on our way out of the country, three of my group are leaving later tonight. It was a great dinner…Mexican food: enchiladas, tacos, salsa, guacamole, and for dessert, chocolate cake, ice cream, cookies, and frozen bananas with chocolate…out bellies were delightfully stuffed. Well, I arrive at the dinner after the PC soccer game and see my good friend wearing a shirt which once belonged to me. This was pretty confusing since it had been nearly a year since I had seen the shirt. I told her “nice shirt.” She replied “yeah, I know…I’ll give it back but you have to hear the story first.”

Liz was in her village and sees a sole wearing a shirt she new didn’t belong to him. She asked him where he got it and he told her he got it at CCK (a local discount and thrift store) for $16. She told him she wanted the shirt and to come by her house later. He didn’t come over, but this being Samoa and therefore very small, she was able to track him down via her host family and recover the shirt, which she handed over to me.

The bizarre aspects of the story are:

1) Liz lives in Savaii…the other island. She also lives inland. So it isn’t like she lives in the neighboring village and the shirt washed up onshore. That is a plausible story. To get to her village from my former village is about a 6-7 hour journey if you time it right with buses (bus from the village, bus to the wharf, boat, bus to her village). So someone had to bring it to the village.

2) The shirt just so happened to be an original. My cousin owns a screen printing shop and made the shirt just for me as a Christmas present in 2008. There are only two of those shirts in existence; it isn’t like one could buy the shirt in a store. Liz knew it was mine because I showed it to her when she came for a visit.

I know exactly how the shirt got there. A former counterpart wife’s family is from my friend’s village. So at Christmas when they went to visit (he told me they were going to the big island for the holiday), they took a whole bunch of my stuff with them to their big island relatives. Which is frustrating considering I thought that maybe my counterpart was a friend and would give my stuff back; that didn’t happen because I saw my stuff in their house and was unsuccessful in convincing them to give it back after the tsunami and even tried after the New Year. Oh well, doesn’t much matter now, but it is impressive that my stuff ended up all the way in Savaii. Now that shirt has a really fun story behind it.

A little more of Just Play

2010-07-26T10:40:00.002-11:00

Last week was pretty fun. My office mates and I were out monitoring the “Just Play” program so we were out on the field all week. This made for an exhausting week, but much more fun than being in the office. Last Friday, we had a festival for one of the schools. We set up two playing fields big enough for a 6v6 game and two drill areas and then rotated the kids through so everyone got a chance to do everything. We had three or four groups of around 36 kids each. I was put in charge of one of the games; I could tell the kids were having fun as they were playing. One girl who had already gone through the whole rotation was being ball girl for me and asked if they could go again because she enjoyed playing so much. Unfortunately, the answer was no…they had to go back to school.

We monitored a few other schools in the afternoon. The kids really eat this up. For one thing, it is a treat to have good equipment in which to play. Another thing is we are letting them just play as the name of the program indicates. It’s not complicated or hard…all they have to do is kick the ball around. Sure there are drills and little games, but they get to run around and kick a football around…what kid wouldn’t enjoy that? I do have concerns about the teachers actually continuing the program after we stop monitoring, but at least the kids are having fun for now.

This past year, I was a member of the Football Federation Samoa Disciplinary Committee. We sanctioned players when they broke the Laws of the Game. Usually, this involved punishing them for fighting and attacking referees. Yes, attacking referees…you did read that correctly. I never thought I’d see a referee get punched…you just don’t do that in the States. I’ve seen it more than enough times here and it was considered a good weekend when a fight didn’t break out.

Sanctioning players was a little difficult since FFS didn’t have a Disciplinary Code; we had to use the OFC (Oceania Football Confederation, the boss of all the Oceania countries when it comes to football, like FIFA is the boss of all the confederations in the world) Disciplinary Code. Not everything in that applied here and there was lots that needed to be Samoanized (like putting fines in Tala instead of New Zealand Dollars). So that has been my other job for the past week, writing a code of discipline for Samoa.

It wasn’t all that difficult really; I mostly took what was in the OFC code and changed the NZD to WST and put in some other provisions which were applicable to Samoa. But it is kind of cool to be able to say I wrote it. When I came there was no FFS Disciplinary Code and now there is. It is going to be edited by the rest of the disciplinary committee and the normalization committee, so not like it is 100% all my doing, but still…I’m kind of proud that maybe after 2 years I finally have a lasting something (not many of the village projects were really successful in my book). So be ware all you Samoan footballers…there’s a new Disciplinary Code now, no more fighting!

As of today, I have just 30 days left as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It is still hard to believe my Peace Corps time is up. But I’m starting to get excited about being back in the USA. I really want a bagel, deli sandwich, real BBQ, and Mexican food. So I’m pretty sure all of that will happen the day I get back. I’m going to have to stay off the scales for at least three months after I get back…a sacrifice I’m more than willing to make for all that enjoyment in the belly.

Birthday Celebration

2010-07-14T08:52:00.000-11:00

Last Thursday was my birthday; the third I’ve celebrated since being in Samoa. I took the day off work to go into town and have a fun day of hanging out. I got breakfast at a new coffee shop/restaurant (a croissant with nutella is amazing!), then caught “Shrek Forever After” with a friend. A restaurant in town was having a July birthday promotion so I brought two friends along and got a free lunch and a glass of champagne. I was then convinced by my guy friends to shoot some zombies on Xbox…I am not good at this and pretty sure I shot my teammates more often than zombies. I went to dinner with eight of my friends at a restaurant that none of us had been to and that turned out to be quite good. After, we had a nightcap at Why Not to finish out the night. All in all a pretty fun day of not doing much of anything, as birthdays should be.

The birthday celebration continued through the weekend. My birthday present to myself was a trip scuba diving. We went with Aqua Samoa out of the Aggie Grey’s Lagoon Resort. It was a fun trip, but the seas were rough. My air consumption continues to be really good; I had 130 bar (started out with 220 bar) after the first dive of 35 minutes and 110 bar after the second of 44 minutes. We saw a turtle and had a couple of cool swim throughs (bat fish were waiting for us at the end of the tunnels, which was cool). A day in the water is always a good day.

The fun weekend continued with an overnight trip to Savaii. One of my Group 80 Savaii counterparts is leaving in three weeks to extend his Peace Corps experience in the Caribbean and he wanted to hangout this weekend, so I figured since I was almost all the way to the wharf diving anyway I might as well go hangout. There were six of us over at Lusia’s that night enjoying the evening. We had dinner and chatted, then went to the most fun night club in all of Samoa…Evaeva.

Evaeva has a live band, a big dance floor, and the cover is only 4 tala…a bargain. Plus, it is always fun to see what kind of dance moves the ridiculously drunk soles come up with (mostly fiafia dance moves which don’t really go with the hip-hop and pop music and that makes it all the more fun). Evaeva is a little sketchy, not really a place a girl should go alone...always have a guy friend or multiple girl friends because drunken soles will want to dance and will “want to know you” but a lot of fun can be had out on the dance floor.

In the morning, I walked over the watch the World Cup Final with Jim at Jet Over Hotel. They have a nice big tv and we sat right in front while enjoying breakfast. As I said at the beginning of the tournament, Spain won. I was hoping for the Dutch to win, got to love the crazy orange uniforms, but Spain was too much for them. It was boring in the first half, then picked up and became exciting. I was happy both teams were in it though because whichever team won it meant a first time champion, which is pretty cool.

Getting on the ferry was a hoot. It was packed and a good thing the big boat was running; otherwise; I might have had to spend another night in Savaii which would not have been good. Queuing properly does not exist here in Samoa. To get a ticket at the window…massive hoard pushing and shoving their way to the front. To get in the fenced off aisle to get onto the boat…massive hoard pushing and shoving. Sometimes it’s a big pain to be squeezed in with mass amounts of people in the Samoan heat and no air conditioning…gross actually…other times the whole routine is kind of funny, all depends on one’s mood. Best idea is to just accept that this is the way it is nothing can be done about it so you might as well just go with it. And then comes getting off the boat and onto a bus where one has to sit on a lap…oh the ridiculousness. I’m going to be so used to having to push and shove in a line and sit on another’s lap I’ll probably try it in the States, much to the dismay of everyone around.

Random story time: A couple of weeks ago I was out with my coworkers monitoring the Just Play program at one of the primary schools. As we were out on the pitch I could hear singing going on in one of the classrooms. It took me a while to realize what they were singing…Justin Beiber’s “Baby, baby, baby” or whatever the name of the song is. I’m not a fan of the annoying teen’s music and was quite saddened that had reached all the way over to Samoa and primary school kids were singing it in class as an assignment…not what the world needs.

4th of July Shenanigans

2010-07-06T09:32:00.008-11:00

Because the 4th fell on Sunday this year, we here in Samoa had to celebrate on Friday and Saturday (there’s a strict no fun policy on Sunday, not really, but Sunday is very much a day of going to church and resting, not much else is considered ok…aka no working or partying). So instead of celebrating our nation’s Independence Day on Sunday, we had 2 parties in the preceding days.

Friday night was the formal party at Sails, a nice restaurant right on the water. Everyone was dressed up in nice clothes, which for Peace Corps Volunteers is a rare thing. Even I was wearing a dress, which if you know me is really a big deal. I have no nice clothes here in Samoa so I had to have one made especially for this occasion. People were shocked to see me in a dress…I’m talking jaws dropping to the floor. It was a nice event complete with dancing, hors d'oeuvres, and free wine and beer. It was a classy event and fun for just the grown ups. And as what usually happens on a Friday night when lots of volunteers are in town, the party moved to V-Bar and Why Not when the formal occasion was over.

Saturday afternoon was the family event, a pot luck get together. People played Frisbee, croquet, and volleyball. Once it got dark, we lit sparklers and watched a slideshow with pictures of the US and fireworks (we can’t light fireworks here, so sparklers and pictures of fireworks had to do). There was a cake in the form of a USA flag and lots of food to go around.

Saturday night was the fa’amavae for my group, Group 80. We swore in as PCVs August 25, 2008 so we are officially done August 25, 2010. Some of our volunteers are leaving later this month to return home or transfer to other posts for a new round of Peace Corps and most of the rest of us late next month or early September, so this was our chance to have a party to celebrate us and say goodbye to people. It was a well done party (malo galue to the other groups for organizing it).

There was a really nice program as well…a slideshow of all of Group 80 in the field doing what we do, a talent show of singing and being musical, as well as the final act of Liz as taupou. Liz looked amazing…she did a great job! The taupou dresses in siapo (tapa cloth) and has a tuiga (traditional headdress) and does a siva samoa (Samoan dance). It was spectacular! The rest of the night was filled with fun I won’t go into on a blog open to the whole world, but we had a great time and it was a wonderful way to say goodbye.

The fun continued yesterday with a tour of the USCGC Kukui out of Honolulu, HI. The US Coast Guard was in town, coming from American Samoa on fisheries inspections. They came to the July 4th event Saturday afternoon and were nice enough to offer us a tour of their ship. That sounded like a pretty cool thing to do, so Sunday afternoon we did just that.

The mission of the Kukui is to maintain buoys and do some fisheries law enforcement. They’ve got a dive team, which I thought was pretty cool. We met Oscar, the man overboard dummy, saw their movie theatre (small but really cool), saw the captain’s chair and all his domain on the bridge, even sick bay and typical quarters for a sailor on board. They were even nice enough to give us official ship hats. It was a fun way to spend the 4th of July.

I was hanging out with other volunteers at Aggie Grey’s last night when they said something about me leaving in a month. I was quick to say it’s not quite a month…but then realized I will be leaving next month…granted at the end of the month, but next month nonetheless. That is a little scary and it continues to creep up on me. I’m leaving home just as much as going home. Adjusting should be interesting.

Out on the Pitch

2010-06-23T18:54:00.001-11:00

We kicked off a new program called “Just Play” on Monday. The program is to get kids ages 6-12 playing soccer in school. Our job here at Football Federation Samoa is to train the teachers on football basics so they can deliver the program as we monitor the progress and support them when they need help. The teachers get great materials too. Not only do they get a nice book detailing 12 sessions they can run, but also four ball bags each with two balls, a ball pump, a whistle, eight bibs, four cones, and eight markers. That is an amazing amount of gear and these schools are so lucky to have this gear for the kids.

The course is two days long for each group and we have two groups of 20 teachers and 2 volunteers from a community. We also had two Peace Corps Volunteers who attended the first session. It was nice to see them come from all the way out in Savaii. They enjoyed the course and got some nice gear to take back and run the program out in the rural villages where they live.

Colin, the technical coordinator for the “Just Play” grassroots program, flew in from the Oceania Football Confederation offices to instruct the first group and we here at FFS are now instructing the second group. The course is mostly on the field, so that has been fun being outside instructing people on how to set up a small training session, how to run drills and games, as well as how to effectively run the session.

Days have been long, but seem really short since I get to knock a ball around all day (what a rough job I have this week). Some of the teachers aren’t bad players either so the program should go well.

I was very excited to start this program because it is a true grassroots effort at trying to get a solid foundation for soccer here in the islands. We have some really good players in the National League, but only three youth teams and those are all U-15 boys. So there is no youth league for girls and nothing for the young kids (unless they want to get knocked around by kids several years older). Without a solid foundation, soccer here will not succeed nor grow. So I am excited to see if this program works and stirs interest in the schools so that maybe the Federation can start some new leagues.

I’m excited about the next six weeks as well because we will be out at the schools monitoring the program and helping the teachers deliver the program if they need the help. So I get be out of the office and still be working, which is always good (I don’t do well in offices).

A shout out to the US Men’s National Team...way to finish top of the pool and move on to the next round. I don’t know where I’m going to find a tv, but I will be watching on Saturday morning. GO USA!!!!!

Addendum to Below

2010-06-15T10:43:00.002-11:00

So it turns out that Transam, the company the Peace Corps soccer team played Friday night and lost to, played with a player who is registered with the National League. Registered players can not play in the Business House Tournament and teams who play those players are given a default loss. So the Peace Corps team actually won the game last Friday night 3-0.

Our team practiced last night at Apia Park. We kicked a ball around for a bit and then scrimmaged some soles who were hanging around. It was fun playing pick up with random people; although the field was less than ideal, divots everywhere and grass was a really long which made things interesting (never knew where the ball was going nor if your pass would get all the way you wanted it to go). Samoan soccer, at least with these guys and in most of what I've seen in the league, is very much an individual game. Some of our guys were frustrated trying to get things working, only to pass the ball to a sole and never get the ball back.

We have practice again tonight. Some of our team is very pro-active in the practicing. I didn't want to be too hard with always practicing, but they are calling practices so it is clear they want to win. We have a few new players for our game Friday; hopefully a good result will come out of it.

The Greatest Month of This Year is Here!!!!

2010-06-14T10:02:00.001-11:00

June 11 to July 11 will be the most exciting month of this entire year…it is World Cup month. I would love to be in South Africa for this!

USA took on England for their first match in the FIFA World Cup. This is a re-match of the 1950 World Cup game where the US (at that time a bunch of nobodies) took on England (the creators of the sport we know as football) and played for a 1-0 victory. According to football legend, in England the result was reported as 10-1 in favor of England. People operating the wire thought the 1 in front of the 0 must have been dropped because there was no way the US could beat powerhouse England. They were quite disappointed to learn otherwise.

This time around the sides were a bit more evenly matched, but US was still a huge underdog. The USA managed a 1-1 tie, which in reality is just about as good as win (at least we got a point out of it). They didn’t necessarily deserve it and the US is lucky they have one of the best keepers in the world between the posts because if Tim Howard hadn’t come up so huge the game would have been 3-1 easy. Also lucky that Clint Dempsey’s shot (while not pretty and should have been an easy, routine save) found the back of the net. But it doesn’t matter how it gets there, only matters that the ball crossed that line. The US did a fairly decent job shutting people down (Rooney for one), but again are lucky Tim Howard is an American. But well played boys…GO USA!!

I was lucky to be able to watch the game since I don’t have a tv. It might have killed me otherwise not knowing what was going on in such a huge game. But our very nice charge de affairs let us have a sleep over at her house and watch the game. The house is so nice…full kitchen (we took advantage of that by fixing a spaghetti dinner), ac, couches and chairs, and best of all cable tv complete with ESPN and Discovery Channel. So it was a pleasure to watch the game in the company of other Americans and at such a nice location. I nearly had a heart attack when Jozy Altidore’s shot was deflected by the keeper and hit the post late in the second half.

The Peace Corps are celebrating the World Cup by playing in the Business House Tournament up here at FFS. We had our first game Friday evening. We lost, but considering most of us have little soccer experience that’s not to be unexpected. We really didn’t do too badly also considering the other team practices and have been a team for a few years and we are a rag-tag team with little experience. I played between the posts for the game and had a few good saves. I also now remember just how much being a keeper can hurt…hitting the ground after a dive seems to hurt more than I remember, reminds me that I had a 2+ year gap in playing. I’m not sore though so that is good.

A bit of randomness here: I was jogging a couple of weeks ago when I saw an owl flying overhead. I didn’t know Samoa had owls, but this one was beautiful. It was a white barn owl (Tyto alba).

Less than 90 Days and Counting

2010-06-03T10:55:00.001-11:00

Not much is going on at the moment, other than the usual shenanigans of course. My official Close of Service date is August 25th, so I’m counting down the days. I’m starting to get excited about going home, but starting to freak out about it too. I’m not sure I’m truly ready to be back in the US; I’ve gotten pretty used to life here in Samoa (even if it drives me nuts most of the time). My sister is coming down when I leave so that should be fun to be tour guide for her.

I went scuba diving a couple of weekends ago. That was fantastic!! We went on two dives with just a little bit of current, enough to feel it but not too much where it is uncomfortable. The current brought in all kinds of animals. We were swimming in schools of fish. We saw 5 turtles, a school of batfish, and 4 spotted eagle rays. I was nearly on top of one of the turtles before I realized it was below me. When we saw the eagle rays, four were moving in sync with each other which was really amazing to watch. I wish I had a video camera for that. One of the turtles ran head on into a stingray…that was amusing to watch, not what you would call graceful.

Up at the Football Federation we are starting a Business House Tournament for local businesses and organizations, so we’ve been trying to get that organized. It’s a half field, 7 a side, 10 week tournament so it runs right up to my last week here in country. I got a Peace Corps team together so I’m excited to start playing next week.

We are also starting a program called Just Play for the schools. We have 20 schools and 2 communities in the trial run and if it goes well, we will expand from there. The goal is to train 2 teachers from each school in the basics of soccer and then those teachers deliver the soccer program to the kids at their school. The schools get basic soccer kits (balls, bibs, cones, etc) to help them deliver the program to the kids. It should be fun if it goes as planned (but that’s the key now isn’t, making sure the teachers actually deliver the program).

That’s about it though. I’m getting excited for the World Cup, can’t wait to watch as many games as possible (even if they do start at 12:30 am). I don’t have a tv, so at the moment watching any of the games will be difficult, but supposedly the Federation is getting a tv so I’ll be able to watch in the office. GO USA!!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!

COS and Saying Goodbye

2010-05-18T11:32:00.001-11:00

A few weeks ago the Close of Service (COS) conference was held for the group I came to Samoa with 2 years ago…Group 80. This was one of the rare times since we swore in as volunteers and went out to our sites that all 11 of us were together in one spot. These occasions are always joyous and we enjoy hassling each other like the family we have become.

The conference itself was filled with Peace Corps business of assessing sites, what’s next as far as graduate school or jobs is concerned, re-adjustment into American life, evaluating our service and the Peace Corps Samoa office, etc. Really nothing all that exciting but some really good information came out of the meeting which will be very useful in the coming months. Oh the paperwork I have to complete!

The most important issue of COS conference is the feeling of being done and we begin checking out mentally. Once you hit the year mark, only one is left and the countdown begins. Now that we’ve had COS, the reality of going home finally sets in. Being done as a PCV is about 90 days away. The realization of two years having gone by is hitting us all and now is the time to start making plans to go home. This brings up the question of….ok, now what?

Some of us are extending here in Samoa; a few just for a few weeks or ‘til Christmas, but others for a whole year. Others are going straight back home the first day it is possible. And some of us have no idea what to do next. When should I leave? What am I to do when I go home? Should I get a job, which in this financial crisis is nearly impossible to get, or go back to school and get into even more debt than I am already in? Or should I be a lazy bum and not do anything until I come to terms with the fact there are now 3-D tvs on the market, Twitter is a huge thing (you have no idea how long it took us to even figure out what Twitter was in the first place), movies about teen vampires are popular, and everyone I know can update Facebook via their iphone, blackberry, or other mobile devices?

I kinda like the last option…hope you are ready for that Mom!

The other important issue of COS is the saying goodbye to the Peace Corps family. You get on a plane with total strangers and by the end of two years you have 10 brothers and sisters. It is amazing how close one can become in two years. We get thrown into this crazy situation and usually one’s PC brothers and sisters who are the only ones who understand where you are coming from when you tell a story or let out frustration. Saying goodbye is difficult.

Last night marked the first post-COS departure. I said goodbye to a good friend and she’ll be missed greatly. Briony, you are amazing and we’ll all miss you and your laugh which puts a smile on everyone’s face!

The “Twilight Zone” is real?!?

2010-04-30T16:15:00.009-11:00

I have vacation days I must use before the beginning of June (PC rules say we can’t take vacation within the last 3 months of service). I wanted to go somewhere, just didn’t know where. Tonga, Cook Islands, and Tokelau all sounded interesting but expensive or not easy to get to. So I decided to take the quick, cheap vacation to American Samoa.

Day 1 - Monday
The plane you fly on is a 19 seater prop plane and it wasn’t full at all. I haven’t flown on a prop plane since I was a little kid and my dad flew a tiny little plane here and there. I got to sit right behind the pilots; with a prop plane that small I felt like Indian Jones in Temple of Doom, luckily the pilots decided to not ditch the aircraft and leave the passengers to fend for ourselves (although I would like to try skydiving someday). The flight only takes 30 minutes and the view is nothing but open ocean. I kept looking for something cool like a whale or dolphins, nothing but white caps. As we came into land I saw the gorgeous mountains. They are steep and dramatic, much prettier than in Samoa in my opinion. There is no fringing reef (or at least not much) around Tutuila so the water gets deep really quickly and crashes into shallow coves or right on to rocky out croppings.

We landed and took the five minutes to get through customs/immigration/baggage claim (it’s not a busy airport). I rented a car at the airport for my 4 days. Oh the feeling of driving! Such bliss!! I then started out on my vacation.

I remember growing up watching the old episodes of “Twilight Zone.” I very much enjoyed this old show and the crazy possibilities the writers always came up with. Going to American Samoa was just like an episode of the “Twilight Zone”…it’s America, but Samoa.

I drove past Carl’s Jr/Green Burrito, KFC, & Pizza Hut and noted those were places I must eat at before I left. I’ve never been to Carl’s Jr back in the States; they aren’t in my neck of the woods, but I’ve heard about them from other PCVs who have been. I ended up watching baseball on ESPN while eating a chicken burrito, yum! I drove past the movie theater, high schools, and Ace Hardware. I enjoyed seeing the yellow school buses (both regular size and short bus mind you). The thing which took me a minute to figure out was the buses which went all over the island. They are loud in speaker volume and in paint job just like here in Western Samoa, but looked odd. At first glance they are the same wooden buses as in Samoa, but the front grill was really low and I couldn’t figure out why. I then got a good look and realized the engines were those of Dodge or Ford trucks, the big Ram or F-150 types, and the wooden frame was built on top of the truck base.

I enjoyed driving down the single road to Pago Pago, taking in the coastline as we curved with the natural features of the rugged island. I got into the harbour and marveled at its beauty. Pago Pago harbor is a natural harbor, made from the collapsed caldera of a volcano. The water is blue-green/turquoise and boats of all types are anchored in the harbor. I drove past the US Post Office and police station, past the 2nd McDonalds on the island (yes, you read correctly, there are 2 McDonalds on Tutuila), the Bank of Hawaii, and several restaurants.

I’m not allowed to drive a car while a Peace Corps Volunteer unless I’m on vacation. So I haven’t driven in a while and it has been even longer since I’ve driven on the right side of the road. It is just like riding a bike though. I only had one issue and that was a roundabout. It wasn’t the roundabout which was the problem, it was the direction. I’m so used to driving left around them that if it hadn’t been for a sign indicating I should drive right around it I most likely would have gone left. But no worries, all was ok, no accidents whatsoever.

I drove all the way out to the eastern side of the island that day. I drove past the tuna canneries. The Star-Kist tuna cannery somewhat remind me of the Del Monte banana packaging plant in Costa Rica, not really impressive but produces a lot of goods. I drove through the tiny villages and noted all the western style houses, only a few open Samoan houses. The beaches were beautiful, palm trees and rocky shoreline. I drove all the way until the road ended, turned around and saw it all again. I enjoyed my first look at the islands.

Day 2 - Tuesday
I got up early and went to the National Park of American Samoa. I drove up the mountain and down at about a 45° angle, a little steep. I hiked a little trail which led out to really nice point with a great view. No one was around, just me and the birds. I was surprised to see a frog! There aren’t any frogs here in Samoa, but in American Samoa there are bunches. I was shocked to see it. It reminded me of when I went to Fiji with the girls and we were so enamored by all the frogs there that people probably thought we were weird for being so obsessed with the frogs.

I drove further into the park to do another hiking trail. This was a short trail and took me to a beach. The waves crashed on the rocky beach and to the left was a large rock face with a bunch of arches carved out from the waves. Birds were all around in the jungle above. There are so many white rumped swiftlets around. Driving through the village near this trail I saw people doing exactly what people do in rural villages here in Samoa…play cards, sit around and chat, and wait for buses.

I then drove to Cost U Less. Oh the wonderful smell of bulk goods, large appliances, and patio furniture!! Cost U Less is basically Costco or Sam’s Club. I bought some food and wished I had brought a bigger bag in which to take more back to Samoa. I caught a movie that afternoon as well, of course enjoying “The Backup Plan” with some “Raisinets.”

On the drive home I realized how much I miss driving. There is nothing like the freedom of being behind the wheel of a car, belting out (off key naturally) the words (or what you think are the words) to a song. One thing that struck me is the courteousness of the drivers; they let people out into traffic a lot more than in the US. That being said it is a good thing the speed limit is at most 25 miles an hour, pulling out into traffic when one should not is rampant, glad the brakes on the rental car were good.

Day 3 – Wednesday
I hiked in the National Park again this day. I drove up the Fagasa Pass and hiked up Mt. Alava. The trail was 7 miles roundtrip and I did it in 3 hours 54 minutes (including 40 minutes at the top for pictures, water, and banana chips). The trail was rated moderately strenuous and I believe that. At first it isn’t so bad, then come the rocky inclines which go on for a couple hundred feet. The views are amazing! If you go to American Samoa and enjoy hiking, take advantage of all the trails, you will not be disappointed.

I was the only hiker in the park that day (and yes I know Mom, I shouldn’t hike by myself but what’s a girl to do when she has no one to go with? I’m not missing out on a great time). It was just me and the birds, and the several lizards I startled by tramping through their turf. Lots of species call the mountains home. Most numerous are the white rumped swiftlets. I saw some pigeons and a couple of purple swamphens as well. I saw tadpoles hanging out in a puddle at the top of the mountain.

At the top of Mt. Alava, all 1,610 feet above sea level, there is a cable car station. The cable car no longer runs, but it is fun to see the wires and gears. There is also a tower for tv broadcasts up there too (that is still in operation). From the top, you get great views of the harbour, Rainmaker Mountain, and Mt. Matafao (the highest point on Tutuila). The view is breathtaking. Again, if you go to American Samoa and you like hiking/nature, hike up the mountain. It’s a lot of fun.

After the hike I drove til the road ended in Western Tutuila. Those roads would make any West Virginian proud…steep, curvy, mountain passes. I had a blast winding my way to no where. I went past more beautiful coves and rocky shorelines, past deep drop offs and very nearly ran into a school bus (had to back up so the bus could pull forward so then I could go forward).

I went past Leone and some of the tsunami affected villages. These villages still look pretty bad. Still lots of rubble and plenty of people are still living in tents or shacks. I hope they can get back on their feet soon.

I drove past a high school practicing football. And not the football I work with everyday, but good old American gridiron. I also saw a bus which was marine themed; I tried to take a picture, but could never get a shot.

Day 4 – Thursday
Last day of vacation. I ate a pancake breakfast at Sadie’s Café. The restaurant was nice, I recommend it. The pancakes were a cross between American and Samoan pancakes, kind of odd. They weren’t as light and fluffy as American pancakes, but tried really hard to be, yet looked more like Samoan pancakes. This probably makes no sense, but if you had seen them you’d understand. The half-breed pancakes were good by either standard.

I wasted some more time driving around and doing not much of anything. I bought some more stuff and managed to find a spot for it in my suitcase. I went to KFC for lunch and watched CSI as I enjoyed my chicken and more importantly…the buttery biscuit. I returned the car and sat under the “Big Ass Fan” I kid you not, this was the brand of the fan. I watched ESPN and awaited my departure. My Twilight Zone experience was coming to an end. But not before going through immigration and straight to the plane. No bag check whatsoever. This made me laugh. I’m not sure if TSA has jurisdiction in American Samoa, but if they do they probably wouldn’t be happy at the non-existent security screening. Even the little Fagali’i airport here in Samoa did a little inspection of luggage. Oh well, they know all people want to do when going from American Samoa to Samoa is smuggle in bulk goods from Cost U Less anyway.

So ended the “Twilight Zone” experience. I drank as much “Mountain Dew” and root beer that I could find, especially root beer, I’m kind of addicted…it’s like crack. Spending the US dollar but hearing people speak Samoan was odd. I didn’t notice as many lavalavas as here in Samoa, much more Western style clothing even out in the rural villages. People in rural villages still wave at a palagi driving by. Seeing a high school practicing football was just bizarre, haven’t seen football in person in a while. Sending a package from a US post office was a fun little experience too…I felt like I was home. Watching American TV was of course amazing! I ate a bagel with cream cheese!!

The experience was weird…Samoa, yet America. But I think it made me finally get excited about going home. Up until this point I didn’t think I was ready. I didn’t really want to stay here in Samoa, but didn’t want to go home either (that’s not really a good predicament to be in). After being in American Samoa I think I’m ready to go home. I’m going to freak out over really stupid things and get excited about things I wouldn’t normally get excited over, so much that I’ll probably embarrass whoever I’m with, but that is part of the fun too.

Soreness is almost gone

2010-04-21T11:06:00.005-11:00

Tuesday concluded the 5 day coaching/women's development course here at the Football Federation. It was run by an Australian elite coach instructor who works for FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. It was a really good course; I learned a lot. It was a great opportunity for people here to learn more about coaching and women's football, especially since it was free (just about all coaching courses have fees attached). I'm really glad I attended. I look forward to coaching at home.

I haven't played soccer since I graduated from college (university to those who call high school college). This means I've gone 2.5 years with out touching a ball, with exception of the high school alumni game I played in 2 years ago. Either way, it has been a really long time since I was out on the pitch. I was playing in soccer boots made for indoor soccer since that was the only pair of soccer related shoes I own.

Indoor flats + grass (especially wet grass) = not a good idea.

I slipped all over the place...a lot. I'm quite sure that having improper equipment is a major factor as to why my groin felt a little strained by the end of the course. Feels much better now with a couple of days rest.

We got some really nice gear for the course. Shorts, shirts, warm up suit (not going to do any good here in Samoa, but I'll wear it back in the US), and actual soccer boots. This will be nice for coaching the kids on Saturday mornings and any other kicking of the ball I do. No more slipping and sliding all around the pitch.

My job changed once again. I'm now in charge of competitions instead of media. Our former competitions manager decided to switch to media so now I get that fun. Problem is there is no current thought to getting a new competitions manager. While it is good experience, it's not really a Peace Corps job. I'm having a hard time getting that point across to my boss at the Football Federation. Developing football and doing grassroots programs = PC...not doing a job a Samoan could do. Oh well, make the most of it right?

Here's a link to the Samoan Observer article I wrote about the coaching course.
http://samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21373:ffs-develops&catid=34:sports&Itemid=54

A collection of somewhat random experiences

2010-04-15T18:09:00.005-11:00

In Samoa, the long distance, silent conversations are quite common and usually involve lots of head nodding. People can be on opposite sides of a room or half a football field away and somehow still get the point across. It's quite impressive.

I was walking in town yesterday when I heard a "hey! hey!" I looked over and see this kid I know from Saturday football. He was about 1/2 a block away and I was walking across the street. He asked where I was going, I replied to the store to shop. He replied with a head nod and a smile, then said bye as he went his way. I said bye, then continued to walk down the street. It then hit me what had just gone on...a silent conversation from a distance. Granted is was no drawn out, in depth conversation, but it did get a laugh from a passing Samoan. I then had a smile on my face while walking down the street. I've apparently not lost all of my villageness and can still hold the silent conversation.

A bit later, I get stopped by a man. He shook my hand and said hello. He then asked if I liked it here. I said "yes, it is nice." He then cocks his head and says "Peace Corps right?" I smiled and said "yes." Then we conversed in Samoan. He asked what I was doing; I told him I work for the Football Federation and he asked some other questions. We wrapped up our conversation after a bit and I proceeded to the store. It did make me smile when I thought about it...he instantly knew I was Pisikoa.

My job here with the Football Federation of Samoa continues to evolve. Most of my work used to be on Saturdays. Saturdays involve me playing coach to the kids, organize/supervise ball kids for the games, help the referees if they need it, sometimes play 4th official, and pay the referees. I would help in the office during the week as well. I organized/filed all the referee reports, went through the reports and made a spreadsheet of top scorers, I helped a player with a visa so he can go to New Zealand and play, and various other random jobs around the office. Not really exciting, but what office job is?

Now I have a whole new area of work. I was appointed to the Disciplinary Committee as secretary. I, along with 2 lawyers, decide punishments for players who have received a red card. Many of the punishments are the standard 1 game suspension, but some involve multiple game suspension and fines. This is interesting to me. I do have a football background so I know what is appropriate in the game and what's not. I'm learning a lot about the ins and outs of football from a technical side. Everything has to be done a certain way and a decision has to be made following a certain set of rules. It's a good experience; I'm enjoying it.

I'm now the interim Media Officer as well. This is a whole new aspect of a job. I'm a marine biologist; I have no journalism or media background at all. Well, that's not entirely true. I was on the yearbook staff for 2 years in middle school, but as far as I'm concerned that doesn't really count. Now I'm in charge of contacting tv stations, writing press releases and articles, and taking photos. I like taking pictures so that part of the job I enjoy a lot, especially because the camera is awesome!

It is amazing at the variety of jobs I've done while in Peace Corps. I've worked with a marine protected area, written grants, organized a bunch of programs (sewing clinic, rubbish seminar, animal de-sexing clinic), etc. Now I'm doing a variety of jobs for FFS. PC always say be flexible and do the job which needs to be done, and I think I've accomplished that. It amazing the new skills and confidence I've gained.

I'm taking part in a course here at FFS about the development of women's football. This is exciting for me. As I think I've written before, I think I might go back to the US and do some coaching. So this course is a good experience for me. We had a little 4v4 tournament today. That was the first time in 2.5 years I've played soccer, aside from the high school alumni game I participated in before coming to PC. I'm a lot rusty and have the touch of a brick wall (course some of that can be blamed on me being a goalkeeper too). Maybe my the end of the course I'll be a bit more to form.

Finally Some Rain

2010-04-14T09:59:00.005-11:00

There aren’t many good lightning storms here in Samoa. If there is lightning, most of it is cloud to cloud, all you get is some rumbling. There is very little of the make you jump out of your knickers lightning which I find fun to watch.

Of course there is always an exception to this. I remember back in February I think it was: I was sitting on the porch of the fale palagi my host family owned writing in my journal. It had been a rainy day with some distant rumbling. The 2 girls were hassling me as usual, asking all kinds of questions. All of the sudden a flash and a loud crack! The girls went running inside to the safety of their mom’s embrace. I have never seen them so scared. The lightning was really close; it seemed to hit the house next door. They kind of reminded me of the sheltie (Lily) my family had. Every time there was a storm she would run to my mom. If Mom was in the study, Lily would be under the desk cowering at Mom’s feet. Or if Mom was relaxing on her reclining chair, Lily would be up in the chair too, as far back and pressed as hard against my mom as she could possibly get. Many times my mom had to stop doing what she was doing just to sit with the scared dog we had. Poor pup.

I grew up in the Midwest (St. Louis) which is in the region of the US known as Tornado Alley due to the massive amounts of tornados those states get, moved to Huntsville, AL which according to one statistic is the 5th most dangerous city for frequency of long track F3-F5 tornados, and then went to college in Florida and when you think Florida, think thunderstorms and hurricanes (along with sunshine, Disneyworld, oranges, beaches, and key lime pie if in Key West of course). I have many memories of tornado drills in school where we went out to the hallway and curled up into a ball with our hands over our necks and noses to the ground or crouching in the closet under the stairs while at home or hurricane parties and waiting out the hurricanes with my cousins in Florida. I’ve lived in places which get good storms so I guess I enjoy watching the raw force of nature.

We had heat lightning in the clouds during the soccer games on Saturday. The games continued through the flashes going on above. I found this a little odd that flashes of death were going on above and we were still allowed to have a full set of games. I guess this stems from Florida which gets heat lightning all the time and I have many memories of being at soccer practice or a game and seeing our athletic trainers holding a lightning meter, measuring how far away the lightning was from the field. If the lightning was within a certain mileage (I think 3-5 miles), we had to go inside until ½ hour after the last lightning strike was measured to be with in that mileage. But that is Florida, the lightning capital of the US.

Monday night we had a pretty good lightning storm. There were lots of flashes, but only rumbling, very few real cracks of thunder. Tuesday was a very wet day. The weather has been very dry the past few weeks and the islands were in desperate need of some rain. The soccer fields are looking brown and the water levels in rivers are low. As the rain came down yesterday, I thought I might need a canoe to run my errands in town as rivers were sprouting up where the water was running off. Luckily by the time the afternoon rolled around, the heavy rain was done and all that was left were sprinkles of drizzly rain.

Today is looking better, cloudy, but still plenty of sunshine.

Robbed at Gunpoint

2010-04-09T10:58:00.004-11:00

I wasn't robbed at gunpoint so don't worry. A Westpac bank in Vaitele (just outside of Apia) was robbed Thursday. It's the first bank robbery ever in Samoa. Here's the front page of the Samoan Observer from Friday morning.

And the link to the article:

http://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20945:robbed-at&catid=50:headline&Itemid=62

Here's a few other links to articles:

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/first-armed-bank-robbery-in-samoa-3455463

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10637344

In other news not nearly as exciting...at the football (soccer) games on Saturday I was the 4th official for one of the games. I recorded goals and substitutions. I'd never done this before so I didn't really know what I was doing, but it turned out to not be very complicated. Luckily the game wasn't complicated by yellow or red cards and no fights. So it was a good experience.

The New Residence

2010-04-06T16:00:00.005-11:00

Before I forget, here are some pics of the new place:

First off, my little room. It's not much, but does have a ceiling fan and hot water in the bathroom.

Next the kitchen, oven & stove top as well as a fridge. Lots of counter space too.

Mustn't forget the microwave. And yes, I do make popcorn in it. There used to be a toaster, not really sure what happened to it.

The washer is really nice to have. The spin cycle makes all the difference...dry the next day even when left indoors. Amazing!

This is a panoramic of the complex. The fields are in the backyard as well as the mountains. A pretty waterfall pops out when it rains.

So that is the living situation for the next 4 months. I'm never late for work since the office is above me. I have security guards who patrol the grounds and lock/unlock the gate for me when needed. So not bad. Can't complain about housing that's for sure.

Wonderful Easter Weekend

2010-04-06T10:46:00.002-11:00

I finally got more than one day for a weekend and it was spectacular. I had Friday through Monday off…wonderful! Since I work 6 days a week now, I don’t get much of a weekend. I do get a ½ day every week to take whenever I want to, so I took mine Thursday afternoon and started my Easter weekend early by meeting a couple of volunteers at the movies. Afterward I ran some errands, which surprisingly were productive and I got a lot done (this doesn’t happen very often because I always get distracted or can’t find what I need).

I met the people I went to the movies with at the Peace Corps office and they convinced me to go to Faofao beach fales for the weekend. I had been thinking of going to Savaii since I need a vacation off this island; however, since this past weekend is one of the most traveled weekends in Samoa I didn’t want to deal with the really crowded buses and boats. John had rented a car which made the deal even sweeter. We Peace Corps Volunteers have a fondness for Faofao as it has been a great place for us to get away when we need too. They take care of us at Faofao and we enjoy going. Faofao is in Aleipata, the area which was hit the hardest by the tsunami back in September. Right after the tsunami, we couldn’t even tell where Faofao had been even though we had been there several times. When the other PCVs told me they were going to Faofao and invited me, I was very hesitant to go. Back in December when my Mom and Aunt were here just driving through the area was really hard for me. I didn’t know how I would react if I went for the weekend. But I decided to see how I would do, knowing I wanted to go back sometime.

We decided to be true tourists that day and stopped at Togitogiga Waterfalls to go for a dip in the cool water. We also did the coastal walk there as well. I highly recommend this do anyone coming to Samoa. I had no idea it was as amazing as it was. The path to get to the car park is 4 km and is an adventure in itself. The 1.8 km trail takes you through a jungle of pandanus and overlooks the crashing waves. There is no barrier reef on this section of the south coast so the water is deep and crashes powerfully against the large sea cliffs. Natural bridges and amazing rock formations have been cut by the strong waves. There is also a lava field and blowholes at the end of the path. It is a pretty cool thing to do and I wish I had done it sooner.

I am very impressed at how well they have done getting Faofao back up. They have 6 fales built and are in the process of building more. They have a large dining/hanging out area complete with a bar which John’s students at Don Bosco built. The beach looks great as does the coral which was really surprising considering the destruction 6 months ago. None of the fales have electricity, which adds to the rustic nature of the resort. I don’t know if they plan on putting electricity in or not, but for now a kerosene lamp will have to do (or the light of your cell phone). Six of us went and had a very enjoyable time talking, swimming, walking the beach, reading, etc. The typical things one does while relaxing on a beach with friends. Benj found a kite surfing board so we messed around with that while swimming in the ocean. We had a perfect day for the beach too, sunny and warm (course that describes most days here). The sunrise Saturday morning was one of the most beautiful I have yet to see. We left early Sunday morning to get back to Apia; I could have used another day of that gorgeous beach, but we had to get back.

I was able to fix my bike and ride it into town on Monday. I had problems with the pedals locking up (it did go through a tsunami and somehow still works, course this is mostly thanks to Jim and Trent who fixed it up for me). I sprayed lubricant on it a lot and the pedals still locked up, causing me to nearly tip over when I rode it to the next village to shop for my family; luckily I was coming back from the shop and didn’t have far to walk back. Somehow yesterday they decided to be nice and not lock up; I’m thankful. It is 3-4 miles I guess from my house to the PC office. Going there wasn’t so bad, mostly downhill. I thought I would die going back since it is mostly uphill, but thankfully my heart didn’t explode. It turned out to not be nearly as bad as I thought I was going to be, even though not all the gears on the bike work. Running and biking are very different and I’m in ok shape running wise (not going to run a marathon or anything, but can run a few miles no problem), but didn’t know how biking would suit me. I didn’t use the bike much when I lived on the south side. Once, I did ride 12 miles (in the rain) to Siumu and 12 miles back the next day…that about killed me. But today after the bike ride, only my bum hurts from the seat. So now that I know I’m not going to die from riding the bike I’ll have to do that more often. No cars hit me either which is a big plus too.

A Few Noticeable Differences Between Life Tua and Big City Life

2010-03-25T15:59:00.002-11:00

As to be expected, life here in Apia is not the same as in rural Samoa. I lived with a family for 3 months of training, then on my own tua for 13 months, then with a family tua for 5 months, and now I’ve been on my own in Apia for 1 month now. I had very much gotten used to life in rural Samoa. Here are some observations:

1) It rains a lot less here on the north side of the island than on the south.

2) There are a lot of cars and they are all in need of a repair/I need to break into the car and liberate their subwoofers. I knew this before, but it is even more apparent when they drive past me while I’m running and I inhale so much exhaust fumes I know I just took 2 years off my life (I miss running in clean, fresh air) or they drive past my windows at all hours of the night with ridiculous bass one would not expect here in Samoa. It is kind of like the bus, you hear it before you can see it. Ear plugs are amazing!

3) I haven’t stepped in pig nor chicken feces in a month now – brilliant!

4) I haven’t eaten breadfruit/taro/ufi in a month now – I liked breadfruit, but don’t miss the others (a little dense on the starches for me).

5) I can buy steak in various forms (stir fry, sirloin, etc), ground beef (called ground mince here), and even boneless…yes, you read correctly, boneless…chicken breast from the grocery store. Best part is…the cuts are not 80% fat nor salted way beyond anyone’s sodium intake needs for at least a week like the meat you get tua…I’m amazed and enjoying adding flavor into my diet!

6) I bought lettuce! I think that says enough right there.

7) All I need to say is MEXICAN FIESTA NIGHT! Super excited for that!!!!!

8) Now that I work for the Football Federation, I have computer and internet access from 8-5 M-F. Pretty sweet!

9) I haven’t eaten Ramen noodles for breakfast in a month (nor rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for that matter). I’m a big fan of breakfast so Ramen for breakfast was slowly killing me I think, just not a breakfast food to me.

10) Sadly, I haven’t eaten papaya in a month either. I need to make a trip to the market and buy some.

11) I haven’t worn a puletasi in a month. Being a soccer office, dress code is relaxed. No need to wear a puletasi when casual clothes will do.

12) I have AC from 8-5 as well and ceiling fans are amazing.

13) Even though I’m in Apia, since I’m on a sports compound (no houses), I don’t hear dogs at night. I’m so glad to not have to yell at the dogs at 3 am for making too much noise fighting and…etc.

14) Unfortunately, I don’t speak Samoan quite as often as I used to so I’m pretty sure I will lose much of the language I’d picked up over the past 22 months. That truly is a shame.

15) Power still goes out at least once a week, but doesn’t stay out for hours and hours like tua.

16) I have not had issues with no water in a month…and it comes out of the tap clear, definitely not used to that (and it is warm!).

17) Running isn’t viewed as weird as it is tua. But then again, I do live on a sports compound so that might have something to do with it. People run in town on the seawall too, so it isn’t just that I live on a sports compound, people actually understand the benefits of exercise. People (soles & kids) are still cheeky about it though, disturbing me while I run with obnoxious comments. Oh well, just have to get used to that; I do stand out being a white girl after all.

18) I used a hole puncher today…haven’t used one of those since pre-PC.

19) In the month I’ve been here, I’ve had more centipedes than in my time tua. I have had 3 to deal with compared to just 2 tua: one fell on my while I was reading in bed, I stepped on another (lucky it didn’t bite me), and the third was monstrous and even though I sprayed it with Mortein, it still wasn’t paralyzed and crawled off to where I couldn’t get to it.

20) I read the paper everyday (the Federation gets the Samoan Observer delivered everyday). At least I look through it since most of the articles aren’t really worth reading.

That’s all I can think of for now; I know there are more differences. At some point I will get pictures of the new site up.

Just a few thoughts

2010-03-17T09:40:00.003-11:00

When you apply for Peace Corps, they tell you to be flexible and don’t have expectations. This makes sense; don’t get your hopes up for a certain country or job and then be disappointed when you go somewhere else doing something else.

When I got my invitation packet I was told I’d be going to Samoa to be a marine science teacher at a junior secondary school. Not gonna lie, I wasn’t really excited about that. I do not think I’d make a good teacher (even if it was marine science), but I decided it would be worth a try. I get into training and I go out to a village and become a jack of all trades, none of that involving being a full time teacher. My main project was the marine protected area: clam farming, fish houses, coral gardening, creating a species list and a promotional flyer explaining what a marine protected area is. I was excited about this. Getting to work in my field right out of college, snorkeling whenever I wanted to and that being work was fantastic. Other projects include: working with a government ministry to hold a sewing clinic to teach the women how to use the sewing machines we got through a grant from New Zealand Aid, obtaining books and computers for the primary school, holding a rubbish seminar to explain why trash should not be thrown on the ground, obtaining funding for a spring fed pool for use when the pipe water is contaminated or shut off, and holding a dog and cat de-sexing clinic. And now I work with Football Federation Samoa developing soccer in Samoa. All over the place with jobs I’ve done here in Samoa.

Sites have been very different; going from rural Samoa to the big city (ok, not that big but for Samoa Apia is the only city like urban area). As far as housing is concerned I’ve been all over the place. First, by myself but having villagers stay at my house to “leoleo” (protect) me, to totally by myself, then post-tsunami living with a family, and now a site change to Apia where I again live by myself.

It’s funny about my current job. I have, again, a jack of all trades position. I’ve done simple data entry into a database registering players for the National League, looking up drills and creating a packet of activities we can use on Saturdays for the Fun Football program for kids, designing a newsletter template and contributing to the newsletter, supervising ball kids and referees. I never thought I’d be working in a national soccer office, working with players on a national team. Pretty cool when I think about it. I never thought I’d be in any kind of soccer development role such as I find myself in currently. I thought maybe when I go back to the US I’d strap on the old boots again and see if they still fit after I hanging them up at the end of my last college game. I figure I’ll join a league, maybe do some coaching. Now that I’m involved with the game as much as I am, I realize once it is in your blood, it never leaves.

I only have about 4 months left here in Samoa; I’m a bit curious as to what else might be thrown my way. I can honestly say PC has been an experience like no other. I wanted a bit of adventure and I surely got what I asked for (I need to learn to keep my mouth shut). It has been the toughest 2 years of my life for a lot of obvious reasons and some not so obvious, but it is experiences like this one which show you who you are. I’ve learned a lot about myself, but that also ends up leading to more questions. Not really sure where I was going with this blog; I guess this is one of those stream of thought posts. Oh well, I should probably get back to work.

For anyone feeling charitable

2010-03-08T14:02:00.004-11:00

Even though I no longer live in Salesatele I do want to help them finish re-building the pre-school. The old pre-school was destroyed in the tsunami last September and the village is trying to get funds together to build a new school for the kids. It is being constructed in a better location out of the way of any future tsunamis which might come. You can donate at the following link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=491-015

Thanks so much.

I’m the most spoiled Peace Corps Volunteer

2010-03-04T10:52:00.001-11:00

Last week was a bit sad with saying goodbye to my host family. I had the best fa’amavae I could ask for however. Wednesday night we went over to my host sister’s (Anita) parents’ house for dinner. Her parents lived right next to me pre-tsunami and were always very nice to me, giving me bananas, cucumbers, etc. After dinner, they had the kids do a sort of fiafia for us. The kids sang whatever songs they could remember from the radio, pre-school, Sunday school, etc. One of Anita’s sisters was in from Apia and her son did a hilarious Michael Jackson dance. He was moving his hips, bending his knees, and had arm movements to go along with it all. I was cracking up, as was everyone else. We stayed really late into the night, but it didn’t seem like we had been there that long. I really like all of Anita’s family, so they are people I will miss.

We went back to our house and I gave my family going away gifts I had bought in Apia. We chatted for a while and played with the kids. In the morning, the PC office came to pick me and my stuff up. Unfortunately, the kids were off playing and Salesa (my host brother) was already in Apia so I didn’t really get to say goodbye to them. Anita got a ride to Apia with me and that goodbye was really rushed and abrupt as well. I did tell them I have every intention of visiting them in New Zealand after my PC service so perhaps that is why the goodbyes were virtually non-existent. I really do want to visit them in NZ and that is the plan, but one never knows what could happen. Oh well, I suppose this way was better than some long, drawn out, awkward goodbye. I will miss them however.

I’ll miss nothing but the same movie over and over again. The girls get into streaks of nothing but Cinderella, Miss Congeniality, or Harry Potter (not that those are bad movies, but everyday, multiple times a day is a big much, at least I have 5 Harry Potter’s to choose from). I’ll miss coming back from Apia (where I’ve been working over the weekend) and hearing little Charin say “Malo Ta’a” (ta’a means hanging out in a bad way, so she is basically saying Hello/nice job being lazy and not working). But that’s ok because I tell her when I wake up earlier than she does “Malo moe umi” or “Hello late sleeper.” I’ll miss getting off the bus and having the girls run towards me saying “Rita!” Of course, this is mostly because they know I always bring a treat for them.

Oh well, life moves on and we must adapt. I moved into my new house just Monday and started work at the Samoa Football Federation. I have a room with a bathroom inside and have access to the kitchen in the Federation offices. It is a nice kitchen too…fridge, microwave, oven, stove top, toaster! I can’t wait to bake cookies. I have access to the washing machine…used it last night, amazing! Most of my clothes were dry by this morning; it is amazing what difference a spin cycle makes. And I found out last night while showering….wait for it….hot water! Ok, all you Samoa PCVs (and other country PCVs who may be reading this as well) try not to get to jealous; I had to brag a bit. I have a ceiling fan as well…life is rough.

As far as the actual job is going: Right now I’m doing office work…data entry trying to get players registered on a database with the Oceanic Football Confederation (who oversees us and FIFA oversees them). I put together some training lessons for use with the Fun Football program we do with kids every Saturday morning. Office work isn’t my thing (I’m more of a hands on, get a little wet and dirty doing marine biology type gal) but I can rock a desk for five months…and besides, it relates to soccer so I’m ok with doing office work, for a bit anyway. Besides…I got some sweet gear for working here, so it has its benefits. I work with nice people too so it’s all good. I look forward to seeing what other tasks I’ll do. The job description has me doing a bit of everything really. Key aspect of Peace Corps is be flexible, so I’m game for whatever the job brings.

Tsunami – Round 2

2010-03-03T10:02:00.002-11:00

Friday night I received a text around 10:30 pm from the Peace Corps office which told of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile, stay tuned for possible tsunami warning. I got another text around 1:30 am saying there is now and official tsunami warning and the tsunami is expected around 9 am. This was followed by a phone call at 2:30 am saying the same thing. Well, given my recent experiences with tsunamis I was in no mood for another round. I was perfectly safe, staying with friends up a mountain, but I remember the aftermath of the other tsunami and didn’t want the country to have to go through that again. When you go through something like that it tends to stick in your mind forever.

At 4 am, the tsunami sirens started going off every 20-30 minutes. The sirens are only in Apia however. Pretty soon the sound of the sirens was followed by the sounds of church bells and conch shells being blown to alert people. Needless to say I didn’t really sleep much after that. Not only was the noise bad for a light sleeper like me, but I was still thinking about what would happen if another tsunami hit this island country 6 months after the first. At 6 am, my concerned parents texted me about the tsunami warning. Guess they didn't want another episode like last time of knowing I lived on the south coast of Upolu and not knowing for hours whether I was ok or not...understandable.

I heard from other volunteers who were around the town area trying to get uphill that everything was shut down. Not one store or restaurant open and no buses or boats were running as well. Police had barricades up which didn’t allow anyone to get into town and were directing traffic inland. Well, 9 am when by…nothing. Pretty soon 11 am rolled by and no tsunami so the warning was cancelled. I was relieved…a stressful Saturday morning however.

Good news

2010-02-13T08:48:00.002-11:00

I had a meeting yesterday and have some good news. I have a job and a place to live! I won't be in the village anymore, but I'll take it. I don't have much work in the village anymore and not having a place to live is a bit problematic.

I'll be working full-time for the Samoa Football Federation on various projects and living in Apia. I'll be helping with a grassroots soccer program where we bring soccer to the villages and encourage them to play, youth programs, and technical aspects of developing soccer here in Samoa, as well as continuing to help with the Saturday soccer matches.

I'll have a pretty nice set-up for housing as well: microwave, full-sized fridge, toaster, oven, and stove-top...talk about getting spoiled. But after the ridiculousness of the past year and a half I'm ok with that. It will be a bit weird to live on my own again, but I enjoy cooking so I look forward to it.

I move out the same time my family leaves for New Zealand and will start the new job March 1. I'm excited for this new opportunity. I never thought I'd be helping the game of football in this manner, but I look forward to the opportunity.

So I'm glad it worked out well for me. I was stressing quite a bit Monday and Tuesday when I realized these next couple of weeks could be my last in Samoa. It hasn't always been rainbows and sunshine here but I wasn't ready to leave the mountains and coconuts just yet, so I'm thankful to be able to finish my service.

The craziness continues

2010-02-09T14:57:00.002-11:00

A couple of weeks after I moved in with the family I currently live with I found out they were planning on moving to New Zealand. This was bad. I was still adjusting to life post-tsunami and was starting to get used to living with a family. I told the office this and kept updating them on the situation as it developed. The paperwork, as the nature of paperwork, kept getting returned and delaying the process to where I knew they weren't leaving until sometime past the New Year. So it had somewhat fallen off the radar, especially while I was on vacation for 3 weeks around the holidays.

I got back from vacation and they were still trying to sort paperwork out. Ok, I have time I thought. Then it became "everything is good, just waiting to hear back from Immigration here in Samoa." This was problematic, meant it would be sometime soon. My family picked their visas up last week. The visas are valid until May 4th. So that means sometime between now and May 4th they leave. Not good. This means for the 2nd time in 6 months I'm homeless.

Yesterday, they got tickets from their relatives who were paying for them...valid for Feb 26th. I now have 17 days to find someplace to live. Really not good.

The village's plan for me was to move back into the pre-school. Well, it isn't finished. The outer walls are done and the roof, but no shower, toilet, doors, walls or windows...and no electricity. Again, really not good.

So we have 17 days to finish the pre-school. It is possible, but not likely since we have no money nor supplies to finish it. We are still waiting on two proposals to go through to get the funding to finish it. Not looking good.

But, the village is re-building some buildings near the church and the pastor's wife is going to talk to the matai to see if we can borrow some supplies, finish the pre-school, then replace those supplies when the grants go through. Problem is, I don't think they have the right supplies for this style of building (open vs closed house makes a difference in necessary supplies). Plus, getting things done quickly is always hard to do here.

So, the next week will be very interesting. If they can't complete the pre-school in 17 days (or even soon after), I might be moving to Apia. This depends though on if I can find a job and housing. Housing is the biggest issue, quite scarce in Apia. We are trying to see if I can work for the Football Federation more hours, but I doubt they have anything more I can do since it is a small operation and still in development. Or, I might be coming home, an option I'm not too fond of nor ready for.

So I have a very stressful week ahead of me, especially not knowing if this is the last few weeks I have in Samoa.

Waterfall & A New Job

2010-02-01T09:48:00.003-11:00

In the past year and a half I don’t know how many times I’ve asked if there is a waterfall or anything fun to hike to. Response was always no. My host family had some visitors from Australia in a few weeks ago and I came to find out there is a waterfall only 10 minutes from the house. So I convinced my host family to take me one day. It is an awesome waterfall!!

The pool is so cool, refreshing, & deep.

You can climb the rocks to jump from halfway up or from the very top (about 40-45 feet). It was a nice outing and I really enjoyed the fun change of scenery. I very much look forward to going back.

I finished the proposal for the new pre-school. Finally! It took a while to put it all together. I don’t know how many drafts of the budget we had to go through, but I’m glad it is all done. I’m not as busy as I should be since work has decreased a lot in the past few months so I’ve been looking for something else to do to fill my time. I found a new opportunity through my boss and Saturday was my first day.

I now help the Federation Football of Samoa on Saturday mornings with their league games. Mostly I organize and supervise the ball kids and I’ll be helping with the kids’ hour as well (coaching kids how to play soccer, should be fun). It is nice to be around soccer again and I realize how much I’ve missed it. Nice to have a day of all soccer again, just like the old days of soccer tournaments. I’ll be helping them every Saturday through the end of April, so I should get my fill of soccer.

I definitely needed a break from it after college, but a 2 year break was a little long. I look forward to joining a league when I get back to the US just to play again. There is a team here who wants me to play for them, so we’ll see if I do. It would be nice to strap the boots on again.

Holiday Fun

2010-01-11T09:39:00.004-11:00

My Mom and my Aunt Sandra came down for a visit about three weeks ago and then we all went to New Zealand and Australia for a week each country. It was a great vacation; I needed a little break from tropical islands (not that they aren’t great, but a little change is always good).

Vacation started out really interesting and the end to the Samoa part ended in true Samoan style as well. I was waiting in the hotel for a car to be dropped off so I could go pick up my visitors from the airport. The rental company said they’d drop it off at 4 pm. So when 4:15 rolled around and no car, I called them. No answer. It was a Sunday…of course no answer, even if the advertisement says open 7 days a week until 4:30. This shouldn’t have surprised me. I called around to other rental places…few answered phones it being Sunday and the few who did either had no cars or wanted my first born for the car. So when the time came and I still had no car I jumped in a taxi and headed to the airport. I explained what happened and my mom and aunt didn’t seem to mind. We called other companies Monday and got a car. At least that worked out.

Well, trying to get the car back was fun as well. We had a flight out early Christmas morning, 12:15 am. We wanted to drop the car off Christmas Eve at 8 pm. We made sure this was ok and we weren’t going to ruin any Christmas Eve plans and took the car for our 4 days in Samoa. We show up Christmas Eve at 7:40 to drop the car off. No one is there. We call and call, no one picks up. We debate what to do…leave it here where who knows what could happen to it next to a busy road or take it to the airport. By the time 8:30 rolls around we decide if they aren’t home to take the car back, then we are taking it to the airport and figure it out later. We left a nice note and went to the airport. We called them the next day and they didn’t seem to mind at all us taking the car and hour outside of town to the airport when that wasn’t the agreed upon plan, but then again they weren’t home to take the car and this is Samoa where people are incredibly laid back. Adventure with cars…at least the driving on the left side of the road with the wheel on the left as well after not having driven in a year and a half went well.

Samoa Vacation:

Mom, Sandra, and I went up to Robert Louis Stevenson house. I’d been up there before for the 4th of July party, but had never been inside the house. The house is gorgeous and the grounds are even more beautiful. Well worth the time to check out if one is in Samoa. We checked the markets out and they were impressed by the variety of fruits and handicrafts one can buy. They enjoyed seeing the police band march from the police station to the government building to raise the flag. Not everyday some one sees this, unless you happen to live in Apia of course.

We went to Savaii and enjoyed Manase. Funny story: We didn’t have reservations for the ferry and were waiting in line. All of the sudden they had us motor up to the front, skipping at least 15 other cars, to literally squeeze in the back of the big boat. It was a tight squeeze and I was worried we were going to take the mirror off. The guys at the ferry are very good at giving directions and even the Samoans were impressed by the tight squeeze with no damage to anyone’s car.

Another fun Samoa story: I called the place we were staying three times for various reasons and confirmed each time we needed 3 places to sleep. We go to check in…only a double bed. Why does this not shock me either? We had to stay in a totally different room, instead of a beach fale right on the water. No big deal really, but kind of frustrating when I told them at least 3 times we needed a room for three.

We drove around Savaii and my mom and aunt enjoyed the beautiful scenery that is Samoa. We stopped at the Taga blowholes which are always impressive. We drove to Salelologa and waited for the ferry. I had to back into the little boat….that was a little scary, but again, those guys are good at directing the cars onto the ferry.

We drove to the resort on the southside of the island and finally got our beachfront fale. One can’t get out of Samoa without staying in a fale complete with mosquito netting. My mom and aunt found this cute, but didn’t want to make it a regular thing (understandable).

We had lunch the next day with my host family. We were all excited about this. My family has heard a lot about my most family and visa versa. My mom and aunt especially enjoyed the two girls, as usual they were showing off…funny kids. I took them to see where my house once was…I think they were a little shocked to see it in person; it is a little hard to believe. My mom and aunt really enjoyed driving through Le Mafa Pass, gorgeous scenery. They were impressed at the beautiful mountain scenery (even being West Virginians).

We headed to the airport after dinner in town and we eager for vacation in New Zealand, even if it meant skipping Christmas (crossed the International Date Line).

New Zealand:

We took a city tour bus we could hop on and hop off so we could see just what we wanted. First stop was Takaparawha Regional Park...gorgeous views of the city and surrounding bay and a beautiful garden in the middle. We stopped at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World for some views of fish, sharks, and penguins. The baby penguins were so fuzzy and cute. The Auckland Museum had a great display of Maori and Pacific treasures as well as Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Last stop was the Skytower, 328 metres tall. Awesome views of the city and harbour.

Auckland was a cool city, very modern and clean. I enjoyed the shopping, sandwiches (hard to get good ones in Samoa), good coffee, etc. 1.5 years on tropical islands re-adjusts the perspective on things and going to a huge, developed city like Auckland was great.

Wellington was pretty too. We took another bus tour we hopped on and off. We drove past the Beehive and parliament buildings, botanical gardens, and some wildlife parks. Just not enough time for everything. We did stop at the cable car and took that down to the city center…that was fun. We of course did some more shopping. We went to Te Papa and enjoyed the Pompeii exhibit. They had some really neat interactive computer exhibits where you can look at 360 views of the excavation. Also a really neat 3-D movie.

Wellington was hosting the Unicycle World Champs so everywhere we went we saw unicycles. Big, small, kids, adults…so many unicycles!

We had dinner at a steak and seafood boat. I ordered a steak and a red wine; both were spectacular. The steak was one of the best I’ve ever had and my face apparently showed it. My aunt said I looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Good steak is hard to come by and expensive here in Samoa…so 1.5 years without a good cut of meat was rough. My tummy was very pleased that night.

We took the ferry over to the south island. Amazing! It is so beautiful crossing the strait. So many postcard opportunities. We then took a train from Picton to Christchurch. This too was amazing! Sheep on the hills, fur seals on the rocks, black sand beaches, so many birds of prey on fence posts and in trees. I was jealous of all those camping in such scenic areas. But the sleet would have made things not so much fun…although 1.5 years in the tropics, I rather enjoyed the cold when we got to hop off the train for a bit.

We walked around Christchurch and enjoyed the most English city outside of the UK. They had cute architecture and even the red phone booths one sees in London. We toured the cathedral and took a gondola up to mountain to take in the views. The Southern Alps were beautiful in the distance and the harbour surrounded by mountains was breathtaking.

Australia:

First stop was Cairns. I finally got my dives on the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve been waiting years to do this, a lifelong dream actually. It was spectacular. So much diversity and the fish are huge! Massive triggerfish and parrotfish, schools of fish surround you. We saw a rather large White-tip Reef Shark, 6-7 feet long. Tons of anemones with anemonefish and clownfish. Nudibranchs, soft coral, sea whips, etc. Oh, talk about a kid in a candy shop!

Cairns is an interesting city, feels a bit like Key West (without all the Key Lime Pie unfortunately). The wharf is really cool, lots of little restaurants one can eat at and watch all the boats come in from their day on the GBR. There’s a little lagoon pool that overlooks the actual lagoon there, lots of people enjoying the warm, sunny weather. And they have Baskin Robbins….that happened, mint chocolate chip…awesome!

We moved on to Sydney after Cairns. We took a tour bus up to Blue Mountains. Gorgeous! We saw the famous Three Sisters rock formation and the valley in the Blue Mountains. Blue Mountains is apparently a combination of the Smokies (due to the bluish hue similar to that of the Smokies) and the Grand Canyon. I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon so I can’t vouch for that, but it does remind me of the Smokies. We enjoyed the walkway in the bottom of the valley as well as the skyway, which overlooked a beautiful waterfall and had a transparent floor, the cable car, and the world’s steepest railroad (you are pretty much going straight up the side of the mountain, not a usual flat track by any means).

We toured the Sydney Opera House; I love the concert hall, especially the organ. We walked trough the botanical gardens a bit and walked in Circular Quay (complete with street performers). We went to the Rocks, the birthplace of Sydney, and toured the small museum to get a better feel for how Sydney came about. The Rocks is a cute neighborhood, lots of old buildings from Sydney’s founding and quaint shops and cafés.

We even got to see Wicked at the Capitol Theater. I enjoyed the musical and realized how much I missed aspects of palagi culture. A night at the theater was great. We went up in the Sydney Tower before Mom and my aunt left for Hawaii. This tower isn’t quite as tall as the Auckland Skytower, but still impressive views of the city. I had 24 hours in Sydney alone and didn’t do much. Some shopping and walking around, wish I had made the flight a few days later to have more time to really do something. I enjoyed just relaxing and being in a big city.

I’m back out to the village today. Not sure what to expect. I’m sure the girls in my host family have missed me and were asking where I was the whole time I was on vacation (my host sister says they do this). But vacation is over and it’s back to work.

This is a little late...but I'm on Samoan time.

2010-01-08T11:12:00.000-11:00

I haven’t been able to upload a new post in a while. I’ve been on vacation in NZ & AUS and I tried to upload a new one before I left, but a virus on the thumb drive prevented that. Anyway, here’s what I meant to post before I left for vacation. Pretend it is December 20th.

I’ll get a new post up about vacation here in a couple of days.

Pretty crazy couple of weeks

The village had prize giving for the primary school a couple of weeks ago. This is always an outrageous event; Samoans celebrate their kids passing and moving on to the next year much more than palagi. First, there are ridiculous amounts of food, which there was so much most of us took home as well to eat later. Then the kids get their certificates and prizes. The prizes are pots, pans, soap, coffee mugs, etc. These aren’t necessarily gifts the kids want, but are more for the family. The kids at the top of the class get the most and best prizes, but everyone gets something even if it is just a couple bars of soap. We have a small school, 70 kids, so there are only 7-9 kids per class. When the kids go up to accept their certificate and prize, the parents go nuts. The kid, teacher, and sometimes the principal or president of the school committee (the high matai in my village) each get a candy necklace. There is lots of yelling and cheering and some of the more outlandish parents dance crazy and say funny things.

There is a fiafia after the prizes are handed out. The kids dance and put on small skits and the parents give money. During these singing and dancing sessions, the parents go up and dance really crazily as they are giving the money. Some parents choose to find anything they can, usually the pots, pans, or soap they were just given, put the items on their heads or something else equally odd, and proceed to dance in a manner which would definitely embarrass any palagi kid if their parents were dancing like that. It is hilarious to watch the antics and crazy behavior.

Each class does a “aumai se tupe” skit. The kids come up with some sort of song/skit where they ask for money. Example: one of the years was singing about a car. So as a group they would sing about driving the car, then individually they ask their parents for money to buy a stereo, lights, a new engine, etc. The parents give them a few tala and the money gets pooled for the school committee to have a party.

It is fun to take part in this event just to watch the antics of the parents. Some of the people in my village….crazy! I really need to get a camera with video recording ability and record some of it…words can’t really describe the madness.

I went to the matai meeting last Monday. I had to “palu le ava” (mix the ava) for the matai. I’ve done this on a couple of occasions for the village. I’m not really sure why, I don’t really know what I’m doing, but it’s an honor really they would allow me to mix the ava for them. I went to the meeting to see what I could do about getting my computer back. I know someone has it because people have said they saw it on the steps of the church after the tsunami. I don’t really know why someone wants to keep it (other than to have a laptop). It most likely doesn’t work due to water damage and the shock of being thrown about in a wave and even if it magically did I have the charger for it so by now it is nothing more than a paperweight. I only want it to see if the hard drive was sealed well and perhaps I can get things, pictures, music, documents, etc. Luckily, I backed everything up before I came to Samoa so I still have everything pre-Peace Corps, but all the pictures and documents from Peace Corps and my travels to Fiji are gone. It would be nice to get those back. Anyway, I said my peace, cried to all the matai and taule’ale’a (untitled men), and got many “talofae le teine” which translates roughly into “poor girl” and is a phrase of pity. I thought the crying was a nice touch…they felt pretty bad afterword. There was discussion about the computer and they said they would find it. We’ll see if that happens, but at least they know I know they stole my stuff and I wasn’t happy about it. The material stuff (clothes, bags, water bottle, etc) is replaceable, doesn’t make me happy they took it all when I needed their help after I’ve helped them so much and continue to do so, but I’m over that now. But the computer? Why? It isn’t like they know how to use it anyway. Oh, well…I can only hope it returned.

Last Thursday the Ministry of Health held a fa’amalositino (translates as make strong body, means exercise or aerobics) competition in Siumu. The village women’s committee is a part of the fa’amalositino program so they went and I joined them. Naturally, we don’t actually do the exercise year round…only long enough to get the money from the government and then we stop. So about a week before the competition we started practicing. The first day it was in the evenings…that’s fine I can do that. For this whole past week practice was from 5-7 AM. So this meant I had to wake up before that to get ready and down to where practice was. The hours of 4 and 5 AM are reserved for sleeping as far as I’m concerned. This was a rough week. I’ve found out that when I wake up in the hour of 4 AM I’m quite grumpy, but I managed to get through it. We went to Siumu (bus left at 5:30 AM) and did our routine. The best part was the cd was damaged and kept skipping so we would get through part and then the music would stop and that would throw us off. It was bad, but we finished. We didn’t win the competition but still got the money so job well done.

Friday was the asiasiga, or visit to everyone’s house to check to see that their land was tidy, toilets clean and acceptable, and cookhouse up to standards. This started at 6 AM, so I got to sleep in til 5:30 AM! We had a little jungle hike at one point which was quite fun. One family moved way inland near the plantations after the tsunami. So we walked far inland to get to them and then cut across the plantations to get to another family’s house which is actually closer to the inland village of Siuniu. I’ve never been to the plantations in my village because no one will take me so this was the furthest I’ve walked inland. I had fun taking a little walk in the brush.

By the time 12 came around we were almost done and in the a’ai or village center. A family gave us all vai fala, or crushed pineapple with coconut milk. It was delicious! About halfway through I noticed a funny taste…someone had spiked the drink. Some of the women didn’t realize this until they had 3 glasses. None of us had really eaten anything except for a few biscuits/cookies at one of the houses and had been walking around for 6 hours, add that to the fact that Samoans don’t really handle alcohol all that well (what they call a strong drink, is quite weak to most of us PCVs, but they drink to get drunk, no social one or two drinks here)…you get some tipsy women. It was kinda funny, luckily no one got too crazy, but there was much laughing afterwords.

We finished around 1 and had a little rest. Then I played volleyball for a couple hours. Then we had ice cream and cookies (nice lunch) as part of the reward for all of us doing the fa’amalositino the day before. I went back to the house where my host sister convinced (more like forced) me to go to BINGO that night in neighboring Salani. I really didn’t want to play, but she wanted me to come hangout since it was my last night to do so (Mom and Aunt Sandra are coming for a visit and then we are headed to Australia and New Zealand). Playing BINGO is much harder when you have to translate the number before marking the paper. Way too much work, especially after the long day we had just had. That ended around 12 am and I had to get up at 6 am to catch the bus to get into Apia the next day. Friday was a long day.

Like I said above, Mom and Aunt Sandra are coming for a visit. I’m pretty excited to see family, especially it being the holidays, and to take vacation in a Western country. I’m pretty sure I’ll do some freaking out (I haven’t been to a Western country in 1.5 years…this could be interesting). I’m off to go pick them up at the airport. Driving for the first time in 1.5 years and on the left side of the road…oh the fun!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

I almost went into a food coma

2009-12-01T08:51:00.005-11:00

A couple weeks ago we had a visit from Jared, Ruth, and their son Hugo. They run a charity bottled water company which just launched in New Zealand. The company seems really cool. All the profits from the company go to fund small water projects in third world countries. They had a holiday planned for Samoa so they donated money to my village’s project and came to see what their money went towards. We gave them a tour of the village and went down to see the spring fed pool. The vaita’ele isn’t quite finished but almost. I think they enjoyed the visit and I know I enjoyed meeting them and getting faces put to e-mail addresses. Their son Hugo (1 year old) seemed to enjoy playing with the girls in the family I live with. The girls wanted to carry him around a lot; that was amusing.

How the vaita'ele is going to work is this: the covered part is where the spring bubbles up. The water flows out from under the concrete bridge and will form a pool. The concrete making the pool isn't finished yet, but soon. As you can see from the pictures the water still flows out in to the river. Soon enough though the concrete will be laid down to catch the water. Rocks will be placed on the bottom of the pool so dirt and sand won't cause the clear, clean water to be dirty and silty. I'm excited to see the finished product. It looks great already.

I showed Anita and the girls how to make homemade ice cream in a plastic bag. They enjoyed this easy treat. It’s not difficult at all: milk, sugar, & vanilla in a small bag, ice and salt in a bigger bag, and shake until it has ice cream texture. The girls were literally climbing the counters while we were making the ice cream.

Anita finished weaving her fine mat. It is huge 27’ by 14’. She asked for advice on how to do the feathers at the bottom of the mat. I was shocked to be asked this…what does a palagi know about fine mats? She took the advice I gave and I was glad to see it turned out really well. She should get a good price for it when she sells it.

We had our Thanksgiving celebration Saturday at the embassy representative’s house. The feast was supposed to be Thursday as Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday of November, but since we are in Samoa and that day wasn’t a holiday like in the US, Saturday worked out much better. Oh, the food! Amazing! I enjoyed very much the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, etc. I even made pear salad, a tradition in my family on Thanksgiving. I ate a whole plate full of the delicious eats, went back for seconds, and then of course had some pumpkin pie for dessert. I was stuffed, as one ought to be on Thanksgiving. I haven't eaten like that since...well, last year's Thanksgiving. It's not healthy to gorge yourself on food like that, but Thanksgiving comes once a year so you have to go all out. Food comas are expected on Thanksgiving and I could have taken a nap shortly after eating (course a lot of that is due to poor sleep the night before and missing my regular afternoon nap, but the food didn’t help). There was even football on tv. The embassy representative has satellite tv so before we enjoyed the feast we watched football. It was almost like being in the USA. Good day!

Grandpa Would Be Proud!

2009-11-09T12:28:00.003-11:00

My grandfather has been a member of the Lion’s Club for decades. Every time I go up to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house in West Virginia I see the plaques commemorating his fine years of service. I knew Lion’s Club was international; I’d seen their signs in Costa Rica while I was there on a field biology course, but I didn’t know they were in Samoa. That is until they delivered aid to me Saturday afternoon. I got pisupo (corned beef), spaghetti, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, water, Ramen noodles, etc. We took some pictures and I told them my Grandpa was a Lion too, so I’m sure they got a kick out of that. I borrowed a camera from another volunteer to take some pictures and caught the kids being their normal, funny selves. Charin likes to sing for the camera while Alofa prefers trying to be the photographer, always curious as to what that goofy thing is I’m holding. I was able to get a funny video of Alofa and Charin fake fighting. If you tell Alofa to “fusu,” she takes a martial arts stance, bobs her head like a bobble head doll, and then attacks. It is so funny and I always get a kick out of it, never gets old. This family, especially the kids, is the only thing keeping me sane at times. Of course sometimes they compound the problem (you know how difficult kids can be and I still haven’t gotten used to the whole family sleeping right outside my door), but the majority of the time they make me laugh when I need to or in talking with the adults my apprehensions are relieved.

The bus continues to be an interesting experience. I thought I’d seen just about everything. In the States there are certain things you can’t do: bring a puppy or any other form of animal (exception of seeing eye dogs) on a bus for fear of biting or allergies, here not so much an issue, kinda of funny what comes on a bus actually; weed whackers, not really a good idea either; machetes are a big no-no unless one is a crazed killer or wants people to think so; and the whole sit on a strangers lap would never happen in the States (you know how we palagi are, not big fans of touching, we need our bubble of personal space). All this I’ve gotten used to as normal; there isn’t much that goes on concerning the bus which truly shocks me anymore. That being said, the other week coming back from Apia and just one village from mine, a fight broke out between two soles. “Great!” I thought, “I’m almost home and these idiots are causing trouble.” They started in the back and worked their way up front. They got up by me and I hunkered down as they shoved each other into me and continued the punching and wrestling. I really didn’t want to have to go back to the office the next day and explain why I had a black eye or worse. I found it very cute when the Samoan lady next to me put her arms around me and yelled to the boys “Teine Palagi, Teine Palagi!” That did nothing to stop them, but it was cute. The lady had a kid about three on her lap who was about to lose it when the boy were wrestling on top of me causing me to be shoved into them. Eventually, the bus driver and other men got them separated. The driver kicked one guy off and told the other to stay put; he didn’t want this continued in the street. From what I heard the fight was about bus fare. While money might be a big issue, $6 is not enough to warrant a bloody nose and several face lacerations. But, I believe alcohol was involved as well so that would explain most of the stupid behavior. Just another day on the bus.

Long lost dog has returned!

2009-11-02T08:04:00.002-11:00

Well, it took a whole month but I finally found her. I was sitting on the church steps last Tuesday, waiting for singing practice to begin, when I saw the little mutt sauntering down the road looking halfway lost as always. I walked down the steps and did the familiar whistle she knows as me. She stopped in her tracks and looked at me on the fist whistle, started wagging her tail on the second, and took off running towards me on the third. I think she was a little surprised to see me after a month. I’m pretty sure all the Samoans thought it was funny to see me and the dog. Oh well, I’m glad to see she is ok. She has been a bad girl though and is pregnant…again. I have to get her de-sexed but that isn’t easy without a car; that will happen after this litter comes though. Dogs are something not in short supply here and more dogs are not needed in this country. She followed me up the road after singing (waiting so patiently for me where the old house was until singing was over) and has stayed at the house since then; although, I had trouble finding her the past couple of days so I think she went back down seaward. I tried giving her a bath last Wednesday. As with most dogs, she wasn’t a fan. It was a short bath and she still smells like a dog, but I didn’t want to stress her out too much since she is pregnant. Pretty sure my family found me giving the dog a bath amusing.

Wednesday night there were some interesting sights in the sky. I saw two shooting stars. They both had green tails and lasted 2-3 seconds so I’m thinking they may have been part of a small meteor shower. They didn’t seem like regular shooting stars to me. The really cool thing was the aura or ring around the moon (also known as a halo). When the first shooting star caught my eye I saw the ring around the moon. I’ve seen rings around the moon before, but never this big. As I looked up I put my thumb on the moon and my index finger on the ring, 3 inches or so. I’ve only seen them an inch or less. Really cool to see. Pretty soon I had the whole family out there looking at it. That was funny because I told one person; they gave an exclamation of surprise and called another until the whole family was outside staring at the moon. They kept asking what day it was because since Wednesday was the 28th the next day was the 29th and the one month anniversary of the tsunami. They thought something bad would occur the next day. I kept trying to tell them the ring was only because of moisture in the air, but that didn’t seem to be a satisfying enough answer. Oh well, it was still fun to gaze at the moon with them.

It is funny how life comes at you fast. I went from living alone and by the sea to living with a family and in the jungle. I used to fix my own palagi food but am now given Samoan food. Although, we get a lot canned foods (beef stew, mushroom soup, baked beans, etc) as part of aid given to the other family whose house was destroyed and shared with me because they feel bad I was affected more than a lot of families and I haven’t been given aid. I told them I appreciate it, but it isn’t necessary; they send over stuff anyway. They aren’t used to the palagi canned foods so they give them to me. The girls in the family tried apple juice for the first time and made funny faces. They said it was o’ona or bitter. I had a box of raisins and we put them in the oatmeal along with chopped walnuts we were given as part of the aid. I thought it was fantastic and really added a lot to the oatmeal. Charin, the 4 year old, spit every walnut and raisin out; e le masani (she isn’t used to it). That was amusing.

I am working on a proposal to get funding for a new pre-school. Of course the other, which was my house, was destroyed in the tsunami. We should be submitting the proposal soon. We picked up three computers Friday, thanks to Jenny for giving us two of the four she requested and Sara and Cale for an additional computer to replace the whole order as well as for fixing them up and keeping them safe. I’m hoping to keep a little busier on an everyday basis either messing around on the computer or actually doing my job and teaching people how to use the computer. Work comes in spurts so it will be great to have something more often to do.

When I got back from Apia and picking up the computers Friday, I was called over to the pulenuu’s house. Three trucks from DMO, Disaster Management Office, were there. Apparently, they have been trying to find me for four weeks and the last time they tried to find me I was in Apia for the fiafia to welcome the new group; go figure, I was in the village all that time except for the time they came to deliver stuff to me. Well, my family can stop being mad at the village for not giving me aid (even though this didn’t have anything to do with the village, it was all DMO). I got a bunch of cereals, canned foods, noodles, rice, cookies, soap, laundry powder, a non-stick skillet, bowls, and a box of NZ Artesian water. Since I am now part of a Samoan family I shared. I gave my family everything since they cook for me anyway. They had me keep some things, like the toilet paper, toothpaste, two packs of cookies (in case I get hungry), and the bedding for when I need to change my sheets. We should be eating really well for the next few weeks. We have enough cereal to feed an army; the kids enjoyed it for dinner Friday night. I’m interested to see what else might show up, not that I need it or really want it, but it will be given anyway since I’m a tsunami victim. My family gets well fed; I’m ok with that.

It is still really weird to drive past Poutasi on the bus. There is still a lot of debris. They had to knock another building near the secondary school down because of water damage. The area near the school looks pretty cleaned up; although just a giant field for the most part now, but just to the side where there are more trees there is a lot of tin used for roofing and wood scattered everywhere. It is a little unnerving to be on the bus and when we get to Poutasi everyone turns their head to see how the clean up is going. My village will change soon too. Those of us whose houses were completely destroyed by the tsunami aren’t returning to where we once lived. Many of the families whose houses were not damaged at all or only minor water damage sustained are starting to move up to the road as well. They are pretty scared to live down in the village center near the sea and I can understand their wish to move inland to be safer. I was a little unhappy to hear a matai knocked his house down just so that he could get aid. His house sustained no damage, yet he is taking advantage of the disaster. From what I’ve heard, this is happening all over Samoa and I’m sure it happens worldwide, but that doesn’t make it right.

The best part of my days, besides the nap which is a cultural requirement, is right around dusk. I love watching the bats fly around. The palm trees are mere silhouettes, the sky is shades of blue, pink, red, purple, and orange, and the air is starting to cool off from the warm day. The bats emerge from their mountain roosts and fly out in search of the evening meal. The bats are peaceful things to watch at the end of the long days.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

2009-10-13T10:20:00.000-11:00

I’ve been back in the village about a week now and am enjoying living with a family. I’m just off the main road now, so it is much easier to catch the bus. I don’t have to walk 15 minutes to get back to my house while carrying a back of groceries and after walking around all day in Apia. It is a totally different atmosphere than what I had before. Usually, only four people live there, but because of the tsunami we have an additional six people living there. We had another two as well, the parents of the people I am living with, but they are building a house just up the road and already have a small fale up where they sleep. The others will move out as well. They are re-building where the old fale was by the sea.

There are two kids in the family four and six, and for now a one year old and a one month old. It is fun to see the kids play. They do the funniest things. The family tells the one year old, Alofa, to “Fai maso” (flex your muscles) and little Alofa does a strong man pose, flexing her little arms and grinning ear to ear. It is so funny. The kids were playing the other day when Alofa got the best of the four year old, Karin. Alofa was terrorizing Karin who was lying down trying to watch a movie. Alofa comes running towards Karin so Karin put her foot up to try to stop Alofa. Instead of being stopped by the foot on her chest, Alofa acted like she was going to eat Karin’s foot. Alofa’s reaction to the foot on her chest was so quick; no time lost thinking at all. I cracked up laughing. I take the kids on walks and we watch movies together. It is fun to be around the kids.

Anita is the mom of the family. She is like a Samoan sister to me. When I lived alone, she would invite me to her house for dinner and to hang out, even gave me papaya and ripe bananas. She was the one who saw me not doing anything but sitting around after the tsunami and invited me for lunch at her house. She immediately started getting a room together for me. Anita takes care of me, but doesn’t overwhelm me which can happen sometimes in a Samoan family. She lived in town and was really good friends with other Peace Corps Volunteers, so she knows we palagi need alone time sometimes. Salesa is her husband; he said he would protect me from the cheeky boys. I really like this family so I’m glad to be living with them. They gave me a nice room in their house, even my own bathroom in my room (no more out house).

Now that I’ve been back for a week my things are starting to be returned. I was walking with the kids on Wednesday evening when one of the men in the village was waving for me to come over to his house. I went over and he gave me my dive watch and a pair of eyeglasses back; I was shocked. I know him and his family and they too are really nice so I’m not shocked they would be nice enough to give my things back, but just shocked in general I got things back. I’m glad about getting both back and especially happy to get the glasses because I only have one extra pair of contacts left. I have horrible eyesight so it is nice to be able to wear the contacts during the day and put my glasses on at night. This way I can save the contacts until more come by mail.

Taua, a matai who is a really helpful counterpart, has been going around finding out where my stuff is. I’m so glad to have him as a friend. I got a suitcase back, beat up pretty badly but who cares, a pair of shoes, my external hard drive and thumb drives (don’t work, but that’s ok), and most shocking cds & dvds (really scratched but appear to work). Not everything, but it is a start. I’ve washed everything, but I’ll be finding sand in all of these things for years to come.

The women on my Peace Corps committee and the pastor’s wife washed my clothes they found. I was shocked to see how clean they got everything. You can’t even tell the clothes went through a tsunami. I didn’t get much back, just 4 puletasi (what a shock those wouldn’t get stolen, but t-shirts which are clearly mine, like have things which say Peace Corps on it, I see kids wearing), 3 t-shirts (not the good ones I wanted, but I’m not in a position to be picky at this point), a rash guard, that is very useful to have back, and a few other random things. I was hoping for some other things, but I’m glad I got these things back. It was very nice of the women to wash everything for me. I’m glad I have good Peace Corps friends who gave me extra clothes they had. Whenever we volunteers get together, at least one person will be able to say I’m wearing their shirt.

So I’m glad to see that living in the village for over a year did make a difference with some people. I’m glad to have the women on my committee and Taua looking out for me. Now I have a family to look out for me too.

It is weird to walk on the paths in the village center and not see my house or be going home. I’m going to have to get used to not seeing the ocean all the time and not going to sleep or waking up to the sound of the crashing waves. It is odd to see where my house was; gives me a weird feeling. Not fear or anxiety, just weird not being able to go back to the way things were.

A few bad apples don’t ruin the bushel

2009-10-06T08:39:00.002-11:00

Despite the fact people looted the few things I had left after a tsunami destroyed my house, the stories of people rising to the occasion out shine the actions of the bad. It isn’t like looting is a Samoan concept; evil people worldwide take advantage of others’ misfortune after disasters. Ever since the tsunami people have rushed to help. As I was coming in on Tuesday a few hours after the disaster, caravans of cars were already headed over to the south side to help. Teams from New Zealand and Australia have come in to help in the relief effort. People are volunteering their time to help distribute food and clothing to the displaced families, while some are given the solemn task of looking for those who did not survive. Since Tuesday, Peace Corps Volunteers have come in from their villages to help out in Aleipata and Falealili, spending long hours in the sun helping those in need. Companies have donated time, food, materials, etc to help out the relief effort. A phone company gave free credit Tuesday and I think Wednesday as well so people could get in contact with friends and family. They also gave generators and cell phone recharging stations to Red Cross relief stations so people can charge phones and continue their hard work. A restaurant shut down to the public and cooked exclusively for relief workers. A telethon raised over $600K tala for the relief effort.

Many of the families do not want to leave their homes, even if all they have left is the foundation. They set up tarps and crowd as many people under it as possible. Efforts are being made to get tents and simple household items they can use to cook. Most of the clean-up is done and soon the painful rebuilding process will begin. Many on the south coast do not have the means to rebuild or are too scared to go down to the sea again. The south side looks like a different world. While driving through Lalomanu, it is hard to see where the beach fale resort was where I had vacationed just 4 months ago. Nothing is left of most of the area. All the way up to the mountain is nothing but destruction. Despite all this, people are going out everyday to help the victims. As much as we as humans can get discouraged by all the bad aspects of human nature, it is encouraging to see the good come out and the true spirit of humanity shine.

Heartbreak

2009-10-03T08:59:00.003-11:00

While I viewing my collapsed house Thursday with a couple of the Peace Corps staff and letting them check out my new residence, we decided to come back Friday with a team of volunteers to break my house apart and see what we can find and salvage. I told my village I'd be back, not to touch my house, we’d clean it up the next day. So Peace Corps comes out strong, 2 cars, 12 or so volunteers, prepared with gloves & hammers, ready to break my house apart (we also donated food and clothing to the other family). We get there, not only is my house already apart, everything is gone. Anything I could have salvaged was gone. Now I know a lot of my stuff was taken by the waves, but I saw things in the wreckage, just couldn't get to them until we broke the house apart. All that was gone. I asked about where everything was, including stuff I saw Tuesday and Thursday...response" Leai se mea" there is nothing. They said they found my computer on the steps of the church (I know the computer won’t work, but I want the hard drive to see if I can get anything off of it); I asked where it was…response “I don’t know.” This is heartbreaking, not because everything I own is gone, but because my house was looted by my own village.

I would have thought after a year of living in the village, going to church every Sunday, doing projects for the village (including getting them $4,000 tala worth of sewing machines), and just generally being around these people and thinking I might be a friend my things would have been returned to me. They found some things, like my backpack and wallet, but $100 tala was missing from my wallet once returned. Getting my things looted and stolen by members of my own community hurts more than losing everything I own.

I was very disappointed by the behavior of my village. I know it was probably only a few bad people in the village, but it still hurts. I’m going to do my best to ask around and see if things will be returned to me, but I’m not hopeful. Yesterday was a sad day. I had some hope of getting some things back, but my village took care of all that hope. Only two houses were destroyed, mine and another families’; one would think the village would rally and take care of us. I guess at the end of the day, no matter how much I do for the village, how many times I go to church with them, or how many hugs I get from the little kids, I will always be just a palagi.

Update

2009-10-01T13:27:00.006-11:00

Ok everyone here's an update. I went back today but so much damage I'm going to need some help as will the village because no aid organizations have come (they are focusing on Poutasi and Lalomanu who were hit hardest). So the Peace Corps Office has organized a work day in my village with the volunteers. We are going clean up the remnants of my house and see what we can do to help the village clean up. We are also going to donate what we can to the family who lost everything. I have some pics to show you courtesy of Casey letting me borrow his camera.

First, this is my house before:

After:

You can see a bit of the foundation next to the open fale which is still standing. The tsunami basically picked my house up and deposited it 10-15 feet in front. My toilet however was about 50 feet from where it should have been. No more papaya tree or garden of course. Below is next to my house. There used to be an open fale which looked like the one in the picture above except raised off the ground a few feet. As you can see, it is no longer there. The rubble in front used to be signs which told of our marine protected area. Looking today, the buoys are gone marking the boundaries and the men were trying to find our giant clams. We had over 300 clams we were raising to repopulate the reef. I'm curious to see the condition of the MPA when I go back.

This is leading into the mouth of the river. Trees are down and mud everywhere. I was just past this as the water came.

This river forms the eastern boundary of my village. The road into my village parallels this river. I was a few hundred feed from this river as the water rushed up it. You can see the damage done by the wave. The bridge this picture was taken on was wet after the tsunami from water rushing over it.

This is what is left of the Salani Surf Resort. Salani is the village to the east of my village. The resort was destroyed but most of the village has survived. Some houses have collapsed, but the damage is not as extensive as other villages. No one in Salani died from what I have heard. I guess the rumor of a boy dying was false, thank goodness.

This was a damaged house in Salani. Most the village is ok, a few collapsed houses like this one.

This is Poutasi. There used to be a school building running perpendicular to the building you see on the left. As you can see, the area is basically one big clearing now. Poutasi got hit hardest in the district.

Poutasi is now a giant clearing. It is like after a tornado...not much left.

Better news is I now have a place to live. After the tsunami a family was already tidying up a room for me when the Peace Corps Office came to get me. They offered to house me for the rest of my service. I really like this family so I'm happy I'll be able to live with them. The mother of this family happens to be the daughter of the family who's house was near mine and destroyed. So we are all pretty close. I went out with the office today and we talked with a family. All that needs to be done is to fix the locks and windows and I'm ready to go. Hopefully by Monday or Tuesday next week I'll be back home.

I’m lucky to be alive

2009-09-30T09:15:00.002-11:00

I’m sure most of you have heard about the earthquake and tsunami that hit Samoa by now and am wondering how I’m doing. Well, here’s the story:

I was sleeping when the 8.0 earthquake hit. My house started shaking and things were falling off shelves. Books fell down, the phone mounted on my wall fell down, cans of food fell…I’m smart enough to know when things start falling it is probably wise to get out. So grabbed my phone and left my room. The shaking lasted a long time too, at least a minute. I texted a good friend here with the message of “shit that was big” when it was over. She agreed. About that time I got a call from the Peace Corps medical officer that I should probably move inland because the possibility of a tsunami. So I grabbed an ie and left.

I was walking on the road which parallels the beach when I noticed something wasn’t right. I could see structures like rocks and coral which I have never seen above water, not even at the lowest of low tides. This didn’t bode well. Then I noticed the really odd wave action, something just wasn’t right. I had just turned the corner of the road and was now headed inland, versus parallel to the beach as I had been just one minute before, when the waves hit the beach and surged up the road. At this point I started running, as did my village. As I was running I could hear the water surging up the river, tearing trees down.

I got up to the main road where most everyone was. The matai were directing everyone to head to Siuniu, the village inland. I could see the look of panic and worry as parents asked where their kids were, for they were headed to the primary school which is near me. The matai were organized and knew where to direct the parents to in order to find their kids. I went up to Siuniu and waited with my village. At this point we were getting reports of a school in Poutasi (a few villages to the west) collapsing and killing three kids. Everyone was on phones, calling relatives and friends in neighboring villages, trying to find out what was going on. Reports came that 50 people in Poutasi were dead, buried in the sand. A boy in neighboring Salani died. And 15 in Aleipata were dead. As far as I know at this point, no one in my village died. We are lucky.

Then I got a report that my house and another were destroyed. I wanted to go and see if this was true, but I knew to stay. I waited a few hours then went to see what the damage was. Sure enough, my house was flattened. The tsunami ripped the house from its foundation and deposited it 10 feet in front of the house, collapsed beyond repair. I could see all of my stuff waterlogged and muddy. I’m not sure what can be salvaged. I’m going back tomorrow to find out what I can still use, but I know most things will be trashed.

While that is unfortunate, at least it was just my house and not my home. The other family I feel bad for because it was their home. I had stuff there which will be expensive to replace, but it wasn’t everything in the world I owned, just everything I Samoa I owned. Most of my stuff is still back in the US. I feel bad for the other family who truly lost everything. I feel really bad about the three computers I had in my house for the school. I don’t think those will be salvaged, but another Peace Corps Volunteer already told me she would donate two to my school, so I’m happy about that. I also am upset that I don’t know where my dog is. I saw her after the earthquake, and then don’t know where she went. I hope she is ok. Animals are smarter than humans in many ways, so she probably left before I did, but I’m still worried. I hope I find her.

The Peace Corps Office came out and drove me to Apia. I could see the damage in the villages as I passed. Poutasi looks pretty bad; boats are inland, houses devastated, and the school collapsed. Their village is pretty flat on the seaward side, so the wave did quite a bit of damage. The district hospital there looked like it was spared, might have water damage though. As we were driving over Cross Island Road, many cars were headed south to help clean up and try to find their family.

Once in Apia, small aftershocks could still be felt throughout the day. Around 5:30 pm the tsunami sirens went off. Everyone headed up the mountains carrying what they could. It turned out to be a false alarm, but better safe than sorry. Most businesses were closed as people went to help.

Report is over 80 here are dead. If you want to help:
http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php?st=1&sn=13&pg=6341

I want to say thank you to all my fellow PCVs. I don’t think my phone was quite for five minutes yesterday morning. Everyone wanted to see if I was ok; thanks, makes me feel loved. When I got to Apia, a bunch of people offered up their house and everyone wanted to know what they could do to help. I appreciate the support guys. You guys are awesome! Also to everyone who posted on facebook and sent me e-mails, thanks for your support as well. And finally to Teuila; I was awake after the earthquake but not enough awake to be thinking about a tsunami. If she hadn’t called right after the quake stopped, I probably would have been at my house. If I had left my house just a minute later…well, yeah.

I gave a written eyewitness account to Sydney Morning Herald and a phone interview to NY Daily News. Here’s the link for the NY article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/29/2009-09-29_tsunami_hits_american_samoa_.html

And the Sydney article:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/i-could-hear-the-waters-rushing-up-and-tearing-trees-down-20090930-gcay.html

So that is all I know for now. I’m off to buy some new clothes because I have the clothes on my back and one spare. I’ll keep you posted on what goes on.

Brake Check

2009-09-26T12:10:00.000-11:00

I was on my way to Apia via the bus last week and was traveling down Cross Island Road, or Tiavi as the Samoans call it, when the bus had a showdown with a cow. Cross Island Road is quite steep as it is goes right up a mountain. It would be a fun road to ride a bike down, a little unsafe with the twists and turns and blind corners (not to mention the crazy drivers), but fun nonetheless. We were coming down the mountain towards Apia when a cow ran out into the road. This cow was good sized too, definitely enjoyed the grasses which grow on the mountain slope and would have caused some issues with the bus. The driver slammed on the brakes as the cow barreled into the road. I look up, see the large cow, and think “Oh boy, this is going to be messy.” Luckily, the bus stopped in time and the cow crossed the road with no issues. The Samoans gave a “Malo fa’auli” or “good driving” to the driver. It would have made some nice steaks had we hit the poor bovine, but the Samoan cut of beef isn’t great anyway (hacking with a machete usually ruins the cuts of beef).

I am happy to report I finally got computers for the village. I’ve been working on this for nearly a year now and am happy my patience has paid off. A company in NZ donated a few hundred computers to Samoa. Most of them went to the Ministry of Education to be put in schools of their choice, but 30 went to Peace Corps Volunteers since two of my fellow PCVs were key in getting the computers here. So I applied to have a few of the 30 and was successful in getting three of them. I’m excited to set them up and start teaching people (I’m looking forward to exploring the Linux operating system as well; I’m usually a Windows gal). I know a few of the women in the village are eager to learn so they can get jobs in Apia and the kids want to learn as well. Teaching computers should keep me a little busier as well so I’m excited.

Funny child story: I was working around my house a few weeks ago trying to nail down some loose boards when two of the pre-school kids came over to swing on the swings (my house used to be the pre-school and the swings are still there). I was squatting down trying to straighten out a bent nail when one of the girls came up and started petting my head. It is odd to have a four year old petting your head, but they also like to rub my arms (Samoans don’t have a lot of arm hair and it is funny to them to see it). The girl continues to rub my head and then says “Manaia lou ulu” or “you have nice hair.” Ok, quite the compliment. I’m just amused the girl was petting my head, makes me laugh.

Lesson Learned

2009-09-22T10:58:00.002-11:00

I learned an important lesson last night…a mosquito net not only protects one from vile, bloodsucking mosquitoes, but also from all the other things which lurk in one’s room and only come out when the lights go out. Last night was a pretty nice night, temperature was nice and not too many bugs were out. Since it wasn’t buggy, I decided I didn’t want to feel suffocated by my mosquito net as I slept and lit a mosquito coil to keep the few mosquitoes away. I was sleeping pretty well, occasionally awoken by the rat(s), which where eating my soap or the plastic off of something (I’ve found out that even though there is lots of food hanging from a number of trees outside, rats prefer to eat sponges, soap, & plastic in my room, go figure). All of the sudden I feel this thing land on my face. I shook it off and without thinking went right back to sleep. I’ve learned it is best not to think about what it was or sleep won’t come the rest of the night. I’m pretty sure it was a cockroach, but don’t want to think that hard about it. Other friends have had centipedes fall on their faces as they have slept (strangely enough once even while under the mosquito net). So lesson is: as suffocating as it may be, as mosquito net is good for more than protection against mosquitoes.

Back to the rat…a few months ago I had a really weird experience involving my sponges. I’m a really, really light sleeper, just about everything will wake me up. As I was sleeping, the rustling of a plastic grocery bag woke me up. I got my flashlight and looked around my room to see what was making the odd sound. I had sponges in a plastic grocery bag and they were all the way across my room, halfway under my door like they were going out for a stroll at 2 in the morning. I thought that was a little odd. I got out of bed and put them back in my little kitchen area. I went back to sleep. I woke up the next morning and put my feet down. As I get up out of the mosquito net, I looked down. What was at my feet?….the sponges. This was before I knew I had rats so I was very weirded out. I thought I must have a ghost who had a traumatic experience with sponges so it was trying to get rid of them so as not to relive the awful memory. Ok, not really…this was the first clue that I might have some resident rats. Since then, I’ve caught one in a trap, but they still run around in my roof and have a lot of guts to come down in my room. I also now have my sponges in a bag hanging from a nail.

Some better news is my village has three computers waiting in Apia for us to pick up! I’m very excited for this; I’ve been working nearly a year to get computers. Thursday we’ll pick them up and as soon as I get everything set up and loaded on the computers I’ll start teaching lessons. Some of the women keep asking me when we will get computers because they want to learn so they can get a job in Apia, so I’m happy to now be able to say Thursday. This is a major step in getting the library/computer center set up. Back in March, I requested books from an organization in the US and told a bunch of other volunteers about the organization. Other volunteers got their books in a month, but after six months I still had no books. I put in another request and I’m hoping in a couple of weeks they show up. It is a little ironic I found the organization, requested books first, told other volunteers about it, and am the only one still without books. Oh well, that’s they way it goes. If I’ve learned nothing else while here at least I will truly know that patience is a virtue.

History Made

2009-09-18T09:14:00.006-11:00

Well, Samoa had the historic road switch last week and as far as I can tell it went off without any real problems. There was some minor protesting (a village in Savaii put rocks in the road so cars couldn’t pass), but that was all resolved quickly. I got a ride into town on Friday and driving on the left didn’t seem odd, but traffic on my side of the island is quite light. When I got to town though and saw all the stop lights, intersections, and roundabouts I thought it was weird. I have to pay extra attention when walking around now so that I don’t walk out into traffic. Oh and the big shipping container is off the reef in Apia now (see previous post for story). It was sitting at the wharf last time I was in town, didn’t look so good though, still keeling to one side. The little fishing boat is still stuck on the reef; it might be permanent.

I had the most uncomfortable bus ride back to the village last week as well. Apparently, there is only one bus for the whole district that has the door switched to the proper side so passengers don’t exit out into traffic. This makes for extremely full buses. I was waiting with some others in my village for the bus at the bus stop by the fish market when the bus arrived. There was a mad dash for the bus as it pulled in. It was kinda funny to see a swarm of people walking very quickly, nearly running to get to the bus. We all piled on and so began the process of sitting on laps. I ended up on a guy’s lap, which is not really a good thing considering how cheeky Samoan men are and I try to avoid this as much as possible, but what was I supposed to do when the bus had at least 50-60 people on it (keep in mind the proper amount is 33)? I couldn’t even see the door, driver, or out the front window and I was only a few rows back. Since the bus had so many people on it, driving up the mountain nearly killed it. The bus somehow made it up the mountain, not quickly as it took me almost two and a half hours to get home, but indeed it survived.

Church is an interesting event here in Samoa. I live near the church so every Sunday I wake up to the sound of the church bell ringing, announcing there is one hour until church begins. Wake-up really isn’t a good term because usually I nearly jump out of bed I am so startled and it isn’t really a church bell it is an empty gas tank. It goes on for five minutes and during that time I’m holding my fingers to my ears so that I don’t go deaf. At the end of the service the church offerings are announced. Anyone who donates to the church has their name read aloud and how much they donate. This past Sunday was really cute. I was sitting in the pew listening to the endless names and amounts when I heard “Aliitasi Onofitu, 20 sene.” The whole church burst into laughter; not because it was only 20 cents, but because the donor was a four year old. I guess she decided the church needed a little something extra this week.

I went out to monitor the MPA a few days ago. The village is raising clams and they are getting quite large, some at least a foot long. I saw some really cool fish out there as well. First, a Snowflake Moray Eel, pretty cool to see just sitting there letting me take as many pictures as I wanted. I saw another eel briefly which I swear had a head bigger than my hand, but it shot into a crevice before I could get a good look at it. I also saw a Scorpionfish. This is why walking on the ocean floor really isn’t a good idea, highly venomous (lots of pain if you step on it). I also saw a juvenile Oriental Sweetlips. The juvenile of this species swims really peculiarly, undulating rapidly more like an eel. I was perplexed when I first saw the fish as to what it was, I was hoping for a baby shark, but no luck. I even saw cuttlefish in the MPA a few weeks ago. This is why I became a marine biologist; I get to snorkel around all day in the South Pacific and technically be working…awesome!

Funny story while in the MPA: I was swimming around seeing what I could, when I felt something take a little nibble. It wasn't a real bite or anything, just a little peck of a nibble on the back of my knee, but enough to creep my out a bit. I turned around to see what it was, but couldn't see anything. So I turned around and started swimming again. I felt the same little nibble. Now I was curious to find out what little thing was trying to eat me. I looked around for a while, seeing nothing but regular reef fish who I knew didn't want to have me for lunch. I kept searching, when I spotted these little fish poking their heads out of holes in the coral. They were aggressive for their size, only 5 in or so. I could identify them as blennies, but didn't know the species. They were funny to watch because they had more guts than some of the bigger fish. They would poke their heads out of the holes and when you weren't paying full attention to them would swim out of the hole and attack. I got back to my house and looked them up. They are Piano Fangblennies and feed on the skin and scales of fish, or in this case human skin.

Earth Shaking & Boats Aground

2009-09-03T13:03:00.000-11:00

I woke up early Sunday morning not to the church bell announcing church will be starting in one hour, but rather to my house shaking at 4 AM. I’ve gotten used to the 2-3 second tremors as part of life in Samoa and on the Ring of Fire and I woke up to the shaking thinking it would stop after the usual 2-3 seconds. However, this time not only did it not stop, but it intensified as the shaking was due to a 6.6 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter 110 miles West of Apia. While the earthquake Sunday morning was by no means a big quake (no damage here), it was the strongest I have ever felt. It is unsettling to wake up to your stuff dancing on your bookshelves. I heard the rumbling of the Earth and the clatter of my books on the shelves. I have about 30 feet before a small cliff and the ocean. When the rumbling didn’t quit but became stronger I was a little anxious I might have to bolt out the door, but alas the 10 seconds of fun ended & I went back to sleep.

Diving was fun a couple of weekends ago. We dove the Rock & Apolima Gardens. The Rock is supposedly the best dive in Samoa. We had a pretty good dive as the weather was perfect for diving. We saw a 3 foot White-tip Reef Shark, who wanted nothing to do with us and bolted the second we desended, a massive Humphead Wrasse, which can get up to 7.5 feet and this one was probably that big, & a school of 13 barracuda, all 3-4 feet long, which circled us for a while deciding who they wanted to have for brunch. I guess they didn’t fancy any of us because they soon swam off to see of there was anything better to eat elsewhere. Apolima Gardens was a good dive as well. We saw two turtles, which came within 3-4 feet of me (up close encounter!) and another Humphead Wrasse, this one was only 5-6 feet though, small fish. The coolest part of the trip was the odd noise we heard on the second dive. It was low, almost like a foghorn. I thought something was wrong with someone’s gear. It wasn’t until we ascended did the dive master say the noise was whales. Awesome! Humpbacks are the most common whales seen here in Samoa, so most likely those were the originators of the sound. It didn’t sound like the typical high-pitched sound of Humpbacks, but perhaps the call was not of the mating purpose (as the high-pitched sounds are) and the low-pitched sound was another sound in the whale’s soundtrack. Not a bad day diving at all, but then again any day diving is always a good one in my book.

If you have been keeping up with my blog I just posted about the road switch and added a link to a Wall Street Journal article. Recently, PASS had a motion to the high court trying to stop the road switch. They lost, so Monday will be a very interesting day here in Samoa. I had planned to be in Apia to watch the fun, otherwise known as complete chaos, but since the PM declared Monday and Tuesday holidays (meaning no buses) that means I would have to come in Saturday and stay in until Wednesday and that is just too much time to be in Apia doing nothing. I will just have to listen to the radio for anything interesting happening. I’ll let you know if anything interesting goes on. I’m still curious to see what happens with the buses after the road switch holidays because they are planning on protesting. They have a just cause since cutting a new door will take $50,000 Tala and takes two weeks or so for each bus. Savai’i will have a really hard time getting their buses cut because only one place can do it on Savai’i and cutting new doors for all the buses there will take 2 years. Meanwhile, they aren’t supposed to drive with the doors on the opposite side as they are now. I’m really unsure what is going to happen. It is going to be an interesting week next week; that is guaranteed.

There is an odd sight in the wharf in Apia this week. A large shipping container is stranded on the reef, keeling to one side and seems like it might become permanent. It was headed to Tonga and is carrying cement so it isn’t like it is a light load. The tugboats trying to pull the ship free couldn’t budge the ship, so for now it is an interesting sight in the capital. The funny thing is a small fishing boat is now also stranded. From what I heard on the radio news was the fishing boat didn’t know the shipping boat was stranded so it headed in the same direction, only to find ground. I’m not sure how the boats are to be freed.

Just found this online!

2009-08-24T11:07:00.004-11:00

Front thumbnail on Yahoo and printed in the Wall Street Journal...awesome!

Shifting the Right of Way to the Left Leaves Some Samoans Feeling Wronged
Government Calls Traffic-Rule Switch 'Common Sense,' but It Sparks Road Rage

By Patrick Barta

APIA, Samoa -- Sometime in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, residents of this small Pacific island nation will stop their cars, take a deep breath, and do something most people would think is suicidal: Start driving on the other side of the road.

Samoa is about to become what's believed to be the first nation since the 1970s to order its drivers to switch from one side of the road to the other. That's spawned an islandwide case of road rage. Opponents have organized two of the biggest protests in Samoan history, and a new activist group -- People Against Switching Sides, or PASS -- has geared up to fight the plan.

The prime minister who hatched Samoa's scheme, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, refuses to do a U-turn. Road-switch opponents are just trying to rattle the government, he says. He has compared a prominent opponent of the switch to a local "avaava" fish -- a sea creature that swims in shallow waters and eats garbage, an insult in Samoan culture.

For full article, click link below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125086852452149513.html?mod=yhoofront#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Village Vaita’ele

2009-08-18T11:19:00.001-11:00

I have a good project success occur just recently. I am working to get funding for a vaita’ele for the village. A vaita’ele is a spring fed pool used as a source of clean, freshwater for drinking & cooking as well as for bathing, & laundry. The pipe water in my village comes from a river in a nearby village. When heavy rains come our pipe water is so brown I can’t see to the bottom of a small bucket. We have the spring cornered off with cement, but this area is so small it is unusable and the freshwater runs off into the river unused.

So I applied to Appropriate Projects to fund the project. Returned Peace Corps Volunteers run the organization with the aim of helping current PCVs fund small water projects. They put the projects online and ask people to donate money to fund the project. We don’t need much for the project, just cement and paint. We have a carpenter and plenty of labor can be provided by the men in the village. I figured this would take a while, but with in a week they said they would fund the project. Awesome! No village is complete without a vaita’ele.

So if anyone is feeling charitable and wants a tax break, please feel free to donate to the cause (http://appropriateprojects.com/node/28). It doesn’t have to be much; any amount will be put to good use. I have a fellow PCV here in Samoa doing a composting toilet project and I’m sure she would appreciate some help in that effort as well (http://appropriateprojects.com/node/27).

You are doing what to the roads?

2009-08-18T11:06:00.001-11:00

The big thing going on in Samoa right now is the road switch. On September 7th Samoa will switch from driving on the right hand side of the road to the left hand side (apparently in the 60’s they switched from the left to the right). I listen to the radio a lot and have heard some very interesting news about it.

According to a fellow PCV, $3.5 million Kiwi dollars has gone into this project. Some of this spent money has been spent visibly (signs, tv advertisements, etc), but that is a lot of money and I’d like to know where it has all gone. The roads have been painted with new lines, speed bumps put up, and signs have gone up about keeping to the left of the centerline (most of those signs were covered, but a few of the bags were ripped off and the signs were legible). Commercials are on tv and signs are strung up in Apia demarking the day of the switch. Money was given to bus owners so they could change the buses’ orientations for driving on the left, but I doubt this will actually happen.

A big court case about the switch is also taking place and I’m sure much of that money has gone to this. There is a large group of people who are against the switch. Two villages have already said they will stop cars driving on the left hand side of the road when they move through those villages as their form of protesting. An organization (PASS – people against switching sides) has taken the action of the government to court. The group has a valid point; people can’t wake up one day and magically drive flawlessly on the left hand side of the road. The government is giving two holidays for this event (September 7th & 8th). The government’s reason for the switch is “to give all Samoans the equal opportunity to drive as many come from overseas (mainly AUS & NZ) and by driving on the right hand side they are at a disadvantage.” The decision should be ruled on sometime this week. I’m not sure what will happen if the group wins and the court says the government shouldn’t switch the road.

Second, the switch will start at 5:50 in the morning. At that time, police in Apia will stop all traffic and the cars will sit for 10 minutes pondering the upcoming switch. At 6 am, the cars will move to the left hand side of the road and then will pause for another 10 minutes of contemplation. At 6:10, driving will commence. This is going to be fun to watch, a total disaster, but fun nonetheless.

I had originally said I’m staying out of Apia during this time, but the closer we get and the more that occurs with it the more I want to be in Apia at that time. One word…roundabout. Oh yeah, I’m sitting on one of the benches near the government buildings and the biggest roundabout in country September 7th, 8th, & 9th just to watch the fun. Should I be working at that time, probably, but I have those government holidays so I might as well enjoy them.

Have I really gotten used to this?

2009-08-18T11:01:00.002-11:00

Life in Samoa, as in any South Pacific country, moves very slowly. Patience is a virtue everywhere, but even more so here. I’ve learned not to push too hard for anything, because it will happen in time just maybe not this second. There is taimi palagi (western time, 5 o’clock means 5 o’clock) and taimi Samoa (5 o’clock is 6 or 7 o’clock). I learn to just chill, things will happen when they happen. When the village has a tausala (dance to raise money), I ask the start time and then show up an hour or two later when it actually does start. Things like this you just get used to. The 10 o’clock bus comes sometime around 10, but maybe not until 10:30. So you just wait. I almost missed it once because it came at 9:50; I was so shocked it was actually early.

It is funny what Samoa does to people. I have always been pretty laid back, but have had my times of complete neurotic freaking out over little things that don’t matter, that is just human nature. Now in Samoa, I am even more filemu or take it easy. Things that I should do now turn into “I’ll do that later” or “whatever, doesn’t matter.” I’ve gotten into the carefree, easy going Samoan lifestyle. That has been good and bad.

My shower faucet broke within the first month of me getting to the village. I could still use it there was just a little trick to it. Same thing with the sink faucet, still usable but you had to remember which way to turn the handle or water would go everywhere. Every house (even my little hut on the Pacific) has its kinks. Well, over the course of the past year, the faucets have gotten worse and worse, finally ending in me having to use a wrench to turn my shower on. When I have to ask myself before I shower if I have my wrench, I think it is time to change the faucet.

So I asked my PC committee if they could help me install the new faucets when I got back from Apia. They said they would be there that evening to help. Ok, I get back with the faucets and wait. No one comes. Ok maybe tomorrow. Nope. So I ask again. “Ok, tomorrow” they say. Nope. In the course of a month and a half I asked committee members seven times for help and still never got anywhere.

So, that was the time for being a teine palagi (white girl), forget the patience and just do it myself. I went to Apia, bought a hacksaw, PVC pipe glue, & seal tape. People laughed when I told them I was going to fix my pipes myself or said I was so talented and had many skills (both with the tone I was crazy & didn’t know what I was doing). Thing is, piping here consists of PVC. All one has to do to change the faucet is cut the pipe and add the new faucet, not complicated and takes about five minutes. So I’m sure Dad is proud that I fixed my own pipes.

My computer has been out of commission for a month now (the computer doesn’t recognize it is plugged in anymore). I was freaking out a little when I realized it was slowly dying, but now that I don’t have it there really isn’t anything I can do, so what is the point of freaking out about it? It was nice for entertainment purposes and for little things like work (reports, who wants to do those anyway?). I can always come into Apia to use the Peace Corps office computers for work & e-mail (as I’m doing now).

Reading has become the entertainment. I already read a lot, but now it is the main form on entertainment. I had forgotten how nice it is to sit down with a book and just read. I have always enjoyed a good book, but back in the US it is sometimes hard to find the time and energy for your brain to process the words on the page. When I tell people my computer is broken, they give me a look of “wow! That sucks, how are you passing the time?” This is a somewhat sad reflection on our over-stimulated society. I thought I would miss the computer more, but it has been a nice break. That being said, I will enjoy having it fixed so that I can watch movies or tv shows from my hard drive, or more importantly write grants and reports. But for now, lying in my hammock with a good book is just fine with me.

Another thing you get used to include sitting on some stranger’s lap. That is not something I thought I’d ever say is normal and not odd. Some would say “Didn’t you ever sit on Santa’s lap at the mall? He was a stranger.” While this is technically true the man dressed as Santa was a stranger, but I thought he was Santa and when you are a kid Santa is no stranger; he is SANTA, the man with the ability to fly around the whole world in one night stopping at everyone’s house & delivering joy wrapped in red & green.

Anyway, as I’ve posted before the bus can get really full. The capacity for the bus is only 33 people, but a full bus is more around 50 or 60 people. How is this accomplished? A very involved process of shifting and sitting (really, it does get involved just sit on a bus at peak time and you will see just how involved it can be). In the front of the bus sit the old ladies and matai. If a young woman is sitting up there when someone older gets on and the seats up front are taken, she will move to the back of the bus. A young man (sole) will automatically go to the back of the bus.

I usually sit in the middle of the bus, although the palagi seat is in the front I try not to occupy it seeing as how I live here and am not a tourist. Middle is good for me; too far back and I’m stuck with the cheeky boys. I don’t realize how full a bus gets sometimes as I see people get on and disappear behind me. It isn’t until I look back that I see everyone is sitting on each other’s laps and pretty soon I am going to have to as well.

The involved process of the bus comes from the delicate positioning of everyone to sit on each other’s lap. There is always a sole that helps the driver. He is in charge of helping people get their stuff off the bus and is also the director of the sitting. As a bus starts to get full, he will tell people to move and who’s lap to sit on; he will move cargo around so people can sit on it. It really is funny to watch sometimes the effort and intricate process of bus riding.

A full bus is one where not only does each bench have two people, but those two people also have people on their lap (or sometimes one, single person will have two little kids on his or her lap, ultra space saving there). The boys and girls in the back are the first ones to start sitting on laps and the process works up to the front, up until the old ladies and matai (they don’t usually have people sitting on laps, kids maybe, but no one my age). I’ve had to sit on many strangers laps and as uncomfortable as it is (on most buses a bar sticks out to support the back of the bench and that bar always will jab straight into my thigh) it isn’t really odd anymore, just a part of life.

I’ve gotten used to other ways of Samoa as well. Eating off of a leaf is again not odd. I eat to’ona’i (the meal after chuch) with the matai or one of the women’s groups in the village. The meal is served on a leaf as that is tradition. I’m not sure when that became routine for me. I was eating to’ona’i the other day and realized I was eating off of a leaf. Made me wonder when it became something I didn’t notice anymore.

Being touched all the time is routine (although it still bothers me most of the time). I’m not big on being touched; like most palagi I like my bubble of personal space. That bubble doesn’t exist here. In church, people reach over me for a songbook and rest their arms on lap while someone hands it to them. The bus, as you can imagine from above, has no allotment for personal space. Samoan handshakes last the whole conversation. During singing practice for the church choir, we sit really close together and usually are squished together even if there isn’t anyone else on the bench. Yes, we have to share songbooks, but that doesn’t require us to be squished together. Why we do this in a country as hot as this I will never understand, especially when there is room on the bench to scoot over. Something one just has to get used to.

Circus fun

2009-07-27T09:44:00.005-11:00

When thinking of Samoa, something that does not at all come to mind it circus. I had heard rumors of such a thing, but never thought of it as actually being true. I figured it was just like the rumor of a bowling alley. I heard about it, said “that’s awesome, where?” and was then informed it was no longer in operation. Now why did you get me all excited only to crush me with disappointment? However, on Friday night I was present at just that very thing. Not only was it a circus, but it was the Magic Circus of Samoa.

There were jugglers, trapeze artists, a contortionist, a human fountain, clowns, Batman & Robin, motorcycles in a globe, Spiderman, and more. It was a cute little circus and actually felt more like a circus than others due to the fact that it was outside and under a true big top rather than in a convention center or arena. Felt more like the traveling circuses of old. This circus has a training center here in Samoa, and I must say they really are quite good. They travel all around the South Pacific; American Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Tahiti, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, etc. No animals, except for a small dog, but transporting elephants, horses, etc would be quite the feat here in the South Pacific as everything is in the middle of nowhere.

The evening started out with three Chinese boys spinning in round hoops. Now this looked more like fun than anything else. Next came the 12 year old contortionist who sat on her head. That just seems painful. There were unicycles of all sizes and shapes. I thought unicycles were of single shape, only variation was height. Well, someone somewhere created a zig-zag unicycle. In the shape of a Z and boy did it take some balance to ride. One unicycle was 3 meters tall and person jumped roped over a unicycle (not the 3 meter high unicycle, that would have been super impressive). There was a magician, not the greatest, but good effort. Batman and Robin made an appearance as well. There was an apparatus with two cylindrical, open cages which rotated on an axis. Batman and Robin rotated the apparatus; kind of like a hamster wheel only the cages were fixed and moved around the axis. Again, looked like fun to me. Batman took some risks though and started running on the outside of the cage, a little dangerous, but not as dangerous than when he jumped rope on the outside of the cage. That was impressive. Nothing in Samoa is complete without Siva Samoa, and sure enough there was Samoan dancing. Trapeze artists flew through the air and I was impressed by the double switch where one guy was holding on to another guy while a third guy flew from a trapeze and switched places mid-air with the second guy being held by the first guy. If you can follow that I’m impressed because that is not explained well. One of the Chinese guys balanced six chairs and did handstands on them. Spiderman walked the tight rope. A guy threw knives (impressive, but needed to land closer to the girl for it to be really impressive) and another did a headstand on a trapeze.

Now the other act I haven’t mentioned yet was the human fountain. A lady from India figured out that if you chug a bunch of water your body doesn’t actually like that and you will regurgitate it back up. Not really all that impressive, in fact a little gross. The really gross part was swallowing four live goldfish and having them come out of the fountain. The circus had to end with a bang, and that meant putting five motorcycles in a globe and having them go really fast. This is extremely dangerous and was cool, but Ringling has them beat (if I remember correctly Ringling had six and went much faster with all six in). However, for a small time, traveling circus I was impressed.

It was a fun night and I was impressed by the talent from all around the world. There were some Samoans, as well as people from India, China, Hong Kong, Kiribati, etc. The circus was an unusual treat for a night in Apia.

My coconut wireless is totally broken….along with everything else in my house

2009-07-19T17:35:00.002-11:00

I was sitting in my house Friday night preparing dinner and thinking about what movie or tv shows to watch for entertainment that evening when I heard the sound signifying singing practice. I had no idea why we were having it so late as it is usually held at 4:30 in the afternoon on Tuesdays & Fridays or recently on Saturday and Sunday. I wasn’t keen on going but someone came by and convinced me to go so I did. When I got there, barely anyone was there but this isn’t unusual (we have cancelled practices due to few people before). As I was talking with someone the words maliu (funeral) and oti (dead) came up. I inquired as to what she was talking about and she was surprised to hear that no one had told me we had a funeral in the morning. I said “oh, ok good to know”. . .it was 8:30 the night before and I was just finding out, great. At least it was better than the other two funerals I have been to here, no bus at 6 am going to Apia to pick up the body. We waited here for the church service instead. This is sometimes the problem being the palagi in the village and living by yourself, you don’t get told much. Even for Peace Corps related things I am usually the last one to know about things. Oh well, that’s my role in life…walking around confused all the time.

Some random things about life in Samoa:

I’m not sure who exactly is in charge of the movie control board, but it must be a man. The movie “Milk” was banned here in Samoa, because of the gay theme. However, the movie titled “Lesbian Vampire Killers” is allowed. I’m not sure how you can ban a movie because it involves the subject of homosexuality, yet you allow another movie with the word lesbian in the title. How does that make any sense? I guess I can just chalk that one up to being a palagi and I’m never actually going to understand Samoa.

What is especially confusing about all the dislike in Samoa about this movie is the fa’fafine aspect of Samoan culture. According to the dictionary we were given during training, a fa’afafine is an effeminate man. Division of labor in Samoa is very strong. There are things the men do and things women do and that is not to be mixed. Sometimes when a family doesn’t have enough girls to do chores, they will raise a boy as a girl and he/she will do the girl’s chores. The little boy will be dressed in women’s clothing and will be called a girl. When older, some fa’afafines abandon the women’s clothing (at least on a daily basis) and go home to a wife & kids, while others continue the cross dressing lifestyle and have relationships with men. In most cultures, a man having a relationship with another man is classified as a homosexual relationship. However, in Samoa that is not classified as gay (which is probably good because homosexuality is illegal here). Some teacher PCVs have said when teaching they get answers of there being 3 sexes, male, female, and fa’afafine. There are many fa’afafine pageants and competitions in Samoa and the Pacific and if walking around late enough in Apia one can see them on street corners strutting their stuff.

As much as being a fa’fafine is ok by most Samoans (although there are some who look down on them), they seem to get picked on a lot. During the sewing clinic in my village, one of the teachers was a fa’afafine. She was picked on a lot it seemed, but she gave it right back too. When on the bus, the fa’afafines get picked on. They seem to have developed a thick skin to it all though. Trying to get the best of people is sort of a Samoan thing, which is why we palagis get a lot of teasing, but to me it seems the fa’afafines get picked on a whole lot more than other people. All part of the fa’aSamoa I guess.

On another note: There are no helicopters in Samoa (rumor has it there may be one, but this is just gossip; general consensus is that there isn’t one). I was sitting in my hammock reading one day last week and heard this awful racket. At first I thought it was the little boat from Salani taking surfers out to the surf spot. As it became louder I could tell it wasn’t the boat and began wonder what on Earth was attacking Samoa. I then saw a helicopter fly by. I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped to the ground I was so shocked. The real funny thing was the little annoying dog which won’t go away pretty much did the same thing and seemed really confused as to what that weird flying thing was as she watched it go by, never taking her eyes off it until it was out of eyesight. I began thinking, especially a couple days later as it went by again, what is this thing doing here? I then hypothesized that it must be for Survivor: Samoa and getting aerial shots. I guess they will airbrush my house out then. I’m contemplating putting up something really annoying and seeing if I can find it on their footage. We will see if the boredom comes to that.

4th of July & Birthday Fun

2009-07-14T13:54:00.004-11:00

I left Fiji on the 5th of July and, due to the International Date Line, returned to Samoa on the 4th of July. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep the whole night and that was from sleeping in a chair at the Peace Corps hostel because all the beds were taken by people coming in for Independence Day celebrations. Jenny and I weren’t all that happy coming into the hostel at 5 in the morning, wanting nothing but a bed, and seeing them all taken. Oh well, such is life; que sera sera and all that.

We had a really fun celebration for the 4th up at Robert Louis Stevenson’s house. A Navy ship was in town for the Pacific Partnership Program, where they hold health clinics for humans and animals as well as helping with infrastructure projects. We had a little softball game against the Navy and might I add a job well done by our boys in the 14-4 win. I was supposed to play but seeing as how I had very little sleep I decided I didn’t really feel much like actually using energy that day. So I kept the official score, complete with marking singles, doubles, outs, etc. I never learned official scoring, but I kept semi-official score and that was a fun skill to learn. We had a fun evening of chit chat with the Navy guys about their jobs here and where they were going next, as well as really good food. We had real hot dogs, none of that chicken frank stuff you get here, baked beans, potato salad, chili for the hot dogs, and free wine and beer. Quite a few people were in attendance besides us PCVs & Navy personnel including the Samoan Prime Minister and Head of State, Miss Samoa, and of course the master planner of the event, the Charge de Affairs. A small Navy band played music and we danced to the live music, enjoying being able to dance to something other than Samoan music or hip-hop. We lit sparklers, ate ice cream, and enjoyed the night.

My birthday was a pretty chill event, which is what I wanted (anything other than sitting in my room alone the whole day; I didn’t really want to do anything in the village because they would make it a big spectacle and that was the last thing I wanted). I went to Apia and went out to dinner with some of the PCVs who were in town. I had said a few weeks ago I was going to save up my money and buy a steak for my birthday and that is just what I did. I enjoyed it too. I had already given myself a pretty big birthday present in the trip to Fiji (best present I have ever given myself and it will be hard to beat), but I felt a steak was a worthwhile present on the actual day of my birth. It was quite nice to have cake on my birthday as well (thanks guys).

Most of the other PCVs are older than me by a couple of years; I’m second youngest in country and was the youngest until Group 81 came last October. It is funny to hear everyone’s reactions when they find out how old I am. To most of the volunteers I’m but a baby as they are in mid to late 20s. Acutally, we have a young group here in Samoa as the average age for PCVs is in the 30s. Even the Samoans think I’m too young to be here and away from my parents. They don’t really understand that as a 23 year-old I wouldn’t be living with my parents anyway, but that is a cultural thing I’m not sure they will ever really understand. I’m pretty used to being the youngest or close to it though. I was always the youngest in school and of my best friends I’m the youngest by months. So another birthday gone and one more to go before I leave (I hit the hat trick and will celebrate three birthdays during my 27 months of Peace Corps service).

Bula!

2009-07-07T22:14:00.012-11:00

I got my first vacation/trip off the island and it was fantastic! I went to Fiji for a week with my four fellow Group 80 girls Karin, Jenny, Liz, & Briony. We had a blast. We flew into Nadi early morning on Sunday, June 28 then rented a car to drive down to the Coral Coast to stay in a resort there. We all commended Briony on her skill of navigating roundabouts and driving on the left side of the road and right side of the car; she received only a few unpleasant honks.

Our first looks at Fiji told us it was nothing like Samoa. The mountains are bigger, there are rolling foothills, and even pine trees. Nadi seemed very dry, even for the dry season. Fields of sugar cane lined the roadway. There is even a little train to take the sugar cane stalks from place to place; I’m assuming to a sugar cane plant which makes sugar out of the sugar cane. We stopped at Sri Siva Subrahmaniya Swami Temple right in Nadi town. This might seem out of place in a South Pacific country, but Fiji is nearly 40% Indian due to British colonization. The temple was very colorful and ornately carved. Indians were having meals blessed and praying with the help of a monk. We admired the paintings on the ceiling of Shiva and all the stories they told. As we ventured further into Fiji the coastline became less arid and more mountainous and beachy. The roads were roughly the same as in Samoa, winding and littered with potholes. The beach at the resort was pretty, especially at sunset with the rocks and palm trees. One of the funny things was the coconut catchers on some of the palm trees. Large metal baskets were raised just under the coconuts and would catch any coconuts before they fell on guests’ heads. The baskets could be lowered to collect the coconuts as well. Bats flew around catching insects and attacking fruits. It was nice to relax and be on vacation. That is until about an hour after dinner and I got food poisoning. That wasn’t so much fun.

The next day we went to the art village in Pacific Harbour. I wasn’t 100% yet, but even with nausea and a light head I wasn’t going to miss vacation. The crafts were interesting to see. There were kava bowls, masks, pearls, and even cannibal forks. Yes, you read correctly, cannibal forks. The forks with four prongs in a square shape were used to cannibalize enemy tribes after they were defeated and poor missionaries who failed in their task of converting the natives. There were Indian bangles and carved tables as well. We drove back to the resort for some beach time. At least for the others; I slept the whole rest of the day, hoping I would feel better in the morning.

We drove to Suva Tuesday to the Raintree Lodge up in the mountains. It is a cute little hotel with a restaurant on a little lake converted from an old quarry. We finally were in a real city; first time in over a year. There are coffee shops which serve real coffee, amazing! There is a six screen movie theater, malls, department stores, and a KFC/Pizza Hut. There are dvd stores which sell pirated movies for just a few Fijian dollars. The advantage to pirating all the movies is you can create collections of dvds and have them all on one disc. For example, they had Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Band of Brothers, action collections, horror collections, Disney/Pixar collections, and even a Josh Hartnett collection. There are big buildings, a flea market selling sulus (Fijian word for an ie), a regular market selling food (much like our market, but bigger and with better quality foods being sold), and best of all a whole floor of the market devoted to nothing but kava and spices, but mostly just kava. The Fijian word for kava is yaqona and is supposedly stronger than Samoan kava. Suva is a large, bustling city, but as a typical South Pacific country, all is closed at 4 or 5 pm.

Jenny and I hiked in the Colo-I-Suva National Park just a five minute walk from Raintree Lodge. This was a really fun hike. Some of the trails were a bit rough and a little Indiana Jonesish, but that was what made it fun. There were little waterfalls and pools to swim in, which are never complete without a rope swing. It was overcast and a little chilly to go swimming in the pools, but on a hot day a swim in the mountain pools would be refreshing. I recommend going to the park if you are in Fiji.

I got my ziplines and diving in as well. Jenny and I went back to Pacific Harbour Thursday so I could dive on Friday morning. We stayed in an awesome hotel called the Pearl South Pacific and got a great deal (otherwise $384 Fijian dollars, or about $140 US, a night wasn’t going to happen). This hotel was fabulous! It was stylish and modern; if it wasn’t for the gorgeous view of Beqa Island I would have forgotten I was in Fiji. There was a spa, pool, pool table, amazing restaurant (the pork loin was amazing), and best of all a tv (with more than 3 channels even). Jenny and I don’t have tv here in Samoa and even if we did there are only 3 channels. The hotel had satellite so they got lots of fun tv. We watched Blue Planet all night and it was amazing! As we were checking in, I overheard someone talking about ziplines. I inquired at the hotel tour desk how I could sign up to go and she said another group is leaving in 5 minutes if I wanted to go. I got my shoes on with no more questions asked. I didn’t even know what room I was in, but I knew I could figure that out later. I had a lot of fun ziplinning. I could tell the Fijian staff really enjoyed their job. There were 8 lines and we went around twice. I’m a big sucker for this adventure type stuff and zip lines in the jungle and over rivers can’t get much better.

Briony and I were going to do diving together, but since I got food poisoning the first few days were out and she left our group to go to a friend’s wedding on one of the outer islands, we had to dive separately. I went with Beqa Adventure Divers in Pacific Harbour. We dove in the Beqa Passage between Vitu Levu and Beqa Island. These were the two most amazing dives I have ever been on. We saw two White-tip Reef Sharks, lionfish, ribbon eels, clams, nudibranchs of several colors, huge anemeones, shrimp, lobsters, and all kinds of colorful fish. Our first dive was Carpet Cove. This was a deep dive down to 104 feet, 4 feet past the limits I’m supposed to go but no worries. There was a wreck we dove first, admiring all the shrimp, coral, and fish which had decided that was home. We then moved up to about 50 feet and dove some pinnacles. The coral was amazing...wire coral, soft coral, hard coral, sea fans of all different colors. I now know why Fiji is the soft coral capital of the world. The second dive was E.T. and the coral was even more amazing here. There were huge swim throughs lined with sea fans waving hello. The sea fans on these pinnacles were huge, at least 4-5 feet. I’m a big fan of diving in Fiji now and am already planning the next trip.

Fiji is very different from Samoa. Houses are not the open houses you see here, but closed houses due to the cooler weather and many had chimneys. Most of the houses are scantily built shacks of wood or corrugated metal, which shows the level of poverty to be greater there than in Samoa. The traditional bure is seen occasionally as a family’s everyday housing, but seems like it might be more for meeting houses as I didn’t really see too many of them outside of resorts. Fijians look much different than Samoans, a little surprising since the islands are very close. Samoans are Polynesian while Fijians are Melanesian. Fijians are darker skinned and have a different facial structure. Landscape wise is very different too. Nadi is drier than the mountainous Suva. In Samoa, there is just one line of mountains, but in Fiji there are a few rows of mountains, followed by rolling foothills. There are 322 islands of Fiji, with Viti Levu being the biggest. Samoa has two main islands, two smaller islands, and a handful of uninhabited islands. Temperature in Fiji this time of year is great, mid-60s at night to 80 or so on a sunny day. It was overcast a lot while we were there so we were chilly and had to wear long sleeves, but we enjoyed the change. We didn’t feel any repercussions from the coup and the non-democratic government at all. Life seemed to be going on as normal in Fiji.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be going back to Fiji sometime in my lifetime. I loved it and had a great time. I would love to be able to get out to some of the other islands and explore them; I’ve heard they are even more spectacular than the main island of Viti Levu. Only a week in Fiji was not enough.

Good week followed by an even better weekend

2009-06-15T11:01:00.003-11:00

Sorry Mom, I just can’t sew.

Ministry of Women, Community, and Social Development (MWCSD) came to the village all last week to instruct a sewing clinic for the ladies of the village. The women finally got to make good use of the sewing machines we got from a grant I wrote to NZ High Commission. Some women knew how to use a sewing machine, while others did not. It was fun to see the progression of sewing throughout the week. Early in the week, people learned how to thread the needle and cut fabric patterns. By the end of the week the women had made all kinds of clothing: shirts, shorts, puletasi, skirts, etc. Most people started out with a puletasi or shorts since those are something they did by hand before. By the end of the week people were sewing shirts for their kids and husbands, dresses for the girls, and muumuus for grandma. I bought fabric with the intention of learning how to sew a puletasi. Well that was all fine and dandy, except no one really taught me how to do it. I think the fa’afafine teacher was a little peeved I didn’t know how to sew. She mostly did it for me because she didn’t want to waste time actually teaching me and having to redo everything I did wrong. This was a little frustrating, but then I figured who cares. I’m going back to the US in 14 months where I’m going to buy my clothes off a rack anyway, what good is it going to do me to know how to sew a puletasi? Also, the clinic was for the women of the village anyway, so it really was more important for them to get the instruction they needed. So sorry Mom, I still can’t sew. I did put some of the stitches in though and not all of them had to be redone. Friday we held a display of all the clothes everyone had made. TV1 came out and did a story on the event. I think the women were really excited for this and were really proud of themselves. They had a stereo going and sang to the songs. It was comical to see the women crooning on the microphones like they were Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra. There was of course dancing and they made me dance even though I can’t siva Samoa. The village wants me to be the village taupou (unmarried girl, usually by Samoan custom a virgin who is singled out for her charm, looks, and manners, with the duty of mixing the ava and opening and closing a fiafia) but I don’t know why they want me to hold this position. I don’t know how to properly mix the ava or siva Samoa and those are two really important tasks of being a taupou. Oh well, it is flattering I guess when they tell me to make the ava for a matai meeting or when they have a special guest come (like my Dad; oh yes, I made the ava for him too). Anyway, the clinic was a huge success and I’m glad to have a good project finally completed.

The Manu Samoa

After the weeklong sewing clinic I decided I deserved a little reward. I caught a ride into Apia with the Ministry of Women people, took care of some business, and then went to the Manu Samoa vs Junior All Blacks game. This was awesome! Manu Samoa is the national rugby team of Samoa and named after a famous warrior chief from Sapunaoa (the village right next door to me). The Junior All Blacks are the second string of the world famous All Blacks, the national team of New Zealand. Being a typical American, I don’t really have a clue about rugby and neither did Benj, Casey, or Kate who went with me. We get the general idea of the game, but the rules and intricacies of the game we miss because well, how many people in the US actually watch rugby? Not many, in fact I had no idea until about two months ago the US has an international rugby team. But for 10 Tala, we got great seats, covered and pretty close to the field. We watched with great interest the Junior All Blacks perform their haka and the Manu Samoa do the tau Samoa; how many professional sports teams do you know which perform a war dance before they take the field? (click the link above to watch a video of the war dances, really awesome) The Manu didn’t play very well the first half, but the second half was really exciting. Manu Samoa came back with scores and was only down one point. The last 15 minutes was incredible. Manu Samoa kept driving and were so close to scoring. Unfortunately, they couldn’t pull out the upset and lost 16-17. It was a great game and so exciting to hear the crowd roar with support of the Manu Samoa. I can’t wait to watch another Manu Samoa game, hopefully I can watch a Manu Samoa vs All Blacks and see how the Manu Samoa do against the A team.

This feels like a weekend soccer tournament!

After I got back from Apia, I went over to the neighboring village of Sapunaoa to watch our village boys take on theirs in rugby. I figured this was just going to be a small, two village event. I was wrong; it ended up being a six village affair and tons of people were there. When I got there, Matatufu and Satalo were playing. Next game was Saleilua vs Salani. Then came our boys. It was a great game. I heard a rumor that Sapunoa gets players from Manu Samoa to play for them even if they aren’t related to the village. This tends to not sit well with our boys apparently, so this was a big game. Our boys were leading most of the game, but a big push in the second half gave Sapunaoa a 20-14 lead. Our boys needed another score, plus the two extra points to win. They drove hard and tried to push their way in, but the clock ran out on them. They played really well though and I’m proud of my boys. As in most rival sports games, fans tend to get out of hand after the game. About two minutes after the end of the game, a big fight broke out. I have no idea what the cause of it was, but you know how tempers flare at sporting events. My women were protecting me though. They are funny like that. I was walking with Siniva and Fuataiina. They both took my hands and got really close, trying to shelter me from anything that might go wrong. We were a ways a way when the actual fighting was going on; I only saw one punch thrown since most of my view of the fiasco was blocked. The fight was broken up by the time we walked that way (and we had to go that way to go home), but Siniva and Fuataiina still felt the need to be body guards. It was cute actually; they weren’t going to let anything happen to me while I was in their company.

I got a really odd feeling as I was watching the games. It felt just like so many soccer tournaments I participated in during my soccer days. People were sitting on the grass all around the field or in cars pulled up next to the field, people were selling food (nothing like you would find in the States, no pizza, hotdogs or candy, but chips, rice, & taro…the Samoan equivalent), people were huddled in the shade, had umbrellas or the Samoan equivalent…an ie. The crowd cheered loudly when their team scored and would tease the opposition around them (ok to do since they are most likely cousins anyway). It was fun; I think the village really enjoyed seeing me out there supporting our boys too.

Visit from Pops

2009-06-06T12:52:00.005-11:00

The past 10 days have been really fun. Dad was here for a visit so we went all around the islands seeing the beauty of Samoa. Dad got in on the weekly flight from LA at 5:00 am. We hitched a ride into town from another PCVs host brother and checked in the hotel. I immediately introduced him into the Samoan culture with a trip to Fugalei market for breakfast. I had him try panikeke (Samoan pancake), kokoesi (cocoa papaya), and vaisalo (coconut porridge). He liked it all, but thought the kokoesi was a little rich. We walked to the fish market to see what the early catches were and saw the bus stop. We walked through the flea market to see what the local vendors were selling and then headed off to see the wonderfully American hotspot, McDonald’s. We hung out there while drinking real orange juice and a Coke and then headed off to Magic Cinemas to watch “Night at the Museum 2.” We got some pizza at Italiano after the movie. He thought for Samoa the pizza wasn’t that bad. He especially liked the view of the harbor and sitting outside in the open air. We caught the culture show at Aggie Grey’s that night and hung out with Casey & his dad as well as John and his daughter. And all that was just day #1.

Day #2: We picked up the rental car and headed off to the south coast to hike in the jungle at the river fales Casey, Casey's Dad, & Erin. I recommend Lalo Talie River Fales to anyone coming to Samoa with a sense of adventure. The hike is amazing! Hiking through the Samoan jungle, wading through rivers, and face climbing waterfalls…can’t get much better than that. The hike was 3 hours or so of total outdoor fun. The falls are so gorgeous; I can’t wait to go back again. There is nothing like relatively pristine land where only a few adventure seekers go, as well as the Samoans who plant taro just about everywhere up there. It is really an awesome hike, followed by a nice meal and sleep in fales next to the gently trickling river. If you want even more fun, hike like Samoans do…in flip flops. It adds more fun to it trying to hold on to your flops with your feet while wading in rivers. Or you can do the smart thing and bring strap on flops, but that takes all the fun out of it.

Day #3: We took the ferry over to Savaii & drove up to Manase to hang out on the beach and on the deck of the beach bar in Jane’s Fales. Not really an exciting day I guess, just driving around, but the views you get are always amazing. We crossed the river we stayed next to the night before and headed off into the jungle. We passed through the hills and then came out of the little pass and were greeted by a gorgeous view of the villages and beautifully blue water.

Day #4: Scuba diving! We went diving with Casey, Briony, & the crew from Dive Savaii. They are great people, so nice and really take care of you. First dive was “Wreck Juno”, a ship which sunk on the reef back in the late 1800s. It was fun diving around the remains of the wreck and looking at all the fish, Christmastree Worms, & coral. When we started the dive the weather was nice and sunny. When we surfaced, rainy with a rolling sea…a bit of a change in weather. It calmed down after 10 minutes or so though. Second dive was “Coral Gardens.” We saw some really cool stuff this dive. There is an electric clam making its home in the coral here. It isn’t really electric but the way the phosphorescent light moves through the flesh of the clam makes the clam look like it gives off an electric current. We saw a turtle and anemonefish as well. Nice dives and a good day in the water as always.

Day #5: We drove all the way around the island, admiring the gorgeous views all over Samoa. We stopped at the Dwarf Cave to see if we could spot any dwarves. No dwarves, but it was still worth stopping. The entrance to the cave is only about 4 feet high, a head banger even for me. We only had one light so that made the cave even cooler. There is a shelf which is completely flat due to the lava which carved the cave. There is a lake at the end of the cave, which would be cool to swim in if my underwater light had been working at the time. We drove out past Falealupo and stopped by Tufutafoe to say hi to another volunteer. We stopped at the Taga blowholes. Awesome! There were at least 10 blowholes in the one spot, one goes up at least 100 feet. The noise of these blowholes is amazing, so loud and powerful. We had fun getting close to the holes, and then when a big blowhole erupted we ran away. We forgot to get a coconut to through in the blowholes and see how far it would shoot up, next time though. We stopped at the black sand beach. It was pretty and fun to see the unusual black sand. We drove back to Salelologa and stayed at Lucia’s. I love Lucia’s, not only do they take care of you, but the place is so cute. You walk on little paths though the jungle to get to your fale and can hang out on the dock, watching the fish or the stars. Plus they really know how to cook and will serve you great food no matter what you order.

Day #6: Back on the ferry to Upolu. We drove down to my house. I was surprised we weren’t immediately swarmed by my village, but I think that was due to me not telling them an exact time of arrival since I didn’t know exactly when we would arrive. Dad got to see the house and all the quirks of it. Like the sink faucet which will spray water everywhere if you aren’t careful and no matter how hard you try to turn it off, still drips anyway or the shower faucet which is extremely hard to turn on and off, especially if you don’t know the trick to it. He thought it was a cute house, Samoan open fale in the front and a little room at the back, and thought as I did when I first signed up for Peace Corps…a lot like camping, complete with an outhouse. At least I have a hammock now (thanks Dad) and as I’m writing this I am enjoying hanging in it.

Day #7: Ava Ceremony. Dad got the real Fa’aSamoa today. He got the traditional ava ceremony and was even offered a matai title. I had to make the ava since the village thinks I should be the village taupou. Dad enjoyed the welcome and was a little overwhelmed I think in the hospitality of my village. We got a breakfast after and then a bbq later. Dad enjoyed meeting everyone and I took him for a little tour of the village. I think he liked seeing all the things I had talked about and written about in my e-mails and blog posts.

Day #8: Happy Birthday Dad! We drove over to Togitogiga Falls and spent a little time admiring the falls. We also went over to To Sua Trench. Again, it is just a big hole…as Dad said, “in Florida, they call this a sink hole.” Well, then we came to the other trench with water in it and climbed down the 100 foot ladder. I think he was impressed by this hole a little more than the first one. The tide was up so there was lots of water crashing into the trench. It seemed kind of angry actually as it was a rainy day and not really the best for sightseeing. We then went over to the blowholes and lava field. Since the tide was up, the blowholes were really going and the waves were crashing on the lava field quite powerfully. It gave a feeling of something you would see in a movie about an evil scientist living on a remote island and the only way for the good guys to save the world from total destruction at the hands of the evil scientist is to shimmy down a blowhole in to a secret entrance to the scientist’s lair. But maybe that is just me and what I thought. Anyway, we walked around a bit and took some pictures. Dad was blown away by the view when you come off the little path and around a corner, and boom…there is the lava field with blowholes spouting water. It is a really impressive view. We drove over to Faofao Beach Fales for the night. He liked the beach and the view of the Aleipata Islands. Again, I had hoped for a good weather day, but it was rainy. We managed to work in a walk on the beach during a break in the rain though. We hung out and played suipi, even though I don’t think Dad is a fan of the game really. I think he will stick to Euchre and Michigan Rummy. I think he liked staying in a more traditional Samoan fale. He liked the beach bar, even though the view was ruined by the tarps being down due to the rain. Oh well, rain is something you can’t avoid here and at least it waited until the end of the trip and it wasn’t rainy the whole time Dad was here.

Day #9: My 1 year anniversary of coming to Samoa! We visited the host family in Amaile. They enjoyed meeting my Dad and seeing me since this was the first time I’d been back to see them. They feed us and we talked. The weather was really nasty this day and when we said we had to go during a downpour and strong wind, I think they thought we were nuts. We got back to Apia in one piece even though the water and potholes on Le Mafa Pass tried to prevent that. We did enjoy seeing the waterfalls pop back out from all the rain. Dad did some shopping and got some gifts for people. We caught the Siva Afi (fire dancing) Competition that night. What a way to end a trip. Nothing like watching people twirl and throw in the air sticks which are not only on fire at both ends, but also have a knife and a hook on one end. I actually think it would be cool to learn, but I don’t think anyone in my village knows how to fire dance. Oh well, at least that will prevent a heart attack on my mom’s behalf. I’m not sure she would be ok with me playing with sharp objects on fire.

Day #10: Really just a continuation of the day before. Dad’s plane left at 2:30 am so we drove out to the airport after the Siva Afi competition. He got checked in and we said goodbye. He had 36 hours of flying, so I’m sure he was looking forward to that. Not only does he have to get from the middle of nowhere in the South Pacific, but he had to get back to the middle of nowhere USA, aka Alabama. Some of us PCVs were talking one day about how every plane coming or going from Samoa is always at a really awkward time, like middle of the night or really early in the morning. Some one asked why that was…simple answer: Samoa is in the middle of nowhere so the airlines want to make the planes come into or leave civilization at a decent hour, making flights here start or end at inconvenient times. Dad’s journey started at 2:30 am in Samoa with a flight to New Zealand, 14 hour layover there, 13 hours of flying to Los Angeles, then to Denver, and then arriving in Alabama at midnight Saturday night. I’m sure he isn’t going to know which way is up Sunday due to jet lag and crossing the International Date Line two times and going forward and backward in time so many times. Oh well, he made it through the jungle waterfall hike, he’ll be fine.

I enjoyed Dad’s visit. It was nice to see family after a year of Samoa. I tried to show him the best of Samoa that I knew of and I think he got that for the most part. Samoa is definitely a change from Alabama and Dad loved it. Now it is back to work for us both. My village has the sewing clinic next week, so that should be fun. I don’t know how to sew, but I’m going to try to sew a puletasi. We will see how that goes.

I have water!!!

2009-05-25T14:59:00.003-11:00

Yea!! I have running water again. Apparently, not the entire village was without water the whole time, just me and a few other families. The water for the rest of the village had been restored the day it went out. When the pastor's wife found out I didn't have water, she made sure the matai took care of it. So this morning at 7:15 a matai came to my house and made sure my pipe was off, which it still was of course. That was also funny because being semi-early in the morning I was still sleeping, so we both laughed because it was very obvious I had just woken up and I was moe umi (or sleeping a long time, even though 7:15 to me is not sleeping in). It took all of 20 minutes to fix the pipe. The problem was it was blocked. Had I known it wasn't the whole village without water I would have done something earlier. So I feel kind of stupid, but why it was taken care of only when the matai found out I had no water I don't get. The women in the fale by the pastors house had no water the past couple of weeks and they knew I had no water. And what about the other families? They had no water either. Oh well, it is probably best I don't ask these questions and just be happy I have running water again. And I got new filters for my water filter so I'm all hooked up again. I guess Dad doesn't have to take a bucket bath afterall.

We had a rubbish seminar on Saturday morning. The Waste Management (WM) division came out and presented all about Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle, proper waste disposal (such as don't throw trash in the river, ocean, or on the ground), & also told us all about the landfill here in Samoa. Not as many people made it as I wanted, but that's ok. It was rainy and nothing happens when it rains, so I have a feeling that is why people stayed home. We are going to try to do the presentation in the school later as well. I did like that people asked about composting; I think some families might try to do that. Hopefully, the awareness seminar might get some people to keep their kids from throwing trash anywhere. A rubbish clean-up is going to happen sometime; it is much needed. Plus, hopefully we can get bins and the trash truck to come into the village instead of just on the main road. I think that is one reason there is so much trash here in the village. No one wants to walk 15 minutes just to throw trash out. I was worried about the seminar being a total disaster because I had trouble getting in contact with the guy from WM to confirm he was coming and then as it came time for the seminar, no one had come yet. And I know taimi Samoa; I gave people extra time. But even when the WM guys showed up, not many people were there. But in typical Samoan fashion, people trickled in. So it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was worried though.

This whole no water thing is starting to get really old

2009-05-21T13:53:00.001-11:00

So it has been a week now that the water has basically been off. Sometimes there is a trickle of water, and thank goodness for that otherwise I’d have no water whatsoever. I’m also really lucky I’ve been hanging out with the women the past week and they fed me, otherwise cooking and doing dishes would be a real chore as well. I’d also not know what I’d be drinking because my water filter doesn’t really work either (I filled the top bucket up a week ago and it is still not done filtering, it should only take 30 minutes or so to filter one bucket). So even if there was water, I wouldn’t be able to drink it. I could try to drink the pipe water, but the probability of getting water out of the pipe that is actually clean and drinkable is very low. My water is kinda disgusting down here on the south side. I fill the top bucket of my water filter up and am amazed when I can see down to the bottom of it. It is rare I ever get water that looks like water; usually it has a brown/yellow tint to it. Yummy! I get plenty of tea and cocoa Samoa when I’m with the women, so I’m well hydrated that way. I’m glad I was able to do my laundry before the pipe went out. That being said it rained for three days after I hung my laundry up to dry, so it took three days to dry. But at least I had clothes for the week. Unfortunately, I’m almost out of clothes again. I feel really bad for my Dad because he comes in a week and somehow I doubt the whole water situation will be solved. Looks like he is going to get the real Samoan experience complete with at bucket bath. And for those wondering what a bucket bath is, I will explain as I have had to take many of them while here in Samoa and quite a few the past week. Here’s what you do: fill a bucket with water, take a bowl and dump water over yourself, lather up, dump water over yourself again, and you are done. This is a common bathing technique for those with out access to running water. It can be done in a shower facility or while standing outside in an ie. The other option for bathing without running water is the river, which many of my fellow residents do as well. Sometimes if it rains hard enough, which rain here is almost never a light mist more like a total downpour; adults will send the kids outside to shower in the rain. All of these techniques are common in Samoa, but those of us palagis are used to our running water and our vai paipa (or pipe water). It wouldn’t be so bad if I had come to the village and have always had water issues. But before this the pipe had gone out only twice and for less than a day each time. So I’m not used to not having water, which is what makes it so frustrating. However, one thing you learn early in training is do what the Samoans do. So, I open the tap, stick a bucket under it and gather the dripping water, hoping it will be enough for a bucket bath. It is funny the affect Samoa has on a person. If thrown right in to a situation with no water, I’d probably really freak out. Water is a precious commodity and kind of necessary to sustain life. Since being here almost a year though, you just get used to things like no water and no power. It is all part of life here in Samoa. Instead of freaking out, I just fill up the bucket and filemu (take it easy). No need to worry, the water will hopefully come back on. Until then there isn’t much I can do about it, so why freak out. With that said, I do hope the water comes back on soon.

Hanging out with the old ladies

2009-05-20T11:27:00.002-11:00

I’ve had some fun the past week. There is a big conference held in Maluafou for all the EFKS pastors so our pastor was out of the village last week and is out this week. While he and his family are gone some of the older women are staying in a fale near his house to make sure nothing happens. One morning they brought me cocoa aliasa, which is rice in chocolate soup and is amazing. Since then they have invited me over for every meal and have stuffed me full of food. I hang out with them during the day and at night a lot too. We play cards, which as you know family is a big deal and I’m excited to be playing cards. I don’t get to play Euchre (although some my fellow PCVs know how to play and we play when we get together, which isn’t often but better than going 2 years without playing) or Michigan Rummy, but rather a game called suipi (pronounced sweepy) which I learned in my training village of Amaile. It is a fun game and I’m excited to teach all you back home how to play. The women are impressed by my playing ability and also love the way I shuffle palagi style. I told them I like to play cards back home so I’m not new to the concept. We have a good time talking and they like to tease me in traditional Samoan fashion. One joke we had was how I was to go fishing in the MPA and bring back two of the clams from within the pens for one of the older ladies. This was obviously not going to happen since one of the major points to the MPA is a no fishing zone, but we had a good time joking about when I was going to go and who was going to get the punishment for fishing in the MPA. Like always, I get teased about boyfriends. They loved it when I told them I had one uo in Apia, two in Savaii, and many here in Salesatele. Then they tried to guess who my boyfriends were here in the village. It was quite funny hearing them discuss who they could be, even more funny since there isn’t one of course.

More observations on the kids

2009-05-20T11:09:00.003-11:00

I think the first word Samoan children learn is aua, or don’t. I have heard kids who can barely speak saying aua like it rolls naturally off their tongue and they have been saying it forever. They hear this word 50 times a day at least and usually for just being a kid and exploring their world. Oh well, that’s just the way it is. But it is funny to hear really young kids saying aua to the older ones like they own the world. Kids seem to like to fai mea’ai or make food. They play this game where they gather some leaves, put sand or rocks on the leaf, and then pretend to eat the food. It is really funny to hear the kids say fai mea’ai and then proceed to gather leaves and rocks. It is no different from what palagi kids do, except Samoan kids have no Easy Bake Oven or plastic kitchen complete with plastic eggs and bacon. In Samoa your kitchen is outdoors, your oven (umu) is made with hot rocks, and your plate is a leaf (at least for to’ona’i, for other meals usually plates are involved). There is a little girl in my village whose middle name must be Trouble. When this child smiles, you can tell she is up to no good and she likes it that way. The adults call her “o le itu” or the devil, which sounds really cruel, but is really funny in actuality. She is a just full of energy and likes to push the envelope. One thing I hate seeing is the kids being hit. They get smacked a lot, and usually pretty hard. I especially hate it when a kid does something, usually it is nothing really terrible just a kid being a kid, and an adult hits the kid for it, causing the kid to cry, and the kid gets hit more until he or she stops crying. How hitting a kid is going to make them stop crying I will never understand. While in my training village I did hear a kid being beaten with a broom and while in another village I saw a kid being beaten with a broom. This never gets easier to witness. I don’t see much of that happening here in my current village, but I know there is a lot I don’t see. I have heard a few bouts of smacks and I did see one kid get hit with a belt, and luckily these episodes don’t go on for long because I am always tempted to intercede even if it may not be my place to do so. There is never a situation where hitting a child is ok, no matter what he or she has done. While I was hanging out with the women, we heard a scuffle and the sounds of someone being hit. From what I could gather from the women who went to stop it was someone was smacking a kid around. The kid must have been a teenager though because we heard no crying, only the sound of someone hitting. Both the belt and the above beating occurred in the same day, which was rough on me. I never like to see or hear these things. Kids are just kids and where palagi kids have outlets for their energy and smarts, Samoan kids do not. There are no soccer leagues or little league baseball. No playgrounds with rock climbing walls, ropes, or slides (best we have here are swings, which are at my house and the adults don’t really like them coming over to use them, which kid of defeats the purpose of having them). Kids here are not kids for long. They help cook, clean the house, and take care of the little kids. There is very little time for the kids to go play with friends, they have chores to do. I see kids who are only 10 or 12 going off to the plantation to fai popo or collect coconuts. The kids work hard here and it is a shame they have no outlet for fun. The boys play rugby in the evenings before the sun goes down, but that is about all there is to do here on the south side.

My how things change

2009-05-17T16:31:00.003-11:00

When I first moved here I had a 24/7 guard. That got old the first day. Someone was always here watching everything I did and even sleeping at my house. I suppose for the first few months it was probably a good idea, but you know how it is…I didn’t really feel like I needed a babysitter 24/7. Gradually, the watch lessened during the day but I still had people sleeping here. I kept telling them they didn’t have to sleep here it was ok, but I didn’t really think I was having an impact. The all of the sudden it all stopped. No one came over for lotu (15 minute family prayer time right around dusk), no one came with food, and no one came to sleep at my house. It was great, but since it stopped so suddenly I thought they were mad at me. Turns out they were ok with leaving my on my own and I appreciate that. Everyone still thinks it is odd I sleep all by myself. I routinely get asked if I'm scared sleeping alone. Sleeping alone doesn’t really happen here, especially not for young females. I guess I can consider that as one of the goals of Peace Corps, pass on aspects of American culture to host country nationals.

I went from not really having anything to do in the MPA, to snorkeling around and documenting all the species I saw, which is really just an effort on my part to do something in the MPA, to working a lot in the MPA. As I described earlier, we recently put fish houses and started the clam farm; so now I have lots I can monitor and do for the MPA. Combine the work for the MPA with the work for other projects and I actually have things to do. I still have a lot of free time, but I’m glad I have at least a few hours of actual work; it makes the day go by so much quicker.

The way I get my meals has changed a lot too. I usually feed myself all three meals a day, except for to'ona'i which I eat with the matai or one of the women's groups. People send stuff over quite often or if I’m out in the village someone usually sends something home with me, like sugar cane, papaya, bananas, niu, etc. But for the most part, I cook for myself. The Salesatele Fisheries Management Committee, made up of matai and a few untitled men of the village, now sit in a fale near me and leoleo the MPA, or watch over their clams to make sure no one steals them. They send over cocoa Samoa in the mornings a lot, usually bring me lunch, and sometimes even dinner. And since this is Samoa, the portions are huge so each Samoan meal usually lasts me two meals. This is why refrigerators are so great…I can stick what I don’t eat in there and be set for another meal. They have brought over pani popo (buns with coconut cream over them…so good) and crackers. I’ve been well fed by them.

A little bit of life here in rural Samoa

2009-05-17T16:29:00.002-11:00

Utilities here are interesting to say the least. My electricity goes out at least once a week, but usually only for a couple of hours each time. Usually it is out only during the daytime so it isn’t much of a big deal. Although, there have been nights when I’ve been eating dinner and watching a movie on my computer and all the sudden it gets very dark and the only light anywhere is the glow of my computer screen operating off batteries. I have had multiple candlelight dinners here, except I was all by myself so something is lost in the romanticism of the candlelight dinner. Oh well. Electricity going out multiple times a week is just something you get used to as being a part of Samoa. I was lucky last week though…power 24/7, hey hey hey things are looking up.

Usually I have running water 24/7. I am lucky in this regard because when the electricity goes out, most people who have water via electric pumps have no water. My village gets its water from a spring in one of the neighboring villages, so we usually have no issues. Even if on a village system you can have problems. If another village controls the pump, they can shut off the pump whenever they feel like it. We, however, are fortunate to be supplied with running water a majority of the time. That being said, the water usually comes out slightly brown or with random bits of plant life exiting with the clean water. The pipe infrastructure isn’t really good. Thin PVC pipes run for miles and miles usually cracked and if repaired, done so in a fashion which isn’t really fixed in the long term, but for the short term it is “manaia” and will do for about a day. So as time goes on and after miles of cracked pipes with water spraying out everywhere, dirt and grime tend to get into the water. It is good I have a water filter. Many times I fill up the top bucket and can’t even see down to the bottom there is so much dirt in the water. This is why I say my laundry isn’t really ever clean but I pretend it is. Again, you just get used to all this and chalk it up as life as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

A few days ago the water went out, pe le paipa. Since this doesn’t happen often here, I was a bit concerned. I didn’t know why the water went out and when I asked people, they had no idea either. Well I didn’t know the water was out until it was almost dark and I wanted to take a shower. If I had known I had no water I would have gone down to the river in an ie and bathed with everyone else. Being that it was getting dark, this wasn’t going to happen. One house in the entire village still had water and lucky for me it was a neighbor. Since the water is from a spring it is gravity fed, meaning it flows down via the wonderful force of gravity, this house was lucky and so was I. I filled up a bucket with water, brought it back to my house, and took a bucket bath. I got pretty used to these in Amaile, the training village. Their water was off all the time it seemed and bucket baths were the norm. Here in Salesatele though, I don’t take bucket baths usually. Granted at times the water barely trickles from the tap and it would actually be quicker and easier for me to use the bucket, but the running water is such a novelty I have to indulge myself. The water issue is still not fixed and throughout the day the water goes on and off, seemingly with out cause, so I keep a bucket filled with water on standby just in case it is off when I want to shower. People say “ita le vai” or “the water is angry.” I still don’t know why the water is acting funny, and neither does anyone else for that matter. Oh well. That isn’t so bad I guess, but now my water filter doesn’t really work either so life has been really interesting. Hopefully, when I go to Apia later on this week I can see if I can solve the water filter issue. The pipe issue is kinda out of my hands and I’ll just have to ride it out.

This is why I chose to become a marine biologist...I get to snorkel, look at cool fish, and consider it work. Awesome!

2009-05-14T17:17:00.005-11:00

The village got the second installment of money for the MPA so work has jumpstarted. The Fisheries Department has been out to the village for meetings the past few weeks and has been teaching the village about clam farming. The men built a pen in the MPA to house the clams.

Usually villages get clams to start the farms from the Fisheries Department, but their stock has been out for a while. So my village went out on the reef and collected the wild ones in the area. This sounds all fine and dandy except for the fact since money was involved people went nuts collecting the clams. The village paid the collector based on the size of the clam. Some people got over 100 Tala in a single day for collecting clams. The village filled the pen in one afternoon and clams were put outside the pen it was so overcrowded. When the men built a second pen to house them all I thought this was a good idea. Rule #1 of aquaculture…Don’t overcrowd. We can space the clams out, put the clams outside the first pen inside the second pen, and the clams we have will have plenty of space to grow. But no, since money was involved, clam hunting was opened up again. People went nuts a second time trying to rape the natural reef of all the wild clams. This is so very smart, lets take all the wild clams off the reef, overcrowd the pens, have all the clams get sick and die, and have no more clams anywhere. I tried to express my opinion that the clam farming should probably stop because we have plenty, but again since money was involved that was basically ignored. I really do like seeing the village so proud of their clams, but I think they went a little overboard on the collection. There are over 300 clams in the pens at the moment. The goal is to re-populate the reef with the clams we raise in the MPA, but it seems like they might have been doing ok on their own. We will see how it turns out, I’m curious to see. They said we didn’t have any wild clams in the MPA, but this wasn’t true I see them every time I go swimming. Well, we have plenty clams in the MPA now.

Saturday, I helped make fish houses with the men of the village. Fish houses are actually very simple to make. We made a ring of rocks as the base, added some chunks of dead coral, cemented the whole thing, and added wire for coral gardening. We left them to dry, and then Monday went to work putting them in the MPA. We broke the first two trying to get them off the paopao (boat) and into the water, but after that it was smooth sailing. I helped tie the coral on for the coral gardening on the first couple of houses, but then swam ahead and scouted out good places to put the houses. It was good work, really tiring. I went back Tuesday to get some pictures and see how the fish were growing accustomed to the artificial coral reef structure. Not many fish were in the houses, but some were getting used to the idea. Hopefully, the houses will provide good protection for the fish and the coral gardening will jumpstart the coral to grow into a nice big reef.

Snorkeling the past week has been a real pleasure. I love that I get paid, even though my pay is basically nothing, to snorkel and see really cool fish. A few days ago I saw a porcupine fish about 18 inches long just sitting in a hole in the coral. It was cool. I have been seeing lionfish recently too. I have wanted to see a lionfish for a long time because they are just so cool. It figures though, I didn’t have my camera with me when I saw the porcupine fish and my lens was fogged when I found the lionfish again. I still got a few pics of the lionfish, but none really good. I guess I just have to keep snorkeling until I can get a good picture. I saw a really cool juvenile Emperor Angelfish. It was blue with swirling white lines as you see below. Now that I have documented most of the big fish I see all the time, I am trying to see all the little things as well. I found some shrimp the other day, as well as a sea slug. There is quite a lot of diversity in the MPA. The coral isn’t as good as I would like it to be, but it is coming along. We have hard and soft coral and anemones complete with anemonefish and clownfish. We have starfish, sea cucumbers, and cowries. I look forward to the days when the tide is good and I can go for a swim; even better that I can record it as time spent working.

The good parts of the job

2009-05-08T10:23:00.001-11:00

Three or four of the Year 8 girls have been coming over to my house nearly every night for homework help. A few weeks ago they came over in the afternoon. As it started to get dark, I flipped the switch for the light. Nothing happened. I don’t think I have had one week yet where the power hasn’t gone out. Power is usually out for a few hours 3-5 days a week, so you just get used to it after a while. So I lit a candle. As the girls finished up, it occurred to me how funny this was. I remember having to do my homework by candlelight when I lived in St. Louis. I lived out in the woods and strong thunderstorms or ice storms would knock our power out and not doing my homework wasn’t an option. So I found the situation of me helping kids with homework via candlelight quite entertaining. Then we started making shadow puppets. They were in awe at some of the simple puppets I could do. We had a fun time. Again, getting through PC service is sometimes all about the little moments. This was definitely a PC moment, helping kids with homework via candlelight and making shadow puppets. A few nights ago they came over again. After they were done with homework, some of them started taking their pencils and tapping the table like it was a drum. Being a drummer myself, even though it has been a while since I’ve played, I couldn’t resist teaching them a little beat. I taught them a paradiddle. It is really simple, just R L RR or L R LL. They had fun copying the beat and trying to go fast. I teach them little handshakes too. You know the kind where you do a side high five, then back of the hand, then some fist pounds, etc. They get a real kick out of the handshakes I come up with. Why I am teaching the kids this I don’t really know, but they enjoy it.

A couple weekends ago, I went diving with the dive club. We went with Aqua Samoa again. This time the dive sites were “Stage left” and “Supo Laumei.”
Both dives were good, although there was quite a current on both. I would be looking at a fish, then the current would come and the fish was five feet down stream and I was kicking with all my might to not smash into the coral. We saw turtles on both dives; we got pretty close to them too. A couple swam right past me, within just a couple of feet. We had another fun swim through; the current made this a little interesting and a few of us got small cuts from knocking into the rough sides of the swim through. Even so, it’s always a good day when diving.

I went to Savaii for an early Cinco de Mayo party. I got to see the infamous Lusia’s lagoon fales all the Savaii kids talk about. Lusia’s is apparently where all the Savaii volunteers get together every week to hangout. Lusia’s has a dock where most of the party occurred. We jumped off it and swam in the calm waters of the lagoon and hung out on it all Saturday night. A few of the volunteers made a piñata in honor of the holiday. And since the party was also to celebrate Jim’s birthday, he did the honors of breaking the piñata; although, he nearly killed a few fellow PCVs when the stick broke on the piñata. I stayed in a fale right on the lagoon, which was awesome. I woke up way too early Sunday morning considering I was up late Saturday night, but it was nice to see the sun on the peaceful water…and also a turtle. It was nice to get out of the village and hangout with people, especially the Savaii PCVs because I don’t see them too often.

I moved my mountain

2009-05-08T10:15:00.002-11:00

It may be a bad idea to put this on the internet for the whole world to see, but I think it is important for people to know service as a Peace Corps Volunteer doesn’t always involve saving the world and making a difference. You do have situations which cause you to question why you are here and figuring out what to do about the situation isn’t always easy. While most people really do want your help, you get others who do not make your service easy. Only putting up the fun stuff I have done as a volunteer would be a disservice to all those back home who wonder what being a PCV is like. So here it is: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

A big shakedown occurred here in the village and I caused a bit of drama. I have had some serious issues with a matai who just so happened to be on my PC committee (the committee is made up of people from my village who were selected by the matai council and their job is to take care of me and help me with projects). I never really liked the guy (I always had a bad feeling about him) and then he added to my dislike by coming over drunk and doing some things he should not have done (Note to self: trust your instincts). That happened in January and somehow he was still on my committee. I’m still trying to figure out how and why the village allowed him to stay on my committee, but I’m sure I will never be able to figure it out because like most things here it doesn’t make any sense what so ever. I put up with him being around and tried to move on, but he continued to make comments which were inappropriate and downright disgusting. Basically, the guy is a dirty, creepy, old man who is single and old enough to be my father. When I have another matai on my committee ask me if I want to sleep with this matai, something needs to change. I am not 7,000 miles from home to be sexually harassed. That is not in the Peace Corps Volunteer job description. Putting up with general Samoan cheekiness (like comments about me needing a Samoan uo or how I should marry one of the matai on the committee) is one thing and I do have to be culturally sensitive, but I don’t have to put up with being sexually harassed in my village. I was really motivated to act when the matai lied to the office and said there had not been an incident at my house. Last time I checked coming over to my house drunk and doing things you are not supposed to do would be classified as an incident. He knew he lied and just didn’t care. This tells me he thought he did nothing wrong and will probably do it again. I was pissed and then realized I needed to not be around this man anymore or I was going to be driven insane or be really angry all the time. The PC office was hesitant to come out because they didn’t want the situation to blow up, which is usually what happens when the office comes out in situations like this. I knew I needed to get him off the committee and if I didn’t there was no way I was going to stick around for the 15-16 months left in my PC service. So I figured I had nothing to lose, I either take care of it myself or leave. Leaving was not really an option I wanted to pursue so I flat out told the committee and pulenu’u I didn’t want him on the committee anymore. Feeling uncomfortable around a man because he is sexually harassing me would have gotten me no where here in Samoa, but when I told them I was angry he lied to the office that got things done. Villages in Samoa are kinda terrified of the office and really don’t like for them to come out. So the mention of me being angry because he lied to the office worked. I never would have even tried this if I didn’t feel reasonably well integrated into my community, but I’m in good standing with my village so I figured I might be able to get away with kicking someone off the committee. I am so much happier now that I know I don’t have to see the matai on a regular basis. This is wonderful; it will make my job and my life so much easier for the next 15-16 months.

Dress

2009-04-14T10:09:00.002-11:00

The everyday dress for a Samoan in a village is a t-shirt and an ie (pronounced e-a). An ie is nothing more than a few yards of brightly colored, patterned cloth. Ies can have turtles, kava bowls (wooden bowl used for mixing ava), flowers, or other designs on them and sometimes are hand painted. There are many different ways to tie and ie as well. Most of the time, the men will twist the ends around each other and tie in front or wrap the ie around the body and roll the top down as a sort of belt, while women usually wrap the ie around the body and tuck the ends in on the sides or tie a knot on the side. For more formal occasions, there is the ie faitaga and puletasi. Men wear the ie faitaga, a solid colored kilt made of higher quality material than a regular ie, has pockets, and also ties differently than a regular ie. This is worn with a button down shirt, usually patterned and bright. The puletasi is the Samoan woman’s dress. The top is fitted and the bottom is an ie lavalava, or long skirt you tie on. Again, it is brightly colored and patterned. I have one with turtles, one with breadfruit, one with flowers, and one with a more traditional Samoan pattern. I wear a white puletasi, complete with a really cute hat (pic to come later…it’s something you want to see, trust me), to church every Sunday. To me, the puletasi is really hot and uncomfortable. This is mostly because the lavalava is really long and goes from my ankles up to my chest. I usually roll it down some and that helps a bit, but it is still uncomfortable to me. Most villages have strict rules on clothing in the village. Most villages do not allow women to wear shorts while in the village center, an ie must be worn. Shoulders must also be covered for women. Men have more freedom in clothing, they can wear whatever. Villages have strict rules on hair as well. Most of the time, men are not allowed to have long hair or long beards. Women must have their hair in a single braid or in a bun. They let me wear my hair in a ponytail except when I am with the choir. Most of the dress requirements go back to the days of the Christian missionaries who came to Samoa and saw a bunch of people with basically no clothes on. Kinda funny how now palagi are the ones with little clothes on, wearing short shorts which cover not much more than the rear end, tank tops, and bikinis. Oh how times have changed in the palagi world! Apia is much more relaxed than the villages; I wear shorts there all the time. At first I didn’t, but when I see some Samoans in really short shorts, I think no one would take offence at my normal length shorts.

Family Structure

2009-04-14T08:19:00.001-11:00

The aiga (family) is very important in Samoa. Samoan families can be very complex and often involves several layers of extended family. You can have many people living on the same family compound and trying to figure out who belongs to whom can get confusing. You can have grandparents, their kids, and the kids’ kids, as well as adopted kids from other families and cousins who come to live with the family as well. I still don’t really know what kids belong to what parents. Here is my attempt to explain the family structure.
Each village is made up of 20-40 households, all extended family. Each family has a matai (usually the father of the family, sometimes a woman is a matai) who is the head of the family. Each matai title belongs to a certain family line and is passed down generation to generation as new matai titles are bestowed upon worthy individuals. The matai is responsible for money, land, and everything which goes on in the family. Sometimes everyone lives under the same roof, grandparents down to the grandkids, and the matai takes care of everyone under his roof. Other times, a family founds a new household on part of the family land. Not every household has a matai, but there is a matai responsible for the family. Sometimes there is more than one matai in a household, usually a father and son. In this case, the father is the head matai of the family, responsible for all of his kids and the son is only the matai of his family. The son, although a matai, still answers to his father’s matai position.
If your family has a visitor come and stay with your family and that visitor does something wrong. The matai of the family is punished for the wrong doing. Sometimes the punishment is money, a certain number of pigs or chickens, fine mats, or pisupo or canned sardines. If the crime is severe enough, the family could be banished for what the visitor did. The matai is the one who is supposed to control what goes on in his family and if a visitor does something wrong, he is punished.
Even though technically all the families in a village are related the relation may be several generations up the family tree. Strong competition can exist between families whose bloodlines are tied way up the family tree and the relation is not as strong as say a sibling relation. The matai takes care of his nuclear family first, then his extended family in the village, then the extended family not in the village. Even if you live in another village or even overseas and there is a need for you (or your money), you must help your aiga. Samoans living overseas have more freedom when it comes to everyday life, but the duty is always to the aiga back in Samoa.
Now that is just the matai system. Within the household there is the hierarchy as well. As I said earlier, the matai is the head. The matai’s wife is responsible for the everyday running of the household. The kids each have their chores as well. The girls are responsible for the laundry and help take care of the kids younger than them. The boys help with the plantation and making the umu or oven made with hot stones. If a person is not directly in the family, like a wife of one of the older children, he or she is low on the hierarchy and main job is to serve the family. In a Samoan household, you can have just a nuclear family, adopted kids who are distant relatives, cousins, etc. Families can get really complicated and are huge so figuring it all out takes a while.

Village Structure

2009-04-14T08:12:00.002-11:00

The village is “nu’u” in Samoan. The nu’u is all extended family and everyone is related to some degree somewhere up the family tree. Each village has a chunk of land reaching from the mountains all the way down to the reef. Some of the land belongs to each family, while other parts, like the reef, are communal property. There is a very complex structure in the village. At the top of this hierarchy is the faife’au, or pastor. He is top dog in every Samoan village. Everyday people send him food and whenever there is a fa’alavelave he gets a huge chunk of the goods. Next on the totem pole is his wife. After them comes the matai, or chiefs. There are two kinds of chiefs, ali’i and tulafale. Ali’i chiefs are high chiefs while tulafale are orator chiefs. Tulafale are responsible for knowing history of the village and family, as well as being the spokesman during a fa’alavelave. All matai belong to a fono or village council. Even within the matai there is a hierarchy. You have the highest chiefs, which can include both ali’i and tulafale, and then a series of lower matai. The highest chiefs are top dogs when it comes to running the village. If you want something done, you go to them. When at meetings you will see the highest matai sitting in the front of the fale doing all the talking and the lower matai sitting at the back not really saying anything. Any decision made in the village is made trough much discussion and total consensus. It is sometimes frustrating to be at a meeting where the conversation revolves around a small detail that seems insignificant, but because total consensus is not reached the discussion goes on until everyone agrees. This is just the way it works.
Next are the chiefs’ wives. You have the faletua (high chief’s wife) and tausi (orator chief’s wife). Again there is a hierarchy here too. The wives of the highest chiefs have the most power and are the officers in the women’s committee (a women’s group made up of most of the women in the village, regardless of which hierarchy group they belong to). Again, in meetings the wives of the highest chiefs sit in the front and everyone else in the back. Moving down the hierarchy you come to the aualuma, or daughters of the village. They have a special rank since they were born in the village. Their duties are taking care of the village, especially when guests come. From this group comes the taupou. The taupou is the village virgin who mixes the ava during ceremonies and matai meetings and also dances to open and close a fiafia (celebration involving dancing). The aualuma get a lot of respect in the village. At their to’ona’i (meal after church) they always have prepared food, rather than canned goods, and the taule’ale’a send over food.
Next comes the taule’ale’a, or untitled men. These men are the “malosi o le nu’u” or strength of the village. They work really hard. They are the ones who serve the matai during meetings, go to the plantation, and do the work for the village. In Samoa, there is a phrase “o le ala i le pule o le tautua” which means service is the way to power. This means the taule’ale’a work really hard and eventually their service is rewarded and they become a matai. You also have the female version of the taule’ale’a, or wives of the untitled men. They don’t have much power at all and serve the women much like the taule’ale’a serve the matai. Their hope is their husbands work really hard so they can become a chief’s wife. People who are not from the village are really low on the hierarchy scale; being from the village is always better than being the spouse of someone from the village. Kids are lowest, they have no power.
And then there is me…I’m not really sure where I rank but I know I get a lot of respect, usually more than I feel I deserve. I get taken care of really well and usually they have me sit in a position which shows they respect me and think of me highly. If I eat with one of the women’s groups, they sit me with the higher ranking women and at to’ona’i with the matai I sit next to the pastor’s wife. It is nice to be respected, but most of the time I don’t feel I deserve it, makes me even more self-conscious than I already am being the only palagi (foreigner, usually referring to a white person) in the village. The village structure is interesting to try to figure out and if you can successfully figure it out and learn how to work within the structure you can be a very successful Pisikoa (Peace Corps Volunteer).

Cultural Notes - Fa'alavelave

2009-04-12T22:33:00.003-11:00

I seem to write about a lot of stuff, but don’t fully explain things in terms you guys back home can understand. So I’m sorry about that, I’m going to try to do a better job of that in the future. I’m going to write a little bit more about the culture of Samoa to give you all a better idea of my life here.

Fa’alavelave means to disturb or trouble. Fa’alavelaves are anything which causes a disturbance of daily routine in the village, but usually refers to big events like weddings, funerals, church openings and church gatherings (such as the meeting of all the Congregationalist pastors in the district, which held in my village a few months ago). These fa’alavelaves are cause for much preparation; pigs and cows are slaughtered, cases and cases of pisupo (canned corned beef) and tinned fish (sardines) are bought, fine mats are given, massive amounts of food is cooked, and much money is exchanged. My fa’alavelave experiences have been funerals. Here is how each went: The day started early in the morning when I boarded a bus headed to Apia to pick up the body from the hospital. This means I woke up at 4:30 am because we were told the bus was coming at 5 and the head of the choir was walking around the village hitting a piece of bamboo, which calls the chior to assemble. Since this is Samoa and there is a little thing called taimi Samoa, the bus didn't actually come until 6 or 6:30, which means we all stood around wanting to go back to sleep for and hour or so. When we got to Apia, there was a small service at the hospital, and then we came back to the village. We were given food at this point (enough for me to make two meals out of). Then there was a service at the church, which involved singing, relatives giving eulogies, and the pastor talked as well. We then went to the house and put the body in the grave. When the body is lowered into the tomb, everyone crowds around to get a good look. Here in Samoa it is more common to bury your relatives in graves in front of the house rather than in a public cemetery like in the States. Land in Samoa is not like it is in the States. You don’t buy it (except sometimes in the Apia area); your family just owns it and it is passed down generation to generation. Many generations of a family have lived on the same plot of land for many years, so burying your relatives in front of the house is a way for generations to remember their family. There are a few cemeteries in Apia, but when in a village you will see tombs in the front yards of houses. Next was more food and exchange of gifts. During the giving of these gifts of money, pisupo, tinned fish, fine mats, pigs and cows, there is a delicate balance of exchange. First, the host presents the gifts to the other party. Then the other party gives back a portion of the gifts. These exchanges can go on a few rounds. Since everything is communal and everyone in the village put in to the pot of gifts, the gifts are further divided among the families in the village. Usually, the higher matai get the most and best since they rank high in the village and probably gave the most and best stuff anyway. It is really interesting to watch the presentation and exchange of gifts. Every case of pisupo is carried out individually, each bill of money is given individually, and every fine mat is displayed, all while an orator chief is yelling out the gift being given and ceremonial phrases.

Fa’alavelaves are an interesting part of Samoan culture and a lot of time, money, and effort goes into having one. The whole week leading up to a fa'alavelave is really busy for the village; decorations are put up, money is spent on gifts, food is prepared (usually people stay up all night cooking for the fa'alavelave the next day), etc. Luckly, I don't have to do any of this. All I have to do is show up and everyone is happy.

Finally!

2009-03-30T08:35:00.004-11:00

I finally might have accomplished something real. I got word a few weeks ago that books are on the way. Yea!!! Finally, I can start on the library for the school. I’m very excited about this project. It’s a big relief to know the waiting has paid off. I know the library will be very small, but that is ok. At least the kids will have some books for resources for help with homework and also some pleasure reading. I also got word the grant I wrote for sewing machines for the women’s committee was successful; another thing where patience has paid off. All this couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve been getting a little depressed thinking that in the seven months as a volunteer I’ve done nothing. So now I will have something to keep me busy and raise my spirits. I’m not sure when all this stuff will get to my village, but hopefully within a month. I’m very excited for all this. I’m hoping it will give me a little more respect in the village and have people trust that the young girl can do something for the village. In the mean time, I’m keeping myself busy with the MPA. I’m up to 100 species identified and I know there is a whole bunch of species which haven’t come out to say hi to me yet. This is ok; it means I still have lots of monitoring, otherwise known as snorkeling, to do.

Liz came out for a visit the other week. We took the bus over to Togitogiga Waterfalls in Pupu-Pu’e National Park. This was really fun. We’d both forgotten how nice it feels to swim in freshwater. The water was cool and clean, so refreshing. We jumped in the pools down from the upper falls and relaxed in the cold water. I climbed up the rocks where the falls are and played in the rushing water of the waterfall, feeling the power of the spray. I even jumped in the pool where the lower falls are from the pool of the upper falls, but didn’t have the guts to jump from all the way up. I thought about it, but the rock jutting out made me nervous. And although I am the adventurous type who rarely ever backs out of daring things like that, I didn’t really want to go to the hospital that day and even more so didn’t want to explain to our PC nurse what stupid thing I did to crack my skull open. The look of disappointment which surely would have crossed her face was enough to make me not jump. It was a fun day and no trip to the hospital, so in the end it was a positive decision.

The village had its Fa’aMati last week as well. I didn’t attend the actual event because I was busy, but from what I was understand the women weave mats and on the Fa’aMati day they are given to the pastor and other churches. I saw the mats when they were displayed the day before, and some of the fine mats were really spectacular. Each member of the women’s committee had to make a laufala (fine mat), a papa laufala (sitting mat, light colored), and a papa malo (sitting mat, dark colored). Laufala is the name of the plant used to weave these mats. The leaves of the laufala plant are shaped like a single leaf of a palm tree, long and tapered, only start out wider. The leaves are much stiffer and have sharp, little spikes on the edges of the leaves. The leaves are cut off the plant, the sharp edges are taken off, and then the leaves are dried in the sun, which makes them light in color. Then strips are cut and used to make mats. The width of the strips can vary from 2 cm to a few millimeters. Sitting mats are made from strips about 2 cm, while fine mats made from strips only a few millimeters wide are considered the highest quality and will sell for thousands of Tala (these fine mats are called ie toga). The fine mats are used for fa’alavelaves (weddings, church openings, funerals, births, etc). The mats the women made were more like sleeping mats. The strip width was about half a centimeter and on the borders of the fine mat were different colors of yarn. In the old days instead of yarn there would be bird feathers, but now usually you see the yarn, every once in a while a fine mat will be made with feathers, but usually fake feathers you see in craft stores back home. Some had dyed laufala weaved into patterns. It takes a lot of skill to do this weaving. I have joined the women in weaving few times but have never done one with dyed laufala. You have to have a lot of experience to know how to weave these kinds of mats. I was quite impressed with some of the women in the village.

The bike does still work

2009-03-13T08:54:00.001-11:00

There is really nowhere for me to go on my bike. I use it to go up to the main road to take my trash out or go talk to the mayor, but other than that it usually just sits in my house, much to my dismay and disappointment in having nowhere to go. Friday, I did manage to get over to see the volunteer in Lotofaga, about a 30-40 minute bike ride away. Each semester her village hosts American exchange students who are taking a Pacific Islands course. The students’ 10 day village stay was over so the village was throwing a fiafia (eating & dancing party) to say good-bye. I had a fun time having nothing to do with the fiafia at all and only had to sit and watch. I did have to go up and dance the final dance with Liz in the taupo headpiece and belt thing (I don’t really know how to describe it better than that). I was smiling and laughing while they got Liz dressed in the taupo wear and then my smile quickly faded when I saw a second set of taupo garb appear and the women told me to turn around so they could tie this stuff on. It was ok though, most of the time was spent laughing because one of the women was hiking up Liz’s skirt so she could show her malu (traditional tattoo for women which wraps around the thigh), apparently dancing is the time to show it off. It was a fun night.

The next day we walked to To Sua Trench. It’s just a big hole in the ground, but you can go down the biggest ladder I’ve ever seen and swim in the trench. It looks pre-historic at the bottom of the trench; sunlight beaming from up above, ferns growing from the sides, and long roots streaming down to the water. We also explored the lava field and blow holes on the grounds. There is a little cove surrounded by hardened lava rock where ocean water still reaches, but it is mostly enclosed and protected. The most beautiful, built up coral and blue water is in this little cove. I really want to snorkel in it; the reef has to be incredibly pristine, but because the coral is so built up there are only a few channels one can fit through. The way the tide surges in and out is a problem too. It was really cool to see rainbows appear when the water shot up from the blow holes. The ocean drops off quickly and waves are huge on this lava field, leaving interesting structures carved from the lava rock. I had fun exploring the trench.
I did notice how I was able to explore all this potentially dangerous land with no warning signs or fences taking all the fun away. One could easily step in a hole and break a leg, be swept off one’s feet by a huge wave and be hurt, killed, or taken out to sea, or fall off the rock face just trying to get down to the lava field. I just loved it; I could get as close as I wanted. We all know in the States there would be signs and fences so one couldn’t get close to all the cool stuff and really explore all the things one wants to see because some idiot got hurt due to his or her own stupidity and since they felt so dim-witted decided to blame someone else to try not to look like the idiot they actually are. All the fencing and signage just takes all the fun away and is completely unnecessary. I guess it helps that no one here has the money to be able to sue or if sued would have no money to give, but still I liked being able to explore a natural wonder without being baby-sat.

Maybe I am actually making a difference.

2009-03-13T08:48:00.001-11:00

I’ve been a Peace Corps Volunteer for a little over six months now. I haven’t much to show for those past months, no projects, workshops, or anything of that nature. The projects I’ve tried to do have fallen through. Organizations I’ve wanted to bring out to my village have already been here and the villagers are starting projects with them; which is good for the village don’t get me wrong, but leaves me feeling slightly useless. I am waiting for responses to requests and grants, yet have no hard evidence of whether or not me being here is making a difference. Let’s face it…part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is wanting to make a difference and change the world. I’ve felt a little ineffective and get frustrated thinking I have nothing to show for my time. I think I’ve done a good job of integrating and knowing my village, but having not completed any sort of Peace Corps project isn’t where I wanted to be at this point. I thought I’d have something to show for my time. But alas, such is not true. So how does one measure effectiveness here in the Peace Corps? Is it the number of projects and amount of stuff you got your village? How many Ministries, NGOs, and other organizations you brought out to your village to do projects? How many babies were named after you? Truth is, since each PCV has a different experience, so that answer varies. I still have a year and a half to go so I have lots of time to do projects, but it is frustrating feeling like I have done nothing for six months but hang out in Samoa. All this being said, last week I was walking and talking with a member of my Peace Corps committee when the MPA came up. She told me the men had gone into the MPA and taken all the Crowns of Thorns out. It then hit me that maybe I am making a difference. See, I had been doing that for the past two weeks. At least once a week taking Crowns of Thorns out of the MPA would be the mission of my swim. I had talked casually with the mayor and other people in the village about the MPA and how Crowns of Thorns are bad for the reef because they feed on coral and in high numbers could decimate the reef. I didn’t think much of the conversations, just letting people know what I was doing in the MPA. When I heard the men had gone in there and taken the Crowns of Thorns out, it made me realize that my job as an “ecoliteracy educator” (as my official PCV title says I am) might actually be getting done. This brings much needed relief and gives me a new sense of accomplishment. So maybe in my six months I have nothing material to show my time hasn’t been completely worthless, but maybe I am using my marine biologist skills to educate people on the marine environment and doing my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Diving with stingrays and turtles

2009-03-01T18:53:00.000-11:00

Saturday I went diving with the dive club here in Samoa. The dive club is made up of Japanese, Australian, and American volunteers working here in Samoa. It’s a good way to meet and hang out with other foreign volunteers here and also diving is just fun so why not. It was a really nice day for a dive, sunny and of course being Samoa, warm. We went with Aqua Samoa, based out of the Aggie Grey’s resort. We took it easy on our two dives (only going to max depth of 73 and 77 feet), as I hadn’t been diving in 3-4 years, another volunteer had just gotten certified before coming here, and another volunteer was nursing a hurt foot. I felt like I was seriously missing equipment. Being in the tropics you don’t need a wetsuit if you don’t want one, and even if you want one a shorty and not the full monstrosity will do. It was wonderful to go diving in just a swimsuit with shorts and a rash guard. There was no awkward pulling of a wetsuit trying to get it off. Also, since the scuba company is based out of the nicest resort on the islands, they took care of everything for us. We didn’t have to carry our own gear to the boat or even hook up our tanks and regulators. I liked feeling like a tourist in that regard.

The first dive spot was called Circus. Another volunteer and I had some issues right off the bat though because neither of us were weighted right and hence couldn’t get below the surface…kind of a problem when diving. Once we got more weight, we were golden. We saw a sting ray right as we got going. We snorkeled around the massive reefs looking at all the little fishies. We saw parrotfish, angelfish, anemonefish, butterflyfish, etc. For me personally, it was a great dive to get back into things. My buoyancy was perfect (once I got the extra weight that is) so I wasn’t struggling to stay off the bottom or rising up to the top all the time. It was an easy, slow just look at all the pretty fish and coral.

Our second dive spot was about the same. It was called Laumei (turtle). The name was chosen because people often see turtles when diving on that spot, and sure enough so did we. It was cute, gliding off a little reef drop off. We saw an anemonefish who likes to munch on people, two giant longfin spadefish (about the size of two or three dinner platters), giant clams, filefish, etc. The most fun part was the swim through, a tunnel/break in the coral about 25 feet long. It was fun to go under/between two large coral reef sections and look back as others came through. At one point about halfway through the swim through I looked up and back towards the surface, seeing nothing but coral to the sides, towering above me, fish swimming over me, and light streaming through a gap in the coral sections. It was awesome!

Anytime I’m in the water I’m happy, so being able to go diving was great. I hadn’t been in a really long time, but it is kinda like riding a bike, you don’t ever really forget what to do. I got to try out my dive watch/computer too (thanks Dad)…the thing is awesome! I loved seeing the temperature, depth, dive time, having a countdown timer for how long I can be at a certain depth and not need a safety stop, seeing how much nitrogen is building up in my blood, warned by an alarm when I’m ascending too rapidly, and having a timer for my safety stop. It was all so easy to figure out too. I figured with something as complicated as a dive computer I would have alarms going off all the time for things I hadn’t set right on it, but nope…everything went swimmingly. And now all the info is stored in my watch and I can’t wait to see what kind of fun I can have downloading it to my computer. So unlike most weeks, I now have something to do…play with my dive watch and anxiously await our next dive.

It’s All in a Day’s Work

2009-02-28T16:15:00.001-11:00

The other day I spent three hours monitoring the MPA (marine protected area). I was working for the most part, but as you all know with me snorkeling is more play than anything else. Most of my work right now is trying to keep the crown of thorns out of the MPA. The crown of the thorns starfish eats coral and is personally accountable for much of the destruction of reefs worldwide. Having one or two around the reef isn’t going to do much damage, but large scale infestations can be problematic. Needless to say, taking out 10 of them in one day did not make me happy, and I only snorkeled in about half the MPA so I know there are more in there. But that just means I have to keep going back….darn! The other major marine project I have going is trying to catalogue the species I see so that when I leave the village has a record of what is in there. This is the really pleasurable part of my job. I swim around, taking pictures and noting what I see. I love getting paid to snorkel in a reef in the tropics. Every time I go monitor the area I see at least 5-10 new species; it’s amazing! Cute little anemonefish stare at me curiously from the comfort of their protective anemone. Schools of fish surrounded me in awe of such a strange fish. I’ve seen moray eels, Christmas tree worms, trumpetfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, Moorish idols (think of Gil from Finding Nemo), and so many other species many of which I haven’t yet identified. It’s really fun to hang above a reef and just wait for the timid fish to come out from their hiding places. Or snorkel above a piece of reef where you don’t see fish immediately, but then once you start moving over it you notice all the fish with camouflage, really good hiding places you didn’t notice at first, or fish which come around a corner and nearly swim into your face. I think I might have given a few fish heart attacks. I can’t wait to get to the real work of constructing fish houses and re-stocking the MPA with clams, but for now I’m just fine with swimming around monitoring. Not bad for a day’s work if you ask me.

Has my life really turned into a sitcom?

2009-02-20T08:19:00.000-11:00

I was in the office the other day, telling some other volunteers about my misadventures in Samoa; mainly how I never know what is going on, neither in my village nor the Peace Corps world, how no matter what I do I can’t seem to get away from cheeky men, and how I was the personal target for a 3 year old wielding a styrofoam cup (see above posts for full story). We had some good laughs about me being smacked with a fan by an old lady when I was late to the primary school’s prize giving because no one told me what time the event was occurring and how I was powerless to stop the 3 year old from throwing the cup at me even though I could see she was going to do it. One of the volunteers said my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa was like a sitcom. I am not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. On the one hand, never knowing what is going on (even though I am getting used to that now) is frustrating and dealing with the cheeky men is really maddening. On the other hand, I am provided with many stories, most of them really funny. This same volunteer said he thought it was funny how cheeky and sole (Samoan for boy/man, kinda like the Scottish lad) had worked their way into my vernacular. I laughed at the truth of that; I do say sole and cheeky a lot now. I don’t know, maybe it is true; my life has turned into a sitcom. I’m ok with that; at least I get a good laugh when I think about the ridiculousness of my life.

Sometimes kids come over to my house while their moms are playing BINGO Wednesday afternoons. They play on the swings and get to be kids without the fear of someone smacking them for just being a kid. They also come over because they like me to get guava off the tree for them. They ask me all kinds of questions: where are your parents, what are their names, do you have sisters or brothers, who sleeps with you, who cooks for you, what is this, what is that? It’s really funny, but tiring sometimes answering all those questions. The other day a kid asked me if my parents were palagi or Samoan. I had to laugh at that…I may be getting a good tan, but I would still be the whitest Samoan ever.

If you leave Samoa without being able to wield a machete, you did something wrong

2009-02-13T12:24:00.000-11:00

Everyone in Samoa has a machete. They are the most useful tools ever. When Samoans go to the plantation, you better believe the handy-dandy machete goes with them. I don’t have any reason to go to the plantation so I didn’t really think I had a need for a machete, but I recently invested in a little machete after I realized how much easier a machete would make life. Need to open a coconut, get the machete. Need to chop the trees and bushes back, get the machete. Need to weed my compound, get the machete. It is so much fun to hack into a bush or tree with a machete. It is such a stress reliever. Pruning shears are nice and all, but it is so much fun to swing the machete and in one sweep, down goes the limb. Being a crazed, machete wielding palagi is so much fun.

Country & Kids

2009-02-13T12:23:00.004-11:00

One country, several islands
One might think all the islands in Samoa would have the same feel. One would also think each section of a single island would have the same feeling. Such is not true. First, the north side of Upolu is much busier and hectic than the south side, especially the stretch between the airport and Apia. Palagi influence is everywhere in Samoa but much more so on the north side. More people on the north side have jobs in Apia and this is reflected in the look of the village. Life in general on an island in the South Pacific is very laid back and chill. The further the village is from Apia, the less the palagi influence and more laid back. Savaii is even more laid back than the south side of Upolu. Once you get out of Salelologa where the wharf is, you are immediately struck by the rural ruggedness of the island. Mountains shoot up and cliffs drop to the ocean. Huge waves break on the black lava rock. Life on Savaii has an even more faifai lemu attitude (basically, take it easy, don’t worry, chill out). Apolima and Manono have their own individual pride being such small, out of the way islands. It is somewhat hard to describe, it is more something you have to experience, but each island and every village feels different.

Samoan kids
I can’t begin to describe how cute Samoan kids are. First of all, the little boys, no matter how small, walk around like they own the world. It is so cute to watch them. They start mini games of cricket when their dads are playing the full sized version. The little girls are so adorable, especially when performing siva Samoa (Samoan dancing) at a level of gracefulness I will never achieve. These kids are unbelievably tough. When these kids get hit by something, like a ball, or fall down, they just get right back up, no sniffle at all. At the same time if they don’t get their way, they will throw a tantrum unlike any I have ever seen. They climb ridiculously tall coconut trees like monkeys. They run around on rocks barefoot. They are incredibly strong. Samoan kids are the new breed of superhuman with the cutest smiles.

Look Ma…babies!

2009-02-13T12:22:00.003-11:00

I was sweeping out my room the other day and decided I should probably move the bed and get whatever was living under there out. I expected lots of dirt and bugs since this is Samoa and my house isn’t exactly built to any code and there are gaps to the outside everywhere. I was surprised to find little eggs under my bed however. After some inspection, I decided they weren’t spider eggs…too hard, they weren’t bird eggs…too small, they had to be reptile eggs. So in my scientific opinion, a gecko laid eggs under my bed. I shouldn’t really be surprised, because again this is Samoa and things like that aren’t really unusual, but I never really thought I’d be able to say a gecko laid eggs under my bed.
I was walking back to my house after playing volleyball one day when I felt something under my feet. I looked down but didn’t see anything. So I continued on. Again, I felt something but didn’t see anything. I was saying bye to some of the young boys when they said “Moa” or chicken. I looked down again and sure enough a little chick was at my feet. I took one step and the chick followed. Took another, and so did the chick. The chick wouldn’t move from between my feet. I didn’t realize I looked much like a mama chicken, but the little chick thought otherwise.

Life Tua (out back, on the southside)

2009-02-13T12:22:00.002-11:00

I was a teine Samoa (Samoan girl) the other day. All the pastors from the Christian Congregational Church of Samoa in the district came to our village for some sort of meeting. This meant the village went all out in preparation. I got to witness this first hand since they used my house (both fales) to prepare food (it’s next to the church and big fales where they were doing the meeting so I said yes when asked, I didn’t know though that meant people coming over to my house at 5:45 am when I was still sleeping). Basically, all of the village women, matai (chiefs), and village men were at my house that day, it was very crowded and busy. There was a church service at 7 am, breakfast, a meeting, and then lunch (I was helping the village prepare and serve food the whole day). Lunch was insane because all the pastors also got goody bags to take home. I’m not sure what all the goody bags contained, but I do know they had at least 1 lb of canned corned beef, taro, palusami, and a whole pig (I think there were 12 pastors so that is a lot of pigs). This is on top of the platter of food they got for lunch which also involved a whole chicken. Pastors are well taken care of here, and that is an understatement (it is somewhat frustrating to see the wealth they have in comparison to the poverty of the families providing for them, but just another cultural lesson to get used to). Everyone else had enough food for at least 2 people, so it isn’t like they starved either. I didn’t do nearly as much as the other women did, mostly because they don’t usually let me do anything, but I got right in and helped prepare plates and serve food. They were happy to have the help and thought it was cute I was helping and being a teine Samoa (I got some respect for that, always good). The women were really generous to me for letting them use my house; they gave me some of the things left from the cooking: a loaf of bread, 1 lb sugar, and almost 2 dozen eggs (I made French toast for breakfast the next day). This is in addition to getting breakfast and lunch (and dinner since I had some left over). It was interesting to see the preparation of everything. The fales were decorated with flowers, mats, and even tables and chairs. I know that sounds funny to make a big deal over tables and chairs, but eating at a table is rare and having the pastors sit at a table is a sign of respect (being seated above someone is a sign of high authority/respect, or in my case more of “we can see your legs are hurting you so come sit on this chair” although I’d never sit on a chair at a matai meeting, that would be really bad form).

I was sitting in my fale one day, typing up a report when I saw several of the village women carrying heavy loads of rocks and broken coral to be put in the area in front of the church (it isn’t paved, just a bunch of rocks). All of the sudden the women started singing. It was beautiful to witness the hard manual labor juxtaposed with sweet sound of the song.

TV, weather, and hospitality

2009-02-13T12:21:00.001-11:00

TV…what is that?
Seeing how I have no tv, it was great during the election and inauguration to be able to go to town to watch these momentous occasions. Yeah for CNN international. It is also really cool to be able to say I was at the US Embassy in Samoa for the 2008 election. It was a sweet party, lots of great food. It was nice to be around Americans during this time too and watch history in the making. For the inauguration I was at the Charge de Affairs house (she has real floors, walls, and windows…and even air conditioning! I felt like I was back in the US). Only a few of us Peace Corps Volunteers went, but I wasn’t going to miss something like that. Usually I don’t watch the inaugurations because it isn’t that interesting to me, but this time was different. I had to watch history in the making, and I’m totally in love with the First Family. All the Samoans know who Barak Obama is and ask about him quite often. This is funny to me, for some reason I did not think I would be asked about politics here.

The Sun and the rain
You will get sick if you are in the sun or in the rain. Or at least that is the Samoan philosophy. If someone is sick, especially a palagi, it is because they spent too long in the sun. If I am outside during the middle of the day, even just to go to the shop, I will have at least 5 people say “O le la” (the sun). So I know when I get dengue it will be because of the sun, regardless of the fact it is actually caused by a mosquito. When warned against instant sickness from the sun, I simply say I am malosi (strong) and go about my work. I have sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses, I figure I’ll be ok, just a little sweaty. The same is true for rain. If I am weeding with the women and it starts to rain, even just a little drizzle, they say “ua timu” (it’s raining) and tell me to go inside. I don’t stop until they do though, confident my body can handle a little drizzle. This is all really funny to me because when it comes to playing cricket or volleyball, no rain or shine can stop them. Apparently one only gets sick from working in the sun and rain, not playing in it.

Southerners have nothing on Samoan hospitality
Having grown up in the Mid-west and lived in the South, I think the whole Southern hospitality thing is a total fallacy. Samoan hospitality is above and beyond anything one might expect. If I go visit a family, just to talk, I almost always either get food there or am given something to take home. Usually it is niu (coconut) to put in my fridge and enjoy cool later on. People give me tomatoes, watermelon, avocadoes, papaya, etc. At toonai (large meal after church) with the women of the village, I very often come back with a basket full of food. It’s great, but sometimes people give me stuff and I have no idea how I am going to eat it all. When I first got to the village, people would give me loaves of bread, which is something hard to come by on this side of the island without going to Apia. At one point I had 3 loaves of bread to eat. I am a carb-o-holic so I love bread, but even I had no idea what to do with all that bread. So I did the fa’aSamoa and shared it. I was given a loaf of bread and almost 2 dozen eggs one time after the village used my house to cook for a large church event. This was on top of the rest of the food throughout the day. Samoans are extremely generous, especially if you are palagi

What tree should we eat from today?

2009-02-13T12:20:00.001-11:00

The Samoan national pastime, besides rugby and cricket, is eating. Samoans love food. Most of it is very heavy and starchy. Breadfruit (ulu) is like a mixture of potato and bread, depends on how you cook it. Taro is a starchy root crop. There are 10 different kids of taro, each one with a different taste. The biggest tragedy is the bananas. Instead of eating the ripe bananas (fa’ipule), Samoans take the green un-ripe bananas and either boil them or roast them over the fire. Ripe bananas are so much better. Those are the 3 main Samoan foods. Mutton (mamoe) oh so fatty, no matter how it is prepared. Chicken (moa)…just like in the US….can do anything with it. Pumpkin (maukeni) soup is really good. The best is cocoa Samoa and cocoa rice….chocolate, go figure. Not a whole lot of variety…subsistence farming, eat what you have. So many bones…gross...they even eat the marrow from the bones….I still don’t like the sound of crunching on the bones. Coffee or tea might as well be sugar water. They have spaghetti in a can (the sauce is really sweet too) and serve it straight from the can….no warming it or anything….that isn’t so great, but edible. The toasted spaghetti sandwiches are good though. I’ve eaten octopus (fe’e), sea cucumber (loli), sea urchin (tui), pigeon (lupe). I’ve also eaten some unknown species of crayfish and crab. Sardines from a can are popular as well as canned ham (Chinese version of SPAM). Corned beef (pisupo) is a popular dish…really salty and fatty. The greatest thing is all the food hanging from trees, just waiting to be eaten. Vi apples are good, just don’t eat the skin. Mangos, star fruit, bananas, avocadoes (can we say guacamole), pineapple, and coconuts. I’ve gotten pretty good at opening coconuts, but have yet to actually husk one.

Coconut wireless & Cocoa Samoa

2009-02-13T12:19:00.000-11:00

Samoans always know what is occurring in the village…meetings, extra church services, village events, etc. If someone does something in another village, even before the person is back home, the news of what they did will have already reached the village. We call this the coconut wireless. It works great for Samoans, everyone always seems to know what is going on and shows up, making the community run smoothly. Being an outsider, I never can get my coconut wireless to operate properly. My village shows up for an event, notices the palagi isn’t there, and if I do show up eventually, asks why I was late. It is very hard to explain how no one told me about the event and the only reason why I was there was because someone noticed in passing I was still at my house and not at the event. I never know what is going on, but I’m used to that by now.

Cocoa Samoa is best described as the best hot chocolate ever. The process of making cocoa Samoa takes a long time, but since there is no where to go and nothing to do this isn’t really a problem. First you have to get the cocoa from the tree. Then you bite out the bean from the fruit and roast it. Next, you shell the cocoa beans and roast them for a little bit longer. Then you use a rock to grind the cocoa beans to make cocoa powder. Then you put the powder in hot water and mix. The whole process of getting the beans from the inside of the fruit, roasting the beans, grinding the beans, and finally to drinking it takes about an hour or hour and a half. That’s a really long time for hot chocolate, but it is worth it.

Really, did that just happen?

2009-02-13T12:18:00.002-11:00

I was watching Anchorman to pass some time one afternoon and had a really odd experience. In one scene, Will Farrell’s character blows a conch shell to summon his news crew (I know that doesn’t make sense if you haven’t seen the movie, but just go with it). Not more than 10 seconds after him blowing the shell in the movie, a conch shell was blown in my village to call the men of the village back to work on the new fence for the school. I smiled and thought it was funny. It is one of those moments…in the movie it is funny, no one blows conch shells in real life, but oh wait….I’m in a 3rd world country where that actually occurs. The Peace Corps experience is all about the little moments like this. The ones where you go really, did that just happen? Only in Samoa and only in the Peace Corps (there have been several of those so far).

I was sitting with a few of the women to do our fa’amalositino (aerobics) and walk around the malae (playing field) when one of their little girls came up. She had just finished a little ice cake (frozen kool aid in a styrofoam cup) and had the cup in her hand. I really like this little girl, she’s in one of the families I like to hang out with. I could tell what she was going to do, but did nothing to stop it. She raised her arm up, and then all of the sudden threw the cup. It smacked right in the middle of my forehead. We all started laughing. I was powerless to get the thought in my head into the action of stopping her. It was funny. The kids made up for it by walking with me, hand in hand, during the walk around the malae.

Sweet smells of Mortein

2009-02-13T12:18:00.001-11:00

Mortein is the wonderful poison I use to try to keep the bugs away. It is really nasty stuff and I wonder how many years I’m taking off my life by just using it, but it does have a nice orange smell. The beauty of the poison is this…with a few seconds of spray, you can stop a cockroach dead in its tracks. It is also good for stunning centipedes, yes that’s right only stun. These aren’t inch long gross little insects; no, they are 6-8 inches long (other species in the tropics can be a foot long), carnivorous, poisonous creatures which look like they are armored for battle. One bite could leave you with swelling, dizziness, and an irregular pulse. Centipedes are extremely fast, one in my room did three laps around the place before I could catch up to it. So in order to get rid of these creatures before they attack, you spray the heck out of it with Morein so it will stop moving and then take a hammer to it. These are the measures you have to take otherwise they will comeback with vengeance.

Excuse me, may I sit on your lap?

2009-02-13T12:17:00.001-11:00

Samoa has lots of interesting places to explore…reefs, beaches, waterfalls, caves, mountains, jungle trails, lava tubes, blow holes, etc. But for the real adventure seeker, take a trip on a bus and your adventure needs will be quite fulfilled. First, the buses are old rickety wooden buses the DOT would not allow on any road in the US. But in Samoa, those buses are good because if they tip over, the wood will split and allow people to crawl out (regardless of the fact the wood will split and the weight of the bus will crush people). When looking at the driver’s seat, which is actually a seat from a car, one will see a colorful array of cords and wires delicately hanging down from the engine block, which is all that keeps the bus running. To most Americans, a full bus is one where all the seats are taken. Not so in Samoa. A bus is not considered full until all seats are taken, people are sitting on each other’s laps, people are standing in the isle, and one can not see deeper than the first row of seats. Then and only then is the bus full an will leave, but not before picking up more people along the way, which leaves people hanging out the doorway (good thing there is no door to close because the bus is so full there is no way it would shut). Needless to say, sitting on some stranger’s lap has become a non-issue and is no longer considered weird to me. I have seen children passed out the window, why make them walk up the crowded isle when passing them out is much easier. Most people would not take an animal on a public bus for fear of allergies or people being bit; however in Samoa, not a problem. If the bus won’t start, the young men get out and give the old bus a push until the engine turns over. There is an order to sitting position on the bus as well. The young men (sole) will sit in the very back or stand in the isle if no room. The older people sit in the front. So many times a young person will get up and move to the back or move to someone’s lap when an older person gets on the bus. It is interesting the watch the delicate movement of people trying to make room on the bus. Taking a bus in Samoa never fails to have some sort of happening which would be considered an oddity in America, but as my time in Samoa goes on I rather enjoy the phenomenon known as riding the bus.

Off to a new home

2009-02-13T12:15:00.003-11:00

After swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer in August, I moved out to my new village of Salesatele. I’m still on the island of Upolu in the district of Falealili, about an hour and a half or so from Apia. I live by myself (although getting my PC committee to not sleep outside my house at night was a challenge) in a fale (house) overlooking the ocean, rough life I know. I have an outhouse…all my years in Alabama I never once had one, but alas I do now. I have corrugated metal for a roof and walls, otherwise known as a sweat box. When it rains, the metal roof does nothing for being able to hear anything. At least the holes in the ceiling and walls are in places where leaks don’t occur. I have a papaya tree right out back which is amazing! I also have guava and noni trees. The church (EFKS in Samoan or Christian Congregationalist Church of Samoa, CCCS) is right across the road. I never have an excuse to be late for church, but I hate the ringing of the empty air tank (who needs a church bell, even though there is one) for 5 minutes to announce church starts in an hour. I waste a whole 5 minutes with my fingers in my ears, trying to make sure I will still have hearing at the end of my PC service. I have a new respect for laundry machines. Washing laundry by hand is a real pain in the butt! First, you have to soak them, then rinse then, and then hang them up on the line and with the humidity, hope they dry with in a couple of days. It isn’t like they are really clean once I do my laundry anyway since the water is usually not the cleanest, but I pretend like they are clean anyway. It truly is a chore.
I mainly work with the marine protected area (MPA), but like most other village-based volunteers, I’m a jack of all trades. I just finished writing a grant for sewing machines and am in the process of getting computers and a library and starting a homework center. I’ll be doing a rubbish clean up and health clinics at some point. Maybe teaching swimming lessons as well. I like hanging out with people in the village, playing volleyball, taking walks, or just talking. I pull weeds with the mothers of the village on Saturday mornings and participate in the aerobics program they just started. I joined the church choir, really I got dragged there and somehow was then a member. I don’t sing well (my family can attest this), so I mainly just pretend or sing really softly. It is a good way to meet people and be active though; I like hanging out with the choir people. The kids have contests to see who can say fa (bye) to me last and the loudest, so I often say fa to the same group of kids about 10 times before they are satisfied. I got to make the ava for the matai (chief) meeting, which was a high honor. It was fun, but as usual I had no idea how to make it. I think the matai got a kick out of the attempt though. I like my village and I think they like me, which makes living in a village so much easier.

Things you take for granted
1) Power
If it exists….it goes out a lot. In Amaile, I watched my host family make a Molotov cocktail to use as light…when a Molotov cocktail is made I only think of blowing something up, not using it to see. I was a little worried first time I saw them making the light.
2) Indoor bathroom
I have my very own out house, which is ok except a real pain in the middle of the night or when it is raining.
3) Bug proof houses
I have ants everywhere, naturally in food, but books, clothes, everything….gets old after a while, especially when they bite me. I sleep under a mosquito net every night in order to not be a feast.
4) Water
In the States, one doesn’t turn the faucet and wonder if water is going to come out today or what is in the water because usually it comes out a nice clear color, nothing to worry about. Here, if one has water it comes out muddy or with green specks in it. We aren’t used to the mud and bacteria in the tap water. Even the “treated water” from the plants in Apia have failed water quality tests done by WHO….so I have a water filter. In Apia if you go to a restaurant you will pay $3 or more for a bottle of water. I am fortunate to usually have water to be able to fill my water filter; however, this is not always the case, especially in Savaii. Hot showers don’t exist anymore.
5) Routine bus schedule
Here, they have a general time. You could spend hours waiting for the bus to come, only to realize it isn’t coming. Or you could be sitting on the bus waiting for it to take you home and only once your butt is numb from the uncomfortable bus seats and when full will the bus go.
6) Internet
I used to waste several hours of the day mindlessly exploring all the random websites one can find on the net. Now it is no problem because I don’t have internet. I check e-mail when I go into the office once every couple of weeks. It isn’t really a big deal except when you want to know one little thing you know you could Google easily if you only had internet. Then it drives you crazy.
7) AC
Being on a tropical island, I think that is enough said.
8) Noise laws
One would think in the middle of a 3rd world country, loud blaring radios would not be an issue. However, Samoans love to turn up the radio. Frequently, all I hear is the thud of the bass, but sometimes I am able to sing along with a radio which is at least 150 yards from my house. It just ruins the whole peaceful village image, especially at 5:30 or 6 in the morning.

Siva Afi & Birthday

2009-02-13T12:14:00.001-11:00

A Siva Afi (fire dancing) competition was held a few days into training, naturally it seemed like it could be a fun thing to attend. I was in awe at the guys and girl (awesome!) and their ability to throw and twirl these sticks as the ends were ablaze. Lighting the sticks was amazing to watch as well. The fire dancer would come out with one end alight, then grab the fire with a hand or their mouth and light the other end…badass! Some competitors threw two fire sticks, others connected two or three together to form one giant fire stick, and others did amazing tricks with just one fire stick. It was quite a nice Pacific Island cultural experience.

I spent my 22nd birthday on the volunteer visit, basically a trainee pairs up with a current volunteer to see what volunteer life is like. The first night I was on Manono, a little island between Uplou and Savaii. This island is so gorgeous. Four villages make up the island and it only takes 3 hours to walk at a casual pace around the island. The views of the other islands are breathtaking, makes you want to get a hammock and a coconut and just sway in the sea breeze while you drift off to sleep. On our walk around the island we saw thousands of bats (flying foxes) flying overhead, heading to the inner part of the island. I even saw one land on a palm frond and use its claws to pull itself up. It was a nice place to be on my birthday. I even got a cake (thanks guys).

Amaile

2009-02-13T12:13:00.001-11:00

Amaile would be our home for 8 weeks of the 11 weeks spent in training. We had another ava ceremony to welcome us into the village and then we headed to our new homes to meet our new Samoan families. My family in America is a normal sized 4 person family. That being said, whenever I tell Samoans I only have 4 people in my family they get a look of pity, especially when they find out I have no brothers. Families in Samoa are three to four times the size of my normal sized family. Remembering all the people’s names in my Samoan family was a challenge. My host parents were Sola and Sea. I had one host sister, Maseiga, and 4 host brothers, Peni, Alae, Mafutaga, and Siu. Peni’s kids were Tofai, Lesi, Tala, and Eneliko. It is easy to see how Samoans would find living alone really boring and lonely; they are used to a whole village at home.
Amaile is in the Aleipata district of Upolu. That district is said to be the most beautiful in Samoa. I can see why…white sandy beaches, good reefs for snorkeling, and a view of endless ocean made only more breathtaking by the small, uninhabited islands in the foreground. Amaile has a vaitaele (pool) which is the most gorgeous I have seen yet. The water seeps down from rocks and into a rocked off area making the pool. There is a rock wall on one side of the pool, making it perfect for jumping into the vaitaele. During high tide, little fish come in to bathe with you. Having a pool like Amaile’s was awesome during training.
There is one church in Amaile, a Catholic one. This means there is mass at 6 am everyday and two services on Sunday. That is a lot of church. Unlike other Pacific Islanders who chose to welcome Christian missionaries with a large feast, making the missionaries the main course, Samoans readily accepted the missionaries work. In every Samoan village you will find at least one church. Even in small villages of only a few hundred people, there could be three or four churches, sometimes all seven denominations present in Samoa. Sundays are a day for church and rest; you aren’t even allowed to swim in the ocean.
Peace Corps training is from 8 am to 5 pm weekdays and involves training in language, culture, technical/work, health, and safety and security. By the end of the day, one is quite tired from school. Weekends are ideal for exploring the island. Some days it would be exploring the beach, reefs, and rocky tide pools while other days were jungle adventures. My Peace Corps group like to take a little hike to what we called “our secret beach.” We started out on the beach then took a path into the jungle. There wasn’t much to see for the most part, just jungle, until we got to a staircase carved from rock (which made us think we were all Indiana Jones off to explore some lost world treasure). The path opened up and suddenly instead of the dark of the jungle there was a clearing and light. There was a mountain off to the side and the trees shot up from the ground giving a Jurassic Park feel to the adventure. Soon we were at the secret beach, which is in a small cove. We snorkeled and explored the small tide pools when the tide was out. It was just fun being able to go on an adventure in order to get to the beach.
Amaile has some nice hikes as Jenny and I found out one day. My family asked if I wanted to go for a walk to see the waterfalls, naturally I said yes. So I got Jenny and we were off on our “walk.” At first it wasn’t so bad, we just followed the path back to the plantation, which was well carved by the villagers. We crossed streams jumped over some fallen trees, but nothing intense. We got to the first waterfall with no real issues, it was a long walk but it was fun. I was thankful I had doused myself in bug spray; the mosquitoes were circling in search of fresh whiteman flesh to gnaw on. As I looked at the waterfall, I wondered where we were going to go. We had been following the stream for the hike, so unless we were going back that way I saw no path. The Samoans then started up the rocky hill around the waterfall, and so I followed. It was a steep path with no room for error in step. Clinging to the hillside, I looked down at nothing but rocks below to break your fall. And just to add some fun, we were hiking in flip flops, not really any traction whatsoever. I’m not scared of heights, but I didn’t want to break my leg this early into Peace Corps service and be sent back home. Once up on the waterfall, we were back to following to the stream. We saw the second waterfall, which was a double falls, one waterfall then another right behind it. It was really gorgeous to look at in the depths of the Samoan jungle. I again wondered where we were going to go next, when the Samoans pointed to a sheer hillside and said we were going to see the plantation up top. I thought to myself “you have to be kidding, up that.” Jenny and I looked at each other and laughed, we had no idea how we were going to get up the hillside. The slope on this hillside was basically vertical, much steeper than the first hillside. Being so steep, the only way to get up top was with no flip flops. So there I was hiking in the Samoan jungle with no shoes on. Just to add fun, it had recently rained, leaving the hill nice and slippery. It did make me feel better that the Samoans were having difficulty as well getting up the slope. We were digging our feet and hands into the mud and grabbing any root we could possibly get our hands on. I’m the adventurous type, willing to go anywhere and do anything, and this was the most intense hike ever. We got to the top, with no injuries except for a few bites from some really pissed ants which bit my foot in retaliation, leaving my foot with a stinging sensation. The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous. Through the trees we could see the ocean and then looked to the side of the valley we had just hiked through. We drank some niu (coconut) and then decided to take the road back. This sounds nice and easy, but we still had to get down a steep hill, cross the stream, climb up another steep hill, and then walk home. Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night.
No other adventures in Amalie quite lived up to that one. We had a little 4th of July celebration though. The village allowed us to play softball and volleyball that day, as well as enjoy cake and ice cream. The kids loved that day, games and food. We also had a craft day, another day the kids loved. I made balloon animals while others did masks, face painting, and coloring. Another fun day with the kids. We teamed up with the Ministry of Agriculture to help the women make a garden. We cleared some land of rocks, planted eggplant, cabbage, and other veggies. It was a good looking garden, but I have heard it wasn’t taken care of so it is no more. I taught my family how to play UNO, which went over really well. They would draw multiple cards just to get a draw two card to play on their relative. It was funny to watch. I enjoyed living with the family; they took good care of me.