Savai’i Truffle

I think I was a little dramatic in my last post; though it was certainly genuine, it was written in the midst of a rude awakening. We got off the plane and met these volunteers who’ve been here a long time and they all seem happy and healthy and comfortable, and I think it’s easy to assume that once training ends, life gets easier immediately. But it takes time, of course. And life is going to suck for a while. Oh well. And on that note, happy birthday, Phil. Haha.

Friday was Phil’s birthday, and Koa and I decided to leave our strange new houses to visit Phil on Savai’i. Phil has moved into Dylan’s house, but Dylan doesn’t go back to The States until Monday so they are roommates for the time being. Dylan wrapped up all his business in Apia on Friday, and we all took the boat together.

The bus and the boat were both abnormally crowded on account of Christmas coming up. Samoa has a half-day every Saturday and most businesses are not open on Sundays, so we’re down to our last 3 shopping days.

I realized I’ve been talking about lots of different places for the last 2+ months, and I finally had the time to put together a map. Our host village, Fausaga, is on the south side of Upolu. My dead host father was from Apolima, and we made several trips there during my stay in the village. I also included our model school on there for good measure. The school where I live, Maluafou College, is a block away from the end of the cross-island road that connects Apia to the south side of the island. Also, so you know, the cross-island road is always referred to as the Cross-Island Road.

Phil’s birthday was fun. We didn’t do much but sit on the kitchen floor and talk, but life’s been busy lately, and it was nice to sit. It was also fun to take a boat. Koa and I had heard about how rocky the ferries can be and that seasickness is common. But Koa is from Massachusetts and I am from San Francisco, and we are used to boats. And it pretty much swayed like a boat.

Sleeping accommodations were the floor, which I suspect is common when volunteers visit each other. Koa and I took the 10:00 a.m. boat back, and I had time to do some more shopping for my place before Apia shut down at 12:30 p.m.

I’m feeling better about my house. Today I could actually imagine it feeling cozy, so now it’s just a matter of getting there. I’m contemplating building shelves, although I’m not completely sure how that will work.

Oh, btw…. Does anyone use Thunderbird as their email client? I’ve set it up for my gmail account, but it’s been downloading all of my email since August 2007, which is slow going. Anyone know why, when I’ve asked it to download new mail, it is downloading all of this old stuff? Anything I can do to fix that?

Hope things are well. Pictures below.

Dylan on the ferry ride to Savai'i. And, yes, that is Shelley Long on TV in a really bad Christmas movie.

Getting off the ferry in Savai'i. You enter and exit through the cargo hold.

Partying it up. Woo hoo. Left to right is Rosie, Dylan, Koa, Phil, and Trent.

Sleep situation.

This is St. Teresa's church. It's a pretty cool looking building right down the road from Phil/Dylan. PCV Rosie lives and teaches here.