Impromptu Reunion

Dan’s birthday is Inauguration Day, and on Election Night, Dan and I made tentative plans to watch the Inauguration at the embassy and then come back to my place, which I hadn’t seen yet, to drink Irish Car Bombs to celebrate the new presidency and Dan’s 24th birthday (baby). Unfortunately, that plan did not pan out. Among other problems, the inauguration was not shown at the embassy, my house would not be an appropriate venue for such a party, and the ingredients of an Irish Car Bomb run between $200 and $300 WST.

Erin texted the group last week to invite us to have tacos at Chris’s house to celebrate Dan’s birthday, after which we’d proceed to go out for drinks. So after I blogged last night, Koa, Joey, and I caught a taxi to Chris’s. When we arrived, 9 other members of group 81 were sitting around playing Uno. I scanned the room several times to make sure, and it was true, no other groups were present, and 12 out of the 13 people in group 81 had re-united. Only Phil was missing.

The trek back to Apia from Savai’i requires riding 2 buses and a boat. It’s long and expensive, and Phil had come in last week to attend our Teacher Conference, so he opted out of Dan’s birthday party. I don’t think he expected that everyone else would show up.

In any case, Koa, Joey, and I met up at the Peace Corps office to catch our cab, and I used the computer for a couple minutes while I was there. And then I inadvertently left my camera next to the computer when we headed out to the taxi stand.

Why, yes, my other camera was stolen less than 3 weeks ago, and yes, I did mindlessly leave my new camera at the office. I’ve often thought of myself having the opposite of kleptomania, where instead of grabbing random things and hoarding them, I tend to leave things in random places that I should be hoarding.

So when the rest of the group headed out for drinks, I walked back to the Peace Corps office to pick up my camera. I was able to get back to the group quickly, but not before Kate left. Thus, she is absent in pictures below. Things didn’t get too crazy, and we all went home relatively early.

Max and Supy came over this afternoon to help me setup my computer lab. We networked the computers so they are much easier to use. We also setup Microsoft Office on each machine so that the configurations are identical. It was a productive day, and I feel slightly more confident about starting school next week. I still have no whiteboard, but Max assures me I don’t need one.

My school apparently had a staff meeting this morning, but the staff failed to tell me they were meeting. It did feel a little cool that everyone was so upset about my absence; I like that they care that I wasn’t there. We have another staff meeting tomorrow morning to determine the school schedule. Hopefully my appearance there will redeem me.

I hope things are well back home. Pictures below.
















Erin and Dan, the birthday boy.
















Paul and Koa.
















Blakey and Jordan.
















Chris and AJ in the Peanuts pose.
















Max, me, and Supy. Networking the world.
















Cale (I'm assuming) took this picture with my abandoned camera. I found it on the memory card this morning. Ben from group 80 and Sara from group 79 are the two in the picture.
















Another surprisingly tame abandoned camera picture. This is Aaron from group 79.