Odds and Ends Thursday 42

With curriculum meetings yesterday and today, it’s been a Group 81 semi-reunion in Apia. In fact, between the Superbowl and this week’s meetings, I’ve seen everyone from Group 81 this week except for Paul. Everyone complains about how expensive things are in Apia, but I find Apia to be relatively cheap—except for when everybody’s in town. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:

• I wasn’t paying attention during kick-off, and I was in the restroom at the beginning of the second half, so I didn’t realize until last night New Orleans recovered their own on-side kick. I was under the impression the Colts had attempted an on-side kick that didn’t work out. That was a great game.
  
• Today we received the following text message:
  
  
  “Greetings. Cyclone rene will pass sth of Samoa frid & sat perhaps as close as 150km from stheastern upolu. It’s a categ 2 cyclone with mean winds of 55 to 72 mph @ its center & less @ its edges… Storm isn’t expected 2 require evacuation @ this point.”
  
  More on that as the story develops.
  
• Supy’s friend from Ireland, Claire, is in Samoa for 5 weeks hanging out with Peace Corps. She came into town with Supy for the meeting. She’s one of the gang now.
  
• There’s a new coffee shop near my place called The Coffee Bean. It’s been open for a couple months now, but Tuesday was the first time I’ve tried their coffee. It was nuclear hot, but overall a great cappuccino.
  
• I had planned to go to the host village tomorrow, but plans have been postponed on account of the weather update above.
  
• I was up til 4 a.m. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning putting together my presentation for the curriculum meeting. Then we showed up and my presentation was moved to the second day. So I spent the day exhausted for no reason.
  
• More on that presentation tomorrow.
  
• I’ve heard a bunch of people notice kekepua’a is almost all kekemamoe at this point. And no one’s happy about that. Pork beats mutton flaps any day of the week.
  
• There’s a rumour going around Dylan from group 77 will visit Samoa before group 81 finishes their service in December. Very exciting.
  
• I sweat so much on Tuesday afternoon when I taught my year 10s that song.
  
• I’ve since heard one or two kids singing the song to themselves. Very exciting.
  
• I’m slowly breaking the Bye-Bye kids from next door of their nasty habit. We recently had a very direct exchange where they clearly said “Bye-bye” to me, and I responded with “Fa.” It seemed like a game-changing moment.
  
• I guess it’s been so stormy this year because of El Niño, which is also, incidentally, why California’s been submerged in rain and the Eastern seaboard is covered in massive amounts of snow. I heard this year’s El Niño is the most intense since 1997. Isn’t it crazy how it’s affecting all of us? We’re all connected.
  
• We were out at a nightclub last night, and there were a bunch of Australian tourists there, and one came to talk to us. When her friend joined her, she said quite loudly, “They’re all volunteers. How cute is that?” Pretty cute, I’d say.

That’s all I got for this week. I hope you’re well. Pictures below.

The Farmer Joe bag-check is now outside.

They're putting in an office in the old bag-check space.

Big construction going on across the street.

Claire (Irish), Jim 80, and Supy 81.

Briony 80, Phil 81, and Blakey 81.