Matt's Samoa Blog: Odds and Ends Thursday 76

Dan’s station wagon has been making lots of trips to Faleolo airport picking up Chris then Blakey then Paul and Bex then me, often with a day or two between arrivals. AJ, Jordan, and Trent 80 fly in this afternoon. The car sits 4 comfortably, but we’re all a little pumped for these guys. Supy doesn’t get in until tomorrow, and we’re all going to be on the south side of the island by then, so today’s arrival is sort of the last piece. I think we’re gonna shell out the $60WST for a taxi for the greeting committee. Why not? Here are some other odds and ends from the week:

Air Pacific didn’t have any window or aisle seats when I checked in at the ticketing counter, but I got called up to the podium while I was sitting at the gate. The lady from the ticketing counter smiled at me. “I got you an aisle seat,” she said slyly as she slid the ticket toward me. Then as I was boarding, she took my ticket and whispered, “The seat next to you is open.” After I was in my seat, she came on to the plane and asked if I was comfortable. Then she wished me luck. Full service from Air Pacific!
Or she had a crush?
In Fiji remixed techno versions of “Crazy in Love” and “As Long as You Love Me” blared on the bus on the way to Suva. Yep. That’s the South Pacific.
Fiji had a lot of pine trees. Weird.
I found Slate Bourbon (blended in Chicago, but only sold in Australia) at the duty free shop in Fiji. First time I’ll have had it since New Years 2010.
The Nokia phone still uses T9, but I can connect to my Gmail and Facebook accounts. It’s a little anachronistic.
Speaking of that, the proliferation of Facebook in Samoa has prompted a phenomenon that never happened my first time around: there’s many more people here in Samoa reading the blog. It’s a little fun, it’s a little spooky.
Taufua Beach Fales down here in Lalumanu has its own WiFi payment system. $20WST for an hour, $50WST for the day. Seems like there should be an in-between step.
Samoa jumped the International Dateline on New Year’s Day 2012. This means that we used to be 4 hours behind, and now we’re 20 hours ahead. So I’m writing out Odds and Ends Thursday on Friday here. It’s kinda weird.
I’ve been conducting some back-and-forth with people in The States, and scheduling is confusing. I’m supposed to talk to a woman at 1:30 p.m. PDT this coming Monday, September 23. In practice, this means I need to get on Skype at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning Samoa Time. Wrap your head around that.
Some months ago, the Ah Liki company introduced a new Samoan beer ,“Taula”. This forced Vailima, previously the country’s only brewer, to improve its original recipe and then to introduce 2 new flavors: Pure and Export. Export has an alcohol content of 6.7%, so it’s commonly referred to here as Povi or “The Bull”.
Among Peace Corps, my blogging has been far less controversial. People aren’t as loathe to give me time to compose, type, and post. Is this because we’re older and more patient? Or maybe because the blog has proved as a useful record of our time in Samoa? Or maybe because after 2 years of the incessant time suck that is this blog, they’ve all been beaten into submission?
I got lost in Moata’a again today.