The Great Road Switch

I heard about the road switch within an hour of arriving in Samoa. On an impromptu walking tour of Apia led by Laura and Todd, Todd mentioned as we crossed a street that Samoa planned to switch from driving on the right side to driving on the left. As the switch date, September 7, has drawn closer, it has become quite the topic of conversation, and the most heated political issue on the islands. And now that the date is 6 weeks from tomorrow, the countdown has begun.

The government’s reasons for the switch are somewhat unclear. Since Samoa falls under New Zealand’s sphere of influence and quite a bit of tourists are Kiwi or Australian by nationality, the road switch might be to encourage more tourism. There’s also an argument about the road switch justifying the retrofitting of Samoa’s roads, some of which sorely need to be repaved.

Part of the issue is the side of the road you drive on dictates which side of the car is better for the driver. If the driver sits on the side of the car opposite to the side of the street the car is on, it is easier to see oncoming traffic. This helps with passing. And since many of the roads in Samoa are one lane in each direction (or one lane for both directions), passing into oncoming traffic is extremely common here. So another reason may be making the roads safer for right-hand drive cars.

All of the buses in Samoa are left-hand drive, so a common sub-topic of conversation is theorizing about how buses will be changed. A frequent rumor says that the government will subsidize bus drivers to re-model a bus to put the driver on the right and cut a hole on the left for the door. More likely is that the driver will stay on the left and a door will be cut so passengers will board and disembark behind the driver.

As it stands today, there are many right-hand drive cars in country and many left-hand drive cars. When my parents and I were getting into a taxi at the wharf, the driver was loading the bags in the trunk, and when I went to get in the front seat, it turned out I opened the driver-side door. “Are you driving?” The driver asked. Ha. No.

TV stations have started showing commercials that demonstrate how to approach and maneuver tricking driving situations from the opposite side of the road—like roundabouts, which constitute a handful of Apia’s main intersections. At poker night, Joey 81 was talking about certain intersections which are far more right-side drive specific. Certain intersections have wedge islands specifically for making right turns. How’s that going to work?

Since we don’t drive, Peace Corps are mostly affected only as passengers—with the major exceptions of a.) being pedestrians and crossing streets and b.) riding bicycles. Visiting Auckland, Luisa and I had a helluva time figuring out where the cars were coming from. But I guess that’s the kind of thing you get used to after a while. Riding a bike is going to be more of a challenge, and I think I’ll stay off for the first couple weeks. Maybe the Peace Corps will have a training session.

Other than that, some changes just might be good. Joey80 jumped out of the van the other night to go to run inside to grab the carry-out pizza he’d ordered over the phone. “Can’t wait for the road switch,” he said when he got back into the car. “Then I won’t have to cross the street to get the pizza.”

Good attitude, Joey.

I hope you had a great weekend. Pictures below.
















Road crew painting dividing lines down the center of the street in Fausaga.
(Photo credit: Phil's sister Fipe)
















Another of the road crew.
(Photo credit: Fipe)
















Buses will have to remove the seat where the kid in the red t-shirt is sitting and cut a hole for a door on the left side of the bus.
















Picture of Apia today.
















Artist's rendition of Apia after road switch.

Consistently Inconsistent

I realize that being in Apia makes me life easier than many others, but those who are privileged with consistency are more apt to complain when things go wrong. We are doomed to make assumptions and take things for granted, and when they’re taken away from us, we don’t know what to do. Although I will say that being in the Peace Corps has taught me to deal more gracefully with such situations.

Let me explain. See, I went on another bike ride to Luatuanu’u today after last Sunday’s relative success. I went by myself this week, in part because I felt like going alone, and in part because I was too lazy to invite others or coordinate a meeting time and location. I left earlier, and consequently, I was able to go farther and stay there longer. I went about a quarter mile past the actual surfing spot before I turned around to see if I could find a good piece of beach where I could plant myself for a while.

And then a cold front came along out of nowhere, and poof! Rain. I don’t know that I will ever get used to rain without rainclouds. I didn’t get a picture of it, but I was essentially looking at sunny, blue sky and pouring rain. I stubbornly stayed on the beach for about 10 minutes before the weather broke my will. I headed home.

When I rolled up, my neighbor Maegi was walking up to her door carrying a bucket. “There’s no water,” she told me.

Like I said, living in Apia, our water and power is fairly consistent. A couple weeks back, Ryan 79’s village had their water shut off for the span of a couple of weeks. Meghan 77 told us horror stories about being in the shower covered in soap only to have the water go off mid-shower. My water goes off late at night occasionally, which can mean brushing my teeth with bottled water, or foregoing the whole teeth-cleaning routine all together.

But having the water out in the middle of the day on a Sunday is just lousy. It’s particularly lousy being that I was drenched in a smelly combination of sweat and rain. So, living alone in my bachelor pad as I do, I took off my nasty clothes and lounged naked for about an hour until the water came back on (I didn’t get a picture of this either). It’s an exciting moment when you hear the toilet reservoir start to refill itself. That’s the sound of freedom. Haha.

When the shower started to work too, I jumped in. Big mistake.

See, when the shower water comes back on, everyone else who had been lounging around their bachelor pad naked, or were otherwise waiting to shower, jumps in too. So the awesome water pressure slows and then drops to zero. And by then, I was covered in soap.

And that’s when the privileged side of me came out. I could handle the rain with no clouds. I was okay waiting for the water to return. But to have to stand there, all lathered up, staring at the ridiculous trickle coming from the showerhead, I could bear it (bare it?) no longer.

So I stood there. Yelling at the showerhead. Sitting, waiting, wishing. Angrily.

So apologizes to those of you who deal with this on a regular basis and accept it as a part of life. I’m just asking that the shower come on and stay on.

I hope you are able to get the shampoo out before it runs into your eyes. Pictures below.
















This is panekeke. I love panekeke. It's pretty much a doughnut hole.
















Mele cutting up palm branches to make a fala, a traditional Samoan mat.
















The scene out the door during my breakfast yesterday. Clothes on the line and the bathroom and shower in the back.





















The baby.





















A small waterfall I saw during my bike ride today.





















Another bike ride picture. I didn't realize the palm tree's shadow was partly in frame until I saw it on the computer, and now I'm bummed I didn't capture the whole thing.
















The surfing spot is on the other side of this rock with the antennae. The rock with the antennae totally looks like it was setup by the Dharma Initiative.
















My bike next to the beach.

I Get Around

I went surfing with Surfer Aaron about a month ago, and at the time, I was totally impressed by the beauty of that part of the island. Even more exciting was its proximity to Apia, and therefore to my house. In addition to its closeness, it is, of course, right on the ocean, so the path there is relatively flat and perfect for a bike ride. So I’d been itching to bike out there ever since, and finally Jordan, Blakey, and I did it yesterday afternoon.

We met up at the Peace Corps office at 4 p.m., and we headed out despite ominous clouds in the distance. The path was pretty flat. There were rolling hills to be expected, but nothing to steep—with the exception of one particularly abrupt downhill on the way out, which turned into one particularly steep uphill on the return, but all of us were able to handle it pretty well.

I think all of us were a bit surprised by the relative ease with which we could get to a part of the island that felt wholly different from Apia. After about a half hour of biking, things became quite green and rural.

It also become obvious early on that we had chosen an awkward time for the trip. Just as we were coming through rural villages on our bikes, people were heading down the street for afternoon church services in their Sunday best. This juxtaposition is awkward in American culture, but it can be downright rude in Samoan culture, and we were a bit uneasy about the whole thing.

The Samoans we saw along the way were pretty friendly though. Most smiled and offered a friendly, “Mālō.” We made a few stops along the way for water or to take photographs and occasionally we fell into longer conversations.

Time started to become an issue. The sun sets around 7:00 p.m., and by 5:30, we had made it to the destination village, Luatuanu’u, but not to the actual surfing spot. But the point of the trip had little to do with arriving at the specific destination, and none of us had a problem with forgoing the surfing spot in order to arrive home before dark.

And that was good because halfway home, it began to rain. I’ve noted this before, but you can literally hear the rain coming here. So when Jordan turned to me and said, “That’s rain a quarter-mile up,” I pulled over to the side of the road and stowed my camera in a plastic bag.

And it poured.

We stopped at a faleoloa for some temporary shelter, and when it died down to a steady sprinkle, we got back on the road.

It was a good, easy way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and I’d definitely do it again. Hell, I’d do it nearly any day of the week, it was so easy and accessible.

And then today…

I was at the Peace Corps office when Sara called and invited me to dinner. “Cale figured out how to make Gyros.” I was down.

The Peace Corps office is a ways from the bus stop though, but I did have my bike. So my original plan was to ride my bike to their house. There are a couple things that made this plan slightly undesirable:

1. Sara and Cale’s house is a fairly long ride from town;
   
2. It’s not good to ride a bike long distances after dark, so I’d probably need to get a taxi and pick up my bike from their house later.

I headed to the bank and then to the grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine, and on my way out, a bus for their village was pulling up to the stop. So I made a game-time decision and left my bike locked to the planter box in front of the grocery store. This seemed like a precarious arrangement, but it was easier logistically, and the timely arrival of the bus made it seem like fate was doing me a favor.

Cale’s gyros-from-scratch were fantastic. As was the conversation. I bought white wine by accident (damn you, poorly lit liquor section), but it was no big deal.

And then while I was standing on the road waiting for a taxi, one of Ryan 79’s tae kwon do students happened to be driving by and offered me a ride back to Apia. Bonus! So yeah. I get around.

Hope you do too. Pictures below.
















This pig was leisurely crossing the street. I had time to pull my camera out without coming to a full stop.





















The view from the spot where we stopped to turn around.
















If you look closely, you can kind of make out a rainbow in the upper left. It was cooler in person. You kinda had to be there.
















Waiting for the rain to pass.
















Cale's gyro and Greek potatoes.

Odds and Ends Thursday 5

At the Chargés-Affaires’ house last night, a bunch of us were comparing notes on the weather, and we all agreed that the last couple weeks have seemed hotter than usual. Erin attributed the perception of heat to a lack of wind. And you know what else flares up besides the heat when there’s no wind? The flies and mosquitoes. Much easier to fly and bite when you don’t have to worry about air currents. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:

• Do you ever find it strange the things your brain remembers? During dinner tonight, I heard just a few of the opening chords, and I knew right away that the song was “Just a Gigolo” by Louis Prima. It was one of those out-of-mind experiences where by brain did a double take on itself. I was more weirded out that proud. How did I know that? Why did I know that?
  
• The printer in my computer lab is out of toner. I have no idea when it will be refilled. This is difficult for me. I don’t print much, but when I do print, I completely take it for granted that I can print. We ran out of toner on Tuesday morning, and I’ve sat down to type something or allowed someone else to type something at least 7 or 8 times before I remember that there’s no use in typing it up because we can’t print.
  
• During bike safety training, we were warned that dogs are a constant hazard and that they will chase you on your bike, and they often will bite if they catch you. Joey told us about a strategy in which you slow down while the dog is chasing you, and then take off as fast as you can. The change in speed confuses the dog and it will give up . Joey’s strategy TOTALLY WORKS.
  
• At the concert tonight, the bluegrass band talked about how they were greeted at the airport by a band of Samoans playing strings, and they were blown away by the vocal harmonies. They witnessed those harmonies again when a high school student body sang for them yesterday. I need to get one of those mp3 recording devices so I can post a sample here. It’s amazing.
  
• My favorite Louis Prima is his version of “Jump, Jive, and Wail,” which was prominently featured in a Gap advertisement back in the late 1990s. It was the “Everybody in Khakis” campaign where they used that still-spin effect (later made more popular by The Matrix franchise) with acrobatic swing dancers. It was a fascinating ad campaign illustrated by the fact that I remember it 10 years after the fact.
  
• I’ve heard some horror stories about the computer skills of school secretaries in Samoa, but mine seems pretty fluent. I typed up a job application for the son of one of the teachers, and we had to have the secretary print it because the toner’s out in the lab. I felt like a bit of a jerk trying to walk her through the printing process. She knew exactly what she was doing.
  
• Okay, I admit I’ve only implemented Joey’s strategy going downhill, but still, it works ridiculously well. In fact, I got it to work with 2 separate sets of dogs (they travel in herds) within the course of about 20 seconds this evening. I hate to anthropomorphize, but I swear the dogs already looked shocked when I hit the brakes, as though to ask, “That’s it? We’re done?” And then I took off again, and they completely gave up. “Screw it.”
  
• I’m not talking about having the kids at my school practice their harmony for a recording. I’m talking about any given moment. I swear I’m not exaggerating that if you walked down the street and picked 2 random males and 2 random females, more often than not, the 4 would have gorgeous harmonics with absolutely no rehearsal.
  
• It was just before Gap switched gears slightly with the string of arguably iconic ads where Gen-Xers sang songs and looked apathetic. The 3 I remember were the “Dress You Up in My Love,” “Just Can’t Get Enough,” and “Mellow Yellow” ads. Perhaps I watched too much TV back then, but I was a teenage male—the key demographic—and Gap ads were ubiquitous in my TV habits.
  
• I can’t figure out how we can be out of toner. We’re only 2 months into the school year. But the fact that it actually has been quite an issue in the 3 days since we’ve run out of toner, it’s clear that we do a lot of printing. I’m going to start charging students when/if we ever get new toner: 10 sene per page if you print, 50 sene per page to make a photocopy.
  
• I admit the downhill worked well because gravity assists in the accelerating part of the trick. I am a bit nervous to try it on flat ground, but the only reason I haven’t tried it yet is because the situation hasn’t arisen.
  
• They were iconic enough that the water polo team did its own parody of the ads with “Everybody in Speedos.” That was gold. I still have the VHS somewhere.
  
• Happy birthday, Margarita!
  
• The bluegrass band played a Paul Simon cover tonight, “Gone at Last” from Still Crazy After All These Years. The guy introduced the song by saying, “Those of you who know Paul Simon know he’s awesome, and those of you who don’t know Paul Simon are awesome too because you have something great to look forward to.”
  

That’s all I got. Hope you’re awesome. Pictures below.
















The bluegrass band, Student Loan. In addition to the Paul Simon cover, they did 2 Beatles songs. It was good.
















Me and one of the year 13 students. I admit I don't know her name. It sounds like Tsetse, which would be a bad-ass name on account of the poisonous insects, but I don't think that's actually how she spells it.
















This was my favourite part of the day today, I think. Today was Sports Day, which meant that about half the school left to go play rugby or netball. The last 2 classes of the day were canceled for the students who stuck around. Someone set up the volleyball net, and teachers and students played pick-up games. It felt more like the casual educational environment of a university rather than the ultra-defined student/teacher roles of American secondary schools.

Bike!

One of the things I felt most excited about in working for the Peace Corps here in Samoa is the bike. I’m not sure I can articulate why I felt that way. I had a bike in San Francisco that I almost never rode. But then again I had books I’d never read, journals I’d never written in, dreams I’d never fulfilled (yeah, I said it.). So I figure now is the time to do a lot of the things I always meant to do. And now I can. With my bike!

I got a Trek 3700. It’s a 21-speed. A lot of the people in our group are unhappy about the size of bike they got, but I don’t really care too much. I have no idea what size my Schwinn was in San Francisco. In any case, I can reach the pedals and my knees don’t poke me in the face. So I’m happy.

I was also able to replace my digital camera today, as you can see. One of the shops here had a Christmas deal where you got the camera, the memory card, and the carrying case for one low relatively low price, and they let me take advantage of that deal. The one I got is a Sony CyberShot, somewhat similar to the one that was stolen. One difference is that it runs on AA batteries. I’m slightly skeptical of them as opposed to Lithium Ion, or whatever I had before. I did bring rechargeable AA batteries though, so things are all right.

One inhibitor to bike riding is rain. It rained again last night for about 5 hours, and it’s raining again right now. Christian from group 78 tells me that last January it rained for 23 days straight and that December ’07 was much wetter than December ’08. I’m not sure what this means for my laundry situation. I figure I can don dirty duds for the time being and if things come to a head, I can pay to have my clothes laundered in a machine.

I ran into volunteers Jacob and Ryan last night. They were eating at Italiano Pizza, and I was walking home from Farmer Joe supermarket (Note: Italiano Pizza is almost always referred to as “Italiano’s” and Farmer Joe is also almost always referred to in the possessive, but I figure for journalistic integrity I’m going to call each by their real name.). I sat down and shared the pizza they’d ordered. I’m a little nervous about living in Apia and constantly living with the temptation of pizza and other restaurants around, mostly for monetary purposes. But I don’t think I’m in any danger of going bankrupt quite yet.

I don’t have any updates on the break-in to report, other than I heard from a secondary source that the police told Phil there may have been an escaped prisoner in the vicinity on that particular morning. This seems a little dramatic to me – kind of in the same vein as when the police officer told Phil that it’s too bad that he’d touched the lock already because they could have called in the guys from Apia to take fingerprints. “And do what with them?” Phil asked me on the way home. “Put them in the database of meaningless garbage?” Yeah, I don’t think they’ll be producing CSI: Samoa any time soon – Nor Prison Break: Samoa, for that matter.

Anyway, I hope things are well. Bike and other pics below.

This is my bike!

This was a chance run-in with Paul just after I bought the camera. I like this picture because you can see me taking the picture in the reflection of Paul's sunglasses.

This is the test picture I took to make sure the camera works. This was the only time the sales girl smiled during our entire interaction.