Welcome to Paradise

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, I returned to Samoa from New Zealand in a state of melancholy. I’d been living in Samoa for 7 months, but coming back after 10 days in Auckland didn’t feel like coming home. I was wary and a little homesick, and the thick Samoan humidity I felt as I deplaned was a punch to the face. Coming back was a major downer (you can re-read the full account here.)

Getting off the plane today was different. I was a little anxious about getting my case of Guinness through customs, but beyond that, my only feeling was one of relief.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved Hawai’i. It’s a beautiful, warm place, and I had a great time. I drove a car, played cards, and sipped Starbucks. I swam in the ocean, ran along the Ala Wai canal, and ate Brie. Despite all this, walking into baggage claim at Faleolo Airport here on Upolu, I smiled.

Why was coming back so lousy last year and so comfortable this time around? It’s hard to say.

Time-wise, Group 81 is just about 75% through our time in Samoa, and I think we’re starting to feel a “senior year” sort of buzz. There are still 2 terms of school left, and there’s lots and lots to be done between now and the time we leave. That said, the term “home stretch” is becoming more and more a part of our daily lexicon, and that’s always a nice place to be—even with the inevitable culture shock that awaits us in The States.

In fact, returning from that culture shock was also part of the relief I felt getting off the plane. The customs officer threw me a big “Mālō” as I approached the counter, a term that seems considerably less foreign than aloha. I think the cultural difference between Hawaii and Samoa is relatively less severe than the difference between California and Samoa, but I’d say the shock was still omnipresent this past week. It’s a sort of feeling of unquenchable urgency and strange displacement. At this point, my mindset is pretty darn Samoan, and it feels good to be back.

It’s the same sentiment as Green Day’s “Welcome to Paradise,” a song about a boy who moves to an urban slum and writes 2 letters to his mother: the first, written 3 weeks after he moves out, laments the harsh conditions of his new life; the second, written after 6 months, celebrates the same conditions. It’s all about that feeling of ownership and control. Despite the chaos and confusion of my life in Samoa, I’ve grown to enjoy it here, and even feel a little bit of control.

I think we’ve crossed over.

Speaking of the joys of chaos and confusion, my power just went out. My laptop battery ain’t what it used to be. So I think I’ll stop here. See? Look how in control I am.

I hope you’re well. Pictures below.

The Honolulu Swap Meet. Every Wednesday.

The Aloha Bowl.

Joe and Patty.

Me.

Pineapple field. Or is it Patch?

Me and the Kentucky Fried Chicken Double Down. I actually found the "sandwich" to be bland.

The national flower of Samoa, the Teuila, painted on the column of a local mall food court.

This frame says, "Aloha! Please remove your slippers ... oops! be sure to get your own!"
I saw many of these, word for word, while I was in Hawai'i. What in the hell does than mean?

Shelf!

Today was a landmark day in my Peace Corps experience, if only for the fact that I’ve been itching for a shelf since the moment I moved into my house. So many different things have stood in the way of me acquiring a shelf, but today I finally bit the bullet—and mind you there was quite a bit of figurative bullet-biting involved—and now I have a shelf.

Yesterday afternoon, Filifili asked if he could leave his backpack at my house for the night because it was too heavy to carry home. He’s a year 13 student who is not my class, and their history teacher had scheduled a class for Satuday morning. At first I was weary of a student leaving something at my house, but Maegi, my missionary neighbor, happened to walk by at the time, and so I played it off as a joke, “Hey Maegi, Filifili wants to leave his bag at your house for the night.”

Maegi shrugged and said, “Well don’t come knocking too early.” And her being cool with it made me feel like I could be okay with it. So Filifili left his bag at my place.

That meant I had to wait for him to come pick it up after class this morning. He came by around 10:45 a.m., which left little time to get my shelf before shops start to close at noon. But I had little else to do today, and I’ve been meaning to get this shelf for 3 months. So I buckled down and headed to the hardware store.

Part of the problem in communicating with the people at the hardware store—beyond the language barrier—was I had little idea of what I wanted. So I told the guy, “I need 3 pieces of wood, 1 foot by 8 feet.”

“You need a 1 by 8?”

“Sure.” I realized that he was asking if I wanted a 1” x 8” piece of wood. But whatever. This was progress.

The guy takes me over and shows me 1” x 8” wood, which is luckily right next to the 1” x 12” wood. So I point at that, and ask if they can cut it into 2 metre pieces.

“You want 2 pieces?”

“3 pieces.”

So the guy goes to get the saw. I had this done at Home Depot several times during college. They have their elaborate circle saw setup, and they measure it and saw it, and the whole thing takes 5 minutes.

The guy comes back with a hack saw and a tape measure.

After 15 minutes, the job is done, and I head over to pay. Places that take credit card are rare in Samoa, but certainly the largest hardware store in Apia will take Visa. Right?

Wrong. I head to the bank. It’s 11:42, and the girl at the cash register tells me that she’s closing out and I’ll need to pay at the other end of the store. The missionaries had told me that the hardware store would deliver the stuff to my house for free. I ask the girl about this and she mumbles something about asking someone else.

I arrive back at the hardware store at 11:53. I walk back to the original register and ask the girl about what I should tell the people at the front. She writes the specs of the 1”x12” wood on a Post-It. I take it to the girl up front, who tells me that 1”x12”s don’t exist, which is amazing because what was that guy doing with the hack saw?

It takes 5 minutes for them to realize that they do indeed exist and for me to pay. I head back to the lumber section. The guy who cut the wood asks about my car.

“Is there a truck that can deliver it to my house?”

“No. Not until Monday.”

Ugh. So I got a taxi van. It cost me $5, which was $5 fewer than what I was expecting. We loaded it up and the rest was easy.

So it was some teeth-pulling and hoop-jumping—as much as I’d expected—but I have a shelf now, and it already brings the room together well. So now I’m in the market for a new project… teaching Samoan high schoolers to use computers? Ehhh maybe.

I hope your Saturday was also productive. Sorry. No pictures below.
















Day I moved in.
















Today.

A Not-So-Pitiful Friday Night

I remember my freshman year at USC, I was all alone on a Friday night. No one was on AIM, all of my roommates were out, Sara was busy and/or not interested in doing anything. I think I had an abnormally difficult transition into college, but Friday nights were the most painful. Who stays in alone on a Friday?

How times have changed. After I finished using the internet last night, I walked home and the thought of spending the evening alone felt like a relief. The Peace Corps is not something one does to get rich quick, and making the small monthly stipend last through the month makes budgeting necessary. This past week had a lot going on too. I had to actually get up and go to work for 3 whole days. Exhausting!

It was began to drizzle when I was halfway home, and by the time I was at my door, the rain clouds were reflecting the pink sunset, and the entire sky was a crazy shade of red.

I was feeling lazy, so I just had peanut butter and jelly for dinner. The grocery store was out of boysenberry jam yesterday, so I was forced to get black currant. I’ve never had black currant before. I thought currants were large—like the size of an apple—but the little fruit in the jam are the size of grapes. This made spreading the jam awkward. Boysenberry is my favorite because it tastes good AND it can be chunky and spread easily at the same time.

I’ve been trying to limit myself to one episode of Arrested Development and one episode of The Wire per night. So I watched those while I made curtains for my bedroom. I have curtains on every window now except the little one over my bathroom sink. That might be a project for tonight. In any case, sewing curtains takes forever, and I wasn’t half done when The Wire ended (I watched Season 1 Episode 5 for both series last night. Lindsay tried to save the wetlands, and Poot and Wallace spotted Omar’s boyfriend playing pinball at the Greek place.), so I listened to The Blue Album, The Green Album, and half of The Red Album until I finished the curtains.

See, a PCV from group 80 who went home for Christmas was able to secure a bootlegged copy of “Slumdog Millionaire” and I got it from him, and I wanted to finish the curtains before jumping into a bilingual movie. So yeah. Once the curtains were complete and hanging, I watched the movie. And then I went to bed. And that was my Friday night.

I think it helps to know that most other Peace Corps are having the exact same amount of fun. In college, my lonely Fridays felt incredibly pitiful compared to everyone else, but here, peanut butter and jelly and a movie is right on par.

Saturday morning hasn’t been too wild either. I think people were going to a local bar to watch the NFL Playoff game, but I’ve spent a lazy morning reading, napping, and listening to music.

Other volunteers told us this would happen. We were told, “There will come a day when you’ve got your place together and you’ve bought enough food to last you for a while, and you’ll decide to not leave your house for 2 or 3 days.” That time has come.

Although, yes, I do still need to leave my house to post this on the Internet. Speaking of, I stopped by SamoaTel yesterday to inquire about the phone line that I’m supposedly getting in my house so I can get internet there. They told me that my phone line doesn’t work, but that I do have a phone number. It was a bit perplexing.

In any case, times are lazy here. And I’m cool with it.

Oh... a few responses to yesterday's comments. Paul's mom, Jane, is right in pointing out that Tetsuya is Paul's roommate. I forgot to say that. Also, yes, Reeda, my school year starts the Monday after next, January 26. Government schools start the first week of February, I think.

Anyway, I hope things are as lazy back home as they are here. A couple pictures below.
















My new bedroom curtains. The way the light shines through gives the room a dark red glow that is not unlike a brothel.
















This is the warning at the beginning of the copy of "Slumdog Millionaire" that I watched. It's an award season screener.
















This building is next to the Catholic church here in Apia. It says "Fetu o le Moana," which means "Star of the Sea"... which is the name of the Catholic Church on Geary.

Busy Week

Things seemed like they were slowing down with school not starting for a couple weeks and the lack of activity in my day growing. So of course, as soon as I devoted my blog to a week of cultural exploration, things actually got interesting. Oh well. Here is the news from the past week.

FRONT PAGE

Plan for Watching Inauguration Being Finalized
Details are almost confirmed for us to watch Obama swear in. Being the political junkie that I am, I emailed the Charges-Affaires directly to inquire about watching Barack Obama’s Inauguration Ceremony live on the TV at the U.S. Embassy here. She emailed me back and let me know that they won’t be able to open the embassy in the middle of the night (things will get started around 3:00 a.m. Samoa time), but she invited me and other PCVs to come and watch at her house. I am really excited about this. I am so there.

I remember watching Bush’s Inauguration at Bill’s house with Sara and Nick back in January 2001. That was kinda fun in a really sad way. I hope that Tuesday morning will be kinda fun in a mind-blowingly awesome way.

Savai’ian Burglary Suspects in Custody!
The Samoan police have 2 suspects in custody in connection with the break-in that occurred while I was staying at Phil’s house. Dan told me that Phil told him that the police had a guy in custody. But Phil got a call on Wednesday morning from the Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer saying that police have another suspect in custody. The 2 youth happened to be in Apia for a hip-hop dance-off. It’s not clear on how that relates to how they got to be in custody, but the dance-off was mentioned when the Safety and Security Officer called.

I also heard from a tertiary source that it’s customary for Samoan correctional facilities to allow prisoners to be released during the holidays, and there is a corresponding rise in the crime rate during holidays like Christmas and New Year’s Day.

There’s no word yet on whether or not the police will be able to recover my stuff that was stolen. Either way, I am definitely impressed with Samoan law enforcement.

Murder at Boddy Mansion: Scarlet Slays Billionaire in Billiard Room with Wrench
Phil and Koa stayed over on Monday and Tuesday night, and we played 8 games of Cluedo. The American game “Clue” is marketed under the name “Cluedo” in and around the South Pacific. We are unclear on whether it should be pronounced clue-dew or clue-doe. In any case, Koa won 5 games. I won 3. We considered inviting my next door neighbor, who is a missionary, to play. “Would you like to play an American board game that centers around murder?” Ehhh… we thought the better of it.

McSweeney’s Clue humor is far more clever than mine.

LOCAL NEWS

3-day Teacher Conference Held at my School
The Samoan Congregationalist School System held its annual pre-school year teacher in-service on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Teachers from all 6 Congregationalist secondary schools came to plan for the year. Koa and Phil stayed at my house during the conference. Word got around that we were here to teach computers, and so we spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday looking at other teachers’ laptops.

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a situation that would make a good TV show? Koa, Phil, and I would set off in the morning, have rather bizarre encounters at the teacher’s conference, break off and do our own thing in the afternoon, come together to listen to American news and prepare dinner, and then retire to the living room for Clue(do). It had sitcom formula written all over it.

At one point, we were asked to look at the laptop of an individual with a fair amount of gender ambiguity. The person was very nice, the 3 of us tried our best, but the laptop in question had a fried hard drive that was completely shot. Later that day as we were walking home, Koa said, “I feel bad we couldn’t fix Pat’s laptop.” It had no comic setup, which made it better in my opinion.

Note: I believe that transgendered individuals should be treated equally and fairly. Such individuals, known as Fafafines here in Samoa, have an interesting role in the community here, and the entire subject is definitely worth a Cultural Exploration (collecting pictures for this might be difficult). That said, the gender ambiguity of the name Pat as well as the pop cultural reference make Koa’s comment funny. I don’t mean to marginalize. And yes, Liam, I know you think I should be more unapologetic.

Computers Showed Up in my Lab
Computers arrived and were setup in my lab today. The computers themselves are really nice, and my lab would easily fit in with any given lab at CNET Networks (or CBS Interactive or whatever you guys are calling yourselves now). I have 3 computers running Intel Dual Core Processors, and the rest are P4s. All of my computers have flat screens. All of the new ones are running Microsoft Office 2007. This situation is a little unheard of among Peace Corps in Samoa, and I’m kind of embarrassed to tell anyone about this situation. My computer lab is ummm… effing sweet.

The Office 2007 part may be a little too fancy, actually. The Pacific Secondary School Certificate exam, which the Year 13 students will need to take, is based on Office 2003. A lot of the curriculum is very Office 2003 specific (Sample test question: In Microsoft Word, what is the 3rd item on the ‘Format’ menu? Yes, the questions can be that ridiculous.). So I’m not sure how the Office 2007 situation will play out.

My House has Homemade Curtains!
I’ve been slowly making curtains for the windows in my house. Curtains are essential because they block out light and make the house much cooler. They also help to keep my private life private. I don’t mean to imply that I have much of a private life here. I’m just saying it’s nice to watch a movie on my laptop without the whole world looking in and seeing that I have a laptop.

Dylan had his host family sew his. That would have been nice and far faster, but I have always been a little obsessed with instant gratification, and I won’t see my host family until next Friday at the earliest. Blakey was the one who suggested, somewhat offhandedly, that I sew them myself. It has meant hours and hours of sewing, and hell if I really know what I’m doing with the needle and thread, but the ones that are complete seem good enough.

Although there are 2 problems I’ve run into. The first is aesthetic. I just bought fabric and sewed a hem around the curtain string. And what better fabric than the one I’ve already used on the walls? The problem with this is that I now have the same fabric on almost every wall in my house. It’s a little much, I think. One can only take so many hibiscuses. So I might have to take down a couple walls worth. The jury’s still out.

The second problem is that they have no weight to them at all. It’s nice that a stiff breeze can still get in, but this means that they are constantly draped over the furniture rather than behind it. I don’t really want to nail the bottoms to the wall, but I’m not sure how else to keep them down. Any suggestions?

My next home improvement project will be cinderblock shelves. Good times.

ENTERTAINMENT

Erik’s Radio Show May Be Missing Link in Turning my Peace Corps Experience into Northern Exposure
Erik from group 79 has a radio show on one of the local stations here in Apia. He’s on Fridays and Saturdays 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The station plays a wide range of music somewhat akin to the playlist of Jack FM in Los Angeles. I told him I’d be interested in doing stuff there, so I shadowed him last Friday. I think I’m going to go again tomorrow. It’s pretty awesome playing backseat DJ.

I’ve Cooked Taro Twice Now!
Since leaving the host village, I think many of us have surprised ourselves with the Samoan cultural aspects that we’ve decided to adopt. Phil is growing banana trees; Paul’s Jandals have become a part of him; Blakey, Koa, and Kate go back to Fausaga every other week, it seems. In addition to my homemade curtains and manual laundry, I’ve started cooking with Taro.

Taro is a root vegetable, similar to a potato. It is a good source of fiber, protein, calcium, and iron. I’ve cooked it 2 ways since my adventures in cooking taro began. The first is boiling it and topping it with a traditional pe’e sauce. The second is grating it, mixing in some green onions, garlic and rosemary, and making taro hashbrowns.

I’m still perfecting my technique of boiling it and making it traditionally. It’s difficult to know exactly how long to boil it for. But the pe’e sauce is the real challenge. In the village, it is made by grating out the inside of a coconut, squeezing out the cream, and then adding salt. It’s a rather arduous process, and if I were to try it in my house, I’d have to acquire quite a bit of equipment. The method I’ve been perfecting involves freezing a can of the coconut milk that you buy at the store. In the freezer, it will separate into coconut milk and coconut cream. The first time I tried it, this worked well. The second time, not so much. In any case, the milk does not freeze, but the cream does. After discarding the milk, you thaw the cream and add salt. I’ve gotten mixed results. But like I said, I’m still perfecting the process.

The hashbrowns, on the other hand, have been awesome. I am very proud of them, and I will cook them whenever I have people eat over at my house. It is my new Dish of Obsession. At 2416, I started out with the Egg in a Basket and then it was the Peanut Butter and Stuff Sandwich (Peanut butter, banana, apple, and cranberry sauce). Now, taro hashbrowns.

SPORTS

Wild Fire Bar and Grill in Apia will Show the Superbowl
We found a place to watch the Superbowl. Some people are REALLY excited. If anything for me, being in Samoa has made me miss baseball. It’s summer here, and there’s no baseball. And the sad part is that there probably won’t be too much baseball when summer in The States rolls around. Oh well.

My Exercise Plan Fails Miserably
I had planned to start running at the beginning of January. I feel like I ran that marathon back in August, and then completely stopped exercising. So the plan was to start running in January once training was over and the challenges of moving in were settled. It’s tough to exercise here though. It’s far too hot when the sun’s out, and it’s still far too hot in the evening. Ideally it would be best to wake up 6:00-ish and go, but that just seems ungodly to me. So we’ll see how this situation develops.

And that’s news for the last 7 days. I hope things are well back home. Pictures below.

Me and Erik at the radio.

Me sewing my curtains. They are visible in the Cluedo picture at the top of this blog.

Me cooking taro.

Cheese/Taro grater, taro, knife.

Raw taro hashbrowns.

Cooked taro hashbrowns.

Koa getting swallowed by my curtains. See? This is a problem.

At the local bar, On the Rocks. Left to right: Me, Phil, Koa, Susi from Fausaga, Lui from Fausaga, Blakey. Sorry, Koa's Sister, you got cropped.

Phil and JICA Tetsuya.

My computer lab.

Yes, that's a Pentium 4. Yes. That's a flat screen. This is better equipment than eCivis has, probably.

Let There Be Light

Within minutes of waking up yesterday, I had two men at my door who were here to fix the holes I have in the screen of my screen door and my kitchen window. The other painted my bedroom. I think he would have painted more of the house, but I’ve put a streak of fabric down most of my walls, so I told him painting wasn’t necessary.

It was a bit difficult to occupy myself while the two of them worked, but I decided it would be a good time to figure out why the fluorescent lights in my kitchen and bedroom don’t work. It turns out the light in my bedroom hadn’t been properly snapped into place. So I did snap it into place (I was zapped with electrical current once during this process. It was wiggly.), and now I have a light in my bedroom. Glorious.

As for the light in my kitchen, I’d like to preface this with a short story from a few years back. In the summer of 2003, I was backing out of a parking space at the Hollywood and Highland mall, and the driver side rear view mirror was snapped off when I got too close to a column. I glued the mirror back on. About 8 months later, the glue wore out, and I glued it back on again. The car got stolen, and when it was recovered, the mirror was sitting on the passenger seat. I glued it on again. I kept gluing it on for more than two years. Finally it fell off, and I decided that I didn’t care what the price was, I wanted a new mirror. I went to one of the junk yards just north of downtown Los Angeles, and they took the old mirror off and put a new mirror on in about 6 minutes. They charged me $20. I felt like such a moron for not having done that 2 years earlier.

That’s a bit how the situation with the kitchen light felt. I’ve been going back and forth with my principal since the day I moved in trying to get my kitchen light replaced. But I was so inspired with getting the bedroom light to work, that I decided I’d just pay for the kitchen light. On my walk to town, I estimated the fluorescent light bulb would run me about $50 WST. I heard the deals were good at the agriculture store, so I went there first. They were still in their packing boxes (which held 25 bulbs each), but one had been opened, so you could buy them individually. The sign said $125 WST. Ouch.

But I figured I should shop around, so I went to a different hardware store, but there was no price tag. So I asked the guy, and he calls to clerk to confirm the price. Then he looks at me and says, “6 tala.” I believe the $125 WST price at the agriculture store was for the entire box of light bulbs. If I had known that it was going to cost me $6 WST to replace the kitchen light, I would have bought it the day I moved in. What a moron!

So things continue to get better, and that’s good because teacher inservice for our school starts next Monday. That’s a scary thought. Teaching classes that fulfill the Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate requirements is complicated. There is lots of paperwork to be turned in and lots of figuring out what’s best to teach in order to prepare students for the standardized test that qualifies them for college. Structuring the school year also seems pretty difficult.

Luckily, there’s been Peace Corps teaching this stuff for a pretty long time now. So I went to meet with Sara last night, who has taught for a year. She also seems to have been crowned the unofficial (or maybe official) queen of all knowledge related to teaching computers in Samoa. Sara and Cale are always a good time, and they’re currently housesitting a place very close to where I live. We ordered from the high-end pizza place on the island, talked computers, and watched an episode of The West Wing from Season 1.

My favorite comment of the evening came from Cale. The dog at the house next door, like many dogs on the island, has an aggressive demeanor and will run at you as though to attack. Cale has found that simply turning toward the dog intimidates the dog enough so he stops. Once you turn around to continue walking, though, the dog starts running at you again. “It’s like a really stupid game of ‘Mother, May I?’”

It ‘s funny because it’s true. And obscure.

Anyway, more pictures below. Hope things are well!

The hole that was previously in my kitchen window screen. I admit, it's hard to see. Kind of a magic eye kind of deal. Okay, not really a magic eye kind of deal at all.

This is the man that fixed my screen. He is also a sportsmanship enthusiast, apparently.

My bedroom... with the light on.

Okay, so I was in a rush at DSW. Luisa was pretending not to know me as I tried on the TeVas. I showed them to her before I bought them. And I think every member of my family touched them before they got packed. And none of us noticed that the two sandals don't match. At all. Not even close.

My speedo drying in the sun. Undies in the background. Blakey says boys don't call them undies. Whatever, Blakey.

This man is mowing the rugby lawn in front of my school. Not with one of those lawnmowers that you drive, but with a small mower that one might normally use to mow the lawn in front of an individual residence. The rugby field is HUGE.

At one point today, there were no clouds in the sky, but it got so humid that it spontaneously started sprinkling. It was hot. And these drops appeared on the lens of my glasses.

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.

Christmas in the Nu’u and Beyond

Saturday night Joey, Supy, and I walked for a long time trying to get a taxi home from Jordan’s. I brought up that I am really excited for January and for the holidays to be over. It’s difficult to know when stores will be open, whether buses will be running, and it’s been essentially impossible to connect to the internet. The cafés are closed and the wireless service that I like to use has been down. When I originally wrote this on Saturday, it wasn’t that long. But it’s grown some since then on account of life here continuing regardless of internet availability. Kind of unfathomable. I know.

Phil came last Tuesday afternoon (December 23) and sat bored with me at the Internet café while I posted my last blog. The ferry had been so crowded when he and the rest of the Savai’ians came over that they were forced to stand out on the deck, and all were pretty sunburned. Chris hosted dinner at her place because about half of group 81 (Dan, Erin, Kate, AJ, Chris, Jordan) was staying with her for Christmas. The rest of us (Me, Blakey, Phil, Supy, Joey, Koa, Paul) headed out for Fausaga on Wednesday morning.

Christmas Eve

Blakey, Phil, and I planned to take the 10:30 bus to Fausaga. I wanted to run some errands first though, which included a quick internet session, finding a toy for Akanese for Christmas, and buying some food to bring my host family. While we waited for the bus, Blakey’s host mom called and said she was nearby. So Phil and I got on the bus, and Asolima called me and said she was nearby. Phil and I filed off the crowded bus and got in the car.

It was the first time my host family had seen my haircut and shaved moustache and I was wearing contacts, and they were shocked. But the feeling was jovial, and they were very happy to see Phil and me. I gave them the mangos I bought, just as I saw that Uncle Laumatia had bought 3 times as many mangos as I had. Oh well.

Uncle Laumatia also bought a large spear gun for fishing, which was precariously pointed at Phil’s head for the beginning of the trip. Phil said it felt like something out of Final Destination. I was embarrassed for Phil for making such a reference. Ha.

Shortly after arriving in the village, Phil’s sister Tuese volunteered to take us to Coconuts resort, where we’d seen the fire dancers a few weeks back. It was fun to see the resort during the day, and most of the guests were out so we hung around with the wait staff. It was a good time. Coconuts is the first in a chain of 4 neighboring resorts, so we walked and saw each of those.

Heading back, we stopped in front of a small bodega where Tuese bought a bottle of Coke. She produced a glass from her purse and Tony (sp?), Tuese’s friend, produced a bottle of Vodka from her purse. And thus the storefront drinking began. Classy.

Not too long after, the alarm on my phone went off, which meant it was time to call my grandma’s house where my dad’s side of the family had gathered for Christmas Eve. It was fun to hear from everyone, and I was relieved when Ray told me that there were no new tattoos in the family. Maybe next year…?

After some volleyball and some dinner, it was time for church.

Church started out as it did every Sunday in Fausaga, but after not too long, the Faife’au stopped talking and the youth group took over. There was singing and dancing from the little kids; a nativity play by the tweens, which included the Magi delivering a volleyball; and another play by the older group in which Phil’s sister Tafale played an innkeeper and there was no room for baby Jesus because babies Filipo, Mati, Supy, and Peti were taking up all the space.

Church ended around 1:00 a.m. and tea and butter sandwiches were served.

Christmas Day

I am woken up at 6:30 a.m. and told that Uncle Laumatia is dressing up as Santa Claus and delivering toys to children in the village. Whatev. I go back to sleep.

I am woken up at 7:20 a.m. and told to put on my Santa suit. Double take. Wha?

It turns out Laumatia wants a helper. I put on the family Santa suit, which has pants that go up to my chest. I look like I’m wearing Santa’s waders. Also, these pants are crotchless. Once the top is crossed over my chest and I put on my belt, things look okay. Although I have no boots or elf shoes, so I wear flip flops with my heavy felt Santa suit. At 7:20 a.m.

The children sit on Laumatia’s lap, and I hand him a bag depending on the child’s gender. Then we dance. See picture below for how happy I looked when we danced.

After the Santa thing, we went home and I decided to nap. The family followed suit.

I woke up when Phil called and invited me to come to his house.

Phil, Phil’s host father, and Oge were drinking beer and mixed drinks. I joined in the fun. And this turned into a family dance party. A really fun family dance party, actually.

The most annoying part of the day (besides the aforementioned Santa incident) was that Digicel, the cell phone company used by most of Samoa, had its lines jammed all day. I couldn’t text out or call out until just after 5:00 p.m., and by then, my phone was next to dead.

From Phil’s house, the party moved to volleyball. And from there, my family picked me up and we drove out to the eastern end of Upolu where Uncle Laumatia grew up. It was a long trip, and most of us fell asleep.

Boxing Day

I am dragged out of bed at 7:00 a.m. because Uncle Laumatia wants to go to Apia to get a rental car. I have now seen him rent 3 different cars, and I left for 8 days, so who knows what the total’s at now? In any case, we spent the morning in Apia, and nothing incredibly interesting came of it.

On the way home, Asolima bought a 750 ml bottle of Coke and placed it on the center console of the van. As we rounded a corner going over the center of the island, the bottle fell into my lap getting all over my pants and my phone.

I went to make a call when I got back to the village, and after 5 seconds of conversation, my phone died. Coke kills.

Phil’s sister Tuese pushed pretty hard for us (Me, Phil, her) to attend the Siva in Tafitoala, the next village over. Mele put up a bit of a stink before giving me permission to go. I haven’t asked permission to go to a dance since sophomore year of high school, probably. And that was only because I needed a ride. Oh, the joys of the village.

This siva turned out to be quite a bit more raucous than the typical Fausaga Catholic dances that Group 81 came to despise. My camera had died by then, but Phil got some good pictures.

Saturday

I am dragged out of bed at 7:00 a.m. Uncle Laumatia’s father yells at me and tells me I sleep too long. Is it time to go back to Apia yet?

Yes! It is! And we did.

I replaced my phone. It’s the same model, and I’ve kept my phone number, but alas all my high scores from Nature Park are gone. There was more shopping and chance encounters with each other as we wander back to our respective habitats.

A large group of us lunched at Skippy’s and then some went to see Valkyrie at Magik Cinema. We all rendezvoused at Jordan’s for dinner. Burritos. Tortillas and all. I didn’t think it was possible, but it was awesome.

Supy ended up staying an extra day in Apia and crashing at my place. Paul and Koa stayed at Jordan’s.

Sunday

A day of firsts.

I manually washed my clothes for the first time ever. I’ve been using the washing machine and dryer since I was fairly young, but I’ve never washed my clothes in a bucket. I didn’t really know what I was doing, and for most of the experience, I was pretty sure I would never do this again. But once the clothes were dry on the clothesline, it was a great feeling of accomplishment. I washed my clothes.

Second first was I cooked a meal in my kitchen. Chris and Jordan dove headfirst into their kitchens with ambitious, exciting meals like stir-fry and cranberry chicken. I have been skeptical and uneasy about my kitchen, choosing to ease myself in with grilled cheese. I was halfway done with the first sandwich when I realized I don’t have a spatula. But I made do, and the final product wasn’t half bad.

Third first was I watched a movie on my computer. My parents sent me “Big” for Christmas (among other things). I love that movie. My favorite quote about “Big” comes from John Mayer as part of “I Love the 80s: 1988”; he says, “’Big’ is the kind of movie where if you come out of the shower and it’s on TV, you just sit there, bare-balls naked, until its over.” True that. Although I was clothed for tonight’s viewing.

So that’s been my last six days here. Hope your Christmases were merry and bright.

Finally, some notes on the blog…

• I’m going to Falealupo on Savai’I for New Years. It is the westernmost point in the world (They actually bend the International Date Line for Samoa. So there.). Also, by this logic, Alaska is the easternmost state in the U.S. This was one of the most uncomfortable debates I ever had at eCivis.
• Once we get into January, I think I’ll start a series of blogs detailing daily life/culture here (Going to the market, taking the bus, church, language, fashion, relationships, etc.). So email me with some questions/ideas/items of curiosity because I want to know what you want to know. And we can all look forward to that.

Okay, that’s all for now. Lots of pictures below!

Phil, Tony, and Tuese at Coconuts Beach Resort.

Children's Choir on Christmas Eve. Matatia's face (in the front row wearing light blue) captures the energy and rage with which most Samoan children sing.

Phil and me after church early Christmas morning drinking tea, eating butter sandwiches, and looking a lot like Mormon missionairies.

Tafale, Santa, and me on Christmas morning. How fun.

Christmas morning naps.

Me dancing with unknown 7-year-old.

Oge, me, Fipe, and Phil doing a Siva Samoa. Oge is quite the dancer. I really like this picture.

This is the message I kept getting on Christmas when I would try and send text messages.

Watching the volleyball tournament. Did I forget to mention it was a tournament? It was. Teams from neighboring villages came to play. I guess sometimes it's not very sandlot-ish.

The volleyball ref, Tony's bf, dressed up as a Cal athletic supporter.

This is the Nativity scene at the only McDonalds in the country. I think the gifts of the Magi were gold, frankenscense, myrrh, and special sauce.

Manual laundry in my shower.

Manual laundry on my clothesline.

Grilled cheese and Sprim for dinner.

Me watching "Big." You can see the piano scene in the background.

Shout out to 2416! Check out my poster! I uploaded this image larger so you can click on it and read the sentences. My favorites are the peach and the peas (sp?).