Culture Exploration 1: Grocery Shopping

Before we get too far into shopping at the grocery store, I should emphasize that most shopping in Samoa is done at a village’s local bodega (in Samoan, faleoloa) so grocery shopping in the traditional western sense isn’t completely the norm here. In fact, there ‘s only one real supermarket in the country, and that’s Farmer Joe. You can make an argument for Lucky Foodtown, but I think it’s just a little too small.

One nice thing is that Farmer Joe is open every day (Sundays included!, but not holidays) from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., which makes it one of the most reliable businesses in the country. That said, grocery shopping is always a bit of a crap shoot. It’s never clear on where the line is between items they carry and items they don’t.

Things you unexpectedly can find at grocery stores here include:

• Peanut butter (multiple brands; chunky and creamy);
  
• Tobasco sauce;
  
• Multigrain bread;
  
• Guinness (this is a fairly recent development);
  
• Hummus; and
  
• Pringles, Granny Goose tortilla chips (WTH?), and the occasional bag of pretzels.

Things you cannot find at grocery stores here include:

• Brand name Spam (yes, there are other brands of pork luncheon meat);
  
• Salad dressing;
  
• Doritos, Lays, Funyuns, Tostidos, Ruffles, Fritos, or Cheez-Its;
  
• Tortillas (although wraps work just fine);
  
• Granola bars, fruit roll-ups, or any kind of mildly healthy snack; and
  
• Gummy bears.

I tend to go to the grocery store almost every day because I’m uneasy storing too much food at my house, I don’t like to spend a lot of money on groceries at once, and it’s over a mile back to my house from Farmer Joe and carting lots of groceries through tropical heat is not fun.

The produce section at Farmer Joe leaves something to be desired, but this works because the store is directly across the street from the open-air market (which I will refer to from now on as “the market”). The two are not in competition because the produce sold at the market complements the standard goods available at Farmer Joe. Yesterday I bought taro, papayas, green onions, and star fruit at the market. Of all these, only the green onions are available at Farmer Joe. Farmer Joe does carry oranges and at least 2 varieties of apples. These tend to be expensive (i.e. just about the same price as America when you convert to USD).

None of the grocery stores take credit card. There was a time not long ago when grocery stores in The States didn’t take credit card either, but it’s weird how fast we grow accustomed to things.

Finally, I cannot recall seeing shopping carts at Farmer Joe. I’m told they exist and that they are referred to here as “trollies” (New Zealand influence). I will stay on the lookout for shopping carts, and I’ll let you know.

Tomorrow’s Cultural Exploration: Walking Down the Street

I hope things are well back home. Please enjoy the grocery photos below.

Three columns of corned beef.

Milwaukee's Best and Heineken are now available here in Apia. I've blown up the prices so you can see that Milwaukee's best is more expensive than Heineken. Afterall, it is Milwaukee's Best.

These aren't frozen goods. These are candy bars stored in the refrigerator.

White Shiraz, which I've never seen in The States.

Schrutte Farms trying to get in on the action.

Panadol is the equivalent of Tylenol here. And the Children's version features kids dressed in strange costumes on the box.

3 Months!: The Story So Far and FAQs

This morning marks exactly 3 months since we landed here in Samoa. It’s weird how in some ways it feels like we just got here and the last 3 months has gone by in the blink of an eye—and on the other hand, it feels like we’ve been here forever. It’s kind of funny because if you make the scale smaller, it feels the same way. That is, each day feels extremely long, but the week seems to pass quickly.

I recently posted a bunch of photos spanning the time we got here until just before New Years, but I figure we might benefit by going over the story so far. So here goes.

The Story So Far

We arrived in Apia October 8. We were greeted by a whirlwind of adapting to climate, time difference, and culture shock. To ease us into the country, they put us at a hotel. We were clumped with a group of strangers who would come to be Group 81; that is, the 81st group of Peace Corps to volunteer in Samoa. We have become a family, and like a family, we all love each other and want to smack each other… both at the same time.

Our first Sunday here was a national holiday, which we spent at the beach. The next day was water safety, which we learned by snorkeling. What a life!, you’re thinking. What a life!, we thought. But alas, the honeymoon couldn’t last forever. And like fatted pigs being led to the slaughter, we piled into the van and headed out to the host village.

The first week in the host village was another round of culture shock. Some parts were blissful: meals were prepared for us, our bags were carried, many of us were given the best sleeping accommodations in the household. Other parts, not so nice: the fishbowl effect, the lack of freewill, the bucket showers (which I came to enjoy).

After a week, we came back to Apia and dispersed to visit actual volunteers in the respective habitats. This was essentially a tease. “Look how great life will be. Good. Now, back to the village!”

Returning to the village was actually nice. People were excited to see us. There was a routine once more. We came back to Apia to watch the election returns. Hooray, Obama! Back to the village.

The village stay was great language immersion. And great cultural immersion. I played bingo, I played cards, I went to church, I went to the plantation, I practiced walking with the baby, I hung out with the native twentysomethings in the evening, I played barefoot soccer, I went shopping, I watched TV, I danced. But still, there was the whole lack of free will, the lack of choices, the lack of internet. And then I got the diarrhea that felt like someone was punching me in the intestines.

Thanksgiving came. We went to the Charges-Affaires’s house to have turkey and mash potatoes and cranberry sauce and stuffing. We also attended the All-Volunteer Conference. And then, back to the village.

Returning to the village was ehhhh. People were excited to see us. There was a routine once more. My diarrhea turned feverish. I slept for a day. I got better.

Things started to wind down quickly. Our group did relatively well on the fluency exam. The village rolled out the red carpet for our big Swearing-In Ceremony. At the reception, the local youth group danced and sang for us. We had also prepared a dance, a skit, and a song that we performed for the Women’s Committee. And then it was over.

We were dispersed out to our sites. I will be teaching at a secondary school in Apia. But there has definitely been another round of culture shock. This one is a little more difficult than the first two in the sense that it’s forever and there’s no longer 12 other people in the immediate vicinity to commiserate with. And a week after the newfound loneliness began, it was Christmas.

Seven of us went back to our host families to celebrate Christmas. The other six went to Chris’ house. There was drinking at Chris’ house. There was drinking at our host families’ houses. Christmas was merry.

Back home for a few days, and then out to the far end of the other island, Savai’i, to celebrate New Years. Though we are somewhat stranded there, it’s a good time.

Someone breaks into Phil’s house while he and I are at the grocery store. The guy makes off with a bunch of my stuff and $10 of Phil’s. Sucks.

And now I’m back in Apia, passing the time, waiting for school to begin. And that’s the story so far.

FAQs

What’s the Internet situation there?

There are a number of cafés in town. Rates vary, as does quality. There is also a wireless provider called LavaSpot that allows users to connect from about 20 locations in and around Apia. Hours are much cheaper when purchased in bulk. I am currently paying $6.64 WST per hour, which breaks down to between $2.20 US and $2.35 US, which isn’t bad at all, especially since I can use my own laptop (and therefore my own iTunes, Skype, Firefox, etc.). Hopefully sometime very soon I will be able to access the Internet on dial-up from my house.

What’s the phone situation?

Every volunteer has a cell phone, and all of us are on prepay plans. It costs me $0.45 WST/minute to call someone here and $0.99 WST/minute to call the United States. It costs $0.20 WST to send a text message to anywhere in the world.

How fluent are you?

I am not very fluent. I tested Intermediate-Mid. I think I was right in the middle of our group. Some people were really good by the end, and others had some more work to do. The thing is that now that I live in Apia, I’m surrounded by people who speak English, and now that we’re out of training, I don’t get to practice very often.

Say something in Samoan.

Ha. What do you want me to say?

I don’t know. Say whatever you want.

Okay… Ummm… ‘E leai ni fōma’i po’o ni tausima’i i le nu’u, na’o taulāsea, which means, There are no doctors or nurses in the village, only healers.

Any other sickness than "diarrhea that felt like someone was punching you in the intestines"?

Not really. I thought I had pink eye near the end of October, but it seems like a lot of maladies show up for a while, and then disappear as quickly and strangely as they appeared.

Are you having fun?

Yes. It’s a good time. Each day takes a lot of effort, but few things are completely impossible. The first time I did manual laundry, I thought it was an exercise in futility. I had no idea what I was doing and throughout the entire process I vowed again and again that I would pay for my laundry to be washed in machine from then on. But then my clothes dried. And they were clean. And I had successfully washed my clothes without a machine washer or dryer. It was strangely thrilling. I got the same thrill yesterday when I finally got my kitchen light to work. I got the same thrill when I had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. and caught the bus that would get me on the 6:00 a.m. boat to Savai’i. They’re all little things that seem impossible until they’re actually accomplished. And then they don’t seem like they were ever that difficult in the first place. It’s weird.

Tomorrow I’m going to start a series of cultural exploration. Our first topic will be Grocery Shopping in Samoa. Story So Far pictures below!

This is Group 81. From left to right: Joey, Phil, Matt, Paul, Koa, Jordan, Supy (in front), AJ (behind), Chris, Kate, Erin, Dan, and Blakey.

My host family. I like to think of Asolima as my host sister. And her two kids, Leme and Akanese.

This is the moustache that I grew. It was awesome.

This is my duplex in Apia.

This is my bike.

This was my halloween costume. I was supposed to be a mosquito. Hard to tell, I know.

Thanksgiving.

Christmas. Dancing.

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.

Conversations Over Lunch

There wasn't enough picturesque stuff in my day today to upload anything very good, so you'll have to wait til tomorrow for pictures. I thought that instead I would highlight some philosophical discussions I've been having in my head lately.

I put a call in to one of the guys I've been working with at my counterpart organization here in Samoa. I'm not really obligated to do work for him contractually, and it's not like the organization doesn't have lots of money. In fact, the guy I work with there is the treasurer of the organization, and I see the figures they bring in... and they could afford to pay someone for the work I do. That said, the guy almost always offers me lunch.

So I guess the dilemma I'm caught in here is twofold. First, should I really be spending my time in the Peace Corps donating my time to an organization that could (and perhaps should) be paying full price for the services I'm providing? Second, is it weird that I am whoring my Excel skills out for better food quality?

I think the first is one that many of us deal with here in Samoa. The second is a more interesting issue, I think. I don't feel too bad about whoring out Excel skills because I feel like I'm in a (admittedly mild) survivalist situation, and I don't feel bad leveraging what I can. Especially given the lackluster kitchen that was provided to me. On the other hand, perhaps the prospect of food is blinding me to the previous issue?

Another philosophical debate arose over said food. We got on to the subject of volunteers (Peace Corps, AusAid, or otherwise) and the way some are more willing to assimilate into Samoan culture than others. In training, we dealt with this issue peripherally in our cross-cultural discussions, but the thing that really interests me is flipping this issue and wondering whether there is a spectrum of acceptance of foreignors on the Samoan side of things. And while I can totally see a spectrum of assimilatability in group 81, I'm not sure I can see a good spectrum of openness to new peoples within our host families (Note: Firefox spellcheck has no problem with the word "assimilatability."). Probably openness to new peoples is easier to differentiate within your own culture.

There's a lot of downtime here. Lots of time for the brain to wander.

In any case, I hope things are well. I promise pictures tomorrow!

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.

2009 Starts Off Slow

The happy irony of the events of yesterday is that I had spent Friday night downloading pictures from Phil’s camera. This is especially exciting because it gives me something to post today since I can’t get another camera until tomorrow at the earliest. Phil’s camera has far more memory than mine did, also he often gave his camera to one of his sister to take photos and different events. This means Phil has a pretty awesome bank of pictures to choose from, and I think there are some good ones.

2009 has been rather unremarkable as of yet. Here are some less than interesting things that have happened since the new year:

• It has been rainy since I arrived back in Apia. It was mostly overcast when I got off the bus yesterday, and then it rained really hard for about 5 hours last night, and then today hasn’t been much different. This has prevented me from doing laundry today so instead I napped.
  
  
• Friday night, Phil and I had a laid back evening. We played Connect 4 for a bit. It turns out that you can play two versions of Connect 4; the slow, thinking man’s Connect 4 and the fast, careless Connect 4. We found the latter to be much more exciting.
  
  
• There was only one CD in the Savai’i Peace Corps office Friday, Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape” album. I admit this is a guilty pleasure of mine, and it is perhaps the most exciting development of 2009. It’s just been that great around here.
  
  
• I had peanut butter and jelly for dinner last night. One strange thing about grocery shopping in Samoa is that buying in bulk doesn’t necessarily mean paying less; things aren’t necessarily cheaper by the dozen. A 300 ml jar of peanut butter might be $4.80 and the 600 ml jar might be $10.60. It’s weird.
  
  
• Really, I can only scrounge around for 4 bullets worth of material. This fifth bullet is simply to point out that 4 bullets really aren’t that many.
  

In any case, life is a bit slow around here right now, but January should shape up to get more interesting as I think lesson-planning will be a mad dash. Koa tells me that there is a big EFKS teacher conference that happens at my school, which should be fun. Cale and Sara are housesitting near where I live, so I think I’ll be hanging out with them at some point. And hopefully I’ll get a bike before too long. Most of group 81 has their bike now, but not me, and I’m a little annoyed about that, truth be told.

In any case, it does feel like January is working toward something, and that’s all I ask of it. I hope things are well. Pictures from Phil’s camera below!

Oh… also, happy birthday, Natasza!

Phil's cousin(?), Onosai. He speaks very little English and doesn't actually understand the what his t-shirt says.

Phil's camera does cool things like this. This is from early training.

For some reason, Blogger insists on posting this picture in portrait though it is shot in landscape. Annoying. Top to bottom: Akanese, Tuese, Me.

Dylan.

Me and Paul. Hotties.

Another landscape to portrait snafu. Top to bottom: AJ, me, Jordan, Chris, Supy, Paul.

Me at the siva in Tafitoala dancing with a lady who asked me to dance.

Trouble in Paradise

The original plan for today was for Phil to get groceries at his local store since it would be closing at 12:30 p.m. as is the custom here. And then we would go down and hang out in the wharf area of Savai'i until it was time to go home.

So we set out on this plan. Phil asked if I wanted to go to the grocery store with him, and since I had nothing else to do, I figured why not?

Our trip was short. Phil didn't need too much. I received a text message from my sister and I replied to it. I knocked over some plastic cups and looked at the price of clothespins. By the time I picked out an annoyingly expensive Gatorade, Phil was ready to go. We were gone approximately 15 minutes.

I had been futzing with my iPod just before we left. In fact, Phil was standing outside waiting for me as I set it down on the table I'm standing in front of in the picture above. So when I got home and it wasn't there, I immediately knew something was amiss.

Phil went to the kitchen to put away his groceries. He keeps his change in a large shell on his kitchen table, and when the change was missing, I became prime suspect. "Hey, Matt?" he asked awkwardly, "Do you know what happened to the change in here?"

"Ummm... I think maybe someone was here. Is the back door open?" And it was. And the mosquito screen next to the door knob was slashed.

We took inventory. In all, the bad guy(s) got away with my iPod and its charger, my digital camera (Pictures in today's blog were taken with Phil's camera), the headphones I use to Skype (because of the microphone attachment), and Phil's change. Phil's stuff was all in his bedroom, so it went unnoticed.

In any case, we contacted the Peace Corps higher-ups, the Savai'i police, and Phil tried to contact his vice principal. So people are on it, and I have confidence that the Peace Corps takes this kind of thing seriously. That said, I have no confidence that I'll ever see my stuff again.

I'm mostly okay. It's just stuff, and it can all be replaced. There are 2 things that do really suck though. First is that the camera had a lot of pictures on it that I don't have stored anywhere else. And they're gone now. Second is that it just makes me feel weird about the people around me. I feel like my relationship with Samoa has been a little tainted, and while I am able to isolate this incident mentally, it still leaves a bitter taste. I'm not sure if I'm making sense, but I think you get the gist.

In any case, things aren't that bad, and I'll write a lighter, happier blog tomorrow.

Hope things are well back home. Evidence for the court below.

Exhibit 1. The slashed screen.

Exhibit 2. The point of reach-around.

New Years at Falealeupo

Without the services of the good people at Zamzar.com, I would not have been able to convert this blog from docx to doc, and there is no way it would have been able to go live until tomorrow, which would have sucked. Also, any Samoa PCVs should note that Internet Explorer works much better on the computer in the Savai'i office than does Firefox. And I'm a big fan of Firefox.

In any case...

New Years Eve

I set my alarm for 3:20 a.m. on New Years Eve Eve, but I overslept and woke up at 3:52 a.m. I had to wake up early in order to get to the bus that would take me to the ferry that would take me to Phil’s so I could drop off my computer before we had to meet everyone at 10:00 a.m. to venture out to Falealeupo. I was out the door by 4:02 a.m., just as it began to pour.

When I arrived, sopping wet, the bus was waiting. There was still another hour of darkness, and I realized as soon as I got on the empty bus that it wasn’t empty at all. It was nearly full with many sleeping people. So I sat and fell asleep myself.

The sky was getting lighter as the ferry left the wharf, but it wasn’t until we were in the middle of the channel that the actual sun came out. This actually worked out well because I was on the smaller of the ferries, which has fewer seats, and I had to stand out on the deck with the cars for the entire trip. It was nice to watch the sunrise while I listened to Guster’s “Keep it Together” album. It fit well.

I got to Phil’s around 8:00 a.m. I had time to put down my things and have a little breakfast, and then we were off. We met up with the group, who was watching the Reebok Office Linebacker commercials (Shameless shoutout to Daunish). The taxi showed up 45 minutes late, but it was 13 hours before midnight, so it was cool.

Much of the group went for a swim as soon as we arrived at the beach fales in Falealeupo. I took a nap. I still had time to swim and play cards when I woke up. We also played a pretty good game of barefoot Ultimate Frisbee on sand. The wife of our language trainer Setu lives in the local village, and he was out there with the rest of us huffing and puffing.

The afternoon meandered into evening, and everyone in the group gathered around to catch the beautiful final sunset of 2008 (I only realize now that I watched the sun rise and set on the same day. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.). Some pictures of this sunset are below.

Dinner and breakfast were included in the cost of staying overnight at the beach fales, but it turned out that the youth group from the local village would also be performing for us. Setu suggested that we do the dance that we learned in Fausaga after the local youth group was done. We were a little rusty, but the locals seemed pleased.

I called home at midnight PST, which was fun.

Midnight at the beach turned out to be a little anticlimactic. Since pretty much all of us tell time using our phones, and since none of our phones has a second hand, a countdown was difficult. Additionally, there’s no dialing popcorn in Samoa, so it’s difficult to coordinate exact times. So sometime around midnight, the group congregated and Blakey started a countdown and that was that. Ben and Trent and some others sang “Auld Lang Syne,” which felt a little strange to me.

New Years Day

No buses or taxis ran on New Years Day, so we knew we had to spend the day in Falealeupo shooting the breeze, passing the time. The guy who runs the beach fales agreed to let us stay until mid-afternoon, so we spent the morning and early afternoon swimming and playing cards and laying around doing not much of anything.

After, the boys caught rides to Spencer’s house and the girls called a friend who drove them to Jenny’s. The village where the girls stayed cooked a large meal for them. Spencer’s village gave us a basketful of breadfruit, which was good. In Samoa, breadfruit is often cooked with pig and taro in a traditional umu fire. Though we didn’t have pork or taro, we still built an umu, which was pretty cool and very masculine. While the breadfruit cooked, we carved roasting skewers with machetes so we could roast our hot dogs. It was also very masculine. We spent the evening playing “Mafia,” which felt a little like a college dorm, but it was still a really good time.

Sleeping accommodations for last night were a little minimalist. Spencer’s place is very small, but the falekomiti, the fale where the women’s committee meets, was large enough for us all to fit comfortably. We slept on rattan mats and lit mosquito coils, which proved effective.

Today

January 2 is considered a holiday in Samoa, but we were able to get a taxi to take us from Falealeupo to the wharf. I’m posting this using the computer at the Peace Corps office on Savai’i, and I’m going to stay over at Phil’s house tonight.

I’m in no rush to get home since no one will be there and I don’t have anything to do there, but I’ll probably leave tomorrow. Lucia’s is a bar and grill here on Savai’i that has a dock in the back that you can jump off of, straight into the ocean. The place has been talked up to me quite a bit, and I am excited to see that tomorrow. Otherwise, not too much going on.

I hope things are well with everyone back home, and I hope you are having a wonderful new year.

Pictures below!

Sunrise on the ferry to Savai'i.

The beach at Falealeupo.

Paul, Chris, and Supy looking saucy.

Supy and Rosie in their engagement photo?

The local village youth group dancing for us.

Us dancing for the local village youth group. Left to right: Phil, Dan, Me, Supy, Jordan, Koa, Jim (in Joey's place), Paul. Sorry, AJ, you got cropped.

Blakey doing the Taupou dance. I'm somewhat proud of this picture.

Jim, Trent, Unknown person, Rosie?, and Ben singing Auld Lang Syne using someone's phone as a flashlight.

This is Niko. At one poine during the preparation of the umu, Niko stepped on a nail that went through his sandal into his foot. So he removed the nail and put the board that had the nail in it into the fire. He then took a chunk off of that board that was still burning and CAUTERIZED THE WOUND. We watched.

Me with my ultra-male fire stick. And a fire.

After nearly 3 months in Samoa, my sandal tan is looking awesome.