So it’s been a pretty long time since I updated this thing. The holiday season has come and gone, and now it’s almost March. I just haven’t been in a writing/sharing mood recently. But now that time has passed and I’m ready to write.
The holiday season was pretty good. I have to admit I did miss the cold weather; here we have been working through the rainy (and hot and humid) season. I get the impression that it’s actually been a relatively dry rainy season, but it’s still hotter than when we arrived back in June.
I actually had two trees for Christmas, one courtesy of Aunt Mary (Thank you!!!!) and another made from the decorations Mom sent me. As you can see, it definitely had a “wall-side.” Hehehe. Sorry bad joke but I think it had to be made. Also I feel I should point out that it was a little over 5’ 1/2”, not a bad size.
A fellow Peace Corps friend came in from her village to visit which was nice for some company. We made ourselves a really nice meal of fettucini alfredo and I made cake (that’s right I splashed out on the Betty Crocker). Overall, a quiet but nice holiday. At least I didn’t wreck my car and end up soaked and spending a couple hours in the
For my birthday, a few friends came over and we had a feast which included homemade chocolate chip cookies, something I had not eaten in over 6 months at that point. Thanks to my roommate Hannah for that one!! We had brownies as my cake. Also not eaten in a long time…yummy.
I feel like this is not that exciting. I didn’t experience a Samoan Christmas, but seeing as their holiday tends to focus more on the church going aspect of the holiday, I was ok with that. I just spent a lot of money on food and sat around eating it and watching dvds on my laptop with various friends that came to visit during the two week holiday. And that was good enough for me.
I did venture out of the capital for New Year’s Eve. 15 of us went out to stay in beach fales and enjoy a sandy new year’s. A beach fale is a miniature, wooden version of a Samoan fale, the standard building structure here. Both structures are open air with various devices for keeping out the rain. But so long as it’s nice out, the sides stay up to allow a nice ocean breeze to blow through.
Our Beach Fale
Sunset on New Year's Eve
It was really nice at the resort. The beach was beautiful as you can see below and much fun was had in the ocean and by watching the stars at night. On New Year’s Eve there were many shooting stars. Whether or not that’s what we were actually watching, I’m not sure but it was pretty amazing.
Sunrise on New Year's Day
Since, the holiday season I’ve been trying to get back into work mode. There is a definite emphasis on the word trying since I’m not always sure what I’m doing here, but things have finally starting moving (slowly) in February, so that’s good. I attended my Early Service Conference two weeks ago. This is a weeklong event held 5 months (in our case) into Peace Corps Service. It’s pretty much a chance for a training group to get together after being at their sites for a while to regroup and reassess. It was very refreshing and it was great to see my group again.
Well. That’s about it. Sorry it’s not more exotic or action pack. In a little more than a month I’ll be visiting Mom and Dad in
