Vacation!!!

Well, it’s been quite a while since I wrote my last post and a lot of stuff has happened since then. Most importantly to me was a visit to Germany to visit Mom and Dad. I’ve been back a month now and I’m still sad about leaving all the scrumptious food…um, I mean, Mom and Dad.
While I was back I managed to fit in a short trip to Delft, Netherlands to see a college friend and Mom, Dad and I drove down to Garmisch to enjoy a last trip to the Alps and say goodbye to the town “for the last time.” Haha, that is, until we visit Tom after he moves. We did the things we’ve done there in the past including a trip to the Ettal Monestary and the Eibsee. I even got to see some snow when Dad and I drove down in a mini-blizzard.

My visit to Delft. Very cute town.

Mom and Dad at the Eibsee. Look at the snow!!!

When I wasn’t traveling around, I hung out in Bitburg eating good food and drink. While I was there, I was able to visit the Class with which I correspond. This is the Learning Center run by Lydia Banuelos. For those of you who don’t know, there is a program called WorldWise Schools in which a Peace Corps Volunteer is paired with a class in the States. In my case, I was able to request the class applying from Mom’s school, Bitburg Elementary School. This class is made up of second, third, and fourth graders.
During my visit, I gave a presentation about my life and work and then, following the Samoan tradition of reciprocity in big events, the class presented me with Samoan legends. Here are some pictures of the class groups and the posters they made about the legend.

The Legend of the Southern Cross

The Legend of Sina and the Eel

Saia and the Origin of Taro

How Fire was obtained for Samoa

Apologies to the class, those pictures are not the best but they’re all I have. Hopefully I can get some others from Lydia. We also got to try out some of the Samoan clapping dance called Sasa. The kids were very good and picked it up much more quickly than my training group did in training. They also tried out Koko Samoa, Samoa’s answer to hot chocolate. It something I really enjoy and is a testament to the fact that if you add enough sugar, many things will taste good. I want to send a big thank you to the class and Bitburg Elementary School for having me and showing me their work, including the very cool coral reef that all the students of the school have built in the cafeteria.
Well, that enough for now, I will be sure to update much more quickly next time. We’re entering a busier time of year now, so hopefully I’ll have more to report.

Hey everyone,

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 Somerset, PA Sheetz station...just for example.

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 Germany. Haha, it’s not Samoa, but I’m sure I’ll have some pictures to post. I’ll be visiting the class that I write to about life in Samoa and that’ll be exciting. An American twist on the Fa’asamoa. Till then.

Diving!!!!

So this post took longer than it was supposed to but i'm goin to blame that on an illness that pretty much took me out of commision for about 2 full week. it was really fun, full of fever and headache and neck/back ache, too!!! but now that has passed (as of yesterday) and i'm feeling well without the aid of drugs. excellent. so anyway, here are my pictures of my 1st dive trip ever. i did do my certification dives in a quarry in northern virginia, but that's not really the same because 1) certification means little fun stuff and checking off requirements and 2) quarries are murky and cold, even in the summer. so this was my 1st salt water, warm, and interesting dive. it was off the northern coast of savai'i, the larger island to the west of upolu, my home island. we did two dives, one around a wrecked london missionary company ship a little over a hundred years submerged and one around a large expanse of coral. Before the dive trip i spent one night on savai'i with my work who were taking a group of visiting tongans for a small tour of the big island. we stayed at really nice resort in beach fales that were half enclosed. Here are a coupld pictures.

One of the Beach Fales we stayed in. Nice view right?

This was my fale. It was tucked back so the view wasn't as nice but i'm not complaining. it was also cool because it was a paid business trip. nice!

The next day work left but I stayed behind to meet up with the Samoa Dive Club. We had volunteers from the US, Australia, England and Japan on the outing which was on a long, holiday weekend. I didn't take a pic of the fale i stayed in for the next few nights. It was more traditional/rustic being all open with just little mattress on the floor, but also more comfortable oddly enough. I can't decide where to take Mom and Dad. Maybe we'll try out both. They're only about a five minute walk from each other.

These are as close to nemo fish as we've seen. Yellow fin anemone fish. It's kind of cool because they pretty much just hang out around that giant anemone.

Some Coral.

My friend Jordan and me. She was the photographer.

Giant Coral Structures.

Pretty Fish.

Me trying to equalize.

Me trying to find neutral bouyancy. hehe, not my strong suit.

A green sea turtle. It was not this active during my dive. this was from the morning dive team.

The shipwreck. Cool because it's all open so you can dive it without special certification.

More wreck footage with the pretty fishes.

So the dives went off without a hitch I was a little worried that I would be slow or behind because it was a year and three months since my certification but no worries. my dive master was really cool and calming. i can't wait to dive again and i hope Dad can join me next year!
I'll have more stuff to post soon enough.
I hope everyone has a great christmas and a happy new year.

White Sunday

So i think it’s taking me an average of a month to actually get around to posting my news. That’s not so bad, is it? Anyway, on the 14th of October, Samoa’s children celebrated the biggest day of their year, White Sunday or Aso le Tamaiti (Day of the Children). This is a special day where the children get specially doted upon, receive gifts and get to perform almost all of the church services. I know that in our church, children’s masses were generally regular masses in which the children led the songs, prayers and did the readings, these kids put our efforts to shame.
I decided to visit one of my fellow PCVs, Donna, in her village of Poutasi for the weekend. It sits on the Southside of the island and was small and beautiful. Her house is right across the road from the ocean. I’ve included some pictures of her and her village.
At the beginning of the day, the children received gifts, such as new clothes, shoes and other things to look good for their day. After breakfast, they then led the way into church in a mini-parade. The services (there are two in most EFKS, or Congregational, churches) were packed with singing, dancing, and plays. These were performed by the different age groups, beginning with the preschool/kindergarten crowd and moving up through junior high ages. Overall, i attended five hours of church that day…that’s a lot of church, but it was worth it to see all the kids having a blast. Here are some pics. Don’t worry Dad, the diving pics will be on my next entry…probably in 2-3 weeks.

The kids of the house where i was staying before they went to church. The oldest is , then Fetu, the little boy and TiaMaria the little girl.

This is the march before it fell apart.

And this is it when all the kids got excited.

Dancing and Singing.

A Play.

A pretty sunset in Poutasi. This is the view from the Fale where Donna spends her down time.

My gracious hostess. Thanks Donna!

Class Presentation

Well, I promised a blog on the phenomenon of White Sunday but first I wanted to show off these pictures of me directing an activity during a presentation to a Year 12 class. The presentation was on the Community Based Fisheries Management Plan system, which is my office’s main focus. Because I had never dealt with a big class of Samoan Secondary students (actually, I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with a big class of seniors anywhere) I opted not to give the whole presentation, but I helped my counterpart with a small part of it. What I learned is that it is hard to get kids to talk in class. Classes in Year 9 and above are conducted in English, so that was not the barrier and next time maybe I’ll try my hand at the whole thing. I’ll post on White Sunday in the next few days. Haha, actually this presentation took place a little over a month ago so let’s hope i’m more prompt with the next one. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Me talking to the kids and trying really, really hard to get ANYONE to answer my question. Also note my killer farmers tan, I’ve been working hard on that.

This is Ferron, one of my counterparts, and the person who actually gave the presentation.

This is Tala, my other counterpart, giving a different presentation to the mass of kids. It was so hot in that room!!

Scanning

Hello Folks!
So life is pretty calm here these days. For everyone's information, although the test came back negative, i still probably had the mumps. luckily, for those of you too young to have ever come in contact with the disease, it only lasts a week so i was up and running by the time work started.
i have no real news to report except we are expected a new group of trainees next wed which is kind of exciting for those of us here that are new. Soon we won't be the greenest Americans in country. except that we are still relatively clueless as regards many aspects of living in Samoa. Give us time though. i'm sure we'll learn.
in a week and a half is white sunday. a day devoted to the children of samoa. i'm going to be visiting one of my friends in her village so i'll update you on that soon. Fa!

OK, so I’m back. I’ve been at work for 3 weeks now, and it’s weird because in many ways, it’s a lot like working at Quantico. For example, I’m currently just waiting for things to happen. Well, to be more specific, I’m scanning a lot of documents while I wait for things to happen.
For those of you who don’t know, I am now working for the Fisheries Division in the Government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. I am working in the Extension Office which is in charge of community programs and outreach. This means that I will hopefully get to go out to the villages that we work with and see them. Actually next week, we are slated to give a presentation to one of the other Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) volunteer’s schools. That should be pretty interesting.
Well, life here has been pretty interesting. The first two weeks of our service were completely tied up with the Samoan hosting of the South Pacific Games. These are a 4th yearly set of athletic competitions, much like the Olympics but on a smaller scale that enables the smaller countries to compete with one another. Many of the other Peace Corps people (PCVs) volunteered at the games, timing things like swimming and setting up races and sailing and various other tasks. They seemed to have a blast. I, however, had to concentrate on my new job, so I remained a mere spectator. I saw some tennis and soccer, the two sports I most like to watch. Also I attended the opening and closing ceremonies. These were pretty amazing with hundreds of Samoan high school students dancing in unison on the fields. That was very impressive. Sometimes I’m a little envious of this amazingly old culture that all of the island nations represented at the games manages to uphold. i guess it’s the equivalent to Native American tribal dances. One thing is for sure, though, I’m not sure Europe is that old now. I mean they seem relatively young compared to the traditions of Samoa.
But now the games are done and life will return to normal. Well, the new normal for those of us that just swore in a couple of weeks ago. My new 9-5 office job existance. Weird.
Anyway, talk to you later.