One Year Reflection

October 5^th is coming up which marks the One-Year Anniversary since I left my home in North Carolina.  I was considering what kind of blog entry I wanted to do to celebrate this and decided on a list of all the new things that I’ve done since coming to Samoa.  Keep in mind, these are all things that I’ve NEVER done before coming here (no order).

·         Haven’t seen my family in person for more than 5 months

·         Opened a coconut with a knife

·         Learned Samoan

·         Adopted a cat (my mom’s allergic so it was never possible at home!)

·         Ate meat (I was vegetarian since birth and started eating meat upon acceptance to Peace Corps Samoa)

·         Watched puppies, kittens, and a baby be born

·         Made a kid cry from happiness

·         Jumped off of a waterfall

·         Went to a US Navy black tie event

·         Lived without A/C and hot water

·         Ate stingray

·         Ate bat

·         Skinny dipped

·         Made 12 amazing friends

·         Been serenaded by 250 kids on my birthday

·         Killed a centipede (tally’s up to 8 now)

·         Didn’t shampoo my hair for a month

·         Didn’t shave my legs for a month

·         Swam with a sea turtle

·         Learned a Samoan dance

·         Opened a bottle using the table (not my teeth like the Samoans do!)

·         Washed my clothes using a bucket and dried them outside on a line

·         Slept under a mosquito net

·         Slept in a house with no walls

Looking back, I’d say I’ve accomplished a lot in this past year!  And that’s all besides my actual job which is teaching 115 amazing students.  To seem them progress so far is incredibly rewarding.  In the coming days, a new Peace Corps group is arriving in Samoa to begin their two year journey.  I look forward to sharing the next year’s journey with them.

Cheers!  (Manuia!)  Here’s to another successful year!

Cinco de Mayo

        Peace Corps Samoa has a wonderful tradition of going out to Lusia’s Lagoon Resort for Cinco de Mayo every year.   It’s out on Savaii so I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to take the time for it or not and obviously since I’m writing this post, I decided to go out there.  The ride getting out there was not the best experience.  First, I took a bus from my place at 7:00am and went into town for a nice pancake breakfast at McDonalds.  Ended up costing me $20 but ooooh man it tasted AMAZING!  The person who I was traveling out to Savaii with had her bus break down outside of Apia and was told to start walking so almost 30min later a car picked her up and drove her the rest of the way.  Finally at 10 we caught the bus out to the ferry in hopes of making the noon ferry.  Well noon rolled around and past and the boat never arrived.  And so we waited…and waited…and waited.  For some reason the boat just never showed up.  So at 2pm the little dinky ferry came around instead of the nice large (steady) boat.  And so we got to cross the open water with huge swells in a glorified fishing boat.  Oh yay.  So around 4:00 we finally arrived at Lusia’s and the party began!

You don't really realize what foods you’re going to miss until you actually get into country.  For instance you think you’ll crave pizza and end up craving salad.  Well we all were craving some Mexican food and Cinco de Mayo was the perfect excuse.  Our amazing chef for the group, Josh, worked in the kitchen for hours on nachos, pulled pork, tortilla shells, bean mixtures, and guacamole.  It was a drool inducing result.  We stuffed ourselves with nachos and tortillas and it was the most satisfying meal in a very long time.  Thanks Josh!!

Our amazing PCV Madi made a homemade piñata for our group!  Unfortunately nobody could wait for the actually hitting of it and kept ransacking it for candy but no matter.  Thanks Madi darling!  It added to the party.

Lusia’s is built on a gorgeous lagoon where the water is an interesting mixture of warm water with cold pockets that’ll hit you every now and then.  They have a deck built out over the water that you can sit out on and jump off into the water.  It’s currently owned by Jim, a former Peace Corps volunteer (from 2 or 3 groups ago I think).  Fun to hear stories about previous groups.

Lu jumping off the dock at Lusia's

Floating away my cares

The Other 12 PCVs

http://boelmaninsamoa.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-thirteen-apostles.html

Brad, one of the 13 PCVs in Samoa, wrote an amazing blog piece about each of us 13 that are currently serving here in Samoa.  I don't think I could write it any better than he did which is why I'm sending a link to his blog.  Check it out!

And since he didn't write about himself, here we go!

Brad is one of the 3 guys in our groups surrounded by a sea of estrogen.  He's one of the most laid back, chill people I know which makes sense seeing how he's from California.  He's an extremely gifted musician who brought not only his guitar but also his violin on the plane with him to Samoa!  He wasted no time in bringing music into his classroom and has the kids singing anything from Adele to the Beatles.  His Samoan is really good and he constantly chatters with the taxi drivers as we go places.

And that's that!  I love my group; I couldn't ask for anything better.