Sunsets in Samoa

What is it about a sunset?  They happen every night and yet each one is so different and awe-inspiring in their own way that you can’t help to watch night after night.    The sunsets in Samoa are at an entirely different level of colorfulness than what I’ve seen back home.  Every night I look out from my fale and in a span of roughly 30 minutes the sky turns from a light blue, to pink, to fire orange, to purple.  It’s amazing to see the changes in such a short time.  It never fails to be awe-inspiring and I’ve tried to capture the beauty a few times with my camera.  Below are just a few of the better ones.  Enjoy!

A Thousand and One Uses for Lavalavas

•A sheet for when you crash on your friend’s floor.  Keeps both the cold and the cockroaches at bay
•Stuff it in a pillowcase so you don’t have to pack a pillow when you crash on your friend’s floor
•A tablecloth.  Whip it off your body and it’ll brighten up any room
•Sew it up and it makes excellent drapes
•If someone happens to cut themselves, wrap it around them and you have an instant bandage!  Wrap it tighter and you have an instant tourniquet!
•If someone happens to have an item protruding from their skin, you can doughnut wrap the lavalava and it’s a great circular bandage
•At the beach, why pack an extra beach towel when you can simply take off your skirt and lay it down?
•In fact, why do you need an actual towel…ever?  Lavalavas may not be the most absorbent but darned if they don’t dry fast.
•Say you’re walking outside and BAM!  The sun starts burning you.  Why get out of it and into the shade when you can once again simply whip off your lavalava and drape it over your head.  Instant, portable, shade.
•Well someone has to say it: clothing
•Makes an excellent whip with which to whip your unsuspecting brother while he’s sleeping
•Stuff an end into the tea spout and drape the rest over the kettle and it’ll keep the tea hot for an eternity!
•Ladies, don’t feel like wearing a bra in the morning?  Simply pull your lavalava up and around your chest and voila!  No need to walk around in a bra.  (Sidenote: only ok for around your house)
•Tie a knot around your neck and you’ve got an excellent, child approved cape to zoom around the house after your brother

In closing folks, the Lavalava is an excellent new invention, introduced here only over 100 years ago by visiting (prude….cough….) missionaries who didn’t wish to see half naked natives. Buy yourself one today, and you’ll soon find it an integral part of your routine.  Enjoy!

***Side note:  We actually received emergency water safety training from some Australians who advocated the use of a lavalava as an emergency bandage/tourniquet.  It’s a really great idea as there’s always someone around with one and the fabric is such that it’ll staunch the blood nicely.  Its part of a program that they were doing across Samoa to train staff at resorts.

Madi and I hiding in the shade of our lavalavas

Brad with his wicked new Rock me Jesus lavalava!

June Events

Two large events happened in June that brought a lot of us volunteers into Apia.  The first weekend was Independence holiday for Samoa and the Peace Corps was invited to march in the parade.  The American Embassy, who was also marching with us, had matching uniforms made for us.  Unfortunately they neglected to make bottoms as well as tell us to bring our own and it resulted in a hilarious mismatch of bottoms including a bright pink lavalava and some jean shorts.  Well the morning of the parade, we all woke up bright and early 6, scarffed down some breakfast, and started out towards the parade grounds in our spanking new puletasi tops.  About 2 minutes down the road, we got a call from our friend at the embassy kindly asking us where the hell we all where and could we possibly move as quickly as possible as they were waiting for us to start.  So we hopped in a taxi until we could no longer go any further because of the crowds then hopped out and hoofed it.  We all quickly were engulfed in the crowd and it was overwhelming us.  Out in the village, and even in Apia, the crowds are usually extremely sparse and a crowd so thick you can barely move is completely unheard of.  So here we were in the midst of one and it was, at least for me, more claustrophobic than even the rush hour shopping was in Osaka, Japan.  When we reached the parade grounds, we saw the American flag and matching puletasis on the far side of the field and rushed over so we could get into the parade.  At this point, we all realized that Samoan parades are slightly different than American ones.  See, in America, we tend to have our parades walk down the street with crowds on both sides.  Usually there are floats, dancers, people chucking candy at kids, and bands.  Well in Samoa, we marched a total of 100 yards, stopped in front of the bandstand with important heads of state and dignitaries sitting there, yelled out “Happy Independence Samoa!”, and walked away and off the track.  We all looked to our Country Director Dale and he nodded, “Yep, that’s it.  Thanks for coming in”.  Turns out the parade is mainly for the people sitting there in the bandstand and everyone else just watches on TV.  So there’s no point to marching through the streets.  Interesting version of a parade, but it was fun doing it with my friends.
Also, a side note, apparently my family is the one family on the entire island who is responsible for making the flower necklaces that the heads of state buy and then wear at the parade.  The night before, they had relatives over harvesting my mother’s gardens, and then an assembly line of women making various style necklaces.  Apparently they can go for between $25-50 each so great once a year event for them.  It was really cool watching them make the necklaces at such a high quantity.

One of the more fun events of the Independence weekend was the Fafafine Beauty Pageant.  For those of you who are unaware, Fafafines are an integral part of Samoan culture.  Basically a fafafine is a male who, usually as a toddler, is raised in the traditional female roles.  A fafafine’s hair is left long and some of the older fafafine’s will dress in feminine clothing.  In school, they continue to wear the male uniform and yet are not subjected to the male haircut standards.  Many times, fafafine’s will choose later in life to cut their hair and get married and others will continue to live as a fafafine.  Well, over Independence weekend there was a Fafafine Beauty Pageant that was equal to some of the best Drag Queen shows I’ve seen in America.  It was one of the best shows I’ve been to in a long time.  It started out with an introduction from the Prime Minister then went right away into categories such as best fruit wear (banana, apple, etc), talent, and more.  The sex jokes and sauntering were rampant and the audience was hooting and hollering like there was no tomorrow.  One interesting deviation from what I’ve seen in America is a fafafine would be walking down the catwalk and suddenly rips their shirt off to reveal the extremely well defined (or not) chest, reminding everyone in the audience that they are extremely beautiful men.  I can’t quite see that happening in a Drag Queen show.  DEFINITELY recommended to anyone who happens to be in Samoa in June.

The other event that happened was the closing ceremony for the Pacific Partnership.  For the past month, the USS Pearl Harbor, an American Navy Ship, has been in port and American and French Navy guys have been working on projects across the two islands, specifically in water tanks.  Well the last night that they were in port, they threw a VIP party on board the ship.  Well since PCVs are government employees, we warranted an invite.  I was lucky enough to be able borrow a dress so I had a lot of fun getting ready.  Hair, makeup, long dress, the whole shebang.  Lu and I got dressed together then headed over to the shipyard.  I was feeling halfnaked with my fancy dress dipping down in the front but once we got on the ship that feeling went away.  At the entrance ramp to the ship, there was a red carpet flanked on either side by sailors.  As I walked down the carpet, one of the sailors at the end detached himself and introduce himself as our guide up to the party.  Apparently the route up to the desk was so complicated that we needed a guide haha.  Well up we climbed, me increasingly thankful I was wearing flats instead of heals, until we reached the top deck.  At this point, the guide left and we were introduced to yet another two rows of sailors.  As we walked through this one, yet another man detached, this time extending his arm towards me to hold as he walked me into the party and over to the wine table.  I was completely enjoying every second of that as I felt like a princess entering on a prince’s hand.  The party was really enjoyable: they had men in naval dress uniforms all over the deck, the navy jazz band playing, free wine and beer, and best of all, a huge line of amazing food.  I had cookies, CHEESE (!!), fruits, and homemade rolls.  I’m reminiscing just thinking about it.  All of the Peace Corps employees and volunteers were there so it was fun seeing everyone all dolled up.  At one point, they did the raising of the flag and they played the Star Spangled Banner.  It was incredibly moving hearing an American song played with people standing at attention.  All in all a wonderful night and I can’t wait to see that ship come in again next year.  Thank you Navy!

Band Practice

Years 7 and 8 at my school have started a new venture Mondays and Fridays after school, music lessons!  There’s a man who lives down the street who writes music and used to teach band at a church. So every Monday and Friday they lug close to 25 instruments down to the school so that Years 7 and 8 can learn how to read sheet music and play an instrument.  He has clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones, tubas, and some drums.  It’s really neat watching them.  I happened to sit in on their first time holding the instruments and while it was nowhere near “good” it was definitely noise.  He gave them each an instrument and told them to try and make any noise that they could and dance while they did it.  The kids took to it instantly and while it sounded like a heard of elephants dying, the kids had a blast and got over their fear of the instruments.  A few lessons down they began to learn the fingerings for the basic scales on each instrument.  The brass instruments got it fairly quickly but the unfortunate clarinet and sax players were having difficulty with the reeds and getting anything out but squeaks.  Give it a few more months though!  We’ll end up having a top notch Primary School marching band.

The pile of instruments

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.

Early Service Conference

Well, the first term is officially over.  10 weeks total and then a blissful 2 weeks of vacation.  With the Peace Corps though, our first vacation was reserved for continued training in the form of Early Service Conference.  So we got a week of vacation and then a week paid to stay in Apia for training.  For the first week, all the Peace Corps decided to head out to Manase in Savaii for a well deserved vacation and beach relaxation time.  I met up with my fellow Upolu people Lu and Millie to get on the ferry together to head out to Savaii.  This was quite an ordeal and the first time for me to do so.  The other volunteers are old pros at this point with the ferry but it was still new and exciting for me.  So as we boarded on, it became apparent that this was an extremely large ferry.  It said seat capacity was just over 250 and it holds cars as well.  Inside there was the heavenly item called air-conditioning and TVs to watch as we made the hour long trip to the other island.  The first 15 minutes or so were fairly smooth and then we hit the open ocean outside of the reefs that surround the islands.  At this point the horizon line began dipping up and down below the window and things started to make a distinct dipping motion.  Thank God I don’t get seasick because this would be the perfect time for it to show up.  And this was on the larger ferry!  I can’t imagine what it’s like on the smaller one.  Anywho, after the hour long ride we got out and met up with Kiri and Lina, two PCVs who live on Savaii.  They met us in the wharf with a “Welcome to Savaii!” sign which was wonderfully thoughtful of them.  We decided to kill a few hours by going to a nearby resort, Lucia’s, which is owned by a former PCV.  It’s a really beautiful resort that’s built on a lagoon.  Perfectly teal water that was slightly colder than the open ocean.  Great spot to relax and welcome myself to Savaii!!

Later in the afternoon, Lu and I boarded a bus with Kiri to spend a few days at her house and Millie left to spend a few with Lina.  Lu and I got the wonderful bus experience by Lu being asked to sit on my lap for the trip.  For an 1hr 45min trip, that can results in some serious numb leg and butt.  Once getting off though, it was great visiting another PCV and seeing where they live.  Kiri’s village is beautiful, right on the ocean with a huge Catholic church built there.  We were welcomed into her home by her family and then later that night after eating, went to the rock pools that her village has built.  The water was probably the coldest that I have EVER been in and once you became used to it (or numb), then your body felt cool for hours afterwards.  Great experience, especially because my village doesn’t have any of those.  The next day we headed over to meet up with all the other volunteers in Manase, a picturesque village that has beaches right off of a postcard.  We stayed in fales there that were little more than huts with mattresses and mosquito nets but honestly, anything more and it would’ve been brutally hot.  As it was, we had a nice breeze and an ocean view.

The other volunteers arrived the next day, bringing with them food for a potluck.  With 13 volunteers, that meant plenty of barbeque, chips, and other foods including my personal favorite, brownies made with cocoa Samoa (Samoa’s own cocoa mix).  The challenge of the day ended up being getting the grill started.  Grill in this case meant a metal plate balanced across two logs with coconut husks to put underneath.  Well Zach went to it with gusto and eventually got it lit to much applause and presto, we had barbeque.  I haven’t eaten that much in a long time and it was great having things that reminded me of home (Kiri brought pasta salad!).  We ended up meeting a guy who was staying at the resort at the same time and inviting him to hang out with us.  He’s from Canada but apparently just moved to Australia to start teaching there.  Well we all had a great time for two days just relaxing in the water and totally living up to the nickname of the Beach Corps.

Brad and Zach trying to get the coconut husk grill lit.

After Manase people headed in different paths for a few days before training so I decided to go with Allyson and Josh (the sole married couple in our group) to their house and hang out with them.  They live in their own house on Josh’s school compound and it’s a really cute place.  Kinda like something you’d see in the mountains of North Carolina, very cabin-esque.   We continued the food-fest by having Josh cook chicken saturated in BBQ sauce and then the next night having Mexican food.  One day Allyson even made bagels (!!).  I felt like I was in little American town right there.  Thanks Allyson and Josh for letting me hang!

Me enjoying my bagel :)

After that it was finally time to head into Apia to start our Early Service Conference.  This was actually more interesting than I had thought it would be originally.  At this point we all had 10 weeks of teaching under our belts so the sessions on teaching were much more relatable and we could think about how we would enact this in our own classrooms.  Some of my favorite sessions included Classroom Poster Design, Library Projects, and a session where local businesses came in and talked about how we can help out.  Great time!  Plus, we were all put up in the same hotel so we all got to hang out together for a week.  Won’t happen again until December so we all took full advantage of the time to go out and enjoy.  Unfortunately while I was there my backup power cord for my computer happened to break so I was really out of luck with my computer.  Luckily a week after ESC a package arrived from my dad and mom with a replacement cord so whew.  Note to any future PCVs in Samoa: if you have a Mac, bring a backup power cord!!  There’s nowhere on the island to buy a replacement.

PCVs and other aid groups during a Yoga event at ESC promoting Sexual Assault Awareness

Our Country Director's wife's legendary tirimisu

Planting trees for Sexual Assualt Awareness month at the local women's shelter

The new term started out great and went right into the swing of things on day 1 (which I hear is unusual).  I also got a wonderful surprise!  We are without a year 5 or 7 teachers so I was given the year 5 classroom to use as my own!  So all that first Monday I took to move out of the library and to decorate my new room.  I’ll take some pictures and upload at some point.  It’s great to have my own space AND to have a blackboard finally.  I’m very thankful for it.