We're Back!!! (Written Oct 30 2005)

Finally Group 75 has come back…..to Apia! After a very long week in Falevao, I have finally made my triumphant return to the capital of Samoa and I couldn't be happier. The village life is tough and is definitely not those for the faint of patience but its feels good to finally come back to our hotel room where I need not worry about cockroaches, roosters crowing in my ear at 5:30am and smoke from the burning rubbish coming through my windows. But we are officially down to 4 weeks left in the village…pray for us! (according to current volunteers though, the fishbowl effect – while still present – won't be as bad the second and third time we come back to the village). So when we got back to Apia, the first thing we did was take our bags out of storage so that we could rearrange our belongings for when we go back to Falevao on Saturday. The people going to Savaii had to rearrange their stuff and prepare to travel to the other island today – so that was interesting for them. I would tell you who they were, but they probably want to tell that news to their families themselves (just so you know, I'm not going). After that little moving exhibition was done Bryan, Charles and I went with a couple of volunteers over to a local café (one of the few restaurants open on Sunday in Apia) and were FINALLY able to watch some American football. We saw the San Diego/KC game and then stayed long enough to watch the Sunday Night game of New England/Buffalo – it was great let me tell you. It was cool to watch a game live that I knew my Dad, Jonas and Phillip were all watching back in the states at the exact same time. It was surreal but at the same time made me feel at home for the first time since I stepped foot in Samoa because I was doing something that I would be doing back at home at that EXACT time. So that was a good 5 hour stretch – trust me, it was definitely time well spent. After that I decided to walk around a bit just to get away from people for a while. I was just at that point where I had to be by myself after constantly being around people for 7 days straight without a break. Add to that staying with the same 14 people for 3 weeks straight and it was definitely time for a break. So I just hooked up the Ipod and went for a stroll on the sea wall of Apia – it was a nice leisurely stroll (but people were everywhere). Definitely recharged the batteries both mentally and spiritually – something about just listening to waves crash against the rocks in the sea just seems calming and also looking up at the same night sky that people back home were looking at helped a lot too. And to make my night complete, I went to see the movie Doom starring The Rock. I think that Doom was a good end of the summer/almost holiday season movie. It wasn't the Rock's best movie by any stretch (that would be The Rundown and Be Cool) but I thought it was something different for him and the cast around him really helped balance his character. Is it an academy award winner – no, but is it good enough to want to see at the movie theater instead of on DVD – yes, but you might want to see it at matinee price and not full price. Anyway, it's good to be back in Apia even if only for a little while – enjoy the week in review by way of my blog postings from the village. Hopefully you can see what the current volunteers saw in us once we got back – a progression from excitement about the village to an excitement to get out of the village. Tomorrow (Monday) I had to Chanel for my first true on the job training with Michael before he leaves in November – the fun never stops in Samoa. L8r – love you all.