Down from the Mountain (Written 2/10/06)

You see Apia out in the distance? No - are you sure? If not, you must be watching yet another edition of 'The Amazing Rain' - Samoa!

It is day 2042 of rain….not really, but man does it feel like it. The onslaught of rain has continued basically for almost 3 weeks now with spats of no rain and then it comes down with a vengeance. Fortunately, it was clear for the most part today so I decided to leave my mountainous kingdom known as Chanel to go down into Apia and see what the damage was like (also just to get away for a while, I’ve been stuck up here for a week now with no classes). So I took the bus into town and along the way you could see that it had been flooding pretty badly throughout my street during the past week because the roads were more messed up then usual and the rivers were going extremely fast – more like rapids rather then rivers. The two fords were moving extremely quick and I think if anyone wasn’t careful they could easily be swept away by the current. In some locations along the side of the road you could see where the pressure of water was apparently so bad that it did actual structural damage - a footbridge completely collapsed and the water was still running over it without signs of stopping. So once that little adventure was over I went to the Peace Corps office to check my mail and to see some different human faces. Once done there I did a bit of shopping – the next thing I’m making needed cumin and chili powder which were both hard to find and very expensive. But once I found them and got done with my shopping the drizzle returned. So I quickly went to the food market to get some last minute food items and just as I was about to get on the bus who comes up and grabs my hand – Isaiah (my brother from Falevao). I was shocked to see him there, so I left my bus and went to see who he was with and I met Taeao (my mom). She was all smiles to see me and this was the first time that I’ve seen them in Apia since the swearing-in ceremony. I asked her how bad the flooding was in Falevao and she said that the river rose so high that it came up to bridge and flooded the areas close to the bridge – but it didn’t come up so high as to flood the houses which was a good thing. I asked her a few more questions – this was probably the first time that I’ve used so much Samoan since my return from Falevao. While I wasn’t great by any stretch, Taeao was impressed by my ability to string words together – she was smiling wide and giggling. Sione’s mother is still there and she will be returning to New Zealand in two weeks time – quite a long holiday. If this rain continues, I may be trying to beat her for who has the longest holiday break. I chatted with Taeao and Isaiah until their bus arrived (on which I saw some ole Falevao friends) and then went to get on my bus which arrived 30 seconds after I left them – so God definitely wanted me to chat with them which was cool. It was a nice quick family reunion. Oh, and Taeao also asked what I had been eating and I tried to convey to her the fact that I’m not starving and I’m able to cook on my own (so it’s not only my American family that’s worried about my cooking ability!). I got back to my house just as the rain started coming down again and the picture you see above was taken after I arrived back home. So it was a good day – little rain until the later part of the day and ran into some nice familiar faces. Now let the weekend hibernation begin!