Sunday Stroll (Written 3/5/06)

The Fale Fono (On the cover of our training manual)

So today after church I decided I wanted to see a bit of Apia that I have not seen in a while and just have a change of pace from the same ole area that I see all the time. So instead of heading towards the Peace Corps office, I went up the Mulinu’u Peninsula which is a peninsula that juts out of Apia and creates a bay (Vaiusu Bay). So I biked up the peninsula and it was amazing. There were few cars so it was quiet and a beautiful (yet windy) day. I realized as I was biking that I had actually been up this way before as a trainee but I rarely went very far except by van (ahh, those were the days!). I took some pics of Apia from a different vantage point and I accomplished one of my personal goals which was to get a picture of the Fale Fono which is Samoa’s parliament house and is the house pictured on the front of our training manual. One down, many more to go. J

I biked all the way out to the end of the peninsula, sat on the sea wall and just looked out into Vaiusu Bay which was quite beautiful since it was covered by giant clouds which made for a good picture. It was nice and quiet – nothing but me, the sea and my thoughts. It was then that I had two thoughts: 1) this is a great side benefit to joining the Peace Corps, that you can (sometimes) just get away and enjoy natural beauty in silence 2) I had not been out there since we first arrived here as trainees in October. That was a little under 6 months ago – and now that we’re volunteers it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago (when we were trainees, it felt like it took forever sometimes to get from the start of training to the end). But it was great to see something that I saw as a trainee with different eyes now – I think I appreciated it even more now then I did when I first arrived. Just reminded me that once I get settled at my work, I gotta see what other beautiful Samoan things I can find! And of course there will be plenty of pics to go with those adventures.

It was just a good afternoon of rest in Samoan beauty. As Jamie Foxx says in Jarhead ‘Where else can you see something like this’ and ‘I thank God for everyday he gives me in the Corps’ Uh rah! L8r.

PS – Go Lady Vols! 12^th time SEC Champions! Hopefully the men can follow suit. And the photo albums have been updated again. Enjoy!