Tafao Weekend (Written 4/30/06)

It's been quite a busy weekend in the wonderful island paradise of Samoa. As you know from my previous post, on Friday I spent time with two volunteers – Sarah and Leah. Well on Saturday, I went into town to meet up and hang out with a few of the volunteers that were in town for a big volunteer bash. Josh and Bob were in town so it was a good time of seeing them again and seeing how things were going and Bob, being the master welder that he is, is going to help me with a little environmental problem I have with one of my computers. Welding and Computers – who thought they could ever join forces! I wasn't in the mood for a big social event, so instead I went to hang out with John H (Group 75) and we spent some time just hanging out and talking which was really nice. I don't get an opportunity to hang out with him all that much so we just swapped stories and got to know each other better and I think I got more out of the hours we were together then I would have gotten out of going to a big social function – if you know me, you know I'm much better in the one on one time rather then the big collective time.

Then on Sunday, with my sprained muscle finally healed, I got on my bike for the first time in weeks. It was quite a strange feeling but it was good to be back in the saddle again and I went to church in the morning. Julya was there because she's going home for a visit tomorrow, so it was also nice seeing her in town as well. She wanted to hang out with me before she left on Monday but after church I was in the mood to go home – and once I'm in the mood, I have to go otherwise I'll just stay in Apia all day doing nothing and then I have to wait until it's almost night time to go home. So what we ended up doing was going back to Sarah M and Candice's house – picked up Sarah's bike and Candice – and then huffed it to my house. This was the first time that I rode up my hill with someone else in tow and they were only the 2^nd and 3^rd person to bike up my hill (with Brian Smith being the first one). While I tell everyone that it's not a lot of fun biking up my hill(s) and it's quite a workout, they usually don't really get what I'm talking about until they actually do it. So we biked from Candice's house all the way to my house without stopping which is quite a feat but then Julya and Candice agreed with me – it's quite a ride and quite a workout. But they did it and I was proud, I think I may start a list now of all the people who can successfully bike up to my house. They have the Mountain Dew Challenge…I think I'll call mine the 'Mountain Doom Challenge'! Anyway, once we got to my house we just relaxed, rested and hung out for a while just chatting (this was the first time that Candice had been to my house – quite a way to get here). It was fun having people over and someone would think I'm Mr. Popularity now having 4 people over in one weekend. It has been a crazy weekend but I had a lot of fun and got to hang out with a lot of my fellow volunteers which was quite nice. Now though, I'm ready to rest, because tomorrow starts my two weeks of school with no break. Thank goodness for Mother's Day (which is a holiday here)!

BTW, if you're wonder what Tafao (Tu-F-Ow) means in English, one of its translations is 'To Hang Out' which is basically what I did all weekend. Lelei Tele! (Very good!)