In order to get to Manono, you have to take a boat over but not the boat that takes you to Savaii. You got to a different wharf which is a few miles down the road from the Savaii wharf – it doesn't have a sign or anything that actually tells you this is the wharf to Manono, so you would probably miss it if you were driving by. Kim, our country director, and her husband and daughter also went along with us over to the island. So we all piled into a small motor boat and got over to Manono in about 20 minutes, so not a bad trip at all. This was my first trip to Manono so it was a good chance to check the place out – you can walk the entire island in about an hour and a half, but we mainly stayed in the dock area since that's where the women's committee fale was. When we arrived, I saw that Candice and Sara had come the night before and were already working on face painting some kids – so they got an early start. Once we put our stuff down, the women's committee had a semi-traditional Samoan welcome for us (the first time that's been done for something like this, but they didn't serve ava) and then gave us breakfast. Once that was all out of the way the festivities and crafts began – there were a ton of small kids running around, so we were not hurting for an audience. In fact, this crafts day seemed to run a lot smoother then the last one I went to – so I guess the more we do it the better prepared we are which is good. I (along with John Kirk and Dane) went to play a little football with the kids – which they soon turned into Rugby. At first it was a large group of kids, but then Dane and John took some kids to go swimming while I stayed with some other kids on the field. It was then I was able to show them what a forward pass looked like and how to run and catch the ball, so baby steps. They really liked throwing the ball overhand instead of underhand, but eventually they started punting the ball which of course led to their request to play touch rugby. Me being the nice guy that I am, I let them play touch rugby with the football and played a little with them as well – even though I have no idea what the rules are. That's the great thing about kids, they're not stickler for rules – as long as you play with them. So we played a mix of football and rugby for about an hour and a half before I became to tired from the sun beating down on me and had to take a breather. But I had a great time playing with the kids and giving them a small taste of American football (of course sponsored by my NFC Champions but Superbowl losers, Chicago Bears).
Not much later it was time to start cleaning up the fale and picking up all the trash – just imagine what a kindergarten class looks like after some sort of crafts day and you can picture the amount of trash that was everywhere. But we were able to pick it all up and make it look as nice as when we came. They then served us lunch before we headed back to Upolu. The ride going to and coming from the island were both very smooth, but I was dead tired during the ride back to Upolu I can barely remember it. The boat cost us $2 each way (so $4 tala total). Candice has been to Manono 3 times, so I got some catching up to do but hopefully I'll be able to make it to Manono and Apolima before I'm done in Samoa.
When we got back to the office, I ran into Ryan. With Ryan back – for the first time since December – all of Group 75 is back in the country. It's good to have the family back together again! L8r.
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