On Tuesday, I had arranged to pick up a rental car from Getz-A-Rental (A Christian rental company, the owner goes to my church here) in order to pick my mom up at 5:45am on Wednesday morning. I knew it would be a lot easier to have a car then arrange for either a taxi or take the shuttle and I ended up being right. So after doing a few errands around time, I went to pick up Julya at the Peace Corps office around 7pm because her parents were coming in on the same flight! I was expecting a call from mom before she left LAX (The Los Angeles airport) but never got a call – but Julya was able to call her dad and he told her that they had already met my mom and were talking to her at the time. Mom flew into LAX from Nashville at about 2:30pm and the flight from LA to Samoa left at around 11:00pm (Pacific Time) so she had quite a bit of time in LAX. So I was very much relieved when I ran into Julya and she sad mom had made it safely to LA and they were all about to board the plane. So Julya was rolling with me to the airport to pickup her parents, so she spent the night at my house because it was a lot easier that way.
But I had trouble sleeping that night – mainly because I didn't want to oversleep and also because of nerves. I mean, it's a pretty freakin' big deal for me to finally have a visitor here after 18 months of seeing no familiar faces from home here. So try as I might, I couldn't get a lot of rest and ended up waking up at about 2am (went to bed at 9pm). So I stayed in bed just daydreaming until about 3am and I went and turned on all the computers in my computer labs just in case I had to rush to get back to school. We left the house at about 3:30am and had to pick up a friend of Julya who was leaving on the same flight that our parents were arriving on (the flight comes from LA, goes to Tango and then goes to Auckland). So after picking him up at 4am, we drove to the airport which takes about 45 minutes to get there – btw, it's pitch dark and no one else is on the road except us at this time of the day. And as a sidenote, I know some of you may be wondering 'Marques, you haven't driven in a year and a half – how does it feel to be driving again?' and let me tell you it is a great feeling to have. To actually be able to travel somewhere in a decent amount of time is just a freeing experience – I was able to get so much stuff done it wasn't even funny. Plus, the people who normally give me lifts got a break off because of my rental car. I didn't have any trouble picking back up how to drive – it's like a bike, once you know how to do it you don't ever forget. I was a bit nervous at first but once I started driving around, it was like I had never stopped driving.
Anyway, back to the story. We got to the airport at around 4:45am and waited as Julya's friend checked in for his flight and then we had about an hour or so of waiting for our parents flight to come in. At around 5:30am, the nerves and excitement were starting to kick in and we went to an area of the airport where you could actually watch the airplane land. So we went up there and I clearly saw that no plane was on the runway, but Julya – in her infinite wisdom – thought she saw a plane out there: a camouflaged plane! I was like "a camouflage commercial airplane"? It was without a doubt the weirdest statement I had ever heard – but that's just the happiness of seeing our parents talking. At around 5:45am we finally saw the plane coming in for final approach from the east, but the plane has to circle around the island and come in from the west – so it didn't actually land until about 6am. Julya and I waited with panted breath as people filed out of the airplane and I almost screamed with excitement when I saw my mom step off the plane (she kind of sticks out in a crowd, kinda like me!) and Julya's parents weren't to far behind her.
So once she stepped foot on the tarmac, we raced down to the arriving area to greet them. Julya's parents came off the plane first and that was a good moment. It was great to finally meet Ed and Mary – two folks who constantly read my blog and keep Julya updated on what I say – and Ed brought some computer items for Julya (which she will kindly share I hope). It was kind of surreal because I only knew Ed and Mary from their emails to me and blog postings, but to finally meet them was great! Unfortunately, mom did not come in directly after them. It seems that because she was one of the first people to check in for this flight at LAX, her bags were at the very bottom or one of the last ones off the plane. So we literally stood there for like 10-15 minutes waiting for her to come out of baggage claim – I was getting so nervous, I was about to go in there and look for her. But then she finally came out and I don't think I've ever been more happy to see my mom – Janice – in my entire life! I gave her the biggest hug you could possibly imagine, it was great to see my mom and a familiar face. Kim, our country director, was there to pick up a Peace Corps person from DC – so our parents got the same kind of greeting we got when we first arrived in country, the country director was there to greet them and make them feel welcomed.
After a bit of chit chatting, we (Julya, Mom, Ed, Mary and myself) all packed into our SUV rental car and headed back to town. It was definitely a different entrance to the country compared to what we had – when we arrived in country, it was pitch black and you couldn't see anything around you. When our parents arrived in the country, it was nice and bright outside and everyone was on their way to work or school – so they got to see Apia in action early. So it took us about an hour to get back into town and to the hotel (Hotel Elisa) where my mom and Julya's parents are staying. After giving Mom a brief overview of what I had planned for the day, I let her rest at the hotel room while I drove back to school to teach my classes for the day. I was about 30 minutes late, but the kids understood why (even though I didn't tell them – there is coconut wireless at the schools as well as the villages. I had only told 1 person that my mom was coming to visit, on Wednesday over half the school knew she was here to visit me!) So I did my classes for the day and then I had to help set up about 9 computers in 45 minutes for another catholic school near us (just put them in place, not actually connecting them or programming them) and at 2pm I bolted back to the hotel to meet mom.
We went over the few items we had to do today – such as convert some US cash into tala – and then went to run those errands before my tutoring session in the afternoon. Once we had run those errands, I headed over to Paul and Vivienne's for the tutoring session with the Fa'atuatua kids. I introduced her to my second family in Samoa and she hit it off right away with Viv. So while I was doing some tutoring, Viv took her to a seamstress to have her fitted for a Samoan dress called a puletasi (Pool-A-Toss-i) so she will have a traditional Samoan dress when she goes back home. The seamstress (another person who goes to Peace Chapel) said she would have it done by Saturday, so Mom may be wearing it to church on Sunday. After I was done with the tutoring session, it was just spending time hanging out with the kids and showing Mom why I like the Phillips family so much. She had some good talk time with Paul and Viv before we had a nice dinner and then had our weekly bible study.
Unfortunately, during the bible study the massive amount of jet lag finally hit Mom and she felt kind of sick (at 8:30pm Samoan time that's about 3am Central time, so it was way past her bed time). So I took her back to the hotel room and hopefully having a full night's sleep in Samoa will help adjust her internal clock and get rid of this jet lag. Tomorrow morning she will finally be coming to Chanel College and watch me teach an actual class for the first time ever! Won't she be surprised how I handle over 40 kids in one class- heck, even I'm surprised how I pull that one off. But I've been up for about 15 hours now, so it's time for me to just sit back and take it easy for a bit. The Mom adventure is only beginning….
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