After 2 weeks of spending time with mom, the day has finally arrived for her to return home. To me it felt kind of weird to be saying goodbye to my mom for another 7 months – tomorrow (Tuesday) I return back to my "normal" life in Samoa which unfortunately means I have to return the rental car. Ahh, the freedom that baby provided me! Anyway, on mom's last day in Samoa we got a 'late' start to the day (i.e. we woke up at about 8am) at Paul and Viv's house. BTW, today (Monday) is Mother's Day observed which means it's a public holiday so everyone had the day off today and this allowed mom the opportunity to do some crafts with Viv. So after breakfast (and a surprise visit by the pastor's wife, Alesi) Mom and Viv sat down to make some Samoan picture frames. Now if you come to Samoa and go to a place like Janet's handicraft you will find these nice looking picture frames with Samoan cloth (called tapa) around the sides – these are the type of frames that Viv makes and thus this was the type of frame my mom made with her. So from about 8am – 1:30pm, they were in the kitchen just talking and doing crafts together (and since Viv is the expert, she made 3 frames in that amount of time compared to mom's 1 – but mom will get better over time). I thought that was a cool way to end our time there by having mom do something that was uniquely Samoan, but something very few people get the chance to do.
After the crafts deal, it was time to make the final rounds of Mom meeting the last few members of my group. We were scheduled to meet 6 volunteers in 3 places during the afternoon and first on the list was St. Joseph's College (to meet Holly and Ryan). While we were driving to the school, I saw Bryan (also in our group and someone mom was suppose to meet anyway) walking along the road – apparently he thought it would be a good idea to walk from NUS to St. Joe's College…about an hour and a half walk (maybe more) in the blazing sun. So we offered him a ride to the school and along the way we stopped at a place called Chippy's restaurant for lunch. I had never heard of this place, but Bryan was told about it from Holly and Ryan and they said it was good. So I bought some Fish and Chips/Fries there and I have to say they were EXTREMELY tasty. I mean my mouth was literally drooling from the taste that was in the fish. For a long time I have said that the best Fish and Chips is the one at the wharf, but that has officially changed – Chippy's has the best Fish and Chips (the fries were okay). So after picking my mouth up off the ground, we continued on our journey to St. Joe's College. When we got there Charles and Ryan were there (Charles, Ryan and Holly all work at St. Joe's) but there was no Holly. We all sat down and had a nice little chat for a bit before Holly finally showed up with Candice in tow (another volunteer from my group that my mom was suppose to meet today) – so in one place I got 4 of my group members out of the way, that was quite a surprise. We spent about an hour just chatting away and having a good time before it was time to move on to the last two members. We drove from St. Joe's College to the NUS (National University of Samoa) area to visit John H, he lives with Bryan but has been suffering from a bought of Dengue Fever for the last few days and today was the first day he was actually feeling coherent – so we caught him on a good day. It was strange talking to John because usually he's a lot more chipper and energetic, but Dengue just wipes you out and you could really tell with the change in John's personality that he hadn't been feeling well for a bit. We talked to John for about 30 minutes before letting him get some rest and then we headed to the Peace Corps office to meet the mysterious Josh – the man we have tried to see 2 times before but something came up that prevented him from meeting mom. When we arrived at the Peace Corps office, he wasn't there and thus for the 3rd time we missed him…and at this point it was looking like he might not meet my mom. Oh yeah, and it was funny how prior to this visit of the Volunteers, mom's experience in Samoa has been mainly upbeat but once she started hearing the tales from Samoa of the volunteers the seedy underbelly of Samoa became exposed – good thing I saved all these guys for last!
So after the missed Josh visit, we went back to Paul and Viv's for mom's last meal in Samoa – it was a lasagna, backed potatoes and chicken affair….a good feeling meal. I thought it was great symmetry that the last dinner mom had in Samoa was the same place where she had her first dinner in Samoa. Lorna, Zonder and Junior all joined us for this "Last Supper" and it was definitely a good meal (fortunately I get to eat from their house two more times this week –woohoo!). After the meal, it was time to say goodbye to the Phillips family whom Mom has grown close to over the last 2 weeks. The funniest part to me is that mom kept saying that it felt like she has been here a long time, but Viv said it didn't feel like that it just felt like they had known her for a long time – like they just clicked from the moment they first met. Now that's a blessing I could have never asked for and that made me appreciate the Phillips family that much more. After the goodbye, we made one more trip to the Peace Corps office and FINALLY we ran into Josh – apparently we had to save him for last. While talking to him, mom remembered that it was Josh's mom that met my dad in Minnesota at the beginning of my time in Peace Corps (WAAAAYYYY back in November-December of 2005), so it was appropriate that my mom got to meet him. As is sometimes the case, a lot of other Peace Corps volunteers were hanging out at the office as well and the last volunteers she got to meet outside of my group was Dylan and Steven (Group 77) – I think in the 2 weeks time she has met at least half of the volunteer roster, which is quite impressive because outside of my group members the other volunteers we just met along the way – this is a small place folks! Saying her final goodbye to the volunteers and the Peace Corps office, we headed back to my place for a bit to settle the pictures (I had to download her pics so that they can be uploaded to Kodak for you all to enjoy) and at 10pm we were off.
On a side note, I was really glad that mom got to meet everyone in my group because these folks are my support group while I'm in the Peace Corps. The people you are closest with here are usually the folks that you spent the first 3 months of your life here with – and I've got to say that I've got a pretty great group. We all get along with each other and the rest of the volunteer community, and we're all supportive of each other. Plus, we know each other's personality so well (which really came on display while we were at St. Joe's talking with the 5 folks in my group). Anyway, at 10pm we were off to the airport and it took us about 45 minutes to get out there. This time I actually read the sign that talked about the parking fee and I noticed that it said for all vehicles 2WST and 5WST for buses and larger vehicles (the last time I just paid 5WST because that's what someone told me I had to pay), so this time I only paid 2WST instead of the 5. So if you're reading this and you go to the Faleolo Airport, it's 2 tala NOT 5 tala! Just as we arrived at the airport, Julya and her parents arrived there as well (they were staying at the Aggie's Grey Resort and caught a shuttle to the airport) – so the gang was back together again after being apart for 2 weeks! As we were all checking in, a Peace Corps vehicle drove up and dropped off two other folks who were going on the same flight as our parents – Laura (a friend of Sarah V – Group 74) and Bob (from my group). That's right, last night we lost a man from our group, Bob decided to go home. It was really sad because Bob's such an awesome, energetic guy and he's definitely going to be missed. You know we're all unique and all bring a little something different to the table in Peace Corps Samoa, but Bob not only brought something different to the table he brought an entirely different table – he's that unique and funny. So that was a hard goodbye as well – but at least we (Julya and I) got to spend time with him before he stepped on the plane…we were the last volunteers he saw before leaving the country, which is kind of cool (because the Peace Corps vehicle just dropped him off and left). It was also a good thing we were there for our parents because we guided them through the process of leaving Samoa since you have to pay a departure tax (40WST) before leaving the country (that's right, they tax you to LEAVE the country here!) and since no one at the checkout counter TELLS you about this fact, we had to make sure our parents paid it so they had as little trouble on this end as possible.
But what would a grand adventure like this be without a little excitement towards the ends – and it was provided by Julya's dad (Ed). Julya's parents were called over the PA system to come to the departure gate/scanning area because there was a problem with one of their bags. It ended up being that there was something only wrong with Ed's bag, but not Mary's bag. Apparently, security tried to open Ed's bag but – being the smart American traveler that he is – he had his checked bags locked, but he used a TSA lock which means that when the TSA wants to check the bag, they already have the key to open it and then lock it again. Apparently, only the airport security on the US said has this key because the security here did not have it and that's why they called for Julya's parents. From scanning the bag, they thought that Ed's French coffee press looked like a car part! He had to set them straight that it was only a simple coffee maker and that the metal cup with the coffee maker was just a coffee cup. So while it was a nervous few minutes, once it was resolved it was quite funny. But soon the time came to say goodbye to all our folks, Bob and Laura…I think that's when it hit me that this felt strange that I was actually staying behind in a foreign country while my mom returned back to the states. Felt like I should be leaving too but then that would deprive you of good reading material for the next 7 months and I just can't do that! We watched as they all went through the security checkpoint (of the 5 people leaving, only mom and Mary went through without any trouble) and of course Bob was the last person – and chit chatted with the Samoan security before heading into the gate area.
And that was that – they went to the departure gate at around 11:30pm and by the time I got back home, it was 12:45am and mom was on the plane back home. It has been a great time of just being able to share this experience with someone back home –especially my mom who has been supportive of me throughout this entire experience. So now the pictures that I have taken, the stories that I have written come alive again because she has met the folks who are a crucial part of my life here. I enjoyed having my mom here and even though to her it felt like she spent a long time here, to me it felt like a piece of my true home was here with me. And there you have it folks…The Mom Adventure has come to a close. Manuia Malaga, mom!
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