MJ Live

Monday, October 15, 2007

Two Years Later…. (Written 10/15/07)

This weekend is White Sunday weekend, which means that it's a 3 day holiday – good way to get ready for the final leg of my Peace Corps adventure. So what did I do this weekend? Just a little bit of hanging around and relaxing.

On Sunday (yesterday), I went to the morning church service at Peace Chapel and they had a special production from the youth of the church. White Sunday is a day dedicated to the children of Samoa, so the kid's had the opportunity to run the morning and night service. The reason behind White Sunday (that I have heard) is that it's a special day for the children of Samoa because of all the children that died during the flu epidemic that occurred here after the first Europeans arrived – don't quote me on that though. Last year, the White Sunday service was a bit of a mish mash of songs and plays. This year, there was a theme – "Mystery World Tour" – where the kids pretended to take the church on an airplane ride across the world, stopping in various countries along the way. When we "stopped" in a country, some of the kids would do a song and dance that represented that part of the world and how God is affecting it or can affect it. They (along with the Sunday School teachers) put a lot of effort into the choreography, set design and music and it went off without a hitch – or without a lot of problems when you're dealing with 5 – 13 year olds. In case you're wondering, the countries that were represented in the play were: China, India, Iraq, Israel, USA, Brazil, South Africa and Samoa. The coolest part of the play was when the older youth (13-18) acted as stewardess and gave out in-flight refreshments. That's when the fantasy of this play set in – they gave out way more food then any airline would give you!

After the church service, I headed over to Candice's house to see her new tattoo. Candice got a Malue(sp?) which is a traditional Samoan tattoo for women located primarily around the thighs. She had it done last Sunday and this was my first time getting a really good look at it. She had been saying she would get one since our first year here, so this one wasn't a surprise to me. So she explained to me all the various parts of the tattoo and what they meant – it was quite interesting and she definitely did her research before getting it done. It took about 3.5 hours to do the whole thing which is a long time to be having your skin poked and prodded at. The funny part is that we (Group 75) consider Candice one of the toughest females in our group and she showed me the pictures of her getting the tattoo and it looks like she's just sleeping right through it – not in pain at all. She told me she was in pain but that's part of the process of getting the tattoo – no pain, no gain. After talking about the tattoo, we started talking about how strange it was that we were actually going to miss this place when we leave in a few months. All of us (Group 75) have made our own community in Samoa (away from the other Peace Corps) that we will really miss once it's time to say goodbye. That conversation got me to thinking about the two years that Peace Corps asks us to serve in a foreign land. Some people ask "Why do you have to do two years? Why not one?" and after talking to Candice, I realize why 2 years are better then one. It's only after 2 years that you really feel connected to a place – during the first year, there were times when I felt lonely and wanted to go home, there were times when I wanted to quit, there were times when I absolutely hated this place and everyone in it…that's all normal and it usually happens during the first year. So if you only stay for one year, you don't get to work past all that junk – that junk is what you remember and take back with you. But there was some point (for Candice, myself and I'm sure others as well) where we got past that point of this feeling like a foreign land and it starting to feel like home. Last year, I couldn't wait to go home – this year, I can't imagine leaving. I also asked Candice what her favorite memory of Samoa is and she said that whatever her favorite memory was, it would have something to do with the folks that she lives with (Catholic Sisters/Sara) and that's so true…my favorite memories from this place are focused around the community that has been built around me (The Marist Fathers/Phillips Family/Pati Family) – they make this place special. Folks always ask me "When you leave, are you going to miss this place?" and I always say "No, I'll miss the people." When you live in foreign land like this – it's really only after 2 years that you can say that and mean it. So as always, it was an enlightening and great conversation.

After leaving Candice's and making a stop over at St. Joe's to visit Ryan, I headed home. While at Ryan's I saw an ad in the newspaper advertising a $9 special to call the US. This is a really big deal because usually these types of offers only apply to New Zealand and Australia calls (which means nothing to me). So I decided I would call the one person who I have not talked to in a while – my mom. As it goes with my calls, it was a total surprise. She picked up the phone and it took her a while to realize that it was me. It was great to hear her voice – since the last time I heard it was in May. The call had to be limited to 30 minutes, so we crammed a lot of stuff in the conversation but during our talk she reminded me that it was two years ago that day (Sunday) that I got on a plane and headed to LA. So that made it even more special – to call on the day that I left home. (Which means that on this Tuesday, it will have been 2 years since I last stepped foot in America). So that was another good white Sunday conversation.

At 6pm, I did something I rarely ever do – I went back down to church for the evening service. This was a continuation of the morning service, which means the kids ran it again. But this time the play was about a young boy coming to Christ and trying to change his life. It was special to me because the two lead characters in this play I know – Grace (of the Phillips family) and Shaka (Eugene's son – Eugene is the owner of the ClickNet internet café and husband of Jackie, one of our country directors). So I definitely wanted to be there to support them and see how they did. I could tell that Shaka was a bit nervous – this was his first big time performance – but he did a great job and had all his lines well memorized. It was also special because Eugene, Shaka's father, actually came to the church to support his son. While Jackie has come to the church a few times (specifically for the Esther production the church did a while back), Eugene had never been – so it was a good night all around.

So you would think that after having such a semi-busy day on Sunday, that I would use Monday to relax and possibly get some work done. You would be mistaken my friend. Instead, I woke up at around 7:30am in order to head off with Kevin and Pio (two of the Marist fathers who live next door to me) to Lake Lanoto'o. Lake Lanoto'o is a fresh water crater lake that I have always wanted to visit but had yet to get around to doing it. It's definitely not a hike you want to go on alone, so being able to go with those two was a great blessing. We also stopped to pick up Sister Carmel, who works at St. Mary's College (the same college Candice and Sara work at). The entrance to the lake is located towards the top of the main cross-island road and along a 4WD road. This would be the first time Kevin, Pio and I have come to this lake – Sister Carmel had been here before, but it was 4 years ago…so basically we were hoping that the path would be clear as to where we needed to go. We got as close as we were comfortable with to the main entrance of the lake path and then walked from there. It was really a great day for a hike because it was overcast with just a bit of drizzle – so it wasn't unbearably hot. During the ride up to the entrance of the mountain, we joked about how none of us really knew the path and hopefully the path would be clear with no splits. Guess what – there was a split! There was a point where we could either go straight into the bushes or right down a clearer path. Since I knew the lake was located on a mountain, I thought going down wouldn't be the best plan – but we took the chance and took the path to the right. 13 minutes later, we came back to the split and went straight.

The main path to the lake was windy and muddy – I was really glad I didn't bring any clothes that I was fond of. I'm not the most graceful person in the world, nor am I the fastest when it comes to hiking such as this – which means I was slipping all over the place, grabbing onto the foliage as well as being the last person because I was taking my time. I had on some clothes toes sandals which were slipping and sliding on my feet, Kevin and Carmel had shoes on which were darn near destroyed by the mud and Pio took off his sandals so he could walk barefoot on the rocks. It took us about an hour to make it to the lake and it was quite a sight to behold. Lake Lanoto'o is a freshwater lake because nothing feeds into it – since it's on top of a mountain, I think the only water that keeps it filled is rain water. There were goldfish in the water as well (which is why the place is sometimes called 'Goldfish Lake'), so that just reinforced the fact that it was freshwater. It is a big lake too – it looked like it was a football field long and wide (with water, it's hard to judge distance) but it was fairly deep. I didn't go to far into the water because I wanted to save my leg strength for the walk back home but I walked out far enough to where the water came up to my neck. We had lunch there and relaxed for a bit – trying to get some of the mud off before getting some new mud on our way back. The strange thing about all that mud is that it's the dry season right now, which means that while it rains – it doesn't rain non-stop. I would not even think about trying to do this hike during the wet season, you would be slipping and sliding all over the place with no traction. According to Lonely Planet, the bottom of Lake Lanoto'o has never been found – so it's pretty deep for a Crater Lake. Once we were all rested up, we started our walk back up the mountain and as tends to be the case, the journey back didn't feel as long as the journey going towards the lake. Just as we were leaving the area it began to rain down hard, so our timing was perfect. Just to show you how varied the weather can be on a small island, up in the mountains it was cold and raining but once we got back down to sea level it was warm and not raining at all. Once we got home, the first thing I did was take a nice cold shower…it'll probably take a few showers to get all of the dirt off (ahh, what I wouldn't give for a bath right now).

So I would say that was a fairly productive 3 days rest – got to see 2 plays, had a nice reminisce, talked with mom and checked something new off of my Samoan to-do list. Not bad at all! L8r.

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