What's Going On (Written 12/23/05)

My FaleSamoa

For the past two days I have gone in Apia to hang out a bit and do a little bit of shopping. As I have said previously, it doesn’t feel like Christmas but it does look like Christmas to some degree. The streets are packed with cars and people as they do last minute Christmas shopping – just like home. So, sometimes no matter where you go some things never change! As I was shopping on Thursday, I decided to just poke around a bit at the shops to see what they had and to look at prices of various things. Well, I went into one place called Samoa Electronics and what did my
eyes behold? The WWE – for the first time in 3 months, I actually saw a WWE PPV. I just couldn’t stop staring, I was so enthralled by what I was seeing. My mind was racing trying to figure out how a PPV could be shown on a Samoan TV without an antenna. It was then that the logo for “No Mercy” popped up and I realized I was looking at a DVD – but it was a great flashback to home. Made me miss home even more. I also decided it was time I put a little variety in my diet despite the fact that I have no stove to cook anything on so I finally took a trip to the local fruit/vegetable market. I have been there before during training, but this was my first time back to actually by something. I was there to buy food and also work on my Samoan a bit (up here at Chanel, I don’t get an opportunity to do that to much) since I haven’t really used it since the end of training – which even though it hasn’t been a long time, feels like it’s been a long time. So I walked around the market for a bit and started to realize that everyone is basically selling the same thing – just in different areas of the market. And there were no apples which is what I really wanted to get (I saw them at a store and they were expensive because I guess they don’t grow naturally here) so I ended up getting a vi (which is like an apple, just with a particular wooden tase), some banana’s (fa’i) and a pineapple. While it wasn’t a lot it’s should be enough to get me through until people start coming back and I can get someone to fix my stove. Also, it brought back a bit of my Samoan to do this little exercise and altogether it wasn’t a very expensive trip. I could easily see myself by a lot more food items from the market because you can get a lot for very little – still have to be wary of some food items, not gonna go crazy and experiment to much now. After that I came home and started working on my Christmas present to you – hopefully it will be ready by Christmas (if not, it should be ready by Monday).

So on Friday, I decided to just go into town and hang out with people before Christmas Eve because just like in the states, I expect this place to be a little bit out of control as people definitely get done shopping and the streets become loaded with people and cars. I also decided to bike in today – it’s been a few days. So as I was biking around town I heard someone yell out “Peace Corps” at me. I didn’t know who they were and I was to busy navigating the streets to turn around so I just ignored it and kept on riding to the Peace Corps office. Once I got there, I talked to a few volunteers for a bit and then went into the conference room to eat some food and there were the 3 girls who yelled “Peace Corps” at me. They were Tongan Peace Corps volunteers here on vacation – they recognized me as Peace Corps by the fact that I was wearing my helmet while biking. So it was a great chance to talk to Volunteers who are basically in the same kind of condition you are in but not on the same island. They said they like Samoa a lot and that it was a lot cleaner then Tonga and less conservative. I talked to them for quite of bit and it was just strange seeing Volunteers come to Samoa as a vacation when a lot of our Volunteers go to New Zealand as vacation (where there is no Peace Corps).

So after getting done chatting with them, I went with Bryan and John to see “The Chronicles of Narnia” and I have to say it was a great movie. It definitely made me want to read the books – so if anyone wants to send them to me, I’ll be more then happy to accept. While I good definitely see the religious overtones in the story – it was definitely a feel good Christmas movie (especially when the big guy himself shows up). I hope that they make movies out of the other books in the series and if you haven’t seen it in the states yet – definitely go see it. This was also the first time I have been in a theater here where I felt like I was back home – no one came in an hour into the movie, no one left 5 minutes before the movie ended, no one was playing music from their headphones while watching the movie – so for a second, I could have sworn I was back at Opry Mills. But alas that feeling didn’t last long and I was back to the warm weather of Samoa. I did find out the good thing about Samoa and Christmas is that since everything basically shuts down at 4:30pm then the crowds are also gone by that time – so it was a clear bike ride home for me.

I also found out that Sara and Candice went back to Falevao today and will come back tomorrow (since no buses run on Christmas), Bryan/John/Andrew are biking to Falevao tomorrow and Mari and Holly are taking the bus there as well tomorrow. So while a good number of our group is going back, I probably won’t go back until after the New Year. While I do like my family in Falevao, I don’t want to be disappointed on Christmas – and a lot of volunteers (that aren’t Village based) have told me that it would be better to spend Christmas with Volunteers, so that’s what I’m going to do. Just thought you’d want to know.

Anyway, since I biked down I obviously had to bike back up to my place. As a good friend once told me “You never know what kind of biker you are until you bike uphill” so I decided today was the day to find out what kind of biker I was (especially since it was cool and slightly windy). So I biked all the way from the Peace Corps office to the front sign of Chanel (stopping about 2 times along the way to get some water) and let me tell you, it was HARD! But it wasn’t going to get any easier if I kept walking my bike up the hill – so while I was sweating like a hoss, I overcame that little hurdle. Now to do the whole trip without stopping – that’s a few months away. J That’s it from me for today, write to you L8r.

12 Days of Homestay:
On the 10th day of homestay, my family gave to me:
Sefulu pulatasi
Iva palusami
Valu fasimoli
Fitu Mamoe
Ono sa’evae
Lima Vailima
Fa ula vai
Tolu ofu tino
Lua lavalava
And pea soupo ma le mulipipi