What a Weekend!

Hello,

So this was a crazy busy American Samoa Flag Day weekend.  Territorial Flag Day was when Am Sam became a official US territory.  So Am Sam is 111 years old this weekend. I think i've been more socially active in the last 7 days than my entire first year in Linton, ND.

On friday afternoon i moved into my new apartment in Meseapa.  It's a 2 bedroom apartment located near the community college, it is raised on stilts in a compound that contains 4 other units.  Very well kept up, with the exception of a couple of cockroaches that have met their demise at the sole of my show. Growing up in Cambodia i know that no matter how clean you keep your house, those nasty little buggers will find their way in.  One of them was an easy target Saturday morning, sleeping on its back with its legs in the air, the other made me work for it a little but he was disposed of, so far no more, fingers crossed.  The power here is pre-pay, which is somewhat bizzare to me.  I think the previous tenants jerry-rigged the thing because i show 0 credit yet i still have power, my friend Jesse is experiencing the same thing and says he hasn't recieved a bill or paid for power for 5 months now! I'm gonna go into the power company tomorrow and confess the situation, i'm only doing this cause i don't want them to come at me in 5 months with a $700 electric bill.  Its furnished with the essentials.  Kinda kicking myself in the ass for not shipping any of my kitchen stuff.

After moving in i went to watch some of the traditional boat races that happen every flag day, they bear a strong resemblence to the boat races that happened in Cambodia for the water festival.  Basically a bunch of guys in short long boats rowing against an opposing boat.  I watched and cheered when the highschool boat which cost 5k beat out the team who had spent 100k in a tight race, at least that is what the man next to me told me.

Friday night I went to another palagis birthday party.  He works for the National Park Service and it was definatly a big communal event, with all sorts of pork products as well as some amazing grilled eggplant, Jesse made.

Saturday involved my adventure to Larson's Cove.  It took me a long time to find the right road (if you can call it that, more of a trail, or a really, really, really, old road).  I parked my car and beat away some of the dogs, one was a rotweiller that looked particularily menacing, thankfully he was a pansy and scampered off with his tail between the legs when i threw a rock at him.  I started hiking up this road and stopped at the first house along the way to make sure i was going the right way.  At first the family just glared at me and just like that they offered to let me park my car there (cause they were worried about it getting broke into) and offered to take me down there as they were going already.  Hannah and Kano, the two sweetheart lovers walked with me down to the secluded cove which involved quite a steep climb up and then down again.  They joking said that they've never seen a ghost until i took off my shirt. They were so friendly offering me water, tuna, and some sort of sweet taro treat.  I wish i had something in return so i started snapping photos of the two of them which i plan on putting in a frame and giving to them next time i head down there.

After the tide started coming in and all of our junk was starting to get inundate by the waves, we went back tot their house where of course they felt compelled to feed me.  A massive plate of turkey tail, grilled chicken, sausage and boiled bannanas smothered in coconut milk.  These people are so gracious here, they don't even know me and they are feeding me, you just don't find that kind of hospitality in many places around the world. 

Saturday night i went to a Fa'fafine show with a bunch of other palagis.  Fa'Fafine's are drag queens and this was the beauty pagaent of the year if not the social event of the season.  All walks of life were present, commoners, governmental officials and church leaders.  Fa'fa's are men who chose to live their lives like women, not in the sense of what we think about drag queens that they are dolled up for shows but then revert to their regular manish appearances, these men wear dresses and makeup everywhere they go and are considered important members of society.  Its really quite amazing that such a religious culture has such a open tolerance of this kinda thing.  Because its flag day, the Marine band was on the island for some shows, so there were quite a lot of confused soliders at the hotel watching as these queens, many of which were not only bigger but quite a bit taller than some of them, walked onto this catwalk perched precariously over the pool.  The queen i was gunning for didn't win but she did win Miss Talent for her side-splitting rendition of the scene from Titanic when Jack and Rose are in the freezing water waiting to get rescued.  And there was a patriotic wear portion and there was a queen who wore a straight up eagle dress, holy cow.  After the winner was crowned we went to Karaoke and i did my best impression of Lou Vega and his smash hit, Mambo #5.  After Jesse S. and I went to McDonalds for a late night snack and sure enough there were the queens in thier full evening gowns gorging their faces with Big-Macs.  We chatted them up and congradulated the winner on her crown.

After waking up with a hangover, i went to Tisa's Barefoot on Sunday.  It was quite a ways out but stunningly beautiful.  Luckily the Marine band was there for a performance so a bunch of us were able to enjoy their talented music.  Talk about a sweet job to have in the military, the only combat these guys see is probably the occassional booing which because they're so good, they don't hear that often.  I went for a swim but i've noticed that if you're looking for nice sandy beaches here, don't hold your breath, its mostly craggly rocks and coral as soon as you get 10 feet into the water.  That shouldn't stop you tho, just make sure you wear some shoes.

On my way home i got caught in a cultural taboo.  On Sunday's the Samoan practice something called Sa'a.  I was driving along the main road home and noticed that lining the street from both sides were men dressed in matching yellow shirts.  When i turned down my street one of the men stood in front of my car, when i politely asked him what was going on he just said "Sa'a" to me and gestured to me to wait and turn my car off.  I guess every Sunday evening the church bell rings and everyone in the village stops what they're doing and practice 30 mins of silence.  No driving on side roads, no talking on cell-phones.  The closest thing i can think of that is similar is when in the states we observe moments of silence.  Thankfully, the man understood i was new and got his nephew to come over and explain to me what was happening.  So now i know.....Sa'a taken very seriously, at least in my village.

So in summation it was a great weekend full of amazing experiences and even more amazing people.  Can't wait to see whats in store next....

This dog knows how to live.