Baby's First Cyclone

Dedicated to all my friends and family who are coming to visit me this holiday season....

Well its official, we're about to get our first cyclone.  Before you panic and rush to the phone to call me, Tropical Cyclone Evan (not sure why a white man's name is used for a cyclone in Samoa) is only a Category 1 Tropical Cyclone.  Its projected path takes it right to our doorstep.  I closed my windows and brought everything inside.  We'll see how the winds are when i get home as to whether or not i need to board them up.  I'm thinking i probably won't unless we get further warnings. 

Somehow the thunderstorms and tornadoes of the Midwest don't seem as scary anymore.  At least not when you have a swirling storm of death coming at you.  I'm exaggerating of course.

Now onto the real stuff.  I just had an excellent visit from my good friend Andrea.  Andrea and i went to University together.  Since freshmen year we've had at least one class together every semester, sometimes two or three.  She is now a fellow at EPA in Chicago.  It was a trip full of diving and adventures.

Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:40 PM so Kristine (another good friend of mine here) and I were waiting at the top of a mountain to watch the plane land.  Around 9:50 PM i decide to call Hawaiian Airlines and ask them what is going on.  They say the plane had to return to Honolulu due to a medical emergency.  This meant that the plane didn't land here in American Samoa until about 4:30 AM.  UGGG!

But this also meant that we were able to have drinks at the tree house and watch the sunrise which was a treat as i am usually never awake early enough to do this.  We spent the rest of the morning sleeping off our tiredness.  In the afternoon i took Andrea on a kayak trip.  Its really easy to kayak from my house out to a beautiful pool with lots of fish.  Andrea had a field day collecting shells and flotsam. 

The next day we went for a short hike before catching a plane to Western Samoa.  We rented a car and immediately went to the South side of the island.  We went to the Sua Trench (some of you might remember that picture of a gigantic sink hole in one of my earlier blogs), it was very low tide.  There is a hole in which water comes in from the ocean you have to swim underwater and hold your breath to keep the .  I've never swam to it because every time I've been there the tide has been to extreme to risk trying it but this was a calm day.  Andrea and I went over to the edge and like little kids debated whether or not we should try and swim under it.  After numerous scouting attempts, i said i was going to do one more scouting attempt.  I got halfway there and realized that it would take longer to turn around and get back than just going for it.  I get to the other side and shout for Andrea but my voice is blocked by water and rock so after a few quick deep breaths i make the dive under and go back for her.  I make it back to the other side gasping for air.  I told her that it is totally doable but to make sure she is ready to kick as it is a good 50 feet of underwater swimming.  We proceed to do this about 4 times before we finally decide that we are done.

We were staying at these beach fales which are essentially open air bungalows with a mattress and a mosquito net.  As i would learn after 4 days, i like having a fan blowing on me when i sleep.  It was nice, we had a FiaFia (celebration show) at the fale in which the workers did traditional dancing and music.

We stayed at these fales for 2 nights.  One of those nights we were drinking with a bunch of Kiwi's (New Zealanders) and Australians.  We were trying to figure out a game to play.  I suggested flip cup, thinking that something as idiotic as flip cup would be a universal game.  I was wrong.  After teaching them how to play we played a total of 14 rounds!  They were so into it.  It was hilarious, they even started talking like Americans. 

We capped off our trip in Western with a hike up to Robert Louis Stevenson's grave.  For those of you that don't know, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote such classics as Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  He moved to Western Samoa in 1890 to find relief for a respiratory issue he had.  He eventually passed away here. 

We made a quick stop at the fish market before returning to Pago Pago for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the trip involved a lot of diving and hiking.  We went for a total of 5 dives while Andrea was here but i had a feeling that wasn't quite enough for her.  We wanted to do more but the weather wasn't the most cooperative.

It was a really good trip and it was excellent that Andrea was the first of my friends to come and visit me here.  It is no small feat. 

Now that i am done with my first semester of Grad school i can finally get ready for the next batch of visitors.....my mom, dad and brother who will be arriving in about 2 weeks......providing the island is still here and not blown off the map. You can thank Andrea for the amazing pictures and her underwater camera.

More updates after the storm has passed.

Mini Vacation

Its raining cats and dogs outside so i figured this is a good time for a blog update.

Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the long delay in posting anythere here but i have been super busy with work.  I was lucky enough though to be able to go to Honolulu for 10 days for a work trip.  The training was on leadership, which suffice it to say is a strange and complex subject.  One could spend their enitre life talking and learning about leadership and as i found out from some of the speakers, there are people that do just that.

My apologies, my loyal camera of 5 years recently went kaput so i am now in the process of saving up for a nice one.  So no pictures in this blog.

Travelling to Hawaii was a breeze, for some reason there are never enough people leaving the island to fill up the plane, unless there is a party or conference up in Hawaii.  I went to the airport at 9:30 to check in and right as i get there, the system goes down.  The woman behind the desk was saying "I don't know if you'll get on..."  I politely reminded her that there was still about 2 hours to go until the plane was slated to leave.  She then proceeds to tell me that checkin closes at 10 because the baggage handlers need to go home for a funeral.....only in Samoa is there no backup for situations like this.  Anyhow, the computers come back on and i get my ticket, along with an empty seat next to me.  Sweet.

I hate this flight, it is always freezing cold, super dry, operates at this horrendous time of day and is just long enough that you want to sleep but not long enough that you actually can.  The plane leaves American Samoa at 11:20 pm and arrives in Honolulu at 5:20 am.  Although i must admit watching the sunrise as you land in Honolulu is pretty cool.  That and immigration is a snap cause your the first plane of the morning, although the officers are not always the happiest.

The plane ride was ok except for the fact that i couldn't eat because i needed to get a fasting lab done.  American Samoa has lots of good qualities, one in particular is very tasty, if not so good for you, food.  The diet of canned wahoo and corned beef was begining to get to me so i decided i better check to see if my chloresterol levels are too high or if i am becoming pre-diabetic (happy to tell you that neither is the case, btw).  But this meant no eating since 6pm so naturally i was starving.

I arrive at the office where i am supposed to pick up the government vehicle.  My work was gracious enough to let me borrow the GV while i was there so that i could get some of the housekeeping things that i needed to do done (like go to the doctor, etc.).  First time getting onto the freeway was a little scary.  Being used to only being able to go 25 mph tops is a big transistion to going 50 mph.  But after about 2 mins the fear evaporated and was replaced with sheer exhilerance and joy as i cranked that puppy up to 55 (maybe 60 at some points) and cruised into downtown Waikiki.  I checked into my hotel to drop off my bags and hustled over to the clinic.  They did their tests and i went for the most glorious IHOP breakfast i've ever had.  Totally worth it, even if 2 glasses of orange juice cost me $8! 

The rest of the day involved a visit to the State Office where i got to sit with all of my big bosses and talk shop.  Because we are so isolated from our headquarters, they treat me like a foreigner when i come there.  Telling me where stuff is in the office etc.  Little do most know that I've been there numerous times already.  Got a sit down with my director Mr. Figueroa who told me how impressed he was with my performance over the last few months especially considering the fact we haven't had a supervisor until just about a month ago. 

After that my numerous meetings i got suckered into leaving early with the director to go watch the baseball series playoffs.  I gotta say its nice to have a boss that plays as hard as he works...now if only that would translate more in American Samoa.

The training was very good.  It was interesting to meet people from the different agencies that sent representatives.  It was mostly military (only 3 civilian agencies sent 2 reps each), but that is just due to the large concentration of military in Hawaii.  I had been lucky to see my friend Alden from American Samoa as we were transferring between Hawaii, unfortunately the punk gave me this funky Oregon bug that he had got in his travels and i successfully managed to infect 3 other people in the training (one of them actually had to miss a day of the training she was so sick, felt a little bad about that one). 

The training mostly focused on telling us what this course is all about and helping us understand our personality types.  Apparently i am a ENTJ which means I'm Extroverted (shocker), Intuitive (whatever that means), Thinking (i wonder what to cook for dinner tonight?) and Judging (he did what with who?).  Apparently ENTJ is the most common personality type in the US. Something i was surprised to learn, and here i thought i was special....boooo.

Over the weekend i finally got some down time.  I went to the north shore where i saw the biggest waves of my life and the insane daredevils that challenge the glory of mother nature in a fierce battle of wills.  It was all i could do not to scream in horror as i saw one of the surfers fall, thankfully he was ok. 

I also went to the Arizona Memorial (or rather Valor in the Pacific National Monument as it is now called)>  It was very interesting to learn all the details about the attack on Pearl Harbor and how even though it should've been a crushing blow to the US, we manage to survive and prevail.  It all boiled down to this war being the war of the aircraft carrier instead of the battleship.  And thankfully, none of our aircraft carriers were in port the day of the attack (interesting....).

It was nice to see mother nature taking over the old ship hull.  While i understand the need for posterity and respecting of a grave site, you think they could've emptied the gas tanks first before they made it a memorial.  To this day, gas is still spewing out of the sunken ship.  You can see the gas films on the water surface when you look down from the memorial.  I said a little prayer and was on my way.

Saturday night was Halloween.  I was upset because i was missing a party that i had a costume made for in American Samoa.  So i decided to go to this huge Halloween party in downtown Honolulu and check out the bars and music with some old friends from Samoa.  That's the perk of living here, is that the vast majority of people travel through or go to live in Hawaii once they are done with Samoa so you almost always have someone there to see.  Right as i arrive, i hear the sirens go off.  I ignore them and go into the block party, i pay the $5 cover to go see a band i was interested in, and after only 2 songs the cops come and bust up the party saying that there is a tsunami warning and the block party is being shut down.  Man, i had a costume and everything that i had spent $15 on!  I make it back to my hotel and go up to my room on the 30th floor (figured i would be safe from a tsunami up there) and sit in boredom for a few hours, the tsunami waves comes and goes making barely a 4 foot wave, no damage.  But it was funny seeing people rushing to gas stations, food stores stocking up on toilet paper of all things.  Thankfully around 10:20 pm a knock on my door invites me to the suite next door where stranded hotel guests are having their own tsunami Halloween party.  I happily injected myself into their plans and had a blast, plus it was a way closer walk home.

Sunday involved homework and shopping.  Thankfully i was able to get both done.  Its interesting the things your friends ask you to bring back for them when you go to Hawaii.....salad dressing, balsamic vinegar, good beer, stogies and of course KY liquid (we only have the jelly kind here in case you were wondering, which you probably weren't but now you will be prepared!). 

One thing that shocked me about Hawaii was the number of homeless people there were.  There are Samoans who are poor but you never see anyone sleeping out in the streets because there is always a fale (guest house) available and its just Samoan custom to show help to the needy.  Same reason why there are no orphanages here, children just get adopted by family members.  Seeing all of these homeless people made me feel better about Samoa.  It has its problems but at least they are minor compared to Hawaii's.  Way to go Samoa for keeping your culture intact.

Monday involved more work and training but i decided to go to the airport early and get my drink on in the Delta SkyClub bar.  I find that being sufficiently loose helps me deal with plane trips better.  I still love travelling but as i get older i am getting more and more nervous about riding in planes. 

Made it back to Samoa and had an awesome gift waiting for me.......they had finally paved my road!  No longer does my truck have to travel across the Samoan equivalent of the Oregon Trail to get to my house.  It is now a nicely paved road.  While i enjoyed my time in Hawaii i was ready to get back.  An island is an island is an island.  The only difference is one has more people and the other is mine!  Until next time.

Oh by the way, my friend Andrea is coming to visit next week for a month!  So excited to finally have someone from the mainland come and visit my little rock here in the South Pacific, my parents and brother will not be far behind in December.

I just hope the heat stays away until they leave. 

Manono Pics

Here are a few shots from the big palagi trip to Manono Island in Western Samoa.
Enjoy, and thank you to everyone who provided pics from their cameras.

NO BOSS, NO FUN

Hello Everyone,
My sincerest apologies for not writing a blog last month.  I have been extraordinarily busy with work and vacationing. 
My boss and friend John Womack recently departed the island.  Naturally he departed as soon as the new employee got here which means that i effectively went from the rookie to the senior person in the office in the timespan of 1 year.  Still not sure how that happened but alas.  John moved off to Tennesse.  Its too bad because i've never had a boss like him and i doubt i ever will. 

I recently went on a trip to Independent Samoa for their 50th anniversary.  It was crummy weather but i still really enjoyed myself.  Alice and I decided to rent a car.  It was a little awkward because it was a left hand drive car but people drive on the right side of the road there.  Suffice it to say i drove into oncoming traffic a couple of times but thankfully, noticed before anything bad happened. 

We got to go see UB40 who were brought down for the celebrations.  It was kinda funny because this band is pretty old and if i was anywhere else in the world i probably would not have cared about UB40 playing close to me but because i am in Samoa and the slightest hint of celebrity here sends people into a frenzy, it was a super excited experience.  I went with Alice, Lucy, Phil and little Albie but inevitably managed to run into a couple of other friends from Am Samoa.  We danced the night away to hits such as Red, Red Wine, Kingston Town, and Way You Do The Things You Do.  Good concert with proper lights and good sound, thankfully the weather cooperated that night as well. 

We spent the remaining of the trip shopping and sightseeing, we went to the Sua trench.  Which is essentially this hollowed out cave that is affected by the gigantic waves that pound the shore.  You can lie back and let the current carry you back and forth through the trench, it really is quite beautiful, if not a little scary to get down to.

We wrapped up our trip on Monday and headed back to American Samoa, of course the plane was delayed about an hour and had to circle around the runway 2 times in order to find a suitable point to land. 

It was a really good trip and i hope that i get to go back sometime soon.

That is all for now.  Although i am getting kinda lonely here, would someone from the mainland hurry up and come visit me already, its been over a year now people!

Flag Day Fun 2012!

Hello everyone!
So it was flag day this past week.  The date in which the American Flag was first flown in American Samoa 112 years ago.  It is jokingly called "Dependence Day" by the palagi community but all jokes aside, it is quite the spectacle.  I was here during Flag Day last year (local government gets it as a holiday sadly federal employees do not) and had to work as i had just arrived on the island.  This year however, i decided i was going to partake in the festivities and add a little local culture to my life.

Flag day centers around the Fautasi Boat races.  They are essentially 40-person canoes that race from the outskirts of the island, thru the harbor to the finish at the end of the harbor.  There is usually about 14 boats that race from different villages, some have two.  I was lucky to attend the launching of one of the newest boats from the village of Vatia.  It was super cool to see all the village men lift this gigantic boat out of its house on land and carry it to the ocean.  Then the aumauga (untitled men) waited patiently on the grass for their name to be called and told that they have been selected as a rower for the race.  Mind you, this all happened about 2 months ago!  Ever since then every team has been sleeping, eating and spending almost every waking minute together in preparation for the big race.

The preliminaries happened last Saturday.  A group of us hiked up to Blunt's Point, a old WW2 missle battery that has been turned into a mini memorial.  From there we could see the boats all the out in the bank getting ready to for the start.  Start times vary here (everyone is on island-time which means you either start 40 mins late or 20 mins early and it is up to you to figure out which) they got going at about 8:40 am. 

My village of Nuuuli (yes 3 u's pronounce New Uli) took first place in the qualifing round which was really nice to see, suffice it to say there was a little bit of a celebration going on in the village when i got home. 

Also on Saturday was the TMO Pago Pago Sevens Rugby Tournament.  Seven's mean that each half lasts only seven minutes and with only two halfs to a game, it means that before you know it one game is over and the next one is starting.  There were lots of local teams from various villages as well as some teams from Western Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, etc.  It was a balmy day so i only managed to stay for a little while before the ocean beckoned to me for a swim.  That night we attended the Pese and Siva (singing and dancing) competition in downtown.  As i've said before, Samoans are incredible choir singers, they're ability to harmonize comes naturally from years of church and impromptu singing sessions.  There was highschool group that did a number from the musical Wicked, made all the more bizare because they were a christian church, but it was good nevertheless.

Monday was work, nothing exciting there, expect that my boss is leaving in at the end of May which will suck as i will have to train the new employee and then the new boss when he/she gets here.  Still a little bummed about that.

 Because Flag Day this year (April 17th) results in a holiday falling on a Tuesday, festivities dictate that there be a second day to the celebration.  So essentially all of the government had a weekend within a week.  I unfortunately had to take leave to see the festivites but it was totally worth it.  I woke up around 8:00 am, ate breakfast and then my neighbor Kelly and I went to the Stadium to watch the festivities.  We arrived just at the end of the parade so we didn't get to see a whole lot, thankfully we arrived at just the right time to hear the Marine Forces Pacific Band play their special session.

I gotta hand it to these guys.  Aside from having one of the sweetest gigs in the Marines (they get to play for troops, crowds and at events like these), these poor guys had just gotten off the plane literally 4 hours ago at 4am after their flight was delayed a whooping 30 hours!  They were playing in the beating sun.  There was one trombone player who halfway through one of their numbers had to stop, vomit and then keep on playing.  If that was me i probably would've passed out let alone be able to vomit and then maintain my composure and play.  He was taken off the field with a supportive cheer from the crowd while the rest of the troupe continued on.  Nonetheless they beautifully played three numbers (Olympic Spirit, Troopers Salute and Stars and Stripes Forever). 

After that it was lunch so Kelly and i decided to go and cool down at the waterfall for a little bit.  That was just what the doctor ordered after a hot morning.  In the afternoon we went back to the Stadium to watch the Pese and Siva again.  This time you had entire villages performing for the dignitaries.  First up was the team from the outer Manu'a islands.  I had remembered going out there 2 months ago and remembered that is was all but impossible to find anyone between 4 and 6 pm.  This was the reason, they were rehearsing.  The dancing isn't all that special but the sheer number of people doing it in bright colors provides you a visual delight while their amazing singing stimulates your hearing.  They go on for quite a while with each village offering a myriad of songs for about an hour.  I ended the day at the pool with a little volleyball.  Nice way to spend the first day of a weekend within a week. 

Wednesday morning was the Fautasi boat race finals.  Steve (my upstairs neighbor) is the Coast Guard Lieutenant here.  It just so happened that the Coast Guard had brought down on of their brand spanking new National Security Cutters for Flag day, the USCG Wasche.  This boat was massive and being that we're friends he arranged for a group of us to get a private tour of the boat and to watch the fautasi boat races from atop of the flight deck.  We all owe him big time for this, it was a truly incredible experience and i'm so grateful i know him!  He told me he has a souvenir from the boat for me, which i am super excited to see.  I have to wait until he is done shlepping his Captain and Admiral around tomorrow or as he calls it passing the football.

This boat was fantastic!  It was incredibly large and for some reason seemed really understaffed.  Everything was brand new, there wasn't a speck of dust to be found.  Things were made so much better by the fact that almost the entire interior was air conditioned.  Something us palagi's don't always get.  It was funny, we got down to deck 3 where the A/C was a little weaker (not by much) and our tour guide Intelligence Chief Napp started complaining about how hot it was, naturally all of us palagi's starting laughing at his joke, none of us knew until later that he was being serious, which of course made it even funnier.  He showed us some really cool places.

They were setting up a tent on the flight deck with Danishes for us but as we were touring the bridge we saw the boats coming into the harbor.  Naturally, the race that was supposed to start at 8am had started at 7:30 am (like i said either 30 mins early or 30 mins late).  But this was alright as we got to go outside to the side and watch the race from super high up.  There were also these humungous binoculars mounted there which added an extra level of enjoyment.  Pago Pago (the village where my office is) won with my village Nuuuli coming in second.  After we said our goodbyes to guide Chief Napp (who said he was going to go take a nap, funny guy) we went to a nearby restaurant for brunch. 

After a quick stop at home we headed back to the Stadium for the singing and dancing.  Towards the end of each villages show, the paramount chief comes up to front to dance.  This is when you get the chance to run out there with them and throw them money.  Samoans will literally get $20 in one dollar bills and throw them in the air around the paramount chiefs dance routine and then causually join in.  Only in Samoa is it kosher to throw money at people when they're dancing, with their cloths on of course.

Then each village presents Sua (gifts) to the Governor.  This consists of the staple of canned tuna, wine, fabric, crackers, pisupo (we call it corned beef), and traditional fine mats.  The number of each of these varries but it is usually given in procession while the high talking chief of each village delivers their speech to the governor.  This goes on for quite a while.

This is this governors last flag day as governor.  His two and a half terms are up this year and he cannot be re-elected (i say two and a half because he was originally the lieutenant governor and became govenor halfway thru a term when the late govenor Sunia died in a plane crash).  He delivered his final words and i think he got a little choked up, i can't really tell as it was mostly in Samoan of which i am still pretty mediocre at. 

The festivities were concluded with the lowering of the flag and another performance by the Marine Band.

All in all, i would say i got me lots of culture this last weekend within a week.  Now i get to look forward to two workdays before i get another weekend!  Sweet!  If only i didn't have my mid-year performance review tomorrow.

Officially 1 year!

How time flies!
It has officially been 1 year since i moved to this beautiful rock in the South Pacific.  So for my new years (a little late i know) my resolution is to post at least 1 blog entry every month.

Happy Easter everyone!  Easter is quite a spectacle here.  I went to my first Easter mass here and was blown away by the productions that these churches put on.  I mean there was amazing rehearsed singing and dance routines to blow you sky high.  I was wondering why no Samoans seemed to be very in to their jobs the last month, and now i realize that it is because they are all so flipping busy before Easter practicing that they can't give a hoot about their jobs.

I mean these dance routines were elaborate, involving quite sophisticated rearranging of the choir in perfect step.  Samoans are amazing singers, i remember even during outreaches for work the ability of the community to harmonize so perfectly and effortlessly is really quite remarkable.  They don't have music because in truth they don't need it, the choir provides all the music they need.

Church went long, too long, i couldn't stay for it all.  It dragged on for 3 hours before i called it quits.  I felt guilty but i had gone to a Easter service the Saturday before so i guess that was alright.  It was quite cute, many Samoans came up to me and gave me their money for the offering just to make sure i would have something to put in the offering plate, which came around about 4 times by the way.

We had a relaxing Easter, did a brunch outside on the guest fale's (little gazebos).  The breeze was in swing, the water was coming up so it was a perfect day for some relaxing on the beach.  I made a trifle the day before which had to be eaten super fast or else it would melt.

We then decided that today would be a good day to brew some beer.  This being the first batch I've done on my own, i am kinda excited to see how it will turn out.  i am worried i might have burned a bit of the hops but we'll find out later i guess.

My house is a utter and complete mess and my neighbor's Coast Guard Captain is probably going to be over sometime this week so i gotta make it semi-presentable today when i get home. 

Love you all, and happy Easter.

Adventures of Sea, Sky and Turf

Dedicated to everyone who made my x-mas visit home so wonderful, especially my family and friends.

Alright, its official, we have entered summer here.  For those of you who are confused, winter in the northern hemisphere is summer in the southern hemisphere.  And summer here means rain, rain and more rain. Typically Samoa doesn't get to hot, rarely does the temperature rise above 92 degrees.  However, after it rains, it can get incredibly humid and if the wind isn't blowing that humidity can be such a drag.  There are days where i go through 3 sets of shirts when working in the field.

Recently i got to go on a work trip to the Manu'a islands with my co-worker Mila.  These are the outer islands of American Samoa.  There are very few people on these outlying islands and it can be incredibly difficult to get there.  Only cash is accepted so you typically leave with a lot of it in your wallet to cover all of your expenses.

We left on a monday from the airport here on the main island of Tutuila.  You ride in one of these dinky little planes that sits maybe 15 and you have to get weighed before they give you your boarding pass, i know its because they need to balance the plane but having to get weighed for a plane ride is not the nicest of experiences not only because you realize how much weight you've gained but also because you know your getting on a plane that could tilt and fall out of the sky if someone decided to have that extra big mac the day before. 

We were bringing a lot of stuff as we were going to be surveying while were there.  I found out that our checked baggage was overweight.  After choking over a whopping $52 we got on the plane.  The flight over to Manua takes about 50 mins and on a clear day you can see the Manua islands from Tutuila.  The landing was a little rough but we made it in one piece.  Sadly, all of our luggage did not.  Now this was surprising to me as not only had i paid for the extra luggage but also that this airport is hardly the bustling hub that you typically lose your baggage in.  There are maybe 4 flights a day so there really isn't any excuse.  The piece of luggage that they forgot to bring was the one piece that we really needed, our surveying rod.  After calling the office on the main island, they gave me some sob story about how they tought it was going to Western Samoa.  They said that they would put it on the next flight arriving wednesday.  Whatever.

We were picked up by our host family, someone who i had met through my connections with the park service.  He was very nice and drove us and our stuff over to the dock where a fishing boat was waiting to take us to the two smaller islands.  The reason you have to take a boat is because the airline that flies to the Manua islands never kept up their only plane that was capable of landing on the islands tiny runway, as a result you are required to take a plane to the larger of the 3 islands and then take a fishing boat to the smaller ones.  The fishing boat captains make a killing off of you charging your $150 one-way!  The ride there is always better than the ride back, this is probably because you are going with the waves.  We arrived on Ofu around 3 pm.  Got picked up by the National Parks guy Carlo and were dropped off at the lodge.

Its hard to describe how isolated these islands are.  There are maybe 15 cars on the whole island.  And maybe 500 people total.  My goal was to sign up 3 clients on this island but to my surprise, Mila went crazy and we were working until 7 pm signing up a total of 6 clients.  That night we played a couple games of pool before calling it a night.

The next day we started surveying.  It was an interesting experience because without a surveying rod or surveying flags you have to improvise (which is kinda the name of the game here in Samoa).  We found a big stick and established a baseline using my hip.  We tied a piece of surveying tape to the spot on the stick and used that as our baseline.  Then for surveying flags we had to go hack down the forest and get sticks that we could stick into the ground to show the client where they needed to plant their grass.  Not being that handy with a machete, one of our clients took pity on me and decided to help us out.  With his help we were able to survey all 6 clients in record time, even if it was pouring rain during the last half.

That night we were approached by a traveller named John.  He had been on the island for a couple of weeks taking photographs.  I guess his job is a proffessional photographer and he has a studio or something.  He asked me if we were heading back to the larger island tomorrow or not.  I told him that we were but probably not until 11am or so.  He said that he needed to get on the 11am flight and therefore needed to leave by 7am or so.  Being the nice guy that i am i re-arranged my schedule to have our boat driver pick us up at 7am seeing as we were done with surveying on this island anyway. 

 

The boat ride back the next morning was rough, it always is going back.  Thankfully dramamane and sleeping usually works for me.  We arrive at the boat dock on Tau and are picked up by our host Junior.  John asks me if i would be willing to give him a ride to the airport.  Seeing as we were going that way anyway i told him fine.  We stopped at a store that is run by the airline lady so that he could check what time he was supposed to be at the airport (the flights have erradict schedules and you typically don't know when the plane is going to leave until that day).  She told him be there by 10 am.  Seeing as it was 8am i asked him if he would be alright coming with us to do some of our work. He said he didn't want to be stuck at the airport for 2 hours.  After a little bit of driving we arrived at our homestay in Fitiuta which is a couple mins from the airport.  At about 10:20 AM he asks if we can give him a ride to the airport.  We get there and low and behold he is too late, they have already weighed everyone, balanced the plane and sent the manifest into Pago.  This guy lost his cookies.  He was screaming at the airline lady and blaming me for him being late!  After all i've done for this guy he has the audacity to blame me for his misgivings.  After clearly explaining to him that making a scene wasn't going to help his cause and making sure he understood that his missing his plane was not my fault and that i was NOT going to pay for his accomodations for the next 2 nights, the plane arrived.  Naturally without our surveying rod, great!

The next 2 days were uneventful, we surveyed, we swam, we ate.  On friday we arrived at the airport early to make sure that we were there on-time.  We got our bags weighed and then ourselves.  I set up my hammock and took a little nap before hearing the plane land.  As we were boarding i noticed that all of our bags were not loaded yet, i asked the pilot who said that "we are overweight as it is, gotta leave some of it behind."  I convinced him to leave my bag and take the contracts with us.  We got on the plane and the pilot tired once to take off but had to abort.  He tried a second time to take off and again had to abort.  And just for good measure he tried one more time to take off but had to abort.  Turns out that there is a shimmy in the nose of the plane preventing a safe takeoff.  There was a faint hope that the mechanic might come and fix it before dark fell but as the sun was getting lower and lower that hope faded faster and faster. 

Now i had heard a rumor that McConnell Dowell (a local construction firm that was building a brand new road and sea wall for an island of maybe 15 cars) was finished and had chartered a boat to take their equiptment back to Pago.  So i went to the store and with my last $20 bought some beer, that night, Mila and I went to the construction house where everyone was playing pool.  After a couple of drinks i managed to figure out that the boat would be arriving at first light and would depart once all the equiptmemt was loaded. 

That morning we went to the boat dock and saw the boat.  I went on board to talk with the captain who said that he couldn't allow us passage with them unless he got coast guard approval first.  Well geez, the coast guard is my upstairs neighbor so i called him about 8 times before he finally answered and gave the approval to the boat captain to take 12 people so long as he didn't charge.  The 12 spots filled up quickly.  Loading took the better part of the day and right around 1 pm we saw the government plane flying into the airport.  Like some mass exodus out of egypt everyone who had been waiting on or for a spot on the boat bailed to go to the airport.  Can't say i blame them, a 1 hour plane ride or a 9 hour boat ride, which would you choose?

I decided that even if i did get on the plane, all of our stuff wouldn't.  I figured the boat was going to be the sure thing and the plane was going to be a maybe.  At 2 pm we loaded up and right as we were pushing off everyone's phone's went beserk.  Turns out that everyone who bailed for the airport were not able to get on the flight due to the fact that plane is required to make a test flight prior to taking on passengers.  They all begged the captain to wait for them, but the captain was not about to break his schedule.  Sure enough right as we were leaving the boat dock cars were flooding into the harbor.  Men were grabbing their hair and throwing stuff on the ground, upset that they had missed their only escape from the island until next thursday.  I felt bad for them but had a sick sense of self-gratitude for going with my gut about riding the boat. 

The boat ride was uneventful but nice.  The wind was at our back, the sea was calm.  We were only doing about 7 knots but that was because we were so heavy what with all the equiptment on board.  The crew were incredibly hospitable.  They invited us up into the wheel house were i got to drive the boat.  We then went downstairs and watched a movie.  It was clear that everyone had seen this movie too many times because they all knew when the suspensful moments would come up and were very vocal with their "oooohhhs" and "ahhhhhs".  They even fed us, turkey tail and cabbage, yum!

We arrived in Pago 9.5 hours later at around midnight.  The next morning i got my refund from the airline company and blew it on groceries!

It was definatly my biggest adventure to date in Samoa and my last with Mila, she has now gone off to Las Vegas to live with her family.  Nothing went as it was supposed to but that is sorta the name of the game with these islands.

Phew, long blog, my hands are tired now.

Until next time.