Post Mainland ramblings

Talofa all,
This is my first post since returning from my brief stint on the mainland.  Mainland, it's kinda weird that i refer to the U.S. that way.  I guess its somewhat of an island charateristic.

I remember when i used to love flying.  As i grow older my enthusiasm is waining. I have become a nerotic traveller.  I freaked out at the airport leaving Am Samoa cause i realized just as i was about to walk thru immigration that i had left my travel pillow in the car that had dropped me off.  I quickly ran outside and ordered them to turn around fast.  I think i actually heard the wheels squeal as they careened down the road to get to me in time before immigration closed.  For those of you who are wondering if it was really necessary......trust me it was!  Especially when you are all excited cause you got an exit row and then you see who your sitting next to and suddenly you completely understand why most airlines make large people pay for two seats.  I mean if there was an emergency, i would need a couple tubs of CRISCO to get this guy out of the puny exit.

The U.S. was great.  I got to spend 5 days at home in MN.  Got to see a lot of people although you inevitably never get to everyone.  And for all of those i missed, or was unable to full fill promises to, i apologize.  Someone was telling me that quite often they will plan trips home and not tell friends so they can visit only family, or vice-verse.  Sadly, I'm too much like my parents for that to ever work.  There would be no way that i could come back and not see both sets.

Ironically, after leaving MN i was sorta ready to come back to Am. Samoa.  It was strange, i couldn't wait to leave and after 5 days i was ready to go back to rock.  This island is a cesspool of filth and religious zealous but it definitely grows on you.  Its probably because the filth is masked by the stunning landscape and the religious zealous is so culturally ingrained that you accept it as normal. 

So USDA is having a food drive and the we're trying to collect a certain poundage of canned food for the shelter.  Well this box was sitting there looking very pathetic, all empty.  So i decided to fill it a little to give my coworkers some incentive.  It did work.....for a day.  Mila brought in 2 cans of tuna fish to donate but alas one day didn't have lunch so she took them out again.  Below is a rendition of the act and our boss's reaction to her antics.  I love this office!

It has been a busy week here.  I had lots of Threatened and Endangered Species work to do.  All 72 of our contracts needed review.  Which naturally took 7 days to complete.  UGG, i have never been so happy as the day i finished the last one of those.  Sadly i will probably have to do them again for the next sign up in September. Joy of joys.

Mila and I went certifying yesterday and i think i may have found the first legitimate sandy beach on this island.  Due the fringing reef around the island they are sort of hard to find.  This is in Aoa (not to be confused with Aua, which was where i thought we were going) which is on the far east side of the island, over the mountain ridge on the north-east side.  It is a really quaint little village where the only sounds you hear is the ocean lapping on the shore.  I really wanna go back someday and swim, ideally with a Samoan who can ask permission in Samoan for me. Below is a picture from atop the ridge.

There has been a nasty bug going around.  Everyone has been sick.  I got it right after i arrived and am done with the sniffles and aches and just going thru the coughing phase.  Although i made the mistake of just buying regular Tussin instead of Robitussin.  It's clear and sugar free and i am dreading having to take it after my NyQuill runs out.  I mean the Cherry NyQuill tastes bad enough, i can't imagine what the clear stuff is gonna taste like. Maybe i'll pull a Mary Poppins and mix some sugar in.

Next week i get to go Manu'a again.  I'll probably stay for the weekend as i will be there anyways and Jesse and Sarah wanna go.  Mila is going to Hawaii on Monday for a training for the whole week.  Good for her, that poor girl is going crazy i think.  She needs some time with her family and some pampered Mila time.  Working in a office with 4 men as the only woman must be taxing.

Well that's all for now.

More to come.

Nick

P.S. i love getting mail so if anyone is interested in sending letters, postcards, goodies boxes, care packages my address is:

P.O. Box 983011

Pago Pago, AS 96799

going native!

So this was my first week as an Acting DC and i have to say i can't wait to go back to regular soil con next week.  I mean 2 days into it and i already had massive mountain of paperwork on my desk.  So the picture your seeing below is me in my eia or lava lava.  Believe it or not this is what formal attire consists of here in American Samoa.  I had to sacrifice my friday night and saturday morning for it but of course this was worth it for the opportunity to wear my man-skirt.

It was a great weekend.  On Saturday we drank heavily and went to Casey's house and had a beer pong tourney.  Of course we had to use water because the the cups kept getting filled with bugs but none-the-less people had lots of fun.
There's a batch of NOAA interns here who are all super cool.  I was going to tag along with them on their adventure to western samoa.  Unfortunatly, my recent car issues and my need to come home before my training sorta restricts my fundage.  It's alright, i know i'll get a chance to go there soon.

Jesse and I went snorkelling at Airport beach which was awesome.  He's right, hands down the best snorkelling so far on this island.  

So yeah i was going to be home July 21st thru 24th which is only 3 days.  Luckily when trying to book my flight i find out i have to leave Tuesday the 12th in order to get to the training on time, suffice it to say i'll have more time to visit home cause the training doesn't start until the 19th.  Although, i'm not sure what i'll do for the weekend after the training.  Boise might be fun but i'm skeptical.

This island needs some serious sex ed here.  I think that the people here are so religious and respectable that things like sex go un-talked about until its too late.  I feel like i have to be a father to some of these women and i'm only 25.  The other day i saw a girl who couldn't be more than 15 walking around with a baby.  It's an issue here because sex can be so downplayed by the heavy religous influence.

So to end on a sad note.  While driving to work this morning i hit a dog.  They are stupid here and dart out into traffic all the time.  I slammed on my brakes but still managed to run over the dog, first with my front wheel then with my back wheeel.  I stopped right away and heard the dog scampering and whining away.  Tried to chase after it to see how bad it was hurt but it took off.  Running full bear so i guess that is a good sign.  The locals were cracking up seeing this stupid palagi care so much about a dog.  Dogs are an issue here, no body cares for them or bothers to get them spayed or neutered, its sad cause prior to moving here i was a total dog fan and now i just don't know anymore.  I did make an appointment for the office parking lot dog to get spayed but of course i'm 70th on the waiting list.  She'll probably be pregnant again by time.

Alright, good night.  So excited for the long weekend.

New Roomate and injury!

(this is an update to a posting i drafted last week, apologies for the delay in posting)
Hello all,
I apologize for the lenght between my postings.  Well its official, my new roomate TauFau has officially moved in.  She is originally from western samoa and was living with Sarah (my former coworker).  Sarah has unfortunatly left Am Sam to go be a DC in Oregon.  Not wanting to be that cruel person who tosses someone out on the street i agreed to let TauFau stay with me in my apartment.  She is very clean which is great and we struck a deal whereby i'll buy the food while she cooks and cleans.  Sounds like a match made in heaven if i ever saw one.

Work has been rough this last week.  Had my first little argument with a producer on wednesday.  I was trying to explain to him (thru Mila of course) why i wouldn't certify his vegetative barrier.  The reasoning was that his existing barriers which were still under the practice lifespan of 5 years were not functioning properly.  There were gaps, weeds and the barrier needed some serious trimming.  Now i've told him this for the last 4 times that i've gone out there and he should know that it needed to be fixed before i come out again.  So this time i thought i would play a more firm role.  Which lets be honest, for me isn't really that serious.  I think i know where it went wrong tho.  I was walking and ended up getting ahead of him and was atop at his new vegetative barrier while he was still below me.  So then not only did it seem i was talking down to him but due to our positions i really was talking down to him.  I have to remember that posture is big here because i remember Mila telling me in the car after we left that he said he wanted to throw me off the mountain.  But she called him Friday to apologize for me and he seems to be ok with it and will hopefully get the corrections done and then i can pay and get rid of this guys contract.

Sarah had her goodbye party at 2 dollar beach on weds.  She made a lot of food which was too bad because not a lot of people showed up.  I think she was somewhat upset about that.  But it was a great time.  2 dollar beach has a little BBQ pit and a gazebo as well as two fales (open air guest houses) along the beach.  We stayed up until 3am drinking and then crashed in the fales for the rest of the night.  Woke up in the morning and went for a swim in the ocean, couldn't have been better.  I miss Sarah but am sort of happy she is gone as i have been going going going since her and Tau moved in last Saturday and relieved to finally have some time to myself.  That and i finally get to steal her office space, two screens woopie!

Also i caved in waiting for the internet to come here and went to ASTCA and purchased an air card.  Granted it is slower that dial-up but at least now i can check my e-mail without having to drive to Carl Jr's.  So at least now i have some semblance of a normal life at home.  Although, i am still going get faster internet, i just have to wait until the end of the month for the 2-way cable to come my way. 

A huge storm rolled through on Friday night, with me being tossed from Michaelas birthday that night, i still woke up to the thunder and lightning, suffice it to say the creek outside my house was roaring the next morning.

The next week was very busy with certification and office work, my boss was out of the office for the whole week so it was just Mila and myself.  We managed to get quite a bit done although it may not have looked like that on paper :( 

Friday night i invited some people over for my official housewarming party.  Taufau and Mila were cooking up a storm and made some awesome dishes for us including poulasami (young taro leaves with coconut milk).  It was an adventure as we husked, scraped and squeezed the coconut milk all ourselves.  Which for some reason made the end result incredbily good.  We were playing Wii and i guess got a little excited so someone decided to quiet us down by throwing a coconut onto my roof.  Never did find out who it was.  I guess there is a lot of passive aggression here.

Saturday, i went with Tau to watch her paddling club's races.  It was fun and enjoyable.  There was a spectacular wipe out by one of the boats and i sorta felt bad for not being able to stop laughing.  They were close to shore and thankfully no one was hurt and after bailing themselves of water in their boat, went on to win their heat....way to go guys!  That night was a night out on the town that i would prefer not recapp as i probably made a fool out of myself in more ways than 1. 

Sunday i went on a hike to the tide pools on the northern side of the mountain with a couple of friends.  Aside from twisting my ankle (which i am paying for now by walking around like a cripple) was absolutely stunning.   It was a fairly easy hike and the view was just incredible, my only regret (other than twtisting my ankle obviously) was forgetting to bring my camera. 

Alright more pain pills. Later.

A,E,I,O,U fagalamonu

Talofa all!
Another amazing day in American Samoa!  It was a perfect field day, the sun was out but there was a constant, strong breeze which mean that i only sweated thru 3/4 of my t-shirt rather and all of it.  These last two days we have been hiking up this mountain to certify this group of contracts (i think they're all related).  Anyway, because i have my Samoan Language class
in the afternoons here we've been having to get out and going really early in order to get as much done as possible before my time contrainsts drag me back into the office and off to the college.  We hiked up the easy way, partly because it saves time and also to keep our sanity and wits about us while certifying.  I can see myself being so tired that i just let stuff slide which CANNOT HAPPEN!
Anyways no one cares about work.  The hike was amazing and what a view.  There was a rainshower happening off the coast so you could see the light being refracted across the ocean, it was like a wall of rainbow, quite spectacular.  I think i managed to impress the family with my medicore and i stress mediocre language skills, i got hello, goodbye and sign here!  Still need to figure out bathroom. 

Mila got her first taste of the Camelback today on our hike, which she only felt mildly humiliated about using.

I've been taking this Samoan language class.  The class is fun enough but i think that we are spending far too much time on learning songs.  The teachers who are teaching this class are used to it lasting a whole semester, we only have 2 hours a day for a week (10hrs).  Anyway we were singing this constanant song which goes thru all the samoan consonants (there are only 12 by the way, and 5 vowels), to me it sounded like they were mumbling the beginning part so i just asked what it said and the teacher insisted on going thru the whole thing again.  The whole class looked pissed, i really just wanted to know what she was saying i didn't need the whole song refrained.  But none-the-less its a decent class, its helping me understand the structure of the language which is a third of the battle.  The other third is pronunciation and learning the words, and then i guess the context.  Ok so my math is about as bad as my Samoan, big deal.  I do wish we were going a little faster in the class.  There are some students who are getting it down right away, and others who are taking a little while longer (i.e. me!)

 Went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 last night.  Tuesday nights are cheap movie nights and to be honest its just nice to sit in the A/C for a little while.  I think i've been going to a movie every Tuesday for the last 3 weeks, its sorta become my ritual.  That and my neverending battle with the cockroaches, i've since driven them out of the bathroom, but they've established a beachhead in the bottom left pantry so i plan on striking later tonight.  I gotta get this done cause i think France (aka Jesse) needs their pesticide back.  If this keeps up i might go all Manhattan Project on their asses by calling the terminator, but lets hope it doesn't come to that. 

Well i found out that i won't be getting internet any time soon.  Turns out that my house is not in the line of sight to the internet antenna ontop of the mountain.  Apparently some pesky trees are in my way.  Didn't realize trees had the power to stop internet signal, i learned something today!  Normally i wouldn't be that bummed about this but i sorta am cause i paid them $100 to install this 4 weeks ago and kept getting the runaround from their install department.  Finally they come out just to tell me that they can't do it.  Hmmm, seems to me like while you were waiting for parts you could've come out and have seen if it was even possible first.  but i'm not bitter, you hear me? not bitter.  They said that the broadband will be by my house by the end of June, which will probably mean August with island time (multiply all time frames by 2). 

Alright its time to get out of Carl Jr's.  Excellent food and excellent internet.
More to come.

Rapture!

Hi all, So i know your as upset as i am that the rapture didn't happen.  I decided i would wait until after the supposed date to post my next entry just in case no one was around to read it. 

I apologize for not posting something before.  I still don't have internet after 3.5 weeks of waiting and its starting to piss me off.  It has been an exciting week.  This week Mila and I spent the majority of the week going out and certifying our vegetative barriers that were planned for our EQIP contracts.  Some of the clients installed them poorly and i had to tell them to fix them before i would certify it.  Something i might be more stringent about than my predecessors.  Others baffled me with their ingenuity.  I had one person who used old cardboard boxes to control weeds along his barrier line as a result his vetiver was the best i've seen yet considering it was only installed a couple of weeks ago. Another who was planting it on such a steep slope that in order to keep the grass from slouching, put in anchor points and attached a string between them that serves to keep the grass upright.  I have to say that these types of ideas are so simple and so effective that i am tempted to encourage others to try them.  

One of the more ingenious producers and her son.

Me shooting the slope to confirm that the barrier was installed according to the contour of the slope.

One day Mila and I hiked up a mountain to go and certify one of our producers.  His land was located at the tip of a mountain flat where him and his family grow taro, bananas and coconuts for sustenance and for minimal sale.  After climbing up that beast of a mountain and certifying his lines i was feeling a little lightheaded.  He graciously gave us all coconuts to sit and drink, wow!  That was the best thing i had had in a while.  Not only did it quench my thirst but it envigorated me with energy for the climb back down.  I was later told that marathon runners in Hawaii often drink canned coconut juice because it is filled with electrolytes and gives them a boost for their endurance. I personally really enjoyed the meat that was inside them, totally reminded me of Cambodia although for some reason i remember not really enjoying coconuts while i lived there.  It's strange how you end up liking something only to have grown up not liking it at all.

This last weekend i went for a hike with some of my palagi friends.  It was a relatively easy hike by American Samoa standards but don't let that fool you, it throughly kicked my butt and made me realize how ridiculous out of shape i am.  I think i might have to start exercising a little bit more.  Although i have lost 5 pounds since moving here, probably due to the amount of water my body loses on a regular basis due to sweating.  During that hike by the time we got to to the summit my shirt was completely covered in sweat, it was somewhat disgusting.  I spent the remainder of the evening helping Mila with her resume.  She is debating going back to Las Vegas to be with her husband and other child so i wanted to make sure her resume was as good as possible before she applied for a position there.  Her resume was really good, the only problem was some tenses issues.  

Super pumped about next week, i'm taking a Samoan language class from 1-3 Monday thru Friday.  My boss has been kind enough to allow me to do this on work time which is great!  He said that i probably won't be fluent after just one week but i at least should be able to start understanding the structure and pick up on basic words, which is what i'm hoping for.  The language is rather confusing, there are multiple ways to say the same word to have a different meaning.  Its not like chinese where you alternate the inflections to mean something else.  Here's a good example.  Fa'a Mole Mole means please in Samoan well in a fit of confusing i said Fa'a Mule Mule which means butt (like your behind).  Then Mila told me that if you just say Mole Mole it means smooth so i said Fa'a Mole Mole, Mole Mole, Muley Muley or please smooth butt.  Suffice it to say that had her rolling for a good part of the day! Well with that little snafu i will leave you.  More later.

My amazing co-worker Mila, without who not only would i not be able to do my job but probably go insane with boredom at work on some days.  She's an awesome gal, so friendly and eager.  Its kinda bothersome because you feel like your optimism is nothing compared to hers.

Ta'u, Ofu and Olosega

 

Hey everyone!  So i had the awesome experience of going to the outer islands of Ta'u, Olosega and Ofu last week.  We had to fly in this dinky little plane and land on a runway that ends way to quickly.  It was surprising, we (my coworker and I) didn't have to go through any sort of security whatsoever.  In fact, the only security i saw was them rifling through my checked baggage to see if there was anything hidden in there but no metal detector, no x-ray.  I guess no one really cares about small planes going to these islands.  

So we had to fly to Ta'u because the runway on Ofu was damaged from an earthquake.  Ta'u is the biggest of the outer island  chain and according to legend it is where Samoan culture first began.  It is essentially one massive dome that contains 3 main settlements.  As you can imagine this place is pretty remote, there aren't that many cars and unlike Tuituila (the main island) no buses to take you around. Mila and I were only there for 24 hours and just to get some contracts signed.  But it was fun none-the-less, i can't wait to get back there in July for some more serious sightseeing.  We were picked up my Keli who works for Land Grant and is sort of the guide for federal workers on this remote island.  He picked us up and took us to the wharf where we boarded a tiny little fishing boat to travel across the channel to Ofu.  The water was pretty rough so the trip took about 1.5 hours.  Along the way you could see flying fish popping out of the water and cruising across the surface before ducking back in again.  Ofu and Olosega are two seperate islands but their proximity to each other allows for a bridge between the two (see the picture).  We got our signatures and needed to get back to Ta'u before nightfall so we boarded the boat again.  It was pretty funny being treated like the prince of england by these big Samoan men thinking that it was somehow necessary for them to help me onto a boat.  All of these guys got into the water and steered the boat clear of the reef so that we didn't run aground. 

Poor Mila got lifted up and right as she nearly made it onto the boat a big wave came and inundated her.  She's was a good sport about it though.  On the way back, the seas were much rougher so you had to hold on to something and you pretty much got sprayed with seawater the whole time.  On the ride back the men operating the boat decided to do some fishing.  They were catching what looked like Tuna to me they kept calling it Aku and when i asked what the English name for it was they replied Bandito, which i knew was wrong cause it looked like Tuna but i let it slide.  I looked it up when we got back and sure enough it was Skipjack Tuna.  They caught 8 of them so for dinner that night guess what we ate?  If you sear it and then get some soy and wasabi dipping sauce it can taste really, really good.  I've yet to find a place on Tuituila that sells Tuna aside from the occasional store which is sporadic and roadside vendors who only seem to have it some of the time. 

Keli let us stay at Land Grants house near the Highschool in Ta'u which was alright, except for that no one told me that there wouldn't be a bed (if i had known i probably would've packed my camping gear).  So as a result that wasn't the best night sleep.  The following morning we did a mini tour of the island and picked up a stranger who turned out to be a really nice guy and of course started talking about religion which is always fun.  He was also heading back to Pago Pago.  Caught our flight at noon and then the flight back was only like 20 mins.  And then it was back to work.  

My shipment finally arrived, so i finally have decorations and my tv and game systems.  My bike came as well but i think the quick release mechanism for the front wheel got lost somewhere in the moving process. Still waiting for internet, they said the would come sometime this week so hopefully they're right.  Well that's all for now.  Till next time.

Easter

Hi all.
Happy Easter!  It's kind of a big deal here, most of the locals got Friday off for good Friday (naturally, i didn't).  I didn't think i'd ever find a job that got more holidays off than mine, and poof i found it.  I did a lot this week, was outside in the field almost every day which was great for my health, not so much for my sunburn.  Mila (my co-worker and translator) and I went to a couple of piggerys where we surveyed for resource concerns.  So NRCS cost-shares to farmers to improve their ag systems.  Here in American Samoa, there are a lot of pig farmers.  These piggerys are typically pretty small scale, and the pigs are cooked in these 'umus' which are basically underground ovens with hot coals on top.  Anyways, most of these piggerys are cleaned by just washing them down which is causing severe pollution to local streams and waterways.  NRCS will cost-share a dry-litter composting piggery which basically is a fancy new holding pen where they use woody debris like woodchips which mix with the pig shit to produce compost that they can use on their bananas and taro crops, pretty ingenious huh?  The only issue is that woodchips are tough to come by so a lot of these farmers are violating their contracts by having these fancy new holding pens and continuing to wash them down, defeating the whole purpose of the cost-sharing.  Thankfully, Land Grant finally got a industrial chipper that they can bring out to these producers to help them manage their wood chip stocks. 

Went for another hike to Larson's Cove on saturday and met up with my Samoan Family (as they like to call it, i think they've officially adopted me).  You can tell we had a rain event over the week because there was a lot of trash washed up on the shore, which sorta took away from the beauty of the place, but it was fun none-the-less.  When we got back, they insisted on feeding and dressing me, even tho i insisted that i wasn't hungry and that my old cloths were just fine.  It was a losing battle and i ended up leaving with a load of soup and dressed from head to toe in red.

That night i went to a BBQ at a friends house, there seems to be this core group of off-islanders that always hang out together so that has been nice in the sense that you see these people at least 2, if not 4 times a week.  All really good people, incredibly friendly.  They all accepted me into the click (not that there really is one) and have just been the bees knees.  That following Sunday, Michaela (definitely the social matriarch of the island) had everyone over for Sunday brunch so lots of food and momosas. 

I am super pumped that i get to go to the outer islands tomorrow.  We're going there to do some GPS surveying and get some contracts signed.  My only regret is that we can't stay longer, i'm secretly hoping something catastrophic happens with the plane (preferably after we arrive) that forces us to stay a little longer.  Ofu and Ta'u are supposed to have some of the most pristine beaches in the world.  Everything is cash only there so i gotta take out an advance on my card which is too bad cause i have to put the card into the ATM 3 times to get enough.  My co-worker Sarah is leaving for the better part of a month on Monday so it'll just be Mila and I until my boss John gets back next week.  And with only 2 flights a week from Hawaii and here it'll be interesting.  And the Budget officer should be back in the office on tomorrow so i should be able to get my travel reimbursement put through which will be sweet as i need to pay off that card by the 30th. 

Well with that i will leave you begging for more.  I promise lots of pics from Ofu and Ta'u when i get back on Wednesday.  Later.

An old piggery that will be replaced with a composting one.

Soil erosion so significant that it needs to be stopped with a retaining wall, this guy could probably use some more money for a veg barrier but thats for a different time.

Stunning view of Masefua bay, a tiny town on the other side of the island.

 

An amazing view from atop the road to Masefua and you can see a rain shower in the distance.