Last Sunday after another ice cream cone from McDonald’s I decided to make it my mission to find the best ice cream in Apia. I tried two places today- a little road side stand, and Lily’s Cakes and Cones. I think Lily’s might be my favorite so far, and after being disappointed in the road side stand I think I might very well stick with Lily’s and this grocery store stand that also has some pretty decent ice cream. In other words, my quest didn’t last too long.
Classes today were pretty short. We finished up our presentations on the village, did a short language activity, and then visited BEN’s School of Art. BEN stands for Beautiful Expressions of Nature and is one of the few art schools in the country. Traditional art forms such as singing and dancing are very much alive; but some of the other forms such as sculpture and painting are almost non-existent. The owner of the school has made it his mission in live to give visual art a more prominent place in Samoan culture. He’s working almost single-handedly which I found incredible. Since the government of Samoa does not really have funds set aside for projects such as his he depends on oversees grants and small projects that he and his students make for churches. One of his carvings was displayed at the Atlanta Olympics and is now in Las Vegas. Another is part of a just completed Chinese sculpture garden. To me the most amazing part was his workshop. His current goal is to turn part of his workshop into a museum with the hopes that it will become the first national museum of Samoa. In the middle of the workshop is a huge hollowed out tree trunk, probably 10x15 feet on which are the beginnings of a new carving. All around are other smaller logs which will soon become sculptures themselves. The completed sculptures which fill up the first half of the room are equally impressive. How do you take a cylinder and turn it into a three-dimensional picture? I think that is something that will always amaze me.
As I was walking around Apia this afternoon in the heat I realized that I’d forgotten another village story and this one I just have to share with you. There are lots of stray dogs or maybe just dogs in general in Apia. It’s one of the few complaints tourists make. One of the first days we were here we were told that they have a tendency to walk along beside you and then all of a sudden they’ll just turn and bite you. One afternoon in the village I was walking with Mirna, RaEsa, and RaEsa’s Samoan mom. We were going down to the little shop to buy something- I don’t remember what exactly. As we were walking along the side of the road we heard a car coming so we moved over into the grass and watched it pass. I turned back around to see this pretty ugly grey dog standing next to me. It looked almost like a greyhound but I knew it wasn’t. The first thing that came to my mind was the warning about dogs that like to sneak up on people. I searched my memory for the correct word to yell at the dog but before I had a chance to open my mouth that “mangy mutt” to steal my grandfather’s term bit me! I was so mad. I couldn’t believe it! That stupid dog actually bit me! On my leg! All I wanted to do was punch him in the nose but I think he knew it was coming and took off running across the yard. I mean serious! What had I ever done to it! Mira and Esa of course were almost crying from laughing so hard. I was so angry. That didn’t help. They thought that seeing me ready to beat that darn dog was the best part. Thinking about it I’m still angry and I can guarantee you that if that dog ever comes near me again he wont be biting any more innocent pass-bys. The End. (Side note- he didn’t draw blood and they don’t have rabies. It was more just a lot of hurt pride and a small bruise…but still! The nerve!)
