Solosolo

The weekend was amazing. I love spending time with families out in the villages. Yes, I want my research paper to be done to the best of my ability, but I don’t want to look back on my time here and regret that I spent more hours in the library than I did seeing Samoa and enjoying my semester abroad. That’s actually been one of my pet peeves. Most of the other students spend so much time freaking out and stressing about their paper. I came here to get away from having to worry about my grades. Let me just give you a little example of what I mean, and please don’t take it the wrong way. I love everyone in the group, but its just frustrating that they are spending so much time worrying about their ISPs. So I turned 21 last week and naturally wanted to go out to celebrate. Almost everyone went to dinner, which was nice, but then everyone but two of the girls decided that they had too much work to do to hang out anymore. Ya know ok that’s fine. I had fun at dinner- but it was just a little annoying that they are putting that high of an emphasis on work. And its been like that for almost everything. It’s so hard to get people to go out and do things because they “always have work.” Their loss not mine though right? And yeah, I might regret this if I get a B instead of an A on my paper but at this point I’m going to say that I have no regrets about the time I’ve spent on things other than work.

Take for example Friday. I went to Palolo Deep to do some of my research. I think I might go back tomorrow as well. Palolo Deep is a marine reserve. Unfortunately it doest have any fales, but it does have some small shelters and a few picnic tables that were really nice for doing work. Oh and its only WS$2 = US$0.70. I spent a few hours sitting in the shade and coming up with my outline, and then decided to put on my mask and go for a swim to investigate what is supposedly some of the best snorkeling in Samoa. I made the mistake of going at low tide so I was pretty much belly dancing over the coral, but it was so worth it. After about ten minutes of fighting the current the bottom suddenly dropped off and I was staring at the most amazingly beautiful and untouched underwater aquarium. The bottom was about twenty feet deep, and completely lined with purple and green coral. Hundreds of tiny fish flitted about in the light streaming down from the surface, and even more swam around the rocks and coral at the bottom and along the side. In the middle were two long eelish looking fish. Were they eels or sea snakes? I don’t know, but they were really cool. One of the rainbow fish, for lack of knowing its actual name, took a liking to me and swam by my side for a little bit. He actually ran into my hand and then swam around behind me and bit my toes. It was so awesome, and for the entire time I was in the water I was completely alone. It was one of those moments when you stare at the scene before you and wonder what you did to deserve to see such beauty and know with absolutely certainty that there has to be an all-knowing God who created it because that cannot be chance.

I came back and was then in a little bit of a rush to make it out to Solosolo where Niko and I spent the weekend with our friend Kareti. We met Kareti our first week here on one of our drop offs. She has wanted us to come visit her family for three months and we finally had the free time to do it this weekend. I spent most of my weekend with her older sister who is 22. It was awesome because they actually didn’t insist on treating us like guests and let us help with the cooking and watching little kids and stuff. Actually, all the little kids loved me. The first night I was there alone since Niko couldn’t make it until Saturday. It was so funny because they couldn’t figure out if I could understand Samoan or not. There were about 6 little kids from the family and neighbors shooting questions at me in Samoan. About half of them I understood and the other half were way over my head but they thought it was hysterical. Oh and then there was Maori dance practice which I took part in, which also cracked them up because come on- a palagi just doesn’t make that face. It was fun. I also said got to pray the Rosary with them- the first time I haven’t had to say it alone since I got here. The only problem was that it was in Samoan and I realized that I didn’t know how to say the Hail Mary in Samoan. I do now! I think the highlight of Saturday was going up into the mountain and picking flowers for the altar for Sunday. That and swimming in the ocean with a small group and taking oh about 100 pictures. Well, I didn’t take them, but that’s about how many were taken. No joke. Sunday was church and to’ona’i. I’m going to miss eating with my fingers when I get home. Seriously! It’s so much more convenient. And I know I’ve already said this but what were the missionaries thinking when they decided that clothes were somehow more appropriate. I was drenched in sweat the entire weekend. It was so hot and humid. I think the only time it wasn’t sweat was when I was in the shower and then the moment I stepped out it came back again. Aside from that however the weekend was awesome. Kareti’s mom works as a seamstress for one of the big hotels. Her dad is a retired boxer and carpenter. Unfortunately he got very sick and had to stop working. They used to have a booth in the market but once that happened they had to close up and that’s when her mom went to work for the hotel. He now stays home with the little kids. About half of her siblings are overseas. One of her sisters works as a secretary for the Minister of Education (the one I hung out with), one of them committed suicide, and the other two are younger than Kareti. Her 19 year old brother also lives at home and helps with the plantation. I was thinking about this over the weekend, but I think it’s the nurturer in me that finds something about these Samoan boys who give up everything to feed the family that is incredibly attractive. Anyways… and then there are the two adopted boys. One of them is actually her older sister’s adopted son. Altogether there are twelve kids, two of which are adopted. Before we left they gave Niko and I some of the wooden handicrafts that her dad had made several years ago. They are beautiful. Oh and they made me a beautiful pulitasi. How do you even begin to repay something like that?