Christmas

Patamea, January 10, 2013

I didn't have a chance to write about what i did for Christmas this year yet, so I wanted to let you know how I celebrated the season in Samoa. First of all, the season is actually the rainy, summer season and not the cold, quiet, and introspective winter season of the northern hemisphere. Here, the sun will shine most of the day, its intense rays broken only occasionally by clouds and sudden rainfall. Christmas Day was no different, sometimes hot and bright and at other times humid, damp, and overcast.

There were eleven family members from extended family who live in Apia visiting for the holidays. They decided to take a tour of the island of Savai'i and invited me along. We headed out at noon after a morning church service and packing the van for the trip. Our route took us north along the eastern side of the island. We first came to the lava fields of Saleaula. These fields are remnants of the eruption of a nearby volcano at the beginning of the twentieth century. The eruption and consequential lava flow destroyed the village which is now rebuilt on top of the hardened lava.

We didn't stop in Saleaula but rather drove straight through. In fact, we didn't really stop in any villages during our trip except to refuel both the car's gas tank as well as our stomachs. Village after village passed my view. I took pictures when possible--the windows of the van were not very conducive to photography. One stop we did make was to buy a few niu (young, green, drinking coconuts) from a little girl on the side of the road. Her clothes were brown and torn and nearly matched her skin tone. We payed for the niu (about $0.50 a piece) and were off.

Along the way we passed through the villages of every Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on the island. In one of these villages we crossed the path of a fellow PCV. The van was brought to a stop and we reversed to meet her. I got out of the van and we chatted briefly about our experiences thus far and about how we were celebrating Christmas. We chatted for about five minutes then I got back in the van and she continued on her walk.

Our next stop was for lunch. We stopped at a remote beach. When I say remote, I mean it. For most of the people on the planet it would take days to get there. First, a plane ride that, again for most of the world, take more than half a day. This would be followed by a bus or taxi to the wharf. Then an hour or two on a ferry to get to the island of Savai'i from Upolu, where the airport is. Finally, a bus or taxi to the opposite side of the island which would take at least two and a half hours. It was a gorgeous beach. Check out the video here. We ate typical Samoan food--pork, chicken, taro--and enjoyed the beach. One of the people with us was a one and a half year old boy. He was so cute and quite intelligent. He was also quite afraid of the beach and especially the water. He screamed when anyone brought him near the water. When they attempted to set him down on the sand away from the water, he curled his legs up as if they were slowly setting him into a frying pan or a bucket of ice water. He didn't know what to think of it and therefore didn't want to touch the sand.

After lunch, we simply continued around the beautiful island until we were home in Patamea. We only stopped here and there to get snacks, to buy cash-power (Samoans prepay for electricity much like some people prepay for the use of their cellphones putting money into their accounts as needed rather than paying a bill at the end of the month), or even to try to see the blowholes on the southern coast. We would have had to pay quite a bit to enter so we chose instead to continue home.

We arrived back at home at about 6:00pm. Shortly thereafter we ate dinner. I quickly went home to read and go to bed. It's always fascinating to me how exhausting sitting down for hours can be.

The main road around Savai'i

A typical fale with an amazing view

A beautiful church on Savai'i

The beach where I spent Christmas

Another shot of the beach

A panoramic shot of "Christmas Beach"

a few more pics

using a graphic organizer to teach literacy

teaching literacy skills

a warmer to start

the sunset in our training village

prize-giving (graduation) at our training primary school

Some quick pics

 Just wanted to post a few pics for you all. I have tons more and some video but for some reason I'm having loads of issues uploading anything while other volunteers have been able to upload quite a few videos and pics. Anyway, hopefully that will be figured out soon. But for now here's a few of my faves:

My host-brother, Vita with a kid from Utulaelae

Scraping taro root

Some of the family with Kate

Cyclone Evan from our hotel window

A few pics

Tropical Cyclone Evan floods the river behind our hotel

The lobby of our hotel

The street outside our hotel

A school in Apia

Downriver from one of the hardest-hit areas of Apia

Mary's face glows from within a destroyed fale

Power, phone, off to Savai'i

We gathered as a group last night to celebrate Christmas together. We exchanged gifts as Secret Santas, listened to carols, and talked for a few hours. Then, we got a special Christmas present for all of us--the power came back on at our hotel! The hotel is still without water but it's been nice to be able to charge up our phones and computers and have light to pack with.

During our celebration someone sneaked into my room and stool my (brand new) phone. They managed to take the $9.00 of credit I had within a few minutes. I called around to the phone company and the PC safety and security officer but it seemed pretty hopeless. Then, as I was heading to my room for bed whoever took my phone had replaced it on the railing next to my door. I was happy to see it returned and if someone needed credit on their phone during the aftermath of Cyclone Evan I'm glad they were able to get it.

Now I'm packing the last of my things before they are packed into a van and we head over to the ferry to Savai'i. Update soon (I hope)!

Swearing-in

Well, I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer as of about an hour ago! The beginning is done and I head off to my permanent site tomorrow morning. We were originally supposed to swear-in last Friday but seeing as though the cyclone was still raging above and around us it was postponed. Unfortunately, our families from the training village weren't able to attend nor was the Prime Minister as he was intending to. But we did get to see the U.S. embassy and spend one last afternoon with most of our PC staff. I gave a short speech to the group as did the PC Country Director and the Charges de Affairs.

And the 2 years begin now...

Tropical Cyclone Evan: Update

Apia, December 14, 2012

We were hit by a cyclone yesterday. It started as a category 1 but I heard that it increased in strength to a category 2. It did quite a bit of damage and it appears that power is out on the whole island for about 2 weeks. It's been very hard to get information but it appears as though the storm is heading back our way. It already had sustained winds of ~100mph. So much rain fell that the river overflowed and flooded the area around our hotel. The Peace Corps Medical Officer told me that she had never seen damage like the flooding behind the hotel. We went into the Peace Corps office to find the floor covered in about and inch or more of mud. I don't have my phone because it's at the phone company for repairs so I haven't been able to contact any of my family.

I feel really antsy. I'd like to get out and check out the damage and help clean up if possible. We were supposed to swear in this morning but that has been pushed back indefinitely. That's sad because the Prime Minister of Samoa and the U.S. Ambassador were going to be present. I was also set to give the swearing-in speech for our group. All-in-all, a very crazy and intense beginning to our PC service.


Apia, December 16, 2012

I've been without power or internet in our hotel for almost a week now due to Evan. I was hoping to post some blogs to update about training and where we are at now. It appears that will have to wait. Parts of Apia are now getting power and I'm at an internet cafe right now. I just wanted to update everyone.

First, if you haven't heard, Tropical Cyclone Evan, a category 2 (at the time) cyclone hit Samoa last Thursday. It has delayed our training, swearing-in, and moving to our permanent sites. We are all safe but the same cannot be said for many families in Samoa. Yesterday, a group of us PC Trainees/Volunteers went to Red Cross to volunteer. We were able to help organize donations, enter data, and distribute food. The evacuation site I was volunteering at had nearly 700 people living there (with only about 4 toilets). Some of the Peace Corps staff's houses were destroyed. Their families are safe and they still came in to help clean up the PC office which had about 2-3 inches of mud in about half of the office including the director's office.

Also, I am safe. There isn't much information and we have to wait for the PC office in Wash. DC to open up tomorrow. It's already Monday here but we have to wait until Tuesday our time for any info because of the time difference. It looks like we'll be in Apia for a few more days. I'll let you know more when I can. I have plenty of pics and videos to post when I have time. It does sound like it was very lucky that we weren't in our training village. It sounds like most of our houses were destroyed.

It's weird to think that this is the holiday season--it really doesn't feel like it here with the tropical weather, muddy roads, and destruction. But, we are doing a Secret Santa gift exchange and trying to stay in the spirit of the holidays. Love to you all and send a few extra hugs around in my place for the holidays. Know that you are all in my thoughts!

(Continued: Patamea, January 10, 2013)

We ended up spending nearly an extra week in Apia. most of the time trapped in our hotel because the river's flood waters had surrounded the entire building. I was finally able to go out and view the damage a few days after the storm. While everywhere looked damaged, the areas immediately next to the river were completely demolished. On Sunday, December 15, most of us went to volunteer with the Red Cross. I spent the day helping out at an evacuation site. We distributed food and water as well as medical and hygiene kits. I heard that around 7,000-8,000 people were evacuated to different sites. That's basically a quarter of the entire population of Apia, the capitol. The mountains around Apia were more or less stripped of vegetation. It sounds like it will be a few months before farming gets back to normal. They sent us off the Savai'i on the 19th, the day after our swearing-in ceremony finally took place at the U.S. Embassy.

Videos:
Start of the storm
In full swing
Aftermath

Pictures: