White Sunday and Ava ceremony

10/13
Apparently Samoa is four hours behind of west coast time. My laptop says 11pm right now, and we just had Chinese food and my watch says 7pm. Another night of very heavY rain! I love the sound of rain. I played rugby with some locals this morning. I’m really missing my normal workout routine. I’ve run on the sea wall a few times, and done a LITTLE yoga. It’s so hot/humid here usually that I don’t have to find a hot room to do yoga, just step out of our air conditioned room.

Today our training included more personal and house safety, and a panel of current PC volunteers to talk about relationships—PC volunteers having relationships with samoans—and what that means. Apparently a relationship gets very serious very fast here in samoa. And marriage means a very different thing here in samoa.

Tomorrow is another long day. It’s White Sunday, where the kids run the show, and pampered by the parents. Usually, it’s the other way around the rest of the year. Our peace corps group is going to sing Amazing Grace. I will be wearing my white button down shirt and a white fitted lava lava. Maybe I can get some pics. We went to a place called Mr. lava lava today; apparently, they don’t have any lava lavas but Big Bear across the way did.

well...now this is me typing on the blog before I post it..the other text I copy and paste from before..white sunday was fun..lots of church and food. We each went to a different Samoan family. My family gave me a lava lava, shirt, fan, and purse weaved out of cococut leaves.

One thing I hear in samoa is a few cars with the deep bass going by. American music is all the rage. One of our language trainers’ favorite station is what sounds like top40s.

I wish I knew what people were saying during the ava ceremony. It seemed important. Has it been written down/recorded anywhere? On the web? But I also wonder if people are just going through the motions—if it doesn’t mean as much to some people. Is the American influence causing young people to turn away from Samoan culture? Ava ceremony is the way Samoans welcome new comers to their community.

Hanna (ane, by her samoan name) told me that suicide of teens/ young adults is the leading cause of death….that pokes a very soft spot for me.