Christmas Jingles will travel heavily

comments about the pictures: Malu (my mom) is cooking cocoa beans for cocoa Samoa, a big treat in Samoa. When Malu went to America, she took about 25 bags of cocoa Samoa to relatives, who really like it! Malu likes to stick her tougue out for the camera as well;)

Tavale, my sisters husband is squeezing out the coconut juice to make the cream that tastes so good. we did this motion in one of our dances (sivas). Sue (my dad) is getting the "stuff" (I don't know what it's actually called) that Tavale is using to sift the coconut through. I don't know (ou te le iloa) the name of the plant. i thought it was a cool picture. and I may never see him again

:(((

12/01
Here are some uppers: a morning mountain shrouded in clouds and mist before the sun grazes up over it. Creates a very bright outline of mountain. Mountain as it fades into the darkness. A family of dragon flies darts overhead as we throw Frisbee late afternoon….hmm feels like I’m trying to write a poem.
Downers: eating separately, seeing abuse of young people, being very very very tired from training.

Today the blue in my four color pen died…sad, cry, well..now we have three colors left. Four color pens are very important to me. I have seen a four color pen in Samoa …sweet. Now, if “they” only made a 5 color pen..how about a 10 color pen?

My new mantra is “don’t drink while walking”;) well that’s been a hard one for me. Samoans don’t eat or drink while walking. That’s all I did when I lived in boston for lunch time. I don’t remember ever eating while sitting in a restaurant…well except for when we had staff lunches. I’m a walker and eater…well..i guess not in Samoa.


11/27
What a cool night. I watched (TV) the opening of the World Weight Lifting Championships being held—right here in Samoa. There were traditional sivas (dances)…and fire dancers! I played partner suipi—we won! Watched the moon rise—reminiscent of Sleep Hollow—creepy with misty clouds. The clouds stretched out as fingers sweeping up the stars—just for a minute, then all gone. Tomorrow is “culture day.” The boys go to the plantation, and the girls cook stuff.

Speaking of cooking and eating—since in being in Samoa, I feel I’ve been eating a lot heavier food—much more starches, a lot less fruits and veggies, but I’m eating much cleaner. There is not nearly as many preservatives and artificial whatchamacallits when you kill the pig (pua’a), and cook the pig on the same day. Dig up the taro (talo), boil the taro, and eat the taro with the pua’a. living closer to the land means there are a lot less chemicals. Although I heard that Samoans are now using many more pesticides to kill bugs;( the pua’a and talo are a far cry from the Fishman burger I really like to get when we are in Apia. It is a fish sandwich—double fish, double cheese, egg, and some cabbage and tomato (I think). It’s yummy, but I’m definitely ready for a good sleep after eating one. There are some Chinese cheese snacks that contain MSGs…mmmmm…tank up on MSGs. Makes me wonder if my body will reject American food when I go back?! Well i’ve heard that the readjustment process back into American life is the harder part(as opposed to the getting used to the new culture).

Someone asked me to explain what I mean by people who have a hard or soft edge…hmmmm…that’s hard to explain. I think of hard edge as a square and soft edge as a circle (li’o). but also how soft are the edges? How fast does one reject something if it doesn’t fit into your view of the world, or for you computer geeks, do you allow it into your database of perception? I would say most Samoans probably have a very soft edge.

It’s interesting to see how people react to training—including me. It is so intense, and I’ve been burned out a lot with no way to “reset.” Someone in our group said “on par with bootcamp.”

I just met Scott—I couldn’t hear what he said for his Samoan name. Samoans speak soooo quietly. I need to learn the phrase to speak up. Many Samoans I meet speak to me in English (fa’apalagi), so I speak to them in English. Someone said to me it is rude to speak to someone in Samoan when they are speaking to you in English.


11/25
Samoans seem to be pretty humble people, so when we take half and hour in church to read the names and amounts each family and person offered…interesting. I guess this is a source of pride, or keeping up with the Jones’s, even if it means you go into debt.

Samoan culture seems pretty rigid—people have very defined roles based on gender and/or age. Independence is not really a word that is used or lived. I wonder what happens to a person/spirit that doesn’t fit into that box. The author of the poetry book (a woman) talks about declaring independence. Do people do that much around here?