bike changes and tennis plays
in the pics: tennis love, I miss tennis, but now I get to play, if only a little bit. my forehand is really really bad..leaga le topspin..
9/21
Today was a productive day. I helped make the umu—we put taro, fish wrapped in leaves, and palusami (coconut cream, salt, onions) wrapped in leaves on the hot rocks that were spread out. And then covered it with leaves from the breadfruit tree. A steam cooker I guess, called “umu” in samoa. Then it was off to church—where I try to sing the songs. One song it seemed like they made up the chorus—I could follow most of it, but I don’t know half the words. The fruit of the church faces the ocean. You can stand inside the church. It’s very pretty. I like to sit and absorb the time with God after church is over. Everyone else jumped up and were out the door…very quickly. Because after church it’s time for tonana’i. kind of like Sunday brunch. Today toana’i consisted of taro, palusami, fish, fried chicken, and curried lamb.
Heavy food like that makes me very sleepy. So after lunch I wrote my computer teaching plan for the week—we shall start looking at databases. Then I la
id down “for a little while” and listened to my music. Two hours later I woke up and walked to the school building to get my bike. I finally had the correct tool to remove the bottom bracket. So now my bike has a new SEALED bottom bracket that will hopefully work better than the unsealed BB (
but the UNSEALED BB is cool because I can see the ball bearings and how dirty it is). I walked home—back to my Samoan family, watched the end of Ultraviolet, ate dinner (taro, fish, fried chicken, and palusami…leftovers from lunch). Now, I write this, then will read a little and probably fall asleep with the light on….but actually I wanted a movie called “Tears of the sun” with my family. I think tears of the sun are the missiles that the jets launched on the rebels. And tonight was the first time I ate fried rice cakes..panikeke. they were OK.
My friend Diane sent me some sermons of a pastor in Portland—a church I went to ( I think) twice. It’s called Imago Dei.
They have good music. That’s where I would like to go if I lived in Portland, even though it may require a trip across town.
Watching the TV classifieds tonight…property selling for 1.3 million tala, a Toyota Prado for $60000 tala, and a new(?) computer for $1500. that seems pricey, as do others things when compared to prices in America.
OK…so after one year, here is a list of things I can’t live without: bike, swimming goggles, candles, yoga mat, moisture eaters (I bought some larger ones from the internet), hot water maker, laptop, plastic (ziplock) bags, my birkenstocks and tevas, my 4 color pen (even though you CAN buy that here in samoa), feather pillow, a good durable backpack (backpacks here seem to fall apart too quickly), nalgenes, and my Tilley sun hat, which has been through quite some adventures.
No yoga during the holiday hurt my wrists I think..back to the routine soon enough.
It has been a good holiday—even if I didn’t leave the island. First week I visited my training village—Lalomauga. I helped clean weeds off of taro on the side of a mountain—awesome view (sorry no pics right now. I’m getting to the point where I just want to experience it and not take pictures every minute). I could see the tops of buildings peeking out of the jungle, and the deep blue of the ocean in the far distance. Later I helped weed banana trees in my family’s plantation. I was trying to do some physical work, since teaching is not very physical. And during the holiday I was not doing my normal routine—swimming, biking, pushups, situps. 2nd week was back at Lefaga. Two days at river fales, moving rocks and planting Teuila plants. The last weekend at my family’s house.
9/20
Playing tennis with Japanese volunteers (JICA). We started at 10am. By 11am it was really too hot to play, but we kept playing. I’m writing this at 12:30, as the sweat pores down my body. I think i’m done for now.
Another sighting of the line of ants. They are very organized and systematic. And then I saw an ant explosion at Janes house. it must have been close the ant homebase. They were all carrying pieces of something. Most of the pieces were as big as the ants themselves.
Watching a samoan and his machete…using as little energy as possible. Slicing with experience of many many years of practice.
Watching movies at my samoan family’s house: Ultraviolet. Reminds me of an old girlfriend: all kickass, don’t mess with me, long black leg boots, fighting for a little boy. Cool final fight scene with fire swords. Good action movie. Some scenes hard to believe. Based on a comic book? Then watched Blood rayne. To much blood and gore. I still wonder at what samoans think about what comes out of Hollywood.
Today was a productive day. I helped make the umu—we put taro, fish wrapped in leaves, and palusami (coconut cream, salt, onions) wrapped in leaves on the hot rocks that were spread out. And then covered it with leaves from the breadfruit tree. A steam cooker I guess, called “umu” in samoa. Then it was off to church—where I try to sing the songs. One song it seemed like they made up the chorus—I could follow most of it, but I don’t know half the words. The fruit of the church faces the ocean. You can stand inside the church. It’s very pretty. I like to sit and absorb the time with God after church is over. Everyone else jumped up and were out the door…very quickly. Because after church it’s time for tonana’i. kind of like Sunday brunch. Today toana’i consisted of taro, palusami, fish, fried chicken, and curried lamb.
Heavy food like that makes me very sleepy. So after lunch I wrote my computer teaching plan for the week—we shall start looking at databases. Then I la
id down “for a little while” and listened to my music. Two hours later I woke up and walked to the school building to get my bike. I finally had the correct tool to remove the bottom bracket. So now my bike has a new SEALED bottom bracket that will hopefully work better than the unsealed BB (
but the UNSEALED BB is cool because I can see the ball bearings and how dirty it is). I walked home—back to my Samoan family, watched the end of Ultraviolet, ate dinner (taro, fish, fried chicken, and palusami…leftovers from lunch). Now, I write this, then will read a little and probably fall asleep with the light on….but actually I wanted a movie called “Tears of the sun” with my family. I think tears of the sun are the missiles that the jets launched on the rebels. And tonight was the first time I ate fried rice cakes..panikeke. they were OK.My friend Diane sent me some sermons of a pastor in Portland—a church I went to ( I think) twice. It’s called Imago Dei.
They have good music. That’s where I would like to go if I lived in Portland, even though it may require a trip across town.
Watching the TV classifieds tonight…property selling for 1.3 million tala, a Toyota Prado for $60000 tala, and a new(?) computer for $1500. that seems pricey, as do others things when compared to prices in America.
OK…so after one year, here is a list of things I can’t live without: bike, swimming goggles, candles, yoga mat, moisture eaters (I bought some larger ones from the internet), hot water maker, laptop, plastic (ziplock) bags, my birkenstocks and tevas, my 4 color pen (even though you CAN buy that here in samoa), feather pillow, a good durable backpack (backpacks here seem to fall apart too quickly), nalgenes, and my Tilley sun hat, which has been through quite some adventures.
No yoga during the holiday hurt my wrists I think..back to the routine soon enough.
It has been a good holiday—even if I didn’t leave the island. First week I visited my training village—Lalomauga. I helped clean weeds off of taro on the side of a mountain—awesome view (sorry no pics right now. I’m getting to the point where I just want to experience it and not take pictures every minute). I could see the tops of buildings peeking out of the jungle, and the deep blue of the ocean in the far distance. Later I helped weed banana trees in my family’s plantation. I was trying to do some physical work, since teaching is not very physical. And during the holiday I was not doing my normal routine—swimming, biking, pushups, situps. 2nd week was back at Lefaga. Two days at river fales, moving rocks and planting Teuila plants. The last weekend at my family’s house.
9/20
Playing tennis with Japanese volunteers (JICA). We started at 10am. By 11am it was really too hot to play, but we kept playing. I’m writing this at 12:30, as the sweat pores down my body. I think i’m done for now.
Another sighting of the line of ants. They are very organized and systematic. And then I saw an ant explosion at Janes house. it must have been close the ant homebase. They were all carrying pieces of something. Most of the pieces were as big as the ants themselves.
Watching a samoan and his machete…using as little energy as possible. Slicing with experience of many many years of practice.
Watching movies at my samoan family’s house: Ultraviolet. Reminds me of an old girlfriend: all kickass, don’t mess with me, long black leg boots, fighting for a little boy. Cool final fight scene with fire swords. Good action movie. Some scenes hard to believe. Based on a comic book? Then watched Blood rayne. To much blood and gore. I still wonder at what samoans think about what comes out of Hollywood.
posted by bigchainring at 10:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home