pondering random phrases while cutting thick jungle

in the pics: some pictures from the English DAy BBQ...lots of BBQ and ice cream

6/8
Some food I can add to my list of “liked” foods: faiai eleni (coconut cream with eleni—small fishes in tomato sauce). Failifo (taro or green bananas with coconut cream).

Watching the full moon (actually reduces star gazing by about 80%) slowly rise over the tree tops, my tummy is full of faiai eleni. (I think it’s pretty good and chicken soup with rice and laupele—a green leafy veggie, like spinach). It’s windy—I like these nights, both because I like to feel the wind and it keeps the mosquitoes down. Today was the first day of the second term. only two afternoon. It feels like my time is gown downhill—it’s getting closer and closer to the end of my samoan adventure.

It’s hard to think I took 550 pictures during my school break—only 3 weeks, but I’ve been to American samoa, a computer teachers training, and a visit to my training village family. I don’t get to see them that often.

I see the difference between dropping money on someone or some project and spending time to develop a relationship, sharing your skills and knowledge. I think it really comes down to giving away your love to other people. I chose Peace Corps because of the two year time span, which I thought might be long enough to share some of what I know, and get to know the people in samoa. This was the longest structured program I could find when I looked—other then just moving to a country and living there for a period of time. Peace corps is much different. Volunteers get support when they ask for it and need it.




6/5
I went to a Christian worship conference. Very good music. Rally style. I was wondering when I would get to go to something like that. Yes, they had drums, keyboards, guitars, singers. The music was a little heavy on the guitars…at times it drown everything else out.. the speaker was good “water is to the body as worship is to the spirit.” Well, if you put it that way, with the amount of water I drink, I had better be in worship A LOT more. “everywhere Jesus went, SOMETHING happened.” Hmmmm… to think about. “connection with God is more important than doing your duty.” Really? Well, then if another religion or spiritual way has a very effective way of connection with God, why not at least try it? There’s my openness again, of which one of my friends said she was scared of. It’s not worshipping two gods, as there is only one God.

There is a lot of duty in Samoa. That’s not necessarily, just the culture. “work on getting to ‘encouraging worship’”.


6/1
Five hours of cutting down dense jungle brush, I wonder how I’ll feel tomorrow. When I go visit people I like to do “work,” which in samoa usually means moving rocks, or cutting the grass with a machete, or using that machete to cut and clear jungle. I did the last one for three days straight in Lalomauga. And it felt really good…especially the jumping in the river part after we were done each day and splashing around. My sister and I get up at 5am each morning for exercises. That’s really good. But hot rocks on my back are really gooooood too.

I talked to someone who said “I wanted to make money.” He was a retired computer “everything man” as I understood it. A company or a person had a problem and he found a solution. I think he charged $150/hour. Wooooo…that’s a a lot of the money he was looking for. I doubt I’ll earn that much working at a nonprofit. But you never know. Mix community and business. Never say never. I’ve never really thought about it in terms of ONLY making money. How about helping people find/get/remember better lives in the process…and having fun too is important. I think my gig right now is pretty fun! Even if some parts are frustrating.

Another random phrase I found in my journal “giving up expectations and preconceived notions”…can be hard, and not knowing that I even have the preconceived ideas—although my mom reminds me about some of them regularly. It can be freeing to release our preconceived ideas, but it can also be scary. It’s good to be surrounded by people you care about and trust. Truth = freedom = scary(?)