lying in bed with bling bling dreaming of journey

in the pics: the SMALL tsunami damage to my village (it could have been A LOT worse); my sitting place almost every morning; the packing in emergency.

11/1
mmmmmm…more good food. Aggie Grey’s Sunday (all you cat eat) brunch. Awesome food. I forgot how good a buffet can be. I think I ate eight poached eggs on top of toast, with some sausage, bacon, tomato soup something or other, fish cakes. And lots of fruit. And tomato juice. Also good value at $25 tala.


10/31
Today is Halloween. I think there is some kind of party, but I’m not sure if I’m going. I don’t have a costume, and I’ve never been good at being creative with costumes. And some peace corps volunteers are going to one location, and some to another location. So people are not very decisive.

It feels nice just to lie in bed after waking up…for more than five minutes. Hey I’m in samoa. I’m supposed to have more “leisure” time. Ha ha ha…more relaxed. I don’t feel more relaxed. I do have a lot of work work work work …

Other volunteers rode in a taxi to the PC office from our hostel. I walked. I like to walk—especially in the morning or late evening. And seeing how I’m in samoa, and the dogs come out to play at night, that leaves me with walking in the morning. Some observations:
The telephone pole I saw has MANY wires on it and wires leading up to the top from the ground. I’m guessing power and internet and TV and some other things. Hmmm…is this development?
The sound of the birds twittering.
Stubbing my toe twice…that’s not nice. I guess I should pick up my feet more.
Buying cucumbers at the shop…oh and the lady gave me an avocado. Which I will eat shortly.

I took a TESL training. Interesting. Too bad I’m leaving Samoa so soon. But it’s still time to go home. Nice comment I heard: “you can’t embezzle a person, only money. Send more people to act as aid.” Go peace corps!
Notes: Experiential learning curve, Predictability factor in the classroom, TESL breaks things up, big pig, the 5 methods of TESL

Food tonight: spicy fish enchilada. Good blend of flavors. Not enough spicy. Good food for $25 tala. Let’s do it again.


10/29
Two years of teaching in samoa have ingrained in me that I don’t get enough physical work/exercise. Maybe it’s the teaching, maybe the culture, maybe both. What would make me really happy? Hmmmm. Ride bike to top of mountain; swim in ocean to cool off—see very pretty sunset. Warm bucket shower; work on my “stuff” (random files on my computer that should be done before I leave samoa, and more important stuff like my COS (close of service) document; do some yoga—always helps me sleep.

I’m leaving samoa soon, so it’s time to start cleaning my room and decide what goes home and what stays here in samoa. Some things I haven’t used in two years:
Long sweats. I sweat enough without wearing sweats. Maybe Australia though.
Waterproof top and bottom. It’s too hoooot to wear waterproof anything. When it rains hard, you get out of the rain, unless you want to get really wet too.
The finnish cooking apron. Most of the time other people have done the cooking for me.
I also found a poem (?) that was written at the beginning of this adventure.

First night in Samoa

First night in Samoa
And I drank some kava.
Got too relaxed
And I lost my lava—
Lava is hot.
You don’t want to get burned.
Walking home at night,
Apply what you’ve learned.

You gotta get an escort,
Walk with a buddy.
It’s rainy season,
Man these roads are muddy.

Walk around the corner,
Into a big Samoan.
Who stole all my bling,
Now I’ve got to be rollin on.

Wake up the next morning,
Man I feel inferior.
Pick up the phone, called my superior.
Told the sad tale,
About the loss of my possessions.
Respect the kava,
Gotta learn your lessons.

(I have a feeling this was a group effort. When it was written…?)