New Location… Same Me

For the few of you who remember the surprise going away party at Red Lobster the following story will not come as a surprise.

Upon moving into my new flat, and residence for at least the next year probably 2, I was told about the cash power system. Instead of getting billed monthly for power you’ve used you pay the power company in advance, get a receipt and punch a code into your home power box. When you’ve used all the power you’ve paid for the power cuts off (can you see where this is going?). The little meter said 300 something when I moved in… did I know what that meant? No. But there were LED’s in green, yellow and red so I figured I’d go buy power when the little light turned yellow… or red. Oh the best laid plans.

One delightful Tuesday some of my favorite people came into town… Texas and Peta. We were going to have a “potu ono” (more on this later) reunion at my place. We bought honey chicken from Chopsticks and mix for hot, chewy chocolate chip cookies. It was shaping up to be a great evening. We took a cab to the flat and walk into a flat with no electricity. Needless to say there were no cookies that night. But there is a happy ending…thanks to Aunti Mabel I was quite prepared… I got out the candles and the lighter and potu ono had a candlelight dinner. I of course got some more power the next day ^_^.

The beginning of catching up... end of training

I've been pretty busy in Samoa. Only three months in and already I've been in the paper once and have been on tv at least twice. What extraordinary things have been happening? Well…

The first chapter of my Samoan experience has come to an end. There are no more language classes, no more technical training, no more cross cultural training. I no longer spend my days and nights with the other crazy/wonderful members of group 76. Gone is village life and the best family in . On the last day in the village there was a huge fiafia (party). My group performed a slew of traditional Samoan dances the taku paku (guys), a slap dance (guys), a sasa (all), and a siva teine (girls). As usual when you have palangi's butchering the Samoan arts humor is your best ally. We also provided several musical selections that were done with emphasis on spirit rather than on key. We did manage to fit in a quartet who sang "Afai e te alofa" that didn't sound half bad. Of course yours truly was part of that group… along with Ema and 2 of the language trainers, Fale and Setu. To round things off we threw in a play: Jesus and the Untitled Man. To this day I don't think I've ever seen a more hilarious performance… wow I'm starting to laugh just thinking about it.



Group 76 performing a sasa… probably the only dance we didn’t completely butcher.

Here are our guys looking like the fierce warriors they are.
(left to right)Back row: Tim, Iona, Dane, Ray, Emillio
Front row: Vik, Elika






The fabulous four singing "A fai e te alofa" by 5 stars. And we were in key almost the whole time!!!
(left to right) Me, Ema, Fale, Setu