Touring around... My last few days in Samoa.

My last few days in Samoa were filled with lots of snorkeling, hiking, and fun.

Here are a few pictures of some of the most beautiful places on earth.
On the trail in the rain forest:

I made arrangements for us to have a guided tour of the Marine Sanctuary Fagatele Bay. Kelly and I hiked down to this gorgeous bay with a couple Sanctuary agents and two friends.

After the hike Kelly and I went home and grabbed our snorkel gear and with permission we went back to hike and snorkel this pristine bay. Gorgeous corals and fish, and a beach that had only had two other human visitors since the first of the year. Pictures don't begin to do it justice. Really, such an unbelievable opportunity.

The Road to Vatia:

Vatia is a small village on the back side of the island. To reach Vatia, you must drive up and over the steep mountains of Samoa.
This is the view of Pago Pago Harbor from the top.

The view from Vatia of the "Cock's Comb."

Gorgeous seascape every where you look, it is like standing in a postcard photo shoot.

It was hard to leave this place!!!!!

An All Too Short Tour of Western Samoa

Journey to Apia & Savaii...

The "big islands" of Western Samoa.

Our plane: Prior to boarding Kelly and I were weighed with our luggage and then told which seats we were assigned to based upon our weight. Let's just say based on where we were sat, the front of the plane both going and coming, and on the fact that we were paired opposite one Samoan, looks like the equation was:

Kelly + Denise=1 Samoan Our view from inside the plane and outside approaching Apia.

The Apia LDS temple. So gorgeous, and seemingly empty based on the fact that there were no cars in the parking lot. Turns out the sessions were full, the people walk or ride the bus.

The market in Apia was a hustling bustling place full of taro, breadfruit, and food of all kinds. You could get wood for your umu fire, as well as flowers for church, clothes for the kids, and most of what you might need for Saturday nights preparations for a Sunday of church, rest and eating.

Our outing started in Apia, a visit to the temple grounds to see the missionaries, and a stop at the market. We spent a night in two, make that one, lodge room just down the street from the temple. Kelly's room was so ant infested (thousands of ants all over the bed and floor), and our lodge attendant was suddenly missing, so we both ended up sleeping in my room, on top of the sheets since they were actually dirty, fully dressed since we both were trying to touch as few things in that filthy room as possible. A less than ideal stay, but we survived with only a few ant and mosquito bites.

Day two: off to Savaii.

The ferry over to the island of Savaii. This was the fast ferry, nice seating both inside and outside, a snack bar etc. It took us 1 hour. On the way home we were not as fortunate and ended up on the slow ferry taking 1&1/2 hours sitting on basically park benches on the back of the boat outside staring into the grill of a diesel truck and the other cars that had been loaded on after we were herded in.

On the way to Savaii we had some excitement. Although there were blue skies above us, in the not so far distance the weather was much more menacing. Glad we weren't sailing through that!!

This blog is my only real attempt at being a journal keeper. Good thing I had a trip historian with me! Not to worry Candace, Kelly has it all logged for posterity.

The first night in Savaii we stayed in a beach falle next to the missionary couple located there. Gorgeous sunset and fabulous food! Other than the missionaries there was only one other couple there so we had the place to ourselves.

The second day we decided to venture further up the island, and settled on a gorgeous hotel. Hot water and everything. This is the view from the private deck at our second hotel in Savaii.
My favorite meal of the whole trip. A whole lobster and sticky coconut rice. Yum!!

This is the view from our deck looking down the beach. I am not sure I have ever seen a more beautiful place than this. We snorkeled this area and were the only people for as far as one could see. It was so unbelievably gorgeous and unspoiled. Fish swimming all around and coral just below.

We found ourselves asking over and over 'why are we leaving here...EVER?'

Time To Be A Tourist

Kelly arrived Thursday and it is such fun to be the tour guide. I have really missed him!!

We didn't do much yesterday, a kind of mellow day with a short trip to the American Samoan museum. The time change is kind of a killer those first few days. While it was only 8pm here his body was saying midnight, midnight, sleep, sleep...

We leave this morning to fly to Western Samoa and the islands of Upolu and Savaii. We are staying just a block or so from the LDS temple in a lodge while in Apia on Upolu and then we are basically sleeping out in a fale, open air just a roof and floor with mosquito netting while on the beach in Savaii. At least I hope we are. I have not been able to get confirmation on our fale on the internet, although I have been trying to do so for over 2 weeks. We are now just kinda going with it hoping there is a fale waiting. If not there are lots of places to stay there so we are just winging it.

I can't wait to be a tourist. While I have been here for 2 months almost, I have not been much of a tourist. My first snorkeling outing was last week with a couple girl friends, and I am excited to see as much of the world as possible, both above and below the water line on all the islands in the next week and a half. Kelly is pretty adventurous and is willing to try new foods and sleep wherever so this next few days on these other two islands should be interesting...

We do have a few plans confirmed. We have tonight and Tuesday night confirmed in Apia, and a man I met who is working for the LDS Farms in Apia is taking us to Sauniatu, a historical LDS village about 40 minutes away. I am told it is gorgeous, kind of a garden of eden, all green with waterfalls and that it is historically significant to the church here. Sounds cool, and it is so kind of Brother MacDonald to offer to show us around.

Now that Kelly is here I am basically finished working and am just going to have some fun! I remain a researcher, but only in a very limited fashion. (I do have an interview planned with a couple who were in Western Samoa during the tsunami). Mostly I plan to just be a tourist now.

We will be gone for 4 days, then coming back to this island for a last week of fun in the Samoan sun. There is so much to see all over this beautiful place and I can't wait to take it all in through tourist eyes!

I have the camera battery charged... Pictures to follow :o)

Fish Farmers...

I had the opportunity last week to attend a two day training at the Sea Grant office here in American Samoa. It was great. Really, I felt totally inspired to go home and build a fish pond and raise all my vegetables in aquaponic beds. Seriously eliminates the weeding issues, and your tomato plants won't die when you go away for the weekend due to lack of water. Fish farming and then growing vegetables and herbs in the filtered fish water is the perfect water recycling/reclamation project!

It was very cool, and really brought out the secret hippie in me! Okay, maybe it is not such a secret.

There were experts on marine biology and water quality from Hawaii as well as the local experts from the community college here. The morning sessions of class were very informative, and the afternoon hands on stuff was tons of fun. We learned all about fish, and at times even had them out of their little pools in our hands figuring out their sex for breeding purposes.

Fish farming can be a very good little micro-enterprise here in Samoa and for the women of our foundation and I was glad to see 6 of them there. We were the largest of any of the groups and certainly the most committed. There were guys from Dept. of Agriculture, a few fishermen, some other various agencies, 3 men from LDS Farms in Western Samoa, and misc people from throughout the community. The educators laughed the second afternoon that the Women's Community Action Program (W-CAP) women really showed commitment, being on time in the mornings and coming back from lunch, and asking questions all day. Go W-CAP!

I doubt I will be growing Tilapia for resale when I get home to Utah, but don't be surprised in the next few years to see me with a nice decorative Koi pond and a few veggies on the side.

Food, Friends, Flowers & Fabric

FOOD:

After a tough day of sun and snorkeling there is nothing quite like a Samoan sized burger! This thing was 6" across at least. Delish... I came very close to finishing it off, along with most of the fries.


FRIENDS:

Friday night at the market. I tried lots of new foods here. Some I liked, some not so much.

I did like the company however. Vili and Marianna, both originally from Fiji, and Joanie from Oregon (also here doing research like me). Fun night out with the girls in the rain.

After all the food testing we left the market and went to a Chinese restaurant and had some familiar soup and egg rolls. Well, we started out adventurous...

Foods baked in the Umu (in the ground on a bed of hot lava rocks):

The basket the foods are baked in is made of palm fronds and is really beautiful. My friend Nia says she will teach me how to make one before I leave.

Young taro is kind of like spinach and is yummy wrapped in a foil pouch, baked with the coconut cream in the umu.

Octopus in it's own ink sauce is likely the most disgusting thing I have tasted, but for the record, even though it looked like this, I did taste it. "Not my favorite"

I have also found that I like taro, and green banana cooked in coconut milk, but do not like bread fruit. (I think it smells funny!)

Fruit:

This guy makes his load look light, but that is a a whole "bunch" of bananas in those baskets!!

At the market: Green and yello banana, papaya, limes, and some strange prickly fruit. No one seemed to know the name of this prickly thing but they also said it was not ripe and would need a few weeks on the counter to ripen. Sadly, I don't have that kind of time.

The papaya was simply beautiful and delicious with lime squeezed on it, and of course my all time favorite pineapple. I sauteed this with brown sugar and red onion.

I also recently picked and ate white guava, drank juice made from the Vi'i fruit, and had the most buttery beautiful avocado ever.

Yummy baked and fried goodies:

Recent discoveries; German Buns, these are kind of jelly filled donuts, fried and served in a brown bag. Pane popo, basically a dinner roll baked in a bath of coconut cream. When you pull one of these warm buns out it is drenched in this slightly sweet coconut cream and is soooo delicious! Hello Breakfast!

FLOWERS:

My first week at church I walked in the chapel to see this. Three large bouquets just like this actually, and I thought "Wow, gorgeous flowers, there must have just been a funeral." I askedaround and found out that all the wards here have flowers like this in their chapels every Sunday.

The women take turns bringing the arrangements from home and for the most part, the flowers are just growing in their yards. Spectacular!!

FABRIC:

Oh, how I love fabric!

My first trip to the store that had some fabric I simply couldn't get over the beautiful floral prints. Hundreds of Hawaiian prints run amuck!! It was great. I wanted them all, but I knew I had to show some reserve and get only as much as I could ship home reasonably. So I ended up with these.

I have a Hawaiian quilt I made for my grandmother a few years ago, that was given back to me when she passed away. It is a soft pink with a white background. I thought perhaps some throw pillows and a small lap quilt out of these would really finish off a girly guest room. Grandma would have loved it. Such fun!

Valentine's Day = Generosity Day

I read this third hand, as it was posted to facebook by another, but like them, I also am using it, because I think it is a lovely sentiment!!

"Valentine’s Day is going to be rebooted as Generosity Day: one day of sharing love with everyone, of being generous to everyone, to see how it feels and to practice saying “Yes.” Let’s make the day about love, action and human connection.

Give to people on the street. Tip outrageously. Help a stranger. Write a note telling someone how much you appreciate them. Smile. Donate (more) to a cause that means a lot to you. Take clothes to GoodWill. All generous acts count!"

So in honor of "Generosity Day" here is my plea:

Having been here a month and a half now, I must admit to having become very attached to the two women that work for the foundation. They each make only $5 an hour, which is more than the minimum wage, and considered very good pay here for an unskilled part-time job. They both have families to support and I see them work hard to provide their children good nutrition and a clean place to live. While the pay is low, food and the necessities of life are very expensive!

I was telling my daughter Candace that I wanted to find a way to make a real difference, especially for these two women. She suggested I blog about it and let all of you know of the need I see. I believe that a small contribution could make a huge difference in their lives. $5 could really help change a life! My goal is to raise $100 for each of them so I can buy pans and cooking supplies for Nia, and a fry pan and gas burner for Hena. This would help them to start and grow their micro-enterprise ideas without the aid of a micro-loan. I believe with this boost up, these are two women that would really work and build their little businesses, and not having a loan to repay might just make all the difference.

If you are interested and want to help please email me at denise@freefamily.net and I will give you my address and info on how you can. Like I said, $5 can make a difference!

Meet Nia:

Nia is a single mother of 8 children, at least 5 are still at home, one has Cerebral Palsy. Nia is in night school at the community college trying to get her associates degree. She has started baking cakes to sell, and has been testing out new recipes. She is very lucky because she owns an oven, most people do not. Thing is she has only one pan, it is really a casserole pan, and it is rusty and old, and the propane to bake and the ingredients needed are very expensive. She is currently wanting to apply for a $100 loan so that she can obtain the needed materials to start her little baking enterprise. For the past few days I have been trying to teach Nia to drive, and I see her self esteem growing as she is able to do new things and be successful. Nia is a good loving mother, a hard worker, and someone who really deserves a break.

Meet Hena:

Hena is from Tonga, is married and has 2 small children, a 2 year old son pictured and a 4 year old daughter who is partially blind. Hena's husband works very hard at odd jobs but is waiting for his immigration papers in order to hopefully become employed full-time. Hena recently saved for 8 months to buy a plane ticket to visit the temple in Apia. When it came time for her wards weekend temple trip, her friend had prepared to take out her endowment but was not able to pay for a ticket. Hena gave her ticket to her friend so she could go instead. What a sacrifice! Hena is kind and generous, and I have come to really love her.

Hena has started a little business making 'pankakes' and she sells them 7 for $1. They are like large fried cake-donut balls. She dreams of having a large frying pan so she fry make more than 3 balls of dough at a time, and a small propane gas burner just for this purpose. She is also wanting to apply for a micro-loan to grow her little side business so as to better support her family.

It has been a couple of days since Candace suggested I post this blog, but when I saw the comment today about turning Valentine's Day into Generosity Day, I knew today was the day I needed to sit down and write.

Happy Valentine's Day!! I appreciate all of you who take the time to read what I blather on about each week, and love and miss you all!