Palongie?

Ocean view

The yard

and the mountains in the distance

My home away from home for a while.

I am staying in this beautiful house about 2 miles from the ocean. The downstairs portion of the house is separate from the main home, and is rented out. From the screened family room, and balcony, there are lovely views, and you can see the ocean off in the distance. It is very lush and green here, and it rains often. In fact it rained twice today, and I had to run through it once. Interestingly, although it was raining pretty hard, it was so warm and humid that it didn't seem wetter than the air without the drops had been only moments before.

Two new terms I learned today...

Palongie= white, off islander (that would be Me)

Sah= an imposed curfew, or time in the village when you cannot be out in the streets, and "should be home praying." This takes place daily from 6:15-6:30 PM, and there are men who patrol the streets in color coordinated lava lava's making sure that no one is out and about in the village at this time. While many believe this is a waste of time, tradition dictates that it continue, and tradition, above all else is important in this culture, or so I am told.

The grocery store...

We went to a couple of stores, and I was reminded of grocery shopping in Mexico. Very limited options indeed! The meat and chicken was freezer burnt as Ali explained that thawing on the ship over here, and then refreezing in the store is a real and common problem. I got yogurt, (a small, off brand, single serving, container of strawberry) for $1.60. A gallon of milk, when it is actually available here, costs $12.00, and gas is $3.75 per gallon. That should make all of you feel like you got a great deal at the grocery store and gas station this week! Topping it off, much of what is on the shelves is either very close to, or past its expiration date.

Then, when we went to check out, Ali handed over her debit/credit card, and the girl walked over to the one machine they have to process a card, and swiped. We waited, and there was no answer. She tried again, and still nothing. We were there for 10-15 minutes, along with another "Palongie" woman who was also holding up the other line. Everyone else patiently waited as the clerks took turns at the machine trying to process both of the cards. Eventually they got through, and we took our very expensive groceries and left.

Food stuff...

I had some lovely raisin toast and fresh fruit for breakfast. Lunch was curried chicken, and papaya from the tree in the yard, also good, and Ali and her husband Phil took me out to dinner at the local chinese food restaurant. Phil (Ali's husband) ordered before we arrived, and got some really good vegetable egg drop soup, (by far the best I ever have had) some pepper shrimp, lightly breaded and peppered, but with the legs and skin intact which made it interesting to eat, a plate of egg foo young, and lastly, two fish. Two whole Parrot fish to be accurate, battered and deep fried, and you just broke off chunks of meat from the fish with your fingers to eat it. If you know how much I do not love either fish or egg, then you would be proud that I had some of everything and I found it all actually quite tasty. The fish really did taste very much like chicken. It was whole however, so I tried not to look the fish in the eye when I tore off a chunk from behind his fin. It wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined it might be, and I found it very good, for fish.

It is 11PM here now, which is 3AM according to my body clock. I think I will call it a day!

Manuia le po (Good Night!)