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!

I think I will title this episode: Lucy & Ethel Tuna Smugglers

Lucy, have you and Ethel been smuggling tuna again? Awe Ricky, couldn't you just call your friend at the Port Authority office and explain?

So, Ali has this friend Fidel from Ecuador that works on a tuna boat. He came into port today, and called her and said he had some fresh tuna for her. They agreed to meet at the port in Pago Pago so he could give it to her, as they have done on many occasions over the past 6 years.

So at the arranged hour of 12:00 noon, Ali and I drove up to the port gates. We checked in with the Port Authority guard and explained that we were there to meet Fidel to pick up some tuna. We were let in and drove about 25 yards from the Port Authority office to wait for Fidel. After a few minutes Fidel came in on a small boat.

The usual greetings ensued, and after a few introductions, Fidel unloaded a couple of boxes of frozen tuna, and a huge frozen piece of Mahi Mahi (literally the size of the trunk of my body)

into our car. We were just getting ready to leave when a Port Authority officer walked up and said "What are you doing?" Ali explained that we were getting fish from a friend. He said "Where is my fish?" Then a Port Authority truck pulled up and two more officers got out.

One of those officers began to question the men on the boat, none of which are very fluent in english and all of which were reluctant to talk to

anyone in a uniform. Ali was trying to translate for a minute but as things became more heated and another Port Authority truck pulled up with two more officers in it, she decided to call her husband Ma'O for some Samoan help.

While Ali was on the phone and I was

trying to casually take pictures without the officers kn

owing, I heard one of the officers make a deal with Fidel that if he would meet her tomorrow and bring her a fish, the trouble could go away. I saw her take his phone number and tell him that she would be off at noon tomorrow and would see him then. She then said "if you are giving the fish to the women then give it all to them." So Fidel went back aboard his boat and proceeded to put a whole frozen fish (Guillermo, the boat driver's fish) into the back of our car.

(No plastic wrap, no nothing... I don't need to mention what the car now smells like.)

Then we were told to come with the officers to the Port Authority office, (which was literally less than 25 yards away) as was Guillermo, the driver of the small boat that Fidel had come on.

Poor Guillermo kept asking Ali in spanish if he was

being taken to jail. Frankly, for a few

minutes I wasn't so sure that her assurances that we were not all going to jail were very valid. I was thinking that maybe Ma'O was going to be bailing us out, although I had no idea what we could have

possibly done wrong.

Luckily every Samoan has a very important 'cousin' somewhere, and Ma'O is no exception. He is friends with/related to one of the big bosses at the Port Authority, and when we were seated in the office of the guy in charge Ali started throwing his name around. Magically, his 'tuna tune' changed completely. "I am sure this is just a simple misunderstanding," he began saying. "Not a problem Mam" he said. "We aren't here to make things hard for people, just a simple

misunderstanding I am sure."

In the end, the Ecuadorian's were scolded for not letting the Port Authority know that they were going to stop their boat there. It was explained to us that the confusion started when an

officer thought we looked like we might be loading some contraband.

Contraband? Smugglers? Yes, we are definitely smugglers. Only the smartest smugglers disguise themselves as being two of the whitest women on the island, explain to the officers that they are picking up fish, and show passports and sign papers to get into the main port gates, then park directly in front of the Port Authority office, to load their smelly boxes of "contraband."

After a few minutes of Ali explaining back and forth, spanish to english and back, the officer who started all the fuss, looked like he was just sorry to have messed with the crazy, now very wound up, palagi red head with the Samoan husband.

We were promptly let go, as was our new friend Guillermo, who was so happy to be out of there he told us to just keep that big frozen fish.

This is Fidel walking towards us so glad we are coming out of the office, and this is Guillermo's back, he couldn't get out of there fast enough!!

Ali and I drove out of the port gates laughing so hard, and then realized 'What are we going to do with this huge fish?' It is far too big to fit into any refrigerator or freezer.

We decided to call Hena.

Hena lives in a little area with many Tongan families, and we thought maybe she could share it with her family and friends. We pulled up to Hena's house and went in to ask if she wanted some fish. She came out to the car and her eyes grew wide when she saw the big fish.

She began, "My ward is having a dinner tomorrow and they asked me to bring the fish. I don't have any fish and so I called my friends to see if they had any fish and they all said no. Today I was praying to Heavenly Father to help me to find some fish. This is fish from heaven" she said.

Well Lucy, I think this episode turned out pretty well, don't you? Yes Ethel, it was a little more adventuresome than I had planned, but there is nothing quite like delivering fresh fish from heaven!

My Research

Today I broke my 100 survey goal! Hooray!!

I actually have 120, but 100 was my initial goal, so now everything over that is a bonus! For those of you who are not aware of the research I am doing here, I apologize as I know I haven't mentioned it much in this blog.

So...here is a readers digest version of my research:

I am here in American Samoa because they experienced an earthquake and tsunami in September of 2009 and my interest is in Posttraumatic Growth. While most of you have likely heard of Posstraumatic Stress Disorder, many have likely not heard the converse, the study of Posttraumatic Growth. It is really the study of how after some sort of traumatic event, the majority of people likely look back on that event as a turning point of some sort in life, a stimulus for growth in some area of their lives.

I have been handing out surveys at the puppet show/nutrition lessons put on three times a week by the foundation I am working with, and at a health fair sponsored by the foundation as well. At the health fair I raffled off a banana cake to motivate people to take the survey. Like with any culture people here are highly motivated by frosting!

(Note my nifty tsunami survey poster hung at my health fair survey table. picture above The wave at the bottom is the universal sign for tsunami)

I have been calling it a tsunami survey rather than a posttraumatic growth survey, so I don't have to do so much explaining. Besides I do not necessarily want the people to try to answer in a way they think is the "right" answer, and it is better if it is not so obvious what I am looking for.

I am interested in knowing if and how the people here view the tsunami in a positive light. My research is based on that of Dr's Lawrence G. Calhoun and Richard G. Tedeschi out of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Prior to coming here I wrote to them and asked for their permission to use the survey tool they use to study posttraumatic growth. They kindly granted it with the provision that I share my results, and I will gladly, if indeed I have any worth sharing. I have had to simplify their much larger survey down to 15 questions, and have had it translated into Samoan.

It is intended to measure five different factors of Posttraumatic Growth:

Factor I: Relating to Others, Factor II: New Possibilities, Factor III: Personal Strength, Factor IV: Spiritual Change, Factor V: Appreciation of Life. There are 2 questions designed to measure each factor.

I will be very interested to get home and begin to work with the data that I have collected. It is my observation that this culture is very relaxed and therefore quite resilient. They have all seen many hurricanes and huge storms and do not get very worked up, but the tsunami was different, and many lives were definitely changed!

A mere 7 minutes after they felt the first rumble of the earthquake, a 32', 500 mile per hour, wall of water hit. Adults were literally dragging young children, and old people up the mountain ahead of the water. I have heard stories of the up to 32' tall wave washing a large shark into a home, and also of it washing away a loved one.

I have some interviews scheduled in the next 2 weeks to hear and record some of the stories and thoughts of a couple of the local villagers, of a couple who live on a yacht in the harbor, and the story of that day from the couple who I am living with.

I am headed to Western Samoa on the 26th. That island was hit worse than here, and I am set to interview a sister missionary who had been on the island only two weeks when the tsunami hit. She says she and her husband were out in their van rescuing as many as they could hold. She tells me she has pictures and stories for me. I am looking forward to that.

As I read this I am thinking to myself...I almost sound like a legitimate researcher. Sometimes I feel like I really am, and at others I still feel like I am just asking a few specific questions about how people survive and perhaps even prosper after something so completely devastating happens in their lives. As this type of positive outlook on trauma is a subject I personally am curious about. So,I ask what makes a researcher? Perhaps being curious and doing it in a controlled way is being a "researcher"? Is there more to it than that? Hmmmmm something to "research" another day...

I am including my survey here for the curious. If you like, think of a traumatic event in your own life and then take it yourself. You may see ways in which that event indeed brought growth.

As you will see each statement or question is first in samoan, then in english:

(for those of you who speak a little spanish, each vowel sound in samoan is the same as spanish but the vowels do not combine to form new sounds. Every one is sounded out, so it is a completely phoenetic spelling. Beautiful to listen to, but not a "written language" so tougher to read and write!)

Faamolemole fa’alapotopoto mai vaega sili ona faamatalaina ai oe:

Please circle the responses that you feel best describe you:

1. Oa’u: Polenisia—Asia—Isi I am: Polynesian—Caucasian—Asian—Other

2. Tulaga o Tausaga: My age: 18 to 30 31 to 40 41 to 50 51 to 60 61 to 70 71 or over

3. Tulaga Fa’aipoipoga: Fa’aipoipo—To’atasi—Tatala faaipoipoga—Nofo fua—Isi

Marital Status: Married—Single—Divorced—Widowed—Other

4. Fa’afusaina lo’u tagata: Le lotu—Lotu laititi—Lotu feololo—Tagata lotu male malelosi

I consider myself: not religious—somewhat religious—average in religion—very religious

5. Ua ma’ea____tausaga o a’oa’oga. I have completed ____ many years of schooling.

6. Oa’u: Ali’i—Tama’I tai—Isi I am : Male—Female—Other

Faamolemole toe tepa ile mafui’e ma le tsunami ia Setema 2009

ma a’afiaga na o’o ilou olaga.

Please consider the earthquake and tsunami of September 2009,

and the affect it has had on your life.

Iloilo tulaga o l’ou le auai po’o auai I fa’amatalaga nei.

Then indicate the level that you disagree or agree with the following statements:

0 = mafua leai se auai / disagree strongly; 1 = le auai laititi / disagree somewhat;

2 = le auai / disagree slightly; 3 = auai feololo / agree slightly;

4 = auai feololo atu / agree somewhat; 5 = auai atoatoa / agree strongly

Ta’u mai le mafui’e ma le tsunami, Since the earthquake and tsunami,

7. O mea sa ou lagoniana le taua ilo’u olaga olo’o tumau pea.

The things that I feel are important in life have remained the same.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

8. Ua ou faafuatuaina tulaga olo’u lava o laga.

I have more appreciation for the value of my own life.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

9. Ua ou fausia ni manatu fou. I have developed new interests.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

10. Ua faateleina lo’u malamalama i mea. I have a better understanding of spiritual things.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

11. Ua ou lagonaina le latalata atu i isi. I feel closer to others.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

12. Ua faaititia li’ou mana’o e faailoa atu ou lagona. I am less willing to express my feelings.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

13. Ua ou lagonaina le le mafai ona outau limaina faafitauli auai atoatoa.

I feel that I can no longer handle difficulties.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

14. Maua ai avanoa lelei sa lei mafai ona auai atoatoa.

New opportunities are available which wouldn't have been otherwise.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

15. Faaititia lo’u faatuatua faaleagaga. I have less religious faith.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

16. Ua ou iloaina lo’u malosi lo’o le tulaga sa ou i ai.

I discovered that I'm stronger than I thought I was.

Mafua leai se auai /Disagree Strongly 0------1------2------3------4------5 Auai atoatoa / Agree Strongly

A Little Island in the Distance... Aunu'u

Little island in the distance

Out at sea, your existence

Stuck between the moon and tide

Nature's fury forced to ride

Daytime sun shines so bright

Beautiful sunsets bring on night

Stars above to explore

Laying peacefully on your shore

Sadly I cannot stay

Perhaps I'll return another day

Saturday we took a little outing to the Amouli side of the island and then boarded a small boat out to the island of Aunu'u. According to what I read this small island is a total of 3 sq kilometers (just slightly over 1 sq mile) with a population of 475 people. It was the location where the Mormon missionaries first arrived when coming to Samoa.

This is our boat captain Joshua along with his

fearless crew manning the ropes in the back of the boat.

I am not really sure a description could do the water color around Aunu'u justice,

but I think the term Azure Blue Sea must have come from here!

We found some local kids playing quarters against the store wall, and hired ourselves a guide to show us around the island. Meet Cruz, "as in Tom Cruz" he tells me. Cruz is 14 years old, and takes the boat each day to go to high school on the "big island." I guess "Big" is all in what you are comparing it to.

For such a small island, we saw two very big churches!

Gorgeous woodworking inside this first one which is owned by the First Congregational Church. Not sure who owns the other one.

Look at that ceiling. Gorgeous!!

Our fearless guide took us on a 30 minute walk to the "end of the island" where the lake was, to see all the quiksand. He explained that we needed to follow where he walked when we got to the lake because he knew all the safe places. His father had shown him when he was a young boy, and his grandfather had shown his father. He was very proud of his island and his heritage. I asked him what he wanted to do when he got out of school. He told me that he either wants to join the Coast Guard so he could protect his island from terrorists, or maybe become a police officer. He is not positive yet, but either way he wants to go to school off island, then return to Aunu'u. I didn't tell him that I think his island is likely not a high profile terrorism target, or that I thought with a population of 475 a police man there he might lose his mind with boredom. I didn't want to pop his bubble. At least in Provo the bored police entertain themselves by writing parking tickets. On Aunu'u there are no cars, what exactly would one do all day?

Myself, Ali, Elder and Sister Webb narrowly escaping the quicksand.

All aboard... We are headed back

Goodbye Aunu'u.

I will be back another day to snorkel in your beautiful blue waters.