More "Cash For Work"

Almost every village decided to do these painted rocks for part of their projects. They had them before the tsunami, but the waves washed them all away. They give the village a very clean feel.

So last friday we finished projects in 3 more villages: Saleapaga, Poutasi, and... I can't remember the name of the last one haha. Samoan names are weird. But once again, the projects were very successful and helped clean up the villages a lot! The people also loved the cash.

This is Saleapaga, probably the hardest-hit village on the island. This large expanse was FILLED with debris before. They also had lots of gov't aid, but Cash for Work made a large improvement.

This is a cute little girl in Ssafimaf. Just kidding. don't remember the name her village either.

This is the previous little girl's brother. He was really funny... whenever I wasn't looking, he would reach up and grab my hair or my face. I was the first palagi (white person) he'd ever seen.

This is just a snapshot of the beautiful island we get to drive in everyday. I love it.

They gave me this meal in Matafaa. According to Ken my translator, we weren't allowed to leave till we finished. This village was very poor, and spent a lot of money on the meal. It's also half-gone in the picture. There was one other bowl of stew, another fried sausage, and another wedge of taro. I felt like i could throw up the world when I finally finished.

This is the moon..

notice the craters.

killa

So the other night, there was a full moon - well almost. It was the brightest moon I'd ever seen. It lit up the whole sky and ocean like a sunset, and the clouds were just... amazing. So Agnes and I sat at the sea-wall for hours. It was most romantic.

this is one of many self-timed photos. we had fun

Agnes made me try a handstand and I almost died

an endless diamond sky.

Another Video.

So here's another video I made for MicroDreams. Some of the pictures may look familiar.. And again, because it doesn't fit in the blog layout, double click it to view the whole thing!

It's Been A While..

So it's been a while! I'm not gonna lie... blogging is kind of a pain and takes forever on lovely Samoan internet. I've been rebelling. I'll try and remember where I left off...

Well two weeks ago Russ left to reunite with his wife in Jersey. I learned a lot from him about humanitarian "business" and he is missed. I also miss his rental car ;)

With Russ' absence, Ken (the translator) and I have taken over managing the Cash for Work programs. Total, we've finished I think seven projects, and Ken and I have started six new ones that will be finished by the eleventh.

This is Maros in the middle. She is Mick's wife and she is hilarious. She is president/leader/queen of SPBD in Samoa - I forget her title.

This is a pile of collected debris in one of the villages. The government sends big trucks by every week to pick up the garbage.

Some villagers off to work in the morning.

This flag is in memory of the people who died in the tsunami. Villagers say that at night they hear the ghosts of people who died throwing rocks at their houses. They think it's because the ghosts don't want the villagers to move inland and abandon their beach homes. There are also ghost stories about taxi drivers taking passengers to tsunami-hit villages that are no longer in the car when they arrive... But I also don't think I've been in a taxi here with a completely sober driver..

For Thanksgiving, Agnes and I treated ourselves to the nicest restaurant (only over McDonalds) in all of Samoa. The place had a nice ambience and their food was surprisingly really good! Either that or I've been deprived of real food for too long. I've been living a pretty strict diet of fried food and cheap chinese, as that's honestly all they have here. And taro.. which is oookay..

I ordered a delicious garlic and rosmary shrimp spaghetti.

At dinner we talked about things we were grateful for..

Last Friday, Agnes had to visit American Samoa to renew her visa. I thought these were really cool pictures of Samoa that she took from her airplane.

What else... the weather here has been really wet, as it's "wet season." But I love the rain so I'm not complaining. The beaches are nice. Last sunday, Agnes and I went to Palolo Beach, right by our house, and just relaxed all day. We also got to watch a hundred japanese people swim which was kind of fun. The internet is still slow.. and I'm hungry, so I'm off to buy my daily $2 fried chinese meal. Hope you're all well and that you really enjoyed your real Thanksgiving dinners! ;)

L8R SK8rs

More On Saturday..

After the falls we went to the Ba'hai (spelling?) temple. It was really cool because I had never heard of the Ba'hai religion before. The temple in Samoa is supposedly one of only seven world-wide.

For dinner we got fish and chips and ate them down on the sea-wall.

In the evening, Gwen (Miss Samoa) invited us to her variety show at a local bar/restaurant. We went and found out it was actually a filming for the second episode of the first Samoan Late Night Show. There were lots of performers; Gwen sang and was really good. It was also interesting because over half of the cast were fafafineis (trannies). We had fun during the show trying to guess which ones were actually girls. After the show Russ and Agnes dared me to get a picture with one of them. "Her" name is Ellen, and she's apparently a famous Samoan choreographer. She also has a really deep voice.

This is one of the hosts in their killer set. Not a tranny.

fabulousness

Papapapapapa-tei Adventure

So last saturday, we (Russ, Agnes, and Mick) all really wanted to find a way to hike to the bottom of this waterfall. The Papapapa-tei Falls.

We had heard that there was a path somewhere, but had no idea where to find it, so we drove around until we came to this path-- about a mile away from the falls.

the path

After walking about a mile we wound up on someone's taro plantation. There we found a one-eyed samoan guy with a bandana that seemed kind of drunk; all he was missing was a parrot on his shoulder. He didn't speak english, but after about ten minutes of playing charades, he finally understood where we wanted to go. He went to his porch, grabbed a machete and a shot-gun and motioned for us to follow. We awkwardly hesitated for a second, and reluctantly followed. He took us to the edge of his plantation where a thick rainforest began - thick meaning a literal wall of vegetation. Then he proceeded to chop us a tunnel with his machete. After about half a mile we got to the edge of the waterfall canyon. The slope was about 80 degrees steep and we thought our hike had come to an end. But the machete man jumped right down the slope and kept hacking a path for us. Again we hesitated as we were about to start down a 300 foot slope of almost-impassable foliage and insurmountable danger.. but again we followed..

Making our way down the treacherous slope.

It was really funny because of how ridiculous it was. Especially because our tour guide had never done it himself before. But after about an hour, and only fifty feet down, we decided it was too much and turned around. Although we never reached the bottom, it was still a ton of fun.

A field of clover I found on the plantation.

An exhausted Agnes

This is our tour guide's son.. we think.

After more charades, we got our guide to take us to the head of the waterfall which was really cool. Very pretty view.

head of the falls.

Me, Russ, Mick, and our pirate friend. And I don't think I introduced you to Mick yet. He is irish and lives next door. He's really funny and knows lots of good irish songs.

Our tour guide held my pants as I leaned over to take this.. it was scary on many levels.

Somewhere on the right-side is where we made our attempted descen

Village Projects

This is a re-built sea wall on Manono Island. This is just one section, but their now completed project extends for a couple miles. The people worked really hard.

Some kids in Manono.

This last week was very productive as we were busy going to and from the nine village projects, which pretty much span the entire island (it takes five hours to drive around the whole island). We finished up the two projects in Manano, and they look really good. One village says they are going to carry on the project for another two weeks, even though SPBD won't be paying them for it. They are extremely grateful to the organization. All of the other two-week projects end this friday, and then I think we'll be starting three more next week.

Some boats in Manono.

Work team in Tafituala.

Random pretty people in Salani. We tried to get the little kid to look for seriously ten pictures but he wouldn't.. oh well.

Work team in Utulailai. They enjoyed the camera and the goofy yellow work gloves we got them.

Some workers in Lalumano. The one the right is a tranny, and they are everywhere here. Supposedly it's a big part of the Samoan culture.

A destroyed house in Salani.

Big strong Samoan women. They are the project leaders in Lalumano.

Some girls walking home from school in Ulutogia. All schools here wear these uniforms.

Paying workers in Mutiatele.

Worker in Ulutogia.

Workers in Ulutogia pretending to work for the camera.

This is a part of Salani that was cleaned by one of the projects. Before the project, this area was filled with debris. It looks a LOT better.

Paying workers in Salani.

Lady in Tafituala filling out a time-sheet.