Tsunami Territory.

Me wearing my lavalava.

Yesterday was pretty eventful. We traveled around the island visiting a bunch of villages and talking with the people. The mission of the SPBD (South Pacific Business Development) is to encourage the people of the area to work and find ways to make a living. The program we are running for tsunami victims is called "Cash for Work." Because of the tsunami, most villagers have lost their various ways of making money. So we visit each village, speak to their leaders, and decide on a suitable two-week project that the village can work on; each village has a mayor, and two chiefs. We then offer to pay the workers a little over minimum wage (2 tallah/$0.75 an hour) for their work. We pay a little over 3 tallah. This gives the people a way to earn money to feed their families, but also an opportunity to improve their community at the same time.

On the drive to the southern tsunami-hit villages. Every square inch of the island is covered with plants and greenery. Really beautiful.

A local bus traveling from Apia, the capital city.

View of a small island from the southern villages.

This wide empty expanse used to be all houses. It's right one the shore, and was completely swept away by the tsunami. You can see a lot of the debris that was washed inland in the distance. Now most of the villagers are afraid of the ocean and are moving inland.

This is a small lean-to in another washed away village.

These are some kids at a new village that's being built inland. They liked posing for the camera.

This cute little girl is Teri. She played peek-a-boo with me from behind her mom's back. Whenever I wouldn't look at her she'd growl at me.

I heard lots of sad stories. One girl we spoke with lost three of her sisters - all of their children also drowned. One man's wife didn't even know of the tsunami and died while taking a shower. Most of the people don't like talking about it, and still have nightmares about it. About 146 total people died in the tsunami, and I think there's still quite a few missing people.

So yesterday was a strange day - I saw the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, but heard the most depressing stories. One thing I really admire about the people is how fast they've been able to start working and rebuilding their homes. They've made a lot of progress already. I also couldn't believe how generous they were. Here these people have lost everything, and at almost every place we stopped, we were offered food or drinks. Very humbling. They are incredibly kind, and are extremely grateful for any aid they receive.

Arrival.

My plane hit the landing pad at 4:58 am this morning. I soon discovered that there wasn't much more to the Samoan airport than the landing strip itself - that, and a small indoor baggage claim. As we stepped off the plane, we were greeted warmly by white-lei'd natives and a small band singing and playing ukuleles. Kind of cliche, I know. I told them to switch it up a bit. After making my way through customs I was greeted by To'o, (a local member of the SPBD), who chauffeured me to our small rented home. The drive was beautiful; everything is so green and lush. Fun fact: the Samoan Gov't recently switched the driving lanes from the right side to the left side. Except all their steering wheels are also on the left side. So ya.. as you can imagine, it's weird and makes for a pretty trippy driving experience - I'm glad I'm not driving. Anyways, there I reunited with my friend Russ Tanner, my roommate-to-be and also the chief project coordinator for SPBD. He is american.

This is our place of residence until friday. Then we have to move.

I spent the morning sleeping off some of my jet lag. Our lodgings are nicer than I imagined and are pretty comfortable. I then went into Apia (the capital city/town), and was shown the SPBD offices--which, have air conditioning! yay..

Me loving the air-conditioning in the office.

Then I went grocery shopping, and got to have lunch at a McDonalds! Which, by-the-way, is the nicest restaurant in town. As I was eating, a guy named Pene(spelling?) came and sat by me. He told me his name is the Samoan version of Ben. He also told me he was in one of the southern villages that got hit by the tsunami. He told me he and his family (five kids) were inside when they felt the earthquake. They immediately ran up the hill to some trees, and climbed as high as they could with ropes. He said they then watched as three fifty foot walls of water came in and wiped out their village. His family was safe, but he said he had many friends and extended family that either died or were seriously injured. He is a textile designer, mostly for lavalavas (the skirts everyone wears), and was in Apia to sell them so he could buy food for his family. So mom and sisters, I bought you quite a few.

This was a pretty sobering story, and made me pretty motivated to start some work down in the villages. Tomorrow we'll be traveling there to evaluate some of the damage and decide on some projects.

This is a rooster outside our house, who apparently thinks it's morning ALL day long ha.. What can you do.

So... I definitely won't be able to post like this everyday, but I'll keep you all updated.

I love you and miss you all!