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