More Tsunami Villages

View from Ulutogia

Tsunami rubble.

oops.. they forgot the"T".

Leaders of the women's commitee. They will be starting a clean-up project on Monday.

Villagers listening at one of the meetings.

After the meeting at this village, they brought all of us each a HUGE platter of food. The people here are so hospitable and generous.

This little girl is half-palagi (white man); her mom got busy with a tourist. She was really cute.

You can't really tell from the picture, but this tree is MASSIVE. Like fify feet.

Papapapatai Waterfall

Russ and I, elbow to elbow.

The last couple of days we've been traveling a lot to more villages to set up projects. We've started two in Ulutgia and Saleeamua. Before we get a project going we have to have a bunch of meetings with the village chiefs. It's a really long process, but we have five more projects starting on monday!

My First Samoan Weekend.

Friday night Russ, Agnes, and I went to an lds single-adult dance. I was surprised because they played some pretty bumpin music for a church dance. During one song, this forty-year-old samoan lady came and freaked me - the entire song haha. Then another lady came and told me not to worry, "It's just the Stake Presidents wife." Um? Awkward. It was also Agnes' first experience in an lds church.
Saturday night there was a big tsunami benefit concert with all the popular New Zealand music artists. I went with Agnes, a twenty-four yr old girl on our team from Texas. It was a ton of fun and the music was pretty good. They had some native acoustic artists, pop singers, and rappers. Down on the floor there were some local kids have a hip-hop dance-off which was really cool.Before the concert started. 95 degree day. As you can imagine, with all those big bodies in there - it was an oven.

Me and Agnes. Noddin' our heads like yeah.

The temperature here has been ridiculously hot. Our house doesn't really have AC, so we've just been sweating to death. I guess it's a good way to burn calories though!
Sunday Russ and I went to the English-speaking lds ward. Testimony meeting was pretty emotional as a lot of people shared their experiences with the tsunami. One lady talked about her brother who lost both his children, his wife, and his parents.
That night we were invited to the single-adult fireside and somehow we ended up singing in the choir? We didn't know any of the songs which was fun, but there were a lot of really good singers. They harmonize like birds of paradise.
The fireside was two hours long, no AC, and in Samoan. Needless to say I kinda slept through it. The messages were on marriage (surprise), and the stake president told everyone that if they don't get married soon, they will never find happiness. He told everyone, "Just marry someone - anyone. You should ask them tomorrow. Then you will be happy." haha. We met a lot of really nice people though!
When we got back, our landlord Flora and her mother Margaret made an U'o - a big sunday dinner.

This doesn't look very good but it's AMAZING! It's coconut, cooked in taro leaves. I forget the name of it but I love it.

The squash-looking stuff is taro. It grows in the ground and tastes like a potato and squash mixed. The thing that looks like a rock is called bread fruit. It grows on trees everywhere here, and tastes exactly like unleavened wheat bread when it's cooked. The rest is chicken and corn beef.

Manono Island.

Manono Island.

Russ and I on the boat.

Sorry it's been a while since I posted last! The internet's been down on the island. whateva.. So I've got a lot to catch up on.
Last Saturday we went to an island called Manono to check up on two projects.

Note on the pictures: they're out of order, and I had to reduce the size of them to be able to upload them on the slow internet. If you click on the pictures, it should blow them up a bit.

Me and Carol at a village meeting. I love Carol, she is from England and has that brilliant dry British humor. She gets annoyed with how fat all the Samoans are.

Money we paid the workers for their first week.

Village meeting. These are very long, and it kills to sit in cross-legged position that long. We have to though cause apparently it's rude to straighten your legs and point them at anyone. I'm getting better though.

A village boy we met. He said he's afraid of the ocean after the tsunami.

Russ and Jack (our translator) trying to roll a tipped-over water tank.

A ferry loaded with Samoans.

A fishing boat..

A fisherboy..

And the ferry harbor.

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!