So the night after discovering the cockroach creeping up my bare side and flinging it away, I was sleepily crawling into bed to find the leg of that cockroach nestled into my sheets, proving that the experience positively had not been a dream. I then found another bug tucked into the folds of my sheets, flicked it away, and went to sleep. We have a lot of lovely fowl friends living outside our house who enjoy crowing and cackling incessantly in the wee hours of the morning and are happy to stop doing so as soon as you make up your mind to get out of bed. We wonder if and how people get used to that here…

            So we have been hanging out more with the palagis here (group of white people) who are all at least six years older than us and more but are very welcoming and great. There is a palagi list serve from which we find out all sorts of fun activities like potluck dinner farewell parties to which a bat biologist brought a bat that he was raising (he is given a new bat every few months, usually an abandoned baby, to raise until it’s ready to go off on its own. Fruit bats are everywhere here; just as likely to see a bat souring through the sky as you are a bird. I got to hold the baby bat, and it was so crazy. The wings felt like super thin rubber, and the bat kept biting my finger which really hurt. Then, later he was holding the bat upside down by its feat and it kept spreading out its wings and trying to launch off. Finally it succeeded and launched straight towards my face, scratching me in the face (pretty badass, I know) and perching on my arm.

            Yesterday we went to the beach and wore bikinis (gasp, scandalous here don’t tell anyone) and then played an interesting game of wiffel (how the hell do you spell that?) ball with the palagi group.

            Ohh and on Saturday night I made gallo pinto Costa Rica style (except without cilantro or Lizano so not really Costa Rica style) and it was super delicious then we made smoothies with frozen bananas and cream of coconut (SO GOOD). We went out to this one bar called Airport at the airport and sang some really terrible karaoke (I was singing so it was truly painful for all those listening) and then we went to this “club” they call Bowling Alley where there was a screen playing the music videos for the songs the dj played and we danced so much. Most of the time Kelley and I broke it down with barely anyone else on the dance floor, but we did get AJ and the other guys we were with to dance too. We also joined a dancing circle with some Samoans who could really dance and then guys kept asking our guy friends for permission to dance with us. We at times had to tell them that our friends were our boyfriends so they wouldn’t try anything. One of the guys I danced with I kept having to back up from, and he was laughing the whole time. He introduced me to his friends, one of whom held both of my hands, looked me in the eyes, and said, “you are incredible”. “Why?” “Just because…”. It was very flattering. Whenever I need a confidence boost, I’m going there.

            We also went to a secret hidden beach on Saturday that was on an insane, narrow, unpaved road with huge potholes and giant rocks everywhere. And Kelly and I were riding in the back of a pickup truck the whole way. And then we had to hike down to it, but it was spectacular.

            So here in AS tourism isn’t very big, so there aren’t too many palagis, and we are definitely a big source of amusement for the Samoan population. And I can’t say I blame them, we do act ridiculous. Also, something else interesting about the culture is that often when families have all boys or mostly boys, they will raise one of their boys as if he was a girl, to have him do the household chores typically reserved for females. Often, these “fafatinis” become transgender, and this phenomenon is very common and accepted here. We aren’t sure if this traditional acceptance has paved the way for others to feel comfortable embracing their transgender identities and if hormone injections and operations are common. Something I’m interested in finding out more about.

            AJ is presently steaming his shirt (YES HE BROUGHT A STEAMER) in an attempt to get the wrinkles out of his shirt…which he is planning on wearing to the beach today. And he tells me not to judge him…

            We are also in the process of putting together a video (or perhaps several) that mostly involve confessionals and dancing to Call Me Maybe.

            As for my project, I got to meet with a few guys on Friday (one doing the EPA building which has the potential of getting a platinum, very rare, certification but more likely will have gold and the other the head engineer from the Territorial Energy Office who also happened to live in Bolivia for a year and start a solar energy company in Guatemala). I learned that there is a great deal of potential for geothermal energy here since we are right near two hotspots, but there needs to be political will (to dig up the land…). They are also starting to bring a few electric cars onto the island, and the EPA has done a lot in terms of composting, utilizing it on some of the pig farms to maintain healthier pigs and a healthier environment. There is hope that the trucks that will be used for recycling pick up will have duel capacity to also pick up home compost and combine it with sewer sludge to create sustainable fertilizer rather than the chemical fertilizers that deplete the soil and the water sources as well. Collecting compost has the potential to divert 50% of the waste from the landfill (all of the organic material emits methane to the atmosphere when it decomposes anaerobically, as it does in a landfill without proper exposure to oxygen).

            Also, the deal with solar energy here is that people or businesses can get solar panels installed for $7,000 per kwh, and the payback is usually seven years. The extra energy produced by these panels goes back to the energy grid managed by the American Samoa Power Authority to be redistributed, but those with the panels don’t get solar energy credit or payback for the extra energy they produce. The Territorial Energy Office is working to create a loan program where people can get panels installed for little or no initial fee and pay for them over a period of time, as they are saving money from their typical monthly energy bills for fossil fuel power.

            Another important thing is that, since it rains a lot and often parking lots are not made of permeable material, the water sits on top of the blacktop, often runs off of it carrying trash and other contaminants with it, to the water and surrounding land. Permeable, filtrating blacktop material is being used in the new EPA building, and they also have other collection areas for the water to run off to, prepared to hold a large quantity of water, with absorbent vegetation (e.g. willows) planted in these areas to take up the water.

            Well, anyway, I’m off to the beach right now! I’ll probably post this tomorrow.