American Samoa is just such an interesting place. Things happen that just seem so absurd. For example, riding in the backs of pickup trucks is a very popular thing which is fine. But the thing is, people ride in the beds of pickup trucks in lawn chairs as if it was a normal seat back there. Also, for some reason just being a white person driving in a car is apparently very entertaining. Which I suppose makes sense since “palagis” make up significantly less than one percent of the population here. So we will drive around and groups of people will just laugh hysterically at us for no reason. Also, road maintenance often occurs during rush hour and consists of workers dumping gravel in potholes in between the moments cars drive over them.

            Another interesting thing is that there are constant cat fights in the night outside our house, with the strangest noises I have ever heard coming from these fighting cats, almost human noises actually. In the morning we see the cats with their battle wounds, sometimes bloody scratches on their faces. The other day we also discovered a headless dead chicken just lying in our driveway (see the next set of pictures I post) and couldn’t figure out whether or not it was the result of one of the cat fights and an angry cat decided to bite a chicken’s head off for intimidation factor or something…not really phased by much anymore evidently.

            So as I mentioned earlier, this really cool guy in his sixties who came here for the opening of the hyperbaric chamber bought the three of us gift certificates for massages at the spa at the nice hotel near our house. So that helped make for a spoiled weekend. Friday night we went out to dinner at one of the few restaurants then went to the hotel I stayed at for my site visit to hang out with our Coast Guard friend Dave and a bunch of Coast Guard guys from off island who were called in to work. They were working on getting a boat to float and cleaning the potentially thousands of gallons and oils that had spilled from it when it sunk in the harbor. One of the guys was from New Jersey, knew Holmdel because of our intense cross country course, and had gone to school in Cinnaminson (the town my dad grew up in!) and even knew my dad’s street! They were all really cool, and an older Samoan man asked me to dance to the live music that was being played.

            On Saturday we went out to Airport Beach, the beach right off of the airport runway. To get there you have to walk 30 minutes along the airport fence, through piles of fallen coconuts and trash. There is a crazy amount of trash there because so much is washed up by the ocean, and Kelly made a good point that the tsunami probably brought a ton. It makes sense because it’s not like this on the other beaches. But then again, this one is much less often frequented. There’s only a thin strip of land between the fence and the ocean. There were tons of shoes, toys, clothing, even a child’s tricycle and a rusted old refrigerator. It made me really sad to see. But the beach itself once we got there was so amazing. It was pretty much made of coral rubble, and the day was gorgeous. We snorkeled a bit, and Kelly identified some coral for me. There were also hermit crabs EVERYWHERE, especially all over my towel and bag.

            After the beach, even though we had put on tons of sunscreen, we realized how burnt we had gotten. Me especially. It was absolutely ridiculous. AJ and Kelly went to get their massages while I went for a run and then I went to get mine. It was glorious, and it didn’t even hurt my sun burn. The woman who massaged me was Fijian which was great because I actually just bought my tickets to go to Fiji today! Kelly and I are going to Fiji, and AJ is going to New Zealand. I at first was pretty torn up about where to go and even tried to figure out how to go to both, but we just didn’t have enough time. I even at one point was totally set on New Zealand. I chose Fiji because 1. I’ll get to SCUBA dive for the first time, and Kelly is an experienced diver, so it’ll be nice to have her there 2. I don’t know when I’ll get the opportunity to go back there, and even though it’s tropical islands, it’s very different from here 3. New Zealand is freezing right now, and I would only be there for less than 10 days, some of them without AJ since he has to leave earlier than Kelly and me. I know NZ is a place I really want to go and spend a decent amount of time in, so I figured it’s not necessary to go now. I am really excited about Fiji, and we’re spending some time in Western Samoa on either end of our trip since we have to fly in and out of that airport!

            Saturday night we went to a party at our boss Emily’s house which was tons of fun. Then, Sunday, Zack, who is Emily’s boyfriend’s 17 year old son (he went to high school in Peru and lived with his mom since she lives there and we speak Spanish sometimes which is awesome!) took us to this place called Sliding Rock which is absolutely spectacular. It is basically a sheet of volcanic rock, eroded differently in different places by the ocean and weathering, and it has little tidal pools throughout it. We snorkeled in one of the pools, and every so often a wave would crash over the rock protecting the pool and cascade into it in a little waterfall. Then we just stood out on a little cliff and looked at the crazy vertical inter tidal zone and talked and thought about how absurdly beautiful it is here. And how the fact that none of these places have been turned into tourist attractions makes them all that much more amazing.

            Another awesome thing here is that there are fabric stores with hundreds of types of fabrics all over and seamstresses who will make you made-to-order dresses, skirts and pulatasis (the “traditional”, or at least after the missionaries came what have been known as traditional, skirt and shirt combinations here). They are custom fit and designed by you and extraordinarily inexpensive. It’s really cool. Although, of course, Kelly and I went in to get fitted for pulatasis last Friday, they promised they would be ready a week later, and they weren’t. That day they swore to us they would be ready by Tuesday, which again they weren’t. They swore to Kelly Thursday, but she said my fabric was still sitting on the sewing table untouched when she went in to pick them up…oh, patience. I’m really trying to learn that. That’s how so many things are here though. Like when we got prepaid internet and they forgot to ever enter us in the system so we never got the internet and had to go back to the store and wait an hour and a half for them to understand what they did wrong…or the fact that there are two cell phone providers here and the two don’t have the capacity to text each other’s phones…and when I was having trouble with one of our phones and called customer service he told me he would let the tech guy know I was having trouble and when I asked if he needed my information he said no he would just let the tech guy know that someone was having trouble with her phone. So anyway I really am pretty low maintenance here and getting more patients with those types of things.

            Also, the other day I went to this Tae Bo class taught by Nika, one of the coolest ever Samoan women in my office. It’s free, and it’s three days a week taught in this super warm little community center type place. It is one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. She blasts music, and the place is filled with about 40 people of all ages and all fitness levels. It’s a great work out no matter what shape you’re in, and the little routines are high energy and like dancing and fighting at the same time. I could not wipe the smile off my face. It was awesome.

            I’ve also been cooking up a storm. I really really love cooking. I made carrot bread using rice flour and raisins and walnuts and oat bran and flax and wheat germ and almond milk, and it’s delicious although I might have grated my hand a bit…I also made this AMAZING chili that’s just super good. Then I made green banana ceviche from a recipe I found online, but it was wayyy too lemon-y so I really have to ask my host mom for her recipe. But it’s actually really good when I mix a bit with the chili and put it over quinoa or rice. Then I made Christine’s mom’s candied pecan recipe which I brought to the party Saturday and everyone loved! My most recent invention was the stuffed eggplant I made last night. I sautéed onion and garlic and the scooped out inside of the local eggplant with some local boc choy then added a bit of salt and pepper. I scooped this inside of the eggplant skins, sprinkled pecans and sesame seeds on it, drizzled some balsamic vinegar over the top, and baked it in the oven. It turned out great and was one hundred percent made up so could have turned out terribly.

            On another note, so much for that host mom thing here. Not really sure what happened, but I don’t think she likes us as much anymore. She also always calls me Kelly. But the other day she took us aside and told us her energy bill was $60 higher this past month than it usually is and basically blamed it on us doing laundry in her machine…which we have done exactly three loads of. So, although electricity is approximately 3.3 times more expensive here than the mainland average, $20 a load doesn’t exactly sound right. She basically asked us to pay her $60 and went on about how she and her husband don’t work because they have to take care of her mother…all in all quite an uncomfortable situation. We just told her we would do our laundry in the Laundromat like we had intended to before she had offered to do it in our machine…and I’ve been washing stuff in the sink and wearing quite smelly workout clothes twice.

            Frisbee is still super fun, although it is sometimes hard not to get too invested in it. It’s really weird to be playing without any rules but definitely something I’m always looking forward to. We also got a few more friends to come out this time which always makes it better. The only bad thing is that one of the middle aged guys we play with had a bad fall and tore some ligaments in his ankle since the field has a lot of pot holes…so today another guy brought some buckets of dirt and some people went around and filled all of the holes to make it safer. I still got taken out when Brian (the other guy who has played for a while) and I were both going for the Frisbee from different directions and he basically decked me as I was in the air for the disc. But I’m absolutely fine, Mom and Dad.

            I’ve been rambling about the minute details of my entire life for a bit too long now. To anyone who has the patience to read this (I certainly wouldn’t), sorry for being so verbose, it’s a problem I’ve always had. To the parents, I know you love me giving this many excruciating details, so I love you and you’re welcome.

            Another really really exciting thing is that I just found out today that my brothers have been chosen to be featured guest performers at The Folk Project Weekend in October, which is the event I wrote my college essay on and deemed “Hippie Fest”. Anyway, they get to play at the concerts they have, lead workshops, and get free participation and food and lodging and everything for the weekend. I am soo proud of them and so excited to go see them!!