Visitors!

For nearly a year we've been trying to convince friends and family to come see this beautiful island. We finally had someone take us up on the offer to crash on our couches and we didn't even make them sleep on the couch! My parents came for a few days this month so Clif and I took some days off work to be tour guides. The kids were so excited to show the island to their grandparents - they helped us plan our outings so we didn't miss out on any of their favorite spots (like the old WWII guns, which happen to be just about the coolest thing if you're a 6 or 8 year old boy).

The first day they were here, I put my mom to work. Our friends Moi and Polu were getting married and we heard that it's traditional for couples to wear matching outfits to weddings. All the sewing shops were so busy with outfits for graduations the same week that I ended up sewing my own puletasi. Unfortunately, I was sick the weekend before so I hadn't been able to get it done before my parents got here. Thank goodness my mom likes to sew! We finished up just in time for the wedding.

In the rush of getting to the wedding in time we forgot to take our camera. I wish we hadn't because it was amazing (see here and here for picture proof, including pictures of us in our matchy outfits)! Moi and Polu are such a great couple and I can't imagine a more beautiful setting for their wedding. We were so honored to be able to share their day with them.

And then the running around began! My dad vacations like no one else. If he can he'll wake up at the crack of dawn, run around all day seeing nearly a week's worth of sights in a day -barely stopping to munch some crackers for lunch en route to the next place and only really taking the time to eat after it's too dark or too late to see anything else. You see a lot of stuff that way, but you need a vacation to relax after your vacation to sight-see! I've gotten used to the laid-back Samoan pace so I was glad that it's a small island and, even if we wanted it to, that just can't happen here. We did manage to see a whole lot of island in a few short days, but I'm sure my dad would have liked to see more. I suppose that just means they'll have to come back ;)

First we stopped to check out the octopi on side of the road in Faga'alu. We've driven past these before, but hadn't ever stopped to see (and smell) them up close. Simon didn't seem too sure about it.

We hiked to the old WWII guns on Blunt's Point, with Everett leading the way. The first gun has been cleaned up and drained. The second one, a little higher on the hill, is absolutely full of toads! It was crazy to see how many were in there. Simon found a tiny one (on the leaf in the picture at the beginning of the post) that was about as big as a little black bean.

We drove the the end of the road on the East side of the island and stopped for a picnic in a fale at a beautiful beach with Aunu'u in the background.

We hiked out to see Pola Island in Vatia, snorkeled, hung out on the beach, and even got to see an amazing sunset over the mountains.

We hiked out to Airport Lagoon for some snorkeling and shell collecting. I'm sure I've said this many times, but airport is one of our favorite beaches on the island. The snorkeling is excellent and the hike is beautiful, especially at high tide when the blowholes are going crazy.

Then Ruth, my sister, came too. Ruth is staying until August! Everett and Simon have been talking about it for months, "our Aunt Ruth is coming and she's going to teach us school stuff and we're going to call her Miss Ruth" over and over. It's calmed down a bit lately, but not because they are any less excited!

The next morning we hiked Mount Alava in the National Park of American Samoa (described in more detail here). Everett was really excited about writing his name in the book in the fale at the top. The hike back down was much slower because Ruth showed Simon the grass that closes when you touch it. He tried to touch every single one he could see the whole way down, which, as you may imagine, slows down a 6-yr old just a little bit.

We hurried down the mountain (well, except for Simon who was too busy closing the grass) to get cleaned up and ready to eat dinner at Tisa's. Mmmmmm. I don't know how Candyman makes breadfruit taste so good - except that coconut cream is somehow involved, which makes everything taste better!
Then we snorkeled at Faga'alu and saw lots of cool stuff - tons of trumpetfish, moorish idols, and even an eel.

We shopped for souvenirs and then they left for Hawaii. Thanks for coming mom and dad!

Manuia le Kerisimasi!

Christmas in American Samoa is a bit different. The governor has a multi-day Christmas song thing that all the government agencies sing in. It was broadcast on TV at the time and now they are doing re-runs, just in case you missed it! The AG's office had these festive shirts and red lava lavas made so they all matched.

It was a little weird to spend the 23rd at the beach, but we always have fun! We went to Utulei and then Clif and I got to dive at Faga'alu. While we were at Utulei one of the kids with us found a pipe in the water. She picked it up and dumped the sand and water out, and out came a baby octopus! It was so neat! Of course, it was the one day I had left my camera at home. I only wish I had been able to get pictures of it!

Then Clif and I went diving and saw three trumpet fish - an adult, a juvenile, and a baby. It was so neat to see all the different stages. The baby one looked a bit like a pipefish at first glance. We also saw a jellyfish. We spent about five minutes just watching it float in the water. It was really neat to watch it from underneath and see the sun shine through it. We've heard that they are really rare here, and I had just told Steven on the phone that morning that there really aren't any.

It's not just the weather that makes Christmas different here. It's also the decorations. We went to Leone to check out the outrageous church decorations. Pictures of this church are showing up everywhere because it's the most overly-decorated church on the island, at least when it's not lit up. Although they only decorated the front. There is nothing on the sides and back (I think we should complain!). The churches are pretty fun to see, and we still need to go see the pyramid and Eiffel Tower in lights. That should be amusing.

weekend fun, but not for Clif

It was an interesting weekend. Clif got bit by some tropical bug - literally. He woke up Friday with a small bite on his arm, 3 hours later it was a big red swollen crater with a red blotch around it and a red line going up to his armpit, 3 hours after that it was even bigger and he had a fever of 102 and was pretty out of it. That's when we went to LBJ to see if we could track down a doctor. Luckily, we spotted a friend of ours, who also happens to be a doctor, on our way in who could see Clif (thank you, Matthew!). I've heard that getting in to see a doctor can be quite an adventure. Fortunately, it wasn't this time! So Clif stayed home and slept all weekend and took antibiotics while the bite got bigger and the crater in the middle got deeper... ew. Yesterday it finally started to look like it was healing.

The kids and I didn't do much. We watched some movies, went to Faga'alu for a little while, and went to the pool, but mostly we took it easy. At Faga'alu, Everett was going to get to go scuba diving - when he found out he was so excited and started dancing around! But before he got the chance, we had to leave for his friend's birthday party. He wanted to dive so badly that he was willing to miss the party, and it wasn't until Melanie told him that she was sure he'd get to do it another time that he would leave!

We're looking forward to a Thanksgiving umu tomorrow - happy Thanksgiving to everyone we won't see there!

Sharks!!!

Well, not really... just one shark. We went snorkeling at Airport Lagoon on Sunday and I saw my first shark - a blacktip reef shark that was probably about 5 feet long, but it's hard to estimate underwater. I was a little scared at first, even though it wasn't big enough to eat me or anything, so I swam as fast as I could to Deepa who was out snorkeling with me. Deepa wanted me to show her where I saw it so we turned around to look for it! Six months ago I never would have believed that I'd voluntarily swim toward a place I had seen a shark just moments earlier! It was pretty amazing to see a shark in the wild - a bit intimidating, but still a very cool thing to see. Even better than the 2 unicornfish I saw at Faga'alu the day before - I think they are so funny-looking with the little horn bumping out.

The weekend before last we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves too. We went to Tisa's with a group of friends, three of us were celebrating birthdays that week so it was a perfect excuse to get babysitters and enjoy a night out. The dinner was delicious, but it was the great company that made the whole evening most enjoyable. The next day we went to a group of fales between Vatia and Ofono, in a small village called Amalau for Liz's birthday celebration. It was a great location - the guys went scuba diving, we bbq-ed some hot dogs and had a great time talking and playing in the waves. Then we hurried home, I showered and changed and headed over to Maliu Mai for a dinner and night of Polynesian dancing.

more snorkeling stuff

Sometimes the call of the ocean is too much for us to handle and we go snorkeling even though we should be doing all kinds of responsible (boring) things like feeding our children and getting them ready for bed. Tonight was one of those nights. It was totally worth it!

I saw a black-blotched porcupinefish and a barracuda (far away enough and small enough that I didn't immediately get out of the ocean!).

Right before they rang the bell for Sa*, Clif saw a red firefish (from what I can tell, it's a type of scorpionfish also called a lionfish) near the shore and we all jumped in the ocean to see it. It was very impressive, but we didn't want to get too close because it's also very poisonous. We couldn't watch it for long, but we were all able to get a good look at it before we had to leave.

*I realized that I never explained Sa! It's a family prayer time that happens at dusk and sometimes at dawn, depending on the village. Certain people in the village ring bells (not real bells, big empty tanks that are hanging from posts or trees, I'll have to take some pictures) or blow conch shells and make sure everyone goes in their house to pray. They will either go inside their homes or a fale to sing and pray. People can't be out in the ocean or playing in the parks during Sa, everyone is supposed to be inside praying -at least theoretically, it's not like they monitor what you do inside the house. Some villages are really strict about Sa and others don't observe it as much. Technically you aren't supposed to drive or walk through a village during Sa either, but if you're on the main road then it's ok. They ring the bells or blow the horns again for curfew later (I think it's around 10, but I never paid much attention), but it's not followed as strictly as Sa. From what I hear, some of the people who enforced Sa in the past would occasionally get violent with people who weren't inside, but it's not an issue anymore.

snorkel, snorkel, snorkel

I know. It's all I blog about, but it's fun and there isn't much else to do here. Thursday was such a beautiful day that we went snorkeling after work with the kids and puppy at IBM beach. I saw a brittle star, which I thought was incredibly cool.

Saturday we went to Faga'alu where I saw a yellow trumpetfish. We stayed until we got rained out so we drove over to IBM where there was still rain, but no run-off from the pig farms like there is at Faga'alu!

Today we went back to Tisa's. I didn't see anything extremely exciting, but I wasn't out for very long. I did see much bigger fish than other places that we've snorkeled though.

Since I am not working yet (still in the process of doing paperwork) I have been going snorkeling to eat up the time. I am still a little bit leery of the ocean so I have been going to the same beach. The beach is protected and we hear there are turtles in the area, but I still haven't seen one. The reefs here are really quite amazing and hopefully I will be able to get some snorkeling buddies to show me around. I probably saw at least fifty different types of fish in the water during my short swims. This reef isn't even one of the better places to go to see fish. Here are a few examples of things that I saw.

snorkeling at Faga'alu

Since it's Saturday we had to hit the beach! We decided to go to Faga'alu to try to see some green turtles. We didn't get out far enough to see any turtles since the kids are still just getting the hang of snorkeling, but we saw a bunch of fish - including a few that we're pretty sure are panther flounders. It was amazing to see how well they blended in. In fact, we went by several before we noticed the eyes and saw that it was a fish, at first we just thought the sand was a slightly different color in places.

The best part of the whole experience was that a small group of men were sitting near the shore singing Samoan songs the entire time we were snorkeling. We couldn't have asked for better background music!

Then we drove to the end of the road on the East side of the island:

Everett: It's a brother picture!

Simon: Nooo, not a brother picture!