scuba stuff

Everett got to go scuba diving last weekend! He was so excited! For weeks he has been talking about doing it and asking when Paul could take him. For some reason, I thought the chatter would die down a bit after he went, but instead it's simply switched to how fun it was and how many fish he saw.

I've been diving too. I took Paul's scuba class over the past few weeks. In spite of some major stress over a few of the skills - well, one skill in particular, with a few different variations - I'm finally certified! I didn't like the pool sessions at all. There was nothing to look at and nothing to do except think about all the things that could possibly go wrong. That's a really bad train of thought for me because I have a great imagination when it comes to imagining the worst. So I was glad when we got to dive in the ocean and I had fish to distract me and remind me that it was actually going to be fun!

My first and second ocean dives were on the same day. And it was horrid at first - it had just rained so the water was really murky. It was so brown I couldn't see my hand when it was a foot in front of my mask. Then we moved to a clearer spot where we could actually see our limbs, each other, and some cool ocean-dwelling stuff. In my first two dives we saw a pregnant pipefish, a nudibranch, and a flatworm (kind of similar to the linked photos, but definitely not the same). There's no way I could have seen all that snorkeling. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway if Paul weren't there to point it out.

Then I had to wait a week until my third and fourth dives. I saw a crown-of-thorns starfish and a juvenile brushtail tang. I really love how some fish are so different when they are juveniles and adults. So now I'm certified and excited to go see all the interesting things in the ocean, but I have no gear so I can't really go diving much until I buy my own. I feel a bit like a 16-year-old with a new driver's license and no car.

a Samoan funeral

Today I attended my first big American Samoan cultural event. Unfortunately, it was necessitated by the death of a great man. One of the Associate Judges at the High Court, Judge Sagapolutele, passed away a couple weeks ago. It was very unexpected and a great loss to the High Court. Not only was Sagapolutele a judge, he was also a matai and, I believe, a deacon in the Catholic Church.

As far as I can tell, Samoan funerals are a series of events. There may be something else that precedes it, but for me the first event was a type of gift-exchange. The family of the person who has passed away and a family (or, in our case, group) of the people who are coming to the funeral meet and give each other gifts. I don't know how many of these they have for every funeral, but I imagine that there are usually several because it is just a meeting of one family with another. Clif had already attended this portion of a Samoan funeral so I had heard about part of the customs and had some idea of what to expect. I didn't realize all the preparation that went into it though. The High Court employees had matching uniforms made: the women had puletasis (a Samoan-style shirt & skirt) made with a screen printed flower design and the men had shirts with a screen printed bamboo pattern.

It was held outside the family's fale. The fale was an amazingly beautiful traditional style fale, decorated with fine mats wrapped around the posts, twisted into rosettes on top of each post, and covering the floor. Outside the fale were some tents set up with chairs for us to sit in. When we were all seated, one of the Judges stood in front of our group holding a carved wooden staff. One of the men for the Sagapolutele family stood in front of their group with a similar staff. These men spoke for their respective groups during the presentation of gifts. It was all in Samoan so I didn't understand much, but the judge spoke for a minute and then the women (me included!) held onto a 40 yard length of fabric, each of us about 5 feet apart so the fabric draped between us, and carried it up to the fale. We had our 20-yard bolts of fabric and flowers in the other hand and left those gifts near the casket in the fale.

The rest of the event took place in front of the fale too, which is only interesting to me because when Clif went, the men went inside the fale for the presentation of other gifts. Judge Sagapolutele's family began by giving many trays with a large can of corned beef, a package of crackers, champagne with money tied to the top, and a bolt of fabric. Then they presented many fine mats. The mats vary in size and they unfolded them to show the patterns. Sometimes it took up to five people to hold the mats open because they were so big. Then the Court presented mats and money to the family. While they were presenting these gifts, I noticed that while we were giving gifts, we were also being given gifts: two of the High Court's trucks being loaded up with cases of chicken, canned mackeral, and rolled mats. One truck was so full of mats that they were piled up as high as the cab of the truck. Then Judge Sagapolutele's family presented us with more mats and gifts. The amount of gifts being passed back and forth (and there was a lot of back and forth) was really incredible. From what I understand, each of the items given has cultural significance, but I'm not really sure what that is. Anyway, it was very interesting. I just wish I had been able to understand the things that were said.

The funeral service was later today. It was also entirely in Samoan so I didn't understand much. It seemed like a fairly traditional funeral mass (not that I'm uber-knowledgable about funeral masses) with a few Samoan twists, like when the family gave everyone leis. Needless to say, it was a very interesting Samoa day for me.

I've been told that the traditional Samoan portion of the funeral used to be very important as a way of showing kinship or friendship with the different families on the island. Now it's not as necessary because the families aren't constantly fighting with each other, and if they do have a dispute, they can resolve it in court.

Clif received these two fine mats from the funeral he went to.

things that amuse me, part 2

I don't know what it is, but stuff growing out of stuff really amuses me. On the way to drop the kids off every morning, we drive by these two garbage cans with trees growing out of them. I wonder how long it's been since those have been emptied. I still haven't taken pictures of those, but I love that we live in a place so wet that a plant will grow out of the top of a signpost. And when it gets so big you can't read the sign, someone cuts it down, but it grows right back.

I've added photos to bunch of older posts in case anyone's interested in checking it out.

eight-year-old humor

Simon: Don't spell booger!

Everett: Why? It's a snotty word?

Return of Computer = pictures

Yeah....we got our computer back from the Police - thanks to Aaron. Our pictures were erased, but they were still in the recycling bin so we were able to recover them and download them onto our external hard-drive. The computer was also locked and Julia was able to find a way to unlock it on-line. It is still running slowly, but now we can update our blog and post some pictures. So here is a nice picture of the kids at the beach.


[diving at Liz's B-day]

Diving is awesome. This is a picture from my favorite dive so far. It was a really beautiful spot. My gear is on the way and I have met even more divers lately so I should be getting out a lot more pretty soon. Not to mention that with Carol gone Jay is available to go almost any day.

Simon v. The Librarian

Simon recently had a conversation with our friend Naomi at Moi's birthday party. Naomi, of course, was trying to convince Simon that reading is a good thing because it makes you smart . Unfortunately Simon disagreed, at least on some of the finer points. The conversation went something like this:

[Simon running to catch a wave w/ kickboard]


Naomi: Do you like to read?

Simon: Yes.

Naomi: Reading makes you smart - huh.

Simon: Well...reading doesn't always make you smart. Sometimes it makes you dumb.

Naomi: No, reading can't make you dumb.

Simon: Yes it can. If its not true. Like if a book is non-fiction and it says that dinasours are still alive. If it was in a fiction book that would be alright but if it is in a non-fiction book it wouldn't be true so that would make you dumb.

Naomi: (Im not sure if she actually spoke at this point or if she just stared at him in shock and with the realization that a five year old had just presented her with a perfectly sound argument about why books can make you dumb and that he was in fact right - not the best moment for a librarian).

Simon: [cute little knowing smile].

I dont know if I got the conversation exactly right but that is the gist of it. Darn kids. Hopefully Naomi keeps pushing book reading on our kids. We know reading books does make you smarter....well....most of the time.

[Beach at sunset]

[Ila]

A lot of people have asked about our dog, Ila. He is doing much better now. However, we let him hang out with the local dogs for a few weeks and now he has mange again. We are going to get him cured of it again and he will be an inside dog only - mainly because mange freaks me out, but also because no one wants to touch the dog and so he gets very little attention.

Alright lest you think that it is all play and no work. I put a picture of the view from my office in here. The rolling surf and swaying palms make it really easy to concentrate while at work.

[view from office]

Thanksgiving & BND

We had a wonderful time at Liz and Markus' Thanksgiving Umu - good friends and good food, mmmm. We couldn't have asked for more!

Today I'm back at work. I had heard that in the past the governor has sent out a "surprise" memo giving people the day off as a paid holiday, but this year he didn't because he's trying to cut government spending. It's a good goal, but I wish I didn't have to work to further it!

I think it's the first Friday after Thanksgiving that I've spent working in my life so it's a bit unusual. It does make it very easy to observe Buy Nothing Day. Of course, simply being in American Samoa makes every day Buy Nothing Day since it's hard to find anything you want to buy! I complain about it when I can't find certain things, but in many ways it's nice.

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!