Friday

It is Friday right? Im not even sure :) The last few days have been wonderful and Ive managed to back quite a few 'new' experiences in. The culture here is so opposite of the typical 8-5 busyness. Everyone is very welcoming and nice and its a 'christian' culture which means there seems to be a church at every corner. The land is beautiful, the sky is a blue that Ive never really seen before. The base in inland but if you walk up the road you can see the ocean in the distance. Tomorrow we will be taking a picnic and I will get to see more of the island. They also have some small mountains which tower the landscape and its beautiful to see all the green. Its such an experience to hear the rain coming because it makes noise on the leaves as it pours through the trees before getting to the base. The only word I can use when I first heard it was 'awe' (then we ran to get our clothes off the line- we wash all the clothes by hand). It rained a couple times yesterday- it hasn't been very windy so it rains straight down so we don't even have to pull down the 'curtains' on our fales. Thats another story - living in a fale. We take our flipflops/sandals off before entering any of the fales or the bathroom. Its nice to be barefoot but since everything is open it also means bugs- typically ants, things that look like beetles and occasionally in the bathroom the ones tht look like catepillar but without fur. Since I am thankful that there are no snakes I shouldn't complain about the lizards (alot like a geiko) BUT there was a BIG one on the bathroom wall when I took my shower the other day... Ah the showers... We do have water but pressure is not good and sometimes the water shuts off (just in the showers). SOOOOO the first shower I took I got stuck with a hairfull of shampoo and no water. I yelled out and the other American (Jennifer from Washington who has been here for 6 weeks) got a bucket. My then God was gracious and knew how much I could handle on my first day and the water was back on! We bring filtered water into the base from town so there shouldn't be any reason to worry about that (still using my filter water bottle though!). Back to the fales... our bunkbeds are covered with a full mosquito netting to keep out the unwanted insects (except those from Fiji and Samoa who are tougher than I and don't mind the crawly things. So far our food has consisted mainly of bread, fruit, rice, fruit, chicken ,fruit, oh and did I mention fruit? Its been good, and no craving for American food yet! They make all sorts of different teas from the local plants too. I saw my first tree climber yesterday as one of the men on base climbed the tree to cut down the coconuts- have never had coconuts like that before, the meat was soft, almost gel like. We eat/drink coconuts during the day not just because they taste good but to stay hydrated. I also had a new dish at the market (open market with fruit laid out) called ke ke pua ( i dont know how to speak samoan yet so dont expect the spellingto be right!) It was like a boiled breadbun with meat inside (that they called chili). It was good- I tried about three fruits that I had never even seen or heard of before, one I didnt like very well. A random thing I love- the Samoan people have BEAUTIFUL smiles, their teeth are so bright and straight. Fijians too... I took the bus yesterday back to the base and saw my first 'matai' (chief). All of the villages run together but each has a designated matai, they meet to make decisions and are very well respected in the community. There are no guns here, besides police and Ive heard comments from the Samoans that they dont understand why America goes to war and why they need guns. Its very foreign to them. The buses here are brightly colored, small and people typically sit on each others laps. I dont have much time but a few words Ive learned:
Malo - formal hello, said in town in passing
Talofa, Talofa lava- more personal greeting
Fa a mole mole- please
Fa' afetia- thank you
sau-come
vai-water
afi-fire
fale-hut
fa'amaoni- faithful
fia fia- joy/happy
Personally I love it here but will soon have to get used to a structured discipleship training school which will involve getting up at six am- reading bible and prayer, then gettig ready untl 730-breakfast and the class, lunch, work duties, running, supper, and praise time. Wedn and Sat we get free time and already there is a picnic planned for tomorrow so I get to see the land a bit more. Please be praying that God helps break my of my independance to better live in the community setting. Also for four AFrican students who want to come but who are having trouble with visas. I hope to update again soon!!