Travel Blog Posts
November 13th 2007
This weekend I went to Ma'asina, a village in Fagaloa Bay, which is absolutely beautiful. There are no hotels or anything, no restaurants, just hospitable people. I love going there. When I go, I take oso, a small gift of some sort of food, usually peanut butter, cookies or lollies, chips, some kind of fruit that's easier to get in town like pineapple, Milo (kind of like ovaltine, but tastes better), and I give it to my family that I stay with as soon as I get there. It's best if I do it right away, and give it to the oldest member of the family, who in my family is a woman who just celebrated her 80th birthday. Once I'm there, then I can do what the family is doing. One time when I came, ... read more
October 13th 2007
I think it is going to rain again. The rainy season seems to have started as soon as September finished. Last Sunday as I started walking home after to'ona'i (the reason I don't miss Thanksgiving: every Sunday is a Thanksgiving in Samoa; I am going to get so fat), the sky ripped its belly open and I was immediately soaked. I decided to walk the rest of the way home. On my way, I saw a sign for Samoan Prayer House. I was intrigued. I followed the signs up a hill, past a church youth practice, some faleoloa, and lots of Samoans confused about what a palagi would be doing by herself on a Sunday in the rain, I found the most beautiful building I have ever seen in Samoa. Not to say that a fale ... read more
October 5th 2007
On Tuesday I decided to go buy a mango. They are incredible and they are just coming into season. So I went to the market. Samoa is riddled with tiny stores (faleoloa) that sell snacks like Twisties (comparable to cheese puffs) or loaves of fresh white bread or sugar, tea, matches, tuna, crackers, oil, onions, ice cakes, and any number of things, differing greatly from store to store, of course, but very few if any will have fresh fruit or vegetables. So instead of going to one of the 4 faleoloa in the 10-minute walk between my house and my school, I go to the market. To get to the market, I take the bus. Not just any bus. The Green Machine. I like this bus. It is the only green bus that comes to my ... read more
September 28th 2007
As I walk to school in the morning, I pass a house whose gardener my roommate and I affectionately call "the bean man." This tiny, wiry old man gives us long beans (pi u'umi) or tomatoes or cucumbers because he says "there's no one to look after you." He talks to his plants, and he yells at them if they aren't giving flowers or fruit. I asked him about it one day and he said, "oh, that's how you get them to do what you want. I'm always talking to my flowers." He used to work on a cattle farm and says it works to talk to animals, too. He has a little boy who lives with him. I love his stories about that boy. They usually involve him neglecting his studies to go play, which ... read more
September 26th 2007
I came to Samoa in October 2006 to work as a music teacher and Peace Corps volunteer. They gave me a Samoan name, Moli. It means orange. Samoa is an amazing country, without hunger or homeless, that takes great pride in its culture. In my classes, I've had the opportunity to ask my students what they think the most important thing about being Samoan is, and I've had answers that range from God to family to having fun, but most people say it's the culture. I'm still learning what that means. It's not simply the ceremonies or the legends or being able to husk a coconut in 3 seconds (which they do). It has more to do with community, family, lifestyle, opportunities. I can't try to explain it. I'm not Samoan. I never will be. I ... read more
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