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Published: October 6th 2012
2 October 2012 Tuesday. After five sea days we finally arrived in American Samoa, or Eastern Samoa. Upon disembarking, I had now visited all the American territories. Prior to the visit I had researched Polynesia, and read Somerset Maugham’s book of short stories starting with “Rain.” This collection of short stories gave me good insight into Polynesian culture, and especially their hospitable nature.
We disembarked after breakfast and were greeted at pier-side by the Visitors Bureau, the National Park Service, and a million vendors. We headed directly to the Park Service and found out that they offered a ranger guided tour of the American Samoa National Park at 9:30 am at the cost of $25/person for the shuttle bus. So we signed up and had to wait an hour, which the girls used to look at what the vendors were selling. I talked to a Canadian mining engineer about the geology of the Rocky Mountain West, and his view that nuclear power would solve much of the global warming problem.
Soon some 25 of us boarded the colorful local bus for the 3 hour round trip tour of the park. Our first stop was to see flying foxes, otherwise
known as fruit bats, hanging from some trees. I recalled my childhood in Thailand when I would shoot my BB gun at the bats hanging from the coconut trees in our back yard…it didn’t seem to faze them. Our next stop was at the pass that overlooks the harbor where we got some panoramic pictures. The guide told us some folk lore tales about the volcanic peaks representing two brothers who were turned to stone for fighting each other. The third stop as a rest stop where we had another view of the island and had fresh coconut juice from a coconut…not my favorite drink. Our last stop was a village on the back side of the island. They leased their land to the Park Service for the park. We saw a large canoe that each village has which is used for racing. This particular canoe had won the most recent race. The builder was working on improving the hull to make it even faster, and explained to us the traditions surrounding the canoe races.
We then headed back to port where we arrived at noon and boarded the ship to have lunch. After lunch I went back into
town in search of free internet so that I could post some blogs. McDonalds didn’t work. The shopping center didn’t work. I stopped to talk to the lady who was the owner of the T-shirt shop. Her father was in the Air Force, and had been stationed in Samoa to provide communications for the Gemini and Apollo splashdowns near Samoa in the 1960’s and 70’s. There he met a Samoan woman who was her mother. I also met her son who had just sailed from San Diego to the Solomon Islands and back to Vanuatu on a traditional double hulled sailing vessel that the Polynesian people used to explore and inhabit the islands of the Pacific. His was an amazing story. She told me that the open air fruit and vegetable market next door had free internet. I headed there and sat with several locals who I talked to as I was setting up my computer. The link showed “Samoatelcomfreeinternet” which I clicked. It asked for my security code. No one in the market knew the security code. I resigned myself to returning to the ship to try theirs again.
On the way I passed the Harbor Patrol and
a woman there asked if I was having a good day. We talked for an hour or so about her life in Samoa. She was a 28 year old single mother who had returned to Samoa from Utah a couple years earlier to take care of her aging parents. We discussed societal responsibilities and the Samoan connection to the land. I shared with her Somerset Maugham’s story titled “Mackintosh” about an American commissioner on Western Samoa (where Apia is) who was tasked with building roads around the island. He told the villagers he would pay them $20/day. However, one of the villagers had recently returned from Pago Pago where the commissioner there was paying $100/day. The villagers wanted the same pay. The commissioner refused leading to a breakdown in the negotiations. The commissioner then arranged with the next village over to do the construction at the lower wage. The original villagers, under the rules of hospitality, had to feed and house the villagers who had agreed to build the road. Soon this became a great burden for the original villagers who in order to get rid of the interloping villagers agreed to work at the lower wages. The commissioner told
them that they had to pay him $20/day to work on the road. She thought that was a great story.
I returned to the ship just before it set sail and managed to make a temporary connection with the internet and post one blog. I also got an email from my daughter who is watching our home and feeding our pets to send money. I tried to send an email response, but again it wasn’t working. Internet in the South Pacific is a very iffy proposition!
We all got back together for dinner and then a show before returning to the room where I am writing this blog on Word to minimize the time online. Our ship is on the way to Samoa.
4 October 2012 Thursday. We skipped a day upon crossing the International Date Line. We will gain a day back on the long flight home on 31 October; departing 10:45 pm and arriving in Colorado Springs at 11:50 pm on the same day. We woke up about 5:30 am to the sound of the ship docking. Once they tied up we went back to sleep and woke up again at 7:30 am to
pouring rain. Over breakfast with Mike and Betty, we discussed Plan B for our day in Apia, Samoa; all dependent upon whether there would be a break in the weather.
By 9:45 am the rain stopped so Linda and I hurried to disembark. As we were leaving the restricted area, the port security blocked all passengers from leaving the area until they could ensure our safety when running the gauntlet of taxi drivers. After a few minutes we were allowed to exit and face the consequences. There has to be a better way of organizing the taxis, as many of us would have used the service were it not so intimidating. We decided to walk the mile to town.
We noticed the tourist information office next to the parliament building and went it to get information on what to see and do. They told us that a cultural show was just starting, so we joined others in watching Samoan dancing. This was followed by demonstrations of cooking, lava lava (a wrap around cloth like a sarong) weaving and printing (we bought one from the girl who made the lava lava), traditional tattooing (on an actual man who appeared
calm despite the great pain), weaving, etc. This was followed by more dancing and a meal of taro (tasted really good baked), breadfruit, spinach mixed with coconut milk, and fish.
We then continued our walk through town, stopping at the flea market which was a building filled with souvenir shops. We decided, due to the weather, to skip the Robert Louis Stevenson home where he spent the last years of his life. We returned to the ship for a late lunch. I was going to save the meat for Mike to take back into town to feed the starving dogs, as Linda and I had enough of sightseeing. I had managed to catch a cold so needed a siesta. I awoke in time for dinner. I wasn’t hungry so ate the minimum amount. After dinner we saw a Samoan dance show in the ship theater. This was followed by watching the ship prepare to depart the port. Linda made me a cup of hot tea with honey so my cold is being will cared for.
5 October 2012 Friday. This was another sea day on our way to Suva, Fiji. See my previous blogs regarding sea days as
this was a repetition of those days.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Enjoying Samoa
But where are the pictures of you dancing in Samoa? How did the dancing on the ship compare to the dancing in town? Sounds like you've had time to talk with several people about their island life. Sounds great.