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Nomes and Ben's visit
We really don't do this all the time :) Hello, Julia here - and a very belated Happy New Year to all!
I recently joined a local soccer team, having been invited by a colleague who plays with a bunch of his former workmates from a previous job. It’s 11 a side with a minimum of five girls on field at any time, and we get to play on the fields from the South Pacific Games so the set up is pretty good. I’m the only palagi (foreigner) on the team, and everyone speaks in Samoan so I’ve spent a bit of time nodding along to the pre-game pep talks pretending I have a clue what they’re talking about. And of course they all knew my name straight away, but it took me weeks to work out any of their names after one introduction to twenty people, so a lot of my time on field has been spent running around in left midfield hoping what they’re shouting is not the opposite of what I’m doing, and unable to shout a name to pass to. But it’s been loads of fun, and great to get some decent exercise (going for a jog on your own can be misleading - you
Jumping Off Things!
Ben doing something odd with his legs jog for five minutes, sweat buckets and feel like you’ve been slogging it out for hours - then feel like you deserve a beer in reward. Not really a recipe for fitness). The rules are generally the same except for a couple I’ve struggled to work out - throw-ins seem to be more often replaced with a kick, and the weirdest thing is that occasionally one of the girls will hang around down near the goal, way offside, someone will pass to her, she’ll pass it back when they run down and they’ll score a goal.
I finally worked this out when I turned up for our quarter final a couple of weeks ago, and the coach, John, told me that today I would be striker. “Hnhh??” I squeaked. And then he explained that there’s no offside rule for the girls, so I was instructed to sit just outside the box and basically score goals. No pressure! So there I placed myself, and felt a bit like an attacking version of a goalkeeper - standing around a lot of the time and then all of a sudden the ball comes your way and everyone’s watching to see if you’ll
Soccer
Team shot before the final on the South Pacific Games fields - that's the pool building in the background get it right. We weren’t playing that well so I spent most of the game just standing there - I didn’t get any goals but I did pass one in to a header for another player, so we finished the game 2-2 and went to a penalty shoot-out. Luckily I didn’t have to participate in this, and our brilliant keeper saved a couple of shots taking us through to the semis.
The following week was the semi final, but then a few days before it I was playing Ultimate Frisbee with the other volunteers and rolled my ankle badly in a hole in the ground. All dreams of grand final glory seemed prematurely shattered, but then thanks to a) my team brilliantly getting through the semis 2-1 without my amazing striker abilities 😊 b) complaints against another team holding off the final for a few days; and c) a roll of trusty strapping tape, I managed to be upright enough to be back in my spot by goal for the final. Sadly though, we weren’t in our usual form, and a bit of sloppy defence and slow attacking (coupled with four national players on the other team) left us
to collect second place at 2-0. This week is the prize-giving, sure to be followed by a drinking session on the sea wall, which seems to be the place for locals to hang out and may offer a good opportunity to practise my team mates’ names!
Over Christmas and the New Year period we had a steady stream of visitors, which has been fantastic for providing a taste of home and family at the time of year we tend to miss both. First up was my sister Hannah and her boyfriend Dave just before Christmas, then after that came friends Naomi and Ben for a couple of weeks, with whom we took some time off and went travelling around both islands. I won’t bore everyone with too much ‘we went to this beach and then we went to that beach’ stories, but if you’re on facebook I’ve put up a bunch of photos of both visits you can check out. With both H&D and N&B, our favourite activity was Jumping Off Things, mostly from decks into the sea but also from high rocks into waterfall pools (I’ve put up a couple of pics of this pastime). More recent visitors
Australia Day
The Bush Band, post official performance at the High Commission have included my aunt and uncle David and Lorna from the UK for a few days, and then also our friend Kate on a relaxing tropical break before she sets off to trek around South America.
David and Lorna were also with us for Australia Day; always a boisterous celebration wherever you find a bunch of Aussies away from home. First up all the volunteers were invited to the Aussie High Commission compound for a BBQ, and were also requested to provide some singing entertainment. Somehow I was nominated as one of the singers, so the night before we had a quick practice and threw something together, then the next day it was up in front of all the guests to present our ‘Bush Band Aussie Medley’, complete with lagerphone. Following up the young Samoan girl who sang the Samoan national anthem (and who also sang it at the South Pacific Games), it became quickly clear that we weren’t professional singers, and there were some bemused faces amongst the crowd. But once we segued from ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ to ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, we elicited some laughs and a realisation that at least we weren’t going to bore the
pants off everyone. We’d all bought the same green and gold Samoan-style material to make outfits from as well, so we were quite a sight. After the official function we picked up David and Lorna and took them along to the informal version at a friend’s house, which involved a pig on a spit, a slip-and-slide, lots of rain and a curtain call on the medley. Check out the attached video for the medley reprisal at the party, with one of the volunteers, Tina, in the starring role as lead singer.
Other activities of note that warrant a brief mention…
- The circus came to town! Local Samoans and some Cubans and Brazilians hanging from wires and juggling stuff. It was no Cirque du Soleil but was still pretty cool. While the pretty impressive acrobatics brought some medium-level clapping, the part that elicited the biggest response from the crowd was a guy in a dress - hilarity unmatched by anything I’ve seen in a while. Also, the ‘Globe of Death’ was pretty edge-of-the-seat - three guys on motorbikes riding upside down inside a steel cage. Very impressive!
- Australian election night party. A few of us die-hards hung out
watching the ABC coverage at the house of one of the volunteers with satellite tv. A cake had been baked but wasn’t allowed to be cut until the hoped-for result materialised. Finally we made the call about midnight; check out Ed’s grinning face when he gets to have his celebratory piece. And of course a picture in front of the telly with Rudd in the background for good measure. (Of course I also have to mention the apology as it was today, how incredible! Listened over the web from work, history being made...)
There’s plenty more to talk about, but I might save it for next time. I hope 2008 is shaping up well for all so far!
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Yobbo!
Dear Eduardo. You need a haircut so seriously bad. That is gross. Jules what is he doing? LOL. Ed, your kids are going to bag you out about these photos sometime deep in the future. :-) K