Living in a Tropical Paradise

New!

2006-08-27T00:50:00.000-11:00

I'm no longer in a tropical paradise - far from it!

So a new blog is in order....

http://agreatdayforkites.blogspot.com/

See you there!

Missing the Seafood

2006-06-21T20:16:00.000-11:00

I was thinking about how I really enjoyed the seafood in Samoa when I was there, particularly as before I went I didn't really eat any apart from salmon steak or the odd prawn. The crayfish, mahi mahi and crab were fabulous.

I particularly loved the fresh tuna steaks, simply grilled or bbq'd with an asian marinade or just some 'cajun' spices. YUM!

In a vague attempt to relive such joy I looked into buying some tuna steak at my local supermarket. $44.95 per kilo!!! I had to double take. I guess I knew it would be more expensive than Samoa but yikes. Guess it will be special occasions only....

In brief - Debrief

2006-06-03T17:20:00.000-11:00

A few months after returning to Aus, a debrief is held in Canberra for RAYADs (as we are now called - guess what the R is for?)...

It is highly recommended we attend this debrief to discuss our experiences and perhaps get some kind of closure I guess. Being a touch unorganised, I failed to register in time for the debrief and was told it was full and that I could go to one later in the year instead. Fair enough I thought, except that I really wanted the chance to catch up with the great friends I had made while in Samoa. Thanks to skillful internet investigation I managed to find some relatively cheap flights to the capital and booked them 'toot suite'. It was a strange weekend, encountering people who had spent a year together as close friends and seeing how a few months apart, back in the real world, relationships had changed. But it was really good to see a couple of my friends in particular and I am so glad I made the effort to be there and hang out with them. It's just not fair that none of them live in Melbourne! I can see some frequent flyer points beginning to add up...

And now - the itchy feet and career development aims surface. Stay tuned for the next adventure.

April 2006 - Leaving Samoa

2006-04-17T22:24:00.000-11:00

Well its all over. A whole year in a tropical paradise, surrounded by amazing friends and beautiful landscapes. The last few weeks were tough. Emotional even. On the one hand I was excited to be going home but on the other very sad to leave.

Melbourne put on some great, warm weather for my first weekend home and swimming in the waves at Torquay was excellent. I missed waves! The past few weeks have been spent acclimatising, catching up with friends and family and eating lots of amazing food. There has been a beach wedding, trivia nights, a concert, family lunches, newborn babies to visit and art galleries perused.

There was even a great weekend up in Sydney for an unofficial reunion of the Samoan AYAs that involved a great birthday party, yum cha, more wave swimming at Manly, bands, discos and bbqs. And another sad farewell to very good friends.

Today i was back at work so its back to life as usual. What will the next adventure be?

March 2006 - Manono Island

2006-03-14T14:56:00.000-11:00

It seems boring to simply say it was beautiful. But it was. Like so much of Samoa. I can't believe I still get surprised and overwhelmed about how beautiful it is here.

We stayed at a newer 'tourist' fale place with a lovely family headed up by Leota and Sau. I particularly fell in love with their gorgeous young son Aneti (5) who was so friendly and fun. We hiked around the island, had an umu feast (including the preparation of the pig - burning the hair off, removing the guts and sticking hot rocks inside) and even went to church with our host family.

On our hike we went up to the 'star mound' which is meant to be one of the most important historical sites in Samoa. However, it was covered in vines and other growth and had a great big bloody telco tower and equiment shelter bang on top of it! I knew of its existence but had been assured that it was to have been taken down by now as they did not get the appropriate permissions from the planning agency. The upside was that we could climb up the tower for an amazing view of the two big islands of Samoa and the beautiful colour contrast of the reef and ocean beyond. Photos to come very soon!

March 2006 - Local Bus Adventure

2006-03-13T09:28:00.000-11:00

It has come down to my final few weeks in Samoa so I am attempting to cram in all the places I have yet to visit. One of which was the island of Manono, a small, traditional island in between the two main islands of Upolu and Savaii.

The Bus Ride
Getting there was a mad local bus adventure, which was worth experiencing but certainly not something i'd want to do on a regular basis. It started with a long wait at the bus terminal as the bus we hoped to catch didn't turn up (or so we thought). Another bus we could have taken was so jammed packed full we wouldn't have been able to breathe so we ended up catching a third, slightly less full bus. As 'palagi' (foreigner) we were given a seat when a guy who seemed to be some kind of self appointed conductor made some other people move. That's one wooden seat between two of us, with our knees jammed against the seat in front and our thighs going numb. They then proceeded to jam in as many as possible, with up to three stacked high at the back and the entire walkway full of standing passengers getting to know each other intimately. For over an hour. Once we finally got going (about an hour after we expected to leave) we were then pulled over by the police who wrote a ticket to the driver for overcrowding. Several people got off the bus to appease the policeman, but most of them then got back on once the ticket was sorted. So apart from the fine, what exactly is the deterrant to the driver?
A little later the bus pulled over once again and most of the passengers got out. They were not at their destination though. We sat outside a shop for 20 minutes wondering how all those people plus their shopping would fit on the bus! Somehow they managed and our squashed bus adventure continued for another hour till we arrived at Manono-Uta to catch the 'ferry'.

Feb 2006 - A new year and a new island

2006-02-12T17:16:00.000-11:00

The new year in Samoa started well enough - apart from the bars closing at 10 past midnight on new years eve....
The holiday fest continued with no need to attend work for most of the first week of Jan! Beaches and relaxing ensued. Geez it was hard to go back to work!

Mid Jan saw the weather start to turn nasty, with a few cyclones passing by and bringing rain and wind and flooding and landslides... what a great time for Mum to visit! Luckily a few sunny days arrived for her stay...

My birthday holiday this year is to a small, beachless island known as 'the rock'...

Niue - striking, quiet, remote and just a little weird.
A speck on the map in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
An independant country, heavily dependant on New Zealand and other foreign aid.
Like a large country town, isolated and insular. Word gets around and everyone knows you are her and what you are doing.

But the coastline is beautiful. Stunning. The water is like nowhere else. So clear, so blue. The colour of the breaking waves is amazing - a light bluey aqua that has to be seen to be believed - or you could just believe me.

You can watch the colourful fish and coral from the rocky outcrops above like it is some kind of aquarium. Even in low season.

However, low season also means wet season, cyclone season. While the weather has not been too bad (given there is a cyclone nearby) the rain and wind has meant many hours spent indoors. Reading novels, magazines and watching DVDs and playing on the free wireless internet. Yep - free wifi internet to the whole island. Which is almost too much of a distraction really. A reminder of the 'real' world out there. Though I think there can be such a thing as too much relaxing?!

A drive around the island highlighted the weird fact that the majority of 'houses' (or what is left of them) are empty. Abandoned houses, most affected by the cyclone a few years back, create a really spooky feel to the island - especially when it is overcast and rainy.

In better weather, and in better health (we have been fighting off a flu) Niue would offer many activities and action. The small amount of snorkelling and swimming I have managed to fit in between rain storms were fantastic and i'd love to explore more. If only i'd had reef shoes there would have been much more exploring as my hacked up toes attest to my foiled attempts.

Dec 2005 - Manuia le Kirisimasi

2006-02-06T15:56:00.000-11:00

Manuia le Kirisimasi!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings yada yada yada…..

It’s the end of the year already?! I can’t quite believe I’ve already been in Samoa for almost 9 months and only 3 months to go.

Well its been pretty busy since the last major update. Nothing as surreal as the worm spawn hunting I told you about last time though.

Culcha
Our dance group had an end-of-year performance the other week alongside some of the other classes our teacher takes. It was a good night, despite the massive downpour just before the show that flooded most of the yard. The little girls were adorable, and boy can they shake their hips! They put us to shame in that department. Other ‘cultural’ events we have had recently include the PUAA fest, where we could watch kids grease up and then chase some little pigs around a pen (but also see traditional singing and dancing, weaving, carving etc.) and the Miss ShowQueen pageant where the finest fa’fafines (crossdressers) battled it out beauty pageant style. The swimsuit section was disturbing and some of the ‘talents’ on display were hilarious, particularly the ‘conductor’ act. Basically a ‘lady’ dressed in a long sleeved white shirt and tie with a black miniskirt edged with feathers, ‘conducting’ the music that was being played from a cd. I think you had to be there to appreciate it. Perhaps I’ll show you the video one day. We also attended the final of the ‘Golden Stars’ competition, basically like Australian Idol for old farts. They were all crooners, many of them singing a medley including Christmas carols, Tom Jones songs and traditional hymns.

A few of us have been learning sign language (Auslan) from deaf locals who work at a local disabled school which has been fun, its surprisingly easy to pick up – at least finger spelling is if you learn the alphabet. So now we can ‘talk’ to each other from across the room if necessary. Have still been trying to pick up some more Samoan language too, but it is hard when most people in town want to and will speak in English.

Dec 2005 - Work? Too many public holidays for that..

2006-02-06T15:53:00.000-11:00

Work? Too many holidays for that…
I presented my paper at the National Environment Forum and it seemed to go ok. I was so nervous and a bit concerned about whether I would inadvertently be culturally inappropriate, but those who were there told me it was good, including the head of the Environment Ministry, so I guess they can’t all be lying. The PeaceCorp manager even wants me to come and speak to the new recruits about village meetings. Not sure I’ll be rushing to do that sort of thing again though! I needed a day off to recover. And just to keep up the random public holiday tradition – we had a day off for Arbour Day the next day as part of Environment Week. A day off to go and plant trees! We also have the entire week off between Christmas and New Year plus some extra days off after New Years to celebrate the Head of State’s Bday! So far these holidays have entailed visiting uninhabited islands, mountain getaways with spectacular views of Apia, a cave pool underneath a church and swimming in waterfalls.

Otherwise work has been cruising along. There was another lot of village meeting consultations, this time on the south side of the island at the popular tourist beach area of Aleipata (incl Lolumanu). This meant several very early starts to get to that side of the island by 8am. But well worth it as the meetings went well and the food was great! The main frustration was having debrief meetings at one of the resorts and staring out at the sand and sea not being able to go and jump in. In other work, we are now finalising the advertising signage policy and going out to consult on that soon, the housing guidelines are being translated into Samoan, the parking policy is currently out for consultation and we will soon be starting work on the UNDP funded project to prepare a Sustainable Management Plan for an industrial area of town –kinda like a planning scheme. But December is a time to wind down and not a whole lot of work is going to get done… when in Rome.

Nov 2005 - Scav Hunt, Funeral and World Cup

2006-02-06T15:51:00.000-11:00

Scav Hunt Party
Three of the AYAs had birthdays in early November and arranged a weekend away beach party at Lolumanu that all the AYAs attended. It was a lot of fun. Part of the birthday celebrations included a scavenger hunt in the weeks previous, which included surreptitiously collecting certain items from the other AYA houses and undertaking various tasks around town. This included singing at the karaoke bar, buying dodgy second hand clothes, photos of dogs in lewd positions and collecting a full set of Tim Tam packets of different varieties. The dodgy facial hair component was a classic with most of the boys growing dirty moustaches.

Funeral
A less jovial event was the funeral I attended for the father of a work colleague. It was at the Jehovah’s Witnesses church followed by a dedication at the grave site, which is in the front yard of the family house. The service was interesting (but in Samoan), with the casket open for viewing (I didn’t look – he’d been dead for two weeks) and they showed a powerpoint presentation of photos throughout. Apparently it was very short funeral compared to some of the other denominations in Samoa. At the grave dedication we were given mountains of food and drink, starting with melted icecream, followed by bbq chicken, chopsuey, sausage, savoury banana, taro and curry. But all in takeaway foam containers. We loaded up the car with several containers each and heaps of soft drink and headed home.

World Cup Qualifier
This funeral coincided with the broadcast of the first soccer world cup qualifier match between Aus and Uruguay, not that it was on tv in samoa – only on shortwave radio. I did, however, stay up late and listen in to the second match that won us through to the World Cup. It was so stressful and exciting – you have to imagine us sitting around a small short wave radio, with the sound literally coming in and out in waves. It would usually go out at a crucial point of the match so that we would have to wait a minute to find out we’d kicked a goal. It felt bizarre to be in the south pacific, listening to a soccer match on the radio, and our nerves were so shaky when it came down to the penalty shoot out. I think it was possibly more exciting to listen than to watch the game, well a unique experience anyway. After all these years when I would watch the final qualifier only to see Aus lose, this was a great day!

In other weird, non-me things to do… I competed in the 10km Samoa Island Run! At 6am on a Saturday! However I did not actually run – a group of us walked it in about an hour and a half – thank god it was a flat course mostly along the harbour, but I was surprised that it wasn’t really that hard after all. It was a good exercise to help mitigate the party to come that night – the first of our group of AYAs was leaving the next week, so this was his early b’day cum farewell party and it was a big one starting at the golf club balcony at sunset and going till very late.

Oct 2005 - Work and Play

2006-02-06T15:46:00.000-11:00

Work has been going well with village visits for consultation meetings, including a trip to the big island of savaii and several lobster meals, various policies being drafted and soccer games won. We even had a walkathon to raise money for, wait for it, the social club! Imagine having to ask people to sponsor you to walk in aid of your work social club? I have also completed my first conference paper and am due to present it at the National Environment Forum this week – scary! I don’t think I want to be an academic after all…

There have been the usual spate of beach stays and snorkelling, paddling, dancing lessons and even a performance (to our friends) plus the annual Teuila festival, a celebration of Samoan culture, which was quite cool. Highlights of the festival included: the traditional song and dance competition which consisted of upwards of 30 people from a village performing; the ‘concert’ at the sports stadium by polynesian supergroup ‘Te Vaka’, which was exciting in the fact there was a big stage, lights, sound system etc in a stadium with the promise of lots of drumming, but turned out to be cheesy 80s pop influenced music and not many people in the crowd; and the final event of the week, the Miss Teuila pageant to determine Miss Samoa who will compete in the Miss South Pacific competition. This pageant was a classic! The girls came in all shapes and levels of beauty and their costumes and speeches were often hilarious and sometimes very wrong. The hosts commentary was even funnier

Oct 2005 - The night I hunted Worm Spawn

2006-02-06T15:45:00.000-11:00

A lot has happened over the past few months but nothing quite so surreal as the Palolo rising last week. Palolo is a reef worm that lives in the coral hidden away for most of the year but in order to reproduce it breaks in half and sends one end of itself to the surface to mate. These twirling worms come in green/blue for eggs and brown for sperm and they rise 7 days after the full moon in the middle of the night – usually. Though no-one seemed to know for sure when or where it was actually going to happen. As is common in Samoa, misinformation, guesses and fact all melded together and it was decided by our fearless leader that Sunday night it would be. Not that he had had any luck in previous years mind you, but without any better guide to go by we all packed into cars and headed to Salamumu, the top spot for Palolo catch apparently.

We arrived around 1am, got our fishing nets, torches and buckets ready and had a look around. No worms yet… so we set up on the beach and had a chat… a hour later – still nothing… so we discussed our life stories and watched an amazing array of shooting stars, or meteors as I am now suitably informed… several more hours later, after attempting to snooze in the cold night air on wet sand - unsuccessfully, word came that the worms were out. We looked up and saw hundreds of shadowy bodies and torches in the water up and down the coastline, it was quite surreal with the moon lighting up the waves and beach.

Not having any idea what we were looking for, we waded out in to the water and I was surprised to see a long greenish, swirling stringy thing in the water illuminated by our torches. It was amazing and weird and pretty exciting actually… and it turns out they were attracted by the lights, so soon there were many green and brown worms squiggling around us and we scooped up what we could over an hour or so before dawn.

Now why, you may ask, were we hunting sea worms in the first place? Well, Palolo is known as the caviar of the Pacific – at least in Samoa anyway. That’s right – you EAT IT! Some people eat it raw and alive straight from the sea, but most cook it up either in butter and onion on toast or with scrambled eggs. So we took it home, got ready for work and then proceeded to cook up and then eat these blue/green worms for breakfast! And we have photos to prove it too. For the record it doesn’t taste too bad, it just seems really weird to be eating worms… and blue squiggly ones at that.

July 2005 - Ants and Cross-Legged Fun

2006-02-06T15:43:00.000-11:00

After all the time off and beach action it is now back to work for me. We have a new office with new air-conditioners but there are still millions of annoying browny-red ants everywhere… apparently they only turned up in Samoa about 5 years ago but they have quickly multiplied and taken over –at least they don’t bite I guess.

I am particularly looking forward to the village meetings we will attend and have started to practice sitting cross-legged on the floor for extended periods. The only part I am not so much looking forward to is eating some of the food we will be given – turkey tail, lamb flaps, slabs of butter, corned beef etc… though there is a lot of great local food too. Papaya salad, palusami (taro leaves which are kinda like spinach mixed with coconut cream), pankeke (donut type pastry) and even taro is okay with the right accompaniment.

July 2005 - Kirikiti

2006-02-06T15:42:00.000-11:00

While in Savaii we happened upon a ‘kirikiti’ match between two local villages and tried to figure out the rules and scoring of this version of cricket through observation and a stilted conversation with a player (who by the way was ‘fielding’ in the middle of the road). There were several balls in play - for when one got hit into the sea or somewhere difficult to access. The bowling took place from either end, seemingly dependent on where the ball ended up in the field the previous hit/bowl and was bowled by the nearest person to the stumps at each end at the time. The gigantic bats seemed quite heavy and would often send the ball straight into the air – though being caught didn’t seem to be the end of the batters turn. Occasionally, the batsmen would run and the scoring was kept in the players’ heads, though I think they were yelling out the scores every now and then. At one point there was a round of synchronised clapping for a minute or so by the players – no idea what for – but it sounded cool. Not sure how long the games go on for as we felt the beach calling us and we headed up to our accommodation on the north of the island.

July 2005 - Love in Paradise

2006-02-06T15:40:00.000-11:00

There have been many nights of cold Vailima beer and dodgy local dance music. My fiance visited and we had some pretty horrific weather for a few days which was experienced within a thatch hut overnight at the beach – heavy rain and very strong winds flapping the woven blinds around all night with the occasional bang of a coconut falling on the roof…. An experience for sure but hopefully not to be repeated! (Incidentally one of the highest killers of tourists in Pacific Islands is being hit by a coconut falling from a tree!).

The weather improved for the sunset drink at the golf club and we then headed to the ‘big island’ of Savaii. It is such a beautiful island – the villages, beaches and forests are magical not to mention the lovely people and cute kids who all wave as you drive by. We followed Savaii with more exploration of Upolu (the main island where I live in the ‘city’) and managed to eventually get some full days of sun before he left.

The highlights of the 2 week tour included learning to ‘paddle’ with the outrigger canoe team, the beautiful horizon pool at Sa’Moana resort (and the hot showers which are a luxury for me!), swimming with turtles in Savaii (though the poor things are kept in a small area for our enjoyment), waking up to a sensational sunrise beach view from the beachfront fale (hut), the wonderful dinner at Sails (thanks to my Aunts engagement present!) and of course, just being together again after 3 months.

June 2005 - Samoan Buses

2006-02-06T15:39:00.000-11:00

So it’s the little things that make you smile in Samoa…

Like the cool, colourful, clunky old buses that run to all corners
of the island from Apia… windows are open to catch the breeze (when
it rains you can put up the plastic panes). The timetable is pretty
erractic, though our bus seems to be on approximately a 50 minute
frequency most of the time… luckily being on time is not really an
important concept over here.

Our bus has a pumping (and I mean loud) stereo and even the most
innocuous songs had a heaving bass line turned up full that you
could feel in your chest…. very cool – except when you have a
hangover! We can hear the bus coming up the street and be ready to
meet it each morning! Much better than standing at the stop for half
an hour…

Once on the bus there is an intricate, yet unspoken, system of
seating arrangements that unfolds as people get on and the bus gets
full. Well actually it never gets full as when the seats are filled,
people then sit on top of each other! Not everyone mind you,
important elders tend to be left a seat to themselves and usually
palagi (us – foreigners) do too though we will often sit on each
other’s laps to ease the crush a bit. What a way to get to know
someone!

The younger men almost always head straight to the back and I have
seem them stacked up 3 high when it is busy – and these are not
small guys. Small is not a word you would often use to describe
Samoans… but they have no qualms about size or fat at all, it just
doesn’t bother them.

Bus drivers are some of the hardest working people over here –
driving 9 or 10 hours a day 6 days a week! They all decorate their
buses too – I guess if you’re stuck sitting in one all day all week
you’d want to… you can tell plenty of palagi have traveled on Tony’s
bus as he has various gifts from overseas adorning his dash and rear
view mirrors (yes that’s plural rearview mirrors) such as koalas,
stickers, flags etc… the photos of our bus are on the way so stay
tuned…

now as for the taxi drivers... thats a whole other story…

June 2005 - Fashion, Independence and Beach Huts

2006-02-06T15:28:00.000-11:00

from May 2005:

Malo Soifua,

Life in Samoa is cruising along... working, swimming, drinking,
dancing, touring, acquainting and not quite enough sleeping...

Things have been really busy here the past few weeks - well really
the whole two months so far... there is always something to do!

Last week we went to the fashion awards show with some very
interesting outfits... some of them were pretty risque for the
conservative Samoans and some were not even sewn properly or fit
their models correctly.. but there were a few gems and the best
designer was clear to see (can't remember the name though...). The
night also included performances from some NZ singers who were here
on a tour - Ben Makisi, an opera singer and At Eaze, an r'n'b/pop
singing duo who dress up like they are rappers but sing cheesy MOR
tunes... there were also performers from 'Star Search' tv show -
kinda like Australian Idol but really terrible.

After all that excitement we headed to a night away at the beach on
the south coast. Staying in thatch huts on the beach with 2 fancy
resorts on either side of us... cheap accommodation, then we can go
and drink cocktails next door and pretend we are living it up. The
excitement continued as we stumbled upon a Jewish-Australian wedding
taking place on the beach next door (in front of the fancy
resort)... lots of circling and they had a groomsman playing guitar
and singing... plus the groomsmen all wore ie fataga, the
traditional Samoan 'man-skirt' and short sleeve shirt - weird as
none of them were Samoan or had any links to Samoa, but something
different I guess...

If that wasn't enough, the next day there was a concert on the beach
in front of the resort with the NZ singers, though this time At Eaze
had a live backing band that sounded awfully like a wedding band...
those attending the concert paid 50 tala ($25Aus) for the
priveledge, but we just happened to be at the beach a few metres
away and scored a free concert... there is something about sitting
in the crystal blue water with a beer watching live music...

After a day off a few weeks back for Mothers Day - this week we had
two more public holidays midweek for Independence Day
celebrations... Not only that but we had a half day Tuesday as well
to go an watch the fautasi (long boat) races in the harbour... we
sat up at Sails restaurant drinking beers all afternoon... its a
hard life...

But its not all beer drinking... We got up early on Independence Day
to watch the flag raising and 21 gun salute and march past of the
police band, school kids and community groups... some of our friends
were in the march too. The kids were particularly cute, some
of were taught to march with a little skip every 4th step...

Yesterday was the Independence Horse Races which was fun. It was
like a country race meet in Aus - we had an esky and nibbles out on
the lawn and the horses ran several races each... one horse kept
bolting round the course before starting the race and they couldn't
stop it - even with a professional jockey on the back. This the
Samoans found particularly hilarious, as did we. The betting was
weird... sometimes you didn't even get your money back when you won!

It doesn't end there - this weekend we have two big nights at the
Siva Afi (fire knife dancing) International Championships, plus I
will be competing in an outrigger canoe regatta!