Plans go awry

August 1, 2007

Today is the day for which we all have been waiting. Our two day trip to visit for the first time the village and the housing for the next two years. Everyone is quiet. Anxiety is the highest of anytime we have been in Samoa. We all wait in anticipation to be picked up and taken to our final village.

The first people are called and nervously walk out with their new host. Someone comes back to say their truck would not start. It needs a new alternator. They await the part as others are called.

One by one they depart.
The alternator has not yet been replaced.
We are still not called.

Then we are called and told that the mayor of our village and the person to be our host has just died. There is a big funeral planned. It is not a good idea for us to go this week. They need time to determine where we are to live. So we stay behind at the hotel in Apia while others go off to their new digs. It is planned for us to eventually go to our village sometime in the future.

While others are gone, we are to have more language lessons in anticipation of the language lessons we miss, if and when we ever go to our new village.

If this post seems disjointed and confused, you get a feel of what Samoa is like.

At least I have a few more days at the hotel computer and internet connect.