Peace Corps and Beyond

Shipping Out

2012-01-23T05:33:00.005-06:00

January 23, 2012

This Thursday, an fellow Samoan Peace Corps Volunteer, John, and I begin our trip from Fort Lauderdale to the various Caribbean ports and Panama Canal aboard the Holland-American ship, Zuiderdam. John is an old U.S. Navy salt with lots of sailing and sailboat experience, but never has gone to the Panama Canal. Me? Well, why not? There may even be some good stories to put on this blog.

Mary, not very comfortable at sea, is going with some friends to celebrate their mutual friend's 60th in Seattle.

MLK Day

2012-01-17T05:53:00.007-06:00

January 16, 2012
Today I took a number of foreign exchange students, mostly Muslims, to an MLK event sponsored by the Minneapolis Park Board at Powderhorn Park Community Center, located in one of the most multi-cultural areas of the city. I asked them if they had ever heard of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in their native countries and what they knew about him. I also asked the students to be observant of the attendees and to see who sat with whom at the tables.

All the students had heard of Dr. King in their native countries, many had listened to his "I Have a Dream" speech and were aware of his efforts to help black people. They observed the people at the event were mostly white and that blacks tended to sit together.

The Community Center was filled with people and a free meal of fried chicken, collared greens, corn bread, rolls, rice and beans was served to the hundreds in attendance. The program consisted of an African drummer, hip-hop dancers, a folk singer, an Aztec dance group, a gospel group, and Powderhorn Park's drum corps. The performances were excellent. The only program reference to Dr. King was a question to the audience as to how old Dr. King would be today (83), answered by one older person, and for the entire audience to shout, "Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr".

After the program I gathered the students to recap the event and give my thoughts on what Dr. King meant to me. I said that Dr. King's achievements were not through political office, but through non-violent means of raising people's awareness of injustices done to others and being able to organize people who shared his vision of inequality.

On my way home, it struck me that MLK Day may have become a chance for some to talk about togetherness, free food, entertainment, or a day off from school to go on a long weekend trip. As for Dr. King's "Dream", it seemed more of a dream than ever before.

Wink Eye

2012-01-11T16:09:00.010-06:00

January 9, 2012

Ruby Tuesday server, Cari, and bartender, Joshua, presenting two Wink Eyes in West Plains, Missouri

West Plains, Missouri is an Ozark town in the Southeastern part of the state about 10 miles from the Arkansas border. It is the hometown of the author, Daniel Woodrell, who writes country noire novels, the most famous being "Winter's Bone" which was also made into a movie and nominated for four Academy Awards in 2010. I just had to drive there to check out the place, being warned not to look anyone in the eye and stay away from meth labs.

My quest to possibly meet the author, known to be secretive, and interview meth technicans proved to be futile. Equally futile was my quest to meet anyone who knew what "wink eye" described in another West Plain-based novel by Woodrell, "The Death of Sweet Mister I wondered whether anyone in the Ozarks had ever heard of the dish, so I started asking anyone I met.

At the local Ruby Tuesdays I quized the server, who then quized restaurant patrons, bringing a curious bartender and nacent author to the table. No one had ever heard of wink eye. I described what it was and much to my surprise they later appeared at the table with two wink eyes. They had to go out to a nearby Walgreen's to get the eggs, the restaurant not having any, and prepared the dish. Now that was service!

Most people refer to the dish of "Wink Eye" as "Egg in the Basket" with a lid or "Toad in the Hole. For anyone wishing to learn more, here is the Wkipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_in_the_basket

Please also check out the bartender and young writer, Joshua's blog at todayisee.blogspot.com .

Samoa Loses December 30th

2011-12-27T07:47:00.003-06:00

Samoan Date Line, December 29,2011

Samoan Date Line, December 31,2011

Samoa is skipping December 30th in order to gain one day and one hour. What was to be today suddenly becomes tomorrow, as far as the United States and American Samoa are concerned. This is a result of redrawing of the International Date Line to go to the east of Samoa, in between it and American Samoa 60 miles away.

It was always a tradition for Peace Corps Volunteers to gather at the western most tip of Samoa at the Village of Falealupo on the island of Savaii to be the last to celebrate the New Year and to look across the waters to see tomorrow. Now they will have to go to the Eastern most point of Samoa, which I take to be either Namua Island or the Village of Muliatele to be the first to celebrate the New Year. One thing is for sure, they will celebrate, only a day sooner.

If all this seems confusing, welcome to the customs of Samoa, a very convoluted place.

Muslims in America

2011-12-22T07:06:00.004-06:00

December 21, 2011
At five o'clock this evening, my bus stopped to pick up students from the local high school. They had stayed late to have sports team pictures taken before the winter recess. The bus sounded like an excited flock of geese as they boarded. Most were Muslims. They slowly surveyed the bus as they determined how they were to divide up and where to sit. The seat next to me was vacant and the last to be taken by a slight Somali girl, complete with head scarf, the seat in front by her heavier Somali scarfed girlfriend and an Afro-American boy whom they both seemed to like.

As the bus travelled toward downtown, they jabbered, joked, and poked each other talking about their friends while grasping their smart phones. The boy was asked if he smoked. To understand the question more clearly, he gave the motion of having a toke. The girls were surprised and said they didn't know he smoked. He said he had been smoking for two years, mostly at home when his mother was away, otherwise she would kill him. He would then go outside to walk off the effects before she returned home.

The girls reaction was more of wanting to know more, rather than judgement. "Aren't you afraid of being caught by the police?", one asked. "No" said the boy. There was a moment of silence as they pondered his answer and what they had just experienced. As the bus neared the transfer station, their talk quickly changed to their connections and how late they would be getting home.

What made me laugh was the universality of the scene. It could have occurred with any group of American young teenagers anywhere, growing up. It made me feel good to know that America's future was going to be in their good dark-skinned hands.

Joy of Shopping

2011-12-13T11:53:00.006-06:00

December 14, 2011
One of the famous retailers said that shopping is entertainment. Indeed, it can be entertaining much in the fashion of Las Vegas, where you know you are being had. Shopping can be likened to a game where you seek out that special deal and beat the house. The odds are against you in the long run, but one winner can keep you coming back for more.

The rules of the game are changing. Now everything is on sale. If it red sign doesn't say the price is reduced by at least 30%, you feel riped off. When everything is discounted, how do you find the real deals? My strategy is to find those items which are not discounted, difficult but not impossible.
I can't tell you how good it feels to double check with the cashier that my item was not discounted!

Retailing has gone beyond entertainment to now include dining and exercise in its pantheon of ways to get you into the store. Recently I went to an IKEA store accidentally before it opened. You get free coffee, a real incentive for geezers. In fact I think IKEA, COSTCO, and other big box stores are now the dining experience of choice for a large segment of our country.

The third leg of the Joy of Shopping is exercise. Where else but a mall or a big box store can you feel it in your legs that you have had a workout? The exertion of walking those long aisles in search of that yet to be revealed item can't be duplicated any place else. You are exausted, and hungry. Thank goodness the food counter in near the entrance/exit doors.

People in other parts of the world often misread us. They think we are just a money-hungry, consumption-oriented society that misses the whole point of Christmas. We are more than that, we are a multi-tasking, money-hungry, consumption-oriented society with lots of hyphenated words.

Then there is Samoa where Christmas is a religious holiday, albeit commercialism is beginning to appear. "Gift-giving" happens at the end of the school year in November when the top students recieve a Holy Bible, writing pads, and pencils. "White Sunday" in early October is when all children usually get gifts. This a day to recognize the importance of children and when children for the one day assume adult privilages.

So is it Better to Give than to Recieve? Who really cares during the quest for a gift and a deal, and the rush of the Joy of Shopping?

Walking to the Library

2011-12-13T07:33:00.005-06:00

December 13, 2011
Ever since I was a young boy in Detroit, I remember the joy of walking to the library. Before the library was built on Six Mile Road, it was the Bookmobile parked two days a week on Tracy Avenue off of Puritan. Inside on its shelves were adventures and stories I couldn't wait to take home and read. You could only take two books at a time, which only increased my desire to quickly return to that truck parked at the side of the curb.

It is amazing how some books have a telling affect on you. One of those Bookmobile stories I remember is "Misty of Chincoteague". The story still brings tears to my eyes, such is the power of books.

Years and many books have pasted since those Detroit days, but the thrill of walking to the library, taking an unknown book off the shelf, and feeling its weight on the way back has never left me.

Turkey Tails

2011-12-07T08:35:00.002-06:00

December 7, 2011
Ever wonder what happens to those parts of slaughtered animals go, even those orts considered unfit for pet food? You may be interested in the tale of tails.

The Samoan government in an attempt to curb obesity banned the sale of imported turkey tails while at the same time applying for entrance to the World Trade Organization (WTO). In order to have Samoa reopen its market for U.S. turkey tails, the U.S. government held back its approval of Samoa's WTO application. Samoa submitted to U.S. pressure and turkey tails can once again be legally sold in Samoa.

You may argue that Samoans have a choice in the food they can eat, let alone afford. For the average Samoan, your choice of meats in the store usually is canned mackerel, SPAM, canned corned beef, chicken hindquarters, trotters (pigs feet), pigs tails and ears, mutton flaps, or lamb necks. All imported and dumped by "health conscience countries". Yummy!

Below are two articles for those who may have some interest as to what happens in the world under the term "globalization".

http://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37229:stopping-turkey-tails&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/6062457/Samoa-rewarded-for-turkey-tail-turnaround

Skating into the 70's

2011-12-01T07:08:00.007-06:00

November 28, 2011

Today is the 70th anniversary of my birth. Other than heralding in the beginning of another possible decade of life, the date lacks the significance of the 5th when you can start school, the 16th when you can get a driver's license, the 18th when you become an adult, the 21st when you can legally buy alcohol, and the 65th when you are officially considered old and when you used to be able to retire and collect your meager pension.

There is something to celebrate about birthdays ending in a zero. You hear from those who have not forgotten you are still alive, or want to know if you are still alive. Their greetings may come in the form of a personalized note, a birthday card which gives a zero birthday an air of importance, Facebook, electronic greeting card, text, phone call, and some show up at your doorstep. Whatever their means to mark the occasion, it makes you feel good.

Yet dates, years, and birthdays soon pass into the ocean of time, unless you do something memorable. The year may be forgotten, but not the event. For me, it is to celebrate my birthday at the local roller rink along with the other 5 year olds, an event even the rink owner and tiny celebrants could not believe was happening. There is something to be said about "zipping" around the rink trying to keep time to "health club" music as you avoid those fallen little shits in your path, and putting the fact behind you that on your 12th birthday you broke your arm with a church group doing the same thing with wheels on your feet. Certain birthdays you and others don't soon forget.

With my son, Nicholas III

The few, the proud, and the brave

Bus World

2011-11-09T02:27:00.006-06:00

November 8, 2011

What makes travel exciting is that you chose to put yourself in a strange and different place. You see and experience a new world, sometimes more uncomfortable or seemingly more exotic than the place you call home. Of course for those who call your destination home, you are the strange and exotic person. For them, your discoveries are their everyday drudgery.

I am discovering a new world to explore. It is as strange and as foreign to me as any of the several places on this earth I have been fortunate to visit. It is the world that exists on the public bus.

Now for many of my ilk and my children, taking the metro in Beijing is more exciting and certainly not as frightening as taking the bus downtown. The choice is clear. Your shiny, protected, comfortable bubble wins out every time. But imagine what may happen if you chose to take the bus. What adventures may be in store for you? Here is my entry for today.

The rush hour bus is nearly full when I get on and search for a place to sit. There is a backpack next to a young chocolat-skinned seemingly immigrant girl sitting next to the window. I ask her if she would would move it so I could sit down. She does. As the bus empties, she crawls over me to sit on a jump seat in front of me with her backpack on her lap.

The young African-American man in the seat behind me is on his cellphone trying to tell people at an insurance company his new Minneapolis address. He has recently moved from Springfield, Illinois. He has to make three calls before he gets to a person who can make the changes so he can be reimbursed for medical expenses incurred in Springfield. He slowly spells his name, making fun of the fact that his parents named him Galvin, rather than Calvin, a source of much confusion as to who he is. He goes on to spell his street, but when it comes to spelling Minneapolis, both parties are stumped. He asks another older passenger if there is an abbreviation. The passenger says, MPLS. I am sure no one outside of Minneapolis and probably only a few who live here have ever heard of that abbreviation. The young man then calls a friend and tells him, he soon should get a check and pay him the owed money. I hope he gets his check. Thank goodness he gives the zip code.

There is a well-dressed Middle Eastern couple asking other passengers if this is the stop for Fairview Hospital (There are several throughout the metro area). They don't know. The stop is at the center of the University of Minnesota campus. As the bus disgorges most of its passengers, the confused couple rushes off the bus with the crowd and ends up standing alone on the sidewalk not knowing where they are. They remind me of similar incidents during my travels as I find myself standing alone, not knowing where I am or who to turn for directions.

As I walk out of the office building in St Paul, I see the bus I want pull away. An elderly out-of-town couple stops me in their car to ask for directions to the University of Minnesota Hospital. They are miles from the hospital and have been lost for over an hour. Their MapQuest printout is only for the neighborhood around the hospital. I say I am happy to show them the way and hop in their car. Just before they are to turn off to the hospital, I hop out of the car, just in time to catch the same bus I missed miles back.

The bus driver asks those who pass their wallets over the bus electronic fare meter without hearing its responding beep to show him their pre-paid bus card. Puzzled, he explains the electronic meter is broken and he wants to see the card, those riders not being charged. Each person hurriedly fumbles to show their card while others wait impatiently in line wondering about the delay. A girl with cornrows similar to the style and dressed like the girls in Senegal, sits down behind me. Just before departing, the young bus driver turns in his seat to the rear of the bus and light-heartedly calls out, "You showed me your company ID card instead of your bus card. I now know where you work". I have no idea she understood what he said, whether it is the driver's attempt at a joke, or more. She makes not a sound. He closes the door and off we go.

A tall, big man with Eastern European features struggles to get on with two heavy plastic bags dangling around his neck, pulling a suitcase, and carrying a stuffed garment bag and some other clothes, including a new pair of large, shiny black, three inch elevator shoes. He unwraps himself of his load as he searches his pockets for the fare. He continues standing next to what appears to be his worldly possessions. At his stop, he puts the plastic bags around his neck, gathers his luggage, and leaves. The young petite Asian girl next to me looks at him and then at me. We laugh about why would a 6'4" man need elevator shoes. I remark to her that he probably has quite a story to tell. But after the girl gets off the bus, I wonder about her story.

Halloween

2011-11-02T09:51:00.004-05:00

November 1, 2011
The Great Pumpkin must have been looking out for me. Due to an illness to my Halloween roller skating partner, Nicholas' girlfriend Heidi, I spent the night safely at home, only to be visited by The Little Pumpkin Seed, my grandson Rainn.

Grandma Mary

2011-10-20T09:15:00.004-05:00

October 20, 2011

Being a grandparent is great! Mary and Rainn.

Soup Bones

2011-10-20T09:12:00.000-05:00

October 19, 2011

Readjusting after an intense experience like Peace Corps is the pits. One would think that this being my second time, it would be easier, but it’s not. You may think the feeling is due to returning to the “Same-O, Same-O’, but the “Same-O, Same-O” isn’t the same anymore

I like soup. The weather is getting chilly… soup time. To make good soup, you need a soup bone. I have been to four supermarkets filled with every meat cut you might think to serve, but nary a soup bone. Most of the meat comes to the store, either prepackaged or butchered in some Iowa or Nebraska meat processing plant. Modern supermarket butchers now are stock boys with funny paper hats. There are marrow bones for dogs, but no soup bones for humans.

This is what I mean by the difficulty of readjusting. When you are away, everything is new and exciting. When you return, all is new, except you.

Into Africa

2011-09-23T09:25:00.081-05:00

September 8-21, 2011

Introduction

Why, you ask, The Gambia in West Africa during the rainy season or what Africans call the “Starving Season? It is a hot, humid, dirty, mosquito infested place inhabited by natives and Peace Corps Volunteers. When you combine one former Peace Corps Volunteer Samoa from Duluth, Minnesota who has a lot of frequent flyer miles which are about to expire with another former Peace Corps Volunteer Samoa, now serving in The Gambia, with still another former Peace Corps Volunteer Samoa whose husband just got back from Samoa, you have the ingredients for adventure. Senegal enters the picture because not only does it surround The Gambia on three sides, but has a real city, Dakar, which can be reached by air from the United States.

Warning: This blog does not necessary follow in any logical or chronological order. In other words, it reflects real life.

The Participants

Hanna Siemering: Hostess, current Gambian Peace Corps Volunteer (2011-2013) as a Public Health instructor at Gambia’s university, former Samoan PCV (2007-2010), retired veterinarian, sailor with seaside property in Maryland and plans for a house.
John Kleive: Former Samoan PCV (2007-2010), welding instructor in Samoa (2010-2011), retired school teacher, welding supply representative, and welder who lives on a boat at a Superior, Wisconsin marina during summers, a house in the Ely woods, and seeks warmer weather on his Harley during the winter months.
Sandy Nelson: John’s friend, world traveler, hospice worker, assisting John’s daughter during her prolonged illness, and lives off the main road in Northern Wisconsin.
Mary Shuraleff: Former Samoan PCV (2007-2008) and my supportive wife.

Nick Shuraleff: Enough said about him.

Dakar,Senegal

This West African country is French speaking and Muslim. Dakar, its capitol, is at the Western most tip of Africa with about 1.5 million people. The city seems to be in a half-built, rubble-filled, suspended state awaiting more foreign aid. There is really nothing beautiful about the place, except the stylish women. If Dakar is known for anything, it is the nightclubs which open at midnight and whose original music is really great. Other than that, the only noise is from the short beep from 1.5 million passing taxis and the Call to Prayers.

My favorite place in Dakar is probably the least favorite site in all of Senegal, The African Renaissance Monument, which dominates the skyline and shoreline of the city. Unveiled April 3, 2010 amidst the slums and garbage helps of land near the airport, it is the tallest statue in the world with an estimated life expectancy of 1,200 years. Invented and designed by Senegal’s president, it cost the country no money, but an exchange of land, to the North Koreans who funded and built the monolith. From what I could gather, President Maitre Abdolaye Wade is the only person enamored with the financial deal, stating revenues from admissions could generate billions (I was the only fee-paying tourist during my visit.

The statue represents Africa emerging from the extinct volcano of slavery and foreign domination, reconquering its place in the world. Few Africans identify themselves with the figures or the family portrayed. The child points to the Northwest which is towards North Korea, if you overlook all of North America. Muslims wonder whether the God-like representation conflict with Islamic beliefs and may be used as a deity. I love the views and sheer gall of the monument.
As a side note, the first model of the statue, by a very well-known, but unnamed, Hungarian sculpture, did not correspond to the president’s vision and became a gift for President Bush during his visit to Senegal two days later.

Symbol of African Renaissance

Monument as seen from nearby slums

View of Dakar from the monument's head.
A five ton baby head

Goree Island is the tourist must. Just a short ferry ride from the main harbor it can be likened to The French Quarter with artists, restaurants, museums, weird characters, and a little violent history thrown in for spice. There is never a dull moment as vendors constantly pester and vie for your attention, making a cold beer that much more refreshing. A 30 minute ferry ride with vendors already pecking at your carcass.

Dakar skyline behind Mary and Hanna

School children at the 1776 Dutch building, "House of Slaves"

World War One French coastal gun

John Kleive trying to escape from female vendors.

Hotel du Phare in the Ouakam area of Dakar is our hotel and used to be a favorite place for Peace Corps visiting the city. It is small European-style hotel at the end of a runway at Dakar airport, making it ideal for embarkation and debarkation. Since a couple of months ago when the old Frenchman died and his son with his young French wife took over running the business, rates have increased. The hotel does have quaintness about it, being off the main road on a sandy side, rubble filled side-street. An air-conditioned room, large generator, edible French cooking, cold beer, and attractive help make you aware you are not in Kansas anymore.

Street to Hotel du Phare

With Fatima, hotel clerk.

Senegalese women are said to spend a fortune on their appearance.

The Gambia

The Gambia is the smallest, Muslim, one of the poorest and most densely populated country in Africa. It is known as being a British outpost trying to curb the sale of Africans by Africans to Europeans in early 1800’s. Now its beach side resorts are a destination for Europeans. Sex tourism flourishes, but with a different twist. Men, known as “Bumsters” (gigolos), show their virility on the beaches during the day as they seek business with middle-aged white women looking for a change of pace. Night is when the female prostitutes emerge. Even an old man with his wife is fair game.

Subsistence is the life people lead. Some grow rice and peanuts, while others struggle to feed their families with menial service jobs. All including the government seek handouts from others. The Indians and Chinese are the latest to seek the favor of The Gambia.

Gambians are a smiling, colorful, skinny, and gregarious lot. What they may lack in wealth they more than make up for in attitude. Being English speaking helps as they express their view of life and the outside world to whomever cares to sit down and drink tea (aataya) with them. Maybe their subdued behavior is somehow related to the many roadblocks one encounters on the highway and the walled compounds in which they reside. Law and order does prevail here. Joking is part of their nature with the greatest responses being about the number of wives you have or hope to get.

The food, well there really isn’t much to talk about. The stables are rice, peanuts, and cassava with a little bit of fish or beef thrown in for protein, if available. Unlike Samoa where everyone seems to be eating at all times, they hardly eat at all. I am glad we had a chance to eat the local fare, but the cuisine certainly is no reason to fly across the ocean for it. Hanna Siemering, our hostess, who planned it all, in her Gambian house

Peace Corps in The Gambia

The offices

Peace Corps Headquarters, Gambia

I was forbidden to take a picture of this guarded, gated building housing Peace Corps offices. However inside the building, the computer room, offices, and staff seemed the same as in Samoa, dealing with the same Peace Corps related problems. It also served as the best place to exchange dollars into local currency.

The main street by Peace Corps office.

The Volunteers

Staying in the large, guarded, gated, hostel-like Peace Corps "transit house" for four nights is a great place to rub elbows with others. The Peace Corps now charges a small fee for staying there with a four-night limit. With one of the bedrooms air-conditioned and crowded, and a hired caretaker makes this place the best deal in town. The volunteers are an assortment of people coming in for scheduled meetings, medical and psychological issues, leaving early, and their village to eat a hamburger or pizza.

Of course, the volunteers want to compare degrees of Peace Corps suffering. They are surprised to learn suffering also occurs in Samoa, "The Jewel of the Pacific". My take is that Samoan Peace Corps suffer more psychologically, while Gambia may have the edge physically. One thing is Samoa has The Gambia beat for beauty, hands down!

There are about 80 Peace Corps in The Gambia and the Peace Corps seems to be better recognized by Gambians for their efforts in education, health, and agriculture, as well as being from the United States, than in Samoa. I may be mistaken about this, since Gambians are more talkative and open, speak better English, and get more exposure to America than Samoans. They rotate into country twice a year.

Kelsey, a married Peace Corps serving with her husband. Both have assigned jobs.

Dave is a Peace Corps who has extended for a third year and works in an NGO apiary. Beekeeping and honey are important products in The Gambia. His enthusiasm is hard to conceal, as we tour his domain and learn about the life of bees. He tells us of the beautiful spitting cobra he saw two days before which blinded a dog. The bees seem tamer. I am more than a little jealous of his success with bees after my failed beekeeping experience in Samoa.A Gambian lunch with British ex-patriots Jan, Mick, and their son who live in the bush at the apiary. The meal is domada, a peanut based sauce with cassava over rice. (Rice is served with every meal).

Daily Life

The Regional Hospital, Birkama

Clinics and programs such as this are one of the reasons why infant mortality and death during childbirth are dropping. Mothers dress up and bring their babies to be weighed and vaccinated monthly. They are responsible for their own record card. Breast feeding is common and efforts to reduce malnutrition seem to be making headway. The women are encouraged to give birth in the hospital or at home with a trained mid-wife who can call for medical assistance if needed.

Malaria affects 80% of the population. Much of the problem is due to increases in rice growing and ranching, both of which produce spawning grounds for mosquitoes.

Diabetes is also on the increase and is becoming a major health concern. Just why escapes me for these are the thinnest people I have ever seen!

Weighing babies

Vaccinations given by Gambian Public Health employee

Markets
Village markets are a hub of activity with organized stalls, buses, taxis, smells, and flies all adding to the shopping experience. Like Samoa, small family-owned stores keep popping up along the roadside to supply everyday needs. The better stores, restaurants, and supermarkets are owned and run by Arabs, mostly Lebanese.
Please forgive the absence of craft-shop photos. I just couldn't do it.

Market in Birkama

Fishing

African picture books invariably have pictures of the colorful fishing boats. The local boats fish a few miles off shore with nets and all return about five o'clock to sell their catch. Boys with tubs swim out to the boats before they beach, wanting to have their tub filled with fish. They then take the tub to the market to be sorted and weighed. From afar it seems like a chaotic scramble, much like a New York street may seem to them. Somehow it all works out.

Scene at Bakau

Brewing Aataya
More than a very sweet tea, brewing and drinking Aataya is a ritual done mostly by men. The process is purposely slow, for being with your friends should not be rushed.

Elijah, who lives on Hanna's compound, making aataya. Note: red small teapot on charcoal stove, blue water pitcher, small stand with two glasses, all essential to the elaborate poring to produce a foamy, strong drink. The tea grounds are re-brewed two more times.

Flora and Fauna
If you want to see wildlife, don't go to The Gambia. The forests have long been cut for pasture and cultivation; the wildlife eaten. However, there are a few Reserves and National Parks to bring back some of the lost plants and animals.

Abuko Nature Reserve

Under the strangling fig

Flower with two types of blossoms

Bijilo Forest "Monkey" Park

Green monkey with baby

Gambia River National Park
Getting to and visiting this park is worth the effort located in the middle of the country. The major attraction are the chimpanzees collected originally as unwanted pets and located on islands in the river where they thrive and are studied (Chimps can't swim).

Children watching us depart from Kuntaur, hoping to get empty plastic water bottles for toys.
Girl in pink, a real bully.

Our transportation to and at the parkBackwater scene

Approaching our lodgeRiver scene from lodgeLodge dining and resting area
Safari tent for sleeping. Beds are great. Outdoor showers, simply heaven. Pit toilets for star gazing. Best sleeping ever.Mary with her ever-present Samoan fan.
We feel the Samoan fan moves more air with less effort than Gambian styles, a tribute to the Samoan way of lfe.
See the Chimps
See the hippos
Find the Green Mamba snake

The Good Life
Please don't think The Gambia is all mosquitoes, flies, sand, heat, humidity and vendors. There are beautiful beaches and hotels too.

Leybato Beach Resort

Good food, reasonable prices. Short walk from Peace Corps transfer house.
Beautiful beach with a Bumster for everyone.
(I did pushups with one of them on the beach to deflate his bravado and increase mine)

Coco Ocean Resort
This five star hotel is where those traveling on a government or NGO expense account stay. Since this is the off season, rates are lower, at least before the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bought out the place for a Cashew Convention. Alas as Hanna, Mary, and I sit dejected in the lobby unable to negotiate a lower and affordable rate, a kindly man hears as we bemoan our financial situation, our new dislike for cashew nuts, and the thought of spending another night at the Peace Corps transit house. He asks if we are Peace Corps. He makes us a deal we can't refuse in a villa we never could have dreamed and drives us to the villa with its own restricted swimming pool. He is the owner, as employees look on in disbelief as what he is doing. We even have enough money to eat in the hotel restaurants!

Built like a Moroccan Palace, Coco Ocean from the sea.

Ah, this is the way Peace Corps should be
Our veranda

So many spa treatments to chose.
Mary had a chocolate scrub. Hanna, hair and nails.
They spent hours deciding.

Our room

The Compleato
I just have to have one. The compleato (complete) is worn by Muslim men to cover the entire body. I must admit the tailor did question my choice of fabric, but then again he did not know his work is also my new Halloween costume to be worn with roller skates, a blue bike helmet, and a 1952 "Ike and Dick" campaign button.

Jay and Hannah's Wedding, Day 2

2011-09-05T19:42:00.025-05:00

September 4, 2011

Dance Instruction

To get ready for the first dance, a Samoan one, at the wedding reception a little instruction and practice was needed. Ladies went with Hannah who instructed the ladies on Samoan movements and how women are to be aloof, teasing them, but “not really” to notice the wild movements and yelling of the half-naked men gesticulating around them. Meanwhile Jay instructed the men that they were to be like roosters, crowing about and puffing out their feathers in hopes of attracting a hen or two.

More activities

Rugby

Softball

Jogging

The Wedding Ceremony

One of the reasons Jay and Hannah picked this camp was the hillside site high above a West Virginia lake where they would exchange their vows. As luck would have it, minutes before the ceremony was to begin, it began to rain. Hannah had a backup plan to have the ceremony in the same building as the reception. This proved to save the day; not as picturesque, but certainly drier. I had the honor to act as “officiate” for the ceremony, being both part Rabbi, representing Hannah’s side of the family, and part Faifea’u, Samoan minister, for Jay’s part of the family. The ceremony was conducted under a Huppah, ending with Jay stomping on a glass while everyone yells “Mazel Tov!”

The Huppah, messages were written to the couple on the cloth quilt

The wedding party is coming

Taking their vows

"Although I have no power vested in me, I now pronouce you man and wife"

Exiting processional

The Reception

At the reception there were toasts from the Maid of Honor, Kate Everett, Best Man, Sonny (Jay’s Samoan cousin from Seattle) along with the Mother and Father of the Bride. The fun started with the first dance as Hannah performed her graceful moves while Jay did his Samoan male part of wildly dancing around her. Then the others joined with a wild passion, not even hoped for during practice earlier in the day. We were all Samoans. The party had begun.

Note: Due to the unwritten rules of Peace Corps Volunteers many parts of the reception have been excluded.

Wedding cake top with cup cakes of sea colored frosting and tropical ingredients

Bride and Groom starting First Dance

Group 78 attendees
Front: Kate Everett, Mary Shuraleff, Hannah Goldman, Christian Heath, Erin Jenkins

Rear: Jacob Burney, Nick Shuraleff, Donna Barr, Justin Newnum

Peace Corps attendees

Front: Cale and Sara Reeves, Laura Hanks, Kate Everett, Hannah Goldman,Sally Briggs,Erin Jenkins, Eric Geer

Rear: Nick Shuraleff, Megan Veltrie, Jacob Burney, Donna Barr, Justin Newnum, Christian Heath, Stephanie Hue

Script of Wedding Ceremony (Written by Hannah and Jay)
Processional
Huppah with Uncle Steve, Mom, Dad, and Donna (due to illness did not hold Huppah)

Nick

6 members of the wedding party one at a time

Leiga

Hannah

Hannah circles Jay 3 times

Introduction

Nick: Beloved family of friends, we are gathered on this beautiful hillside to celebrate the marriage of Hannah and Jay. This is a joyous occasion when we get to witness the joining of two lives and two unique families. Jay and Hannah are dedicating their lives to each other and embarking on a lifelong adventure that will be exhilarating, enlightening and challenging. Fortunately, they have already shown they have all the tools needed for this journey: patience, mutual respect and the ability to find joy in every day. They will use these tools to face together whatever life throws their way, be it good times or hard times. To symbolize the sweetness of a life shared by loving spouses, Jay and Hannah will share a cup of wine.

Prayer over the wine by Jay

Jay: Baruch atah adonai elohainu melech haolam, borei pre hagafen.

Jay offers sip to Hannah, then Hannah offers sip to Jay

Nick's comments on couple

Introduction to vows

Nick: Marriage is a lifelong commitment to be celebrated, yet taken with care and reflection. A bride and groom speak aloud their promises to each other during their vows and will from then on, wear a reminder of those vows on their ring finger. Before Jay and Hannah make those vows, they have asked that you bless their union and their rings by warming them with your well wishes and your hands. When a ring reaches you please hold it just for a moment, and take the opportunity to make a silent wish or prayer for the couple. Then pass the ring on to the next person so that when returned, the rings are all the more precious for containing your love and support for their union.

Ring Warming

Vows/Rings (Each line is repeated by Hannah or Jay, Hannah first)

Nick: Please repeat after me

I, Hannah/Jay

Take you Jay/Hannah

To be my beloved husband/wife

To love and to cherish

To respect and to protect

All the days of my life

For richer and for poorer

In sickness and in health

And in all the times in between

I promise

To never stop laughing, singing or dancing

To always sleep naked

And to always be your equal and loving partner

Take this ring as a symbol of my everlasting love and devotion

Nick: Although I have no power vested in me by anyone, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Jay, you may kiss your bride! (Kiss)

Jay smashes glass and everyone yells “Mazel Tov!”

Recessional (bride and groom first)

Jay and Hannah’s Wedding, Day 1

2011-09-05T18:50:00.027-05:00

September 3, 2011
Prologue

Leiga (Jay) and Hannah at my Samoan house (2009)

Hannah Goldman was a Peace Corps with Mary and my Peace Corps Group 78. At our Samoan training village of Manunu, Hannah saw Leiga (Jay) Iamanu as he performed on Sunday with the village’s church youth group in June, 2007. Attracted by Jay’s winning smile, and dance moves, Hannah wanted to meet him. As fate would have it, Jay likewise spotted Hannah as a person he would like to meet. Since Jay was living with the church’s pastor and “dating” even among Samoans is still in the developmental stage it took a kind fairy in the form of Peace Corps Volunteer, Donna Barr, who was also living with the pastor to suggest they meet. They did, and the rest was history.

Mary and I were met at Dulles Airport by another Peace Corps from our Group 78, Christian Heath, who had arrived a few hours earlier from Vietnam, flying through two sunrises to make it to the wedding on time. Jacob Burny, also from Group 78, picked us up as we headed to the hills of West Virginia, guided by Rachel, Jacob’s GPS friend.

The Wedding Venue

Jay and Hannah live in Pittsburgh, but the wedding took place at the summer camp, Camp Tall Timbers, in High View, West Virginia. The entire camp with all its facilities was needed to house and entertain the approximately 80 guests from around the country. As you might expect, a bell was rung to announce planned activities blocks. Sleeping arrangements were in cabins, meals of good, hearty summer camp style food.

Activities

Frisbee football

Fun in the pool Eric Geer trying for a 10 score belly flop

Sara Reeves with her much better camera than mine

Evening Program

The highlight of the evening program was a CD made of Jay’s family members in Samoa as each wished their son, brother, or relative best wishes and blessings from God along with invitation to bring his new wife back to their Samoan home. Even though everyone spoke in Samoan, the tears in their eyes spoke a language all could understand. The CD arrived the day before and Jay had not seen it before. Jay and Hannah talking about how they met and translating his family's messages Handing out gifts to wedding party

Peace Corps Attendees

Kate Everett, Donna Barr, Erin Jenkins, Justin and Anna Newnum, Jacob Burney, Christian Heath, Nick and Mary Shuraleff, Stephanie Hsu, Eric and Mrs. Geer, Laura Hanks and friend, Roco?, Meghan Veltri, Sally Briggs, Sara and Cale Reeves

Flocculation

2011-09-02T07:22:00.006-05:00

September 1, 2011

Clear Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil as it usually appears in Samoa

Same oil undergoing flocculation in Minnesota

Extra virgin organic coconut oil is the main economic venture promoted by the NGO, Women in Business Development(WIBD), with whom I was associated during my Health Challenge project in Samoa. The oil is wonderful stuff used by Samoans for body massages and hair oil, some others for cooking, and exported to the Body Shop in the U.K. to make cosmetics. When the bottles of coconut oil I brought back turned from a crystal clear liquid to a white solid, I began to wonder why. This could be a serious problem.

A clue to the puzzle is on the label of a coconut massage oil I brought back from Samoa in 2009. It states the oil turns solid under 72 degrees F. It is also the reason why this massage oil has never been used by me in Minnesota and why my clear oil turned to a solid. These are conditions never experienced in Samoa.

My emails to WIBD about my observations have so not been replied. This may give you some idea of the conditions I experienced in Samoa.

Nick and the Kava Stick

2011-08-30T08:00:00.007-05:00

August 30, 2011
To most people it looks like a stick of wood.

To Departments of Agriculture it may contain destructive insects in its which must be properly wrapped and certified pest-free before leaving Samoa.

To Customs Officials it is a drug (Piper methysicum, intoxicating pepper).

To missionaries it leads to sin and degradation.

To airline baggage handlers it is a pain in the butt.

To Samoans it is an important symbol of the Ava God, as the Peace Pipe is to American Indians.

To me it is one of the most important gifts I received in Samoa.

To the Chinese it is money worth trying to steal.

I really don't know the history behind this kava stick I was given by the village high chief during a Ava ceremony welcoming me to the Village of Tufulele before a health training session I was part of with the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture. I do know being offered the first cup of ava at the Ava ceremony means you are the honored person, or I have never seen one of the three sticks ever given to anyone else, or the fact that some of the ceremony was done in English for my benefit rather than in the highly formal spoken at village councils that even most Samoans do not understand. This is a very important piece of cellulose containing some great alkaloids.

So at the Honolulu airport baggage claim after customs, I set the kava stick against the wall along side of my luggage. A few moments later I see my stick moving off into the distance being carried by a well-dressed middle-aged Chinese woman. I run after the thief as she hurries away, grabbing the stick out of her hand. "What the hell?", I say to her. Since she probably does not speak English and I am too dumbfounded to say more, I just stand there in a dazed state as she disappears into the crowd.

Only a few billion people in the world understand the importance and significance of kava/ava, South Pacific islanders, China, and some Peace Corps. As for my kava stick, it needs to find a prominent spot in my Minneapolis house where it may hang until someone throws it into the fireplace on a cold winter's night and unexpectedly feels a sense of euphoria known to others for centuries.

Departing Thoughts

2011-08-29T08:28:00.004-05:00

August 25, 2011

Was it worth it? I mean leaving my family to return to Samoa as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer.

For me, yes. For others, I guess you have to ask them.

What I wanted to do more than anything else was to significantly impact the way Samoans relate weight to health. Obesity is the “Elephant in the room”. It is so big as to be almost unrecognizable by those in the room and seemingly too big to tame. Yet, obesity is the reason why so many Samoans suffer from its effects of diabetes, hypertension, sleep disorders, gout, and joint problems. It saps the strength of this tiny and once vigorous nation.

Call it a gimmick or a stroke of understanding, but 5,000 pink vinyl wristbands, a Samoan BMI chart, and Biblical verses served as my entry into the Samoan mind. They served to demonstrate how a simple program, offering a simple message, and being demonstrated in a simple, yet Samoan way, can affect people’s behavior. The monster could be tackled, only if the “man in the mirror” cares to recognize the problem as his own.

It is now time to collect and analyze the data. A concluding report needs to be written and hopefully read. The data and report cannot convey the feeling of a woman who is having sex again or a person who feels better because a wristband can be slipped off a once chubby hand, or people walking, or drinking water, or taking the salt container off the table. Samoans, like anyone else in the world, want to look, feel, and be better.

What is next for me?

For the Peace Corps there is a report on ways volunteer teachers can provide some health education for children, parents, and teachers where none exists today, and to see if an organization would sponsor another Peace Corps Response Volunteer.

For my nascent efforts with the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture, their Sports for Development program and the Australian Sports Authority who are sponsoring that program, I have a sense of a continued relationship in the months ahead. Their combined resources are what are needed to affect real change.

Finally, it is off to a West Virginia mountain top camp, along with others who served with Mary and me, over Labor Day weekend to attend the wedding of Hannah Goldman and her Samoan fiancé, Jay. Then there is a trip to The Gambia in Africa next month to visit another Peace Corps Volunteer.

My Peace Corps luggage tag reads, “Life is calling. How far will you go?”

I wish I knew the answer.

I do know how lucky I am to have the opportunity to apply what few skills I possess and to have an understanding, supportive family.

Now it is time to start my 48 hour journey back home to those whom I love.

Dinner with Dale

2011-08-29T08:11:00.003-05:00

August 24, 2011

Dale Withington is the Peace Corps Country Director in Samoa. He is also a former Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines and Country Director of Peace Corps in Micronesia. Probably his most noteworthy achievement is to marry, Lucy, whom he met while living in Indonesia. Besides being beautiful, Lucy is a great cook, and I love Indonesian food.

For my last dinner in Samoa, Dale invited me to join his other guests for one of Lucy’s “little meals”.

Dale Withington. Lucy, and family.
Lucy's meal.

Goodbye to Nick and Mary

2011-08-29T08:05:00.003-05:00

August 22, 2011

The Nick and Mary I am talking about are the two children named after us. It is I who is saying the goodbye.

Sister Losa, nun and Kapeli's sister; Easter, Kapeli's daughter with her children, Malia and Nicholas at their new house in Moamoa, Apia.

Visit with Kapeli Family

2011-08-29T06:30:00.006-05:00

August 21, 2011

It is hard to describe the inclusiveness of a Samoan family. A Samoan family is like a magnet pulling others into its arms and embracing them whether you want to be or not. Once within this field you are one of them forever. To visit is a misnomer because it is more of a reuniting. Such is my stay on my last weekend in Samoa after having to text them of having to return to Apia for missing wristbands and cutting my stay from two to one night.

There is no such thing as one family picture for the family is an ever changing kaleidoscope of those within its grasp.

Falani, son. with cousin, Tui, preparing Number 2 size pig for the umu, Samoan pit oven.

Manuli, daughter; Lucia, daughter; me; Saloti, wife; Kapeli, husband wearing St. Patrick's Day shamrocks on head which I brought and everyone wore; and little Lawrence, the baby Mary used to hold.
Tali, daughter; big Lawrence; Fa'apisa Sr., Lawrence's wife and sister of Kapeli, Fa'aputa, son; Manuli, daughter. Front row: little Lawrence with assorted cousins.
Lawrence Sr and wife, Fa'apisa, used to live in Hawaii and now are building a house at this site on the Kapeli family plantation. Lawrence Sr., never happier.

Back row: Salafai, son of Ime and Tupe; Manuli, Tali, and Taitaia, daughters. Middle row: Tui, son of Ime and Tupe; Fa'apisa, youngest child and daughter; Fa'apiano, daughter of Ime and Tupe. Front: Saloti, Kapeli's wife; Kapeli; Fa'apisa, Kapeli's sister; Ime, Kapeli's sister; Tupe, Ime's husband.

The family had prepared a concert for me in their open Samoan house. Since it was Sunday evening, they had to sing softly.

Ben's Garden

2011-08-29T06:15:00.005-05:00

August 20, 2011

Ben Harding is a volunteer from my original Peace Corps Group 78 who married to a Samoan beauty and is staying on living with her family at his Peace Corps village on Savaii. Ben and I share a passion for gardening. Ben is more serious and successful than I ever could be.

Ben Harding and his garden

Ben's special variety of Bok Choy, Chinese Cabbage, grown for more seeds.

Stolen Wristbands

2011-08-29T05:48:00.001-05:00

August 20, 2011

Nothing is ever stolen in Samoa, things just go missing.

The next morning after the Rock da Boat experience, I take the ferry to deliver awards to some of the volunteers on the island of Savaii who did not make trip into Apia, to spend the next two nights with my old host family in the Village of Iva, and specifically to have a rare Sunday meeting with the head nurse at the hospital on Savaii to deliver 120 wristbands for the island’s hospital staff.

When what to my panicky eyes should appear at the farthest point of Savaii is my car sans wristbands. The wristbands are the reason for my trip.

The missing wristbands can only be at one of the following: the Peace Corps office, the Maona Blue Restaurant, or my house, all of which are in Apia, a long and ferry ride away.

I have to admit to driving slightly above the 25 mph Samoan speed limit to reach the last ferry of the day three minutes before it leaves the wharf.

No wristbands at the Peace Corps office in Apia.

Next, the floating restaurant where the employees proudly show me their wristbands of which I have no recollection of giving them. An empty wristband box under a table is an indication I may be on to something. Upon further inquiry wristbands emerge from deep within a drawer behind the bar, and my surgical scissors from the manager’s purse. Everyone is happy.

Early the following Sunday morning, it is back to the ferry and Savaii to continue my trip minus an unknown number of pink wristbands.

Rock da Boat Recognition Dinner

2011-08-29T04:52:00.005-05:00

August 19, 2011

One of the nagging issues with being a Peace Corps Volunteer is not to be recognized for your service. No one seems to care or notice the fact you are in some remote, dirty school, trying your best to teach children English so they can get a job later in life.

Being in sympathy with their plight and having reallocated my Health Challenge Grant, I held a Recognition Dinner on a floating restaurant in Apia harbor, Maona Blue, followed by a harbor “Rock da Boat” cruise. Also all 30+ participating Health Challenge volunteers received a hand sewn gift made by the beloved Peace Corps nurse, Teuila Pati.

Below are some pictures of the event:

Dinner aboard the "Maona Blue" floating restaurant

Chelsea Kovacs, Lilly Watson, and Rachel Goldstein
A Vailima bottle, Chelsea, Rachel, and Matt Kaplan

Chris Rocchio with Clint, a pharmacist at the National Hospital

and supplier of my diabetes testing equipment.

Rivka Rocchio, Olivia Hanson. Kate Klane, Rachel Camp, and Mike Jeter

Jenny McCracken, Dan Butterfoss, Mike Aboraand, and Kalien O'Connell

Alberta Malielegaoi, the Prime Minister's daughter, and me

Robert Gonzales Kareoke with Jenny Sutherland and Rachel Camp

Da Boys on Da Boat

Mike Jeter, Chris Rocchio, and Devon Childress

Samantha Marenell at Falefa

2011-08-29T04:42:00.004-05:00

August 17, 2011

It had to happen, the last primary school to be tested and receive wristbands.

This one is in the Village of Falefa. The Peace Corps Volunteer teacher is Samantha Maranell from Wascea, Minnesota.

Many schools have a day where teachers all wear the same outfit. This outfit is one of my favorites. In the middle is the school principle. Two down from her left is the he/she teacher appropriately dressed in a different outfit. You have got to love Samoa!

Falefa children wristbandized.

How many Samoans can you fit into a bus?

2011-08-16T18:32:00.002-05:00

August 13, 2011

Guessing the number of Samoans you can fit into a bus is more difficult than guessing the jelly beans in a jar. Here is the calculus.

The average adult Samoan weighs 210 pounds, not including baggage. The bus has a listed capacity of 33 persons. Everyone by law must be seated. Children or an adult sitting on a lap is permissible.

Common sense prevails in a tightly packed bus which needs to travel a couple of hours; nothing can move or fall to be injured. The law then begins to break down, as no one is ever denied a ride. The police are there to help squeeze one more person on board.

Hand of God

2011-08-16T18:30:00.000-05:00

August 13, 2011

When Divine Intervention happens, you should not question the how or why. Here is my D.I. story.

While rushing to catch the ferry back to the island of Upolu and being hungry because there was no power at the Sekia Pizza stand on the north side of the island, I heard a strange knocking sound coming from my rental car’s engine. I pull into a parking spot in front of a Salelologo store where there is usually a person selling barbeque something. No barbeque, but also no starting of my car.

A panic begins to settle in as my ferry is at the dock and waits for no man. I mentally start to run down the list of possible problems. Battery, no. Gas, no. Must be under the hood. But as I emerge from the car, a man is already lifting the hood. He checks the oil. No oil. The radiator. No water. My God, this is serious. Father’s Day weekend in Samoa is like Christmas Day in the U.S. You may not get help until after New Year’s.

The man tells me the store sells oil as he sends a boy to get water for the radiator. He confidently adds oil and water, turning the engine with each addition to insure proper lubrication and cooling.

Who could this man be? I ask him his name and tell him mine.

“I know”, he says as he puffs on his cigarette, “you lived with the Kapeli family in Iva. I am the acolyte at the Catholic Church in Saleavalu.”

“I didn’t recognize you without your robes”, I humbly say, swallowing hard.

Such is Samoa, a small island country touched by the Hand of God.

P.S. The car seems to be running fine. Hope it lasts for the next ten days.

Exercise, Samoan Style

2011-08-16T17:29:00.003-05:00

August 12, 2011

Samoans relate exercise to health. In fact next to prayer, exercise is the elixir for a long life. When I mention a “health program”, Samoans immediately think it is an exercise/dance program; the idea of what or how much you eat just isn’t even a passing possibility. There is little wonder that the millions spent on loudspeaker systems and “exercise” programs has done next to nothing in combatting the tsunami of diabetes and hypertension.

One can hardly accuse Samoans for their health situation when even their government refuses to acknowledge what all their leaders are, obese. Yet despite all obstacles, Samoans are extremely interested in their health and will get up early in the morning or afternoon to do what they have been told makes them healthy, size or diet never being mentioned.

The following video shows an exercise session in the Village of Patemea, on Savaii. Normally there are about 30 women who participate, but this Friday afternoon before the major holiday of Father’s Day, only a few showed up for exercise. Later after I joined the dance group, it became apparent they could be weighed, showed where they stood on a BMI chart, and receive a bottle of honey, the numbers grew.

Testing on Savaii

2011-08-16T17:18:00.002-05:00

August 12, 2011

Here are some more photos of Peace Corps teachers helping in the screening for diabetes and hypertension while trying to inform the citizenry about BMI and the relationship between weight and health while distributing flyers and wristbands to school children.

Olivia Hanson

Jenny Sutherland

Rachel Goldstein and Sina

2011-08-16T16:10:00.002-05:00

August 11, 2011

Rachel Goldstein is a rural primary school Peace Corps teacher. Whenever I have the opportunity, I try to show these volunteers my and their government’s appreciation by taking them out to dinner after a day of testing. This time I had the honor of having Rachel Goldstein join me for dinner at Stevenson’s Resort in Manase.

Of course Rachel is lovely standing before the gigantic carved mural. The mural depicts a Samoan legend, dear to all Samoans, of how the coconut, Samoa’s most important food, came to this island in the middle of the Pacific. But what is fascinating, besides Rachel, are the words above the mural. In English, it is “Sina and the eel”; in Samoan, it is, “Sina ma lana tuna.”

The Samoan language has gender neutral pronouns. You intuitively add the gender possession to the sentence’s subject. Back to Sina.

The translation from Samoan to English should be, “Sina and her eel”, tuna being the Samoan word for eel, lana the pronoun. As every Samoan knows, the legend is a very sexual one, as the tuna seduces Sina. “The” instead of “her” completely changes the whole relationship of the legend, changing the mural from a deeply significant relationship, full of questions for the unknowing, into an interesting carving of a girl and an eel.

“Sina and her eel” typify the problem of understanding between peoples and cultures. What sounds like bombastic rhetoric when translated from another language to English, may be nothing more than flowery poetic words or visa versa. We may never know the meaning and the exact translation may be impossible; yet we must try.

Living in amidst a different culture is like “Sina and the (her) eel”. It is a constant struggle of getting through each day, thinking you know what is happening, but really being totally clueless. At the end of the day, you collapse from the exhaustion of simply coping. Of course, there is a solution of simply killing them all, but that is job for the other “Corps”.

What I am learning

2011-08-10T17:50:00.001-05:00

August 7, 2011

When I look back on these past months and weeks, I feel they have been more of a learning process in attempting to find ways to better Samoan’s health and lives. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Ignorance is Not Bless

There is almost no attempt by schools and health departments to educate Samoan adults and children about the effects of obesity. Simply weighing people and determining what color on a Samoan BMI chart (red being obese, yellow overweight, green normal) raises their attention level and concern. Providing easy-to-read health tips gives some information they can use to reduce weight. The National Health Service does screen rural villages, but unless they are critically ill, which many of the elderly are, they receive no preventative medical information. The schools likewise have no consistent health program for students or parents. When authority figures from the Prime Minister and other governmental ministers, to nurses, to teachers, to village mati, to ministers are among the most obese, it is understandable of their reluctance to tackle the subject. But, tackle it they must, if they are to serve the citizenry. It is not that Samoans think being obese is beautiful or their fate; it is they simply don’t know how to prevent obesity and its consequences.

Role of Peace Corps

All Peace Corps Volunteers in Samoa are now teachers of ESL in rural primary schools with a secondary mission of community health. The school is their world and any health program needs to have as its base, the school. When teachers are screened or find out what color they are on the BMI chart, obesity becomes a personal subject affecting them. They realize their role in teaching youngsters about obesity is also their role of parent and spouse. The teachers get the message making it easier for the Peace Corps Volunteer to conduct health education, not only in the school, but bringing them in contact with the wider community. The Peace Corps experience becomes more rewarding.

The Bible

Samoans may not understand Western concepts of BMI ratios, nutrition, calories, vitamins, cholesterol, etc., but they do understand that what is said in the Holy Bible is an indisputable fact. Fortunately, the Bible has passages on taking care of “God’s body” and the sins of overindulgence and gluttony. The Bible is how to be understood in Samoan.

The Message

The concepts of obesity and resultant diabetes, hypertension, and joint problems are difficult for anyone to comprehend, let alone change life-long which are the leading causes. The message needs to address the major causes in a language which is understood and is doable. Since the causes of obesity are many and varied, one needs to choose the message and cause carefully. Water and salt are messages I find easily understood and doable.

Water: Samoans drink very little of it. The water they do consume is sweetened in the form of koko Samoa, tea, and soft drinks. The amount of sugar consumed in a day by the average Samoan can range from 10-100 tablespoons of sugar a day. Samoans start heaping tablespoons of it when they get up and throughout the day, ending just before going to sleep. Sugar is probably the single biggest expense any family spends on food. How this habit started, I don’t know, but I do know a lot of what they drink is because they are thirsty. Their body’s grave water, their taste buds trained on sugar.

My message is “Water comes from God (the sky, heaven), unsweetened. Sugared drinks are to make money, not for your health. Drink two glasses of water when you wake up, and 10-15 minutes before you eat. You won’t be as thirsty for sweetened drinks. Carry water with you. Drink it when you are thirsty or hungry”. I bring a bag of only 150 tablespoons of sugar and a Coke bottle with a corresponding amount of raw sugar as a demonstration. Of course, they ask whether I plan to leave the bag of sugar at the conclusion of my demonstration. My homily is longer than this, but you get the message and the depth of the problem.

A liter of bottled water cost $4 WST, a liter of Coke costs $5 WST, and a liter of beer $10 WST.

Salt: The consumption of salt by Samoans is only exceeded by sugar. Salted canned meats, salted corn beef, handfuls of salt go into a pot of soup, dumping heaps of salt on the food you are served even before tasting, it is on everything. Little wonder combined with obesity the levels of high blood pressure are among the highest in the world and why they are so thirsty. Like sugar, salting of food is a habit, done thoughtlessly.

Since I can’t turn people into pillars of salt, I ask why they don’t drink sea water. After all 250 milliliters of sea water contains about a teaspoon of salt, the minimum daily amount. I show them a small can of corned beef and canned fish in tomato sauce which each contains the same amount of salt as 250 milliliters of sea water. They drool over the can of corned beef which is like giving a bottle of good wine in the U.S.

I am having trouble finding a biblical passage about consuming too much salt, so my words fade in the sound of the pounding surf. “Just don’t put the container of salt on the table”, I plead.” There is enough salt in what you eat to keep you healthy.” Habits are hard to break, including mine of sounding like Jimmy Swaggert.

Of course, I have learned a lot more, including of knowing when people have read enough of this blog.

Week 17

2011-08-10T17:15:00.008-05:00

August 5, 2011

This past week was a whirlwind of activity, staying overnight in places of luxury and “rusticness”, screening people for diabetes and hypertension, adding schools and school children to the program, and distributing 1,000 bottles of virgin coconut oil and honey, as I travelled to visit all the participating Peace Corps Volunteers in Samoa. As a little extra, there was training for the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture personnel on Savaii. Here are some of the highlights of the past week.

Samoan View

Vaisala Bay, Savaii
Chelsea Kovacs and school teachers
Rachel Camp leading her class

Rachel's class with pink wristbands

Wild screen as Rachel's class leave for home

Olivia Hansen and Iva Women's Committee

Iva women displaying wristbands after being weighed and taking the "Pledge"

Getting BMI during training of employees from Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture

More wristbands on more Samoans. Ministry changed name of their program to "The Pink Challenge"

Drinking water instead of sweetened drinks with lunch, a first for most.

Karen Corey weighing children at her school

Karen's class of 6-8th graders Children of Matautu, school of Jenny McCracken Kalein O'Connell and her school

A typical Samoan teacher who has what I call "Teacher's Disease"

“Survivor” Food

2011-07-28T19:11:00.001-05:00

July 27, 2011

I was just delivered 500 bottles of honey. My honey supplier, Lester, told me how busy he was supplying honey to the “Survivor”. It was the food they seem to be surviving on.

The “Survivor” program is filming two more seasons of the program in Samoa. This is their second two season session. Can it be Lester’s honey?

Coconut oil verses Honey

2011-07-28T19:09:00.000-05:00

July 25, 2011

As a reward for participating in the Samoa Challenge, I am giving out 500 ml bottles of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil or Samoan Honey, both items promoted and sold by my sponsoring organization, Women in Business Development (WIBD). For curiosity I decided to do a little test.

One test was to determine if Samoans had a preference for cooking oils. I set up 500 ml bottles of palm oil, sunflower oil, soya oil and WIBD’s coconut oil in the WIBD office and asked how they would use the oils. Sunflower and soya oils were ruled out immediately. Hardly anyone had ever heard of these oils. The choice was clear. Palm oil was used for cooking while coconut oil was used for massages and hair oil. Hardly anyone associated coconut oil with cooking even though their employer WIBD was promoting it as the “Healthiest Oil on Earth”! I was in trouble.

I set aside a bottle of coconut oil of the same size bottle of honey, and then asked which they would choose. Almost everyone chose honey. I asked why? “Because you can eat it!” was the reply.

Lastly, I asked if they got the bottle of coconut oil instead of the honey what would they do with it. Most said they would put it into smaller bottles and sell it. They could never use 500 ml of coconut oil in a number of years. Coconut oil sold in the market was vastly more expensive than honey or any other type of oil.

Coconut oil was made by native Samoans and used for cooking before the cheap palm oil and money from overseas changed both the production of coconut oil and even the recognition of its use as cooking oil. I have used coconut oil for cooking and it is the best, if not the healthiest.

Now I have five hundred 500 ml in my house to distribute. That is one Hell-of-a-Massage!

Volunteers in Action

2011-07-25T15:42:00.004-05:00

July 22, 2011

If I said a hundred times how proud I am to have the opportunity to work these Peace Corps Volunteers, I haven’t said it enough. They represent what I feel the United States represents, giving of their time and talents to help others without any hope of being rewarded and maybe not even being recognized.

Of course, some come with warts, some with no idea of their next step, and others to build resumes. Most have thought of joining the Peace Corps years before joining. Some have parents who encouraged them to step outside of their familiar boxes and venture to an unknown land, knowing of the dangers, but also to help their children grow.

Here are a few who helped the past week:

Dan Butterfoss (back row)

Mike Abouraad
Katie Klane

Rivka Rocchio (husband Chris, not pictured)

Beauty of Samoa

2011-07-25T15:28:00.005-05:00

July 21, 2011

Sometimes one can get so wrapped up with the little things in life you forget just where you are. Samoa is called the “Jewel of the Pacific”. This is a beautiful place. This is a view from my overnight cabin. The view combined with the cool trade winds makes missing the heat wave in the upper Midwest seem a little more bearable.

South Sea lagoons can be among the most breathtaking vistas on earth, but they also can be very dangerous. This is a view of a lagoon showing the “cut” in the barrier reef. As the tide rises and falls, the water in the lagoon rushes through this opening. During high tide, the incoming water fills the lagoon. During low tide the flow is out to sea and anyone caught in its current goes out to the big stuff which waits on the deep side of the reef. One Chinese tourist tested his swimming skills at this cut, only to never been seen again.

Cabal of Seven

2011-07-25T15:26:00.004-05:00

July19, 2011

Due certain expressed sensitivities and in preserving Peace Corps harmony, the text of this entry have been deleted.

Return to Iva

2011-07-18T15:18:00.001-05:00

July 16,2011

What has happened to Mary and my host family over the past two years? I was able to spend a few hours with them on my most recent trip to Iva on the island of Savaii. In many ways they typify what family means in Samoa.

Our old little fale, house, is now occupied by the head of the family’s younger sister who has returned to permanently stay with her American husband after living in Hawaii for a number of years. She is the woman who wanted to adopt the young boy and grandnephew of the boy she is holding, Lawrence, named after her husband.

The daughter in the front row is pregnant expecting in November and is back living with the family after being a journalism student and reporter for the Samoan newspaper. I don’t know any details.

The other three girls are still in school. Although there are plans that the two oldest will go to New Zealand to continue their schooling and probably gain a dual citizenship.

Others not pictured are an older son studying for the priesthood who fathered a child with the woman in the next house; another son who has returned to a Catholic high school in hopes he eventually completes his education; a daughter and mother of Lawrence who lives in Apia with husband, her son, Nicholas, and daughter, Mary, and her younger brother; the eldest son who is living in Fiji and soon to become the village priest; and another older son, who has a son of his own with another woman, but is married to a Tongan.

As I sat in an open house with my host father and mother, I was amazed at the pride the man had for his expanding family and the acceptance of the woman. It really didn’t matter how the family grew or what the children’s futures may be, for they were an aiga, family. Somehow they would all look after one another under the grace of God.

O le Pokolame Piniki

2011-07-18T15:13:00.003-05:00

July15, 2011

O le Pokolame Piniki or the Pink Program is my new moniker for the Samoan Health Challenge. The pink wristband defines and identifies the program. It is what people want. People even promise to eat less to get one!

Since all the Peace Corps Volunteers are rural primary school teachers, the program expanded to include students in grades six through eight. The wristbands are a way to get a health tip flyer to their parents. What a hit! The teachers are also drawn into the program as they explain the flyer to the students.

At a resort I was staying, four Australian tourists remarked about driving through a neighboring village with students at the side of the road raising their pink wristbands in the air.

Operation “O le Pokolame Piniki” is off and running.

Devon Childress
Matt Kaplan

Yours truly

Being Female in Samoa

2011-07-18T15:02:00.003-05:00

July14, 2011

Living in a traditional society is hard, especially for Westerners. Many join the Peace Corps to be an agent for change. Of course, the change envisioned is to bring your view of enlightenment to others.

Females are particularly prone to this notion as they grapple with their new “lower” status is Samoan society. If you are married, as Mary and I, you find it is your husband who is heard and given credit, even if are the one responsible. If you are female and young, only the strongest in language skills and personality seem to thrive. If you are older and female, you may fall in between. This gap is especially evident during the first year of service.

As time passes, those still here find either Samoans have seen the light you bring or you have seen and figured out how to negotiate your way in the fog. It probably is a mixture of the two with the latter being the predominant hue. Whereas others thought you a complete incompetent before, you now find yourself leading an exercise group at 5:00 am in the morning or having other teachers wonder if some of your methods may have some validity. You may even be contemplating extending your service into a third year. Flip a coin as to who is the wiser.

I being the old, white man with a string of degrees have an easier time of fitting into a more respected role. I can blow into a school, command attention from principle, teachers, and students about the Samoan Challenge whereas the younger female Peace Corps teacher struggle. I can help them get started and give the program a legitimacy they could not.

I do have a lingering question though. I wonder if young females understand their responsibilities to old, white men with a string of degrees when they return home.

Dana Gray
Elisa Law

Lilly Watson

Month Three

2011-07-11T14:56:00.002-05:00

July 10, 2011

A village Challenge Group exercising at 5:00 am

Three months have passed since my arrival to respond to a need to complete the second half of a two year Samoan Health Challenge grant. During that time intelligence was gathered, scouting expeditions probed for a pathway, plans were drawn up and revised, now for the battle. Like Pogo of the comic strips, “We have met the enemy and it is us”.

The apathy given to this project, and ergo me, by my the administrations of the “sponsoring organizations”, Women in Business Development and Peace Corps, and by many of the Peace Corps Volunteers is only overshadowed by the responsiveness of the Samoan people. They fully understand their own health predicament and want to be shown a way out. It is when I honestly talk to them face-to-face about what they already suspect, but like all humans, don’t want to face, that I realize the importance of my stay. Their faces are what keep me going.

What is hard to accept is the reality of the NGO and governmental world. This is not the results oriented world, in which I find my reality. It is a world of fulfilling the requirements and budgets of the funder. Results, both long and short term, are of little or consequence. It is the process that matters. So organizations move from fad to fad depending on the “cause d’jour”, be it tsunamis, climate change, obesity, breast feeding, animal rights and all other rights, abuses and all other abuses, inhumanities and all other inhumanities, freedoms and all other freedoms, wherever and whenever good and guilty hearts fork out money, filling out long reports to be filed for posterity only. Mission Accomplished. It is maintaining the organization which counts.

Please don’t misread me. I am not saying this is bad. It is just hard being from one world and trying to exist in another.

My battle plan for the next seven weeks is to engage the enemy, take their money, and do my best to assist those for whom it is intended. Then to get on the plane, return to my family, and say I met the Challenge. I tried.

Wristband Magic

2011-07-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

July 8, 2011

For months I have been trying to arrange a meeting with a representative from the Ministry of Health. Finally after two cancelations, I had the opportunity to meet with the Principle Officer for Health Programs arranged by a summer intern in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley.

The meeting progressed cautiously as we both assessed the other’s motives and interests. The Principle Officer warned me about duplicative and unauthorized programs with possibly conflicting messages. She was skeptical. I was on thin ice as she glanced at her watch.

I then showed her the wristband on my wrist and explained that anyone who pledged to “try” got one as a reminder to themselves and also it served as reinforcement as it had to be explained to others.

“How simple”, she said. “Do you have any extras?” “I want 1,000”

“No problem”, I said,” but how about starting with 500?” “Would you like one on your wrist?”

“Yes. I gained so much weight when I came back from New Zealand”, she said. “I am meeting with the all the department heads this Tuesday and can’t wait to tell them about how I am going to use these wristbands in our new national exercise program aimed at company and organizational employees.”

I also gave her a jar of my mango salsa which is almost as magical as pink wristbands.

Bingo!

From Volunteer to Employee

2011-07-11T14:46:00.002-05:00

July 7, 2011

My rental car, a Toyota Cami, of unknown year and kilometerage. These used right-hand drive are flooding the Samoa market, as Samoa turns to Japan and China as a main trading partner.

When Mary and I were living in a rural village from 2007-2009, we felt like” real Peace Corps Volunteers”. We were out there amongst the natives, trying as best we could to understand them. We tried to use our skills in some way to help them. Objectives and goals were unclear, wondering what I am doing here. Our reception met with both joy and trepidation. We had the “Peace Corps experience”.

My first couple of months was a transitional period. There were some objectives and goals, albeit rather hazy. I worked in an air-conditioned office in “the city” surrounded by stores and people who would rather speak English than Samoan. I had a job description, a budget, and a title. Still I took the bus, rode my bike, and walked. I mixed with the locals and other volunteers easily.

Now I have a car with a schedule to meet the objectives and goals for which I was brought here to do. I have a “job”!

I knew this was going to happen and indeed I am progenitor of my own situation. I am really not sorry, but a little nostalgic for the Peace Corps Volunteer I was.

It is time for me now to hit the road and help those Peace Corps in their own villages as they grapple with their own and other people’s Challenges, to be a Peace Corps Response Volunteer.

Bats for Dinner

2011-07-08T17:59:00.003-05:00

July 7, 2011

I have never eaten bat before, but I understand they are deelicious. The bats in Samoa are called "Flying Foxes" and they eat fruit. Watching them as they fly at dusk is like seeing a squadron of bombers.

Here is one Peace Corps Volunteer, Elisa Law, who taped her "Eating Bat Brains Experience"

Company Social Night

2011-07-06T17:25:00.002-05:00

June 30, 2011

It happens all over the world, the need for companies and organizations to have a “compulsory social night”. These events are organized by a socially aware employee to build harmony among people who would rather be home and who cannot stand another moment of listening to their manager’s pontificate about how great everything and one are. The usual draws are prizes and free food with a “uniting” theme. The social night for Women in Business Development’s theme is “Oldies Night”, ` the food is a large pizza for every two people, the prizes are for most weight lost, best costume, and the “Employee of the Quarter”. This is the first of what is planned to be many social nights.

As with many events like this, there are surprises. Sleeper employees suddenly come to the fore. Those quiet, diligent people who make up the backbone of any organization, others never notice reveal their alter-persona, take their prizes and awards, then return to their own private and productive lives.

Party organizer and manager

Former Samoan Peace Corps who married a Samoan, still pitches baseball at 66, wears
high school uniform

Lost over 20 pounds in six weeks, married father of two

Return to Faofao Beach Resort

2011-07-06T17:20:00.002-05:00

June 28, 2011

Someone once said that life is filled with years of ennui and a few moments of sheer terror. It was the terror that changes your life. For Samoa, the most recent terror was the tsunami of September, 2009. I stayed at a rebuilt resort at the center of the tsunami and once thriving resort area located in the Alipata area.

Of course, the resort was just a shadow of itself, but what struck me were a few beautifully carved wooden artifacts made by her son which I remember when our Peace Corps group stayed there in 2007. The owner said how she had found them buried up on the side of the mountain behind the resort.

I guess she was amazed at my memory, but I was more amazed by the tremendous effort and determination to rebuild her life when the others had permanently fled the area to higher ground.

Yes, the carvings were a reminder of the terror she had experienced, yet they serve as an inspiration to continue a new and changed life.

Beach fale at Faofao, a very nice way to spend the night, fanned by the trade winds to the roar of the surf crashing on the barrier reef.

Déjà vu and Aufaga too

2011-07-06T17:10:00.003-05:00

June 28, 2011

Natalie Ziemba is a first year Peace Corps teacher in a rural primary school in Aufaga on the island of Upolu. She is trying to form Challenge groups but her efforts so far have failed. When asked what she had done, I could not help but relate to her frustrations.

Like Mary and I had done previously, Natalie walked the road in her village, stopping at individual houses, and then put up signs announcing a meeting for those who are interested in joining the Samoa Challenge (We did the same for a talent contest). No one showed, even those who said they would. Her heart and spirits were broken. I said not to worry I think I can relate to your situation, so off to Aufaga I fled.

We started with the teachers in her school. We got out the scale, put up the measuring tape, literature, and those mighty pink wristbands. Before long the teachers were enrolled, enthusiastic to others join them, some from other villages. Next target was the church, the minister was out of the country, but the leader of the young adult group was in the middle of his daily activities. When shown the Biblical quotation about God’s word on the “body being his temple”, he too was on board and was ready to get his group involved.

This is the way things work around here, build it or set it up and they will come. People don’t have appointment calendars; they want to make sure something will happen by seeing it happen first, then maybe. Of course, getting to the right people and referencing the Bible helps too.

For teachers who are used to the discipline of small children in a classroom, interacting with adults in the village can be a daunting experience. It is just another part of “The Challenge”.

The epilogue is yet to be written about Natalie and Aufaga, but they are on their way. They just need to “try”.

Rainn's Room

2011-06-27T19:39:00.003-05:00

June 27, 2011
A child with an unusual name like Rainn, needs an unusual room. His mother and my daughter, Kim, painted his room with composite scenes from Samoa and other tropical places yet to be visited.

Frustration Island

2011-06-27T19:16:00.002-05:00

June 27, 2011
There is a reason why the program "Survivor" has filmed so many episodes here. Surviving is not easy. I don't mean the climate, food, or pestilence, but arranging to get anything done.

The people where I work want me to write down a weekly schedule. This is just a meaningless exercise in giving the appearance of organization, since this is a minute-to-minute place. Nothing is fixed in time except eating and praying.

The odds are better at a Las Vegas craps table than of honoring a confirmed appointment. Just today a friend told me that the person I had a confirmed appointment just last Friday is off to another island for a three day conference. There is a reason why this country has the reputation among consultants as the worst place to get anything done. It just goes on and on like this.

All this wouldn't be bad if it was only between Samoans. It is when you come from a place where a confirmed appointment means confirmed, or a cancellation is confirmed that drives you crazy.

As you can see, this is not a good day for me.

Rainn Lee Wolfe

2011-06-27T16:01:00.004-05:00

June 26, 2011

My new grandson, Rainn Lee Wolfe, with mother, Kim. Born 1:00 am, Sunday June 26th. Seven pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches. Mother and child doing well.

Glimpse into Samoan Life

2011-06-27T15:28:00.004-05:00

June 25, 2011
The bus is one of the best ways to get a glimpse into Samoan life.

There are no bus stops. The bus stops in front of where a person stands. It is not unusual for people to be only a few yards away from each other. The bus stops for each. Same applies to getting off the bus. You give your signal of either rapping on the glass with a coin or some have a buzzer cord. Again, people get off exactly in front of their house, so it stops only a few more yards down the road for the next passenger.

There is no running to the bus. It waits for you as you slowly walk to it. If you are behind the bus, the bus backs up.

There is no such thing as a full bus. There is always room for one more. Older people and women with children occupy the front seats while young boys and young men the rear seats. School children usually sit on the laps of their friends or if really full on the any spare lap.

Bus drivers are careful not to start up until everyone is seated in a seat or on someone. Since the seats are often wooden, it helps reduce injuries. Generally they are a nice group, captains of their vehicle and proud of their bus. Interior decorations and music reflect individual tastes.

Challenge starts at Diabetes Association

2011-06-27T15:14:00.006-05:00

June 23, 2011

Every day there is a stream of people coming through the diabetes association to be tested, visit the doctors, and try to carry on their lives. I was elated when the association decided to use the Challenge as another way to try and slow the degradation of their patients.

How nice to see people signing “the Pledge” and getting pink wristbands.

Diabetes Association of Samoa Clinic

Introduction to first arrivals
Patient gets a pink Challenge wristband

Pizza party

2011-06-27T15:06:00.004-05:00

June 22, 2011

Somehow I got roped into buying pizza for the women who work in the office and can make my life there better or worse. I tied buying pizza with my Samoa Challenge of which they all have pledged to “try” to lose weight. It had been one month since the start with them weighing themselves almost daily.

Results at weigh-in for pizza qualification were mixed. Although most had lost or maintained, others gained which they attributed to their time of month, couldn’t argue about over that. All qualified for pizza.

The average weight of those women in their 20’s was 208 pounds. The older women were by far the most health conscious and of normal weight. A few of the younger women joined the older women on their nightly walks. Now, they have to realize that the word “organic” doesn’t mean squat when you consume bags of fried chips every day.

The initiative they have taken on their own was encouraging. Some said they weighed less the day after the pizza. Hard to figure if their time of month was over or the pizza eaten, the more weight lost.

An official “team building” office pizza party is scheduled for next week. Even more weight loss.

Jamaican Dinner at Nella’s

2011-06-21T16:41:00.002-05:00

June 17, 2011

It is hard to believe there is a Jamaican who lives in Apia, let alone a Jamaican restaurant. It is even harder to believe that there is a Jamaican restaurant serving healthy food. But there is and he prepared a Jamaican meal for those of us who knew where Jamaica is.

In Jamaican fashion, the meal starts at five o’clock, but food is not served until about eight o’clock. By that time the guests are ready to eat anything presented to them. The wait is worth it, for the dinner consisted of jerk chicken (with or without skin), fish I could not get enough, rice and beans, a peppery salad. For desert, there is fried ice cream. I continued to eat more fish.

Jeremy, our host, Samoa's lone Jamaican

Divas of Samoa

2011-06-21T15:13:00.009-05:00

June 16, 2011

Across the street from my office in Apia “The Divas of Samoa” perform every Thursday night. The audience is almost entirely tourists (note young girl in front row) and the performers Samoan. In fact one of the performers I knew from when he/she made a move on the youngest Peace Corps in our training group.

Let the show begin
Tara
An Tahitian import
Rosa
Josie or Tosie, a person from our training village in 2007

Children's show?

Tan Lines

2011-06-21T15:01:00.002-05:00

June 17, 2011

I just hate tan lines.

Month Two

2011-06-21T15:00:00.000-05:00

June 11, 2011

After two months I feel real good about the progress of the Samoan Challenge. The reason I am here is to implement the program with the Peace Corps teachers. As of last week all, but one, of the Peace Corps Volunteers have received program packets involving 1,300 rural villagers. It is now up to them as to how successful the program is in their villages. Many are off to a fine start and I expect to vastly exceed the initial number.

The staffs of Peace Corps and Women in Business Development are in the program. There still are support issues to assist village Peace Corps, but the first big hurdle is passed. The total number of all participants so far is 1,660, each getting a wristband and informational packet.

It is a pleasure to be out among the Peace Corps Volunteers. They are a bright and dedicated group coping with an educational system strange and baffling. What gives me particular please is turning them on not only to the Challenge, but to hands-on side activities such as gardening, and making jam where they can see the more immediate efforts of their labor.

My target now is the big numbers of participants to reach my personal goal of 5,000. Several large organizations are asking for materials to work into their own health programs. The ready-made program that quickly fits into their own health projects with simple goals and easy administration has an appeal for them. It is time to reach out to the media and crank up the program a notch.

For my personal life, swinging a 7 pound pick in my garden, walking around town, printing and collating packets, taking the bus, travel to rural villages, and riding my bike leaves me very tired at night. By eight o’clock I force myself to stay up till 9:00. Then it is up a 5:00 am. Joining fellow Peace Corps from when I was here for a beer helps to maintain sanity.

There is a price to pay undertaking a project like this and it is being away from my family. My wife, Mary, is saddled with redecorating and moving into a new townhouse while trying to rent our unsold condo in Minneapolis. Sometimes I think that part of being away may be good. There is my daughter, Kim, who is expecting her first child, a boy, at the end of this month. She is constantly on my mind. My son, Nicholas, has his career and girlfriend, but not being able to do things with both of them leaves a big hole. My oldest daughter, Teri, and my grandson, Sam, are coping with divorce and trying to stay financially afloat. The best antidote for me seems to be to stay active and challenged.

Waterless Compost Toilets

2011-06-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

June 10, 2011

I have mentioned before the biggest obstacle in doing any kind of aid work is trying to grasp of the culture, be it the poor, Blacks, Iraqis, or Samoans, in which you find yourself and determining what the needs really are. The chances of being misread and doing the exact opposite of what you want to do are great, even among those experienced in such matters. One example is waterless toilets.

Several areas of Samoa are in the rain shadow of the mountains and suffer from acute water shortages, especially now during the “dry season” when the trade winds blow from the southeast. Mountain water sources dry up and water tanks empty.

The biggest user of water in residences is the modern flush toilet. When a grant became available to install waterless toilets in these villages, the dried waste of which could also be used as fertilizer, it seemed like a win-win situation. Village meetings were held and the proposal accepted to build a test toilet next to a public meeting house.

Now the toilet is branded as a hand of the devil. I guess there is a biblical reference although no one really knows what it is, against spreading human waste upon the land. The toilet sits in its new building, a pristine example of both sides not understanding the other, or maybe those accepting the grant did not consult with the “Men of God”. After all you should never look a gift horse in the mouth.

Visiting our old Host Family

2011-06-13T17:43:00.007-05:00

June 9, 2011

Saloti with baby Lawrence

Kapeli Family who were at home during my surprise visit.

Our namesakes, Nicholas and Mary with father, Visi, and mother, Easter.

Snake in tree

With a little extra time on Savaii, I made a surprise visit to Mary’s and my host family, the Kapeli’s. Much had changed, and hadn’t.

Living in our little house now, after some difficult times in the Hawaiian construction business, was American Lawrence and his wife, Fa’apesa the older, who is Kapeli’s sister. They were building a Samoan-style house up in the taro plantation and loving, at least he, their new life.

Fa’apesa. the older, was the woman who had previously been promised the baby Lawrence, which is the first child of Kapeli’s oldest daughter, Easter. Little Lawrence has ended up being raised by his grandmother, Saloti, who has claimed it as her own. His baby teeth were already rotten from being spoiled with sweet drinks. Kapeli’s youngest daughters, Manuli and Fa’apesa, had matured even more and where about to be shipped off to New Zealand this Christmas to continue their education, get their citizenship, and probably work there while sending money back home. The middle daughter, Taia, seems to be pregnant, expecting in November. I had not confirmed that bit of information.

During my one-hour visit, I kept getting text messages from Easter, who lives in Apia and wanted to see me. I did visit the next day, “loaning money” to feed her babies’, Nicholas and Mary. After my last visit to them, they did take baby Mary to the hospital where she received anti-biotics for her typhoid.

The big excitement was a small Boa Constrictor snake that was in a bunch of bananas. Usually these poor creatures imported from abroad to eat rats are quickly hacked into hundreds of pieces. I picked it up and gently but it in a tree where it later moved into the thatch roof and devour the rodents living there.

I got a ride back to the ferry from the President of the Women’s Committee, also known to some readers of this blog as “The Tyrant”. I couldn’t help notice as we passed her sister fabric store, the several treadle Singer sewing machines, seemingly for sale. The shop never sold sewing machines before. Could they be some of the sewing machines worked so hard to get for the village women? No…they couldn’t be.

If all this seems confusing to you, welcome to Samoa.

Visiting a Copra Farm

2011-06-13T17:38:00.001-05:00

June 8, 2011

My driver from the Women in Business Development (WIBD) organization made several stops as we circled the island of Savaii. He visited farmers for the WIBD while I delivered Samoa Challenge materials to the Peace Corps Volunteers.

I sat in on one of his stops. This farmer, who has been the showcase for the WIBD’s project to sell Number 1 Certified Organic Extra Virgin Coconut oil to the Body Shop in England to make soaps and lotion, illustrated the problems he and others face.

To produce several pails of oil, he must first get his land certified as an organic farm. This meant leaving his coconut groves chemical free for a few years. He then had to get machines to ream out the coconut pulp, a large evaporating vat to render the oil from the pulp, then a press to squeeze out the oil. The process takes eight men one week, plus the expenses of food and fuel. For this he got about $2,000 (USD). He actually lost quite a bit of money on the oil produced.

However, he can make four times as much with eight men in two days gathering and heating the same amount of coconuts to make copra, the oil of which is also used to make soap and other products. Although this man wants to work with WIBD and believes in their work, economics dictated otherwise.

WIBD promised him the receipt to make his own soap from the coconut oil, but they have yet to give it to him. Of course, this would reduce the amount of oil exported, but greatly benefit the farmer and local village. It might also put into question the entire coconut oil program currently funded by foreign doners.

He also baked bread which he sells commercially. I told him I also bake bread, but suggested he make fruit jam which he can easily do and sell it along with his bread. What a great idea! I promised to return to show him how to make fruit jam and critique his bread.

The conundrums are great between donor agencies, NGOs, and the people they are designed to benefit. There is always some report that needs to be written about the successes of a particular program and another trip to some conference. Like NGOs anywhere in the world, including the U.S., the first people at the trough are the NGO directors and employees.

Meeting with a coconut farmer

Grinding out coconut meat as part of oil production process

Va-i-Moana

2011-06-13T17:18:00.002-05:00

June 8, 2011

Va-i-Moana is a restaurant and resort at the far Western end of Savaii in the Village of Asau. There is a reason why the slogan of Samoa is, “The Jewel of the Pacific”. Va-i-Moana is just one reason why this is a close to paradise as you can get.

Robert Gonzales, Peace Corps Teacher

2011-06-13T17:02:00.002-05:00

June 7, 2011

Robert Gonzales, night tutoring lessons

Rob's Classroom

Robert Gonzales is a first year Peace Corps Volunteer primary school English teacher at the village of Tafua-Tai on the island of Savaii. I had a chance to stay the night with him and to briefly sit in his classroom.

In many ways Robert typifies Peace Corps English teachers. His primary school is grossly understaffed with three teachers, including him, handling eight grades. While he teaches one class, another class sits, theoretically doing assignments. He spends his evenings holding tutoring sessions for any student who shows up.

As I sat in his classroom, he was trying to explain English regular and irregular verbs to what seemed to be six graders. Almost all the class seemed totally lost, trying to grasp not only the concept of regular and irregular verbs, but the concept that there is not pattern to irregulars. You simply have to memorize them.

Since the classrooms have no windows, I could easily hear the teacher in the next room drilling her students to memorize the phrase “Saturday is the last day of the week”. Most of her students probably having no idea what the sounds they were reciting actually meant. I don’t mean to be critical of the teachers for I have found them to be a very dedicated and underpaid group. It is just that they must cover the required curriculum, whether understood or not. This is a fact teachers around the world understand.

As I spent some time with another Peace Corps teacher on Savaii, she related having to teach seventh grade English to students who did not even know colors in English.I could only relate to my own experiences learning Samoan. If you don’t understand what is happening on day one, you certainly won’t understand day two.

Peace Corps gets Challenge

2011-06-07T16:02:00.002-05:00

June 6, 2011

Today marks the beginning of distributing printed materials, scales, and inspiration to 35 out of the 36 Peace Corps Volunteers in Samoa. It takes four days to reach them at their homes all over this country. I find it rewarding to visit them where they live and work. It gives me a better understanding of what they have to deal with and their teaching responsibilities.

Here are a few I have visited during their first day back at school after a three week recess:

Jenny McCracken (82)

Kaelin O'Connell (82)
Katie Klane (83)

Natalie Ziemba (83)

Samantha Maranell (83)

Mr & Mrs Ben Harding

2011-06-07T15:49:00.002-05:00

June 4, 2011

Ben Harding from my Peace Corps Group 78 married Umuafu, a Samoan from his village of Neiafu on Savaii last year. In September he took his bride back to Virginia to introduce her to his family. In December they moved to San Diego and on to Hilo, Hawaii where Ben’s sister lives. In Hawaii they worked on an “organic” farm for room and board along with other odd jobs as they worked their way back to Neiafu, now their home, last month.

Umuafu’s English is greatly improved. She says Ben’s family is very nice and friendly towards her. She likes America, especially video arcades where she can drive race cars. The stores, the mall, the supermarket also rank near the top. She is happy to be back with her family.

Now Ben and Umuafu need to find a way to make a living her in Samoa as they live with her parents. She is getting a job in Apia working for a car dealer while Ben experiments with different agricultural ideas.

My Garden

2011-06-07T15:04:00.002-05:00

June 3, 2011

I was so happy to be given use of part of another person’s garden. It is behind the rugby field ½ mile from where I live. About every evening after returning home, I don my garden sandals, grab my garden tools, and walk to my little Eden. I am feverishly planting whatever seeds I can find in hopes of tasting some of my own veggies before I have to leave or they are stolen.

Just like my garden of before, young Samoans unaccustomed to the feel of soft, cultivated earth beneath their bare feet, like to walk across my beds, and knowing only those veggies locally grown.

My Garden behind the rugby field

Can you recognize the veggies?

Samoan Independence Day

2011-06-07T14:46:00.003-05:00

Peace Corps Assembles
Honor Guard Before Reviewing Stand

Chaos

Ready for Samoan TV

Lining up

Approachinfg

Entering the Inner Sanctum

Independence Day is a two day holiday with the first day the official one complete with a parade. Well you need to understand what a Samoan Parade is like to get the full appreciation of Fa’asamoa.

To me it reminded me of waiting to get into a University of Iowa football game. There are lots of people milling about with food stands surrounding the periphery. Since this is Samoa and it is still early in the day, there is no tailgating, so comparison to a football game is quite a stretch of the imagination. However, Iowa football fans don’t have to stand in the hot sun either.

The participants, such as Peace Corps, we stand in the sun for two hours waiting our turn to walk 1/10 of a mile past the reviewing stand where the Samoan “Head of State” and his wife sit. We stop, turn, and do two “Hip, hip, hoorays”. Walk another 100 feet and we are finished. There was not even any food for us after our long march. At least we were there.

I have a feeling there is lots of food waiting for those seated in the reviewing stand.

Big Surprise, Max

2011-06-07T14:30:00.003-05:00

June 1, 2011

After a full morning of Samoan Independence Day, I rode my bike back the hill to my house to call it a day. I got a text from Supy Tauthang (a 3^rd year Peace Corps extender) say to come back down to town for a surprise. What the hell, I love surprises. Who should pop out from behind the curtain, none other than a fellow ex-Savaii Peace Corps Volunteer than Max Lapushin.

Max got a job with a consulting firm to help revive the Ministry of Education’s languishing School Net System for the next year. Welcome back.

Max Lapushin, June, 2011

2008

Low Point

2011-05-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

May 30, 2011

It had to come. Now it is here. The low point of my stay.

The problem is Samoa Challenge does not fit into the primary objectives of the two organizations which are to help execute the program, the Peace Corps and the Women in Business Development. The Peace Corps Volunteers are all primary school teachers trained and assigned to teach English as a secondary language. Women in Business Development personnel are trained and are very good assisting rural women in various business activities.

Samoan health is certainly an interest of both organizations, but to ask them to interject energies and resources on a short term project not in the mainstream of their activities, such as the Samoan Challenge, is just unrealistic. Similar issues are why the Samoa Challenge from last year had such a difficult time.

The Samoa Challenge is an excellent and most needed project. There are numerous organizations in Samoa where it would fit in very nicely. For example there NGOs like the Diabetes Association, the National Kidney Foundation, the Heart Foundation, or the Red Cross. There are the governmental giants like the Ministry of Women who implement health projects such as the popular village jazzercise programs, and finally the Ministry of Health which is responsible for the country’s health and who ends up footing the bill for this epidemic of obesity and its related consequences of diabetes, heart disease, and joint problems. Any of these organizations would be a better partner.

A driving force, such as me, is needed to implement this program. To a large extent my past success is due to my fellow Village Based Peace Corps Volunteers from Group 80 and Jim Metz who identified with the project and felt comfortable operating in rural villages, as well as, the involvement of community nurses at the National Health Service hospital. Both groups had the skills and desire to make their health program successful with little effort or resources. These associations are missing in the Samoan Challenge of this year and last.

My strategy is to continue ahead, like Sisyphus, with organizations to which I have been assigned and hope for the best, but at the same time begin to involve those organizations who already have ongoing health programs to see if they might be better suited to continue the Samoan Challenge.

Pineapple jam, coffee, and spoon

2011-05-30T15:19:00.003-05:00

May 29, 2011

There is a famous sculpture in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden called “Cherry and Spoon”, but what good is it? You can only take pictures of it with the Minneapolis skyline as backdrop.

Give me a large pineapple and voila! Jam.

I am taking a sample to the office tomorrow. Hope I have some left for my own toast.

Looks like Koko Samoa

2011-05-30T15:16:00.002-05:00

May 29, 2011

Tap water

You never know what comes out of your water tap here in the “Big City” or even if anything comes out at all. I call the stuff, “Chunky Mocha Water”, others say it looks like Koko Samoa, a Samoan cocoa drink, but sure doesn’t taste like it, still others say they have found it offered at Starbucks.

Fortunately, Peace Corps provides a water filter and a dropper to add a few drops of bleach.

When you take a shower or wash clothes, you wonder.

The Amazing Race

2011-05-30T14:38:00.005-05:00

May 28, 2011

The Samoan Victim Support Group is an NGO which is trying to reduce the amount of domestic violence and to provide a shelter for those victims of abuse. The Group has been successful in raising awareness of people’s legal rights regarding domestic abuse with signs and pamplets throughout the country.

Supy Tauthong is an Peace Corps Volunteer who extended for a third year and is working with the organization. He helped to organize “A Samoan Amazing Race” of 8 four member teams who raced frantically through the streets of Apia for two hours trying to earn prize points and generally creating quite a stir doing various stunts. Fun event for a serious cause.

Peta, Supy, and Rosie setting up registration desk
Group photo of participants
Aussie team, Australian Youth Ambassadors
Hats team
Just couldn't pass by a photo shot with a member of the Fedora Society
The Supersize team
Instruction time
LeMans style start of race
Vailima beer team doing task of washing windows at local gas station
Lonely volunteer waiting to be discovered at Fish Marketbus station
Reading task instructions at Tanona Hotel
Doing the task of swimming in hotel pool while guests watch
What a refreshing task, indeed
Another team discovers the pool
Racing to another task
Registering the results

Samoan Long Boats, Fautasi

2011-05-30T14:34:00.003-05:00

May 27, 2011

It is hard to believe that Samoans, related to Hawaiians and other Polynesians, were at one time seafarers crossing great distances. Today the tradition is kept alive by annual long boat races and the sound of the coxswain’s, posini, drums. Here a crew ends its daily practice in Apia harbor as they prepare for Independence Day, June 1-2, races.

Lunch with Miss Samoa

2011-05-30T14:27:00.001-05:00

May 25, 2011

Miss Samoa is more than a pretty talented young woman. For Samoans she is an icon, which they greatly respect. This year’s Miss Samoa is Jolivette Ete; a chemical engineer, pianist, poster girl, and athlete. During her reign she is assigned to the Samoan Tourist Authority where Jim Metz, a third year extended Peace Corps Volunteer, is also assigned and who helped arrange a meeting with her.

Jolevette is easily recognized, even with a wrist wrapped in an Ace bandage for playing touch ruby. She is a strong believer in the Samoan Challenge and would like to be its Spokesperson, providing she gets approval from the Tourist Authority. It is not often you can find such a committed spokesperson.

By the way, she bought lunch, some say out of pity.

My Bus, Vaivase-Uta

2011-05-30T14:17:00.002-05:00

May 24, 2011

For me, riding public transportation, regardless of where, gives a better pulse of local people than any other single thing. In Samoa, the buses are privately owned and most have wooden carriages, continually refurbished over the years as they are refastened onto a Toyota diesel truck chassis. Switching from left to right-hand drive creates little problem, as a new entrance was cut out and reconstructed on the opposite side. It is this type of ingenuity, which characterizes living in a place like Samoa.

When I lived on Savaii, the bus schedules were synchronized to the comings and goings of the ferry. Although fewer in number, village people just didn’t use them as often, preferring to stay in their own locale.

Here in Apia and on the island of Upolu the number of buses is considerably greater as well as the percentage of people using them, especially commuting in from distant villages to work in Apia. The bus schedules are synchronized to certain allotted time slots at the main bus station located at the fruit market. There must be hundreds of buses constantly arriving and departing from the 10-15 bus spaces. Distant buses leave their villages early in the morning, with the bus and driver waiting the rest of the day to take passenger back on the return trip. Local buses, like mine, make several trips a day on what you might call a schedule.

But here as anyplace else, why take the bus when you have money for a car or taxi? Heaven forbid you walk. The result is ever increasing traffic jams. These new urban travelers miss sitting on the edge of your seat next to a fat Samoan, or people sitting on each other’s laps, as the “Bus Music” blasts away and the driver smokes away.

One of my buses, the one with blue hood and red windscreen, lined up at Apia market station My most colorful bus with mini-lights blinking both inside and outside to the beat of the music

Waiting for the red roof bus on a rainy morning

Challenge Kick off

2011-05-30T14:14:00.000-05:00

May 24, 2011

The biggest challenge to Samoan Challenge III is getting the Peace Corps Volunteers, who are all primary school teachers, involved. They represent the outreach to the rural village segment of the Challenge and who are somewhat tainted by hard feelings regarding last year’s Challenge.

The teachers have a point about being asked to do an additional Village Based project at a time when they are in the classroom, tutoring, or preparing lessons. They are also not familiar with the workings of local village politics and church organizations. Likewise, the National Health Service and the Women in Business Development (WIBD) organization, who is sponsoring the event, are not comfortable with the fact that they cannot count on teachers during school hours, which is the time they conduct their village activities.

Against this backdrop, I presented my revised program to the newest group of Peace Corps teachers. My main message to them is the same as to the Samoans who participate, “Try”. I think they will and for that I am happy.

My WIBD boss, Tusitina Nu’uvali, also did a fine job describing her organization’s role in the Challenge. She sited 5,000 as an overall Challenge target, but did a reversal on me when she agreed under pressure that the Challenge would provide gifts to Peace Corps village participants. The next day I asked her if she realized what she had to commit doing. Her jaw dropped when asked, where are we going to get the money for maybe 2-3,000 prizes? In true Samoan fashion, how to pay for things comes later. It was good to get her public support.

The next task is how to get scales and materials out to 35 Peace Corps throughout the country. In true Samoan fashion, I shall be concerned about that later.

My Boss

2011-05-26T18:19:00.003-05:00

May 26, 2011

Here I am with my Women in Business Development boss, Tusitina "Tina" Nu'uvali, at a recent training session for new Peace Corps teachers.

"Survivor" Returns

2011-05-23T17:18:00.004-05:00

May 23, 2011

The TV reality show "Survivor is returning to Samoa to film two more seasons. This is the second time they have done back-back seasons filmed in Samoa.

The producers first wanted to film the new episodes in Tonga, but returned to Samoa because of inadequate facilities on this neighboring country. Of course, this has created some political problems with Tonga feeling slighted.

The program is causing problems with the many tourists who are having their hotel reservations canceled to make room for crews and cast. It is estimated Survivor will spend $3.5 million here.

Will "Baddest Survivor", Russell, also return?

What I am eating

2011-05-23T17:10:00.002-05:00

May 22, 2011

My eating has definitely changed from when I lived with a host family on Savaii. Grocery stores surround the office building where I work with the fruit market across the street. There is also time for me to prepare meals without the hungry eyes of village children. It is just me.

Still I miss a lot of the traditional Samoan foods. The young Samoan girls in the office have no idea how to prepare the many dishes I was able to buy from village women trying to earn a little extra money. There are a few stalls at the fruit market where I can buy some traditional foods. The women can see me coming from a mile away.

This is what I prepared today:

Yellow Fin Tuna Steak. Purchased at the fish market, a four mile bike ride, as a five pound slab which is enough to make 12 meals. Cooked in a little certified organic coconut oil. Raw in the middle.

Papaya Salsa. Made with local papaya, fresh green spring onions, garlic, salt, coconut oil, salt, vinegar, lemon juice, hot local chili peppers.

Stir-fry green beans and Samoan Roma tomatoes with onions and garlic.

Breakfast is usually oak meal with honey or toast, or leftovers from the night before.

For snacks, I really like the ripe sweet Misiluki bananas and kind of a cookie, called Keke Saina (Chinese cake)

I haven’t weighed myself yet, but I may be a candidate for my own Samoan Challenge.

Tuna steak, stirfry veggies, and papaya salsa
Misiluki bananas and Keke Saina

Blakey’s Picnic

2011-05-23T16:45:00.004-05:00

May 21, 2011
Blakey Larsen, St. Paul, MN, a third year Peace Corps Volunteer, has a dual role of organizing gatherings. This one is for Group 83, the newest teachers who have been locked in a 1 ½ week training session and who are candidates for the Samoan Challenge. I thought it best to check them out and visa versa. No better way than a beach party barbeque

Cook, Robert Gonzales

Cook, Devon Childress

David Macmanie and Karen Corey with Karen's visiting parents.

A little poker after the picnic with the boys at Apia Central Hotel

Keke Pua’a (Pork filled cakes)

2011-05-16T18:43:00.003-05:00

May 16, 2011

Keke Pua’a is banned from my office by the Executive Director. Anyone found eating one is fined. What goes inside these cakes is a mystery to me, but I must admit they are good.

Now the Executive Director is away and all the women can talk about is Keke Pua’a. There is Keke Pua’a everywhere.

War in the South Pacific

2011-05-16T17:45:00.003-05:00

5/15/11

Greatly enlarged satelite view of Minerva Reefs, or the Republic of Minerva

Minerva Reef consists of two coral atolls in the South Pacific whose treacherous lagoon is sometimes used by yatchs avoiding storms. It claimed by two of the few countries in the South Pacific with standing armies, Fiji and Tonga. The Minerva Reefs have been part of Tonga for 40 years, but last year Fiji claimed them and sent its navy there to destroy navigation lights on the entrance to the lagoon.

Meanwhile, last week a Tonga navy vessel sailed into Fiji waters to take Fiji Lieutenant Colonel Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara to Nuku'alofa. Mara was facing charges of plotting to overthrow dictator Voreqe Bainimarama.

Mara is from the Lau Islands, part of Fiji, but culturally and historically part of Tonga. In the 1850s one of his Tongan forefathers, Ma'afu'otu'itonga, a Methodist, waged war on the Fijian Seru Cakobau who was based on the island of Bau

Cakobau ultimately won and Lau became part of Fiji. Bainimarama comes from the Bau line.

However, the Lau Islands provided the leader crucial to modern Fiji: Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was Fiji's founding prime minister and later president. The runaway colonel is his youngest son

The first broadside in the latest skirmish might well have occurred in 2009, when several yachts bound for New Zealand were chased out of Minerva Reefs' lagoon, a stopping point for those travelling here, by Fijian navy boats.

Minerva Reefs were claimed by Tonga in 1972 after the shadowy US Phoenix Foundation shipped in dirt and declared it a republic.

The late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV loaded a ferry with soldiers, a convict work detail and a four-piece brass band and sailed the 500 kilometres to personally haul down the "Republic of Minerva" flag. As he raised his own banner, he declared it a Tongan island.

Fiji's Foreign Affairs deputy permanent secretary Sila Balawa said last year it objected to Tonga building structures on Fiji territory.

In November 2009 the Fiji patrol boats arrived in the lagoon and chased yatchs away.

The king claimed in it 1972. Since then we have been maintaining patrol and put up a lighthouse for the safety of seafarers," he said.

"We have developed a lot, and we are surprised at what is happening."

The Pacific Forum recognised Tonga's annexation of Minerva in 1972 but Fiji, which is now suspended from the 16-nation body, has not formally accepted it.

This all seem foolish but the reefs have taken on more significance as their possession gives rights to lucrative undersea minerals. South Korean, Chinese and Australian interests are seeking prospecting rights in the area.

Keep in touch with what is happening out here. Major wars have been started over less.

JICA

2011-05-16T15:16:00.004-05:00

May 14, 2011
United States is not the only country, which sends youthful volunteers. Japan also sends their equivalent of the Peace Corps, called JICA. In some ways they perform many of the same tasks as Peace Corps, some are teachers, others do specific jobs with governmental agencies and NGOs. In other ways they are very different.

It is hard to say JICA is a volunteer organization for they are paid well both during and at the end of their service. They also can drive and are given motorbikes. The term of service is one year, rather than the 27 month Peace Corps tenure. JICA tend to be older than the twenty-something’s who make up the bulk of Peace Corps and have ongoing careers.

In many ways JICA are envious of Peace Corps, which they hold in high regards. They only receive two weeks of in country training before they go to their assignments. This means they have almost no feel for Samoan or Samoan cultures before they come to grabble with actually doing something. Japanese are notoriously poor English speakers, even though they are well versed in English reading and writing. This makes them even more isolated in this foreign land.

Since Peace Corps and JICA share some common experiences, it is only natural for the gregarious Americans to invite the Japanese to a party. We both try to decide whether to bow or shake hands, best to do both. Peace Corps prepare a truly American meal of tortillas, salsa and beer while JICA bring their food of numerous raw tuna dishes, rice, a kind of meat loaf, and some Japanese intoxicants.

Market basket day at Women in Business

2011-05-13T15:18:00.004-05:00

5-13-11
Village women with fruit/veggie baskets in my office. My boss, Tina, wearing Sombero.

Two more work associates, Tilo with hat, and Elina.

One of the businesses the Women in Business Development (WIBD) organization, where I am assigned, promotes is organic fruit/veggie baskets. The village women bring them into my office area to fill orders WIBD have collected from more prosperous Apia residents.

Wintertime in Samoa

2011-05-13T15:05:00.004-05:00

5-12-11

Two sheets required to keep warm during a Samoan winter.
St. Nick hangs in my house confused. He lost his bearings when the North Star disappeared over the horizon.

South of the equator it is wintertime. This is the time of year the aboriginals in Australia named a "Three Dog Night". Here in Samoa it is a two sheet night.

It’s the Culture Stupid

2011-05-10T15:03:00.001-05:00

May 7, 2011

For those who have never worked in a foreign country, it is difficult to imagine why there can be so much misunderstanding between two people from different cultures even if they can speak the same language and seemingly agree on certain points. Let me try to elaborate.

After three frustrating weeks of trying to come up with a plan for my project, “The Samoan Challenge”, I finally had a meeting with my Samoan sponsoring organization, “Women in Business Development” (WIBD). I presented a very simplified program of providing a basic framework and letting Samoans develop it further in their own way. This would meet The WIBD’s objective of a program maybe workable in rural villages, the Peace Corps objective of having volunteers participate in a significant health project, and my objective to get rid of 5,000 pink wristbands.

WIBD said my plan was the plan they wanted last year! They blamed the Peace Corps for making last year’s program too complicated, leading many participants and Peace Corps to simply bail out. Also, WIBD was not aware all Peace Corps then and now in Samoa were teachers, usually unfamiliar with the complicated politics of village life, and not Village Based, as Mary and I.

When I brought this up to the Peace Corps staff, they were amazed at how after so many meetings with WIBD, they had never expressed any concerns about the program’s direction, nor even after WIBD attended the training of Peace Corps, and did they not know that all PC are primary school teachers?

Another case study was when explaining to a Samoan woman that after my Peace Corps job in Samoa, I was returning to the States and going to marry a Samoan man and an American woman. What she heard and thought for quite a while was “I am going to marry a Samoan man”. This really didn’t upset her because in Samoa “Fa’afafine, man-woman” are quite acceptable, so my marriage might be strange, but not out of the realm of possibility. She was relieved to learn, a Fa’afafine I am not.

Still another case study was this past week when I sat for an entire day’s program with thirty WIBD employees. WIBD had hired two women from New Zealand, one with multiple educational degrees and the other a psychotherapist to conduct a training session. I asked the educator what she wanted the people to walk away with. She rambled on about something to do with team building and the evils of office gossip.

One of the exercises was to break into four groups and work together to build a tall giraffe out of newspaper, tape, and string, an exercise familiar to anyone in a western organization. One of the most successful groups was the one which approached the task in a typical Samoan manner. They selected a leader, in this case an older man amongst the women, and followed his decisions. The women in his group were quick to point out that their leader was very good in listening to their ideas, but he made the final decision which they accepted. Everyone in that group felt their giraffe was the best, which it was. The educator gloriously wrote many words on a whiteboard expressed during the ensuing discussion and espoused how everyone should work together in some vague democratic manner. She then took a picture of the almost blacked whiteboard. She totally missed how Samoans actually do work together.

Another exercise was to discuss what you found difficult about yourself (presumably work related). I said “It was the man in the mirror”, leading to a quick suggestion that I should break the mirror. Anyway several of the women broke down in tears as they revealed typical office problems, the psychotherapist listening with empathy and care as she encouraged even more to be reviled in this group of work associates.

I had to contain myself even more when the consultants put a bowl of chocolates in the middle of the circle during the “difficulty” segment. On top of that, they exhorted the group they were to take just one when their turn came for a candy. It was like putting raw meat in front of hungry lions. There was no understanding that in Samoa take one, means one handful.

The task before me was even further complicated during lunch. Here I was working for probably the most health conscience organization in Samoa to reduce obesity and promote “natural, organic foods” when trays of the most delectable and greasy food were served. In true Samoan fashion, people heaped piles of stuff on their plates. When finished with one plateful, they heaped on seconds. The only food left over was the cucumber, asparagus sandwiches. I sat there wondering if even my sponsoring organization was capable of participating in this project I am supposed to do.

The final segment had to do with gossip and the destructiveness thereof. The Samoans are masters of gossip. It is one of the reasons they can sit around in a circle for most of the day. In fact, Samoans have different words to discuss different types of gossip. They are light years ahead of us. Whereas Gossip might be very destructive in western decision making, it is not a big deal in Samoa where the decision is made by one person, not by a vote, regardless of what appears to be happening. I had to laugh as the consultants efforts educate about the evils of gossip actually fed the flames of future office gossip. I laughed even harder when at the beginning of their program they had everyone agree that whatever was said during their program not to be discussed outside of the room. What planet did they come from?

Eureka! We have a failure to communicate here.

Indeed, thinking you are both on the same wavelength is difficult even in your own culture, but extend that to a different way of thinking and interrupting the same word, you get a feel of why so many efforts of world peace, understanding, and aid end in failure. This Peace Corps stuff is hard work. The temptation to write off your efforts as falling upon dumb aboriginals is your own failure to realize the ignorance and shortcomings of the man in the mirror.

Somehow I have to learn how to operate in a culture with little or no feedback, thus reinforcing my notions of progress when there isn’t any, and Samoans have to grabble with my directness and lack of formal protocol, thus reinforcing their notions of my rudeness when I simply want to meet a deadline to get things done. I guess that is why the project is called,” The Samoan Challenge”.

My friend, Georgette

2011-05-10T14:56:00.002-05:00

May 6, 2011

Samoan’s keep asking “Ua iai se uo?” which means literally means, “Do you have a friend (now)?” When a young man says this to a young girl, this means “How about me (now)? Let’s hop to it!” When said to an older white man, it means, “Do you have a Samoan (woman) living with you (now)”. If I reply no, they want to know, “Why not? What’s wrong with Samoan women or worse yet, you?”

Well, I do have a female Samoan living with me. Her name is Georgette. She comes out every evening at dusk and eats the bugs off the floor, walls, and ceiling. What more can a man ask of a uo?

Samoan Fishing Contest

2011-05-03T19:57:00.001-05:00

May 2, 2011
Samoa has an annual week-long national fishing contest. This Mahi-mahi is one of the first fish to be weighed.

John Kleive Departs Samoa

2011-05-02T15:02:00.003-05:00

April 29, 2011

John, a former teacher, sailor, French welding supply company employee, motorcyclist, storyteller, and Samoan Peace Corps Volunteer from Ely, Minnesota is packing his bags for good.

John came to Samoa in October, 2007 as a welding instructor at Don Bosco, a Catholic school for boys in Apia. John’s experience and background far exceeded the resources of the school, so John did what comes quite naturally to him, got a welding distributor friend of his from Las Vegas to donate thousands of dollars’ worth of welding equipment.

Even before his permanent assignment at Don Bosco, a member of his host family in his training village named a baby after John’s deceased daughter. John promptly set up a fund for her later education.

John’s love of the Samoan lifestyle, his association with the Brothers at Don Bosco, the contribution he was making to the welding program, and the relative luxuries of his house, all went into his decision to extend a third year with Peace Corps.

John was not yet done. The Administration at Don Bosco said he could continue to stay and teach outside of Peace Corps from October to May with full benefits, even though the Samoan school year is from February to November. This was almost too good to be true. Now John could live on his boat at Superior, Wisconsin, during the Minnesota summer, and spend winters in Samoa.. He took them up on their offer and pictured the rest of his life spending life as all those who toil dream, even now with a car. Alas, personalities at Don Bosco changed and with that the failure of them to offer John another year teaching and his apartment.

Now John is packed to leave Samoa, maybe for the last time this Monday, May 2nd. There is one last meal at Samoa’s Yacht Club where John has a table reserved for him every Friday night of meeting friends. No longer are the many world-wide contacts he spends hours talking to over Syke going to get his calls from Samoa.

For me, John’s leaving for Las Vegas in May to pick up his stored Harley Davidson motorcycle the hit the road visiting friends and children along the way, including Mary, is expected. The emptiness I feel is not that I may not see John again, for we are planning a trip to The Gambia in Africa this September, but knowing that for him his Samoan adventure is completed. What awaits now is maybe a new motorcycle and I am sure more new stories to tell.

He leaves with a new Samoan wristband tattoo and a smiley face tatoo on his ass. I know Samoa and Don Bosco will miss him.

One of John's favorite activities, sitting at his bedroom desk talking over Skype to friends around the world.

John and I enjoying our Last Supper at the Yatch Club overlooking Apia Harbor.

Samoan Diabetes Association

2011-04-29T15:25:00.000-05:00

April 27, 2011

During my past stay in Samoa, I worked closely with the Samoan Diabetes Association. They were very supportive of my screening efforts. Since that time, there was a big expose on the misuse of the association funds, probably owing more to poor controls than corruption, which resulted in a whole new team of personalities.

The Samoan custom for arranging a meeting is usually by writing a long letter of explanation accompanied by a humble request for the person you want to meet to write back their reply. This is not my style, but seemingly Samoans forgive my “ignorance” when I barge into a place unannounced. This is true if I have something for which they are interested and feel they can contribute their ideas to the discussion. So too with the Diabetes Association who appear to want to mesh their program with the Challenge.

Diet, exercise, and the role of obesity are common themes in diabetes circles, especially the evils of imported foods and the benefits of “God’s Natural Foods”. As each biblical reference emerges from my mouth, an “Amen” emerges from hers. We agree on “The body is the temple for the spirit”, she being Pentecostal.

She talks about how churches and ministers are who Samoan’s follow and who set the example for others. I agree unconditionally. She says her husband a pastor and am I interested in getting the Challenge into a hundred churches. She has my attention. He husband then walks in, she introduces me. He has to weigh at least 320 pounds.

A Good Meeting

2011-04-29T15:23:00.000-05:00

April 27, 2011

We have all been through them, good and bad meetings. Today is a good one.

My main goal is to get my main contact at Women in Business Development, Tina, to think what I am proposing is possible. She is a sharp and capable lady whose job it is to make things actually happen. Her favorite word is “realistic” Indeed she is the one for asking those questions about how realistic is this gigantic, and maybe unprecedented plunge, into influencing a country’s lifestyle.

This woman, Tina, is a doer, not a dreamer, so dreamers have to be able to tell what can be done, and doers need to be able to grasp the dream. Today Tina has a little star dust in her hair and me the green light to proceed as planned, just keep her informed. A good meeting, indeed.

Water, Water Everywhere

2011-04-26T15:22:00.001-05:00

April 23, 2011

One of the problems in Samoa is not the lack of fresh water, but its distribution and pricing. It is estimated that 1/3 of the fresh water is lost to leakage. Water pipes are above ground and are often broken. This leads to not only to a loss of water, but to the accumulation of little chucks of “stuff” and dirt which also come out of the faucet.

In some villages, the Village Council has elected to join the Samoan Water Authority to maintain its water supply and quality. For this, the water is metered and villagers are charged for their water usage. In other villages, I suspect the one I live in now, have their own water source and provide it to villagers free of charge. This leads to geysers sprouting everywhere, but only a dribble at the tap.

Women in Business Development

2011-04-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

April 21, 2011

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer who works under an NGO called, Women in Business Development (WIBD), in the organic vegetable division. In fact all Peace Corps Volunteers work as part of some host governmental or NGO. What is unusual about my position as Coordinator for Samoan Challenge III is the seeming disconnect between what I doing and the organization for which I work. But in actuality, it is not.

The first Samoa Challenge, 2009, was initiated by WIBD and was a “Biggest Loser” type of contest, with eight contestants, including Samoa’s Prime Minister and the Peace Corps, Language Training Manager, Faleseu Pita (“Seu”). The contest was entertaining, but lacked sustainability.

Samoa Challenge II, 2010, was a joint venture with Peace Corps joining WIBD to develop a more wider program aimed at obese women in rural villages, administered primarily by Peace Corps Volunteers who are firstly, teachers of English in primary schools. The program involved about 10 Peace Corps and about 100 participants with mixed results. However, disappointing Peace Corps Volunteers felt about Challenge II, the Ministry of Health and WIBD both rated it a success to be continued. With funding for Samoa Challenge II also included funds from the U.S. and Fiji for Challenge III in 2011. Hence, yours truly was invited back to Samoa.

The WIBD was started 20 years ago by five Samoan women who wanted to find ways for rural women to earn money for their families. Their first main success was providing a market for women to sell “fine mats”. Weaving them was becoming a lost skill with no market for their purchase.

WIBD are now involved in many ventures including the export of sweet bananas (Misiluki) and organic virgin palm oil for cosmetics (80,000 pounds just shipped to the Body Shop in the U.K.). One of their best efforts is getting Samoan farmers to grow certified organic fruits and vegetables, both for domestic use ad export. Their biggest problem is not the lack of demand, but getting farmers interested in growing organic corps and then teaching them business practices. This effort requires almost daily visits to the farmers involved. Part of what I am doing is to help them promote their organic farming program. For additional information, visit their website at www.womeninbusiness.ws

My New Office

2011-04-26T15:09:00.002-05:00

April 21, 2011

I have a desk located in a room with people in the Organic Gardening section of Women in Business Development. The WIBD air-conditioned offices are on the second floor of the Nia Mall, which is across from the main market and bus station in Apia.

One the advantages are the ready supple of bananas, other fruits and vegetables. WIBD do not give free stuff to staff or volunteers, owing to its tight business practices.

My Desk

Nia Mall, where offices are located on second floor

Two women who are my bosses with organic veggie baskets,
Tilo, Organic Vegetables, and Tina, Head of Organic Farming Section

Women Quality Control Lab,

testing purity of Virgin Palm Oil