9/04/07
For the past two weeks, Samoan society has been focused on the South Pacific Games (SPG). This is like the Olympics for twenty two South Pacific countries, excluding New Zealand and Australia. Millions of dollars have been spent on the construction of entirely new facilities, including a natatorium with 50 meter pool, gymnasiums, boxing rings, and lots of viewing stands, tracks, playing fields, etc. Much at the expense of the Chinese who want Samoa’s vote in the UN to be reunited with Formosa and whose companies did most of the work. The roads in Apia have been repaved, traffic lanes painted, and traffic signals installed. A new marina built in anticipation of the yachts expected to arrive. Apia hardly looks like the same place when we arrived last June.
Like all such events, there is a crazed nationalism which tends to run rampant. New Caledonia is running away with about every other metal; Tahiti capturing a large share as well. Supposedly the reason is because the French are filling the roosters of these French speaking countries with Europeans. Your nationality is based on your passport and the French have only one passport f or French speaking countries. No one mentions, teams like the Samoan basketball team have only one native Samoan, the other players all from America, but with Samoan passports. International sport is a crazy affair.
Just what happens after the games is probably, nothing. Those who thought business would boom are disappointed to learn that almost all the foreigners were either the athletes who have no money to spend or VIP guests who were treated gratis. The facilities, although first class, have few local athletes to keep them going. But the games did help to focus the South Pacific’s attention on Samoa, at least for two weeks.
Anyway, I got a pass to the games as a “Media Liaison” for basketball. I wrote articles for the official games web site. For this, I was fed and given free rein. However, writing about 10 basketball games in two days didn’t give me anytime to see anything else. But I did get the chance to witness some of the inside stuff that happened. But this is an open blog, so this news must be kept “Hush, Hush, and Confidential”.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Luau
9/03/07
A couple of nights ago, I was asked if I wanted to watch our host family clean a pig, formally Snoopy. Snoopy was being donated to their Catholic Church as part of a fund raising luau, being held by several Catholic Churches. There was going to be a lot of food, including Snoopy. Since it sounded like a great feast and we had to eat, we bought two tickets from our host family.
Before going to the luau, we stopped at the Peace Corps office in Saleleloga (the main berg, market, and ferry location) where we met some other Peace Corps Volunteers. Well, we talked and when we arrived at the luau site, it was over (times being lost in translation). The people at the luau wanted to refund our money, but we refused to accept their offer.
Upon returning home, we joked with our host family about how Snoopy was eaten so quickly that we missed eating at the luau altogether. Big mistake. We had no idea what a problem it would create by not accepting the refund.
We found ourselves hard pressed to explain that it was our fault for missing the luau and we wanted the church to keep the money. Of course, there is a lot more to this complicated story then I am prepared to write or for you to read. The moral is this seemingly simple third world country is a very complicated place.
A couple of nights ago, I was asked if I wanted to watch our host family clean a pig, formally Snoopy. Snoopy was being donated to their Catholic Church as part of a fund raising luau, being held by several Catholic Churches. There was going to be a lot of food, including Snoopy. Since it sounded like a great feast and we had to eat, we bought two tickets from our host family.
Before going to the luau, we stopped at the Peace Corps office in Saleleloga (the main berg, market, and ferry location) where we met some other Peace Corps Volunteers. Well, we talked and when we arrived at the luau site, it was over (times being lost in translation). The people at the luau wanted to refund our money, but we refused to accept their offer.
Upon returning home, we joked with our host family about how Snoopy was eaten so quickly that we missed eating at the luau altogether. Big mistake. We had no idea what a problem it would create by not accepting the refund.
We found ourselves hard pressed to explain that it was our fault for missing the luau and we wanted the church to keep the money. Of course, there is a lot more to this complicated story then I am prepared to write or for you to read. The moral is this seemingly simple third world country is a very complicated place.
Healing
9/01/07
The business of healing body, psyche, and soul is huge and encompasses the disciplines of religion, art, and some science. Living in a very different society forces one to look more closely at the society left behind. Let me try to explain.
Here in Iva a two year old neighbor girl was very sick with a fever, swollen throat, and cried throughout the night in considerable discomfort. The grandmother took the child several times to a traditional healer where the child was given massages with certain leaves and oils, she also went to the local hospital where the child was diagnosed with mumps and given an antibiotic, and then she went across the street to the Catholic church to pray and accept God’s will. After several days, the child was better.
Why did the child get better? Of course, your answer depends on what you believe and the amount of faith you place in that belief.
Like a Venn diagram with overlapping circles, most of us like to cover our bets by not relying on one method of healing alone, but we do tend to favor one method over the other. Samoans are no different. They just tend to favor different circles than Americans. They place as much faith in their circles as we do in ours. It really isn’t worth a debate. Who knows, maybe we somehow mystically heal ourselves despite our interventions and circles, or failing, accept our fate as mortals.
The business of healing body, psyche, and soul is huge and encompasses the disciplines of religion, art, and some science. Living in a very different society forces one to look more closely at the society left behind. Let me try to explain.
Here in Iva a two year old neighbor girl was very sick with a fever, swollen throat, and cried throughout the night in considerable discomfort. The grandmother took the child several times to a traditional healer where the child was given massages with certain leaves and oils, she also went to the local hospital where the child was diagnosed with mumps and given an antibiotic, and then she went across the street to the Catholic church to pray and accept God’s will. After several days, the child was better.
Why did the child get better? Of course, your answer depends on what you believe and the amount of faith you place in that belief.
Like a Venn diagram with overlapping circles, most of us like to cover our bets by not relying on one method of healing alone, but we do tend to favor one method over the other. Samoans are no different. They just tend to favor different circles than Americans. They place as much faith in their circles as we do in ours. It really isn’t worth a debate. Who knows, maybe we somehow mystically heal ourselves despite our interventions and circles, or failing, accept our fate as mortals.
Food Shock
8/31/07
Our Peace Corps training prepared us well for language, living conditions, disease, safety, and some cultural differences. It didn’t prepare us for Food Shock; what we would experience food wise after being left at our new village, on our own.
In Manunu I now realize we lived in a protected food bubble where our host families were told the types of balanced meals to prepare for us, and were generously paid for our room and board. This combined with a competition between the villagers about who made the best meals, created a sort of Samoan gastronomical paradise and spoiled us for what was to come.
The Peace Corps dropped us in Iva with all sorts of stuff, but nary an scrap of food, nor any instructions as to what we might expect about eating. (Sorry, we did have a class on edible native plants and instructions on a kerosene stove, should we want to order one.)
Thank goodness for Samoan hospitality and their disdain for starving people. Our Iva host family gave us food, and continued to give us food. The same food they grew and ate. Lots of it. The food is simple, consisting almost entirely of taro, breadfruit, cocoa, papaya, bananas, fried dough, raw dough, and some fish. Samoans may be known for their generosity, but not their cuisine. We were hungry most of the time. We were experiencing Food Shock. We finally rode our bikes into town where we discovered a store that sold crackers, peanut butter and jelly. Currently, our main stables.
We are slowly working out an arrangement whereby we buy such things as eggs, vegetables, bread, mutton flaps, rice, and other specialty foods for us and them while they prepare us one meal a day. The family cooks on wood and lives in the back. This seems to be working out, but one never knows what may be lost in translation.
We are living with a wonderful family who treats us like royalty, but their lives are very different from what we have known. No food goes to waste. What excess they give us is fed to the children afterwards. They told us that they live like Jesus.
Several other Peace Corps Volunteers from our Group 78 have also experienced food shock. Some say they are hungry all the time. Maybe my ire is more at the Peace Corps for overlooking this important aspect of adjusting to village life than anything else.
Our Peace Corps training prepared us well for language, living conditions, disease, safety, and some cultural differences. It didn’t prepare us for Food Shock; what we would experience food wise after being left at our new village, on our own.
In Manunu I now realize we lived in a protected food bubble where our host families were told the types of balanced meals to prepare for us, and were generously paid for our room and board. This combined with a competition between the villagers about who made the best meals, created a sort of Samoan gastronomical paradise and spoiled us for what was to come.
The Peace Corps dropped us in Iva with all sorts of stuff, but nary an scrap of food, nor any instructions as to what we might expect about eating. (Sorry, we did have a class on edible native plants and instructions on a kerosene stove, should we want to order one.)
Thank goodness for Samoan hospitality and their disdain for starving people. Our Iva host family gave us food, and continued to give us food. The same food they grew and ate. Lots of it. The food is simple, consisting almost entirely of taro, breadfruit, cocoa, papaya, bananas, fried dough, raw dough, and some fish. Samoans may be known for their generosity, but not their cuisine. We were hungry most of the time. We were experiencing Food Shock. We finally rode our bikes into town where we discovered a store that sold crackers, peanut butter and jelly. Currently, our main stables.
We are slowly working out an arrangement whereby we buy such things as eggs, vegetables, bread, mutton flaps, rice, and other specialty foods for us and them while they prepare us one meal a day. The family cooks on wood and lives in the back. This seems to be working out, but one never knows what may be lost in translation.
We are living with a wonderful family who treats us like royalty, but their lives are very different from what we have known. No food goes to waste. What excess they give us is fed to the children afterwards. They told us that they live like Jesus.
Several other Peace Corps Volunteers from our Group 78 have also experienced food shock. Some say they are hungry all the time. Maybe my ire is more at the Peace Corps for overlooking this important aspect of adjusting to village life than anything else.
Week One in Iva
8/30/07
What is it like? You may ask. Well, living here can be compared to tent camping in a crowded public campground in the middle of a hot, humid summer, filled with lots of Latinos, kids and pets. No privacy, noise, activity everywhere, and bad food. Your best friend is toilet paper. You compete with ants and flies during the day for space and food. Now add to that the fact that you are trying to set up your house and can’t find even a Phillips screwdriver anywhere. Common things you have taken for granted, just don’t exist, or if they do are cheaply made and expensive. A person could get stressed out, and we have, at times. We have to remind ourselves that this is exactly why we volunteered.
We are on the compound of the village mayor or pulenu’u. He has a large Catholic family of ten children, six of whom live here, ages 20 – 8, along with a baby grandchild of a daughter who lives in Apia. The adults speak little English, but the oldest girl here speaks good English and is our teacher. Also living in other houses on the compound are various other relatives, most of whom seem to be women with children. It may take us a while to figure the relationships out. The children are great and are always around wanting to help, or simply just to sit and stare at us.
What is it like? You may ask. Well, living here can be compared to tent camping in a crowded public campground in the middle of a hot, humid summer, filled with lots of Latinos, kids and pets. No privacy, noise, activity everywhere, and bad food. Your best friend is toilet paper. You compete with ants and flies during the day for space and food. Now add to that the fact that you are trying to set up your house and can’t find even a Phillips screwdriver anywhere. Common things you have taken for granted, just don’t exist, or if they do are cheaply made and expensive. A person could get stressed out, and we have, at times. We have to remind ourselves that this is exactly why we volunteered.
We are on the compound of the village mayor or pulenu’u. He has a large Catholic family of ten children, six of whom live here, ages 20 – 8, along with a baby grandchild of a daughter who lives in Apia. The adults speak little English, but the oldest girl here speaks good English and is our teacher. Also living in other houses on the compound are various other relatives, most of whom seem to be women with children. It may take us a while to figure the relationships out. The children are great and are always around wanting to help, or simply just to sit and stare at us.
Some of Our Guests
Our Samoan is rapidly improving. I guess this is total immersion. We are both grateful for the language and culture lessons we received during our training weeks. Our language trainers really helped prepare us to at least survive one week.
We have already been put to work as Peace Corps, measuring for a 1,000 meter fence proposal for a new school, and going with the women’s committee to inspect houses to make sure they are clean and sanitary. This village has been waiting for a Peace Corps Volunteer. Just how we can meet all their requests remains to be seen. At least, it isn’t like we don’t have anything to do.
Whereas everything in the training village of Manunu was supervised, the villagers on their best behavior, and the Peace Corps the focus of attention, life in Iva is almost the opposite. We have to figure things out for ourselves, the villagers go about their daily activities without concern about us, and we are more an oddity than anything else.
There are lots of little things to complain about if we were someplace else, but..
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Moa Samoa, Samoan Chicken
8/27/07
The next time you buy chicken without the skin, you should consider Moa Samoa. The chickens here are truly range fed and fat free. They spend there entire lives running; running from dogs, from cats, from pigs, from cars, from people who are trying to eat them. Their food is organic. No supplements for them. It’s bugs, worms, anything that moves. These birds are tough! I mean tough; no matter how you cook them.
The next time you buy chicken without the skin, you should consider Moa Samoa. The chickens here are truly range fed and fat free. They spend there entire lives running; running from dogs, from cats, from pigs, from cars, from people who are trying to eat them. Their food is organic. No supplements for them. It’s bugs, worms, anything that moves. These birds are tough! I mean tough; no matter how you cook them.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Gang of Six, Savaii
August 23, 2007
Today begins the new life on the island of Savaii for the "Gang of Six". We consider ourselves to be the Delta Force of the Peace Corps, dropped into remote areas with grand expections for our mission and mostly our wits to help us survive.
Today begins the new life on the island of Savaii for the "Gang of Six". We consider ourselves to be the Delta Force of the Peace Corps, dropped into remote areas with grand expections for our mission and mostly our wits to help us survive.
Gang of Six: On Ferry to Savaii
Mary, Safyia, Kate, Ben, Nick, Jacob
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