Chucky T's

10/29/09

I love my Chucky T's! Thank Goodness I can get them again.

Amelda Marcos eat your heart out,

Chucky T's, otherwise known as Converse All Stars, are the worlds most popular shoe ever. They are comfortable and come in an astronomical variety of patterns. You can get them on line at www.zappos.com or www.converse.com.

Commercials

10/25/09

After a weekend of watching football, I wonder just how many commercials can a human take. The commercial breaks far exceed the actual game time. Even though I complain bitterly about the constant bombardment of the inanity and insanity of the ads, I sit there like a duffus. Is this my future?

You could say I have a choice. I can easily turn off the TV or read a book, but how then could I converse with others? I like watching the games, even if my teams don't win. I feel trapped by the inevitability of the tube.

Pineappple

10/21/09

To understand Samoan agriculture and my efforts at trying to encourage gardening, you need to understand why I can buy fresh Del Monte pineapples in Minnesota from Costa Rica for less than I could buy them in Samoa where you just stick a pineapple top in the ground to grow a new plant. But to explain this seeming paradox and my take on the reasons requires more effort to explain than I am willing to do, which in a way is an explanation. Suffice to say, making pineapple jam here is easier, but less gratifying than it was in Samoa.

Pineapple can be used as a meat tenderizer, topically applied as an anti-inflammatory drug, or ingested as an antihelminthic, to get rid of parasitic worms.

Saint Lucia?

10/19/09

St. Lucia is an Caribbean island country located near South America in the Lesser Antilles. It is the home for over 100 Peace Corps Volunteers and one Peace Corps Response position for a Program Development Assistant working with the St. Lucia Diabetic & Hypertensive Association which starts this February. This is exactly what I did with the Diabetes Association of Samoa and Samoa's National Health Service. So I have applied for this 10 month position.

Coincidentally, there is a Peace Corps Volunteer in St. Lucia, Karen McCarthy, who has been reading my blog and who contacted me over one year ago about some material which she found useful in teaching computer skills. She is most helpful in putting in a good word to increase my chances for the position. I highly recommend her blog: karensplanet.blogspot.com .

"Survivors" Greatest Villian

10/15/09

My activities have stooped to a low level. I find myself watching the TV program "Survivor Samoa". One of the survivors is considered the most evil and conniving of all the "Survivor" participants.

I found a picture of "Survivors" Russell when he was younger and couldn't help but compare it to one of the current Peace Corps Volunteers on Samoa. Even their Tennessee twang sounds the same.

Bulgaria is a NO GO

10/13/09
Heard today from Peace Corps in Washington, DC that the Bulgarians changed their requirements for an experienced volunteer from one to help Sofia University's Business Alumni Center raise money and network with businesses to that of an experienced Career Counselor.

Mary and I were set to go. Now we have to see when or if another opportunity for a person with my background arises. In the meantime...

Window with a View

10/12/09

The view from my condo window is not what many people would call spectacular, yet from it are scenes as amazing and unexplainable to Samoans as the Samoan scape is to those passing below. My American friends remark how they are able to live or sample what my life is like in the South Pacific as if my Samoan host family can understand my descriptions of what life is like outside my window. Ah, but the mind does construct concrete worlds made from imaginary stones.