First Samoan Wedding

I went to my first bona-fide Samoan wedding last weekend in a village called Salani, only two away from mine but seperated by a river without a bridge. I planned ahead and wore swimming shorts underneath my formal lavalava so when I came to river I held my clothes over my head as I swam the fifty feet or so to the other side. The wedding itself isn't too much different from the States because it is a Christian wedding but there are a few subtle differences. To begin the church procession the groom sat in the front of the church all by his lonesome looking straight ahead for a good ten minutes. I was thinking that if you had second thoughts it would be a long ten minutes. The other amusing aspect was the consumating kiss, which I was waiting for because I had yet to see two Samoans kiss in public as it is a taboo. So when they exchanged a quick and very awkward peck I could tell it was one of those Western rituals that still hasn't quite caught up to the Samoan way. Afterward it was like a typical Samoan fa'alavelave, lots of eating, singing, and dancing. Of course, everyone there extended the most cordial hospitality you could imagine to me. Samoans never cease to amaze me with their kindness.

Integration, etc.

Well four months in country, one in my new village. I’ve been integrating into my village, practicing the language, doing family visits, and participating in the various cultural events. I have posted the picture above from a fiafia organized by the Methodist churches in my district. To begin the festivities there was a parade of decorated pickup trucks with a dressed up male on the back of each with the villagers walking in tow. I was put up in the traditional garb of a fine mat wrapped around, orator’s staff, and whip while my fellow villagers urged me to dance and call out to the spectators. Not the easiest thing to do at 6 am. When we reached our destination the dancing and singing presentations from the six participating villages ensued. So I changed clothes and did our Samoan dance. It’s a little intimidating knowing that every eye in the audience is most likely trained right on the only white person but I would say that I am getting used to dancing and singing in front of hundreds of people.

The environment around my village is amazing. Whenever I feel the need to relax or have some privacy I can go for a bike ride up the mountain through the jungle, snorkel around the reef, surfing, walking the miles of uninhabited beach, it is really limitless.

One Green Palangi

The first day I arrived in my village the funeral of my host-mother’s father was starting, which in Samoa is a three day ordeal and a fascinating cultural event. There was a service in Apia, a caravan to take the coffin from there, another service, then the coffin is carried into a decorated open fale where the daughters of the village sing around it all night. The whole next day relatives from all over the country arrive and exchange gifts (boxes of food, fine mats, fabrics, slaughtered animals) in a very formal and traditional manner. The preparation for this is an undertaking in itself. I came in the morning before it began and there were around 400 boxes of canned mackerel, canned corn beef, boxes of chicken, and buckets of beef. Then throughout the day there were over 20 heads of cattle slaughtered and about the same number of large pigs. Throughout all of this there are at least a dozen people preparing food, which is passed out to everyone in attendance. I think I ate seven full meals in a 12 hour period. The next day the coffin is moved back into church, another service is had, and finally it is moved to the tomb, which lies directly in from of the house. It was so amazing to see the process from start to finish and really be apart of it. Samoans have really kept so many of their traditions alive to this day.

Swearing In

Taku Paku Maori War Dance

I just arrived fresh from swearing in as a full blown four alarm Peace Corps volunteer to my permanent village of Sapoe and so the two years begins. It has been a mix of emotions as you could imagine. My training group and I got pretty close and it was hard to say goodbye but I think we were all ready to be done with training and start what we came here to do. We had the swearing in ceremony back in our training village with the whole village, Peace Corps staff, a couple members of parliament, and the Charge of Affairs from the US consulate to recite us the oath in English. I gave the speech on behalf of our group afterwards, which was basically listing all the funny and stupid mistakes we had made in the village and a little roasting to our trainers followed by a formal thank you in Samoan. After we cleared the floor there was a presentation from the village of fine mats and seven or eight roasted pigs, we said our final goodbyes to our families, and piled into a chartered city bus.

Two Months

Alright many apologies for the lack of updates but while I’m still in training it’s a structured lifestyle and not much free time to go to the internet cafes. So I just went out to my permanent site for an initial five day visit. The name of the village is Sapo’e and it lies on the south-east coast of the island of Upolu. The way it is situated, about four miles off the main road, it is one of the more isolated villages of any of the current volunteers and is also one of the smallest, only about a hundred people. Most of the villagers lives off the plantation. I’ll be living with the village mayor Afegogo and his family of about nine. I say about nine because it could be as high as fifteen at any given time. The picture above is of two of brothers and two others from the village, left to right they are my brother Oli, Sete, another brother Ma'a, and the "tough guy" flexing is Osi. Everyone is really nice in my family and in the village. Most people have been pretty oblivious as to why there suddenly is a white person (palangi) consistently walking around their little village off the beaten path but I’ve been talking to families and explaining to them that I’m a Peace Corps volunteer and will be living with them for two years. That usually blows them away. The real plus about the area I’m in is that the beach is straight out of a movie. I can walk east on soft sand for about three miles without running into a house or a single person. And there is great surfing all along the reef. I didn’t bring my snorkeling gear when I visited but it looks great. The water inside the reef is that incredible incandescent green and there is always a good breeze to keep you cool and keep the mosquitoes off you. Despite this rosy picture I am painting you right now these initial first days at my permanent site were the hardest I have had. It was such a sharp contrast to the training we’ve been having so far where our days are full, highly organized, and laid out for us. So I was honestly pretty bored and lonely not being able to talk to anyone on any kind of deep level because my language isn’t there yet. I was also worried about keeping busy with projects and mostly just trying to get my head around the fact that after about 18 months of applying, preparing, and training I have seen the spot I’ll be in for two years! I haven’t been anywhere for two years for a long time. So there has been a sort of cabin fever feeling and thinking those thoughts that you have to keep out of your head when your feeling down like OK, what could I be doing right now back in the US? It just makes it harder. But our trainers have been talking to us about the swings we’ll be having and how normal it is. So I’m not worried, just got to buck up and wait for the next upswing.

My group and I are back in Apia for the weekend before we head back for Vaie’e (which is where the picture of me sitting on the canoe is) our training village for our final two weeks of training. We have begun to practice our fiafia dances we’ll be doing at our going away party in Vaie’e. The guys will be doing a traditional Samoan slap dance and a Maori war dance. Both are pretty hilarious. There may have to be a few libations beforehand… So that’s that for now. Hope everyone is back home is doing well. I appreciate all the emails and apologize for not being able to write as much as I like but after August 23^rd when I swear in and officially become a Peace Corps volunteer I’ll have nothing but time…

Three Weeks In

We just arrived back from our training village of Vaie'e after two weeks. It was our first taste of real Samoa. I stayed with a family of an unknown size because in Samoa families are very large and decentralized. It seemed that I was always meeting someone every few days who I was related to.
But it was quite intense, we are in 'school' 8-10 hours a day Monday through Saturday and 4-6 hours of that is language training. Then we go home to our families and bumble our way through conversation for a few hours, then pass out and do it the next day. The culture is so different from the US that I don't even know where to begin. I have taken a lot of international business classes where we discussed cultural differences and all the theory behind it but nothing will really prepare you for being immersed in it. That is the part of it that I have really been enjoying. Everyday I learn a hundred new things and at times I feel like my brain is going to explode but I'm so happy to be here. The country is so beautiful and the people are so nice and happy to talk to you. We do attract a lot of attention. Living in one of these villages is like living in an extremely small town where all the houses are open. Gossip is rampant and we are the talk of the village and the surrounding villages at this point. I'll send out some details in a mass email. This picture is of the best fire dancer in Samoa doing a show for us. I wish I could say that my camera was capable of something like that but no... It was from a fellow Volunteer Tim.

Samoan Arrival

Hello everyone from the Southern Hemisphere! I have just hopped into an internet cafe for a few minutes to write a quick update. My group of 15 and I arrived on Wednesday morning at 5am after a 10 hour flight from LA and were greeted by the present Volunteers and the staff in a hot sweaty airport. We checked into a hotel and immediately went to an Ava ceremony given by some of the Samoan staff. I understood a little (none) but it was fun all the same and we got to drink some Ava (Kava) which is quite nice. Now we are beginning more intense language training with some very good and patient teachers and exploring the capital of Apia. The weather is a constant 84 degrees with humidity hovering around 75% making the combined tempurature feel like 100 degrees but the good news is that this is the winter and the humidity will only get worse... Hopefully I'll be used to it come November. Well guys and girls more to come when I have more to say.

EHL Finalé Camping Trip

Well I think I can still feel all the shotguns from that day, damn you Danny. But it was a hell of a time seeing all you guys again! Thanks again everyone (especially Tyler and Ryan, not Connor) for getting my car unstuck out of the snow, twice, in Washington, in late May! It was a good last hoorah and something I'll miss for the next couple of years. Stay in touch!
Ryan getting a quick mount on Billy

Back in Copenhagen

Yes, yes, I was lucky enough to get a chance to go back to the land where the beer flows like wine and the women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Denmark...

Thanks again to all my Danish friends and family for being the most hospitable people in the world and taking me out to experience the real Denmark. You know; Tivoli, water park, firing oranges out of a canon, having a drunken day of school in Haslev, you know whatever...

OK Try This

While sitting in your chair lift your right foot up and make continuous clockwise circles with it. Now in the air with your right hand write the number 6. Can you keep up those clockwise circles?

OR

Read this text out loud as fast as you can

"Acocdrnig to an elgnsih unviesitry sutdy the oredr of letetrs in a wrod dosen't mttaer, the olny thnig thta's iopmrantt is that the frsit and lsat ltteer of eevry word is in the crcreot ptoision. The rset can be jmbueld and one is stlil able to raed the txet wiohtut dclftfuiiy."

Now read this text again, paying attention to each word and you'll probably notice "some" typing errors ;)

OK one more fun one, can you spot the face?
Once you've spotted it once it will jump out at you every time you look at it.

Random Question of the Month

If you were an apiarist what would you be doing for a living? Feel free to answer in the comments link below and try not to google it!

San Joaquin chute

This is a picture of the San Joaquin chute which is the slit down the middle of the circus tent rock wall. I took this from the top of See Forever which is the run that runs the top ridge of the resort and this was taken off the back side of it. Over the course of the season I made friends with some locals who skied the 'dark side' exclusively, one of them being Jaime the crazy hippy who invited me to come telemark some backcountry with him and a couple of his friends. So we exited the resort through the backcountry gate at the top of lift 14 first thing in the morning. We alternated between skinning and bootpacking around the various bowls and finally the right ridgeline all of which took a few hours and we ended up summiting around midday.

This was taken by Jaime about midway down the chute. Lucky for us the three inches of snow we got the day before had windloaded the chute to about six or seven inches. It is not as much of a hairy kitchen wall as it looks from a distance but is still a no-fall zone for the most part. The only really sketchy part is the pitch next to the rock outcropping in the very top right corner of this picture where it gets about as wide as a ski length and briefly becomes a 50 degree slope.
















To the left is Jaime with a view down valley toward Utah's La Sal mountain range (on the horizon). And above is a shot of me, from midway looking down the chute. I decided to put these up because it is probably the most intense thing I've ever skied and definetly the most fun.

Telluride

These first few posts may be a little out of chronological order but oh well. These couple of shots are from Telluride, CO where I worked as a lift operator (lifty) from Nov. 2005 to April 2006. They place is amazingly gorgeous, some of the best mountain scenery I've ever seen. Combine that with over 300 days of sunshine a year makes it quite pleasent.

This is a shot from the top of lift 7 down toward the town which is contained in what is known as Box Canyon. The population is only around 2,400 but could be much higher if rich people actually lived in the expensive houses that they have bought there. A lot of people who work in Telluride can't afford to live there and are forced to live 'down valley' in the towns of Sawpit, Placerville, or Ridgeway and commute everyday.




This picture is from the top of lift 9 shack on a perfectly clear morning without a whisper of wind. The peak in the background is Mt. Wilson. One of the things I liked the most about being a lifty was getting on top of the mountain before anyone else to enjoy the sunrises and 360 degree views especially from the top of lifts 6 and 9.

Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce National Parks (Utah)

On the way back from Telluride Phil (the Kiwi), Patrick (pictured), and I backpacked through some of Utah's national parks. This picture is from inside Canyonalnds which I think all of us thought had the best hiking, constant amazing scenery, and most importantly next to no floundering car tourists.

The weather honestly could have been better. At times it was cold, raining, and on the second night snowing! Good thing I was completely unprepared. But Patrick being the most seasoned mountain man saved Phil and I's asses.

After Canyonlands we migrated our way up to Moab and back to civilization. Arches National Park has some of the most amazing features but sadly most have had a road punched over the landscape so that any tourist group can drive up and snap away. Some of the strangest features have to be the Landscape Arch (pictured left) and the Delicate Arch (below).