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.