I’m Not Smelly and Gross like I Thought I Would Be

Before I left for Samoa I started what I liked to call me transformation, or so I thought. I stopped shaving my arms (don’t ask me why I did this, it was something left over from high school), I stopped straightening my hair, I stopped dying my hair, and I promised myself I would only shave every two or three days. I want to prepare to be a smelly hairy lady. I was sure that in the Peace Corp I would just have to forget all about my personal hygiene and get over it. This has not been the case, in fact far from it. I shower twice a day here, I get to wash and condition my hair every day. I shave everyday. I have to wear my hair up most of the time but I have come up with some pretty cute takes on the twist bun. I give myself a manicure and a pedicure once a week. I pluck my eyebrows. I brush and floss my teeth twice a day and wear my retainer every night. I have had a couple skin problems with bug bites and rashes, but in my new house this is not a problem. I’m not even breaking out in the humid weather because my face is being washed so often. I even wear cute clothes and make up when I go into town. I’m not this scabby, smelly, hairy and very unfeminine, unattractive person I thought I would be. In fact I think that all this time is making me more hygienic then I was in college. There were many a nights I skipped a shower to cram for a test, or went out and came home to crash with out even taking of my make up. It seems I maybe be more hygienic here in Samoa then I was in the United States. The truth of it is I could probably get away with not doing these things here in Samoa but it is one of my ways to keep hold of some part of me. Maybe I will become smelly and hairy later because I will realize how unimportant these beauty rituals are, but right not they make me feel good. So many things changed but I am really enjoying that my odor is not one of them. 

Making Pizza for the Family

Since I don’t buy my own food I have decided the best way to contribute to the house (as they wont let me buy groceries or contribute money) is to cook a nice meal for the whole family ones a month. For my first attempt I chose pizza. I ventured into town and got the necessary ingredients. When I asked what my family liked on pizza their answers were all different and generally included pineapple and an egg, two things I would never put on a pizza. After a little back and forth it was decided for the first attempt I should make my favorite kind and let them try it. My eldest sister and her husband seemed like they had had pizza several times before and were excited at the prospect. The rest of my family seemed excited but apprehensive. So I got my favorite toppings, onions, garlic, pepperoni, and green olives, I was going to call it an “Italian”. I though this was pretty funny as pizza itself was Italian. I brought the ingredients home and decided to tackle the most daunting element of the dish, the base. I had made pizza base from scratch before but it was probably five to ten years ago as part of an adventure with my father. Now it was go time and I was on my own. The first hurdle I encountered was yeast. I didn’t buy any. I though yeast was for big fluffy loaves of bread not flat crispy pizza. I checked the recipe again and thought maybe I could do with out it. Then I saw my host mother had some self-rising flower. Maybe that would help. So I used the original recipe but with self-rising flour hoping to compensate for the lack of yeast. Then I added all the ingredients and stated kneading. I left it to rise for half an hour like the recipe said, but upon the completed time it didn’t seem that the dough had risen very much. It had also gotten quit tough and dry, even though it had been covered. I thought this must just been normal and persevered. I pounded on the dough ferociously until it finally lay across the bottom of the pan. It was about half an inch thick but I just couldn’t physically get it any thinner, the dough was just too tough.  Of course my pizza had an incredibly thick and dense crust but over all I wouldn’t call it a complete failure. It was still very tasty and the toppings and sauce were delicious. We had a blast making it my two sisters watched me like hawks and giggled at my every move. I brought out my speakers and we all listen to some English music while it cooked. I was a fun experience and I had a great time. They all raved about how delicious it was, although it was agreed that next time there should be less flour. I didn’t win over my youngest sister, but my cousin smelt it from next door and made a special trip over just to try it. So next time going to use yeast and add a little more water to the mix, also going to spilt the dough up and make two thinner bases. Many lessons were learnt and I will never forget the looks of disgust and horror when I had my sisters try a pepperoni.

Some Days are Harder then Others

From my blog you can see that I don’t under go much physical hardship. My life is very comfortable in a material sense. I don’t sleep on dirt floors or even shower from a bucket. I definitely don’t have the luxuries of home but my needs are all meet. I safe, well fed, clean, and over all very physically comfortable. This does not mean that my time here as been a piece of cake. So far everything is still very new and exciting and this tends to overshadow nerves and doubts. I try and go out side everyday and look around and let the wonder of this place push aside any negative thoughts. There are days that this just doesn’t seem to work. There are days when the loneliness gets to you no matter how many people are in the room with you. There are days when you wake up and wonder what you are doing here. This happens a lot right now, as school hasn’t started yet so we haven’t started working. We spend our days sitting around, sleeping, reading, and if your lucking getting out of the house a bit for a walk. This question “why am I here” has become harder and harder to answer. This temporary gap in time between training and work has reeked havoc on our moral. We aren’t emotional or mental comfortable in our surroundings yet and we don’t have a purpose to push us through it. School will start soon and we will be able to bury ourselves in our work. The answer will become clear again and I know that it will all start to make sense. There will still be hard days, plenty of them I’m sure, but I didn’t join Peace Corp because I though it would be easy. I didn’t join Peace Corp to read romance novels all day either. This in between time has been tough on all of us. We were so busy during training we didn’t have time to face a lot of our emotional demons, but we have had nothing but time for the last few weeks. We have made sure to see as much of each other as we can. It really helps to renew your purpose and make us feel like we’re not in this alone. Over all the good days always out number the bad and the smiles out number the tears. There are moments of hardship and confusion but I just keep remembering to look forward a push on because greatness is coming, and like I said it always helps to look around and let your self be swept away by the wonderment. 

Some Days are harder then others

From my blog you can see that I don’t under go much physical hardship. My life is very comfortable in a material sense. I don’t sleep on dirt floors or even shower from a bucket. I definitely don’t have the luxuries of home but my needs are all meet. I safe, well fed, clean, and over all very physically comfortable. This does not mean that my time here as been a piece of cake. So far everything is still very new and exciting and this tends to overshadow nerves and doubts. I try and go out side everyday and look around and let the wonder of this place push aside any negative thoughts. There are days that this just doesn’t seem to work. There are days when the loneliness gets to you no matter how many people are in the room with you. There are days when you wake up and wonder what you are doing here. This happens a lot right now, as school hasn’t started yet so we haven’t started working. We spend our days sitting around, sleeping, reading, and if your lucking getting out of the house a bit for a walk. This question “why am I here” has become harder and harder to answer. This temporary gap in time between training and work has reeked havoc on our moral. We aren’t emotional or mental comfortable in our surroundings yet and we don’t have a purpose to push us through it. School will start soon and we will be able to bury ourselves in our work. The answer will become clear again and I know that it will all start to make sense. There will still be hard days, plenty of them I’m sure, but I didn’t join Peace Corp because I though it would be easy. I didn’t join Peace Corp to read romance novels all day either. This in between time has been tough on all of us. We were so busy during training we didn’t have time to face a lot of our emotional demons, but we have had nothing but time for the last few weeks. We have made sure to see as much of each other as we can. It really helps to renew your purpose and make us feel like we’re not in this alone. Over all the good days always out number the bad and the smiles out number the tears. There are moments of hardship and confusion but I just keep remembering to look forward a push on because greatness is coming, and like I said it always helps to look around and let your self be swept away by the wonderment. 

Things I love about My Samoan Setup

• My room is really huge, clean, and nice
• My electricity is totally reliable
• My family feeds my delicious food, including veggies and loads of fruit!! (Not usually the case in Samoan families)
• My family is small and there are no young children, meaning I actually have quite a bit of privacy and freedom
• I have two sisters my age so I’m not treated like a child (too much)
• There are almost no bugs in my house!! I don’t even have to use a mosquito net at night
• I hung up my an American flag and a Texas flag in my room as well as all my Christmas letters so my room is starting to feel homey
• I get to look at turquoise water every morning
• I have started jogging in the morning and its actually so beautiful here that jogging has become one of my favorite things of the day (we will see if this lasts)
• My village is big enough that not everyone knows all my business all the time, but small enough that people are friendly and approachable
• The church I got to with my family is pretty modern and services are only an hour (my last families church services were almost three)
• INDOOR BATHROOMS, and they’re clean…one of them even has tile in the shower (definitely a total luxury in Samoa)
• My family gives my a lot of freedoms, like jogging on my own and taking the bus… they have started letting me do dishes some time so this is a huge step. Next I’m going to work on getting to do my own laundry.
• My family has a TV and American movies come on every day around lunch, which is when it rains the hardest, and I’m stuck in the house.
• I’m not to far from town so I can use the internet about once a week, probably every two weeks once school starts
• Sea turtles are my favorite animals and they are like the national animal here so their pictures are every where (when I dive I will get to see them for real)
• Going for walks with my sister when the sun isn’t to strong
• Getting to play volleyball some afternoons
• Hot meals because my family has a microwave. Meals here are prepared in advanced during the day so usually things aren’t always hot… I get them micro waved!
• Swimming in the ocean if someone in my family is free to take me
• Once a month I get to cook a meal for my family! This month I did pizza and it was pretty successful!
• I love all the little kids in my village who wave and give me a huge smile every time they see me
• My family drinks bottled water so I don’t worry about getting sick from the water… I don’t even have to use a filter or boil it
• Sometimes my sisters let me crack coco beans with them and this is actually really fun as well as lots of work
• If I’m really lucky I get to hold a small child or a babe on the bus…these days always end up being really good ones
• My mother is a seamstress so she fixed all my pulatasis that were two or three sizes too big
• My brother in law is a taxi driver so when I get stranded, which has already happened once… he can pick me up

In conclusion I was a little wary of being one of the only Peace Cores living with a family but as you can see there are a lot of perks and in the end I am so thankful for my situation. Yes I don’t cook my own food, and yes I don’t have as much privacy or freedom…. But I have an indoor bathroom and much more. 

New Years in Falealupo

The journey began with a trip into Apia on Thursday to grad supplies for the weekend and to pick up Lindsey and Sam. After a crazy day running around it was back to Samatau with my first houseguests in tow. We came home to two wonderful surprises. My family had moved a double bed (from where, I’m not really sure) into my room so the girls wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor, and we where having spaghetti for dinner. WE get a lot of canned spaghetti here in Samoa, but it is usually inside a sandwich and I don’t really count it as spaghetti. This was real spaghetti in real tomato sauce, with onions, garlic, spices, and chicken. Then it was off to watch a family reunion siva (dance). We were even called up to do some Samoan dancing ourselves. Then it was off to bed early to prepare for the big day. We took the eight o’clock ferry to Savaii. There are two boats and we got to take the newer one complete with indoor seating, café and televisions. We opted for the upper deck and watched the world float by. It was my first time one the ferry and also my first time getting a close look at the little islands in between the two big islands. One of them had a perfect volcanic caldera, (thank you papa the geologist…. I think that’s right) and it was spectacular. Then we made landfall to be greeted by some of the Savaii volunteers. We all piled in a Taxi van and headed to Falealupo the most Western point before the date line. We were going to be the last people in the world to celebrate the New Year. The drive was long and very windy, after we got off the main road it seemed like we were on some long lost treasure hunt on dirt roads cut through the jungle winding down the lava rock cliffs. Eventually we got to the little town of Falealupo and then to the beach fales we were staying at. From the pictures below you can see it was breath taking and as you can see from our fales it was an adventure. We spent the first day swimming and exploring the reefs, then playing volleyball in the rain. Later we cleaned up as best we could and started celebrating the approach of midnight…at around 4pm. It was a great time with Birthday cake for one of our volunteers, dancing under the stars in the sand, and general shenanigans. I will never forget looking up at the sky and realizing there was more white then black. The star were unimaginable, it was like a close up of one of those pictures they shoot from the telescope. The New Year was celebrated in every time zone in America as each of us hale from a different region. Then finally it was midnight and we brought in the New Year with great cheer. The next day we played baseball in the sand and soaked up the sun. Our last night in the fales proved to be a rainy so we occupied ourselves with beverage games, charades and late night secret sharing with much laughter. The next day it was back on the bus and we waved good-bye to paradise. I spent one night in Jenny’s fale on the North side of the island. She has her own fale and it was fun to imagine us having girly sleepovers there in the coming years. The trip was fantastic, but after a couple days of lots of travel and lots of fun, I was ready to get back to my house and family…. and catch up on some sleep. Happy New Year everyone!!

News Years in Pics

Base ball on the beach

Pitching in a Santa Hat

Beach Fale

The View

Boys hanging at the Fale

Birthday Cake

The Birthday Girl

Girls 

Me and Linds