Neiafu Water Tank Project

this is my major peace corps project that i was lucky enough to get funding for through the UNDP (United Nations). We are building 50 ferro-cement water tanks at the edges of villagers houses to catch the rain water rolling off of the roof. for about 10 families, this will be their first water tank and will greatly improve their standard of living. the other 40 will go to families with very old/leaking tanks, or families in need of another tank due to family size. again, there is no running water system or rivers in my section of the island and villagers are 100% depenedent on water tanks like these. hopefully these pics, give you an idea of how its done. its all concrete and and wire. the body and roof are made using sheet metal forms, 2x4's, angle cut 2x6's and samoan tree branches. and yes i am not just taking pictures, im busting my butt too! most of the people you see in these pictures are village matai (chiefs) in my peace corps committee that i have been working with on this project and will continue to work with on other projects next year. the grant was for $86K samoan (about $35k US). this covers the $1600 (samoan) materials cost per tank. the family must pay $200 (samaoan) for carpenter's fees as well as feed the workers (us) for the 3 meals that we will be working at their house. i have been eating like a king during this project. more to come on the water tanks...

laundry day! bathing day!

from may to november, the water hole at neiafu-tai is a pretty popular spot. (acutally its pretty popular year round, but esp. during the dry season.) believe it or not we have an incredibly dry month of april and may, and for some families, the water in the water tank is strictly for drinking from here until rainy season. this means that everyone and their mother is at the bathing hole doing laundry, bathing, or just enjoying some fun in the sun! (not really) these pools are a mixture of sea water and natural spring water. the small one is much better for bathing, but as you can see, it gets compromised rather quickly with detergent. here are some pics of some women doing their laundry at the water. my beautiful girlfriend, about to do her laundry, and also my g/f and her little brother playing with other kids in the pool. the view is unbeatable here. sometimes i go here just to sit and watch the ocean from the rocks. sunsets are amazing. this also gives you a front row seat to watch the fisherman going out to sea.

meet the fam

this is my samoan host family. from left to right it is my brother esela, mother vineta, father pati (robert), sister delilah, brother feleki (fred), my little brother lope(robert), sister gasetoto, and little bro marvin. marvin is actually a grandson. his mother lives in new zealand but being the first born, he was given to the grandmother (vineta) to raise. not sure how common that is, but its certainly not uncommon either. this pic was taken at the house in neiafu-uta where pati, esela, delilah, and mormon missionaries live. i mainly live with vineta and my little brothers at their other house in neiafu-tai. gasetoto is a teacher in Apia, and feleki goes to Nat'l University of Samoa in Apia. Delilah is an 8th grade teacher at the Neiafu Primary School where marvin and lope go to school, also where i try to help out. not really sure if im helping though. vineta and pati run their two stores at their two houses.

coconuts!

im gonna be very sad the day i find myself living in a place where i can't send a kid up a tree to fetch me some coconuts. actually drinking the young coconut (in pic) is not as popular as you may think. they usually wait until they mature and fall to the ground where they are then used as pig food, snacks, and all of your coconut cream sauces come from the mature nuts. but every once in a while ill get a kid to drop down a bunch and then we have a big coconut smashing/drinking party. its great. yes this kid is about 50 feet up in the air and yes i climbed a coconut tree and yes i got the nuts and yes i scraped and chafed just about my entire body in the process. no i will not climb a tree that high. this is one of those tall trees in the background of the cricket picture below.

kirikiti!

this is samoan cricket,

the thing about samoa is that they get a lot of their palagi (white people) culture from new zealand and austrailia, so even lots of the "adopted from europeans" samoan things are still new to us americans. while it makes a great picture, samoan cricket is painfully slow, and i cant seem to sit through a match or play one. the kids version is a bit more similar to baseball and much more fun. that i like to play. mainly because im better than them.

bed bugs

now i know why they say sleep tight, dont let the bed bugs bite. something horrible was infested in my bed for a few months and it culminated in a week of pure itching torture. while better now, im rarely without at least one bite somewhere between my knees and ribs. seems to be something i will just have to deal with while im here.

siva!

the samoan siva (dance) is one of the most graceful, beautiful things you will ever see. i on the other hand and not. thats me showing them how we do it in the country. this was at a fundraiser the women's committee had to raise money. theres no audience. they are mainly just dancing for themselves. each woman is required to donate a certain amount. where that money goes? i have no idea.

where i live

well this is my house. nestled into the beautiful village of Neiafu, Savaii in Western Samoa. i have to be honest, it does have the million dollar view. lord knows what a piece of land like this would go for in the states. unlike hawaiians, samoans own all of their own land, although there is a bill in parliament right now that might change that. the other view is from my house looking out towards the ocean, and the third is from the village bathing pool looking back toward the beach and village. it sure is nice to have this view everyday. maybe if i do a good enough job here, they will give me a piece of land to settle down on. a thought that has seriously crossed my mind a time or two. those are breadfruit trees in the yard in front of my house. you either have taro, boiled green bananas, or breadfruit with every meal. or sometimes they are a meal in itself. this tree is what the hms bounty was after to bring back to the carribean to feed slaves.

baseball

sorry to all those good baseball players out there that never got to play on a national team. i did! my childhood dreams came true in november when i suited of for the samoan national team and participated in international competition vs. american samoa. i was a bit rusty but i played really well. 1 for 5, lots of hard hit balls though, a few rboe, and played a solid shortstop.

too bad im much stronger and in much better shape now than in highschool. this is the samoan national team. baseball is brand new here in samoa, and we are trying to get it off the ground. the govt isnt helping much at all though, and i cant put too much time into it b.c im on the rural island of savaii. hopefully i will be able to help them and work with them more during the dry season which is now. IF YOU WANT TO DONATE ANY EQUIPMENT, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! we need anything and everything.

shark!

this was a 4 and a half footer they caught a few months ago. all u need is some fishing line, pig guts, and a big ass spear (trident style). they stand on the rocks above the shore and attract the sharks with the bait, once they get close enough, spear it like a spartan. its not too easy though. u might starve if u stick to only this method of fishing. it sure makes me feel safe knowing that im swimming with fish like this everyday. thats a watertank in the background there. u see the pipe running off the roof into the tank and the spigot at the bottom. no need to filter. its from the heavens.

"The Breeze"

this is my prized possession of my first 1/3rd of service in neiafu. i bought the boat for $300 samoan tala, and my neighbor threw in a fine mat, weaved by his wife from pandanus leaves (valued at around $200 tala). one pic is of his wife and a friend weaving a mat similar to the one used in my purchase. nearly every women in the village weaves these, and they are can be used for anything from paying village fines, wedding gifts, funeral offerings, and of course to buy things like boats, virtually anything . sharing the boat has worked out fine, since i can use it whenever i want (daytime) and my neighbor can use it whenever he wants (nighttime.) the paint job is of my own doing. i happen to think it looks damn good. sadly however "the breeze" no longer exists. at the rate at which it gets repaired (i've wrecked it twice) and repainted, it was too tough to keep the paint job up, so just a plain coat of red covers the body now. not to mention the superstitions of having a boat in samoa with an american flag paint job. not that i beleive in superstitions, but the samoan seas can be tough enough, so i sure dont need any extra karma against me.

time to grow

taking almost as long as this blog to come about is my vegetable garden. alas we have cleared some land and have planted some seeds. chinese cabbage (bok choy), watermelon, beans, and some samoan tree/plant (maybe called a drumstick tree) have been planted directly in the garden while basil and green peppers are first being planted in seed boxes inside. all have sprouted except for the unidentified samoan tree, and the peppers. the weeds and rocks are a nightmare. the tree there on the left of the picture is a banana tree which there are tons of in samoa. the other elephant ear-looking plant is the taro. a root crop (similar but much better tasting and more nutritious than a potato) which is the staple of samoa and all other pacific islands. perhaps this is why the samoans grow so strong. it is nicknamed the samoan steriods (neither are part of our veggie garden) the cash crop of the garden (the cabbage) is under the dreid coconut leaves in the background. this is a project undertaken with my host father at his house in neiafu-uta, a good mile and a half uphill from me, so i will be relying on him to do most of the watering and transplanting, since i am not there at the only times of the day that he will work in the garden. (crack of dawn and dusk).

track n field

we had a track n field day in the village a few weeks ago. the neiafu team did realy well. possibly b.c we hosted the competition and are one of the few villages who's kids run and play on sand everyday. rumor has it that our boys 4x1 relay has the best time on savaii right now. finals are in apia in a few weeks. apia better look out. the girl on the left with the baton is our best runner. she will be representing us in apia in a few events.

just another night's work

these are the fishermen in my village heading out for another night of fishing. they go out at sundown and come home about an hour or so after sunrise. someday i will do that too, just as soon as i get over the fact that i will be in a tiny little canoe in a huge ocean and in the dark for 12 of the 13 hours im out there. oh yeah, trying to catch fish that hopefully are big, but not big enough to eat me. and actually thats the easy part. getting out past the breakers (i.e. wave on the left of pic) and coming back inside in the mornings is actually the hard part. this picture was on a very calm day. normally i am out there in the evenings helping the men get out past the waves and helping save them and the boat when they dont make it. but its ok, they make it about 60% of the time. the boats are in about 2 feet of water now, but past the waves, it deepens out to 10,20,50, and so on. in the mornings they sell their catch, or give it away in the form of payment for a favor done in the past, or to be done in the future.

volleyball

we just had a volleyball tourny in the village yesterday. it still amazes me how hard these guys can spike the ball. its like nothing ive ever seen in the states. but then again i havent seen too much men's volleyball in the states. this is at the state of the art mormon church just built last year. thats my g/f's brother leaping high in the air. the neiafu team is on the far side. we lost in the finals to a nearby village. they seem to take defeat and poor refereeing a lot better than americans do.

Finally!

Sorry it only took me 11 months into service to set up my blog. I'll try to give you lots of current stuff as well as some old stuff too. Please have patience. This is my first time. Here goes...