Miss Samoa

Another September, another Miss Samoa. Here are a few shots of this year's contestants. All in all there about 4 contestants that live in Samoa, and 3 abroad (NZ, Australia, and USA). Miss NZ is in red, Miss Aus. sitting down in lite purple. The other two pics are of local contestants. You gotta love the girl in the rugby ball. Miss USA is very pretty and looks very cool, but i didnt get a good pic of her b.c she was always movin and throwing candy (hence the coolness).

Samoa Boat Race

the fautasi (boat) race was held yesterday in apia. the green boat won. sorry there arent better pics of actually racing.

Miss Samoa

Yeah so I got to meet Miss Samoa a few weeks ago, and I ran to get my camera and brought it back to have my picture taken with her and the f-in batteries were dead. So no picture of me and her, but I thought I would let all of you know anyways. She kissed me on the cheek too! I almost fainted. Her father's family is from my village, and she was back visiting relatives. She's actually my girlfriend's 2nd cousin.

Condi Condi

Almost forgot to post. Condi Rice paid us a visit last month. It was short and sweet. Apparently she was in town to dissuade Samoa from allowing the Chinese to put a satellite here or something like that. She stopped ever so briefly to take a picture with us and say a few words. She actually looks very fit in person, very skinny. She has a very stiff walk though. Maybe it was from all the flying.

Career Day

A career day was had in Apia for highschool students on from both islands last week. Schools, Businesses and Gov't agencies all came and set up booths. Overall I think it was a huge success. For some kids, this was the first time they have gotten to see what is actually out there in the world. Big ups to the Peace Corps volunteers who put the whole thing on. Myself and other volunteers were there to help make things run smoothly. (i.e. fetch water bottles, set up tables, and guard the snack table from hungry students.) Maybe I should have toured the booths and found a career for myself as well.

Training

• Since my group has hit its year mark, halfway mark, and soon to be year in the village mark, I thought I would take you back to what we were doing this time a year ago. Last summer, we spent our time between Apia and the training village in Manunu, Upolu. Here's some pics of that. Lot's of reminiscing as i write this blog. For most of us, our fondest memories are of our time spent together in this village. We were a group, a team, now we are scattered around the two islands and it seems like every month another one of us is leaving.

Me, Jacob, and some of the guys playing homerun derby. This event was not about culture sharing, or teaching new sports to kids. It was about young American men and their need to hit a ball as hard and far as they can. (I won!)

With the financial help of a wealthy American family sailing through the Pacific, we were able to repaint and put new flooring in the Manunu Primary School. It was a festive day of painting and games. It's amazing what how good we look when other people give us money.

An amazing waterfall near Manunu. We spent lots of our free time here. Usually with a host of Samoans. good times...

This is before our big end of training party (fiafia). We performed several dances and a skit, but the real treat was watching the village perform their dances for us. There are only 9 of us left from this group of 16.

The Peace Corps version of "You Got Served." With our fearless leader Niko leading the way, we dueled with a local primary school in an all out dance battle. They were tough, but no match for the "Hokie Pokie" or was it the Chicken Dance?

I'm a father!

...Godfather that is. This is my sister, Loreta, from our training village in Manunu and her new baby boy Peni, named in honor of me. (Peni is my Samoan name.) Although it is common for Samoans to name newborns after a visitor that has spent some time with them, I am flattered and incredibly honored nonetheless. A child in this world carries my namesake. The first time i saw Peni, he smiled at me. I think I'll have a connection with this kid. After all, it seems only fitting that I be the godfather considering I could hear him being conceived during training last June. So much for privacy in Samoa. haha...