midservice

this pig and dog (seeming to be the only of each kind on the island) were best friends. the pig also tried to get a little too friendly with most of us. if they only knew how different life was on the mainland.

Beach Fales...

Pretty small group huh? Niko was a no show. I left right after this picture.

Land!!!!

this was our middle of service break where we got to go stay at some beach fales on a tiny island off the eastern coast of upolu called namu'a. i only spent one night there b.c i had to go back to the village to do some filming for our project, but everybody said it was fun.

White Sunday

This is basically xmas in samoa. this is the one day of the year where kids are given gifts (new church clothes) and treated special (first to eat, and maybe ice cream for desert!) they also run the show at church doing plays and songs and dances. samoans always look sharp on sundays, and this particular day even moreso. here are some shots...

my girl, her sis, and little cousin who i really want to adopt. haha. she loves to talk to me but is terrified to get near me. like most kids.

the girls are in costume. they normally dress way better than that.

the cutest kids in the world!

at least one of us is good looking. my sweetheart.

my girl's sister, brother and baby cousin. how cute is that baby!

some play about a king who had a dream and something happened. im fluent in samoan, but not bible samoan. kinda like my english.

octopus hunting

one day while not catching fish with my fishing pole, i decided to go fishing for octopi with my neighbor. its actually quite interesting. just swim/wade around in the shallow reef and look down holes to see if anyone is home. it they are, fire at will. do ur best to spear it and pull it out of the hole by any means necessary. (some dont go all that willingly) once out, slam it on top of the water a few times to kill it good, and then loop it on ur belt and go looking for the next hole. my neighbor on the right is pretty good. im not that good. octopus taste really good.

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.