random pics

some volleyball at the Neiafu-uta Methodist church. the turn-off in the background takes you down to my house. the little hut is where we wait for the bus.

some kids jumping rope in front of the house. they are standing on the cement strip used for pitching the cricket ball.

this is the wharf at salelologa where the boat takes us to upolu island. im standing at the peace corps office.

school fence part 2

Very close to the finished product. just some more pipe to go between the poles at the bottom and we will be done. Hopefully next we will plant some fruit trees on the school compound for the kids to eat for lunches. we'll see..... Oh yeah, these pics are with my new camera, so hopefully it wont take me two months to put up a new blog.

Neiafu Primary School Fence

work around this gate took longer than expected and ate up more material than we budgeted for. but im sure it will look nice.
except for a few days when all the manpower in the village came out to cement poles and build up the stone fence, all the work has been done by a few dependable workers that u see in these pics. it hasnt been easy at times.
its actually a nice view when u are coming down the road and see the gate. the tree on the right there helps hide a few out-of-level posts.
im carrying the brick over to another area because we only have one grinder, and one electrical outlet, one hammer, one level, one hacksaw, one trawel, one measuring tape, and some days only one shovel. i bet you can guess how convenient that is.
this little gate and the steps we built for it kicked my ass. plain and simple.


i know it's been a while. sorry. my camera is broken so i dont really have any new pics of anything and im not really one to blog w/o pictures. but my buddy spencer from group 80 came down to help us with the fence last week and he took some pics. looks like we hit the foreign aid jackpot again and got a $32k (about $11.5k US) dollar grant from Australia to build a primary school fence. this project hit the ground even before our tank project was finished, so ive had no problem, or time for that matter, in finding another project to do. the purpose of this fence is to keep pigs, dogs, and cows off school property to provide a safer (animal shit-free) school ground. also to help beautification or agricultural projects now that animals wont be there to eat everything u plant. hopefully with the help of some villagers i will start planting fruit trees there in a few months. and with any luck and extra material, i will get enough people on board to build a recycling bin. (highly doubtful)

Deep Sea Fishing!

a little slice of the good life. doesnt get much fresher than that.

check out that bad boy. 8 or 9 feet tip to tip. a sailfish caught off the southern coast of upolu. not sure about the weight. i guess this ends my fishing streak of bad luck, although charter fishing isnt really fishing. its more like just riding in a boat for a couple hours while the 1st mate sets the lines. you do have the option of reeling it in though.

Group 81 Fiafia

the samoan "taupou" (ceremonial virgin)

quite possibly the last "man dance." the next group doesnt come till next october.

This was held right after midservice last month. Sorry I've been busy...

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.