Quick highlights

Malo!

I know it's been about forever since I last posted; Internet has been infrequent. So much has happened since my last post, I don't even know where to start! I've decided the best way to do this (and the easiest for you to follow, since I don't think anyone wants to read a novel about my life) is bullet point format. Here goes:

Hawaii Highlights:

• farming taro in a running-water taro patch
• seeing "lava" flow, watching ancient hulu dances, and hearing traditional Hawaiian folktales at the Bishop museum
• having a bouncer at a club think I'd been drinking and taking away my ID, which I think he thought was a fake, although it clearly says I am only 20 (okay, not a highlight. but kind of a funny story.)
• meeting a woman from Vermont on the beach in Waikiki and having an hour-long conversation with her and Lindsay (another girl on my trip, who is from Middlebury and goes to UVM) about how awesome Vermont is
• going on a day-long tour of Oahu in the bed of a pick-up truck, stopping at view points, fruit stands, and beaches all around the island

 Random/Strange/Different Things about Samoa:

• showers are cold. There's no running hot water
• it's okay because it really hot all the time. and it's so humid that it feels like you're taking a hot shower. 
• most people live in fale Samoa, which are roofed platforms, basically. They only have "walls" when the inhabitants roll down cloth blinds if it's raining or for privacy (very rare).
• Most fale are painted bright colors and are adorned in all kinds of designs.
• 50% of the country's population is under the age of 18, so there are kids everywhere (and they're adorable!)
• white people are called "palagi" (with the "g" pronounced as in "song" or "tongue") so the kids will all shout "fa palagi!" as you walk by. they think it's hilarious.
• they also therefore call sunblock "palagi lotion." You can't find it anywhere so I'm glad I brought three bottles of it with me. 
• instead of putting trash out on the street in garbarge cans for collections, like in the US, they put little bags of trash on raised platforms about five feet off the ground. I have no idea why.
• family members are buried in raised graves right outside houses. People kind of just sit around on grandma's grave. 

Samoa Highlights:

• going to a Samoan Catholic church with Jackie (our Academic Director) last sunday. I finally realize what it's like for people who aren't Jewish and don't speak Hebrew to go to Shabbat services. 
• eating the traditional Samoan Sunday lunch, or To'ona'i. Men wake up early in the morning to build the outdoor oven and the food (described in the next section) bakes while everyone is at church. The kids sit and fan your food while you eat so no flies get in it.
• buying/ wearing the traditional Samoan clothing. Lavalava are very comfortable!
• exploring Apia, the capital city (about a 10-minute drive from Alafua, where I live).
• buying fresh fruit from the fruit market and speaking to the women in Samoan ('E fia le tau?-- What is the price?; Pisi le aso?-- Busy day?)
• staying in a beach fale in lolomanu this weekend. For less than 35 US$ I got three delicious meals, a comfortable room on the sand with waves breaking four feet away, the tradtional fiafia (fire dancing show), snorkling in the reef, dancing at the "disco," and more!
• visiting the Bahai temple (amazingly gorgeous grounds, fantastic views of the island)
• seeing the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum and hiking to his grave, then swimming in the creek at the bottom with some local kids
• walking to Sliding Rock, where, you guessed it, we slid down rocks! Awesomely fun natural water slides and jumping rocks. 

Amazing Samoan Food:

• oka: raw fresh fish (literally caught that day) with veggies in coconut milk and lemon juice
• palusami: taro leaves and cocnut milk wrapped in banana leaves and baked in the umu
• something I don't know the name of: chicken and onions baked in coconut milk, in the coconut
• fresh fruit from the market downtown: papayas, three different types of bananas including red ones, passion fruit, pineapple, oranges, lychees, star fruit, mangoes, things I don't know the names of
• baked breadfuit and taro to dip in palusami
• fresh-caught fish
• whole roast pig
• fe'e: octupus (soo good)
• unfortunately, the food in the dining hall is not as good. We got hot dogs and peanut butter for breakfast today.

I'll try to write more later. Sorry I couldn't get into details/ analysis/ thoughts/ feelings/ etc., but I have a research paper to write and the library closes in 20 minutes!

Fa'afetai lava mo faitau! Tofa le soifua!
(Thanks for reading! Goodbye and good wishes!-- it sounds better in Samoan)

love,
Leah