TRAITORS!

So it seems that after decades of doing things the American way, those Communist Nazis in Western Samoa have decided to switch sides!!!

I have obtained raw video that starts at the exact moment that the switch took place. Clearly there was chaos in the streets!

More coverage here.

(Seriously, I'm mostly just excited that the international press noticed this part of the world).

More of that Vacation We Took More than a Month Ago!

Thursday, July 23rd

Eat a giant lunch at Hong Kong Palace, then head on over to wait for the commuter flight to The Independent State of Samoa™.

For about seven hours.

Yeah. We were already leaving a day later than we wanted to due to booking issues, and then our flight was delayed by three hours. Then a bit more time. Then there seemed to be a holdup for no apparent reason. At least we weren't wishing that we had spent the day seeing the island, as it was pouring down rain the entire time. Heavily enough to cause at least one of our delays, actually.

So FINALLY we got to board our plane, which was now headed for the much farther away Faleolo Airport, because Fagali'i, the airport where we were originally supposed to arrive, doesn't have lights.

Arrive in Samoa somewhere around 10, still without having eaten dinner. Hire a taxi to the hotel and ride with a fascinating guy who works for Starkist and is absolutely certain that they aren't leaving American Samoa anytime soon, which is awesome. Learn that in a rush to get us out of there 15 minutes earlier, the airline won't bring the checked bags until tomorrow. Learn that we put everything in our carry-on bags, but that our new friend is down to whatever he has in his carry-on bag in the trunk.

Which the bellhop took out with our bags when we arrived at the hotel. Which we didn't notice until the taxi was long gone. With absolutely no way to contact him. Oh well.

Leave his bags at the front desk and check into our awesome bungalow. Order room service for dinner because everything else closes at eleven. Dad's facial expression really says a lot here. Kind of a tired, excited, and relieved face all at once.

Or maybe I'm just posting this because it's one of the only pictures we took the entire day.

Thursday, July 24th

Wake up and see what our bungalow looks like from the outside.


Take a cab to Vailima, Robert Louis Stevenson's old place. Convince the cab driver who must really be having a hard time finding passengers that he does not need to wait for you there all day. Stand on the front porch and take a classic cheesy waving shot.


Decide that it's better to stop and go to bed now rather than in the middle of the tour.

A Really Cool Story that No One Knows About, but You Will After you Read this Post with a Legnthy Title!

Well, I was totally going to keep on blogging about that awesome vacation I had over a month ago, but breaking news events tend to derail everything that I'm doing, and tonight some political figure of some sort appears to have passed away.

So as promised, I won't go more than a week without posting something, so I present to you the tragic tale of (kinda-sorta relatively) nearby Howland Island, which went from a tiny abandoned speck, to a poop-mining center, to a fledgling colony, to the center of an international tragedy, to the target of little-known follow-up attacks the day after Pearl Harbor, to a base hosting around 1,000 Marines, and then back to an abandoned speck. Really quite an interesting read for something I just happened to look at because I saw it on a map in the office.

Still Updating!

I'll tell you what, nothing seems to derail my bloging habits like a multi-part entry. Or is that entries? Or...yeah, let's just get back to it.

We left off on the nearby min-island of Aunu'u, with that wild-looking tree.

Wednesday, July 22nd, Continued


From that tree, take a fairly intense hike through the jungle to a really big tree at the top of the mountain.

Meet a nice local man who lets you take a shortcut through a giant, mostly water-covered, taro plantation.

This is just a little less than half of it.

End up in the back of the village, where no white people are ever seen. Meet a small Samoan boy who points at your dad and exclaims "Palangi!" with awe, like it's the first one he's ever seen. Because it just might be.

Ride another "ferry" back to the main island. Deal with some jerk from Parks and Recreation who can't give you a ticket for parking in the space he considers reserved for him, so he double-parks you in.

Forget about that and go to the umu feast at Tisa's Barefoot Bar.


Enjoy free entertainment while you eat.

Finish another fun-filled day on the Rock with a nice 45-minuite drive back to my apartment.

Let's start something!

All right, I've been a bit lax on the blogging lately because I've been working on the script for an episode of a new local miniseries. Perhaps I'll post the screenplay, but what I'd really like to post is video of the finished product.

Anyhow, I'm going to start something new on this blog. As you may have noticed, sometimes I'm just too busy to make a real post. From now on, when I don't get the chance to blog for just over a week, I'm going to post a link to something interesting/entertaining, preferably something about the Samoas.

So as high school football season begins (which you can now hear on V103 FM, by the way), I don't think there's anything more appropriate than this article on football and poverty in American Samoa. I'll admit that I haven't yet had the chance to read the whole thing. Includes a video for those of you with off-island Internet connections, or like a whole hour to wait for a 7-minute video to load.

Yet Another Update!

Let's see, where did I leave off?

Sunday, July 19th, Continued

Go snorkeling while at Two-Dollar Beach.



Monday, July 20th

Take a vacation from your vacation and relax for a day while Adam is at work. Visit the Star Mound Site and try to figure out what it's supposed to be without being allowed to go on the big viewing platform, because it's apparently decaying.

Tuesday, July 21st

Visit the Turtle and Shark Site, because it's easily one of the most beautiful places on the island and has lots of waves crashing dramatically into lava cliffs, and that makes for good picture-taking.

Get hit by a giant wave while standing up there and then immediately see a shark. Catch it on shaky still camera mpeg video.




Drive all the way down past Leone to That Place that Adam Likes to Take Pictures From.


Wednesday, July 22nd

Drive down to the East End to take the ferry to Aunu'u. Teach Mom how to pronounce Aunu'u correctly (OW-nu-ooh). Discover that the ferry is just a handful of small boats over extremely choppy waters that don't give out life jackets. Go anyway.

"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."

Briefly look at the one village on the island and then begin hiking on the closer loop of the figure-8 trail on the island. Check out the entire lake of quicksand.


Throw rocks in that light brown area and watch them do a weird sandy splash thing. Drop one a thicker spot and watch appear to do nothing at first, then sink down into a bubbly dent in the sand.

Keep following the trail and get a great view of this cool outcropping and more dramatic waves crashing into it.


Also take a look at this, uh, unique tree right on the same beach where you can watch that from.


Decide that this is as good a time as any to end this entry and go to bed.

Another Update!

Okay, now that all of that fun stuff like not working, having my parents here, and getting off of the island for the first time since I got here eight months ago is over, I can get back to blogging! Horray!

With my first guests on the island, and with my first string of more than three days off in a row, I made a startling discovery: There isn't really that much to do here. Especially if your guests aren't completely obsessed with hiking.

But I asked around a lot, borrowed some travel guides, and even browsed through my pictures on my laptop, and was able to scrape together enough for a satisfying seven days on The Rock¹ and 1.5 days in Indie Samoa². Yeah, that's totally what I was doing the entire time I wasn't updating much, and never, ever playing computer games. Nope, nope.

I must also give credit to my awesome girlfriend who came over and helped with completely spearheaded a massive cleanup of The Nest.³ During said cleanup, she taught me important things, like how my water pitcher-filter had been put together wrong (basically making it an ordinary pitcher for the two months that I had owned it), and how my stovetop OPENS UP for easy cleaning!

OMG!

So anyway, I managed to scrape together nearly everything there was to do on the island, and I think they had a pretty good time. And I got to take some pictures with Mom's camera and transfer them to this laptop, so you get to actually see where we went, and I get to pad out this entry with them.

Friday, July 17th

Go on a driving tour of the entire island, directed by the pastor of Adam's church while Adam is working. See first fautasi race and dancing fafafines at Blue Sky's 10th Anniversary festival.

Including a tour of the National Park and the spectacular views it has to offer:

Buffet dinner of Samoan food at the Tradwinds Hotel. Enjoy oka until you learn that it's raw fish. Take in a show of fiafia dancers while you eat your taro chips.



Saturday, July 18th

Lunch at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Hike up to the WWII-era cannons, which happen to offer some spectacular views (More pictures of these and others when I get around to them on my Facebook albums).


Realx at Maliu Mai Resort with some cold beverages and enjoy the view.

Sunday, July 19th

Go to church, meet everyone there and have lunch with them and taste the exotic menu at a strange place called "Carl's Jr." Relax at Two-Dollar Beach. Discover an eel that the local kids say is poisonous but probably isn't.


Get tired and go to bed. Write more later.

¹ American Samoa, not the wrestler who happens to be half Samoan. I'm going to dedicate and entire entry to explaining nicknames given by locals.

² "The Independent State of Samoa.™" I guess I'll have to include nicknames that I made up as well.

³ My apartment. It can get a bit messy.