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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No, the Internet is not lying to you! I REALLY updated my blog!
Been really busy lately hanging out with Steph, my new lady-friend, and planning a trip with my parents to The Nation Formerly Known as Western Samoa. Also been busy at work, but I've only ever made a few really short blog posts from there.
Anyhow, I've found lots of really cool things to do in Western like an underwater cave pool, lava tunnels, watching fire dancers, swimming with sea turtles, and much much more! And by that last one, I mean that I'm not even halfway through reading the guidebook yet.
I also got a LOT of stuff stolen from me when, as I put it on my Facebook status, my pants were stolen, along with their complete contents. I was out paddling in my bathing suit by the Yacht Club and had left my pants partially hiddend under the picnic bench where they always went. The pants, along with my wallet, keys, cell phone, and still camera were stolen. Of course I hated myself for leaving them out like that, but not as much as whoever took them.
A day or two later, that same guidebook told everyone planning a visit here to not ever, ever, ever let their on stuff out of their sight, because in Samoan culture, "stealing isn't really a sin," mostly due to communal concepts of ownership.
NOW I learn that!
Oh well, learning that now is less annoying than how in the moments right after all that stuff getting taken, the only thing that 9 out of 10 people (both Samoan and white) could do was tell me that I shouldn't have left them out, which basically just starts the self-loating phase before I'm even ready to concede that my stuff is really gone.
Where I'm from, the culture is very different. Very few people who saw a pair of pants lying there would think to steal them.¹ In fact, they'd probably think that going through another man's pants is pretty gay.
The really bad part is that this is actually the third thing that I have had stolen from me. My iPod was stolen a few months ago from my car (I think because I didn't notice that the window was stuck open, because I'm pretty good about locking it), my shoes were stolen from the Yacht Club when I accidentally left them there overnight, and now this. Perhaps the same person stole them all, and there's a Samoan kid walking around with an iPod full of loud punk music, a pair of shoes that don't fit him, and a really worn-out phone with the theme from The Office as it's ringtone.²
At least now I have finally learned to keep everything behind at least five padlocks and six guard dogs³, because stuff WILL get stolen here. It's probably a good thing that I couldn't upadate this blog for so long, because without some time to cool off, I'd be talking about how I feel like I'm on an island full of kleptos. But I'd never say nor imply that, not even in the slyest indirect manner. Nope, nope, nope.
On a completly unrelated note, I was saddened to learn of a recent celebrity passing. One who moved us all on many occasions. Yes, Billy Mays, the infomercial guy and star of the Discovery Channel's Pitchmen died today at age 50. Love him or hate him, her was a great salesman, which is apparently really, really important in my industry. Here is the best tribute YouTube has to offer, a gangsta rap remix.
I also want to share this great Fark posting, which I had planned on tellin Mays about after I become a Hollywood bigshot and meet him.
First poster: "Billy Mays is an underappreciated genius. He could read the phonebook, and I would find it amusing."
Second poster: "BILLY MAYS HERE FOR THE WHITE PAGES! LOOK, ARE YOU TIRED OF SEARCHING THROUGH COUNTLESS ROLODEX CARDS LOOKING FOR PHONE NUMBERS? TIRED OF LOOKING THROUGH COMPUTER FILES, PAPER FILES, EVEN THROUGH OLD MATCHBOOK COVERS OR BUSINESS CARDS? WELL THEN LOOK NO MORE!
WITH THE WHITE PAGES YOU GET MEN'S NAMES! WOMEN'S NAMES! YOUNG PEOPLE'S NAMES! SENIOR CITIZEN'S NAMES! EVEN FOREIGN NAMES! AND IT'S ALL ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY! WHAT COULD BE EASIER?
AND IF YOU CALL RIGHT NOW, IN ADDITION TO THE WHITE PAGES, WE'LL INCLUDE THE YELLOW PAGES ABSOLUTELY FREE! HUNDREDS UPON HUNDREDS OF PAGES OF NAMES AND NUMBERS OF BUSINESSES YOU WANT TO TALK TO, ALSO ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY BY BUSINESS TYPE! YOU WANT A CHINESE TAKE OUT? BOOM! RIGHT THERE! YOU NEED A PROCTOLOGIST? BAM! HERE'S A DOZEN OF THEM RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS... AND THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU!
AND IF YOU CALL IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES, WE'LL ALSO INCLUDE THE GOVERNMENT PAGES! THAT'S RIGHT, RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK, YOU'LL GET A COMPLETE LIST OF GOVERNMENT SERVICE PHONE NUMBERS -- FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL! -- WITHOUT THE EMBARRASSMENT OF ACCIDENTALLY CALLING 9-1-1 FOR NON-EMERGENCIES!
SO RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR, YOU GET THE WHITE PAGES, THE YELLOW PAGES, AND THE GOVERNMENT PAGES! A $199 VALUE, FOR ONLY $19.95 PLUS SHIPPING! CALL NOW!"
¹Also, in the mainland there would have been lockers to store things in and an adequate number of parking spaces, so that I could have parked nearby and kept my stuff in my car, but that's just me feeling bitter.
²If you see him, you have my permission to hurt him.
³This part is easy. Dogs are really plentiful here.
That's right, everyone! You get a post with two (somewhat) new photo albums for the price of one, one of which has never before been posted to my Facebook news feed, so no one only one or two of you have ever seen it before! Grand Samoan Adventure, Part Lima (5)- Captions that I don't think many of you have seen.
