I get my tropical isle after all!!!

Well folks, guess what! I get my tropical isle after all!!! I learned late Wednesday that I will be going to Samoa - leaving home on June 4th for Los Angeles then a 10 hour redeye to Samoa leaving on the 6th. I will be working in the Village Based Development Project. I'll let you know what that means after I get there and find out myself. Right now all I know is that my post will be in a small village and my primary task will not be working with computers.

When I got the call informing me that our Guyana training class had been cancelled I was in a state of shock for a couple of days. It was only 18 more days and I would have been on my way. I had really gotten used to the whole idea and wandered around the house feeling like I had lost a really good friend. But it is amazing how much better I feel now that I get to go to the Pacific, which was my region of choice to begin with.


So, now. A little about Samoa. Formerly known as "Western Samoa" or "Independent Samoa" the country now called just Samoa consists of two large islands, Upolu and Savai'i, and seven small islets located about two-thirds of the way between Hawaii and New Zealand in the Polynesian region of the South Pacific. Only four of the islands are populated. The entire country has a population of only 180,000 and the main island of Upolu is home to nearly three-quarters of the population. The climate is tropical, with a rainy season from November to April. It is very close to the equator so it’s pretty hot and humid all year round and there is not much variation in hours of daylight. Temperatures vary little as well and it is usually around 80° Fahrenheit.

Unlike some of the other Pacific islands that are just coral atolls, Samoa has mountain peaks, tropical rainforest, white sandy beaches and coral reefs. So it looks like I will be able to do a rainforest canopy walk after all! (They do have one.) No Amazon jungle trek though - bummer. Anyway, if you are just dying to know more about this place I will be calling home for the next two plus years check-out the "Samoa A-Z" link on the left side of the page. It has tons of info.