Volunteer Visit

July 5
We left Apia today to begin our visit to a current volunteer, to follow them around and see what projects they are working on and to get a glimpse of what it is really like to be a volunteer. My visit was with K who lives and works in Apolima-Uta on the main island of Upolu but also works on Manono Island and Apolima Island - 2 small islands that lie just offshore between the two large islands of Upolu and Savaii. Manono has 5 villages on it and Apolima has just one called Apolima-Tai. Apolima-Tai (which means seaward) is built in the crater of the volcano that makes up Apolima Island and as the population grew and there was no more land available in the crater, families moved to the main island and created the village of Apolima-Uta (inland).

July 6
We packed up for a day on Manono Island to check up on projects they are working on there. We walked about 1 1/2 miles down the road to a small wharf where we could catch a boat to the island.

At this point I should describe the procedure for getting a boat to take you there. First, there is no schedule. When they have enough paying fares to cover the cost of the trip the boat will leave. Until then you wait! The fare for Samoans and Pisikoa is $2 tala each way, but if you happen to be a palagi tourist you will get socked $20-25 tala each way. The boats usually won't leave until there are around 12 paying Samoan customers. When we got there it was only us and 2 other people waiting. K asked when the boat would leave and the captain said he had to wait for the next bus to go by to see if anyone else wanted to go. So we waited. Forty-five minutes later two buses had come by and each one dropped off one person, so now there were 8 people waiting. We needed 4 more so we waited another half hour until a taxi pulled up and out piled two palagi from New Zealand. All the Samoans who had been waiting with us stood up and began collecting their belongings and chatting and laughing about how the boat would leave now because the palagi were here. Sure enough, the captain talked to the new arrivals and then headed towards his boat and we all climbed aboard.

The crossing takes about 15 minutes and since the water is only about 8 feet deep it really doesn't get rough even when the wind blows so it was a very pleasant trip except for the fact that the motor died 4 or 5 times. When we arrived at the other side the captain called us aside and told us that the tourists had asked him to come back at 3:00pm to pick them up so if we were there we could get right on the boat with them and not have to wait around. We thanked him and set out upon our merry way.

Our first intended stop was the coral reclamation project another volunteer is working on. It seems coral need fish around to pick the algae off them or they die and when the fish declined in number the coral started dying. They built concrete boxes with holes in them and put them on the sea bottom so the fish could have a place to live and hide from predators. Then they went out to an area of reef where the coral is healthy and brought some back and cemented it to these boxes. So now they have happy coral and happy fish. Isn't that sweet?

We stopped at the fale of one of the village high chiefs to get permission to swim in the reclamation area and met this 80+ year old high chief who entertained us in his fale for about half an hour with long tales of something or other that none of us understood. When we finished swimming we were offered a shower and lunch which we accepted even though we had brought our lunches, because it would be rude not to. The shower however was interesting because there is no fresh water source on Manono Island. A year or so ago the government ran a water line from the main island and for a while everyone had running water, but the pipe under the ocean got holes in it and now the seawater mixes with the fresh water so it is no longer potable. They do use it for washing and that is about all. The rest of their water is rain runoff from the roofs of their buildings that is collected in large water storage tanks. When we were there the tank was low because there hadn't been much rain so our "shower" consisted of scooping up a small amount of water from a bucket in the shower stall and pouring it sparingly over ourselves to get the salt water off.

We were then ushered to the mats on the floor of the fale and were served lunch which was really quite tasty. I had breadfruit for the first time. It's right up there with taro and potatoes as far as texture and flavor go - pretty boring unless you do something special to it but it is a major staple in their diet.

July 7 -
Another interesting cultural first! I got to ride the bus from K's village back into Apia today. Fortunately she was with me to explain the quirks of bus riding because there are a LOT. Buses do have schedules, however that doesn't mean they keep them! Buses are always crammed full with people standing and sitting on other people’s laps. You pay when you get off and if you don't know what the fare is you will get overcharged. The bus may make many unscheduled stops on the way. If you need to stop at the little ma and pa store you tell the bus driver and he pulls over and everyone waits while you run inside for a loaf of bread, or if you need to stop and give a message to someone the bus stops and waits while you go chat. I'm not making this up folks!

We went out at 6:40am to catch a bus that should have come at 6:50am. At 7:30 one finally came going the right direction but it was so full there is no way we could have gotten ourselves and our backpacks on it so we opted to wait for the next one. We waited another half hour and none had come but this man walking down the road suggested we should get on one going the other way and ride to the end of the line which was about 3 miles down the road, and then we would already be on it when it came back so that is what we did. We were finally back at our bus stop headed for Apia at 9:30.

The bus began to fill up and there is a very clearly defined order to who gets seats and who doesn't and they have a "pusher" that directs people where to sit if they don't follow the rules. Old farts (like me) get a seat first, then women with small children, then women in general, then kids and men. The fun part begins when the bus seats are all full. People start sitting on people's laps. It is expected that if you are seated you will let someone sit on your lap and it is expected that if there is a lap available you will sit on it. I had a window seat so I didn't have to participate in the madness thank goodness. So the bus tootles on down the road and someone pulls the cord to get off. Now you have to unload all those lap sitters and people that are standing to re-create an aisle for someone to get off. Then you get to wait while they reload all the standers and sitters. Great fun - and did I mention that the seats are wooden with no cushions? Even with my built-in ones my butt bones were really getting sore by the time we got to town.

July 8 -
After one night in Apia we packed up our belongings again and headed back to our training village via a small resort town where we had a 4th of July picnic (a little late) hosted by current volunteers. We left for the village around 5:00pm and drove around a part of the island I have not seen before. At one point the road is very close to the sides of the volcano and the cliffs rise sharply at maybe a 75-degree angle. Obviously they don't grow anything there on purpose, but there were workers climbing up the lower part where it is not so steep to gather coconuts or something. The volcano has been quiet for so long the whole cone is covered with lush tropical rainforest. At one point we crossed a bridge and our driver stopped so we could get out and look at one of the wonders of Samoa. There is a river that crashes down the mountain through a really deep gorge in the lava, goes under the road and on the other side disappears over a waterfall that must drop at least 500 feet to the valley floor below. There is really some spectacular scenery in a lot of places on this island but I understand from some of the other trainees that went to Savaii island for their volunteer visits that it is even more amazing there. I definitely plan to go there at some point even if I don't get assigned there.

July 10 –
It rained really really gully washing hard today and it was actually cool!!! It felt so good, but I need the sun to come out so I can get some laundry done. It absolutely will not dry when it is like this.

On a cultural note, we found out what the Matai Council (committee made up of all the high chiefs) do when village rules are broken. Two of the village families were fined 3 pigs for creating circumstances that were construed as having the potential to endanger the Pisikoa. One was a drunken man creating a ruckus in one of the girl’s home, and the other was a brawl between 2 brothers that was too close to one of the guy’s sleeping quarters. These incidents are never handled by the police. The villages are individually responsible for setting and enforcing their own rules, which are in addition to any laws the government imposes, and they have scheduled penalties they can impose on offenders. It can run anywhere from a few $tala to 10 pigs to banishment from the village, and it sounds like the fines usually are pretty steep.

Tomorrow I go to get fitted for a puletasi. Finally I get to have a real dress too!

July 13 –
In the afternoon we all loaded into the van and went to a neighboring village where a current volunteer that works with Intercoastal Management was conducting a beach clean-up day with the local 8th graders. There must be an awful lot of Samoans running around without their “skirts” because we pulled a bunch of them out of the sand and hauled them to the dump in Apia. Now that’s another dirty job! One of the schoolgirls gave us what she called an orange but it was bigger than any orange I have ever seen. Turns out it is a grapefruit – ruby red Texas style and boy was it sweet! For some reason they don’t grow much citrus and what there is they don’t eat very often. I guess papaya has a lot of vitamin C and I do get that quite often because my father works on the plantation and brings them home for me.

July 14
Since it is Saturday and we have the afternoon off, a bunch of us conned the strapping young men in our families to take us across the to the island that I visited the first time I was here. We had a wonderful time swimming – actually floating would be a better word since you don’t have to do anything at all in the sea water to be buoyant. We were there about 4 hours just hanging out and doing nothing. The village young men that canoed us across had a game of beach rugby going on and that is a real kick to watch. There is no out of bounds on the sides and a ball that goes in the ocean is still in full play. There are balls and bodies flying everywhere. The weather actually co-operated with us for a change. Usually when we go to the beach for an activity it is always cloudy and rainy but today was absolutely beautiful. One of the Samoans climbed a coconut tree and got a bunch of niu (young coconut) so we would all have something to drink. That, by the way, is one of nature’s wonders. The juice from a niu is the Samoan’s answer to dehydration and it is founded in fact. The liquid is pure and contains the necessary salts to re-hydrate the body. I am also told it is not particularly fattening – I hope, because my family gets me one almost every day.

Well, it’s 10:00p and my battery is getting low so I think I’ll go to bed. Did I mention that I am officially half way through training? Hip hip hurray!

July 17
We found out today that we will be given our site assignments next Monday! Finally I will know where I will live for the next two years.