Apia Harbourside Lodgings

... she made no family decisions and left the older children to look after the younger ones rarely, if ever, intervening. Which led to me witnessing the extremely clever 12 yr old daughter (we'd previously been discussing evolution) slapping her (very bratty) 4 yr old brother so angrily I gasped. In response she said: "It's good for him. He's bad and needs to learn." I said nothing. She was obviously the boss when it came to him as their mother had been only a few feet ...

... il n'est pas impossible d'attendre plusieurs heures pour que le chauffeur se décide à bouger - aussi, si le bus n'est pas plein à craquer, ça ne vaut pas le coup de partir et le bus est annulé). Le chauffeur était un fan de hip hop Samoans, avec la musique à fond, on avait du mal a s'entendre et à communiquer avec les locaux. Ici les gens sont vraiment très accueillant, toujours souriant, ils sont toujours ravis de pouvoir parler avec des "palagi" (blanc - non polynésiens).

... to stay over night and book a car for the next day instead. We found a really nice quiet fale right by, or actually on, the water. We enjoyed the great food in the company of some friends that somehow had found the same place as us for the nightEarly Friday morning we hitched down to the rental place and got our car. Before leaving town we did a quick stop by the market to get supplies for our adventure and then we headed southwest ...

... the news) Since we're only taking two courses at NUS (National University of Samoa) we only have classes Tuesday to Friday between 3 and 4, or 5, the rest of the time I spend working on class assignments and my thesis. Well almost anyway... Mondays and Thursdays we play frisbee with a couple of other "palagi" (whites); the exercise is good but, oh my god, it's so hard to run around in this heat, not to mention the humidity! Saturdays might be spent ...

... and the thunder! The house shook every time the thunder sounded! The following day we went in to town and bought everything we needed, well almost anyway. Then we cleaned out the whole apartment and unpacked our groceries and made our first dinner in our very own home! Just before going to bed I heard something in the kitchen and after a closer look I found out that we had far to many ...

... for an airport. There are loads of coconut trees, even right on the edge of the tarmac. It look more like a car park than a terminal for a plane! Even the local family that we're staying with said, when picking us up, that the plane was bigger than the airport. After picking up our baggage and passing through customs we were meet by a 10 year old, Joseph, holding up a cute little sign reading "Victoria & Craig". He then ...

... details of my own humble efforts to increase the naval might of our Samoan allies, I refer you to the blog: travelpod.com/member/rayandjan. I greatly miss the campaigns and companionship out here. Tell Sgt. Dave that this would be a great place for a 'perfect' reenactment, except you really yearn for the smell of powder smoke and the bang of the guns after a while. Ray

... in Apia in a backpackers and spent the day exploring Apia, snorkelling in Apia and heading to the sliding rocks just outside of Apia. The sliding rocks were similar to the ones in Thailand that I had been to and were just as fun. The sliding rocks were basically what they are called, you slide down a rock into a pool of water without trying to cut yourself or bang your head on the way down. Apia itself is the ...

... donated for the "weak boys" class that Ray hopes to start teaching soon. The tools came from a manufacturer in Sycamore called Ideal Tools. They sent 35 pounds of screw drivers, pliers, wire cutters, voltage testers and other things. It is an incredible gift for the school and the class. Mom and Josh got to experience church in the village and they both helped with neighboring kids with homework. Having a car is great, you can see so many things that ...

... class. Ray also got the money to build workbenches which he will do with the year 11 boys. He has been working on curriculum design for second chance education and also a "weak boys" class. Ray is now also the proud owner of a sailing canoe, but I will let him tell about that in the next installment. Had a really nice Cinco De Mayo at a beach resort with a bunch of other volunteers. Good chili rellenos ...