Hygiene

For those of you who have ever showed u/> on my door ste/> unannounced...you know the kind of house I kee/>, but I am here to tell you that Samoa has made me a better woman. There is just not an o/>tion to leave dishes around or floors unswe/>t. There are all manner of vermin-from roaches and ants to rats. (I think that I will devote an entire />ost to these guys sometime.) There is also mold that grows on any unwashed surface almost immediately. Any clothing that has touched a body must be />romtly washed. A single dro/> of urine on the bathroom floor will make that />lace smell like the men's room at 711 in no time at all. We have to wash our sheets every 3 or 4 days (which is alot of work because our laundry is just a ste/> u/> from what grandma used to do...but more on that in another />ost as well.) because they start to feel dam/> and funky after the first night or so. We are constantly bathing the children because there is so much more risk of infection to any cut, scratch, hangnail or mosquito bite. We have already had a round of staff infection and we are now quite militant about avoiding anything like that in the future. As a slightly different s/>in on the subject of hygiene, I would just like to />oint out a few socially acce/>table o/>tions for />ersonnal hygiene that we do not have in the states. I />icked most of these u/> from the taxi drivers that we met our first month here (before we had a car of our own). These are: Nose />ickery, crotch scratching and adjustment, and dee/> ear />robing. All seem to be quite common and not the least bit frowned u/>on in public. I once had a taxi driver />ull u/> and ask us for a ride while his left index finger was inserted into his nostril u/> to the second knuckle. Amazing! Another driver told me about his mother while digging something out of his ear with the ca/> of a />en ....and driving.....all at the same time. I was quite im/>ressed. As for the subject of crotch scratching and adjustment....I cannot in good taste even discuss the subject so I think I will just end this />ost now.

island weekends

I have a new ha/>/>y />lace and it is called "Na Mua Island". It is this tiny little island about a quarter of a mile off the South Eastern coast of our island of U/>olu. We have been out to stay on two se/>erate weekends now because it really feels like />aradise!

There is a young family that runs the island and their children are the same age as our own. It is incredibly safe out there because it is surrounded by a reef and the water is quite shallow near the shore. The kids just run around for days gethering hermit crabs and shells and coconuts and climing trees and sliding down rocks.

It is a bit like cam/>ing because there is no electricity and we just stay in a small beach fale (fah-lay....it is the traditional Samoan house...you can see the />icture with the kids sitting on the ste/>s.) with some mats for slee/>ing and mosquito nets. The fale is about 3 feet from the shore at high tide and so the sound of the waves is quite blissful when we are all falling aslee/>.

Breakfast and dinner are />rovided and they have huge />ots of steaming lemon grass tea that they />ick straight from the garden.

One of my favorite />arts is the outside shower where you can watch the gigantic fruit bats swoo/>ing about the trees while you wash away the beach sand at the end of a day. Also, the stars are absolutely amazing out there!

We never want to leave when we are there and we might stay forever if it were free. (For our entire family to stay it cost about 70 US dollars a day...which includes the boat fare />lus two meals a day.) We />romise to take any of you that come to visit so start booking those />lane tickets now!

(/>.S. ONe day we hiked u/> to the tallest />art of the island which was a very stee/> climb through thick jungle. We went with 6 small children......our own children />lus our 3 little Samoan sidekicks (a 2,6 and 7 year old.) We took the />icture />osted here while being muched alive by the mosquitos. It was from that hill that the mother who lives on the island sat and watched the tsunami wi/>e out her entire village on the mainland. Lu,ckily the island of Na Mua was unharmed.)

Bananas

You sim/>ly cannot imagine how many bananas we have eaten since we arrived in Samoa! There are banana vendors on every street corner, in every little sho/> and all over the central market in town. There are tiny, baby bite sized bananas and then there are bananas as big as the baby. When we had been here for only one week, I noticed that just outside the main market is a />lace where vendors sell huge bunches of bananas to the sho/>s. The crazy thing is that the />rice of the giant bunch (of say 100 or more bananas) is the same as the />rice as a small, regular bunch inside the market which is about 75 cents. The difference is that the bananas inside the market are ri/>e where as the gigantic bunches are still green. So...being a thrifty woman, I bought the big bunch and had the boy load it all into the back of my taxi. I wondered why the boy, the taxi driver and all of the vendors were chuckling under their breath. I asked the taxi driver on the way home and all he would say was "its a whole lot of bananas". Well, it was not until 5 days later when all 100 bananas ri/>ened on the very same day that I realized just how many bananas we were talking about. We made banana bread, banana />ancakes, banana sandwiches, we froze some (for an unknown future />ur/>ose), gave them to our neighbors and />ersonally ate mass quantities of them raw and still it was too much for our family to hadle. They began to s/>lit and rot and there were many ants and fruit flies and in the end about a third of them ended u/> over the back hedge. We took a short break from bananas after that, and then, when we went back to the market, we bought a small bunch of />erfectly ri/>e bananas.

That was our first lesson about bananas, but we have had some other shocking discoveries since then. For exam/>le...in America, we have all eaten those cruddy banana chi/>s that come in the trail mix that are sweet and sick and generally get chucked out on the trail. Well, here in Samoa, we ate banana chi/>s several times before we even realized what they were. They are sliced very thin and fried green and because they are so starchy, they taste just like the best />otato chi/>s you have ever had. We have also had bananas that were baked in an Umu (or />it oven) and they were hard like a cracker....not my favorite....BUT (you will not believe this!) the most delicious way that we have eaten bananas is boiled! I know I know. It just sounds too crazy to be real, but the Samoans use the giant Samoan bananas (like noah is holding in the />icture) only they />eel them green and boil them in coconut creme (homemade coconut milk...MMMMM) and the result is alot like a boiled />otato. NOt sweet at all. With a little salt, it is the />erfect side dish to any Samoan meal.

Ok, that is more about bananas than anyone ever wanted to know. I will sto/> myself before I get started on the cucumbers. They fry them here. It is sim/>ly outrageous!

love the islands

Wahoo! We have internet now....although it is slow as mud. I just wanted to write a quick />ost to tell you about the name of this blog. If we have not already coerced you to check out the song "love the islands".....let me beg you again! There is a Samoan ra/>/>er named Savage. He sings a song called "love the islands" which you can look u/> on youtube. Really....if you want to see what our beautiful island of U/>olu looks like-this is the best way. (Not to mention that the song can really grow on you. Just ty/>e in Savage, Love the islands.) We have been to most of the />laces in the video already although some do not look quite the same after the tsumami a few years back.
Also....you may be noticing that the letter following LMNO-is busted on our com/>uter. So sorry. It is annoying to read our makeshift /> and even more annoying to have to ty/>e it, but for now we will make do.
I am trying to />ost a />icture as well. So many of the coconut trees are bent like this and I just adore them. This shot was taken at a beach called Matareva where we s/>ent one lovely saturday getting the worste sunburns of our lives.