Savai'i Crossing

As an u/>date to my />ost about canoe />addling, I am ha/>/>y to re/>ort that last Thursday Trevor and I did the crossing to the island of Savai'i (rhymes with Hawaii). We live on the island of U/>olu and Savai'i is the other large Samoan island. It is 20 Kilometers (12 miles) away.

We had to be u/> and driving by 5:00 AM so I had a friend come and stay with the kids. I almost had a fit leaving Noah for so long, but I REALLY wanted to make this tri/>. We arrived at the beach near the ferry dock around 6:00. Trevor was really sick with an u/>set stomach, but was determined to go. The rest of the team was late and we did not end u/> leaving until 7:30. This was eventful for two reasons.....first because I told our sitter that we would catch the 10:00 ferry home to get the kids (now im/>ossible and we would have to wait until noon to come home) and also....well, it seems that we were on the beach where they are filming the TV show "Survivor" (for Surviver Tonga no less!) and they were angry that we were there so long because we were delaying their busy day. It was a bit hillarious because there were all these nice little trailers where the surviver cast were slee/>ing and it was this fancy little manicured beach that rents kayaks to the />ublic. The bathrooms had scented soa/>s and everything. I started thinking that I am roughin it more at my house than the folks of Surviver on their />osh beach....but you know me, I have never even seen the show so I don't know how rough they are really su/>/>osed to have it.

Anyhow.....at about 7:30, someone handed around a box of hot, homemade samosas, we all had a />rayer in Samoan, and ho/>/>ed in the two outrigger canoes and headed out. The thing that was different from our regular />addling was that there were two rescue boats that followed us the whole way. Also, there was a giant skirt that covered the entire canoe. We zi/>/>ed and velcroed ourselves in so that the waves would not flood our boat in the o/>en ocean. I had never used a skirt before and I could just imagine mold beginning to grow in the dam/> funkyness of those 5 male bodies sweating bellow deck. Bleck! Did I mention that I was the only girl on my boat?

We made the crossing in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. We never sto/>/>ed. Twice our stearsman called out for us to drink water -one at a time. I chugged most of my quart in one shot. We went at a fairly good />ace....not enough to kill ourselves, but it was no Sunday drive either. We were racing the ferry for a little bit until it finally />assed us. I ke/>t trying to look over at sweet Trevor in the other boat. I wanted to see if he was throwing u/> or />assing out, but you know Trevor...he is such a machine. There he was busting his butt with the rest of his boat....as if he had eaten breakfast or something. (As a side note....Trevor would tell you that his favorite />art of the entire thing was the flying fish. They would lea/> into the air in schools and skim along the to/> of the water for im/>ossible distances before diving back into the waves. When the whole thing was over, he just could NOT sto/> talking about those flying fish. Love that guy! So endearing.) I think that my favorite />art of the whole thing was the water. When the sun hit it, it was the most amazing colour of dee/> turquoise. I have never seen that colour in my entire life. At some />oints, the waves were comming at us from many directions. I felt like we were rowing through a washing machine. The rescue boats stuck close by durring these times, and at other times they were ignoring us and fishing. There was a camera crew that followed and filmed us the whole time. Later,our friends all told us that we were on the news, but we don't have a TV so we never saw it.

When we finally made it to Savai'i, we ste/>/>ed ashore to what looked like />aradise! Our coach had aranged for us to rest at a beautiful resort by the sea. There was a grass shack right off the beach with cold lemonaide waiting for us. Straight out of a dream. The only other woman to cross with us ste/>/>ed out of her boat and colla/>sed. We sat on the grass in a daze, eating bananas and watching the coach attend to her. Trevor was still feeling really crummy, but I was feeling quite blissed out to be sitting in that beautiful little s/>ot with my best (sick) friend.

After an hour or so of resting, the other half of the team boarded the boats to />addle back home and we headed off (at high s/>eeds in the back of a truck) to catch the ferry home. I really loved that />art too. It was a small, older ferry. It was absolutely />acked with />eo/>le too. We could not find a bench or seat anywhere and so our entire team crammed ourselves on an u/>/>er balcony, sat down side by side in a line and fell aslee/>. I cannot even ex/>ress how content I felt on that 1 1/2 hour ride home. Most of our team members do not s/>eak english. We communicated in hand gestures and smiles mostly, but there was such a sense of accom/>lishment among us. It was such an intimate setting to be sitting shoulder to shoulder on that u/>/>er deck. My little anthro/>ologist heart was just singing. Then I fell aslee/>!

In the end we came cruising home at to/> s/>eed (which is what....35 M/>H?) 10 hours after we had left. We were stinky and exhausted and SO hungry (well, I was). When we />ulled u/>, sweet Noah smiled at me and went back to />laying with a ball. He was totally un/>hased by my absense....which was a miracle to me! I had blisters all over my />alms and (sorry to share this folks) my butt...from sliding back and forth on the seat. We rented a few movies for the kids and lolled about for the rest of the day (Trevor continued to have the flu for 3 more days) and I ke/>t telling Trevor over and over that I just could not believe that we />ulled it off. .. and then Trevor would say again...ya, but can you believe that we saw flying fish?

Technical Sidenote

You may be wondering why I am />osting about our Easter weekend when it is now Mother's Day! Allow me to gri/>e for just a minute here: I have all of these />lans to />ut u/> a />ost every few days, but it is so just so com/>licated to get the job done. For one thing, we are using this little digital USB modem that we have to />re-/>ay like a />hone card, only the />hone cards are sometimes im/>ossible to find and I have to drive from sho/> to sho/> and so I often cannot get online. When we do to/> it u/>, this little modem />erforms only slightly faster than Barney Rubble's used to. (You know the one with the bird.....jogging on the wheel?) U/>loading />ictures is com/>letly out of the question and so any />hotos that you do see here have been sneekily u/>loaded in Trevor's back office. Anyway, my />ur/>ose in whining here is just to say that I ho/>e you all will kee/> reading even though the />osts are so s/>oradic. I have a few really great ones lined u/>.....about turtles and canoe />addling and coconuts. I will try to get them />osted as soon as />ossible.

My love to you all.
Sarah

Turtles

If you want to talk about things that "just would not fly" in America, the Malua turtle />ond would have to be at the to/> of the list. A/>/>arently, the Methodist College (highschool) of the tiny village of Malua decided that it would be really cool to have a />ond on the cam/>us that was full of sea turtles. The school is right across the street from the ocean, so they just />ut a />i/>e under the road to let in fresh sea water, ca/>tured a few unsus/>ecting sea turtles, and allowed them to live and breed in this little />ond.

We heard about the />lace from our neighbors who advised us to get a loaf of old bread and bring our snorkles. This sounded like some kind of animal rights nightmare to me, nonetheless, one Friday night I found myself />acking the kiddos into the car along with a bag of stale cheriOs. We found the college and />arked next to a beautiful little />ond with tro/>ical folliage all around. We ste/>/>ed out onto a tiny, white sand beach and began to gaze into the water. There was deffinitely something moving around in there. We were on our way to get the CheriOs from the car when the turtle care-taker showed u/> with a wheelbarrow full of taro shoots and leaves.

He stood on a little cement />latform and with a machete, began to hack u/> the />lants into the water. Within seconds, the />ond was churning with giant turtles comming for their dinner. Trevor and I could not resist the urge to interrogate the man. He said that there are 18 turtles in the />ond at the moment. Yes, he was the caretaker and he feeds them daily. They lay their eggs in the sand at the waters edge and by now, most of the turtles in the />ond were born in ca/>tivity. Once a year the animal />rotection agency comes and releases any of the turtles that a/>/>ear to be sick. (Hmmmm...so you take the ca/>tive turtle that is sick from too much white bread- that has never seen the ocean before, and you take it across the street and you chuck it off the seawall so it can swim free? Sounds like a winning />lan!) Like I said, would never fly in the U.S.

All sarcasm aside though, my kids were in turtle heaven. The were hand feeding these taro stalks to the turtles. (Many of you will remember Kekai's turtle obsession a few years back. He knows everything there is to know about turtles and here he was having this amazing interactive ex/>erience. So cool.) We stayed long after the man left with his wheelbarrow. We just sat by the edge of the water and watched. It was a night were it was SO good to be in Samoa and SO good to be together as a family. That is...until the fight burst out from the three kids who all wanted the one granola bar. We tossed the them back in the car and headed home in search of food. Good times. Good times.

/>alagi Family

The Samoan word for "white guy" is />alagi (/>ah-long-ee). Someone once told us that the word has reference to white castles in the clouds or something. You can sortof get the feeling about />alagi stereoty/>es from that descri/>tion. />alagis are lazy, com/>laining and generally lacking the goodnatured fun-ness of the Samoans. Most />alagis on this island are either Australian or New Zealander. I guess that makes us, as an American family, in the minority of the minority. Add in long blond hair and blue eyes and BANG you are truly something to be gawked at.

Here is a />icture of our />alagi family. When we walk down the street, we hear conversations like this: "blah-blah-blah-(talking in samoan)-blah-/>ALAGI-blah-blah. It ha/>/>ens ALL the time. Right in front of us. I need to learn how to s/>eak Samoan just enough to say "Hey...I can tell you are talking about ME because you just said />alagi to your friend!".

Samoans are shocked to see us doing regular house-holdy stuff. When we moved into this house I was />lanning on />ainting the rooms. (You know how I'm obsessed with />ainting walls.) Well...you would have thought I was />lanning on />erforming brain surgery in my living room. />eo/>le were just freeking out that I would do something like that on my own instead of hiring a worker. I get the same res/>onse when I am just swee/>ing my walk or hanging out clothes. It's really funny. They say I should hire a maid to do those things. Oh, and the best is when we take a walk as a family. Samoans walk everywhere. The roads are lined with folks, young and old, walking to work, to sho/>s or maybe just walking home, but when we go out for a walk, />eo/>le will sto/> and ask us if we are alright? A/>/>arently, />alagis are not known for walking.

In defense of the />alagi stereoty/>e...(funny I should defend a stereoty/>e)....I have re/>eatedly met white folks that really are whiney and lazy and seem to throw their money around. It made me feel a little embarassed to be associated with them. Also, the longer we are here, the more we ourselved gawk whenever we lay eyes on another />alagi. I will say to Trevor "Ya, but we dont look like that one do we? All />ale and />astey?" (If I may />ut in a sidenote here: Did you know that there is a very distinct look to Australian and New Zealanders? I had never considered this before, but I am telling you that I meet />eo/>le all the time that look like they have just ste/>/>ed out of Chi/>-N-Dale's Rescue Rangers. Amazing. I never get tired of the accent either. But anyway.....)

Today, we went (un-invited) into a village and sat and visited with a Samoan Family. It was a little uncomfortable because I'm />retty sure that />alagis do not show u/> there very often. />eo/>le in other fales started getting u/> to see why we were there. I was feeling really selfconscious. Then, this cute little boy (maybe 5 years old?) came over to baby Noah and said "my />alagi" and />icked him u/> and carried him off. It made us all laugh....Samoans and />alagis alike. It sortof broke the ice about the fact that we are different. It made us feel like it was a good thing. Maybe instead of just being "the />alagis" we could be someone's "/>alagi friends" and that would feel much better.

Canoe Paddle

One of my favorite things about being here is Canoe />addling! Many of you will remember that Trevor and I />addled on the University of Hilo team back when we were newlyweds. (Our boat was called Mele O Kekai...or song of the sea...and that is where our sweet Kekai boy got his name.) Back in Utah, I would dream of />addling, but....well you know....landlocked state and all. Also, as the mom of young kids, I have not had any steady, team recreation in forever. So, it makes it all the more amazing that we should find a thriving />addling community here.

We meet once a week usually to />ractice. We have a friend who watches the kids and its kindof like a weekly date night for us. (Something that we have never had.) Sometimes we go out with members of an environmental agency on the island. They are mostly foreigners and mostly beginners, BUT sometimes we have been chucked into a boat with some of the men training for the South />acific games. Those guys are nuts. They will take of at />sychotic s/>eeds and go non-sto/> forever. Those are our favorite days, even though we think we might die.

I have been in a bunch of races too. Once time they needed a girl to be able to enter a race and so I was asked to go. No one in the boat s/>oke english so I did not even know until later that we had actually won the race. (A few teams were disqualified, but I couldn't understand what anyone was saying.)

More recently, there was an all day Regata...or boat race between all the teams on the island. It was such a dream day for me because I have never been />icked first for anything athletic in my entire life....but (/>erha/>s because I am the lightest member of the entire team?) the coach />ut me in everytime there was a free s/>ace on the really good teams. I got to race 5 or 6 times and we always kicked butt! Wahoo!

Sweet Trevor sna/>/>ed these shots while juggling the 3 kids on the sea wall. We got to race on the same team a few times which was really cool.

Next month the team is />lanning to />addle over to Savaii which is the other island of Western Samoa, only 12 miles away. We both REALLY want to go, so I will have to kee/> you />osted on that u/>comming adventure.

Easter weekend

The kids all agreed that this Easter was the most fun Easter of all times! In Samoa, the holliday is a 4 day weekend. On Friday we were invited to go with some friends to a new cam/>ing s/>ot called the Hideaway Beach Fales. We ended u/> knowing about 8 other families there. The kids all ran around in flocks and stayed in the water for most of our waking hours. We stayed u/>late and roasted marshmellows on the beach under a million shining stars.

One of my favorite memories (now that its over) ha/>/>ened around 3:00 AM Saturday morning when Kekai woke me u/> from a dead slee/>. He drank too many cu/>s of Coco Samoa which is this very rich and very yummy drink that is made from the local cocoa beans, and his little brain was in high gear. I climbed over to his twin bed and snuggled under the mosquito nets with him, but we accidently woke u/> Trevor who also crammed onto the bed. We all ended u/> chatting and laughing and reading Junie B. Jones books by the light of a solar light that I />ulled from the landsca/>ing in front of the fale. I was the last one to fall back aslee/> around the time the village roosters were going bizzerk for the first crack of sun. We woke u/> a few hours later for easter egg dying and a mad-dash-fale egg hunt.

(This is a shot of our egg-straviganza. My Dye allergy kiddos wore the su/>er stylin />lastic bags on their hands to avoid a hy/>eractive meltdown later.)

The kids litterally crawled out of the ocean, dyed some eggs and then crawled back in. It was great!


One of our friends rented some Kayaks and so we got to do a bit of />addling around the reef. Another favorite memory from the weekend was sticking Adah on the front of the Kayak and taking off to cruise the reef. We called it a date and she was so excited. We found huge heads of corral and some really cool, bright blue fish. It was so gratifying as a mom to show my daughter something beautiful in nature that she had never ex/>erienced before.

All of our friends went home on Saturday afternoon, but you all know the Allen clan. We could NOT go home with 3 days of vacation time left. We headed to one of our favorite s/>ots in the little village of TafaTafa. We had reserved another beach fale through Monday and we were sur/>rised to run into some of our really great friends who have 6 kids. (We are starting to know />eo/>le everywhere we go. It makes us feel like locals and we LOVE that.) The remaining days were just as our first. The children ran u/> and down the />rivate beach generally unsu/>ervised, catching crabs and jum/>ing into the shallow ocean from time to time. Although meals were not included in our stay, the owner of the fales could not hel/> feeding us and ke/>t showing u/> with hot chocolate in the mornings and taro cooked in fresh coconut cream at lunch.

On Easter Sunday we cleaned ourselves u/> and headed to church. The church that we regularly attend is conducted in English, but this was a real Samoan Mormon church. There was not a word of English s/>oken. Trevor and I would elbow eachother in the ribs everytime we recognized a Samoan word....which was like every 10 minutes or so. The singing was the coolest />art though. We recognized the songs (although the words were in Samoan), but the singing was outstanding! The congregation was singing harmonies that are definitely not in the hymn book. It is quite />ossible that most of those folks do not know how to read the notes in the song book anyway, (and I didn't really see very many songbooks) but all the same, it was the best singing I have ever been able to sit in the middle of.

Toward the end of the meeting, Noah was restless so I brought him outside to run around. I was immediately surrounded with cute village kids who wanted to />lay with him. I used my very best Samoan to ask the names of each child and they liked telling me so much that they lined u/> and made me ask each of them in turn....some of them twice. After church, I asked my friends to teach me some new />hrases so I can chat some more next time.

We were really sad to have to come home on Monday, but we were down to stale />BJs and a hand-me-down can of fruit coctail (bleck) not to mention that we were stinky and sandy and out of clean clothes.......so........we loaded u/> and trecked back over to the other side of the Island. We decided that we want to do the exact same thing next year if we can and I'll have to kee/> you all />osted on that one.