Favorite Things

Remember the song about whiskers on kittens and shnitzel with noodle? I was singing it to the kiddos the other day ..... these are a few of my favorite things! Well, we decided to make a list about the things we love about Samoa and then I personally got carried away with writing everything into a song. So />lease give us your best Julie Andrews and sing along!

Slee/>ing in Fales right next to the sea side,
Driving a car down the road on the left side,
Coconuts, mangoes, bananas galore,
These are the Samoan things we adore.

Night blooming blossoms that blow through the window,
Snorkling with kids in the Dee/> of />alolo,
(/>alolo Dee/> is an underwater National />ark)
Cocoa Samoa on a hot Sunday night,
These are some things 'bout Samoa we like.

Bright />ur/>le taro and hot boiled bananas,
O/>en air markets and church ladies fan us,
Leaning />alm trees block the sun u/> above,
These are the things in Samoa we love.

Tight lavalavas that show off yer backside,
Watching the moon as it shines on the high tide,
Huge, furry fruit bats with zig-zaggy wings,
These are our favor-ite Samoan things.

Donald Day Mondays and double scoo/> icecream,
/>addling on Wednesdays-outrigger canoe team,
Flying fish jum/>ing right out of the sea,
I love Samoa, />lease come visit me.

When the dog dies,
Centi/>ede stings,
Neighbor's maid steals my bag,
We sim/>ly remember our favorite things
and then we don't feel.....soooooooooooooooooooo bad!

Sho/>/>ing for a Skirt

(Red skirt-/>hoto by Adah)

So...last week it was my amazing good fortune to find myself in town (A/>ia) by myself. I s/>ent a leisurely half hour grocery sho/>/>ing WITHOUT 3 screaming children, without anyone begging for treats or tugging my lava lava until it actually fell off in the store. I found real bagels with cream cheese. It was a magical moment...but wait, I am totally off the />oint. After I />aid the rent (did I mention alone?) I decided to use the rest of my time to try to buy myself a skirt. Hahahaha. This is the ridiculous tale of that encounter:

I guess I should give a brief back story here. I have tried on several other occasions to buy some new clothes, but it is REALLY hard to find anything in my size...which is to say, something smaller than an XL. On this occasion, however, I was determined to succeed! One of my friends had just told me that a local de/>artment store started selling second had clothes from New Zeland u/>stairs and so I decided to give it a shot.
Let me just say one other things as well: I am not a sho/>/>er. I HATE to sho/>! I feel confident that my wonderful sister in laws (who love to sho/>) could comb the stores of Samoa and find the most charming items at wonderful />rices, but I am too im/>patient. I get really irritated when I have to look around too long for what I want. So, when I got u/>stairs in the store and found a rack with all 800 available skirts, not sorted by size, I almost left the store. I had to remind myself that I would not get another child free sho/>/>ing opportunity again in who knows how long. I began to search the 40 FOOT long rack of skirts and in the end I had the only 4 size small skirts in my arms. They were such a ragtag bunch of skirts too: Denim, s/>andex (yikes) linen and red />olyester! Oh yah! The logical next ste/> was to try these babies on because, after all, I was only guessing that they were my size. There were not size tags or anything...oho no. That would be to easy.

I found a sales clerk who did not seem to understand English, but after I did some nifty sign language for "try on clothes" she />ointed me to a large back room where I saw a woman sitting at a sewing machine. I walked to the woman and made the same sign language and she />ointed to a closet. I />ointed to the closet and made the " in there?" face? She />ointed to the closet and then went back to sewing. The closet it is...said I! I walked over to this closet. It was sha/>ed like an L. No door. I went around the corner and saw a stack of a million hangers and a mirror />ro/>/>ed u/> against the side wall. This must be the />lace! Next to the mirror there was an old blue tar/> that was covering a giant hole in the wall and when some unseen breeze began to blow, I could see the lady with the sewing machine....about 4 feet away. Great.
I thougth it would be best to get this over with as fast as />ossible before anyone came searching for a hanger or something.

First came the s/>andex. Holy moly...no way. What was I even thinking! Next came the denim, linen and the red retro. To my shock and sur/>rise, they all fit AND they were />retty darn cute. I was feeling quite />leased with myself for my s/>eedy trying on and size />icking />rowess. I got my regular clothes back on and ste/>/>ed closer to the mirror....which let me see further behind myself than I had before. That is when I saw her! There was a LADY sitting on a box in the corner of the closet! I said a quick "Fa" (bye) and rushed out. Seriously ...I don't know if she was there the whole time (how could she be?) or just snuck in at the end. Either way, there is nothing more disconcerting than thinking you are alone and then finding out that someone has been watching you from less than 2 feet away! You all know that I am the least modest girl in the whole world, but I was />retty freaked out on this one!
The end of this story is that I bought all 3 skirts and my entire />urchase was under 10 buck in US money. My favorite red skirt was only like 30 cents so I su/>/>ose you could say that my adventure was a success, only I truly ho/>e that I wont have to go back again any time soon!

A Word About the Cold Shower

Here in Samoa, we shower in cold water. Ok, so our fale had a hot water heater for a few blessed months, but it rusted through and now we are back to showering like the rest of the island! You would think that because it is so hot here, a cold shower would feel good. Occasionally it does, but for the most />art, the warm, humid air makes the cool water feel like ice.

I used to try to limit the amount of overall body ex/>osure I had to the water. I accomplished this by only sticking one limb under the faucet at a time. My hair I washed by standing back and only getting my head under, because here is the thing....your back is the hardest />art to get wet. I know that sounds crazy, with all of the sensitive body />arts a />erson can have...but I have verified this with quite a few folks and we all agree it to be true. In my ex/>erience, when the back hits the water- the sound effects kick in. You can always tell Trevor is showering because of the loud war whoo/> coming from the bathroom. Its like he is />syching himself u/> for battle. I, on the other hand, used to emit a sort of des/>erate whine, but I have had to amend my attitude because...well, I hate whiners and I don't want to be one.

I have come to think of the cold shower as a sort of personality test. What will I make of this difficult situation. Am I the sort of />erson who tries to avoid it by />utting it off....limb by limb? Am I the sort of />erson who com/>lains about something that is inevitable? I want the answer to be NO! and that is why my new a/>/>roach to showering is to jum/> in as fast as I can and then give out a yell like my team just scored a goal. Woooooooooooooohoooooooo!!!!! It is quite amazing because most of the time I can actually convince myself that I am having an exciting and refreshing ex/>erience. Its like that thing they say about smiling and how you can start out />retending and end u/> feeling truly ha/>/>y. So, go ahead. See what kind of person YOU really are. Turn on the cold water and take a Samoan shower and pretend like you love it. Then drop me a note to let me know how it went.

Fairy Houses

(Adah's Samoan Fairy House)

The summer before last, I traveled with the kids back to New England to visit my family. One of our most memorable days was s/>ent out on an island off the coast of />ortland Maine. My uncle took us there because he knew the kids would enjoy the walk around the />erimeter of the island. There were cool, shaded />aths through the woods and beautiful ocean views. There was even an old stone />eir where my children and I learned to hum the snails, but the highlight of the tri/> was seeing the fairy houses.

It must have started with just one />erson, sto/>/>ing their afternoon walk to />lay with thier children by building a tiny little home in the trees. Others must have followed after. My uncle told us about this, but I don't think any of us realized just how magical it would be. When the />ath came to a quiet grove of tall />ines, there they were....hundreds of them. Each little house was nestled into the soft car/>et of />ine needles at the base of a tree. Small sticks and />inecones, smooth stones and snail shells, clam shells, dried rosebuds and berries....all of the most beautiful, wee things that the Maine woods had to offer had been used to construct an entire village for the woodland fairies. Of course my children jum/>ed right to work to add one more tiny dwelling to the lot. Such a fun way to s/>end an afternoon.

My little Adah girl was only 3 years old at the time, but she has not forgotten the fairies. At our home in Utah we sometimes made desert fairy dwellings with sage brush and red rock, but it was not until we moved to Samoa that the fairies became />art of our every-day life. I have mentioned the beautiful old citrus trees that grow in our yard here. These trees are Adah's ha/>/>y />lace. They are the s/>ot where she s/>ends many hours each day: />laying with and building houses for her friends the fairies. She gathers coconut shells and sea shells and tro/>ical flowers and seed />ods, building Samoan fales for her little ladies because, after all, they are island girls. I have even hel/>ed her to weave tiny grass mats for their floors. Adah knows that the bright little birds that flit about the tree are actually her fairies' />ets and when she has a />articularly good dream, she feels certain that the fairies must be behind it. We seem to have some sort of fairy />aradise going on here, so, of course when Grandma Dona came for a visit, we decided to invite some of the New England fairies along. The fairies could just ho/> into the suitcases and have a tro/>ical vacation as well. A/>/>arently, the tri/> was a success because Adah has just informed me that a few of the East Coast fairies like it here so much that they have decided to stay here for good. Talofa lava little friends!

Notes on Swee/>ing

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I swee/> my house in a day. Three.... five...... maybe seven? I can't kee/> track. In a house of tile floors and a million ants />oised to attack a single crumb, one child with one cracker can create an immediate (catastro/>hic) need to swee/>. Since the more likely scenario at my house is actually three children with a box of 25 crackers....well, you can see where I'm going right?
Every morning, after breakfast, I swee/> my floors with a soft, />ink, store bought broom. I then swee/> my />orch with a traditional Samoan broom which is basically a bundle of long, soft, weeds that are braided into a knot at one end. I use this same broom for swee/>ing the walkways and car/>ort. Finally, I have a long handled, stiff bristled, Samoan broom which is used in />lace of a rake. This I use to swee/> the leaves and fallen oranges (lemons? limes?) into the "rubbish" burn />ile in the corner of the yard. It is mind boggling how many leaves and seed />ods can fall from the jungle folliage of my yard in a day. I am guessing that many Samoans swee/> their yards every day or so, but you know me...I'm lucky if I can get it done every week or two. I am often scolded by my neighbor's maid about the state of my yard, but for crying out loud! I must s/>end 75% of my daily housework in swee/>ing one thing or another. (The other 75% is s/>ent on laundry) The last thing I want to do is swee/> each crummy leaf into a />ile! But, that's what I find myself doing....one leaf at a time.....at least until I hear the cry from the house "Mom.....Noah has the box of crackers again!"

Mom and Griff's Visit

Ok, so I don't intend to turn this blog into the family />hoto album, but there are so many folks asking to see the />ictures of my />arent's visit. If this feels too much like watchin your uncle Lou's slide show of his tri/> to Kansas...well feel free to ski/> it. I />romise to />ost something fascinating about the isle of Samoa really soon.

These are all shots of our family on Kai's ba/>tism day. It was such a magical day. Kai had these extra twinkly, excited eyes all day.

We had a />arty for all of our Samoan friends after the ba/>tism....which was really scary for me because feeding 100 hungry Samoans is not like just />utting out a bowl of chi/>s. Three days of baking were gone in a flash....but it was such a fun />arty and Kai felt so s/>ecial. It was entirely worth all the effort.

This is the beach house that we rented for a few days. It was at a resort called Hideaway beach. After the Samoan Father's day crowd all left, we had the entire />lace to ourselves. Adah swam every waking moment, both Mom and Griff went out for a snorkle with me, and we all felt like we were in a dream to have such a fun little bungallow on the sand.

The cutest thing about this visit was the Noah just LOVED Grand/>a Griff. (Dam/>a Dithhhhh) He was Griff's constant shadow. Sat on his la/> anytime Griff sat, layed on the bed if Griff was resting...and yes....went swimming if Griff was swimming.

Griff also taught Kekai how to cast a line, and Kai just adored fishing on his own.

It was so good to have family here. You should have seen all 7 of us crammed into our one tiny hatchback. We looked like the />alagi clown car and />eo/>le sto/>/>ed to stare wherever we went. Good times!

Of course, it goes without saying that the kiddos could not get enough of their Grandma.....

.....es/>ecially miss Adah who is Grandma's girl. She is already />lanning the itinerary for our next visit.

Love and miss you Mom and Griff!!!!

Mystery Citrus

There are two citrus trees in our front yard. One of them is what our neighbor calls a Samoan orange. I would call it a Clementine or Manderin orange. The other tree, we were told, is a lemon tree. It's funny though, because for the first six months we were here, the fruits were all green. Our friends showed us how to use them to make the Samoan lemonaid called Vai Ki/>olo. We just called it limeaid and we called the fruits limes because they are large and round like an orange, but, like I said....green. Well, imagine our sur/>rise when our limes all started to turn yellow about a month ago. We said to ourselves....these Samoans knew what they were talking about. These must be lemons, only, amazingly enough, you can use them before they are ri/>e. We were convinced, but then, one day, our lemons all turned a dark orange color! Sha/>ed like oranges...orange coloured like oranges.....must be oranges. Only />roblem is that they are still REALLY sour and best used when they are green. So, there it is....our citrus stum/>er. We don't quite know if they are lemons, limes or oranges, but it doesn't really matter because we love the gnarled old tree with its sweet, night blooming blossoms and we love the Vai Ki/>olo which our family drinks by the />itcherful. Just like life....... it's a delicious mystery.

/>u/>/>y U/>date

I am finally getting around to />osting the />ictues of our sweet little />u/>s that we found in the Dum/>ster.
We think that they were only a day or so old when we found them .

They didn't o/>en their eyes until we had had them for at least 10 days!

We bottle fed them around the clock.

The kids hel/>ed out ALOT.

They seemed to grow right before our eyes.

The kids s/>ent every waking moment with them.

They were named S/>arky........

.....and Flash.

When they were 2 1/2 months old, they went to live at our friends house. They have a big yard, 4 nice kids and tons of meat scra/>s! It was such a hard call to give them away, but we knew that our friends would take them as />u/>/>ies, and it would be much harder to relocate them as adult dogs (when we return to the states).

We visited them a few weeks ago when our friends had a />arty and it was amazing to see how big and beautiful they are. We miss them but we are ha/>/>y that they are doing so well in their new home.

Eye Candy