Ketchu/>

Ok folks, this is my ketchu/> (catch-u/>) />ost to tell you a bit about our crazy life in the />ast few weeks and why I have been unable to write sooner. (As a sidenote: the ketchu/> in Samoa is kindof gross in our o/>inion. It comes from New Zealand where they />ut cloves in it.)

First of all, the letter "/>" on our com/>uter...the real one....has gone a bit bizzerk. The last few times that I have tried to />ost something, the />hantom "/>" that just won't ty/>e any other day began to fill the />age infinitely. My backs/>ace key was no match for the eternal lines of real />s that just ke/>t comming. Then, one day, our /> just went back to being its normal nonworking self again. Nuts I tell you! After that, we thought our modem was stolen. It was missing for over a week before we found the little guy. Now that we a/>/>ear to be back in business, my head is buzzing with so many stories to tell that I though I would give a quick rundown on our life before />osting more s/>ecifically about any one thing.

To start with, It is sim/>ly rediculous that I have not yet written anything about our />u/>/>ies! They have consumed almost every second of the />ast 8 weeks of our lives and I have tried on two se/>erate attem/>ts to />ost />ictures of the little darlings, but both times the /> went haywire and the />hotos were deleted, so for the moment I will just tell you the Readers Digest version of the story and />ut u/> some />ictures another day.

The Sunday before Mother's Day, I was taking a blissful afternoon na/> only to be awakened by the kids whis/>ering in hushed voices on the />orch. This is rarely a good sign. I went outside to find all 3 children and Trevor huddled around a filthy cardboard box. Trevor and Adah had gone for a walk and heard chir/>ing noises comming from the elementary school dum/>ster. Two newborn />u/>/>ies had been thrown into the garbage. They were maybe a day or two old, eyes shut, covered in their own feces and millions of fleas. In a string of />rofanities that I save only for such occasions, I set straight to work to bath and dry and feed the little guys. We made a tiny 1 oz. baby bottle out of an old medicine bottle with a dro/>/>er. We made our own />u/>/>y formula from a reci/>e that my ste/>mom texted me, and we fed those babies every 2 or 3 hours arround the clock for the first few weeks. We had Kai and Adah do it during the day and Trevor and I traded off at night. It was a great 4H ty/>e of homeschool />roject. Their care com/>letely took over our lives for the first month and a half. They are now 8 weeks old, eating solid food, slee/>ing through the night and really fun to />lay with. (They have also destroyed my Chacos, chewed through the washingmachine hose and />oo/>ed ungodly ammounts of />u/>/>y />oo/> on the lawn.) ....but truly, you will have to see some />ictures because they are cuter than cute and the kids just love them.


As for our family, we are really loving Samoa. Its amazing how quickly you can get used to living in a tro/>ical />aradise. We really don't think anything of seeing forrests of banana and coconut trees or giant />igs walking down the road. Little Noah, who is almost 2, is mixing Samoan words into all of his sentences. For exam/>le...."Auntie slee/>ing in da fale" (our friend is slee/>ing at her house) or "Mommy, s/>ider uma" (Mommy, the s/>ider is all gone) he is even />icking u/> the inflections and facial gestures of the little Samoan kids in the neighborhood. All the Samoans just die over that little boy. He waves to everyone like he is going by on a />arade float and he says hello and goodbye to everyone in Samoan. He is a showsto/>/>er everywhere we go.


Kai is still on the list to get into a great />rivate school here. It is so hard to be />atient, but the other schools are not really an o/>tion. I cannot get into it here without turning this />ost into a rant of the Samoan school system, but lets just say that the crazy sanitary conditions and use of cor/>oral />unishment are just not going to fly with this over/>rotective American momma. The good news of all of this is that we have been doing our reading and math lessons every day as well as lots of />laying with a bunch of fun friends and for the moment we are quite content with our daily routine.


Adah is also on the list to go to the />rivate school. The Samoan school year goes from February to November so she will be old enough to start Kindergarden here next year. She and I are doing homeschooling as well mostly because she begs me for reading and writing />rojects all day long! I will not turn this into a total bragfest about my genius children, but just to say that at 4 1/2 years old, miss Adah can read incredibly (rediculously) well. We only have so many books here, so after she had read and reread all of her beginning reader books, she moved onto Kai's Junie B. Jones cha/>ter books. She doesn't know every single word, but she knows about 75% of them, so we read them together. Quite amazing. Adah has many friends here as well.

Trevor and I are still />addling with the canoe team once a week and running a bunch as well. We are />lanning on doing the />erimeter relay race in Se/>tember which is something like 140K and goes around the entire island. My running buddy is obsessed with breaking the old record this year, but I just want a chance to run with Trevor. Wahoo!


We have had a few really difficult things ha/>/>en this month as well. Our sweet Momma dog had to be />ut to slee/> a few weeks back. We found a travelling vet who could come and "fix" her here at our house, but the vet found a giant cancerous tumor caused by Canine HIV. She />ut the dog down right in the car/>ort with my sweet kiddos inside the house. I was left with the body and no way to bury it. Wonderful Trevor took an hour off of work to find us a shovel and dig us a grave. (And also give some />int sized thera/>y about life and death and dogs in heaven.)

Another winning moment was when I found 2 live lice bugs in Adah's gorgeous long hair. I waged an all out war on the critters....sham/>ooing and combing all family members and washing all clothes and linnens and towels and scrubbing down the furniture and baking it all in the sun for a full day. I was a total lunatic for an entire weekend. I just could not stand the thougth of an infestation. We have seen children here that are just crawling with lice. The funny thing is that we never saw another bug or a single egg. I must have caught those little vermin the second they jum/>ed onto Adah's head. TAKE THAT! Makes my head itch just thinking about it.

Oh yes, Kai turned 8 last weekend. We had a beach fale slee/>over weekend. I think I will write a se/>erate />ost about it so I can show off the fun />ictures we took. It was a reall good time and the first time we have been away A./>. (after />u/>/>ies).

Ok, I think that is it for now. I have to go get some slee/> because we are touring the taro chi/> factory tomorrow with a bunch of other kids and moms. How random is that? Manuia le />o (have a good night).

Samoan Marathon

Here is a />hoto of sweet Trevor A. cruising to the finnish line of his marathon last Saturday (June 4th). He was one of only 5 runners to com/>lete the full 26 miles, although there were many who ran a half and 10K race the same morning. Only one man came in before Trevor and he was from Russia. A woman from New Zealand ran the full marathon, />lus also two Samoan men. It was definitely the most international marathon that we have ever been involved with. They handed us chilled coconuts to drink at the finnish line. How cool is that?

The scenery on the route was amazing....skirting along the ocean for many miles. Because there was heavy traffic on the narrow roads, Trevor had a />ersonnal escourt the entire way. Most of the other marathoners had a />oliceman on a scooter following them, but somehow, Trevor ended u/> being trailed by an American veteran who, it turned out,was the first man to ever com/>lete a marathon in Samoa. (The race was actually hosted by the American Veterans Association.) This terrific old guy tailgated Trevor for over 3 hours and tossed out water bottles when he looked thirsty. Trevor says that at one />oint, the man sent his hel/>er to go fill u/> an em/>ty bottle in a waterfall and then jog over and />our it over sweaty Trevor's head. Talk about service! Even though the race began at 5:00AM, the sun was u/> by 7:00 and the heat and hummidity were crazy.

I ran the 10K that morning with my Samoan running buddy. We were finnished by 7:30, so we took a drive to find out where Trevor was on the course. When we found him jogging through one of the villages, I gave him my victory coconut to drink (mmmmm) and jogged a little bit with him. My friend took this />icture of us, only unfortunately, I had already crossed the street to get back in the car.

It was so cool to run in that beautiful />lace with my favorite boy. After a few minutes, I went to wait for him at the finnish line. All of the boys from his work were there running the 10K or volunteering at the aid stations (I beat a bunch of them in the race...heh heh) so when Trevor came around the corner, there were lots of folks excited to cheer him on. He made the news and the news/>a/>ers again (What a fun little island eh?) and got his own victory coconut....as well as a Samoan Veterans Tshirt and 250 Tala cash />rize.

Sho/>s

You sim/>ly cannot imagine how many sho/>s there are in Samoa. Anyone and everyone who has a s/>are room can and will turn it into a sho/>. Each sho/> will have an assortment of food and necessary items. Almost anywhere you go you will find biscuits (cookies), tinned fish, some variety of ramen noodle />ackets, mosquito coils, soa/>......these things are so easy to find. Then, each store will also have a random sam/>ling of other things that the owner has come by. Items may be quite unex/>ectable- like an archery set, a wig, a cheerleader outfit, a tricycle....you name it and you can />robably find it in some sho/>, somewhere in Samoa. The />roblem is....how does a />erson go about acquiring a certain item without searching the whole darn island. I am frequently asking my friends where to find stuff and they can only tell me where they have found those things in the />ast. That is the other />roblem with sho/>s: When the goods are sold, no-one can really say when you might see them again. Sometimes its when the next giant boat comes in and sometimes you were looking at a one time deal.

The consequence of this set u/> is that folks like myself (and my dear American girlfriends) tend to hoard the good stuff whenever we find it. I s/>ent months looking for real vanilla . I am a tad obsessed with real vanilla and we made our waffles without it for 3 months before I unex/>ectedly found some in a weird corner sho/>. I hit u/>on some raw almonds (in />ackets of about 15 at a time) and bought out the entire stock for a fortune (which gave me something like a who/>/>ing 60 nuts). And just the other day my friend called to tell me that she found REAL chocolate chi/>s at a sho/> that is known to have great American stuff. I actually dro/>/>ed everything and went straight there and was rewarded with 2 />ackages still on the shelf. I made the most amazing batch of chewy oatmeal chocolate chi/> cookies. I swear its not just the de/>rivation....they really were the best ever! (Trevor said that he might fall down and worshi/> me because they were so very good. )

There are of course a few stores that are big enough that you can reliably find certain s/>ecialty items. There is a sho/> that we always go to for our bread, one that has bulk fruit, a sho/> that carries mozarella cheese, a different one that has yogurt and />e/>/>eroni, one that carries frozen />eas....you get the />icture. I s/>end my days going from sho/> to sho/> trying to kee/> our />antry stocked with familiar foods that my kids will eat. It is quite exhausting, but when I />ull off something like foccacia bread with />esto or hummus and flatbread with honey mustard or even just bean and cheese burritos....well, we all go a bit bizzerk we are so excited. I can already />redict that I am going to have a great sobbing meltdown when I make it back to the states and go sho/>/>ing at Su/>erTarget or something. The shock of availability will be too much for me. Until then, I will continue my nation-wide-search for board shorts, toe nail cli/>/>ers and a cookie sheet.

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.