A long overdue update...

I got an email from my friend in Kentucky saying I sounded depressed in my last blog, so it was real motivation for me to update my blog because “depressed” is so far away from how I’m feeling right now.  I feel so very blessed and grateful to be here. Every day I go on a walk and I just look at the bright blue South Pacific Ocean and the vibrant green palm trees and the white sand everywhere, and I just think, “Is this really my life?”  And when I’m eating a fresh picked pineapple or coconut or bananas, “Is this really my life?” And when I’m sitting around chatting in a house made of coconut trees with a bunch of Samoan women, “Is this really my life?”  And when I’m walking down the street holding hands with some random child, or teaching peekaboo to a baby, again, “Is this really my life?”  I truly feel so happy. It’s a good feeling to know you are exactly where God wants you to be.  I feel like so many of the choices I have made in my life have led me here, and I’m so happy to be here.

I haven’t updated my blog lately because there is nothing terribly exciting that has happened to write about.  Here are a few highlights:

• It has rained everyday for the last two weeks.  We have a cyclone warning for today, but it’s not supposed to be bad.  It’s weird living in a place where you have to get used to cyclones being a possibility on a regular basis.  But because of all the rain, I haven’t been as active as I was at first. I still play volleyball every day, in the rain.  I still swim in the ocean every day, in the rain.  I’m just a lot colder than I usually am when I’m doing those things in the sun.

•    I went to pick rubbish up with the women’s committee. It was a great way to get to know some new women and have them see me do something besides walking or playing volley or swimming. Haha. They were quick to tell me that I shouldn’t be doing that because I’ll get sick. Or I’ll fall (there are lots of lava rocks, but still….).  But it was a fun experience.   At the end of it they gave $30 to all of the women, and they still had some money left, so they gave me $10.  They told me to use the money to go buy credit to call my boyfriend in front of everyone. That had them all rolling for a good five minutes.

•  Speaking of dating, I get asked the question “do you have a boyfriend?” about 245 times a day. It’s the third question I get asked when I talk to anyone, whether it be someone I meet on the street, at the store, or in their house.  It comes right after “where are you going?” and “where did you come from?”   I haven’t quite decided the best response, it depends on your audience really. Sometimes I say, “Leai se mea!”  “there’s nothing!” and they say “good job!” “you’re smart”  “what a pity.” Or “why not??”  To the why not, I usually say “because they are too much trouble. And they are cheeky!” the response to this is “leai! The samoan boys are good, you need to find a good samoan boy to take care of you.” Or they say, “Correct, ali. Good job.”  However sometimes I say, “Jesus is my boyfriend.” I either get a round of applause from this response and told I am a very good girl or I get called cheeky, because they don’t believe me.  And the other times I say, “Yes, I have many boyfriends.” And then I start naming all the boys I can think of that would be approved, usually beginning with The Rock and my Peace Corps friend a couple villages away.   This always gets me the same response, a huge laugh and then “You are a cheeky girl!”  But sometimes I think it’s the best because they start laughing and telling me they like me, which leads to more conversations.
•  I have been hanging out with 5 families in my village, eating different meals with them, listening to music, watching Samoa’s Best Dance Crew, etc.  I met a new family the other day when they invited me in to drink tea while I was going for a walk one day.  They also invited me to Bible Study at their house, so I’m going to go to that next week! I think it’s for kids (atleast that’s what I understood, but my Samoan still stinks) so that could be fun!
•  I was invited to do a dance at a fundraiser for one of the churches in the village, so that was pretty embarrassing. I have officially decided that dancing in front of people is as torturous to me as having my wisdom teeth taken out. But the people in the village think it’s a riot, so you do what you gotta do, right? Also, the DJ kept calling me “Ali aulelei” or “Pretty ali” so that was equally as embarrassing. And then he called me his girlfriend. He’s 50 by the way. 

• The village found out that I was talking to a boy (a very nice, mormon boy who served a mission in Utah, so we actually had things to talk about, in English) and all the head men, Chiefs, had a meeting about it. They actually talked about me and this boy in the meeting and pretty much just made a rule that no one can come in my house, which is fine by me, but just the fact that they had a meeting about me possibly dating some boy was somewhat humiliating. The idea of “privacy” is not a concept anyone really respects here, usually it’s cute but sometimes it can be….well, less than cute.

• I killed 22 cockroaches in my house one night. I lined them all up (with my brothers help, I don’t like touching them even if they are all dead) and took their picture. I’m going to blow it up and hang it outside the house, as a warning for all the other cockroaches.
•  There was a pig sleeping in my kitchen, I don’t know if that has ever happened to you, but it was really funny to me.  And then it was even funnier when it heard me coming and woke up, he started wheezing and squealing as he was trying to run out the door, I’m pretty sure he died that night of a heart attack.
• I only have water for certain hours of the day.  They usually turn it off at 10 am and back on at 4 pm and then off again around 9pm and on again around 6 am. So not bad hours.  The problem is when the timing is inconsistent, and you are in the shower at 9:30am all soapy, and the water gets turned off.  Then things get tricky.
•  Also, did you know rats can eat through plastic baggies? Because they can.

·         Overall, I’m having a great experience here.   I am really excited for school to start and to get more involved with the kids.  Only one more week!

Volleyball.... Water is to a fish as volleyball is to Samoa.

I just wanted to write a quick post about volleyball since this is what I have spent the majority of my time doing over the last two weeks. Before I came to Samoa, I enjoyed volleyball about as much as the next guy-- a pick up game at church here or there is fun, but that was about the extent of my love or appreciation for the game. However, after just a few months here, I am not what one might call a "volleyball freak!" I love it!! If a day goes by without playing (which only happens on Sundays or days where I'm traveling) I resemble a drug addict who has just ran out of their stash. It's very scary.

Everyday, except the Sabbath, there is a least three games of volley going on at any given time in my village. Around 5:00 however, that's when it gets serious. Every court in the village is occupied by intense players. There is generally 6 players on each side, they play to 15, and then which ever team loses gets kicked off by the next 6 people ready to play.  Everyone in the village plays volleyball. Including, toddlers, teenagers, and 80 year old women (this is not a joke).  It's a very serious thing. Also, most of the people in Samoa would put people on college teams in the US to shame (this may be an exaggeration, but they are pretty freakin awesome!).

Some of my favorite things about volley are that whenever someone makes a mistake, everyone yells at the person, even if they just made the same mistake (or a different mistake) 2 seconds before. This starts from a young age, for example my 5 year old neighbor says this to me when I mistake. And she only makes it over the net a little more than I do.  I also really love how when the ball goes out of bounds everyone sits down or runs to the shade while they wait for someone to go get the ball and bring it back to the game.  I pretty much love everything about volleyball, but I love most that no one gets tired even after they have been playing it for 6 hours (which is the case during the holidays because of the tournaments). Its my favorite thing about samoa!