Well, here I am, two days into my last week at the Red Cross. For the most part it is a lot of report writing and organizing files. Quite boring indeed. Two more volunteers left from my group last night so we are down to 5 now. Four of us will leave next week and then it will just be Supy all alone. Don't worry, he's going back later in the month.

As i started this post I wasn't sure what I was going to write and it seems I don't have much on my mind. Well, much on my mind that I can post according to Peace Corps guidelines. Basically though, what is going on here is a combination of emotions. Frustrations coming to a head as the reality sets in that some things will just remain unaccomplished combined with the sadness of leaving friends and my Samoan family. It is truly a perplexing state of mind. In this state it takes a deliberate effort for me to focus on what has been accomplished. Although they tell you to come in with little to no expectations, it is impossible to last the two years without developing them. And even when you do, and you try to temper them to the local time frame and context it always seems like you end up aiming too high. I suppose that is not a bad thing though. I would rather aim high taking calculated risks and fall just short, than aim low leaving potential untested. Particularly in development work, because to fall just short does not mean no progress was made and no good has been done. It's not pass/fail, live or die, and I suppose understanding that is as important as anything in this gig.

To close this short post, I feel I have accomplished some great things in my time here and I have learned a lot. While I did not accomplish everything I set out to do, it was not from lack of effort or will or ability. As I wrap up my service those are the two most important things to me, the impact I did have and knowing that I took the risks, gave everything I had to Samoa and its people, and to quote an age old football saying, "I left it all on the field".

Youth Health Fair and a GRE all in one week! I am glad it's over and

I wish I could say my busy weeks are all finished but I would be

lying. The Youth Health Fair was on Wednesday and the GRE was

Saturday, in American Samoa.As things do here, there were a lot of last minute plans and

confirmations needed for the Health Fair so needless to say last

weekend and early this week were insanely busy. The basic premiss of

the fair was to bring rural students into Apia and give them an

opportunity to hear and participate in messages from health

organizations and government ministries. We invited the Year 12

students, that's like 11th grade in the US, from 9 schools around

Upolu island. Bus transportation was arranged and we had about 220

students attend the fair. We took a unique approach to the health

fair in that we did not just have booths set up and let the students

mill around through the day. Instead we organized 40 minute sessions

and split the students into 8 groups. There were 8 stations so each

group participated in a station for 40 minutes and then rotated to the

next. The overall message was "making healthy choices" and stations

covered topics like HIV/STIs, obesity, communicable disease, first aid

and safety, and cancer/tobacco. Student health assessments were also

carried out by doctors and nurses. Overall the responses to the event

were very positive and we are confident we reached the students with

messages they aren't regularly exposed to in the village. Hopefully

it is the first Health Fair of many to come in future years.I won't go into specifics about the GRE because it is a stupid

standardized test that is a waste of money and time and universities

need to accept the fact that they need to spend the extra time and

effort to review applicants academic and professional history rather

than using short cut methods like the GRE that is not a true

reflection of anyone's ability and capacity for success in a graduate

program.Moving on to my insightful thought for the day about development. It

has become very clear to me in my time here that development is a

double edged sword. The US, as well as other nations like Australia,

Japan and Canada have programs that offer aid in the form of money,

professional support or both to developing nations. There are

programs that work to improve education, health, gender equality and

other quality of life related aspects of development. Progress is

slow, as is expected but positive steps are made every year, or so it

seems. I will use health as a prime example, the developing world has

been working hard to improve immunization rates, infant and child

mortality rates, and malnutrition rates among other aspects of

health. These efforts have been effective at different levels through

the developing world. These changes are fantastic and are worth

getting excited about.As these major improvements are occurring the health and quality of

life is declining in other areas as chronic disease begins to wreak

havoc on developing nations like Samoa. The influx of refined, high

fat, sugar and salt foods as well as mass production and increased

availability of cigarettes are two of the primary reasons for this

decline in health status. Unfortunately the manufacturing, importing

and sale of these goods are also associated with development, economic

development. This is just one aspect of development that has negative

impacts on these nations in transition. Unfortunately the countries

that are offering the support in development work are the ones leading

by poor example. Like the developing nations, health, among other

things, are sacrificed for economic "progress" in western countries.As I finish my work in the developing world to return to the US to

begin work in solving some of our own problems back home I sincerely

hope those who take up work in Samoa and other countries recognize the

negatives that come with the positives. By taking the opportunity to

look at the western situation objectively, a local approach and

systems with solutions in mind can be established before some of the

negative impacts of development become intrenched in everyday life.

After all, to me, the goal of development work should be to create

equality, happiness and a good quality of life for everyone while

preventing manipulation and exploitation of the same people who we are

trying to help.Those are my thoughts for the day. Now I am off to the internet cafe

for my favorite part of the day, talking to Whitney! I'll be putting

some pics of the Health Fair up on the Picasa Webalbum so check'em out.

Here I am, Sunday morning recovering from another mystery illness. I

went to Savaii with the Red Cross Communications Officer and a

videographer working pro-bono for the Samoa Challenge II Health

Project to put together some media coverage for the project. We left

mid-day Wednesday and that night I am sure I spiked a fever. Woke up

the next morning relatively ok and ready for the day. Later on

Thursday the fever came back along with a splitting headache and loss

of appetite. Friday I think my fever went down to a low grade fever

by the afternoon but I still had a massive headache, no appetite and

added diarrhea to the list. Laid low Saturday trying to recover and I

am feeling a bit better today as I feel my body is starting to

recover. An amazingly strange illness for sure, one that I can't

quite put a name to. This of course means the islands of Samoa did it

to me.I know that may seem crazy but I have actually had similar

conversations in the previous weeks with other volunteers in my group

about the islands being out to get us. It seems that more people than

not have been faced with more medical, social or job related adversity

in the last month or two than is normal. (for here) This has lead a

group of us to determine that the island is in fact out to get us and

is putting in its last effort to get us to leave early.Despite those efforts I believe our group will persevere. In fact, we

have our first set of volunteers set to leave this week, as

scheduled! Let the trickling off begin. My group did all get

together this weekend at a beach resort for a farewell shindig.

Unfortunately since I felt like death I was unable to go which was

disappointing. I did not go to a lot of the group events over the last

two years because they were a lower priority for me than other things

I had going on but I made the effort to make sure I was free for this

one. But when an island is out to get you, that's a tough wild card

to deal with right?!Moving on to the next topic I wanted to spend a minute talking about

Peace Corps Volunteer job expectations. This will give you a glimpse

of the difficulties volunteers face. Volunteers on average are young

adults, well by age anyway, some are pushing adolescence as far as

they can take it. So the majority of volunteers are in their 20s, a

significant number as young as 23 or 24. Fresh out of college, ready

to take on the world blah, blah, blah. A large portion of volunteers,

in the past and the new groups as well, are placed in schools and in

addition to teaching the students they are often expected to conduct

teacher training or co-teach. I'll use this example because it seems

the most universal.This creates difficulties for two reasons. The first is related to an

old philosophical quote that goes something like, the truly wise man

knows what he does not know. That being said, I did know a damn thing

coming straight out of college and I still don't know a whole lot in

my mid 20s, ok, ok, late 20s. I supposed the older you get the more

you appreciate this. So a large number of volunteers are expected to

teach other teachers with the theoretical knowledge and limited

practical experience that they got from their college experience back

in the states. And do this in a school system that is modeled after

the New Zealand school system that is quite a bit different than the

US. Yes, difficult.Second, how much clout does someone in their mid 20s have in Samoa,

generally? Consider this, you often find people in their mid 20s

still members of their church youth group. So the answer is slim to

none. That isn't to say their aren't people out there who understand

and appreciate educational and work experience and do not let age be

the overriding factor, but it is rare. I mean in all reality this is

a tough position to be in in the US, I can speak from experience.

When you come in to a job and are considered at a level that, on

paper, places you higher professionally, or even equal to, those older

than you and who have worked there longer, you are going to have some

winning over to do. Throw the fact that you look way different than

everyone else and you barely speak the language........yes, difficult.It's no wonder the one-liner Peace Corps uses is "it's the toughest

job you'll ever love." Of course being in my late 20s now and knowing

everything a person needs to know, ever, so early in my life I have to

ask if there might be a better way to utilize volunteers that might

make expectations more reasonable. Of course it really seems

development work is not an exact science and there are many variables

that need to be considered, too many to count in fact. At the end of

the day we are having a positive impact whether it's through reaching

a few of the kids that are taught or connecting with a few co-workers

and sharing professional experiences and methods that make both

parties better personally and professionally.At the end of the day I hope we are not satisfied with that. I am not

saying that is not a great achievement, what I am saying is we need to

make sure Peace Corps is working to improve every year. The world is

changing, when Peace Corps started we were going into places with no

education system or a barely functioning one. Now we have volunteers

going into well established educational systems that more closely

resemble western systems with teachers that have had at least some

teachers education. The same holds true for work in health, the

environment and other areas. Our ability to recognize this and adjust

the role and demands on volunteers may help make the "toughest job

you'll ever love" a little less tough and a little more effective.This gig will always be a tough one and will always demand the best

and brightest in order to have a positive, lasting impact on the

countries we serve in. As we start to leave this week I just want to

give a big "fa'amalo" to my fellow volunteers in Peace Corps Samoa

Group 81, for their perseverance and great work over the last two

years. That goes for all volunteers around the world nearing their

end of service. Malo galue ma manuia le malaga. (Good work and safe

journey)

I'm sitting here on Sunday morning before heading to Misa and

Leilani's house for some to'ona'i and I thought I better create a blog

post since I think it has been a few weeks since my last one and my

time is running out here so my opportunities for posting is rapidly

shrinking.With my return to the states closing in I am finding that mentally I

am in two places, both in Samoa and thinking about life back in the

US. Of course I am excited at the prospect of being back with Whitney

and seeing friends and family. Coming back during the holiday season

will most likely be an overwhelming reunion event in which I will

undoubtedly be repeating the same conversations over the course of two

to three weeks. And if last year has taught me anything, it will be a

blur of hellos and goodbyes. While this is not the ideal situation I

will be happy with the opportunities to see loved ones that are

presented to me.On the other side of the world my mind is frantically trying to

organize the last few weeks of my time here. With three major

projects all wrapping up at the same time, applications for graduate

school, Peace Corps Close of Service demands and the farewells to

friends and colleagues the task ahead of me is daunting to say the

least.Both leaving Samoa and returning to the US present conflicting

emotions on both sides. While I will be sad to leave my friends and

fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and lose the aspects of daily life here

I have grown to enjoy there is also a sense of relief to see an end to

some of the chronic frustrations that are also present in work and

home life. On the other side of the coin I could not be happier to be

coming back to Whitney and being closer to family and friends. While

I am elated for those reasons there are things I am anxious about, of

course those that are to be expected; readjusting to sharing a place

after living alone for two years, figuring out what to do in the 6-7

months before we move from Texas, planning for the wedding, all the

basic stuff I'm sure most of you would anticipate. Besides these

there is one thing that I am not looking forward to, and that is being

once again immersed in a consumer society.I know the mention of the topic probably sparks thoughts a radical

people and groups ranting and marching, screaming about the evils of

buying stuff but trust me that's not where I am at. However, after

living in Samoa on Peace Corps wages and in a country where the grip

of advertisements, commercialism and consumer manipulation is only

starting to emerge I have quickly come to realize that the consumer

mentality I had before I came here is something I do not miss. And in

the absence of constant advertisements and product placement the

desire to spend money on stuff other than what you actually need

dissipates. Of course I have bought things I don't "need" while I'm

here and have bought people birthday presents that were obviously just

for fun or enjoyment. An argument can be made that little things like

that here and there are ok and are even part of a healthy and happy

life. To a certain extent of course.So basically what I am getting at is I am anxious to come back because

as I see it, it isn't my pay scale that resulted in this change of

mindset, it is the environment I have been living in that socially has

not yet transitioned to place such a high value on non-essential

commodities (though there is a transition occurring) and a physical

environment that is not constantly slapping me in the face telling me

the products I "need" to buy. I am not looking forward to the

pressure of the environment back home to buy, buy, buy.I am working on my mental plan to resist that pressure and of course I

will buy some things as treats and a few things that I don't truly

need. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but with

everything in life, moderation is the key (except for fruits and

vegetables which you should all eat as much as possible!). I think

this is one of the best things I will take from my two years here,

when I look back it will be my experiences in Samoa I will treasure

not the things I bought, and that is the lesson I will take with me

for the rest of my life.I know, real philosophical right?! For some reason I felt like

opening up and sharing a bit more today. But I think over the next

few weeks I will try to share a bit more of my insights and

experiences from this point of view rather than focus too much on the

actual goings on, though i will give you updates on any major things.

I just think you all might find it interesting. Of course if not, you

only have to put up with a few more posts! So it won't be that bad!

I'll forgo the usually rambling about not posting more often and just

say; sorry. Moving on to the meat of the post, yes, I have less than

two months to go. The two year anniversary has come and gone (rather

uneventfully I may add) and the count down is running. Some

volunteers in my group are actually under the 1 month mark. Due to

the winding down of the school year many of the teachers will be left

with little to do towards the end of November since final exams are at

the beginning of November even though the school year officially ends

in early December.I know, you are asking yourself, what goes on for that whole month if

final exams are over. Well, since some volunteers are leaving in mid

and later November that should give you a hit. To be less cryptic,

not too much academic-wise, happens during that last month. As far as

I understand it, there are sports, singing, dance and drama practice,

all in preparation for the prize giving in early December. Some

volunteers will be sticking around until the prize giving but I can

also understand why some are choosing to go home before, especially to

make it home in time for Thanksgiving.I was hoping to be one of those but my responsibilities for the Health

Project have created the obligation to stay until mid-December. I was

going to play it off like I had to stay and then come home early and

surprise Whitney for Thanksgiving but no such luck. Ah well, can't

complain too much, I signed up for two years and three months and by

golly it looks I'm gonna do it all!There is lots to do as the calendar moves closer to December. Of

course we have all the paperwork and official hoops to jump through

for Peace Corps, shopping to buy presents for friends, family and co-

workers (or the village for those outside of Apia) in Samoa. Dido for

those back home, for which I expect certain reciprocations upon my

return having bought all those presents with my oh-so meager Peace

Corps salary. (hint, hint!) I have the unique pleasure of having to

go to American Samoa to take my GRE because evidently Masters Degrees

from Australia aren't good enough and the true measure of a person and

their ability to succeed in graduate school is via an overpriced

standardized test. Griping aside, there are no testing centers in

Samoa so I have to hop over to American Samoa for a night. The test

starts at 8:00am and there is an early morning flight but the

reliability of the plane is not that great so I will need to go the

night before incase there are delays or I have to catch a different

flight.And of course I need to wrap up my projects! The Red Cross project is

a bit of a quagmire at the moment and I won't delve into specifics but

I will figure out some solution before I am out of here. The Health

Project has had its ups and downs as to be expected. Some villages

have dropped out due to low/no participation which is unfortunate but

not surprising. Other villages are doing ok and others really well.

We are really learning a lot from this first go round and I am already

thinking of some changes for the second round next year (which will be

someone else's responsibility, definitely not mine). That project

literally ends the last day I am in country. Well I will actually

have some work I will need to bring back with me to the states to

finish up but the initial evaluation meeting will be the week of the

13th the day of or day before my departure. Needless to say, I won't

be cruising through my last weeks here.On that note I will get some work done on the health project ad leave

you there. Until next time.

As I am sitting down at my desk this morning I felt compelled to post. The reason being, today is the one year anniversary of the 2009 tsunami that hit Samoa. I have to say it is truly hard to believe a year has passed since then. I wish I had more information on how the affected communities are doing but i will give you what I know.

From my understanding all families have had a house built for them from donor funds. Additionally, rainwater harvesting tanks have been installed at each new house to help provide a supplementary water supply. For the most part, infrastructure like roads, water pipes and electricity have been restored. Beach resorts/fales are still in the process of rebuilding which until they are rebuilt, their absence continues to have a negative impact on the small local village economies.

Going through most of the villages things do look better, but you can still see some of the aftermath and impacts a year later. Through the year there have been some programs going on to help in their recovery. Right now we are experiencing a revitalization of assistance most likely due to the year anniversary that will most like subside soon after, leaving those who have been working in that area throughout the year to continue plugging along.

As for what the Red Cross is doing, I know we have been active in the Water and Sanitation sector in the tsunami affected villages. And hopefully in about 3 months, the Community-based Assessment and Planning Program that I am working with the Red Cross to develop, will begin to work in some of the communities. The only hitch right now is the funding the program needed, it's kind of on hold. I can't go into more specifics than that but needless to say, it is a little unsettling seeing as I am out of here in about 2 and a half months and we have yet to hire a person to replace me.

Oh! Before I go (it's after 8:00am so I need to get to work), last Sunday Samoa started daylight savings time. Here are the benefits reported by local news sources of daylight savings:

* Enhancing energy efficiency.

* Boosting leisure activities.

* Promoting public health and safety.

* Increasing the Samoa’s economic growth.

Who would have thought changing the clock one hour would be the answer to all our problems! (Just as a side note, the sun rises and sets at around the same time all year long and daylight savings is only in effect for half the year)

Ok, back to work. When I stop having to work 12-14 hour days I promise to get pictures up. I'm sure you are all skeptical and probably a little jaded at this point and expect no follow through on that promise.

As I sit here, chowing down on fried fish and chips (that's french

fries for you American folk) and drinking a massive can of Arizona

Raspberry Iced Tea, I can't help but notice the irony of the situation

because I am currently in the Peace Corps Office printing out mass

quantities of participant manuals for the health project I have been

working on. You know, the health project that encourages eating fresh

and local foods and limiting high fat (fish and french fries), salt

(french fries) and sugar (flavored iced tea) food and drink.This project has temporarily absorbed any and all personal time and

has even gotten in the way of some of my day to day work at the Red

Cross. This was initially due to access to only a less than perfectly

functioning copy machine at the Red Cross and then exacerbated when

that copy machine broke down completely. With 30,000 pages to print a

well functioning copy machine would have been nice! After having to

print a few thousand pages using a small printer and manual duplex

printing I now have been given access to the Peace Corps Office copy

machine. After running for a while it starts to jam up frequently but

it's a step up from the printer.We had the training for the Peace Corps Volunteers and their

counterparts this week. One in Apia for those on Upolu and on in

Falealupo For those in Savaii. It was really quite interesting to

experience the difference between the two settings. The meeting in

Apia was in a boardroom and we used powerpoint slides and a whiteboard

in addition to the discussion and activities. In Savaii we had the

training in an open Samoan fale, because there are no boardrooms in

Falealupo (or possibly in all of Savaii for that matter). We had to

adapt and utilize more group discussion techniques and some paper

visual aids. I think both trainings went well but if i had to pick

the better one I might have to go with the one in Savaii. Now I am

not sure if that can be entirely attributed to the location and

methods because there were more Samoan counterparts at that session

and we had one training under our belt from earlier in the week in

Upolu. I did get the sense that the small group and large group

discussions were effective though, which makes sense because the

traditional method of making decisions and village meetings involves

long discussions/speeches so it utilizes that in a training format

helping to create an atmosphere of facilitation rather than strict

instruction.The view and setting for the Savaii meeting was definitely cooler than

a boardroom in Apia, that's for sure. We are out in an open fale with

a family preparing food in the traditional Samoan way on one side and

a clear view out the the ocean on the other. I wonder where I can

work back home that would have the same setting for meetings and

trainings.....if only!Now I am back in Apia, feverishly trying to get the participant

manuals printed and delivered to the volunteers before the end of the

week. I have a feeling my evenings are booked yet again this week.On the Red Cross side of things there isn't much to report besides the

fact that I have been moderately neglecting my duties there due to

this health project. I have to say i am a little disappointed in that

because I have really taken to this community development thing and

want to learn as much as I can about it as I work to develop the

program and then return to the states and pursue a similar path. This

week I will be back on the ball however and plan to make great strides

both because I want to and have to, as the title mentioned I am at the

three month mark. INSANE!The new group is coming in just a few weeks and I realized, we are now

that group we heard of when we first got in but never really knew any

of them. We will be leaving before they are done with their training

so we will meet them a handful of times but will be a fleeting memory

of their experience here just like group 77 was for us.I will leave you with that thought and I will try and get some

pictures up from the training once I get them.

Well if anyone is still reading this weak attempt at keeping you up to date back home I applaud your patience (and have to ask don't you have anything better to do?! ;)

So, food poisoning, purposely, done to the dogs around my house. Evidently this is not an uncommon incidence here. Someone will put a common pesticide (paraquat)into food and set it out for dogs to eat. I don't know if I spelled that right but it is fo-a-neti-klee correct and that is good enough for me. Especially since it is 7:00pm and I am in my office writing this. Back to the issue at hand, the pesticide is very dangerous and kills, quickly if enough is ingested.

Two of my landlord's dogs have died, and two of my neighbor's as well. Charlie, my dog, obviously ate some and is struggling right now. I did take her to the vet and they gave her a shot to help prevent infection because the paraquat caused a large leasion on her tongue and down her throat. I have to force feed her this milky medicine two times a day now. Basically this is to help with the mouth and throat problem, there is nothing we can do about the poison and its effects on the bodies systems. I just have to wait to see if she pulls through.

Now I'm not one for violence but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't like to inflict a little old school Samoan justice on the piece of work that did this. And my landlords and neighbors feel the same way and if he does get caught, he just might get that. I wouldn't stop anyone from doing it that's for sure.

On a lighter note, I am up to my ears in work (is that a lighter note?). A couple of stories have been published in the newspaper about the health project we are working on. The links are here and here.

Last weekend we ran the perimeter relay race for the second year in a row. This year Peace Corps had two teams, a mens and womens. The men won the volunteer category and go! first overall running 104 kilometers in 8 hours and 5 minutes! The womens team also got first in the womens division, so Peace Corps cleaned up! It was a great day and a lot of fun. Unfortunately the newspaper did a really crappy job of covering it so i don't have a link with a story. I am guessing if a local team had won, they might have covered more. After all, no one likes to lose to a palagi! ;)

Ok, I apologize if this is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors but I am rushing this. Wanted to get something up because I know it has been forever since my last post.

Quick note, Whitney is gone and that makes me sad. :'( But 3 and a half more months and i get to bug the crap out of her 24/7 for the rest of our lives! I can't wait.

I'll get pics up of the relay race soon. Possibly this weekend.

Uma!

Alright ladies and gentlemen, put the sandwich down for this one.Seeing as I am over a year and a half into this gig it was long

overdue but this weekend my gastrointestinal system was rocked by a

wicked case of food poisoning and I am still recovering. I was

planning on posting on Sunday but the food I ate that day had other

plans. I'm still not quite sure what it was. I had the usual to'na'i

with my Samoan family and then went home to work on some of my side

projects. A few hours later I wanted a snack so I made a couple

pieces of french toast. I know, it's a weird snack but I wanted

something sweet and the stores near my house are all closed because

2:00pm Sunday is National nap time. PIus wasn't going to just eat

spoonfuls of powdered sugar, the only sweet thing I had in my house,

so french toast was the solution. Then a few hours after that, the

nightmare began.At first it was just the usual runny stuff (I told you to stop

eating), which in all reality is not all that uncommon. When I eat

somewhere other than my kitchen on occasion I have a loose duce or

two. Nothing that would be considered diarrhea but just different

enough to know food storage and prep wasn't up to US standards. Then

my stomach started to cramp up and any resemblance of solid matter

exiting the back door disappeared. After a few hours of this I

finally managed to throw up which, at the time was painful but

immediately afterwards was a huge relief, temporarily of course. I

spiked a temp and got the chills to top it all off and by the time

11:00pm rolled around I have expelled more fluid from my body than I

think I take in, in three days time.I made it through the night and though I was not hungry at all

yesterday or today and have been quite tired I am on the road to

recovery. Now if you are still hungry, go ahead and finish eating,

I'l be moving on to more palatable topics.Funny thing happened late last week, I kicked a dog in the throat. I

know, your first reaction is probably, "Oh my gosh! That's

horrible!". I would have thought so too, two years ago. But it is

important to remember there are dogs and then there are maile. Maile

are Samoan dogs, and unless they are yours they are usually mean

SOBs. Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid harming a dog whenever

possible, but when I am on my bike anything goes. This is where is

gets a bit funny, the dog is barking an chasing my while I am on my

bike. Unlucky for him, I have my tennis shoes on. I wait until he

got really close and I kick at him. Usually I kick down and catch

them on the head or snout and they back off, what was funny about this

time was his snout must have been tilted just right because I caught

him in the throat. So he goes from this mean, growling, barking dog

to this dejected thing making coughing and sputtering sounds. The

abrupt change was hysterical! Those of you at home may not appreciate

the story fully, but trust me, the volunteers I have told thought it

was just as funny.On the job front I am making small steps forward with developing this

community assessment and planning unit. It is going to be very

difficult moving forward because of the political maneuvering that has

to be done with certain agencies. Some agencies can be very

territorial and despite the fact that you are trying to work with them

and towards the same overall goals. It could have something to do

with the fact that some of these lead agencies are doing little to

nothing and if someone comes in to "help", more often than not they

will be doing more than those who are supposed to be the biggest

players in their field.I am also struggling with the missing link in this plan, the way the

Red Cross is going to help the communities carry out their plans to

reduce their vulnerability and increase their capacity in the areas of

health and disaster preparedness/risk reduction. This has not been

addressed and at the current time there are no plans on the table to

start the search. I am hoping it starts soon. I don't plan to hold

up our work and the development of this unit and program but with out

this answer the CAP program won't be much different than a work of

art. It will take a lot of time and effort to complete and it will

sit on a shelf for people to look at. In that case I better find some

pretty binders to put it in! I don't mean to sound negative, I am

sure that a solution will be found but it would help me out a whole

lot to have it now instead of later. But, wishing for what I can't

have is neither constructive nor productive so enough with that.Whitney is coming in officially a week! We will both have work to do,

which we talked about today. It is good in the sense that the other

will not feel guilty about having to work, or having the other put off

or cram too much work into a smaller period of time. Don't you worry,

we will find time to enjoy each other's company and we won't spend the

whole time working. What I am thinking about doing is working about 9

to 3 most days. She can come to the office and work from there using

the internet. We can take an hour for lunch and leave early so we

have some time to go do things around town. Of course we will have

the weekends and I am going to take the Friday before she leave off

for a three day weekend and we have a public holiday this monday that

I will work and then take Wednesday off (the day she gets here). So

really I will only be working half the days she is here and those days

will be short ones. I think it's a pretty good plan. Now I just have

to get as much done as possible to get ahead of the curve!Speaking of that, back to work I go. With regards to the pictures, I

am getting settled in my new office area, once that is done I will

take the pics and put them up.

As my time counts down here, 5 months give or take a few days, I have

a semi new project to undertake at the Red Cross before I go. I

believe I mentioned the Community Based Health and First Aid Project

we were working on at the beginning of the year. For multiple

reasons, the three months of evaluation and planning resulted in

significant breakdowns that prevented the program from getting off the

ground. I won't bore you with specifics but it has always been the

plan to revisit this and get a community based program up and running.In the mean time I have taken up projects in the areas of HIV and

Blood donation to keep myself busy including reestablishing the

communication links and team work of the Samoa AIDS Alliance as well

as developing brochures and posters for blood donation and working the

strengthen the Club 25 program, a youth blood donation initiative.Now that this program has been given the green light to resume

planning and begin implementation I am going to have to wrap up my

other efforts and shift my focus. I will plan on remaining the point

person for communication and coordination of the AIDS Alliance

organizations as there is no one that can fill that role currently. I

am working on getting funding to reestablish that position before I

leave. (It was filled before the tsunami hit but due to a shift in

program focus on the relief and recovery efforts the person left the

position and it has remained vacant and unfunded since)I am actually going to be filling the role for what we are calling the

CAPP (Community Assessment and Planning Program) as a stop gap

solution. Once funding is secured the CAPP coordinator can be hired

on as a regular employee. So the plan is in the coming 5 months I

will be working with a team of three employees to develop this program

and if time allows, begin a pilot program.So what is this program? To sum it up, it is program that will assess

the capacity, vulnerability, needs and wants of communities in Samoa

primarily with regards to disasters and health. This approach is a

very common one in developing nations now and it emphasizes the

participation of community members in assessing the disaster

vulnerability, health status and capacity of the community to meet or

improve on these needs. Once this is done, the community is involved

in reviewing the results and making decisions on what types of

capacity building/vulnerability reducing/community health programs or

interventions they want. Then the program is planed with the

community and requires them to have a significant contribution to the

development and implementation of the program in their community. So

basically it's moving away from the old school approach in developing

nations of bringing a cookie cutter program with personnel and

resources into a community.I have to say I think this approach is the best one out there that I

have seen, though I am obviously new to this game, and I am excited to

learn more about it and work to develop a Samoan version. What I like

most about it is that it moves away from the handout mentality that

seems to be common to this day in assisting developing nations,

including Samoa. Through my life experiences up to this point i have

come to revise the old saying about teaching a man to fish, "You teach

a man to fish, he can feed himself for a life time (barring

catastrophic global warming effects or the exhaustion of fish

populations of course), you hand a man a fish you teach him to put the

other one out and ask for another." While this is not universally

true, I think, from my experience, it appears to be much more likely

when the person or people are not in great need of support or have

been continually supported for extended periods of time with no

efforts to build capacity and actually "teach them to fish".It appears I have wandered in to a bit of a philosophical mode.

Before I start rambling incoherently I think I'll end it there. I am

planning on getting some pics of the Red Cross office so you can see

where I work up on my webalbum soon. I know, a year later and I

finally get around to it. Shameful. Until then, fa soifua.

Here is a quick post for you all. Peace Corps soccer team lost a

tough fought game on Friday to what was probably the top team in our

league. Regardless it is nice to get out and play some sports. A

good release after a long week of work.I have managed to put some pictures from my trip to Fiji up on my

Picasa Webalbum so check it.Other than that, it's work as usual. We had a good meeting with Samoa

AIDS Foundation and the AIDS Alliance here is going to be ramping up

our efforts, very exciting.As for the Health Fair we are planning with Avanoa Tutusa, massive

amounts of dodging and failing to come through on promises has

resulted in a delay of the event. We have a plan to get back on track

and we are looking at late September or October now. We are going to

make it happen, despite the difficulties we have been faced with thus

far. We are slowing adding people that will help us in the process

and hopefully weeding out the dead weight that was supposed to be

representing one of the large organizations working on the project.Sorry for the short one, check out the pics though.

It appears that my inability to post regularly and often is not only a

symptom of being in Samoa. It is Tuesday here in Fiji, my last day

before going back to Samoa. We had the HIV Global Alliance meeting

yesterday and we have another meeting all day today. I was hoping to

have at least a half day to go into town to see the "city" life of

Nadi and buy some little things for Misa and Leilani and Whitney. It

is not looking good. All the meetings last week finished at 5:30pm

making it impossible to get out, Saturday we went to a Fiji village

for a tour and the whole cultural experience so by the time we got

back the stores were closed and of course Sunday, why would you want a

store to be open on Sunday? Monday thru Saturday your money goes to

capitalistic ventures, Sunday it goes to God, everyone knows that!All in all, the trip has not met my expectations, and that is not

because I haven't gotten a chance to go into town when things are

open. The forum last week was not focused on the topics and delivered

the results I (and others I talked to) hoped for. Of course there are

some things I will be able to bring back and share with the staff and

volunteers in Samoa but many of the questions and uncertainty on some

programs remain.I just wanted to touch base with you all. I am planning on posting

more about the Fiji village trip but I need to see if i can track down

some pictures first. There was a camera being used the whole week by

the organizing staff so I figure I can get those pictures. Yes, I

have a camera but when there are ten cameras floating around and that

combined with the fact we have email I find it more than silly to

insist on massive amounts of pictures of the same things from

different cameras. It's not that I'm lazy. Ok, it may have a little

to do with it, but that's not the whole reason. Additionally, when

you think about it, it is better to have someone else take pictures

because then you might be in a few of them. Anyway, I have rambled on

a bit longer than intended on this and getting back to the point, I

hope to get those picks and post them.I'm off for my last nice hot shower with great water pressure. Oh so

bitter sweet!

Thought I would put a quick post up this morning before I get going

for the conference. So, Fiji..........well, the Novotel Hotel is

nice. I haven't had any time to actually get out and see much of

Nadi. The conference starts at 8:30 each day and ends around 5:00

leaving little daylight left for local exploration. I am hoping on

Saturday to get out and do something, we have a half day for the last

day of the conference leaving the afternoon for crazy shenanigans. I

will be here Sunday as well because I was asked to attend the regional

meeting for the HIV Global Alliance which is Monday the 21st. Sunday

would be a great day to get out with the exception of everything being

closed. It's not as extreme as Samoa but there is little to do

Sundays here as well.I plan to write more tonight or tomorrow but there is a little tid bit

to whet your blog appetite in the time being.

With independence day in Samoa comes the Samoa Independence Run. Last

year I laced up my shoes for the half marathon and finished third.

This year, time got away from me and I actually forgot about the race

until April. Though I had been running off and on for exercise for

months, 8 weeks wouldn't have been nearly enough time to train

appropriately for the half marathon. So I opted for the 10K and

produced the same results, a third place finish. I was eight seconds

away from second place and about 30 seconds slower than my goal time

but a cold that popped up late this week slowed my race time a bit.

And yeah, I know, excuses are like......blah, blah blah. But it's

legit, you try running 10K in the tropics with a head full of goo!Despite the slower race time than I aimed for, the day was a lot of

fun. This year we had a good turnout of Peace Corps Volunteers for

the 10K. Girls and guys, nine in total, everyone had a pretty good

time. And let me tell you, running in Samoa has spoiled me because

when I go back to running races in the states and I get a bottle of

Gatorade instead of a fresh young coconut to drink at the end of the

race, it will be a sad day.On to Samoa current events, the big news is that the Samoa Rugby

Sevens won the sevens world championship. For those of you who don't

know, because I sure as hell didn't before I came here, sevens is a

modified version of rugby. There are seven players a side, on a

regular rugby field (I think), and they play two 7 minute halves with

a continuous clock. It's a very quick game that will never catch on in

the states because 14 minutes is not nearly enough time to allow for

the gluttonous and alcoholic behaviors that are maxims of the US

sports spectator experience. As far as I know most the rules for

rugby remain the same. Now don't quote me on that because that is

what I have gathered from the few matches I have watched and I am far

to disinterested in the sport to allocate personal time for my self-

education of sevens. Naturally everyone in the country is very proud

of the team and the government here has actually called a public

holiday on Monday to honor the achievement and hold a parade and

celebration ceremony.I haven't decided if I am going to go down and see the festivities on

Monday or not. It would be nice but at the same time I have some

deadlines to meet and it's hard enough getting things done without

impromptu public holidays. (mind you we had two public holidays last

week) So I am thinking a quick stop down to take a look and satisfy

my curiosity will be the extend of my participation.And with that i am off to have the usual to'ona'i (the Sunday meal)

with Misa, Leilani and TJ. Always enjoyable and more than filling. I

never eat breakfast on Sundays to try and offset the massive caloric

intake that occurs every Sunday at 11:00am. I'll try to get some pics

of the race up on my picasa webalbum soon. Keep an eye our for them.

So since I had my Teva sandals go missing (still so sad!), I have been

wearing shoes. I did go get some jandals yesterday but I think I will

still wear my shoes when I bike, for safety reasons. The only thing

is, I haven't really had dogs try to get really close to my on my bike

until the last week when i was wearing shoes instead of my Tevas. On

two occasions I had angry dogs rush me on my bike and actually try to

bite me, in the middle of the day. This is odd for two reasons, the

first being it never happened on my usual routes before. I mean they

may bark or run at me from a distance but never try to close in, this

time they did. Second dogs don't usually go after you in the day

here. It's just to hot, when the sun goes down, that's when they kick

the harassment into high gear. So the only factor in this equation

that changed is my footwear. So through scientific deduction I have

determined that shoes piss off Samoan dogs. Look at the facts, you

can't argue, it's science.So actually on both these occasions I had to kick the dogs in the face

a couple times to get them to go away. All part of the Peace Corps

experience! Of course if for some crazy reason it wasn't the shoes

doing it, if I were wearing the flimsy jandals instead the dogs

probably would have gotten a chunk of my leg or foot. So, shoes it

is. The problem does arise when it rains, which has been

uncharacteristically frequent lately (it is the dry season right

now). I still need to figure that one out.On to the topic of work, it looks like I am going to Fiji in June! I

have been asked to be one of the Samoa Red Cross representatives at a

Regional Community Resilience Forum in Fiji. The exact location of

the forum is still to be determined. I am keeping my fingers crossed

that it is in Suva. I hear it's the place to go for Fiji's urban

life. The other option is Nadi, though I was there on my layover on

my way back to the US for my brother's wedding. From what I saw not

too exciting. Of course the location is just an added perk and will

present the opportunity for a bit of leisure time activities, what I

am looking forward to the most is the forum and hearing about what is

going on at other national societies to help give us some insight into

ways we could improve our approach. I will be there for an entire

week in mid June.Other than that I am working on the secondary projects, most time

consuming is the health project. Trying to find some ways to get more

insight into the social, psychological and environmental influences on

healthy eating and physical activity. We have till September to

finalize the curriculum so there is time. I am looking to do some

focus groups with some ladies from rural villages and Jim, one of the

other volunteers who has been working on health projects in Savaii has

volunteered to try and run some of the material with some women from

his village. It's all very exciting and I think the potential for

this program is very good. Of course this is uncharted territory so

we will see how it works out.Samoa Independence Day is next week on Tuesday. Since I am no longer

with NUS, I do not have to go and do the march in front of the Head of

State and the other "important" people. If you all remember from last

year, the march amounted to showing up at 6:00am, standing in the sun

for four hours and then walking as a group in front of these large

grandstands with, I say again, the "important" people. Needless to

say, not how I prefer to spend my public holiday. Of course I went

last year, because NUS was going and that's part of the gig. But this

year, I am with Red Cross and as far as I know, our organization is

not marching, whoo-hoo!I am looking forward to the long boat races. I didn't get a chance to

see them last year. Rumor has it though that they are on Monday

instead of Tuesday. Monday is not a public holiday so I am going to

look into it and find out what the deal is. The race is the talk of

the town though, because there is a big rivalry between Samoa and

American Samoa. I guess in the last race in American Samoa, the

American Samoa team started before the gun, quite a bit before the gun

actually and ended up winning by only a few seconds. Rumor has it the

difference in the time would have made the Samoan team the winner but

the judges or who ever was in charge dismissed the complaints. Or

something like that. We all know how rumors and stories spread and

change. Regardless, it has charged the atmosphere for the competition.Enough rambling for today. Want to give a shout out to my cousin Kim

Huhmann who graduated from high school this week with Salutatorian

honors among others. Rumor has it the colors of all the extra

tassels, stoles, medals, etc, clash. Unfortunate. A small price to pay

for greatness eh, Kim? ;)

What a couple of weeks! I have been drowning in work and have had

only a few moments to catch some sleep and maybe take a moment to read

a book or catch a TV show on my laptop. I have been working on the

health project for the group 82 volunteers. The original plan was to

roll out the project in early July. I held a training with them this

week to introduce them to the approach and the content of the program.I apologize if I am being redundant in explaining this, I can't

remember if i explained this in my last post. The health program is

formulated around the Diabetes Prevention Program approach. It is

going to use a modified version of the "Lifestyle Balance" curriculum,

the same program I used when I worked in Tama with the Sac & Fox

Tribe. I have been scrambling to get the content modified and

approved, all the while creating the training sessions for the

volunteers.This week brought about a long needed break in the grind, partially

expected with the completion of the training and partially unexpected

with the delay of the program start. After a number of factors were

considered, the powers at be decided that the program would be better

off if it started in September instead of July. Being at the mercy of

their timeline, I was happy to hear about this. The downside is there

is no way I will be able to leave a few weeks early in December, which

I was hoping to do to surprise Whitney. On the up side, it allows me

a lot more time to look into cultural and social aspects of lifestyle

behavior change here and tailor the program as best as possible. I

will also get to work with some of the volunteers who may be less than

excited about the project. As I understand it most volunteers are

excited or at least ok with the program. But as with any project

there are those dissenters. I am planning on trying my best to make

the program palatable for them and I am hoping they meet me half way

and understand there is only so much that can be changed while still

maintaining its effectiveness. If they don't, well, I can play that

game too. Obviously i am hoping for the best.So now that I have a few months to finish refining the program my

schedule is a lot less stressful. Something I am thankful for because

I have had a cold for 2 weeks now and I haven't been able to shake

it! A few good nights sleep and I think I will be back on track.Last night we had a fundraiser for the NGO, Avanoa Tutusa. Maliu Mai,

a local restaurant let us use their place for free and the Peace Corps

Safety and Security Officer brought his band to play, for free as

well. The entertainment included live music from his band, Peace

Corps Volunteers performing traditional Samoan dances and a few

Samoans dancing to raise money. As is tradition when having a

fundraiser and a person or group is out on the dance floor and a

bucket or bowl is placed in front an people come up and put money in.

We had a great turnout of Peace Corps Vols, Peace Corps Staff, some

friends of mine from the Red Cross and some other friends/co workers

of Avanoa Tutusa members. Everyone got a kick out of our dances and

they were pretty good (with the exception of on the got a little messy

for a few seconds!). At the end of the night we brought in over $850

tala! I would like to give a shout out and thanks to Kaelin and

Jenny. They did all the planning and a great job organizing and

running the fundraiser for our NGO.Now to the title line of the post. I took off my sandals before we

went to dance and didn't put them back on when we were done. We had

all our sandals and bags next to the table where we had people taking

the cover charge. I was running around thanking the people that

helped with the evening and come to support. By the time I got back

to the table most the bags and sandals had been picked up because

people were leaving to go home or out to another place for a few

drinks. My sandals were no where to be found. They were right next

to my bag. A bag that had my laptop in it. I am happy that the bag

wasn't taken and really you just have to laugh. Only in Samoa could I

have my sandals stolen and my laptop remain! It is a sad moment, I

loved those Tevas! I haven't had to wear the crappy "jandals" that

everyone wears here. Jandals are just cheap thong sandals and they

don't give your feet any support and you have to deal with weeks of

blisters and rubbing in between your toes as your feet get accustomed

to the uncomfortable plastic. So, it looks like I have to assimilate

my feet into the local custom for the last 6 months here. My feet are

not looking forward to the next few weeks.I'll close with my usual hollow promise of trying to post more often.

The odds do look better now that I have a bit more free time.

That is Samoan for Happy Cinco de Mayo! "Me" is supposed to have a

fa'amamafa over it (a little line) but I don't know how to do that and

don't have the time so please excuse the intentional typo. Things

have been crazy busy as of late. Due to the slow moving nature of

things in the work place, and in special projects, I have taken on a

number of projects to help keep me busy. And keep my mind off my hot

fiancee as much as possible. It's not that I don't like thinking

about her, but being a half a world away for two years is no place to

sit idle and count the days.As is bound to happen on occasion multiple projects have moments of

overlap where I find myself frantically busy trying to keep up with

the workload. This is mostly because if they all went to plan there

would be plenty of time for each but usually there is a lot of waiting

around for people to get back to you so you can move forward with the

work. So, what do I have pressing for my attention right now? We are

getting ready to train the group 82 volunteers on a village based

chronic disease prevention program. Due to delayed responses in

consultations and meetings I am working frantically to finalize

revisions to the program and get it ready for the volunteers. I am

fairly certain it will be done in time but it is definitely taking up

my evenings and weekend for the next week.The HIV program at the Red Cross is starting to move forward after a

long hiatus. We got some community surveys out last week and I have

been working to compile the information. The info will be used to

develop education materials and handouts. Unfortunately it was not a

research project so the results cannot be used for wide uses but I did

not have the resources or the time to organize that sort of effort.

They will do their job and though the results are not research

quality, the methods used make me confident in using the results.

They did reveal some less than desired numbers in the general

understanding of HIV, methods of transmission and attitudes relating

to HIV discrimination. Nothing really surprising, but it's good to

have something to go by in developing our messages.The blood program will be distributing a survey this week for the same

purpose. So hopefully in the coming months we will get some new

materials developed for the peer educators to use in their work in HIV

and materials that can be distributed at blood drives and other events.We also had a great meeting today that will help us in getting things

moving in the right direction in the larger HIV picture. The results

of today's meeting is a long awaited meeting between some key

stakeholders to hopefully strengthen the work and cooperation in

addressing the HIV situation in Samoa.Avanoa Tutusa is still rolling along and we are looking at ways to

scale up our operations. We have some people interested in helping

the organization in the near future and we are very excited about

that. We are also planning a health fair for the youth of Samoa. We

have our first official planning meeting this Friday and we have had a

great response by a number of organizations who want to be involved in

the planning process. This will provide us with a great opportunity

to get some Samoans interested in Avanoa Tutusa and hopefully join the

organization, one of the key goals for this year.Sorry to bore you with work stuff but that is about all I have to

report. We did celebrate Cinco de Mayo last weekend in Savaii and it

was a great time. I got to see a lot of the PCVs I don't get a chance

to see that often and I got to have some mexican food (or close

enough) and margaritas (not really close enough, but take what you can

get I suppose).Whitney bought her ticket to come visit me this summer. Second week

in August! I can't wait! And the truly amazing thing is I know the 3

months will fly by and then when she leaves I only have 3 and a half

months left. It's shocking and I can feel the clock ticking. I am

excited to move back home but I am anxious to do the best work I can

here before I go.Well, 12:30am is about 3 hours past my bedtime and I have a day that

is just slammed tomorrow so that's it for today. I'll try to throw a

post up this weekend. Tofa soifua.

The other morning I was greeted with a surprise when I went into the

bathroom. I chance to see the famous Samoan toilet spider up close.

I have included a picture of the famed arachnid for your viewing

pleasure. The Samoa Toilet Spider is indigenous to Samoa. It is

unknown where they lived before toilets were used here but now they

reside primarily in toilets. They are not poisonous but do have a

nasty bite that can leave unsuspecting victims extremely unsatisfied

with their restroom experience. Interesting enough they are the only

spider that feeds on feces so they do not produce webbing.

Hello everyone, I am back in Samoa after a very quick two weeks back

in the states. The trip was great and as most of you know the weather

back in the midwest was terrific. Now I am back in Samoa, getting

back into the swing of things, including getting used to the heat

again. In fact as I write this at 5:30am, I am sweating. I sure do

miss those 70 degree weather days!Work at the Red Cross is pretty much back in full swing. We have had

to do some revisions to the program we are working on developing that

is going to delay the process and the start date of the program.

While it is a bit disappointing, it is not that surprising so we are

working towards the proper solutions now.Yesterday, the Ministry of Health held a celebration for national

health week at their compound. Everyone from the Red Cross joined

representatives from other government ministries, students from a few

select schools and some of the big wigs in government including the

Prime Minister in attendance. There were a few speeches by some

prominent Samoans, sorry i don't know their names or positions because

it was announced in Samoan, promoting heath in Samoan communities. I

only know this because of the few words I could pick out in the

speeches and the short summary they provided in English though out the

speech for us non-Samoan speakers in attendance.The colleges (that's high schools here) that had student

representatives also had one student from each give a speech about TB

prevention. I am sure it was an exciting opportunity for the students

and they all did a very good job speaking in front of a large crowd.

I am not sure how the speeches to be presented were selected but there

was a disappointing aspect to them and that was in the content of the

speeches. Two of the three speeches were at least in part in English

and I could understand the basics of the one that was presented in

Samoan and they did not really talk about TB prevention or as was the

case for one speech, were for the most part wrong in the methods of

prevention. Sadly it can be reasonably assumed the students were

obviously misinformed by the teacher(s) that were to help them with

the research.Beyond that, there is not too much to report. Misa and Lelani are

building two more houses on their land just across from my house so

who knows, I could have some neighbors pretty soon. They started

building the houses before I left and they will probably be finished

within the next two weeks. Well, I'm off to get ready for work. Oh,

and I forgot to mention as the title of the post indicates, I have

officially been in Samoa for a year and a half now. It has really

gone by fast and with only 8-9 months left I will be back in the

states before I know it. So that means I have 8-9 months to actually

come through on my hollow promises to post more often. We'll

see.........

It seems redundant to continue to apologize for my poor posting habits

so I'll leave that be for now and get to the skinny.Work has been unbelievably busy over the last few weeks. In addition

to that I have my side projects and the St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl I

organized here in Samoa. So, it's been busy to say the least. (that

sounds familiar as well) The Pub Crawl was fun and though we went out

to have fun and enjoy the holiday we did get to share the tradition

with some Samoans so it's not what Peace Corps has in mind when they

talk about "imparting an understanding of Americans on the part of

people served," but it sure is a fun way to do it. And no worries, no

one made a fool of themselves or got in trouble so it was a success.As for work, we are still working feverishly on our community based

health and first aid program. There has been a curveball this week,

but it may be a good curveball if that makes sense. I won't go into

details now but we are meeting tomorrow to propose the change in

approach and we will see what the department heads say. Regardless of

that meeting's results, we have sent out invitations to a

stakeholder's meeting we are going to have in April. It's going to be

a great chance to find out what is going on around the country with

regards to community health programming and where our program can fit

in and form partnerships.The Avanoa Tutusa NGO is still moving along. We have some great

materials for World Water Day that Lilli, one of the new group 82

volunteers, developed and other volunteers can use on World Water Day

next week. We did a similar thing as an organization for global

handwashing day last year. We are hoping if we can get materials

compiled and developed then other volunteers will use them on global

awareness days. It worked for handwashing and we have high hopes for

World Water Day. Earth Day is around the corner and we are working on

that too. It's a great effort that utilizes Peace Corps Volunteers

that have an interest in a topic and provide those who are either too

busy or don't ahve enough interest in a topic to access the resources

easily and use in their schools. We are also working on coordinating

a health fair aimed at high school and college age youth here in

Samoa. We are thinking sometime in the summer, possibly July. The

time frame is a bit cramped since we are just starting the planning

but compared to a lot of planning processes I have been exposed to

here, we are starting early!To wrap up, the reason I am writing this post at 11:00pm tonight is

because I know tomorrow will be ridiculously busy because I will be

wrapping up loose ends and trying to get as much done before I head

home for my brother's wedding. I am looking forward to seeing Whitney

again, and so soon! Same goes for the family. Whitney does still

have class and work so I will have down time while I am back to, well,

do work. Though it's not ideal, the timing of my trip really requires

that I do work while I am back home to keep things rolling. Of course

if Whit didn't have class or work I would have figured something out

like only sleeping 2 hours a night while I am back but since she does

have those obligations I will take those opportunities to keep the

ball rolling.As I close, I want to say congrats to my friend Dan and his wife

Kristin on the birth of their second baby boy, Rowan Scott DeVore.

This of course means they are going to have to have another boy down

the road because they don't have a son named Joseph yet. Not sure why

they didn't name this one after me, they must have lost a bet or

something.

Well, as recent events have shown, paradise is not always a paradise. I was woken up this morning at 2:00am by a call from the Samoa Peace Corps office, there has been a 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chili. The quake could have potentially triggered a tsunami that could affect the pacific islands and even as far as Asia and Japan. The potential tsunami will hit the island of Samoa at approximately 9:00am local time. Unfortunately it seems there is no way to actually tell if it is on it's way or not. I have heard that we could get any where from nothing, up to a 10 meter wave.

I have been up pretty much since the initial call because at 3:00am, my landlord came to get me to go to higher ground. Though, where we live is a block away and maybe 10 feet lower in elevation than one of the area's major tsunami evacuation points, so in all reality there is not much reason to move to that place from our houses. Of course, I did not tell them this since it better to be extra safe in these situations. Of course I opted to stay in my house and try and get a few more hours of sleep. I'm sorry I should have specified in the earlier sentence, it's better to be extra safe if you are someone other than me and I don't want to sleep more.

Then at a little after four, after I managed to just drift off to sleep I got a call from the Red Cross informing me of the tsunami warning and effectively ending any hopes of catching a few more hours sleep before going in to the Red Cross office. It's not that I had to get up, my body pretty much sad screw it, and I was now wide awake.

I arrived at the office at around 6:30am and it is buzzing with volunteers and staff preparing to go to the evacuation points to record the number of people there. I am not sure how this information is used but it is common practice to go out and do this. The volunteers also serve as first aiders at the evacuation points. I do have a concern about sending all the volunteers out for this because it leaves almost no one to go out immediately once the warning is lifted to any affected areas to provide first responder emergency care. But we will hope for the best and maybe there won't be a tsunami or maybe there is a system in place I am unaware of that will help to ensure these first responders can get out to any affected areas immediately if we are hit by a tsunami.

Me, I will probably wait here in the office and help where I can. Then if we are hit by a tsunami I will be going out to one of the affected areas to help in a first responder capacity. With the recent tsunami, heightened awareness in Samoa right now and the early warning I think we can expect the impact with regards to deaths and injuries to be low if we are in-fact hit.

Well, as what usually comes with emergency preparedness and response I will now proceed to sit and wait. Good opportunity to study up on my GRE Vocab. I will be sure to post later today if I have time and anything note worthy to report.

Here we are on Saturday and Rene is reportedly moving away. Last night had some high winds and downpours but nothing too exciting in my neck of the woods. Rumor has it there were some downed trees around Apia and I can't really say for sure how the south side of the island faired but I didn't get a call from the Red Cross so that's a good sign. I apologize for not having more information or any thing to put up on the post here but I am at home today with the turtle-like dial-up internet. When I get to work on Monday if there is anything further to report I will be sure to put it up.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my condolences to the family of Peter Sinclair. Peter was a long time professor in the Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship, and my office-mate, at NUS from January to August before I left for the Red Cross. He passed away this week at his home here in Samoa. He was a delightful older gentleman from New Zealand. My time spent with him was always enjoyable and his insights and experience from living here in Samoa helped in getting me through some of those rough patches in the beginning of my service. I will be attending his service tomorrow at 1:00pm. He is, without a doubt, someone I will miss but never forget.

Thought I would throw up a quick post as I prepare to head home this evening, cyclone Rene is on her way. I have included the most up to date projected path of the storm. The path has been slowly shifting to the north and covering more of Samoa. We will see what happens over the next 24 hours. I can't help but think of the unfortunate families in the tsunami affected area who are ill equipped to handle this event. We will just have to hope for the best.

Hopefully communications will not go down and I will be able to put an update online from home. If you want more information on the storm a few good links are:

http://www.met.gov.fj/advisories.html

http://www.mnre.gov.ws/meteorology/

http://www.met.gov.fj/sat-map.html

This weekend we had the second round of our water tank painting

project out in the tsunami affected area. As with the first go round

we began the program with a short talk about the importance of

conserving water and then helped the kids paint a water conservation

themed mural on the water tank. We added a new dimension to the

program this time around due to the larger than expected participation

level of early elementary kids at the first one. Activities were held

for the young kids with games focused on water and conservation.We had an excellent turnout for volunteers for round two. Twenty

Peace Corps Volunteers showed up to participate, more than twice the

original number. Transportation was touch and go up until the day

before, no surprise. Of course my cool demeanor slowly eroded away as

the clock began ticking down, though I think I did a good job

minimizing the damage produced on my war path. By Saturday morning we

had a large flatbed truck and a Toyota Hilux pick-up, both provided by

the Samoa Red Cross. Naturally we left late on Saturday and arrived

around an hour after the stated start time which I suppose is about

normal. I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to morning

departures I could say six, seven or eight and we still wouldn't leave

till nine or nine thirty. This is not anecdotal evidence, it's a

fact, trust me. But we did get going and that is something to be

happy about, 12 PCVs in the large flat bed, including me, and 8 in the

pick-up.Though the pick-up was a double cab, everyone except for one PCV and

the driver, sat in the bed. Now, I am all for being polite, but if

there is a seat open in the cab of a truck in a country that has roads

full of pot holes, speed bumps (yes, massive speed bumps everywhere),

blind corners and the more than occasional taxi or bus driver who I

can only guess are taping their audition for NASCAR, you can be damn

sure I will gladly take the seat in the cab if no one else will. I'm

not judging, maybe they like the rush or are big fans of skin cancer,

to each their own. What did get me was on the way back, they put the

paint supplies in the cab, on the seat, and it leaked, and I had to

clean it up on Monday. If you want that roller-coaster rush when the

truck hits a pot hole or speed bump and nearly sends you flying from

the bed, great! But put the god damn paint in the bed too,

seriously! Anyway, I digress.The turnout by the kids was great as well. We anticipated the PCV

turnout correctly and decided to go to two villages this time around,

Saleaaumua and Lotopue. All in all we had a little over 20 kids at

Salaaumua and about 90 at Lotopue. Lotopue had a huge turnout because

I had the primary school principal's phone number from when we went

out after the tsunami and called her to organize the day for their

village. She evidently told all the kids at her school. Luckily we

brought 12 of the 20 PCVs there just in case. Good thing! After a

little uneasy start as we quickly decided what to do with the ocean of

kids before us we split them up into two groups, 1 thru 3 and then

older kids. Some of the volunteers took the grades 1 thru 3 to the

school and had activities with them there and the rest of us took the

older kids to go paint. It worked out really well. Painting the

tanks wasn't what you would call seamless but with Chris and I

shuttling paint back and forth between two water tanks about 200 yards

apart it went as smooth as we could have hoped for. The tanks looked

terrific by the time we were finished and were plastered with phases

encouraging water conservation.I apologize for not having picture to accompany this post. There were

at least a half dozen cameras floating around and one of my pet peeves

is the over use of cameras at one event. For god's sake people, they

are digital. Assign one camera and share the freaking files! When we

took the group picture I think there were at least six cameras. Now

keep in mind, the Samoan kids, and even the adults, usually love the

picture taking at events like these. But by the time we were past

camera 3 or 4 in the same pose, even the most enthusiastic seemed to

convey the body language that matched the thoughts in my head,

"Really? Really? Another camera?" And I know, you might be saying,

well, you don't have the pictures, but I will be getting them we

almost all have computers and there is a shared hard drive in the

office. Please don't doubt my logic, it's undeniable.When I get my hands on those files (and I will), I will be sure to

throw them on to my Picasa Web Album for your viewing pleasure.

Well, the title of this post is dedicated to my older bro who uses

that term often. I chose to use it because I could not come up with

something witty or interesting for my blog post title. I have

included a picture of my tattoo for your viewing pleasure and I will

be uploading more pictures to my picasa web album so be sure to click

on the slide show to your right to visit that site. That is if you

are interested.

Well, if anyone is still following this blog after such a long hiatus

in regular posting I applaud and thank you for your patience. I am

back in Samoa (as of Friday last week) and I am trying to get things

rolling again. One month of vacation can really nock you out of work

mode, let me tell you. I would compare it to pulling a truck with a

rope, when it's already rolling though it's tough you just have to

keep your legs moving and you can keep it rolling. When it's at a

full stop it's hard as hell to get that damn thing moving and really

you would rather just hang out and watch all the cool new movies and

TV shows other Volunteers brought back from their vacations.So I am back at the Red Cross and there is a new problem on the radar

that we have to address. It appears there is a diarrhea outbreak in

the tsunami affected area. This is both unconfirmed and odd.

Unconfirmed because, a) as far as I have been able to find out the

rate on the normal incidence rate of diarrhea is unavailable or not

recorded, b) though some cases have been treated at the local clinic

part of the push for an educational intervention seem to be fueled

also by hear say (i.e. people in the village are saying there has been

more diarrhea) and c) it is odd for this to be happening now, while

just after the tsunami hit there did not seem to be any recorded

increase in cases. Despite all this we are quickly developing a

community based educational program for the families in the at risk

villages. Obviously it can't hurt the villages or the people we

deliver the program to, the down side is that we are taking manpower

and focus away from regular programming and other educational/

community based programs which will undoubtedly suffer or be delayed

until this intervention is over.I know I still owe you all pictures of the tattoo and I am planning on

getting some up this week. I promise-ish. (please note, the "ish"

officially gets me off the hook if I don't do it. Actually after

further thought I would like to institute that as a permanent rule for

my blog starting now)It's off to bed and off to work again tomorrow. Quick shout out to by

big bro Dave who got engaged last week and has totally ruined my

travel plans for this year! Congrats and I'll send you the bill for

my ticket! (For those who don't know, the plan is to have the wedding

in April)Fa a'u uo (bye my friends)

Oh if it was only one! Ok, I don't mean that, completely. Obviously being back in the states has been great. The Christmas holiday was a whirlwind of driving, family and friends over the course of 10 days. Whit's family lives an hour north of mine (not to mention we have friends in Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls) so were we back and forth the whole time. We managed to split the family time fairly evenly with minimal bickering and physical violence. By the Iowa trip's end I had spent way too much, averaged about 4000 calories a day and driven nearly 3000 miles.

As I mentioned in my previous post I will now delve into the return experience after living in Samoa for 15 months. First, there is a lot of crap to buy in America! I went to the grocery store and I had nearly forgotten how much food selection there is. The interesting thing for me personally is that in the stores (grocery or otherwise) I find my eyes wonder less and the motivation to buy stuff seems to be far less than when I left. That's not to say I didn't drool at the big screen TVs I saw, I think that's a genetic trait that one can never overcome. Trust me, it's science, look it up. But having spent the last year with a limited income and consumer choices really snapped me out of that "American consumer" mode.

As far as the pace of life here, it hasn't been much of a shock to me and I am enjoying it. Running on schedules and making plans for the day that I am confident will go as planned is fantastic!

That's enough for the insights, sorry if you were looking for more.

Big news on the personal front, I did propose to my girlfriend and she said yes! So now we have well over a year to plan the wedding and we are thinking late spring early summer 2011.

I am done with my coffee and thus done with the post. Don't anticipate another one before I return to Samoa so look for one in a week or so. I will also be getting those tattoo pics (which has healed nicely) up soon. Hope you all had a great holiday season.

I just arrived in Texas a few hours ago and am waiting for my flight

to Austin right now. The Houston airport has free WiFi complements of

Google over the Christmas/New Years travel season. Google is so nice

to me. I didn't get them anything so I feel kind of bad.It is cold already and I still have more than a few hundred miles

north to go. That's alright though, I can survive the cold for four

weeks especially since I will be with Whitney and my friends an family.The tattoo is healing slowly but now that I'm where it's cold and dry

I am looking forward to a speedy recovery.As I said, will try to post a few times while on vacation but no

promises. I will have a hot blonde distracting me after all! Well,

there's my boarding call, 50 minutes and I get to see Whitney.

Definitely what I would call an early Christmas present!

So, on the positive side of things, just a few days left before I get

on the plane for vacation. Whoo-hoo! I still need to do some last

minute shopping, cleaning and packing and by last minute I mean do all

of it cause I haven't done anything yet.On to the title of the blog-post, I've go a little bit of infection

going on in the tattoo, despite my best efforts of cleaning it 3 times

a day with hot water and keeping it moisturized. Now don't worry,

it's not like my arm is falling off or anything but it is very

uncomfortable. Things started off well but a few days ago I started

to notice some small holes in my skin. Being the intelligent person I

am I figured out that those were not supposed to be there. I visited

the Peace Corps Medical Officer yesterday and got some oral

antibiotics to go with the antibiotic ointment I have started putting

on the infected areas. I was instructed to keep it uncovered as much

as possible. I am actually writing this from home today because I took

a sick day.This is where I get into my hypothesis of how it happened. It is hot

here, ridiculously hot and humid which for those of you who know me

well results in the sweating. Not like, wow it must be hot outside

that guy is sweating a lot. Like, what the hell, did that guy just go

swimming in his clothes. So with the combination of the heat, my

sweating and having to wear a shirt most of the day all of last week

the odds were evidently against me in preventing infection. So today

I have taken a sick day to try and jump start the healing process by

sitting at home with a fan on me and not shirt on. We'll see how it

works out and I'll make the decision about going in tomorrow, early

tomorrow morning.About a week ago I would have been upset with missing these next few

days of work but the schedule we were working on has slowly

disintegrated and some of the things I was hoping to have done before

I left may not get done. Back home in the work environment this would

not be acceptable and would be very out of place but the meeting of

deadlines and timetables here is not so strict. So I have taken a

deep breath and accepted what I can accomplish before I leave for

vacation and will hope for the best while I am gone.The major hurdle left for me is getting out and getting my errands ran

before I go. Hopefully I have some good progress in the healing of

the infection that will allow me to venture out into the stores for a

sweaty few hours. (immediately taking a hot shower and applying more

antibiotic ointment afterwards)Ok, well I am rocking through an Arrested Development Marathon today

so I better get back to it.71 hours until take off!

I have some additional information on the Suluape family. Sara (from group 79) sent me some information to clarify the specifics. The Suluape family has three guys that do the traditional tattooing. The father and the son as mentioned in my previous post and an additional son that does it as well. The father's (or Senior's) name is Petelo and he also has a matai title (chief title) of Su'a. The son I didn't know about is Peter and like his father he does the tattooing in the village. The second son who I referred to as Junior is named Paulo and was named for Petelo Senior's dead brother who was also a well known tattoo artist. So just to clarify, the son that is nicknamed Junior is the one who doesn't have the same name as his father. Just want to say thanks to Sara for the clarification.

The healing is going well so far and I am just trying to stay on top of cleaning, moisturizing and massaging it. I've been going down to the Peace Corps office two times a day to take a hot shower which of course is good for the tattoo and has the added perk of not being a cold shower. (I hate cold showers!) Sometimes it's hard to decide which was the greater sacrifice in joining the Peace Corps, giving up hot showers or living away from my girlfriend for 2 years. Whitney, I am kidding! (And there goes my chances for getting some when I get back)

I am officially under a week until I depart for vacation. I am extremely excited and the last few months have really flown by so it seems like it's on top of me all of the sudden. I am working hard to get things wrapped up at work before I take off but we'll see what happens. There always seem to be things coming up that get in the way. We still have to finalize the planning for the first 6 months of 2010, though we have made progress. I have 5 more wprk days to try and push that to completion before I get on the plane. Wish me luck because I am going to need it.



Joey BrownPeace Corps VolunteerSamoa Red Crosswww.redcross.org.ws

Joey.PCV@gmail.com+685 726 2121

Well ladies and gentlemen, 4 and a half hours and $900 tala later I

have my traditional Samoan tattoo. I went in for my appointment at

12:00pm on Monday and in true Samoa fashion my tattoo started just

after 3:30pm. Of course I have been here long enough to know better

but like a rookie I didn't bring anything to read. At any rate the

time passed and before I knew it the tattoo began. For those of you

who are wondering or are concerned, the tattoo artist family, the

Suluape family, comes recommended from the Peace Corps Medical Officer

because she knows them and that they clean their equipment

appropriately.As far as we (the volunteers) know there are two guys in the Suluape

family that do the traditional tattooing, the father who is usually

called "Senior" and one of his sons who goes by "Junior". Junior is

the one who did my tattoo. Junior usually does his tattoos in their

tattoo parlor while Senior only does them out in the village. While

it would have been interesting to have it done in the village in a

Samoan fale i have heard in the village the artists and their helpers

usually smoke while doing it and I hate smoke and I think I would hate

it that much more if I have jagged metal going in and out of my skin.

The parlor was nice because there was air conditioning and of course,

no smoke, so no complaints from me.The tattoo process I am sure depends on the artist to some degree so

please don't take this as a universal practice though I am sure some

of it is standard for most traditional tattoos. Junior made a few

marks with a yellow Sharpie on my right shoulder and upper arm took a

second to look over my arm and shoulder and then it was go time. The

traditional Samoan tattoo required the artist and two helpers. The

guys helping are in charge of stretching your skin tight like canvas

over a frame and making sure don't move. The artist and the helpers

have an amazing rhythm and sometimes it is a mere fraction of a second

between the time they stretch the skin and the artist resumes

tattooing. The process of the tattoo was very stop and go. Junior

would start the tapping and go for about 10-15 seconds then get more

ink, readjust or review the line he just made. Every time there was a

break the helpers would wipe the extra ink and the blood from the

area. A few times in the four and a half hours the helpers would get

new rags for wiping the blood/ink away. This was a great time because

the rags were wet and cool. Unfortunately they quickly became dry and

felt like sand paper on my freshly ravaged skin.The tools they use are wooden sticks with metal comb like ends. There

are different sizes of tools depending on the design they are doing.

The process of inserting the combs and ink into the skin is a rhythmic

tapping. Of course the first 30 minutes were quite painful as the

body adjusts to the assault but you do adjust somewhat. I have heard

some people feel little if any pain once they get into it for a

while. Call me a Sally if you want but it hurt the whole time, just

less. Of course on the boney parts and near the arm pit were very

sensitive and that always hurt no matter the stage of the tattoo. I

found the key to getting past the pain was exhaling as Junior would

start tapping the tool into my skin and then inhale when he would

break to get more ink or readjust.The positions I found myself in were very odd but that seems to be the

usual experience. It's not about your comfort, it''s about the artist

getting the best angle at the skin. Most of the time my head was

turned away from Junior and often times smashed in between the

cushions they use for Junior and the helpers to lean on while

working. I one point I noticed that my face was only a few inches

away from on of the helper's big gnarly toe. This was a fleeting and

almost funny thought to me because in all reality it had been right

there for quite sometime but i was so focused on the tattoo and my

breathing that I was oblivious.I have included a picture of the process but I want to wait to post my

final tattoo pics until after I show my friends and family back home.

I would rather them see it in person first. I am very happy with it

and have had nothing but good comments. The thing that makes me

confident it is a good one is the reaction I have been getting from

Samoans. When a Samoan is like "Ooooohhhhh manaia!" (manaia means

nice) and it is genuine you know you've got a good one.Well, 9 days and it's vacation time. Wow, under 10 days, ridiculous!

Quick FYI, I probably won't be posting much over my 4 week vacay but I

might throw a few up just describing my experience being back and my

reactions. I won't be able to spend too much time on the computer

because I am going to have to exercise my ass off due to the enormous

amounts of food I plan on eating. It's going to be great!

Just a quick post today but I found out an interesting story last

night. Turns out the little 19" TV that is in my place was the first

TV in Vaivase Tai. TJ told me that a bunch of people from around the

village used to come over to their house and sit around the little TV

to watch rugby games and boxing matches. It is truly amazing,

sometimes being surrounded by families that have TVs, mobile phones

and cars you can forget how quickly these technologies and luxuries

have come into Samoan life. In the states is has been a slow gradual

build up as new technology is developed but here it has not been so

much the case. That is why you can see families living out in

traditional fales, living off the land and the sea nearly every aspect

of thier life traditional Samoan except the cell phone they have!

Sorry, sorry, sorry. I slipped back into my old habits and did not

live up to my word of posting more often. Well I have less than two

weeks before I come home to visit so I think I can do better in the

short term. The lightening of my workload will also help with that as

well.We wrapped up our WASHE program out at the schools this week. This

week we taught the kids about disease transmission. As always the

students were very receptive and enjoyed the activities we had. My

mom sent a blacklight that we used for a germ spreading activity. It

went ok. To work best we need liquid soap made with blue dye (like

Tide) but I couldn't find any but I did find out that green dish soap

does work, kind of. In the activity you put some soap on your hand

than then proceed to shake hands and touch arms or clothes of other

people. Then you go around in the room (with the lights off) with the

blacklight which makes the transfered soap glow. As I said, the green

worked ok, though didn't glow as well as blue. The other hurdle was

the dark room. The classrooms here all have large windows and no

curtains or curtains made of light fabric. Small windows and/or heavy

curtains would just be a ridiculous choice for this climate. To

improvise we brought blankets (yes, the Red Cross has blankets. They

were donated to us as part of the relief supplies. Evidently by a

person with the geographical knowledge of a two year old). We used

the blankets to cover all the windows in one room so it was dark

enough for the activity. It worked but we had to keep the activity

short because once those blankets were up, the room was cooking! At

some point in time, someone left the blacklight on which killed the

batteries. I had spares and replaced them but the light didn't last

long after that. I have reserved a swift kick for the person who left

it on, if I ever find out which is unlikely. Good thing I am coming

home so I can pick up a few spare bulbs.Now we are getting a report on the program prepared and the Health

Coordinator at the Red Cross wants to continue it and expand it next

year. Which is awesome, in theory. We do have a lot on our plate at

the Red Cross though so over the next few weeks we will be planning

the next years programs and activities. While it would be cool to

have this program that I spearheaded continue I really want to make

sure all the other programs that are already highlighted in the Samoa

Red Cross workplan are scheduled and adequately staffed. Planning and

assessment are two things I hope to work on closely with the staff and

volunteers at the Red Cross and be some of the sustainable skills and

knowledge I can share with them.Today was International Volunteer Day and the Red Cross in cooperation

with the UN offices here organized a replanting and trash pick-up

day. Overall I have to say I wasn't all that impressed with the day

though I think the high demand on those who needed to coordinate the

event with tsunami recovery related tasks allows some room for

forgiveness. There was a large turnout of volunteers, though I don't

know the exact number. The attendance by Peace Corps Volunteers is

most accurately described as piss-poor. Me, Chris and Blakey were the

only PCVs to come to the event. Way to represent! The group of

volunteers Chirs, Blakey and I went with went to Satitoa village. The

replanting went ok, with trees donated by the UN, buuuuuut, we came to

find out after the fact that the trees were meant to be planted inland

a little ways and do not grow well next to the ocean/in the sand. The

volunteers planted them along the coast and mostly in the sand. Son of

a !!!! Because there were a limited number of trees and tools, I

picked up garbage the whole time, which there was still a lot of it

around and on the beach in Satitoa. The problem here was, no garbage

bags. So we piled the garbage up and were told that someone was going

to come through later that day with a truck to pick it up. I hope it

happened.So next week is going to be a good week. Just planning mostly and

probably doing some work on the website and the database. I still

need to get a volunteer up to speed on how to update the website

before I leave for my 4 week vacay. Since i won't be going to the

schools four days a week I should be able to finally find some time to

make it happen.Tatoo is tomorrow, looking forward to it. I am hoping they don't

postpone it or any thing, I ahve heard that can happen sometimes. I

want to give it a chance to heal a decent amount before I head home.I will try to get some pictures from the WASHE program and our water

tank painting project up sometime this week. I'll also get some pics

of the tat up (unless it goes horribly wrong!)Tofa Soifua (oh and my Samoan is getting a little better thanks to my

having to use it in the schools, now I just have to try and not lose

everything I picked up over the last month during my vacation)

I thought I would throw up a quick post today in light of a hilarious

event during our personal hygiene education session out in the tsunami

affected area today. As part of the personal hygiene session we talk

about brushing your teeth. At the end of the teeth brushing portion

of the lesson we ask a few kids to come up and help me demonstrate

proper teeth brushing. We were at our second school of the day,

Lotopu'e Primary and we got three volunteers from the class, a few

from grades 3 and 4 and one from the kindergarten (called year 1

here). We told the kids to watch me closely and do exactly what I do

to brush their teeth correctly. The little kindergartner was a cute

little boy, the type of little kid that still has a bit of the baby

fat and huge chubby cheeks. Well, as we start brushing you can tell

he is focused on watching me and brushing his teeth exactly the way he

should. This was great, except as time went on, the foam from the

toothpaste was building up and began to drip out of his mouth. It

started as a few drips and before you know it he has a white goatee

and from there gravity did it's job and half of this little kid's

shirt is covered in toothpaste by the time we are done. The entire

class of 80 kids were dying laughing as were all the volunteer

teachers with me. I tried my best to hold back but eventually I even

let out a few laughs (along with tears from trying so hard not to

laugh!). No it would be a sad story if the kid felt bad or

embarrassed but he was so young and so intently focused on following

my lead he was oblivious to the whole thing, including the tooth paste

cascading out of his mouth.Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of this session as I forgot

my camera today but Jewel, one of the other volunteer teachers, did

get some shots on her camera phone. I will see if I can get those

downloaded and post them. I am sure you will get a kick out of them.In case you are wondering about my Thanksgiving day plans, it will be

business as usual on Thursday but the Charge De Affairs for the US

Embassy is going to have Thanksgiving at her house again this year on

the Saturday following so I am really looking forward to that. The

only problem is that I will be having a Thanksgiving dinner on

Saturday followed by To'onai on Sunday, which is like a weekly

Thanksgiving dinner. Better pencil in some extra exercise time. Gotta

look good for my girl when I get back after all!

It's starting to get a bit crazy around here, the responsibilities and

hats I am wearing are starting to pile up. Now, I'm not really

complaining but just venting a bit as I adjust to the increase in

workload. Of course this is temporary. We have the WASHE program

continuing for the next two weeks which was keeping me adequately

busy, I do have to still try and keep the website updated and respond

to inquiries, I have been asked to try and develop a database for

volunteer registration and tracking (which my old bro, Dave is being

awesome and helping me with) and we have begun developing a plan of

action for the next year which is taking the current plan and

developing more specifics and adjusting it for special considerations

in the tsunami affected population. Then throw on the duties as

president of Avanoa Tutusa (the Peace Corps Samoa NGO) and helping the

activities coordinator at the gym I have an overflowing plate!As I said though, this is temporary. As the WASHE program winds down

a lot of time will be freed up, temporarily of course. Also, as far

as the website goes I need to start working with a volunteer on that

to teach them how to update it and maintain the site. Once they have

gotten a handle on it I am hoping to drop that responsibility all

together. I am thinking early next year some time. The planning we

are doing right now will definitely help to prevent an overflow like

this as well. We have started strong and over the next few weeks we

will be addressing all aspects of the health section's work and have a

clear picture of responsibilities and the direction. It is going to

be great.We had our meeting today to try and finalize the Avanoa Tutusa project

coming up on Friday. Avanoa Tutusa, the Peace Corps Samoa NGO, is

going to be going out into the affected areas to do a water tank

painting project. The goal of the project is to promote water

conservation in the villages. This has been identified as a very

important public awareness topic due to the reliance of these people

on water delivered in a truck and stored in tanks. We are planning

the project in the village of Satitoa. There is a large group of

families living around a 5000L water tank inland. We are planning to

go out to this area, give the high school students a short lesson on

water conservation and then work with them to paint water conservation

themes on the water tank. if the program works well and the youth

respond positively then we may do the program in other villages in the

near future.Besides that, there is not much going on. My hair is starting to get

ridiculously long, I have to admit I can't remember when my last

haircut was. I wanted to get it cut this week/weekend but due to the

combination of my long work hours and the inconvenient hours of the

barbershops here I have had no luck thus far. I am thinking maybe

this Saturday. It's got to happen soon, that's for sure.We are going to be having Thanksgiving again this year. The Charge de

Affairs, Robin Jager, from the US embassy is going to host

Thanksgiving again this year which is awesome. She is really nice to

do that for all us home sick Americans. There will be turkey,

stuffing and all the other good stuff you would expect from

Thanksgiving. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to bring.

(It's pot luck style, with some of the key foods provided, like

turkey of course)The countdown continues as I am now officially under a month until I

return home. I am thinking about leaving my laptop and credit card

here so I have the extra incentive to come back! It will be tough

coming back, but I have no doubt I will. I didn't wait through that

fantastically crappy situation earlier in the year just to bail when I

actually have a chance to make a difference.Sorry for the lack of posts this week but I hope the description of my

work load helps to explain why (and fosters feelings of generosity for

all those back home in the form of free meals and drinks! I like

Chili's, authentic mexican food, italian food, hot wings, tequila and

dark beer just incase you were wondering).

Translation: how to save water. That is the topic off the lesson

segment I stumbled through today as part of our WASHE program. This

week's lesson is about water conservation and I didn't have time to

get some tips for the first two days but I managed to get some help

yesterday afternoon and I jumped in with two feet today.My primary issues with speaking in Samoan are constructing the

sentences and those tricky little words other than the nouns,

adjectives and verbs, that make the sentence sound correct. I managed

to get a few sentences constructed properly to use as the basic

information for my lesson. Once the basic message was stated clearly

the I began my incoherent Samoan rambling trying to elaborate and

provide examples. All in all I feel pretty good about the whole

experience. I think the kids really enjoyed it, I couldn't really

tell you because I was so focused on the words I needed to say I

couldn't tell if they were really getting any of it! It's also tough

to keep your mind on the lesson an what comes next when you have to

think so hard about just making a sentence. I am confident though,

that as I do this more often my Samoan is going to drastically

improve. Erin from group 81 teaches at the school we were at today,

Saleilua, so she got the opportunity to get a laugh from my

floundering through the lesson.Tomorrow we have one more school for the water conservation, Lepa

primary, then it's on to personal hygiene next week.Over the weekend I had a chance to attend a wedding, one of Misa and

Leilani's sons got married at Le Vasa resort. The wedding wasn't a

100% traditional Samoan wedding because the bride is from New

Zealand. The wedding had the groom's men and bride's maids, the men

were wearing Samoan attire including ie lavalavas and the bride's

maids were wearing semi casual dresses, no pulatasi for the New

Zealand girls! They did have a Samoan minister but the service was in

english.Some times I forget how loving and accepting the people are here.

When they were taking family pictures after the wedding I was included

in the pictures. And I can't remember how many times I was referred

to as Tai's (the groom's) brother. Though I had a rough start here, I

have to say I am extremely lucky to have such a great family to be a

part of during my time here.Following the wedding was the usual feast and then dancing. The food

was great and was a mix of traditional Samoan and some more palagi-

like dishes. There was no hokey-pokey, chicken dance or YMCA played

though. I had to explain the chicken dance to Leilani and I was out

there on the dance floor doing the chicken dance to a Chris Brown

remix. (Sorry I can't remember the exact song but I think it's

ridiculous no matter what, right?) The height of the entertainment

for the night was when Joseph, one of Leilani's nephews (I think), and

who is a faafafine (which I guess would make him, well, her, Leilani's

niece. Did you follow all that?), performed a Beyonce dance out on

the dance floor all by himself, um, I mean herself.Running a bit long here so I will wrap it up but after much debate I

have decided to mention the following which I am sure will disappoint

my mom. I figure it's not the first time I have disappointed her and

in all reality my track record has probably conditioned her well for

this and any future, inevitable disappointments. I have scheduled my

Samoan tattoo for December 7th. Doing it old school style with the

combs because, after all, why come to Samoa, one of the birth places

of tattoo culture, and get it done with a boring gun? I will try to

get more information on the history of the tattoo here and I will

provide you all with more specifics on the process as well.Sorry mom!

Doing pretty good so far on the frequency of my posts so I am giving myself a well-deserved pat on the back. Unfortunately it was an uneventful weekend for the most part. I went into work to get a few things organized for the first day of the vector control education we will be doing in the schools. Naturally, since it was a Saturday made sure to sleep in and take my sweet time getting into the office.

After my work was done and I talked to Whitney on skype (god bless skype!), I got some grocery shopping done. I went to Farmer Joe's and got some of the basic processed stuff us Americans know and love so much. After that I stopped at the market to pick up some more healthy food options to help balance out my diet. The good news about that trip is, avocados are back in season, yes! I also got a, and I don't know if I am spelling this right, soursop. It is an odd looking fruit that varies in size, I suppose a decent example would be the smaller one are about the size of a cantaloupe and they can grow to roughly twice that size. Sorry, that's fairly crappy description but it's tough to compare it's size because it doesn't really have a shape. I suppose a decent shape to compare it to is a human heart. I know that doesn't sound appetizing but it's not too far off in shape. The skin if green and has spiny projections and the pulp inside (the part you eat) is white and there are large black seeds. It's quite good though I can't think of anything to compare it's taste with, but it has a delicious sweet taste. I also picked up some bananas, papaya and green beans at the little roadside stand about a quarter mile from my house. The couple that owns the stand are very nice people and they always seem to get a kick out of my Samoan. (as bad as it may be)

The evening was nice, my friend HP (if you don't remember he was our training manager for Peace Corps) took me out to dinner at Roko's. It's a nice little restaurant just down the road from where I work at the Red Cross. From the front is it deceptively small but the back of the restaurant opens up to a balcony seating area that overlooks a valley and you can catch glimpses of the ocean. The food we good, I had the cajun yellowfin tuna with a fruit salsa. Much better than my usual reheated left overs or spaghetti.

Of course, Sunday was Sunday. Nothing going on, had the usual to'onai with Misa, Lelani and family, talked to Whitney and my parents and sat around watching movies and reading all day. I tried to find the drive to grade the final exams for my course but I suppose I will be putting those off until the last minute considering my only motivation for that is the actual deadline to get grades in. And then, I should be done with that for good! Whoo-hoo!

Hopefully by mid-week I will have some interesting things to post on regarding the education program we are doing. I'm sure that will be a much better read than the peak into my boring weekend this post provided. No promises though.

Joey BrownPeace Corps VolunteerSamoa Red Crosswww.redcross.org.ws

Joey.PCV@gmail.com+685 726 2121

Just 3 days after my last post here I am again, putting something online. Not a bad start to my new blog initiative. I must admit though it was not motivation to post that drove me to type this it was purely opportunity/boredom. I am sitting here monitoring the final exam for my class at NUS. A 3 hour and 10 minute long gig. Needless to say I have some time to kill.

Before this I was out in the tsunami affected area with what I have so cleverly named, the WASHE Team. The WASHE Team is a group of Red Cross Volunteers that are going out to the schools in the affected areas and teaching lessons on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene related topics. The "E" stands for education and I have to admit, the WASH acronym is already widely used so I am not as creative as I would like to you think I am. We were out scheduling days and times for our sessions since it has been impossible to track down phone numbers. We are aiming for presenting 5 total lessons. We have already completed the handwashing lesson. Over the next four weeks we are hoping to visit each school once a week with a short 30-45 minute lesson on Vector Control, Water Conservation, Personal Hygiene and Disease Transmission. The lessons all work well together because there is some overlap that allows for review and new information that will be helpful in maintaining their health in the environment they are currently living in. That is the primary driving force behind this program, WASH related issues can have a dramatic impact on health in tsunami affected areas and we are trying to prevent that by educating the students and when possible providing them with tools to use at home and school to practice what they learn (like giving bars of soap after the handwashing lesson).

It has been a fun project to work on so far and very time consuming. Creating class curriculum for grades K thru 12 is no easy task, especially when you are trying to develop one for a large age group range. (we are lumping the kids into the following age groups: K-4, 5-7 and 8-11) Obviously this is not ideal, but we only have so many volunteers to allocate to this project so we are doing the best with what we have. We are working to try and find curriculum that is already developed (like we did for handwashing) but for vector control and water conservation is has been a bit tough. Most the materials I have found so far are very dry and have no hands on activities to get the kids involved (a must) or they are intended for industrialized nations. So telling a samoan kid that they should make sure they put a full load of laundry in the washing machine or cover the swimming pool won't really produce the outcomes you're looking for! We're making due though and I think there will be plenty of materials to model from for personal hygiene and disease transmission.

Other than that i am helping with a few other things at Red Cross. Still keeping the website up to date. Still hating all computers and computer related materials and issues as I have been deemed the unofficial IT support. I am also working a little bit on the psychosocial training, though that has halted for the most part. I believe an international red cross trainer is supposed to come in over the next months to set up that actual program. In the mean time we are working, off and on, modifying some materials to be more culturally appropriate and possible translate some of it into Samoan.

I am really looking forward to the end of the semester at NUS so I can focus entirely on the Red Cross. On and on that note, it looks like the Red Cross will be able to pay for my housing after all. So, there is a huge weight off my shoulders!

Well, there you go, two posts in 4 days, we will see what the weekend brings.

As I begin to write this post I am struck with the urge to increase my post frequency. Now based on my history of posts, the probability of my adhering to this new found urge is not very likely. Particularly when you consider that I did get to watch football today and I had a few sodas today and ate cake frosting for dinner, thus creating a American culture high. And of course what else could create an American culture high better than sitting on you butt and eating crappy food right? To explain the frosting, I wanted to make a birthday cake but I don't have an oven, so the best I could do was buy some frosting, grab a spoon, and dig in. As I was eating my frosting with a spoon and drinking a Dr. Pepper (yes, i have found a supply for the time being, whoo-hoo!), I was reading a Men's Health my parents sent in a package. Needless to say, the irony of the situation was mildly amusing. Anyway, the point I was getting at was that Once I come crashing back to reality in the morning I am sure I will neglect my blog with the same consistency you are used to.

Halloween was a good time. There were some issues with the location, the original planed location, Zodiac, the place we went last year was going to cost us $20 to get in this year, which I was not cool with. For those of you who know me, I wouldn't pay $20 to get into a bar back in the states, let alone here. A few weeks before we tried to look into some other options but nothing was finalized so the plan stood as is. I made the decision I was cool with just going out with whoever else didn't want to pay the cover for a few drinks, no big party just a nice night out. Well, most people did not want to pay the $20, which is no surprise. (Some of the people who come from Savaii have to pay almost $50 round trip just to get to Apia). Once word got out that about 5 or 6 of us weren't going and were going to the Yacht Club instead the push to find out more about the Yacht Club and if we could all go got a bit stronger. In the end we all ended up at the Yacht Club, must of us dressed up and everyone generally had a good time. Matt from my group dressed as Dale, our Peace Corps Country Director and to top it off, Dale was at the Yacht Club, it was hilarious and Dale was a good sport. Jordan had on a red wet suit with a snorkel and fins, effectively making a revealing Scuba Steven, Chris and AJ did the couples costume thing and dressed like Marla and Tyler Durin from Fight Club and Supy put on a tank-top with an Asian design and a witches hat, thus effectively creating the "Jackie Chan dressed as a witch" costume. Trust me, it's funny. I won't bore you with all the costumes but I, at the last minute grabbed a sheet and made the toga. Naturally when someone asks what you are you have to have a response other than "I'm wearing a toga", so I went with, "I'm a Greek God".

Birthday was today. No sleeping in for me. I got up early and went to the Red Cross to get some work done. Worked about 5-6 hours and took off early. I got a few errands done in town and then I proceeded to go to Wild Fire at 2:30pm, order a cheeseburger and coke and watch one hell of a Monday night football game. So all in all it was a good day. When I got home this evening, evidently I had passed Misa and Leilani's (my landlords if you don't recall) daughter on the way out of a store and didn't recognize her. In my defense I have only met her once (she lives in New Zealand) and I was in a hurry to get to football. She was actually headed into the store to buy the same thing I just bought (a cow-bone necklace). Leilani had remembered me saying I wanted one so she sent her daughter to pick one up. I had saved up my change for a fun purchase and thought since it was my birthday I would treat myself. Well it was a good thing she saw me because she asked the shop keeper what I had bought and found out it was the same thing they were going to buy me. So instead they got me a couple of shirts. I have to say, I couldn't have asked for a better living situation here, Misa and Leilani are great and I am lucky to have them.

Well we will see if I post tomorrow. i know I still owe you all some specifics on what I am working on at the Red Cross. Be sure to check out the website, I am putting new pics up of the recovery efforts fairly regularly. Oh and sorry I didn't bring my camera for halloween. I'll see if I can get some pictures from some other PCVs.

Ok, two quick things as I am taking time from putting together my last lecture for the Sport Facility Management Class to write this post but, you see, I just had to. As I was reviewing my final exam to make sure I am adequately covering the material I came across a typo in the final copy i sent in. The question reads:

"What is an example of an intangible asses that can be sold by a sport facility?"

Now obviously I wasn't thinking clearly because I should have wrote: "what are examples of intangible asses...", Oh wait, maybe "asses" is wrong. Maybe something about assets? Oh well, regardless, I have a swear word on the first final exam I have ever written. Well done Mr. Brown!

You will have to cut me some slack, I usually don't make those kinds of mistakes but when you are working on an exam and shitting for that long your brain starts to loose its ability to fucktion and you start to get craps in your muscles making it very hard to produce quality work. I'm sure you understand.

As for the title of the post, yes another new Peace Corps Trainee has gone home already. I don't believe I have mentioned this yet. One had to go home because of medical reasons and another bailed about a week in for unknown reasons. This third girl who left was really no surprise because she told Paul and I at the welcome party for the new trainees that the reason she joined Peace Corps was because she didn't know how to break up with her boyfriend. Now whether or not this is true who knows but the assumption that she wouldn't last was dead on. And actually I find it really unfortunate, especially if she joined for all the wrong reasons. That would have meant she had to bullshit (that swearing was on purpose incase you were wondering) her way through all the interviews and essays only to get here and bail. The worst thing about it is, she was picked over someone else who more than likely would have stayed so a school and kids in a village here are now without a volunteer for at least another year.

Really, in my opinion, if only 1/3 of volunteer applicants get in, then I think it's time to tighten up the rules on going home. Having family or medical issues that pull you away in training is one thing, but to bail in training (the first 3 months) because you either joined for the wrong reason or had some wild expectations, shouldn't be allowed. Maybe that requirement of sticking it out for at least 3 months would weed out some of these people who are obviously coming into the country already on the fence. For me, it's all about the communities that lose out in those situations and the other potential volunteers back home who didn't get the chance.

Not to carry on but also, this is Samoa. Don't let Survivor (god I hate that show) fool you. Samoa is a beautiful country with few dangers to those living here. There are no poisonous animals or insects, there is plenty of water, and food growing on trees and from the ground everywhere, You are never more than 20 minutes from the ocean and the people for the most part are great! I couldn't imagine the reaction of some of these people who leave so early if they were to go to some places in Africa or Eastern Europe which are much less forgiving. They probably wouldn't have made it off the plane!

Anyway, I have rambled on for too long now and I need to get this lecture finished. Red Cross is going well, we are very busy with multiple projects which is keeping me busy and happy. I'll be sure to post more about what I am involved with soon.

There was an interesting story in the Samoa Observer this weekend. Here is the link:

http://www.samoaobserver.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14311:dont-report&catid=50:headline&Itemid=62

Now I don't inform you of this story to discourage donations because by and large the money and goods distributed are going to where they are supposed to go, as far as I know. As I have said before, I would like to weigh in with my thoughts on this story but I am bound by the public neutrality demanded from Peace Corps Volunteers. What I can say is that everywhere in the world you have despicable people take advantage of opportunities like this. Now, whether or not this should be swept under the rug I suppose is a matter of opinion.

If you do have concerns about where your donations are going I would suggest making sure you give to an organization you know you can trust. Having been with the Red Cross for over a month now I can tell you for certain that this is one of those organizations that can be trusted. In fact we will soon be posting a list of all the donors and continue to work to post the number of goods distributed and to where, on the Red Cross website.

Switching topics, I have figured out a way to upload pictures to Picasa really fast so now I will get some of those pictures posted. We had our global handwashing day lessons in the effected primary schools last week. The pictures are uploaded on the Samoa red Cross Picasa album so here is the link to them:

Global Handwashing Day

We also had our Fiafia (party) for the new volunteers. Did the Samoan dance thing and ate a lot of food. I will be getting those pictures up on the webalbum soon as well.

We are coming up on two weeks after the tsunami hit and the Red Cross

is working hard in partnership with other governmental and non-

governmental orgs in the relief efforts. (technically the efforts

immediately following a disaster is called the relief phase and

following that is the recovery phase though there is a bit of overlap

between the two)If you all hadn't heard there was another large earthquake in the

pacific that triggered a tsunami warning last week. The warning siren

went off and the response to the warning this time was immediate and

nearly universal. This type of response of course is expected

immediately following a disaster. I went out with the evacuation

point assessment team from the Red Cross to help take count of the

various demographics at a number of evacuation points around the Apia

area. In trying to get to them, a huge vulnerability of the Apia area

became apparent. Traffic was at a crawl due to, not only the dense

population trying to exit the downtown area but also due to the number

of people going into the downtown area obviously going to get people.

I sincerely hope this is addressed by those responsible for disaster

preparedness here because in the event of a rapidly developing tsunami

in the Apia area like the one that hit the south coast, well, you get

the idea.Back to the relief/recovery topic, things are moving along, slowly, though

slowly is a relative term. When considering the situation things are

progressing at a respectable rate and support in a variety of areas is

being given as best as the current capacity will allow. A large

number of those effected have relocated into the highlands and do not

plan to return to the coast. This, of course, presents problems for

the rebuilding process and reconnecting electricity, water and

sanitation services to those affected. People are now living in areas

with little utility infrastructure and road development. I am not

aware of the plan for remedying this at the current time but as far as

I know the framework for the recovery is supposed to be coming out

soon. The Red Cross is purchasing water tanks to distribute to

families in need so that will help some with the current lack of water

and latrines are being or have been dug to help with sanitation.

Access to electricity is obviously still a problem. From what I have

heard access to news and updates also remains a problem. Most people

don't have TVs or radios and are relying on word of mouth for news

updates. I believe the Red Cross is working to get battery operated

radios, which I am really hoping they get soon. I know in Cedar

Rapids when we were hit by the flood one of the most frustrating

things people dealt with in the recovery was not knowing what support

they were going to get in the rebuilding process and it appears the

same is occurring here.When I go in to work tomorrow I hope to get a good update on a lot of

this and will be sure to post the new information. You can also check

out the red cross samoa website for more updates.

(www.redcross.org.ws) I am trying to keep it up to date. Please

excuse any layout miscues and grammatical and other errors in the

articles, updates, etc. For the layout, I am not a computer wizard

and am at the mercy of the program they are using for the website and

the programmer in charge at the ISP. And for the writing, I did take

one journalism class in college but I forgot most of that class (and

from what I remember it was useless anyway) and I find it hard to

write without inserting sarcasm or cracking jokes at the expense of

others. My blog posts are actually quite tame for me because of Peace

Corps rules I can't really unleash the guns, but trust me, it's

tempting some times!  So you can imagine the difficulty I am having writing for the website.Oh, the new volunteers are here. Something like 24, I think like 19

or 20 are girls so naturally we've got Peace Corps guys walking around

pissing on everything to mark their territory. Big swing in the

gender demographic, as can be expected with a big influx of elementary

level teachers. I met some of the new vols, don't remember their

names though. I'm sure some are interesting, some are not so much and

some will give me an instant headache. I will meet them all

eventually and they will all be categorized in time. If you haven't

noticed already I'm not one to post on personal information or

attributes on other vols so if you are interested best to check out

another vol's blog.

The Samoa Red Cross has a new webpage to keep you up to date on the tsunami relief and recovery.www.redcross.org.ws

For those of you wishing to donate online you will need to go to the New Zealand Red Cross website: http://www.redcross.org.nz/donate

Your help is greatly needed and any contribution you can make will help.  Please forward this information on to your friends and family.  The more awareness we can raise the more help we can get. 

Thank you all for your concern and support during this difficult time.

Hello all, quick update. They have set up the "War Room" here at the

Red Cross so I now have internet access here. I have been appointed

the job of getting the Samoa Red Cross Website up and running. I hope

to get a few things squared away today and tomorrow to get it ready.

It will obviously be a work in process and we will be posting updates

on the relief efforts and eventually information on what the Red Cross

and other agencies need for donations and assistance. As I will be

posting on the website all overseas donors are currently encouraged to

give monetary donations through the New Zealand website. I will post

the address to the Red Cross Samoa webpage by tomorrow which will have

a link you can click to go a secure page to make your donation. As

always thank you for your thoughts and prayers. And for those

awaiting pictures the website will have them as well so those will

probably be up sooner than my procrastinating-self can get my own up

on my site.

Quick post before I head out to the Red Cross this morning, according

to the Samoa Observer the death toll is up to 110 but there was no

mention of the number missing still. There have been some good

stories coming out of the effective area of some children and family

members being found up in the hillsides having been swept up there by

the wave. The relief efort is in full effect with volunteers from

around Samoa and the world coming to help. Yesterday the Red Cross

completed the village assessments and today will begin the

distribution of supplies. Many families have found friends or family

in other villages to stay with which is helping with the relief effort

since this is helping to minimize the number of people with out access

to food, water and shelter. I got some pictures yesterday and will

try to post them tonight. I will also be looking into how people can

provide help and support. I have been told that the New Zealand Red

Cross is taking donations for Samoa. I will try to confirm this

today. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Just wanted to post quick to let everyone know that I am ok. Had a

long day out with the Red Cross yesterday surveying the damage and

helping where we could. The damage is really bad on the south east

and east coast of Upolo. Going back out this morning. When I have

more time I will be sure to post some specifics. Thank you all for

your thoughts and prayers for the Samoan people during this difficult

time.

After multiple complaints about the lack of posting I have been

motivated to publish another post. Not because I enjoy posting but

because I hate nagging.As the title says the one year anniversary of my arrival in Samoa is

just around the corner (October 8th). All in all the last year has

gone relatively fast though the last few months have dragged a bit.

Time tends to move a bit slower when you have nothing to do.

Hopefully with my newfound work the calendar pages will start flipping

by again. Speaking of work, it appears that I will be working on a

few projects at the Red Cross helping to relieve some of the workload

from two current employees and expanding the services that can be

offered. I will be working in the area of HIV and STI awareness

including condom distribution and medical service promotion for STIs,

First Aid and CPR training and community health assessment and

education. I am currently working with the Red Cross staff to find

out where I can be utilized the best in their operations.Ok on to the rumors with regards to the road switch. Now please keep

in mind that these are rumors and nothing has been confirmed though I

will say often times here the "coconut wireless" as they call it can

be a reliable source of information. I have heard claims that the

number of accidents resulting from the road switch, particularly in

the first weeks, have been under reported. I was even told by an

supposed eye witness of an accident one day that the news reported no

accidents that day despite the fact that the accident happened early

in the day and was witnessed by multiple people including a police

officer. Now whether this was simply an omission by accident or on

purpose is unclear but remains disturbing none the less.I saw a victim of the road switch last week in person. It was a young

boy at one of the clinics here in rural Samoa. He had bandages on his

head and his right arm. He appeared very banged up and sad. His dad

brought him to the clinic to have his bandages changed. Apparently he

was in a car crash in which one driver was on the wrong side, both

cars tried to swerve to prevent a collision and they collided head on.Traffic is also an increasing problem since the switch. For those who

don't know, roads and intersections are designed with the flow of

traffic in mind. When you change the direction of flow there is the

potential for disruption of this flow and that is happening in

downtown Apia. A number of areas that do not flow well with the new

direction of traffic are resulting in traffic backing up and stand

still traffic in some areas. It remains to be seen if these problems

can be fixed and if they can, how much it will cost.The buses are slowing getting back on the road, an from what I have

heard their strike was unsuccessful. So the buses are getting back on

the road, they are having new entry points put in the bus on the left

side and the old ones covered up. The drivers are still on the

lefthand side of the bus though because the switch of the steering

wheel and the pedals is quite expensive and beyond the budget of many

bus drivers.Personal update, I did buy my ticket home, well, halfway anyway. They

had a sale on tickets to Hawaii that only cost around $600 US so I am

flying to Hawaii on the 18th of December and coming back to Samoa on

the 15th of January. I didn't plan on being gone that long but that's

the way the flight worked out and I get to see Whitney for 4 weeks so

I'm not complaining.Well, there is the update. I hope this will put a halt on the blog-

post inquiries for the time being. And no, the new pictures aren't up

yet, have patience.

Well, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. And of

course the metaphorical tunnel is the crappy situation of joining the

Peace Corps and not having a real job for about 10 months! I spoke

with the Samoan Red Cross and it appears that I may have found a place

to work! They have a number of projects going on at the moment and

are excited to have me available to help them. Of course specifics

are still lacking at this stage but i will be stopping by tomorrow to

see if more information has been gathered and a clearer picture of how

I can fit in has been produced.Of course after such a long drought in job prospects I am hit with two

in the same week. I spoke with the President (I think that is his

official title) of the Samoa AIDS Foundation and they are interested

in my help as well. At this point in time they actually appear to

have a more specific idea of where I can fit in but I did talk to the

Red Cross first and my background better suits me for their work,

definitely. So most signs are pointing to the Red Cross but I met

with the Samoa AIDS Foundation today to keep all my options open, just

in case.Gonna keep this one short but I thought I would give you all the

update. There are some interesting goings on and rumors with regards

to the road switch I will tell you all about when I post this

weekend. Also the new group is set to be here in a few weeks. I tell

ya, it feels like just yesterday I was the green horn coming in to the

country. (the use of "green horn" is for Whitney and all her new

Texas friends, yay cowboy slang!)

Ok, so I am back to my "routine". I put that in quotes because when

you don't really have a job there is really no sense in having a

routine, right? That is unless you are exceptionally strict about how

you go about killing time. My parents have arrived safely back in the

US for those of you who were concerned. There time here was great and

it was a welcome break from the issues i have been dealing with.We went to quite a few places around Samoa including Lalomanu Beach,

Togitogiga National Park, Afu aau Falls, the blowholes, Manase Beach

among other places. I gave them the tour of Apia of course and we

spent some time in Savaii. We stayed at Stevensons in Manase, the

same place I stayed with my bro when he came. This time we stayed

some beach fales which were nice. They had a balcony facing the ocean

and actually had a bed, as opposed to the usual beach fales here that

have a foam mat on the floor. Also, Stevensons has pretty good food

which for breakfast and dinner which are included in the price ($80

per person per night) which is an awesome price. Of course going to

and coming back from Savaii requires a boat trip. My mom, get motion

sickness. She made it ok the way over, the return trip was another

story. The water was really rough on the trip back and her along with

about a dozen other people (at least) had a rough trip back and I'll

leave it at that. They were also here for the Samoa Perimeter Relay

Race which Peace Corps had a team run in.The race was a 64 mile relay around half of Upolo. Check out the

website: www.samoarunnings.net for all the info. Chris Jager (another

volunteer) and I painted the team shirts with this kick ass logo.

You'll have to check out my pictures, the shirts came out really

nice. I would like to give a shout out to Running Wild in Cedar

Rapids, IA by the way. The awesome running store that donated the

shirts for our team. Thanks a ton guys! We got up at 4:30am and

drove across the island to the start location and were on the road by

6:00am. AJ started the race, followed by Trent, then Erin, Me, Jim

and Matt. We each ran roughly 5K then handed off to the next runner.

The weather was great, overcast and cool, you couldn't ask for

anything better. The day flew by and everyone had a great time and

best of all, no injuries! After all the times were tallied up we came

in second overall, not bad for some amateurs, eh? The team that beat

us was a team of Samoan runners and they were pretty fast. They

finished in about 7 hours and 30 minutes while we finished in about 8

hours and 30 minutes. (sorry I can't remember the exact times off the

top of my head) The only thing that sucked was they didn't have an

award for second overall or even mentioned we got second overall at

the awards. Granted we were also in the volunteer group competition

in which we destroyed the Japanese volunteer team! But second overall

still deserves props! WTF? We are definitely looking forward to next

years race though.On to the topic of the earthquake, yeah there was a big earthquake

while they were here. There are little ones all the time that you

might not even notice most of the time but this was a big one! The

info I received was that it was a 6.6 quake about 150 Km southwest of

Apia. It was the biggest quake I've been in and it happened at like

4:30am. It woke me, my parents and Misa and Lelani up. Luckily there

was no tsunami as a result. I'm still not sure why some underwater

earthquakes create tsunamis and some don't. Ah well, I should just be

thankful there wasn't one.Been rambling for a while so I'll give you the update and then shut

up. There are some glimmers on the horizon, I met with Lepa at the

Red Cross yesterday and it sounds like they can use me but it was hard

to come by some specifics. I will be stopping by their office next

week to try and talk to the secretary general to get specifics. It

sounds promising. Other than that the Ministry of Health sounds like

there may be something there as well however a meeting I was supposed

to have didn't work out (because I was supposed to meet with someone

else evidently despite what I was told). i have been trying to call

them to reschedule a meeting but the person I am supposed to meet with

has been impossible to reach. Which really if it's that hard to just

get them on the phone to offer free help I am seriously questioning if

it is somewhere I could have a viable position. My application for

Jamaica is in so my fall back is in the works as well. I feel I have

said this before but, I will hopefully know more next week and let you

know what I find out. Yeah, definitely said that before. Ok, I'm off

to the internet cafe to talk to Whit! (Oh I forgot to mention I'm

going to the internet cafe because I didn't go to NUS today. I

realized yesterday going there just reminds me of the crappy situation

I am in so after a few days there this week I decided to do some work

in the Peace Corps office instead which was much better on the stress

levels and really because I don't need to be there!)Still working on getting the new pictures posted. Reminder for those

looking at the picture slideshow to the right, if you click on the

slide show it will take you to my picasawebalbum site where you can

view all the pictures. Tofa!