Liet

If you like to sleep more than be awake, eat raw meat, go from happy and cuddly to aggressive in less then a second, move your feet when you sleep, expect others to do things for you which you won’t do for them, sleep in more than 3 places in one day, need love and cuddles and are not afraid to ask for it, are curious about everything in the kitchen and on the table sometimes strut, sometimes slink, you know what it is to be Liet. Who has been on walk-about for over a week- but I’m imagining that she is out looking on the prowl since I haven’t taken her to be fixed yet. Kind of a bummer since there are lots of hungry dogs around and shes a nice girl.

Work

There are all kinds of non work activities that happen at work. One of the nice things about working is the fact that all kinds of stuff goes on that has nothing to do with my job. The fabric lady for example shows up on paydays- with hand printed fabric to show and sell, she brings her kids and brother and hangs in the office.

The dancer is the finance guy/girl and the guy on the

left is the big boss

Morning tea- maybe it is kind of work related but – the American 15 minute coffee break could learn a few things from a proper morning tea- toast, and butter and jam and avocado and peanut butter and the terrible vegemite, tea, coffee, milo (some sort of chocolate stuff) outdoors by the flower garden with anywhere form 15 to 45 people attending each morning. Bare feet and tile floors make slipping out of those confining flip flops so relaxing, the colorful cleaning lady who has the most stunning outfits and jewelry who is actual a boy (bellow on the drum)

fresh flowers by the urinal, the office cat, the fortnightly office bar- complete with mixed drinks and bartenders, songs sung by the entire staff when visitors leave. I really like the dentists office- in the same examination room there is all the normal stuff and a baby bassinet complete with a baby- the dental tec brings here new born to work and has her in the room all day, sometimes the secretary comes and holds her for a bit. Its really quite cute and practical- the baby is good, she doesn’t fuss too much. My seamstress – well you have to have one if you are going to by the fabric from the fabric lady- is a terrible flirt, I had her sow some curtains for me and she asked me about how many pillows I had on my bed, explaining that she like to have a lot and I might need to get some more and where to hang my curtains for best effect- you know color schemes and all – she almost makes me blush-

Jumping

Thinking

I’ve loved jumping off things ever since I learned how to climb. Early on I figured that jumping on to the ground- no matter how soft – isn’t all its cracked up to be – bending your wrist backward trying to land a big leap smarts. However, water is much more forgiving. Though it’s a bit deceiving sometimes- you can take a leap that would paralyze you if you hit something solid, into water with good confidence that you’ll survive – however, one of my most vivid memories is leaping off of gok rock on the Santa Ynez river after spending 10 minutes thinking “the water looks lower then when I was a kid – na you’re just getting old – jump, you climbed all the way up- its really not safe to climb down anyway—OK GO” and taking a big jump out (cuz there are rocks just below- and during the long fall I had time to see that, yes, the water was to low, and that slopping rock was only 2 or 3 feet under the water and OH SHIT – better bend my knees – bounce out of the water and swim away with smarting ankles and a smile.

Samoa has water jumps- Climbing the walls at the sua trench is a great example- when the rock gets flaky you can just fail/push out and end up in the water. Sliding rock has great slides but also has some good jumps. The ocean caves have good leaps and people to watch too.

The real trick is getting up the rock- here is a creative method- jump out of the water

Flap your arms

Pull your self back toward the rockPush the air away

And stick the landing!

Races

The sunsets from the water, the complaining- which I can tell is complaining from the tone of voice- in Samoan about the distance and pace, the way it feels when the whole team is in time together– woosh woosh splash hup ho, gliding past corals and turtles, my back, the dearth of dogs and mozzis, being on the water, hanging out all afternoon in the shade racing a few times and winning- make paddling a first-rate Samoan pastime – at least for this Palagi.

Yesterday we had another successful weekend in the 12 week business house regatta series – 6 races over 3 months- social team- which means the teams are nonprofessional and mixed gender.

notice no other boats are near?

















Winning by a boat length in a long race is one thing - but in a 250 meter race??

The engine room

The Breaks

Pumpkin Soup

Now that I’m not quite as sick I wanted some food- but not to go shopping- humm- I’ve got a pumpkin and some potatoes – sick people eat soup- I should have soup, kind of a stone soup- whatever is in the kitchen that’s not moldy goes in. My experiment included

A onion – browned with some garlic, ginger and a HOT little red pepper

Add 1 pumpkin, and a hand full of potatoes, some old tomatoes and some water, chicken bullion

Cook, blend

Toast the pumpkin seeds, chop parsley -Top - eat

Then get lots of water due to the fact that little pepper was freaking hot – I like hot and it is still hot- makes you sweat and want more at the same time

Sicko

Some days I wake up entirely content, excited by where I am, the sun is shining, a breeze is blowing, the day looks bright. Waking up alone, no family, in an empty house on a small island with a fever, after 11 hours of sweaty sleep, at 5am is not one of those days. The roosters are loud, the room is hot but I’m cold - even wearing my one sweater, uggh. Cooking sounds like a bad proposition but 2 days without food dives me to eat some Doritos© -bad idea. Tea and bananas are a better idea. My hypothesis was that 3 weeks of too much beer and too little sleep had caught up with me when I woke up with leg cramps at 3am Sunday morning, but then when other paddlers described similar symptoms I modified my theory to “something in the water”; regardless - all one can do is eat some bananas and sweat it out, and maybe hide from the Vailima for a day or two. Blah

Supplies

Food- In American Samoa it was a problem, a common complaint was the lack of local produce and meats- Samoa rocks in this regard, the selection isn’t as wide as more developed countries but what is here is good- or maybe I’m just used to it but .. the little supper hot peppers, sashimi grade tuna every day, ripe tomatoes, bok choy- its all good, local and cheap. My most happy surprises is that locals don’t seem to be to into filet mignon – which is a treat in the US cuz of the price tag- so the local filet is pretty cheap, fresh and tasty.

There a great curry making supplies and what you can’t buy (ie good bread) you can make do to the simple fact its an island and there is always plenty of time for that sort of thing.

Lazy Beach Day

Today started with coffee and music, made fresh bread and breakfast,. Motivated 6 new friends, acquaintances, whatever, to go to the south coast and BBQ. Got a filet – a whole one- and some sausages, ice and beer, lemon and avocado and bread, gota have bread for the bbq and headed south. Tafatafa beach was the goal, turquoise water, beach fales, I couldn’t find a grill or wood but the girl at the beach took me to her house and hooked me up, wood that was already burning from the mornings umu, coconut shells- they are like fire starter with all the oil, and a screen for the grill. Beer in the warm waters, meat over an open fire, tangy lemon juice, mmmm. The UN people explain some internal politics, Africa, Australian, etc. We need to rinse off so it was off to the waterfalls we went. Two meter, four meter and the seven meter jumps were all open – I found a climbing route that bypassed the steps so I could leap out, and climb up the same face- very nice, good exercise. By the time we had a couple more beers and dinner at the yacht club I was exhausted. Back home to bake and do laundry for Monday morning.

Hiking in the dark

We went for an evening hike up to Robert Luis Stevenson's Grave, that turned into a minor adventure, no one had shoes other than flip flops, the German girl had a mini skirt and 2 of the boys were city guys, it was slippery, we went shoe less and we were soooo slow it got dark and then started raining- it was steep and fun- they were talking the whole time till it got dark- then they were quite- I think a little scared- I had a good time but my feet are mad. On the way in to the park the boys who look after it told us- closes at 6 - be back - of course I assured them we would be back with plenty of time to spare- Wrong , not even close - they were waiting an hour after dark for us- to lock the gates- to say sorry I gave them beer money and many sorries - I can't be making enemies in so beautiful of a place- and so small.

Civiche

With all the fresh fish available I feel guilty cooking it- since its so fresh and good - but tuna sashimi and sushi is only exciting a few times a week. So, remembering how good the fish was in Ecuador, I thought I’d try some civiche. Worked like a charm

One huge chunk of yellow fin

Cut the skin, bones and blood meat away,

Chop into cubes

Add a chopped onion, tomato or two, cilantro, some slat, maybe a pepper

Enough lemon juice to cover the tuna and the juice of an orange

Stir and stick in the fridge

Serve to hungry paddlers

Retreat

My second week on the job happened to fall on the date of the annual office retreat, how’s that for good planning? It started off with a three hour trip, by bus, ship and van talking to two very different guys with the same name talking about the journalism business in Samoa and Fiji. We went over to Savai’i and for the first time in Samoa I was hungry, no lunch, only beer until dinner- obviously a test of some sort. Maybe I passed, but I made it to dinner at least, and then dancing, with the fafas and the ladies. The water was cold- yeah it was sorta strange but there were tons of fresh water seeps just next to the shore- cold fresh water- very nice. Waking up was surreal - lapping waves and a drum summoning the office to calisthenics on the beach. The day was filled, filled with games and talking about teams or something to that effect, go blue team go- which we did – I climbed a coconut tree the fastest and won –not quite sure what I won, don’t know, but blue won. Luau night featured dancing and singing by each of the groups, we did a Samoan slap dance and then a Japanese nursery rhyme which makes sense since Japan is an island as well. Everyone got awards, one girl got one for getting sick on the boat, our IT guy got one for having sexy legs and I got something to do with a twinkle in my eye. Then there was dancing and drinking in the sand, during which a friend was teasing me since I was supposed to wake up at 6am and lead calisthenics the next morning. Surprise, surprise I woke up- with a hang over and on accident, and banged the drum to summon the office to yoga- ha ha- hung over, sunrise yoga followed by a jog and a swim and an afternoon nap. Each day I took at least 3 snorkel swims, staghorn coral dominated the reef and small fish- no big ones- but cold water seeps kept it cool. The next morning was worse- a 5 am wake up call for the paddling team, who had to catch the van – ferry – van, get changed and do 4 races, which we won 2 of- first races I’m in, first races we win?