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?