So, first post for a while, sorry I have been neglecting my blog!
Life has settled in to some sort of crazy routine now – Sunday, leave for training location. Thursday evening head back to Apia pretty exhausted, Friday in the office, spend the weekend socialising (probably a little too much!) then head off on Sunday to repeat. Life is pretty good, although tiring!
Here are a few tid-bits of things that have been happening over the last 2 months or so!
1. 5 days of public holiday for independence! below pic is of my work building decked out with streamers :)
2. UB40 Concert to celebrate independence – definite a highlight and awesome that no one seemed to notice a group of palagi’s amongst thousands of Samoan’s.
3. Mis-pronouncing the Samoan word for spinal cord during training and end up saying something quite rude instead… not only that but no one thinks to tell you this until the end of the day when you’ve said it about 20 more times – apparently they didn’t want to embarrass me…go figure!
4. The Slug’s misadventures…. Oil on the muffler, potential broken axle, failing brakes down a hill – feeling very grateful that my last breath was not in a beaten up Subaru on a deserted road on a remote pacific island! May need to busk or start selling off all my belongings on ebay to pay for dear Sluggy to see another day!
5. One of those quirky way-of-life things.. toilet paper is so valuable in Samoa that it is not kept in the toilet at work, but in its own special cupboard which you must go to, ascertain how much you will need, then wind it off a roll and stroll on down the corridor, through the foyer to the bathroom, usually saying Hi to about 10 people on the way while you carry your little wad of loo paper or ‘TP’ as it is referred to here! Some sneaky strategies people employ to avoid this include keeping a secret stash of TP under your desk, hiding your little wad down your top or knowing about the secret stash at reception, although that option is not very secret!
5. One of those quirky way-of-life things.. toilet paper is so valuable in Samoa that it is not kept in the toilet at work, but in its own special cupboard which you must go to, ascertain how much you will need, then wind it off a roll and stroll on down the corridor, through the foyer to the bathroom, usually saying Hi to about 10 people on the way while you carry your little wad of loo paper or ‘TP’ as it is referred to here! Some sneaky strategies people employ to avoid this include keeping a secret stash of TP under your desk, hiding your little wad down your top or knowing about the secret stash at reception, although that option is not very secret!
6. The Samoa Stolen Phone Saga: One morning Em and I went for a swim session in the harbour, stupidly leaving our phones in the car. Upon return 40 minutes later the phones had disappeared. Normally, we would accept this as bad luck and get on with life, however our Samoan swim buddy Seti, decided that it was not acceptable and took matters into his own hands. A random guy rocks up on a bike and says he thinks he knows who took the phones! So the bike and guy get put in the van, and off they go on a man-hunt. We went off to work, little did we know of the events that were going on! Seti sends 2 of his workers – including one that was meant to be at our training! – to search the city of Apia for this man. Who they found. Chilling at the market thinking he had done pretty well for himself with 2 new phones to sell. Unlucky for him he picked on the wrong Palagi girls to mess with! He then found himself piled into a 2 door Rav4 with 2 cops and 2 other big Samoan’s – I imagine it wasn’t pretty – and dragged down to the police station. Upon our arrival at the police station, our friendly police officer Titti showed us the thiefs collection – miraculously, Em’s phone was alive and well, however mine was not to have the same fate – already sold we think (Apia police don’t necessarily have the best interrogation skills and tend to believe everything the suspect says :/) Anyway, the phone thief is now likely in jail as stealing is a sin in Samoa. I think that more than makes up for the loss of my phone, and gives me some serious faith in the people here – there will be people stealing phones in any country that you go to however I think there’s only one where people will go to those lengths to get it back for you J Good on you Samoa!
Samoa Vs. Scotland - Not a bad view from the field!
Catamaran-ing!
WORK! Its not everyday that you love going to work for free :)
