Work luncheon...samoan style

Not long after I started working for the American Samoa Coastal Management Program, which is housed within the AS Department of Commerce, a co-worker's father passed away. The following day, a checklist was passed around the office. The checklist had three columns, the first column had every employees name, the second had a few $ amounts written down, and the third had a couple scribbles of PAID. In Samoa, it is customary to contribute money or food to a family when someone in the family dies. This checklist was going around to collect money for our co-workers family, and it was passed around for everyone to see how generous, or not, their fellow employees were. I didn't even know the guy, but felt coerced by this checklist to give something. I think I gave $5. Since then, in support of this custom, the Department of Commerce has adopted a policy that all employees must contribute $20, all managers $30, when a co-worker experiences a death in the family. Just recently this tragically occurred again to one of our new employees. When she returned from the funeral in Washington state she wanted to show her appreciation by providing lunch for the entire department. This wasn't any ordinary work lunch. No casserole and cake, or sandwiches and salads. This lunch included two pigs, a size 2 and a size 4, cooked in an umu. An umu is the traditional Samoan way of cooking, which basically involves heated rocks in an underground oven with I believe taro leaves stuffed inside the pig. A size 2 pig is the usual size used for family gatherings. I believe it is an adolescent pig. The size 4 is the largest I have seen at an event, this pig was huge! You can't use a regular knife to cut up a pig like that...you need to bust out the machete. The attached photos are of our lunch in the DOC Conference Room with our trusted employee Tau, hacking up the size 4 pig. Watch out for flying pig pieces as he whacks that pig with the machete! Deeeeeelish! Don't eat the pink parts though cuz those aren't quite cooked all the way through and you may get some unknown tropical disease. And be sure and fill a styrofoam box with leftovers to take home...grab a whole ham hock, there's plenty to go around!

After we had been enjoying our lunch for a little while, the two building security guards were eyeing our event through the conference room windows. After a few minutes they were invited in and went to town on the remaining pork. These two had certainly eaten their share of pork in the past, they knew how to put it away and had plenty of belly room to do so. Some of the photos show baskets made of coconut palm fronds, which is what the pigs were delivered in, another basket was full of breadfruit and taro, which are popular vegetables here. All in a days work here on the rock!

Big Mac Democracy

Here in American Samoa, nearly every village has their own beach. In order for an outsider to use a village beach, one must simply ask permission from a villager. Most of the time you would be granted use of the beach. Sometimes you may be charged a nominal fee ($2) and other times you may be flat out denied, for instance on sundays or if there is some event going on in the village, or, I suppose, if they simply don't like you, which is rare. This is the case for nearly every beach on the island except those that are not associated with a village, which there are a few, but these usually require a lengthy hike. Some of these are usually worth the hike though. There is one beach on the island that stands out from these standards though. Utulei Beach. Utulei Beach is within the outer Pago Pago harbor area and has a large, nearly 5-acre park attached to it. It is quite a nice spot, with Samoan beach fale's (open air huts, pronounced fah-lay, see photo below) scattered around the park for picnicking, BBQ pits, public restrooms, and magnificent views of the harbor and surrounding mountains. The Yacht Club is at the far end of the beach park, and there are a number of small sailboats and outrigger canoes that are launched from this spot. This park is directly across the street from my office at the Executive Office Building and we often eat lunch under a fale while taking in the view. It is not uncommon to be joined by sea turtles swimming in the near shore waters. It's a great spot and in the shade of the fale with a nice breeze, its pretty cool as well.

A few decades ago the local Department of Parks and Recreation signed a contract with the Federal National Park Service to keep the area as a park in perpetuity. Over the years the American Samoa Department of Parks and Recreation has received federal funds for park improvements. About a year ago, the Governor of American Samoa signed a lease with McDonald's to put a new restaurant in Utulei Beach Park. What!?! Since then, the Governor has been seen on TV promoting the plan and questioning why some think its a bad idea. Also, the local Parks and Recreation Director has openly supported the project and has signed an agreement with McDonald's for other park improvements.

There is an existing McDonald's on the island. It is located in Tafuna, a large village on the western side of the island. The Tafuna Plain is the largest area of flat land on the island and supports numerous businesses and residential homes. I've been told that the Tafuna McDonald's was the highest grossing McDonald's in the world in 2004. I don't have numbers to verify that, but I will tell you that it is considered rude for a person to return to their village with only enough McD's for themselves. It is not uncommon for someone to order 25 Big Macs or more and take them back for the entire village to eat. A new McD's on Utulei Beach would make it easier for residents on the eastern side of the island to get their Big Mac fix...or so the argument goes.

My office, and the other 7 offices that make up the Project Notification and Review System Board (PNRS, the local land use permit review board), has been reviewing the permit application and working with them to prepare an environmental document. I can't comment too much at this point as the project is still pending, but let's just say I haven't been very impressed with their efforts to date. However, public participation is happening as earlier this week a public hearing was held and that was quite an entertaining event.

The few days leading up to the public hearing saw protestors on the beach sporting signs and yelling catchy chants. This is the first time I've seen actual protests on this island. I've lived on this tiny island since January 2005 and in my time here my program has held a few public hearings. Usually about 4 people show up to these public hearings and they are fairly worthless. However, for the McDonald's public hearing over 300 people showed up. Viewpoints from both sides of the debate were emotionally portrayed and we sat and listened to personal accounts of Utulei Beach history for over 6 hours!! At this point, the saga and debate is on-going. We hope to have the PNRS Board vote on the project in the next couple of months. Will be interesting to see what happens! I'll keep you posted.

Lastly...palagi (pronounced pa-lahng-ee) literally means sky bursters, but realistically means white person or non-samoan. See if you can find the palagis in this picture of the 2005 American Samoa National Baseball Team, there are two, appropriately nicknamed Palagi #1 and Palagi #2.

Cinco de Mayo in the South Pacific

While I've only met one person from Mexico on the island since I've been here, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated here. At least it is if you organize a mexican food dinner for 25 on May 5th, which is what happened over the weekend. It wasn't just a Cinco de Mayo fiesta, it was also a birthday celebration (Sebastian, Emily and Su). Randy, Billy and I organized the event and went over to the Talolo Lodge earlier in the week to set things up. We tasted the margarita's and the homemade salsa...and then another margarita, just to make sure things were satisfactory. Our hostess Chande knew what she was doing. Best margarita I've had since I've been on the island...I think the only one I've had on the island though so that may not be saying much. The Talolo Lodge also has a pool, which is pretty sweeeeeeeeet, cuz not many places on the island have a pool.

We left work early (not a problem here) to get to the Ili'ili Golf Course for a quick 9 holes before it got dark. Chande wanted to join us so we picked her up on the way. The Talolo Lodge http://www.american.samoa-hotels.com/taalolo-lodge/Index.html is right next to the golf course so it was a perfect pre-party activity. There were 9 of us golfing so we had one foursome and one fivesome. Sebas, Gonzalo, Benja and Jeff led off, followed by Chande, Doug, Steve, Randy and me. I've actually been golfing quite a bit lately. It's so cheap. The cart rental is actually more than the golf fee. For 9-holes the cart is $7 and the round is $3...ridiculous. Throw in a few six packs of beer and you have a great afternoon for around $12. Can't beat that. You do get what you pay for though. While Ili'ili Golf Course does provide spectacular views across the Tafuna Plain and Matafao Peak (the highest peak on the island at 2,142 feet), there's no sand in the sandtraps and the greens are covered with patchy grass and lava rocks. A 2-putt is a good thing here. Still fun though.

So we teed off and I was killing the ball off the tee. Best drives I've had in a loooooong time. Naturally though since my drives were on, my short game was pathetic. I put up a 5 on the first four holes, in recognition of Cinco de Mayo. Then put up a couple sixes and ended with a 4. We only managed 7 holes due to darkness. Chande who is probably twice my age, slaughtered all of us by going 1-over for the seven holes. Talk about consistent...she crushed the ball straight down every fairway. Her punishment was a lot of waiting around in her cart while the rest of us zigzagged the course. We finished around 6:30, emptied our beer cans and bottles and moseyed (yes that's how you spell it...I looked it up) over to the Lodge to get the fiesta going.

First thing I did was jump in the pool. Felt nice after working up a sweat on the golf course...doesn't take much to work up a sweat here. I'm sweating just typing this right now. Anywise, people began to show up at the Lodge and before we knew it we had a large group of people drinking beers, margaritas and enjoying chips and homemade salsa. There are only two places on the island that serve Mexican food. The Yacht Club has a pretty good chicken burrito and Evalani's has a larger selection, but I have yet to have a meal there that I would go back to order. So simply having chips and delicious homemade salsa is quite a treat. The menu then followed with albacore tuna tacos, chile rellenos, cheese and chicken enchiladas, refried beans, and spanish rice. It was awesome! I got seconds, but couldn't finish.

After the grub, there was more boozing and swimming. Randy was trying to learn to do back flips on the edge of the pool. If only that pool had a diving board, I couldn't quite get all the way around on my flips, probably cuz I was overloaded with rice, beans, and beers. The hardest part was balancing on the edge. Demond, fully clothed, attempted to help Randy steady himself at one point, only to be dragged into the pool. No word on whether his cell phone is working again. It was a grand event, a bonified Cinco de Mayo golf and pool party. Chande was a gracious host and can't wait to kick our butts in golf again. The pool party aspect reminded me of the good ole days at Rogier's place in Wavre. Aaahhhhh those were the days...damn I'm old, that was over 17 years ago!

In my next post I'll explain what a palagi actually is...

earthquakes and tsunami's

So I was startled out of a deep sleep at 4:30 this morning by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake epicentered 20 miles below the sea surface near Tonga.

Sucker lasted a good 20 seconds and I rode it out laying in bed. I somehow managed to fall back asleep after that until my alarm went off around 5:45am. Lately I've been waking up early and going to the gym before work. Just works better for me and is a great way to start the day...getting pumped up for the wedding ya know. So anyway, I'm listening to the music on the radio (one of the 12 songs they play, usually Kelly Clarkson or Nickelback, which is usually enough to get me outta bed). The only DJs that actually live here on the island on the particular station my alarm is set for, start at 6am...the Samoan Sunrise show. Until then its a recorded, or internet-fed DJ from somewhere in Texas I think. 6am rolls around (yes I'm still laying in bed) and the local, live DJs come on the air and interrupt a song for **BREAKING NEWS**. A report is then given on the earthquake that I felt earlier and that there is a tsunami warning in effect. They also report that if there were an actual tsunami generated, it would have hit the island around 5:20am based on the quake magnitude and distance they can determine that sort of stuff apparently. It was now 6:10am. My sleep would have been even more rudely interrupted had a tsunami torn through my bedroom at 5:20am. Thankfully it didn't and I haven't heard any reports of damage or fatalities anywhere in the pacific which is good. The warning system was pretty good, but could obviously be improved by having some live bodies to report local emergencies...not that I would have been awake to hear them, but anyway. Some friends called me from there car on the way up the mountain to safer ground around 6:25 and I had to inform them that the tsunami warning had been cancelled...they dissappointedly replied "so we have to go to work now?" The warning was cancelled literally 30 seconds after the Department of Education had announced that all public schools were closed. I'm sure there were some students absent today. I proceeded to work.

Planning a big Cinco de Mayo event for Friday. 9 holes of golf, then margarita's and mexican food. Can't wait. Amazingly, Samoa is actually not known for its mexican food, having said that, maybe I shouldn't be too excited about our Cinco de Mayo fiesta! One thing I've learned about this place is to never expect much, you have to lower expectations, that way you're less likely to be constantly dissappointed, and if something actually goes as planned, you are pleasantly surprised. Speaking of food, my gracious neighbors from India brought me some homemade indian food for dinner, which was awesome!! Even included some homemade, roti bread with a little island flair. Much appreciated...I saved some for lunch tomorrow.

better late than never

I should've started one of these in January 2005 when I arrived on this tiny little rock in the South Pacific...but today seems like as good a day as any. I have to give props to my friends Sara and Alex (mostly Alex) for providing such a riveting blog of their new life in Brussels. These first few posts may be in somewhat of a flashback mode to try and recount the crazy things that have happened since landing in American Samoa...all 76.1 square miles of it! I'm sure I'll forget some of the crazy occurrences, and will be overwhelmed with new ones, like the pickup truck in front of us on our drive to work this morning that had an old oil drum with no lid in the bed of the truck and whenever the truck accelerated or turned too sharply a strange chunky, yellow liquid would overflow into the bed and slowly dribble out the back onto the road...sewage sludge? restaurant grease? vomit? upon further inspection (we passed a car so we could get right up behind the truck...average speed on the way to work is 15mph) it was determined that there were noodles...as in spaghetti noodles...hanging over the side of the drum. Why in the world these 2 dudes were transporting a large oil drum full of noodles in the back of their truck is beyond me, but if any restaurants on-island are featuring a pasta special in the next few weeks, I'm gonna pass. Stay tuned.