More First Impressions

Enjoying food and conversation during Girl's night at Blakey's house.

It’s 1:09 pm in Orlando, which means it’s 7:09 am here in Apia.  I’m the first one up and it’s quiet.  A few cars driving by, birds calling, a light breeze and the sun coming up behind large clouds, creating a spectacular sunrise.  Linda Lavin is singing quietly from my computer and the scene matches my mood…serene.

Since I’m feeling chatty this morning, and this is an excuse to delay studying Samoan, here are some more first impressions:

The 4-piece live string band at the airport beats the heck out of Muzak.  They were smiling, nodding and making eye contact, along with making music.  Now, that’s the way to greet tired strangers to your country.

I’ve had a tough time wrapping my head around the “fale” concept.  Fale is the word for house (and, apparently also the nickname for people, since both my language teacher (a woman) and the culture and language manager (a man) are called Fale).  Anyway, fales are traditional homes that are oval in shape, with high ceilings and are open air.  They have Roman-style blinds made of woven palm fronds that can be lowered in case of heavy rain, but otherwise are wide open. 

As we drove in from the airport, we saw a lot of them.  Most were large and looked very nice.  But have to say it felt weird.  Imagine driving through a subdivision where all the walls on the houses have been removed and you can see all the furnishings and people inside.  Oh, I guess that would have been like driving through sections of Orlando after Hurricane Charlie.

Anyway, the concept makes sense.  The temperature here is very comfortable, if you’re in the shade and have a breeze.  An open house allows both.  Still, will take some getting used to.  The other day as part of training we discussed the type of housing we’ll have once we get to our sites.  Most of us will have an open-air fale.  There will be a small room attached, with walls and a door that locks.  A relief, since I had visions of changing clothes in full view of the entire village, while humming the Stripper song.

The other thing that struck me as we made the 45 minute drive from the airport to town was the number of people who smiled and waved as we drove by.  We asked our Samoan trainers if it was genuine.  They assured us it was and it had nothing to do with us being Pisi Koa.  Nope, they just like falagis. 

Something that we’ve all been talking about a lot is money.  Tala is the local dollar.  I exchanged my US dollars at $2.31 which gives me way more Tala than dollars.  We’re encouraged (and are committed to) living on our Peace Corps budgets.  We received $120 (US dollars) for “walking around” money in L.A., which was quite generous.  And a good thing, since we only got $185 (tala) for our first week in Apia.  That’s for all meals and other expenses (taxis, etc.)  Since we were required to buy a phone for $89 tala our second day here, that really put a crimp in our food money.

I’ve been to two supermarkets since arriving and the prices were similar.  Not surprisingly, anything imported costs more.  If it’s imported from the US rather than closer New Zealand, it’s even more.  Local beer is a couple tala at the grocery store and $4-5 in restaurants.  Liquor is very expensive.  Low-end vodka is about $70 a bottle.  Soft drinks are also expensive – costing more than the local beer.  Sprim is only $1.20 and makes a liter of water taste better than Kool Aid.

At the open-air market, fruits and vegetables are very affordable.  Tasty avocadoes are $1.  5 large cucumbers were $3.  Squash started at $3 for a small one (enough to make a meal for two). 

Many of us cyber-stalked the current volunteers on their blogs before arriving, trying to get insights into what our lives here would be like.  I started reading Matt’s blog even before I knew I was coming to Samoa.  I just like the way he writes.  He’s featured a lot of photos and stories of his Group 81 compadres, including Blakey.  So I was pretty darned thrilled when I exited customs and the first people I saw were Blakey and Matt. 

On Friday night, we enjoyed “boys’ and girls’ night”, which is a tradition in Peace Corps Samoa.  Jenny and Kaelin came to the hotel to help us get cabs to head to Blakey’s house, while some Matt, Koa and some other guys came to take our guys back to Matt’s house.  I can’t speak for the guys, but the women had a great time.  Blakey lives on her school compound, just outside Apia.  Her house is large (about 1,500 sq. ft) and has all the amenities.  We were quickly told that she has the largest house and we should expect something much smaller.

Two Jennies, Kaelin, Blakey and Chris were our hostesses and had made sure that there was plenty of wonderful food.  We’d stopped at the liquor store so anyone who wanted could have a beverage of choice.  There was oka (raw fish, marinated in lime, onion and coconut milk – delicious), vegetarian and non-vegetarian chili that was wonderful and perfectly spicy.  There was a huge pile of fried chicken and a variety of other dishes that I can’t remember.  My favorites were the spicy chili and the awesome dessert that didn’t have a name.  It was “liquid fruit salad”.  Imagine a cup filled with small pieces of tropical fruit and a liquid made of coconut milk and fruit juice.  It tasted like liquid ambrosia.

The best part of the night was the conversation.  As you can imagine, we’ve got lots of questions, some of which can really only be answered by a woman who’s been through it.  While the men are apparently obsessed with poop, for women it was periods.  An important topic when you’re in a place where feminine hygiene products aren’t available.

Blakey’s pule (principle) stopped by for a bit and was wonderful.  Middle-aged, she’s head of a school with more than 500 students.  She was funny and gave us great insights into the Samoan world.  Some in our group have been concerned about the very strong gender roles in Samoa and our willingness/ability to take on the female role.  The pule explained that while there are strict rules about gender roles, that doesn’t mean that women are subservient.  In fact, just the opposite.  She described the wife/mother of the home as the iron, responsible for smoothing out any issues within the family. 

She was dressed in a beautiful puletasi (traditional long skirt and fitted, matching blouse) and carrying a jungle purse, with a flower in her hair.  The yellow flower is the symbol of the school.  They refer to the campus as the “jungle” (it’s actually a beautiful, well-manicured school campus) so when she made her small purse out of a palm frond, she called it a jungle purse.  It’s not a traditional design and she’s planning to teach some kids to make them to sell at the market.  We’re hoping for a PC discount, since we all want one. 


Something else I noticed about current and new volunteers.  They're all good looking.  Several of us have commented that it seems that "more attractive than average" men and women seem to be drawn to the Peace Corps.  I'm feeling a bit like Dodo the dog face girl at cheerleader camp.  Oh, well, I have a "special" kind of beauty that comes with age.

Enough rambling for now.  Tea, toast and Samoan vocabulary await, since e la’ititi la’u fa’asamoa, which means I don’t speak much Samoan.  And yes, that’s one of the phrases I’ve learned.  I also learned “fia le tau” (how much is it?), which I proudly used at the market, only to feel like an idiot, when I was answered in Samoan and had to trot out “e la’ititi la’u fa’asamoa” again.

BTW – I now have a cell phone so I can receive texts (free for me, not sure of cost to you) and calls (not sure of cost for either of us).  I understand that I can receive Skype calls for only $.01 per minute from the U.S.  That means using Skype to call my cell, rather than going computer to computer.  That option is also available, at least until we leave for training in 2 weeks.  My phone number is 1 685 725 7126.  That includes the area code and should work.

The biggest impression I’ve had is that people here seem to be relaxed, smiling and happy.  That’s rubbed off on us trainees and even after a very eventful first week, everyone seems happy and well.  

Squash in the market.

 Sarah and Patricia on the main road in Apia.  We were walking home from the market.

Breakfast every morning in the hotel is tea, toast, coconut, pawpaw (papaya) and banana.  With an amazing view of Upolu.

Some of the food at Blakey's house.  Chicken on the left.  Salsa and chips (chips are uber expensive here and quite the treat) and in the foreground, some type of root vegetable, boiled, then topped with coconut cream.