Sunday in Apia

It’s Sunday morning in Apia.  I woke early.  After a quick, hot shower, I headed to Farmer Joe’s and the market.  The air is thick with smoke from the Sunday umus (stone ovens).  A thick haze is hanging over the nearby hills.

It’s such a treat to be able to just walk to a full-service grocery store.  Shopping on my island is an event.  I strolled into Farmer Joes, humming along to the hymns playing on the overhead speakers.  Most patrons/employees were singing along.  I bought 2 eclairs.  They were $3 each and look delicious. 

I stopped at the farmer’s market to buy 2 niu (fresh coconuts).  They’ll be the beverages for the picnic I’m going on later.  I bought them from the man I bought a couple from the other day.  I spoke to him politely, only in Samoan.  I thanked him and wished him a nice day.  He was pleasant and smiling.  As I turned to leave he said something I couldn’t hear to the small group of men sitting nearby.  I clearly heard palagi and assume he was talking about me.  Wish I knew what he was saying.  Could have been innocuous.  Might have been rude.  Hard to tell.  It’s one of the challenges of living in a foreign country. 

In a few minutes my buddy Denise is picking me up for a girl-date.  We’re going to the Baha’I temple for church, then on a picnic.  She’s bringing pasta salad, I’m bringing rambutan (wonderful fruit like lychees, only available in Apia), oranges, niu and éclairs.  Should be fun.

Since I have a few minutes, here are some random thoughts:

·          I’ve never seen a wash cloth or face towel in a Samoan hotel.  I’ve stayed in at least 5 hotels.  You get a white bath towel.  Period.  Sometimes they balk when you ask for a towel for each person, but that only happened once.

·         I’m sleeping in a twin bed with a fitted sheet and a double flat top sheet.  Fabulous, since for the past couple of months I’ve been using a single flat top sheet on a double bed.  One hotel provided only a bottom sheet, on box springs, no mattress.  The expectation was that I’d use my lava lava for a sheet.  I didn’t have a lava lava.  They didn’t have any sheets.  I used a towel.

·         We conducted language training in four of our sleeping rooms.  Some of us tidied up the rooms, some of us didn’t.  Some of us sat on other volunteer’s beds with our feet on the pillow.  Some sat on the pillow.  I thought perhaps it’s just a finicky old maid thing that made me outlaw both actions on my bed.  I do not want to put my face on a pillow where you’ve put your butt or feet.  A couple others commented on it, though, so guess it’s not just me.

·         I asked one of the language trainers about sheet usage in Samoan homes.  She said use of just a bottom sheet is common.  I asked about how often they’re laundered.  She said it’s typical to wash them once a month, or some wash as often as every few weeks.  Some prefer to wait until dirt is visible on the sheets, which could be months.  I know in one house where I lived they did not wash sheets between uses by different people.  If, like me, you’re finicky about that kind of thing, you might want to bring a sheet when you visit Samoa.

·         We have a television in our room.  I don’t know if it works since we haven’t turned it on.  Those who know me will be shocked by that.  I used to ALWAYS have the tv on, even if I was in another room.  Background noise.  Here, there’s enough background noise.

·         Think your groceries are pricey?  Yesterday at Lucky Food Town I saw fresh button mushrooms ($40 a pound); broccoli ($9 for about 1/3 of a head); asparagus that were about an inch in diameter and a foot long ($38 per pound).  Cocoa Puffs are also over $20 a box.  I did not buy any of the above.

·         Walking to the store I walked behind a kid of about 12.  He was wearing a lava lava and a t-shirt.  The shirt was so worn it was frayed completely through in the middle of the back.  It didn’t appear to be a hole caused by a tear, but just from wear and tear.  We walked past a boy of about 4 who was standing on the sidewalk talking to a man sitting in a truck.  He was wearing an adult’s t-shirt that was so big it barely stayed on.  It had a huge rip.  It’s not all paradise in Samoa.

I’m back in the hotel now.  Attended services at the Baha’i Temple then spent the remainder of the day with my buddy Denise, having a picnic on the grounds of the temple.  We talked, we ate, we relaxed, we read magazines.  A perfect “girl date”.