Faith, Fair and the Flu…………..

Samoa is a very Christian nation. They have a variety of churches, but they all work together sometimes to exercise their faith. With the SIDS conference this past week that brought thousands of people to Samoa for the first time, they wanted to have good weather for the week prior to the conference and the week of it. So they all prayed that there would not be any rain on the north side of the island for two weeks. It was nice weather but things got very dry here on Pesega campus as you can see by the first picture outside our apartment on the north side of the island. The second picture is a young boy on a horse loaded with coconuts on the south side of the island as we made our Monday deliveries. It was a downpour and was that way all along our southern route. As we neared the north side, the sky cleared and it was dry. One hour after their closing ceremony for the SIDS conference on Saturday it started raining right on schedule. 

I told you in the last blog that we had hoped to slow down this week with a little time off. We got time off all right, we both got the flu. It is a Pacific flu and it is a tough one. Sister Winter across the street has had it over a week and it developed into Pneumonia. I came down with it Tuesday and Gramma on Thursday. We are still fighting the coughs, fever, and body aches, but we are not missing our teaching responsibilities we got it on the break. We did get a couple of pictures of the festivities during the week. It is like the fair at home or maybe a small version of “Taste of Chicago”. Gramma took off right after this next picture and before I could stop her she had bought a $350 Samoan drum that weighs about 60 pounds that I have no idea how we will get it home. 

This stage is where a continuous program is going.  It is kind of like the free stage at the fair.

Gramma got to see a couple of show at night with the Goodlets before she got too sick. 

The guy above is one of the "Laughing Samoans" they are a funny comedy  team. Here is some of the food booths at night.

The Tuesday that I was starting to get sick we visited a Samoan museum.

Here is the first parliamentary table for the first parliament. It is made in 5 sections of that same heavy wood that Gammas drum is made off. They said it would take 8 strong Samoan men to move each piece. 

When we got home this man was in the driveway. The yard crews sleep on their lunch breaks and they seem to prefer concrete. 

We hope the flu will leave, we are supposed to do a in-service Monday. We hope one of us feels well enough to do it. Then again it may not happen. We heard yesterday that the Prime Minister has declared Monday a national holiday because everyone worked so hard to make SIDS conference a success. So as usual we are not sure what is happening. Only in Samoa. This flu has helped us understand why the Samoan Saints have so much faith in Priesthood blessings. They don’t have a lot of other options. They have limited medical facilities, limited over the counter options, and the high cost when they are available. We all could benefit from being a little more faithful. We love you, we miss you, we pray for you, and hope you will pray for us to get us past this flu. Tofa Soifua, Elder and Sister Hammond