Savaii and more……..

They had a Christmas party for all Church employees in Samoa (including American Samoa). Most of them work for the maintenance and the school system. Each division had to perform a dance as part of the program. Here are the dances for the three schools we work with,  Church College of Pesega, Pesega Middle School, and Sauniatu Primary School.

They said it was to start a 5:30, but as you can see from the early small crowd, it didn’t start until 6:30.

They gave out a lot of prizes, I even won a nice Volley ball. I gave it to the Sauniatu School because they don’t have many things like that there. I have ordered a tether ball from amazon that I am going to give to them when school starts. They play with a rope tied to the pole connected to a bag of rags for a tether ball. They gave a big TV to the “biggest loser” contest winner. This is him in the blue shirt. He lost 78 pounds in three months.

 There was plenty of food and everyone had a good time.

I wanted to hike up to the Tower hill above the campus and take some pictures. I thought we could take the Robert Louis Stevenson trail them continue up to the tower. When we got to that trail it looked a little iffy so we went on up to the Stevenson tomb again. You can see “our selfie” on top, Gramma headed down the less steep trail, the view on the east side of the tomb, and a view down the trail a 1000 meters on the west side.

Here is the storage area that the Mission keeps supplies. The two Elders are the AP’s Elder Shepard and Elder Hodges. We load up on Mondays with water bottles and other items for the missionaries if they have them there.

This is the colorful buses we followed over the cross island road. It went about 3 miles an hour and blew black smoke all over. We would stop, it would go around us, and I ended up passing it three times before the day was over.

Well on Wednesday at noon we made hour journey to the Savaii ferry. We had to go on the small ferry because the large one was booked full for the day. As soon as we got there I had to by a passenger ticket for Gramma. Then they started loading. They had some vehicles back in and other pull straight in and the started backing and move cars on the boat. Just as they started all the passengers without vehicles climbed on board.

These are pictures of our car on the ferry and how they pack us into it. They fold in the mirrors and there is 3 inches between me and the car next to me as the first picture shows looking back. The other pictures are of the front and side. I had to stay in the car the 1½ hour ride it was hot and rolly. Gramma got a little sea sick but held her own by talking to a Canadian young man here in Samoa on a visit. He was in the car next to her side (remember that is the left side not the right).

Our hotel had a nice pool, and it was next to the ocean, but the room left a little to be desired as you can see by the light in our room. It was not a Marriott!  

After we got settled into our hotel we went up to Vaiola, the Church school on Savaii. That is the college, middle, and primary school where the Stonehocker’s are the ITEP couple. It is up the mountain and is beautiful. It reminded Gramma of girl’s camp. They do have dorms there and some of the students stay there during school. The Stonehocker’s took us for a Vaiola tour and then feed us.

I took a picture of the monument that tells the story of Vaiola. The lower part of campus is the Primary school.

                                                   

We hiked up to the sign on the hill; it was a pretty tough climb and was harder going down.

That is Upolu on the far horizon and also Manono. The second picture is of an Indian apple tree. It has very ugly fruit and it is the only one people have seen, no one knows if you eat it or if it is poison. Speaking of ugly, one of the houses on campus is being attacked by these snails. They keep knocking them of, but each day more seem to come back.

The next day the Stonehocker’s picked us up and we went on a tour around the island. We first stopped at the beautiful Afu Aau waterfall. 

We then went to the Alofaaga blow holes. Gramma is helping Sister Stonehocker across the lava flow and then she had to stop and take a picture of this crab.

When big waves come in they force water and air through these holes in the lava. If you throw a coconut in the hole at the right time it will shoot it high into the air. Elder Stonehocker is getting pretty good at timing the throw. 

This was an interesting stop. It is a cliff and there is a Samoan legend attached to it about a mother and daughter jumping off the cliff.

These sheep have their own fale. They walk up a ramp to get there. I do not know why, but assume it is to get them and their wool off the wet ground since it rains so hard here.

Here is an interesting construction project with pole scaffolding.

We stopped at one of the many LDS chapels on the trip to use the rest room. The Elders were there and opened the gate for us. While looking around and checking out the ocean view, we found that this sow and her pigs got in the yard. We had to chase them out and I got  picture just as they crossed back over the road.

We stopped at “swim with the turtles”. Gramma wore her swim suit to swim with them, but changed her mind. They bring you mangos to feed them; Gramma did it from the shore. Two young ladies from New Zealand were there and one swam with the turtles and the other waded and lifted one of the turtles. Gramma may have been inspired, the young lady in the water got bit on the side by a turtle and it left quite a mark.

Gramma did get to swim, back at the hotel pool. We took the Stonehocker’s out to eat at the end of the day. The place they choose had very thing but fish available (they hadn’t got any that day) so that left about three items available on the menu.

That morning we said goodbye to Savaii.

We were back to another line waiting for the ferry. Here she came, the big one this time! We were the third car in and they didn’t pack the cars quite as tight as the small ferry. We were able to get out of the car and walk to the top. They still loaded it full. 

We went down to the middle section that is air conditioned but it made us a little woozy, so we went back up stairs. These people didn’t like it in there either, but they just laid down on the edge. Samoans can always find the shade and can sleep on a about any hard surface.

 That was our week. We really enjoyed Savaii. It is very quiet and rural, it makes Pingree people feel calm like at home. We have a bunch of Christmas activities coming this week and some projects to help the Elders and Sisters get a little bit Christmas, I am sure Gramma will tell you about it in the newsletter. We love you all, be good, be kind, and remember the true meaning of Christmas. The Gospel is true and we get to see the Lords work each day. Tofa Soifua, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.