Sunrise and other sights…….

Each morning as Gramma goes to teach piano lessons and I head out to teach my early morning Educational Assessment class we see some beautiful sunrises. I had the camera with me the other morning and thought I had a pretty good picture, but as I posted it I could see it was a little blurred. My photography skills are in capable of capturing the beauty of a Samoa sunrise (and their sunsets).

We finally got a chance to take Daisy and Nozzie and their husbands out to dinner at Scalinies, one of your favorite restaurants. The waiter took a picture and it was terrible, luckily I took one before he took the camera.

Nozzies husband had an interesting meal. I prefer my fish without head and tail when served.

There was Rugby tournament all day Friday and Saturday. It made traffic on campus congested and there was a lot of noise with two games at the same time going on most of the time.

Besides people, Gramma also wants me to post more pictures of buildings. So the first pictures are of the new hospital that the Chinese just built for Samoa. The third picture is the emergency room. It is not open all night, but if you a bleeding they will try to find someone to help you. It is a beautiful building, but medical care here is not the best. It is the only hospital in the country except for a small one in Savaii. The last picture is of the old hospital that it replaced.

Across the street is the Ministry of Health building. It is almost as big as and fancier than the hospital. They don’t want the bureaucrats to feel left out.

The next building is one of the last colonial buildings and they are trying to raise money to restore it. It is currently being used to house the police band and the Dog Control department of the police force.

The next picture is the government building. You can see its profile from almost anywhere in Apia.

One of the best and most well-known buildings in Apia is the “old Abby Greys hotel”. Many service men stayed there during World War II. Sheraton has bought it and there is big remodel and addition going on right now.

Next is the national police station and national fire department. The national police station isn’t any bigger than the Bingham County Sheriff’s office. 

There is a big sports complex used for Rugby and track. It is being remodeled for the big All Blacks-Samoa Rugby game in July (the first time the All Blacks from New Zealand have come to Samoa, it is a big deal). The guard wouldn't let me in to take pictures. The third picture is of the gym that is part of it, the gym was damaged in the last cyclone and hasn't been completely repaired.

That’s it for this week. We were too busy to take many pictures. It was great to Skype the Despain’s and see Cooper open his call. He will be a great missionary and his mission president will be glad to have a young man like him. We still have a couple of months before we come home so all of you that are saying to yourself, “we will just wait to tell them when they get home”, send some emails and pictures we enjoy them very much. They help us remember how much we love and miss you. God bless all of you and do the things you know you should be doing. Our prayers are with you, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.