Thank You Robin Yeager

Presenting Robin with a going away gift.
For the past two years, Peace Corps Volunteers in Samoa have had a great friend. Robin Yeager, who is the Charge d’ Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Samoa, has been a huge advocate for the work we do. However, in the near future, her two year term in Samoa will come to a close and she’ll be heading back to the United States.

Due to the fact that the U.S. Ambassador to Samoa, Mr. David Huebner, also serves as ambassador to New Zealand, with his offices in Wellington, Robin Yeager is in a unique position. As Charge d’ Affairs, she is the acting ambassador when Mr. Huebner is not in Samoa. She keeps a very busy schedule, but despite her many commitments, she has always chosen to make Peace Corps one of them!

My first memory of Robin came during my second month in Samoa. It was November of 2009 and I was still a trainee in the training village. Those were the days of homesickness, stressful afternoons in language class, and awkward cultural clashes with my host family. So when all of us trainees heard that we were invited to Robin’s house for a Thanksgiving gathering, we all soon perked up a little bit more.

We were driven by bus from our training village to her house, about an hour’s ride away! When we arrived and walked into her spacious house with air conditioning, satellite T.V., and crown molding, our eyes lit up. We had been living in Samoan fales (houses) for nearly 7 weeks at that point, and being at her house made us feel like we had a part of our old lives with us. The food was amazing, and covered three large tables. The desert was even more impressive and we were invited back for seconds and thirds!

Since that first meeting at Robin’s house, we have been invited back again and again for all types of events. I think she always knew we had a soft spot for her T.V., which gets several American channels. She was always telling us that if there was some sports game on that we wanted to watch, just to let her know. And we did.

She had us over to watch the U.S. play in the World Cup in June of 2010, and then again in December to watch the Army vs. Navy game. Since there is a seven hour time difference between Samoa and the U.S., this often meant the games would begin at awfully early hours in the morning. But that wasn’t a problem for Robin. Instead, she always told us to come over the night before, cook dinner, and spend the night on her couches until the game began in the morning! She also had a great tradition of fixing us a huge breakfast casserole each time we stayed over for the night.

On two other occasions we held our monthly book club meeting at her house, and were also invited to spend the night and watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, this past April. Her two dogs, Lexi and Katie always roamed about the house, making many of us think of our pets from back in the U.S.

When Robin wasn’t hosting us at her house, she was sponsoring us in relay races! Last July I was a member of the men’s Peace Corps Volunteer relay team for Samoa’s Perimeter Relay. Robin helped sponsor our team of volunteers by offsetting part of our entrance fees, as well as sponsoring the women’s Peace Corps team. None of us would have completed the race if it hadn’t been for the countless sandwiches, muffins, cookies, and PowerAde that she supplied throughout the race day. Both of our teams came in first place, so I’m happy we were able to get a win for Robin!

Robin was also crucial in establishing an “American Corner” at Samoa’s Public Library in Apia. The room is full of books about America, and has other great resources, such as computers for the public to use. She has also begun a traveling library which is going around to all the schools where Peace Corps Volunteers are located. This is giving countless children the chance to read great books!

Most recently, Robin hosted us at the new official residence, over the 4th of July! Although we were celebrating the 235th birthday of America, Robin had made most of the evening a tribute to Peace Corps, as her way of celebrating its 50th anniversary! Robin and her staff at the Embassy had gathered pictures and stories from volunteers, present and past, to help highlight the work we have done in Samoa. She thanked us personally for our service and the work we are doing.

At the informal gathering on July 2, the volunteers had a chance to show our appreciation for what Robin has done for us. Most of us volunteers had gone in together to have a Samoan plate made for her, with a carving on the front that read, “Faafetai mo lau auaunaga,” (Thank you for your service). It was a very small way for us to say thank you to someone who has made us feel so welcomed in a country she knows is not our own.

Robin knew most of us by our first names. Once when walking through Apia, she was driving by in her car and recognized me, giving a big wave as she drove by. Before my trip to Australia, I had a question for her regarding my passport. She quickly responded to my emails and followed up with a phone call. It was this personal attention and carrying that she did, which all of us are going to miss.

My final memory of Robin is also my dearest. Because or Robin’s position within the U.S. State Department, she was the one who swore us in as volunteers as we read our official oaths before her, on December 8, 2009. That was the day that began this amazing journey I’ve been living since. Its been full of challenges, growth and rewards. But most of all, I’m so thankful that it included Robin’s friendship. She will be missed. Best of luck Robin, we'll miss you.




Peace Corps Volunteers and staff in Samoa, past and present, gathered with Robin on July 4, 2011.



Emily and I at Robin's over the 4th of July weekend, 2011







Celebrating Peace Corps' 50th Anniversary with a birthday cake!








Robin always has sparklers for us on the 4th of July!








The beginning of the food line at Robin's, for Thanksgiving, 2009.



Samoan custom is to take off your shoes before entering a house, as we all did here at Robin's for Thanksgiving, 2009.







My plate of food at Robin's 2010 Thanksgiving gathering.




Crashing on Robin's couches and floor to watch the U.S. play in the World Cup in June of 2010.





Gathering at Robin's this year.



Robin with the guys team after we took 1st place in the relay last August.

Man vs. Wild: Samoa

Heading up the mountain!
Many of you have seen the popular cable T.V. series on the Discovery Channel, Man vs. Wild, with Bear Grylls. A helicopter drops him out in an unforgiving landscape and he has to survive with limited resources as he battles nature’s relentless power. He gives pointers on what to do if you ever were to end up in a similar situation, minus the camera crew and producers of course!

Recently I had my own Man vs. Wild experience, as I hiked up the 754 m (.46 miles) mountain next to my house on two different occasions. Within my first month of living here in my village, I made the goal to someday reach the summit of that mountain. I was able to accomplish that goal on June 11th, and then again on June 25th.

On the first expedition, I had the company of two other Peace Corps volunteers, Corina and Chelsea, as well as Denise, one of the staff from the Peace Corps office. The four of us were led by my neighbor, along with a few other men from the village. In the lead-up to that trip, people from the village continued to reassure me that there was in deed a trail to the top. We soon found out that the trail was actually decent for half the distance to the summit. The second half ended up being the most challenging, since the men leading us had to cut through growth, which was thicker than I had ever seen before.

Corina, Chelsea, and Denise weren’t able to make it all the way to the top because Corina and Chelsea had to get back into the capital to catch buses to their villages that day. But I continued on with two of the men who were leading us.

As we walked along, I was in awe of the men, as they made the entire trip without shoes on their feet! Samoans start walking outside without shoes on their feet from the time they start to walk as toddlers, so their feet have calluses as strong as the Nike tennis shoes I wore. In my mind, I kept saying “ouch,” every time I looked down at their feet, but it never seemed to slow them down. The oldest man on the trip with me was 59 years old, and he was more agile and limber than I was on the slopes of that mountain. At one point, I looked behind me to see where he was, thinking he had fallen behind. I was in for a wake-up call when I found him waiting for me some distance ahead.

That first trip took seven hours to reach the summit. It was a crystal clear day. By the time we did make it to the top, I began to realize that I hadn’t packed enough food or water because I started to get dizzy and very weak. I’m pretty sure I was experiencing some level of dehydration, which made the trip back down very challenging. Going to the top of a mountain is exhilarating, but then you remember that you have to get back down!

Living in Samoa I’ve been able to experience the convenience of being able to eat off the natural foods of the land. Coconuts are a great source of hydration and give the body lots of good vitamins. But since they don’t grow at the elevations we were at, I kept picturing how amazing it would be when we finally got low enough on the mountain, where one of the men could shimmy up a tree and knock one down for a much needed drink!

After what felt like ages, we finally did reach the coconut trees! This was the first time when I saw the strain of the trip on one of the men’s feet, as he had to make a type of shoe out of leaves to give some traction to his feet, in order to climb the tree!

Not only do coconut trees provide great drinks, they also bare great food. Around the base of coconut trees, you can always find the shoots of new trees that have started to grow. If you break open those coconuts and get to the germination of the new tree, it is very tasty to eat. This food called o’o, has filled my stomach on many different occasions, most of all on that day!

When we finally made it back down, a bunch of my students were following me down the street asking about my trip. We had put up a red flag at the top of the mountain, and many of them had seen it that afternoon. My friends Milo, Saulo and Neueli were all fascinated by my pictures from the top of the mountain and wanted to make the journey themselves, and that’s how the second trip came about on June 25th.

The second time up was much easier, as the trail had already been cut. I was better prepared with plenty of water and food. Saulo took along a hammer and nails, so that the men who were leading us could reinforce the flags at the top of the mountain, which had fallen down since our first trip. It was so much fun to see the kids’ reaction once we reached the top. We were able to see all the way down to our village, and across the island to many other surrounding villages.

Going up only took two hours on my second trip. However, it had rained the night before and thus the second journey proved to be much more slippery than the first. This all turned the fight against gravity on my decent, into comic relief for those who were with me. Only five minutes after we started our descent, and in one of the steepest parts of the trail, I slid and tumbled backwards into a bunch of limbs, ferns and other vegetation, which resulted in me needing the assistance of two of the men, plus Milo, to get me out back onto the trail. Luckily, other than a few cuts I was fine.

When we all got back, the boys told me they wanted to go back up again sometime, but I told them I thought I had had enough! Both trips allowed me to form new relationships with people in the village, which is always a rewarding experience. I was also reminded again, that nature really is wild, and that it takes a lot of energy from those who scale its summits. But when you do, the view is always waiting for you!






This is what we were trying to summit!









The view on the way up.









Milo, Saulo and Neueli with their new hairdo!















Looking down from the mountain on my village.












Conquering the summit!








Me on the summit, with my village and house below!









Milo taking in the view from the top.











Aaron with our victory flag.











Neueli grabbed some sugar cane to take back to his family.











Starting to get a bit tired on the trek back down the mountain.











One of the men on the trip, who named his son after me, carved this into the tree as a gift to both his son and me.













Milo, Saulo and Neueli stop for a picture by the waterfall on the way back down the mountain.

Saulo's New Job

Saulo likes pay day!
With each week that passes here in Samoa, the end of my amazing journey here seems to be drawing closer. It’s now about five months away. To look at five months by itself may seem like a good chunk of time, but when you put it next to the 26 months I began this experience with, it seems so much shorter. Recently, I’ve been making a conscious attempt to accomplish personal goals which I had set for my time in Peace Corps. One of those goals was to have a very good understanding of the language before I reached my close of service, this December.

Learning a new language has never been something that has come easy to me, so there are still many days where I am blown away at what I have learned and absorbed in the past 21 months here. Although I’ve felt for a while now that I’ve had enough language to be effective as a teacher at school, and a respected member of the community, I was still left wanting to learn more. I didn’t want my time in Samoa to come to a close and find myself wishing I had tried harder with the language.

When I was in Australia recently, I came up with a plan to get my language skills more polished and pushed to a new level. I decided that I wanted to have one of my year 8 students, and good friends, Saulo, serve as my tutor on a weekly basis! His English is probably the best of anyone else’s in the school, and I have always felt more comfortable speaking Samoan around my students, as opposed to older village members.

I told him about my idea and what it would entail. We would meet every other day during the week after school for a lesson. To help keep me accountable, I asked if he would give me a test at the end of each week’s lesson. Also, Samoan children aren’t given any allowances, so I thought by paying him five tala a week, it would help teach him the value of earning money, as well as make his work feel more legitimate. After I proposed the plan, he eagerly said he would help me.

This past month we’ve been having our lessons and it has been such a great experience. Some days that we meet, he comes prepared with a lesson. Since he and I are good friends and spend a lot of time together, he knows what all my bad habits are in terms of the language. During our lessons he’ll remind me of a time we were walking through the village and I said something wrong, and then he goes on to teach me the correct way. I never realized that he was that aware of what I was saying to other people, but he really does know where my weaknesses are.

For other lessons I’ll make a list of questions I have. All I have to do is ask him what a certain phrase or word is in Samoan and he writes it down without much effort. When we both are stumped, we turn to my Samoan/English dictionary, which he has come to enjoy looking at. From the very beginning of this idea, I knew that not only would our time together be helping my Samoan, but also his English. I think this may be something I’ve disguised from him, as all the attention usually seems to be about me learning to speak his language more fluently.

Since I’ve been teaching him in my English classes since last year, he has picked up on a lot of my teaching habits and ways of doing things in the classroom. Now that he is teaching me though, it has been interesting to see him formatting his lessons and tests in the same ways I do for my English classes! The tests he writes for me are normally similar to the ones I write, but he has also come up with great ideas on his own.

Because the Samoan culture has such a great amount of respect for the elderly, as well as for village leaders and the pastors of churches, being able to use the formal parts of the language can go a long ways in helping establish oneself in the village and being respected by community members. When we’re walking down the road together and are approaching someone, I’ll quietly rehearse my greeting with Saulo as we approach the person to make sure I’m correct. He usually nods his head, or will add something he thinks I should say. I can usually tell that they are pleased that I took the time to greet them in the proper manner, and I think it shows them that I respect their culture and traditions.

I’ve also enjoyed asking Saulo for help with phrases I can use with the kids. Walking through the village and talking to them in some of their informal or slang phrases has been fun to do and it’s always interesting to see their reactions. It has helped the kids to become more interested in me, and for them to be less timid when we are together.

I think he really appreciates being able to help me and takes a lot of pride in it, especially when he hears me using phrases and vocabulary he has taught me.



Taking my first test!











Saulo and I after the big test.












My first test was an 81%, although every test since then has been an A!

Australia (and the part I played in a stranger’s wedding)

After growing up in the cold winters that Michigan is well known for, it’s been a blessing to have the past 20 months in the tropical sunshine of Samoa! So who would have thought that I’d be leaving the tropics for a vacation elsewhere, when most people flock to such a destination for their reprieve? Yet, that’s exactly what I did a few weeks ago when I jetted off to lands further south, visiting Sydney, Australia!

Peace Corps volunteers are given a total of 48 vacation days for their 27 months of service. Even after visiting in Michigan this past Christmas, I still had days to spare, and who wants to let vacation days go to waste? Several Peace Corps volunteers planned trips during the same time as me, since we were on a three week break from school. Many volunteers decided to kick back and enjoy some more sun in Fiji. I, however, was looking to get away from the equator and get some cooler weather, which I’ve seen very little of the past two years!

I learned that there is a very specific weight loss program that is sure to work every time! Join the Peace Corps, plan one of your vacations to a country where the cost of living is high, then save for that trip with a Peace Corps living allowance for the three months leading up to your departure! Since I had bought my ticket back in February, that’s when I started saving. Before I left for Australia, I was down to 175 lbs.

Arriving in Sydney on May 22, I planned to take things easy and enjoy some of the modern amenities the city had to offer. However, my comforts were somewhat limited for the first 24 hours, since the airline had lost my bags. I spent that first day getting familiar with the layout of the streets and the cooler temperatures. When I left Michigan for the Peace Corps I packed one pair of jeans and one long sleeved shirt. I’ve never worn the jeans in Samoa (except to the airport on my departure), and the long sleeved shirt I’ve only worn about a half dozen times on cool nights when it dips below 80 degrees. I also had one light wind breaker, which proved to be a lifesaver for my time in Australia.

If I chose to summarize my two weeks in Sydney with one word, it would be, FOOD! Since I live on a rather bland diet in Samoa, it was nice to take advantage of grocery stores packed with every imaginable food a person would ever want. My first trip to the grocery store I was almost run over by people, as I walked around in a daze with a smile on my face. The amount of selections caused me to walk each aisle glancing at every label. I didn’t even want to buy most of it, but it was just fun looking. On the second trip back I was able to gather the courage to grab a shopping basket and delve in. My purchases included a dozen extra large eggs (Samoa has medium size), a gallon of orange juice (it costs 3 US Dollars for 1 liter in Samoa—thus I never buy it), blueberry yogurt, Red Delicious apples, a gallon of milk (they don’t sell anything larger than a liter in Samoa, and if they did sell it by the gallon, it wouldn’t fit in my fridge), some cereal, pasta and basil pesto!

Since I was staying at a hostel, I had the use of a kitchen which was convenient. I enjoyed making big breakfast omelets with toast and jam! Just to have toast was a treat! If I was near the hostel during dinner time, I’d fix up a big pasta dish with bread and garlic olive oil.

And when I wasn’t fixing my own food, I was eating at Hungry Jack’s! Hungry Jack’s is the same as Burger King, but only different in its name. I enjoyed my favorite chicken sandwich there, along with the fries. Although ice cream is readily available in the capital of Samoa, having ice cream in Australia made it taste better, and the varieties of flavors were much greater. I even found a Ben & Jerry’s!

There were of course a number of sightseeing activities I wanted to accomplish while in Sydney. I attended a concert at the Sydney Opera House where I heard the Sydney Symphony perform. Someone asked me what I thought of the Opera House, and I said that they could have been playing Mary Had a Little Lamb in the wrong key and it still would have felt special, just because of it being the Sydney Opera House! By coincidence, the annual lightshow was going on in Sydney during my two weeks there and there were a number of unique lighting features throughout the area near the Opera House, one of them actually being projected on the sails of that historic building.

When I visited New York City for the first time and didn’t complete a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, I heard about it from my uncle, who is a big fan of history. So to keep our relationship on good ground, I journeyed out to the Sydney Harbor Bridge one of my last nights in the city. I scheduled the trip to coincide with sunset, thus giving me two views of the bridge and the city in the background. I guess it’s one of those places I’ll look at in the future and be able to say I was there. There is something about walking over a bridge that humbles a person, thinking about the manual labor that was put into building it, not to mention the engineering feats that proceeded it. I’m happy I made the journey.

Since I’ve been a train fan from the age of three, being in Samoa where trains don’t exist has been a bit of an adjustment. While in Australia, I decided to take advantage of that mode of transportation. Although my budget forced me to stay in Sydney for the duration of my vacation, I was able to take the train two hours north of the city for an overnight stay in the Blue Mountains! This turned out to be a very relaxing and smart getaway from the busy streets of Sydney. The train was very clean, smooth, and affordable. It dropped me just across the street from the hostel I had booked for the one night I would be visiting that area.

Upon my arrival there, I was left freezing! Although Sydney was cool in the 60s, the temperatures near the Blue Mountains were in the 40’s, due to the elevation. People were walking down the main street sidewalks wearing winter stocking caps, gloves and scarves. There I was with my light wind breaker, just having come from Samoa a few days before! All the stores had their heaters on, so I spent part of my time venturing into stores just to warm up. It felt like late November in Michigan.

That afternoon I took in some of the sights in the area and then came back to town for some dinner. I found a great café that had live music. I sat in there for a couple hours eating, reading an Economist (dated that month), and enjoying the music. I found the people in that area to be very welcoming and friendly, a bit more so than the down to business, fast paced ways of the city.

I was also very fortunate to have some great company from Tiffany, a Peace Corps friend of mine from Samoa, who coincidently was in Australia to take an exam during our school break. We spent a few days exploring the city together and doing some of the museums and aquariums. We made a few stops at Starbucks, enjoyed pizza one night, and went to the Sky Tower to take the city lights in from above.

The two weeks seemed to go by at a good pace—not too fast, but not too slow. When my departure date came around, I was ready to head back to the warmer climate of Samoa. Sydney served as a good refueling station on this Peace Corps journey. It’s not that I needed to get away from any troubles in Samoa, because I love this place and my time here. But it was more about taking advantage of my proximity to Australia, realizing it might be harder to make it there in the future, from the States.

When I boarded the plane in Sydney I had a unique encounter. As I took my seat, the lady ahead of me turned around and asked if I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa. I said yes and she said that she had recognized me from reading my blog, and thought I looked familiar. She and her fiancé were heading to Samoa for their wedding and she said that she had been reading my blog in an effort to learn more about the Samoan culture before their getting married. I never had imagined that this unassuming blog would be a part of someone’s international wedding preparations!

The three of us spent some time visiting on the plane, exchanging contact information, and then I invited them to come out and visit my house, if they had time before their wedding day. The next day I saw them pull up in their rental car and we ended up having a great visit. I was so happy they decided to take time out of their schedule to come out and visit someone they had just met the day before on an airplane. Here are congratulations to my new friends on their marriage, just this past weekend!

And so I landed in Samoa for the third time in my life as I returned on June 3. I love coming back to this country and being able to step off the plane and know I have a house waiting for me, with friends who I’ve missed, and who have missed me. It’s also reassuring to be able to step away from the language for two weeks, yet return to it without any trouble. It’s also comforting to leave and come back, and have this place feel like home.


Stock holders in the franchise chain of Burger King (aka: Hungry Jack's) can thank me for lifting the stock value from May 22- June 3!






Just before the concert at the Sydney Opera House





The Sydney Harbor Bridge at sunset.














In the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney.







Enjoying a walk near the Sydney Opera House.













The sails of the Sydney Opera House lit up for the light show!




















Beautiful Sydney as seen from the Harbor Bridge









St. Mary's Cathedral












My new friends I met on the plane, who had been reading my blog before their wedding in Samoa! Here we are during their visit to my house.

BYOP and BYOF (Bring Your Own Palm and Bring Your Own Flower)

Palm Sunday
The past two weeks have been busy ones for me at church. First there was Palm Sunday on April 17, and then the masses during Holy Week, which finally culminated with Easter Sunday just this past weekend! Last year I attended most of the masses at the Catholic Cathedral in Apia, which were in English. However, this year I deliberately decided to stay in my village in order to experience the masses in Samoan and be a part of their community. I have no regrets.

Things got started with Palm Sunday. I arrived about a half hour before mass started, and soon found out that palms were not given out like they are in the United States, but rather, people brought their own palms from their yards to have them blessed. With this being a tropical climate, I can see where this scenario works better here than it would in Michigan! But not to worry, my church friends quickly produced a palm for me before mass began. The procession began outside with the Pacific Ocean as a back-drop as we processed towards the church. On Palm Sunday the reading of the Lord’s Passion is read, and hearing it in Samoan this year helped bring to mind all the languages around the world in which God’s Word is being proclaimed everyday!

Holy Thursday mass began at 7:30p.m. and arriving to the smell of incense burning reminded me of my days as an altar boy. However, being an alter boy in Samoa requires a different clothing attire. At all of the masses the altar boys go without shoes. I remember back home that if we wore tennis shoes or sandals we might be asked to change shoes! But taking your shoes off in a house in Samoa is considered a sign of respect, so doing it in the house of God would only be natural. On other special occasions, the altar boys may also serve without any shirts on, and sometimes spread coconut oil over their chests and backs! But despite the differences in attire, Samoan altar boys are some of the most reverent I’ve ever seen.

Good Friday began with Stations of the Cross at 6:30a.m. and was held outside. Each family from the Catholic church had made wooden crosses for their front yards during Lent, decorating them with palm branches, fabric and fresh flowers. The procession wound its way through the village to different families’ crosses, before ending at the church. That afternoon we had service at noon, which was a real scorcher in the heat of the day, but that didn’t keep anyone away.

During the middle of the Good Friday service, a cross is brought before the congregation when they are able to kiss the feet of Jesus as a sign of respect and memory of His crucifixion. This is something that I’ve been doing throughout my life on Good Friday back in the United States. However, with a new culture come some new ways of doing things.

Just before people began processing up to the foot of the cross, a student of mine from last year, who was sitting next to me said, “Here is your flower.” A bit annoyed that he was trying to give me a flower during such a solemn part of the service caused me to give him a stern look and produce some type of no response, in which he retracted his arm with the flower still in it. Shortly after though, I realized that everyone else in church also had a flower in their hand, which they were taking up with them to place at the foot of the cross (a tradition I had never seen in the United States). Feeling very guilty for having snapped at this boy’s kind gesture, as he saw I was without a flower and was trying to help me, I turned back to him with a smile on my face and reached my hand out for the flower as I patted him on the back with my other hand as a way of expressing my embarrassment. He kindly offered the gift of the flower back to me, and I was able to proceed on without too much embarrassment. I know I’ll be thinking about him each Good Friday in the years to come, as a way of reminding myself of his hospitality and my needing to be more patient.

Holy Saturday mass always takes place in the evening as a vigil for Easter. The mass always begins out in front of the church with a huge fire which is used to light the Easter candle. Samoans make fires almost every day of the year in order to cook their food, so I wasn’t surprised to see the flames they had roaring in front of the church on Saturday night. They were using coconut shells to keep it fueled!

The following morning was Easter Sunday! My Mom had sent me an Easter package with Peeps, Reese’s Cups, M&M’s and marshmallow eggs, so I had a neighbor of mine make a Samoan basket and I put the Easter grass and candy in it, along with two hard boiled eggs I had boiled the night before. It really felt like Easter back at home. I headed over to one more round of church for the week, because mass began at 10a.m. The choir had been busy singing at every mass during Holy Week, and they finished strong. I love how music is a universal language and although I didn’t understand all of what was being sung, it nevertheless helped to facilitate with the prayer.

After mass I headed over to a families’ house for to’ona’i, the big traditional Samoan feast that happens each Sunday, rain or shine! Some weeks it’s not uncommon for me to receive three separate offers to dine with families after church. It almost has become an event I can book weeks in advance. There have even been weeks where I’ve accidentally double booked, and had to dash from one family’s house to another.

Easter Sunday’s meal for me included BBQ chicken (yum), hot dogs (which Samoans call sausage), breadfruit, taro, cucumbers and a couple other things I’m forgetting. I’ve really come to love the food here and have no complaints at all. I even had octopus for the second time a few weeks ago and enjoyed it!

I was invited over to this family’s house by a new friend of mine from church, although I’m loosing this friend next week when he moves to New Zealand to attend school. However, I’ll still remain close to his family! After we were done with the main course and I was brought the bowl to wash my hands in, and towel to dry them, ice cream was served! It was one of my new favorite flavors since arriving in Samoa, banana!

That afternoon the sun was intense as I walked back to my house. A few of my students from school who I’m good friends with came back to my house to hang out for the afternoon and one of them had heard about Easter egg hunts. He said he wanted to have one. I cut out some eggs from construction paper and hid them around my living room and kitchen. They had a blast as we took turns hiding them and trying to see who could find the most.

In the end, it was a great Easter weekend for 2011 and I’m so happy I was able to share the experiences with the people in my village. Once again, I’ve been able to make new memories to reflect back on, as Easter is celebrated each year in the future!







Processing to the church on Palm Sunday








Sunrise on Easter Sunday








Easter basket for 2011











Close up of the candy!













One of the altar boys lighting the candles before church on Easter Sunday.










The priest during mass on Easter Sunday.









I was able to get a picture with Fr. Mikaele after mass.










Neueli, a student of mine, sat with me during Easter Sunday mass. Here we are afterwards.
















This is normal and acceptable footwear for attending all churches in Samoa. I had never worn sandals to church, before coming to Samoa. Here Neueli and I are sitting next to each other on Easter.




This was Easter Sunday's to'ona'i feast. The ice cream came later!






Here are Saulo and Neueli at my house during the Easter egg hunt they requested we have!