Maggie in American Samoa : Happy October!

Malo!

I hope everyone is enjoying the nice New England October! All the pictures and snap chats I see of boots, sweaters, pumpkins, fall leaves, cider donuts, and apple picking are torturing me!!! As you all are headed toward winter... I am headed into "summer. " It's not necessarily getting hotter here in terms of temperature (it's always around 84 degrees fahrenheit), but the humidity is getting worse and worse. Yesterday the humidity was at 100%!!! It soon will be like that everyday. With this humidity also comes my new worst nightmare...mold. They warned us ahead of time that mold would probably grow on our clothes and things because of the humidity, but I was still shocked when it started happening. So far the mold has only claimed two victims... A hat and a bag. However because nothing will dry in my house anymore, I fear my paddling clothes will be next. I'm hoping this isn't the case and the mold doesn't get worse! I just keep telling myself that this is all part of the experience of living on a tropical island! Along with this heat also comes the dreaded rainy season (cyclone season). The sun has been a rarity these past two weeks. A few days ago it was raining so hard that I couldn't see more than two feet in front of me. My school flooded within 10 minutes! My Wheaton rain coat and little pink umbrella aren't going to cut it (my umbrella flipped inside out 5 minutes into my walk to school). Buying a massive Samoan umbrella is on the top of my to do list!

A preschooler took my phone and went around the class taking pictures.

My kids working hard!

Taking pictures with my co-teachers' daughters (both in preschool). Soaked from the rain!

Always prepared for the rain.

Matafao flooded after some heavy rain. The kids loved it and tried to swim in it!

While I'm writing this blog, my sister just snap chatted me a video of SNOW. The fact that it's snowing at home and I'm sitting here complaining about the humidity is crazy to me! I feel like it's still summer... It is still hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that it is mid October! All of my students are getting ready for Halloween and I keep thinking it's still August!

The rain may have halted my weekly beach trips but I've been finding ways to keep myself busy! I've been reading a lot more and my friend gave me a bunch of movies and tv shows from her external hard drive! During the week days I'm still keeping quite busy with school, lesson planning, paddling, and errands. I have been made a member of the reading and the social studies committees at Matafao, so I'll be helping with some fun upcoming school activities:) Paddling has been good so far! I finally have the stroke technique down! I'm no longer considered a "new" paddler and therefore have slowly been given more responsibility and I've been able to try out different positions on the boat. Unfortunately last practice had to be stopped early because the winds and waves were so strong! Luckily my boat didn't tip! However there were a few waves that I thought were going to huli us for sure. Next Wednesday the team might even have me race!

A group of us volunteers try and get together every weekend. Over Columbus Day weekend we braved the rain and went on a 5 hour hike up a mountain! We lucked out and it only started to rain once we made it to the summit where we hid under a fale (little house/hut). On the way down we weren't so fortunate, but by then we were so hot that the rain was welcomed! This same weekend I also finally was able to FaceTime with a bunch of my family who were having a Columbus Day weekend party! If your reading this... I loved seeing all of you!!!:) I don't have any pictures of my most recent hike since it was so rainy… but here are some pictures of other hikes that I've done since my last blog!

View from the summit of Blunts Point hike.

Blunt Points hike. At the top are real cannons that were used to protect Pago Pago Harbor in WWII.

View from a hike on the north side of the Island.

Hiking on the north side of the Island near Vatia.

Pola Island, a nesting area for seabirds.

As I said before getting rides from strangers is perfectly normal here. However the day this picture was taken we weren't so lucky.

Almost to the summit of Mount Alava

This past weekend some friends and I experimented with baking taro. We made this thing called Poi Mochi which is basically just fried taro with cinnamon sugar on top. It was delicious. We dipped some Oreos in the left over taro batter and fried those up as well. This was even better than the Poi Mochi. On Saturday we woke up to a partly cloudy but rain-less sky! We took full advantage of the weather and decided to explore the far east side of the island. Tutuila has one main road that winds along the outskirts of the island along the ocean. The road however does not go all the way around the island. It stops at the far east side and the far west side (with a alternate road that cuts across the mountain and goes to the north side). This Saturday my friends and I decided to hop on a Tula bus (the bus that goes the furthest east) and ride it as far as it would take us. The views were beautiful on the way there and the weather kept getting nicer and nicer the further we traveled. When the last people got off the bus in the village of Tula we asked the bus driver if this was the furthest point we could get to on this particular side of the island. He said that there was one more village further east and he offered to drive us there!! Once we got to the village our bus driver said that if we wanted to get out, take pictures, and swim he wouldn't mind waiting around for us!! This was extremely nice of him so we all jumped at the opportunity. We spent about 30 minutes swimming, taking pictures, and collecting sea shells. It was absolutely beautiful! The water was crystal clear blue and the sun was shining! Eventually we hoped back onto the bus and our bus driver drove us back to Tula. Here we got off the bus, thanked and payed the bus driver, and then made our way to a different beach. Here the waves were HUGE. The current was super super strong and tried to suck us out to sea. Reluctantly we decided that the swell was too strong. Instead we just strolled along the beach collecting more shells and lounging around. Eventually we decided to go back to the village to see when the next bus was going to come. We didn't have to wait very long until a new bus came along and picked us up. We all had a great time on the east side! It was so nice to see the sun again and I really hope it comes out more often during this rainy season!

Delicious fried oreo

East side!

Our lovely bus waiting for us as we swim!

Posing with the palms.

Lastly... I just want to give a shout out to my parents!! They have been so amazing and I would NEVER be where I am today without them. They've supported me throughout this whole adventure and I'm so grateful for it:) Love you mom and dad! Fa'afetai! My students are going to LOVE the halloween stickers and pencils that you sent!!

Until next time, I hope you all have a lovely autumn and a great Halloween! I will try to post MORE than once a month from now on:) In the meantime here are some more pictures that I found from September that I though you would enjoy.