aawwwhhhaaaaaaatt?!?!

I cant believe it is already Dec 12! How did that happen?! Well, as I said before the last 2 weeks in the village were incredible. Our goodbye fiafia was amazing and our goodbye with my Samoan family was a sobfest. It is amazing to me that I could become so emotionally attached to people who I can barely communicate with. I have yet to speak a single english word to my Samoan mother and father, and yet they were both crying the night before we left and told Sally and I that from now on we were a part of the family and if we ever needed anything we could call our Samoan family in Maasina any time. I also became very close with my Samoan brothers which was also an incredible feeling in that I have never had a brother or an older sibling. At first our brothers were a bit standoffish, but in these last two weeks they started treating us like little sisters. Such as teasing, eating our food on the bus home from Apia, making fun of us, etc. But when we said goodbye to the family they all assured us that if anyone ever said anything cheeky to either Sally or I they would be there as soon as we called. It just meant so much to hear that.
Well, I ve got a few more pictures here for viewing entertainment, but I didnt have time to upload the pictures from our culture day (the day in the village where we got to make papya soup, banana soup, Dylan killed a pig, we made the umu or Samoan oven with lava rocks and fire, we gutted fish with our bare hands, husked coconuts, made coconut cream, made palisami, cooked a turkey, etc). It was an awesome day where we really got to get down and dirty. At any rate, Sally should be putting pictures up from it and her blog is under my links to the right.
Swear in tomorrow and moving to our sites on Thursday! Im not sure when I will be able to write again as I will be in Tafatafa until Dec 22 when I will go back to Maasina for christmas. I think we are heading out to Savaii for new years because there is a beach on the west side of the island where you see the last sunset on earth (its the last place before the international dateline). So I will hopefully be watching the last sunset of 2006. Pretty neato. At any rate, hope everyone has a merry christmas and a happy new years and feel free to send letters and pretty things in the mail, you know I like that. I also have a cell phone nowadays and the number is 011-685-773-1374 if anyone gets a world card and wants to call. You can get world cards from lencard. com, but no pressure just if you miss my voice that much you know how to reach me. Hugs and kisses to you all!

This is when I had to dance all alone in front of the womens committee with three of the boys in my group being idiots behind me (that is chris crawling on the floor to the left) during the fiafia. Apparently its Samoan tradition. I am also cracking up in this picture because all of my brothers were standing outside the fale making faces at me and saying "auleaga!" which means ugly. They are so sweet! This was when I had to act like a princess, but later I lead the Sasa and got to tie fabric around my head and scream and yell and crawl around on the floor. It was awesome! I kind of totally freaked out a little and let out a blood curdling scream at one point, but it was a great time regardless.

My brothers!! From left to right is Lafo, Aropa, Peau, and Talemanu is on the bottom. We had a sort of fundraiser for our church this night at our house and the boys did a Samoan hip hop dance which was hot! Manu has also taken to dressing up in his wife, Sele's, mumu's to make us laugh. He is also the one that took us spear fishing.
Dylan and some of the boys from Maasina. The little boy on the right is named Seosi and is kind of my "uo" or boyfriend...he's nine, but its cool.

Peace Corps, what?

One week left of training! I just took my language proficiency test and I feel like my brain has turned into Samoan mashed potatos. We have our farwell with the village tomorrow night and I am sooo sad to leave them. Our family has become so utterly ridiculous it is a bit unreal at times. Wish me luck trying to look like a princess doing our girly dances tomorrow!

My house! So this is the before picture of my house for the next two years in Tafatafa. Apparently she is getting a make-over as we speak. All we need is a little paint and some cheesy christmas lights and I am set! The school where I will work is about 20 yards to the right of the pic.
Our boys! The boy in the hat is Paulo and is one of our "brothers." Not exactly sure the relation, but whatever he is hilarious. The only non-Samoan is Dylan, our little Peace Corps poster child.
This is our neighbor Ita (means angry in Samoan). She is the cutest 3 year-old ever and pretty much runs the village. The mouth is meghan, another PCV in my group. In this pic Ita is pointing out a picture of herself on Meghan's camera.
This is the view of the bay we live on from out families plantation. Yeah....not much else to say about that...
We begged and pleaded for our family to take us to their plantation even though girls really dont do that sort of thing. Their plantation is behind out fale on the mountain behind the village. It was a super hot day, but we found some sugar cane along the way and Aiva was showing us how to scrap the sugar cane down with a machete. It should be noted that when I tried to walk off with the machete at one point Aiva yelled "Lola! No!" and promptly took it way from, worried I would hurt myself. She is 10 years younger than me...
This is Sally and Silina "doing homework." We try to do our hw in the fale everynight, but it usually ends in an uno game or uncontrolable laughter.
This is our catholic church in the village. The house I live in is 2 over to the left (cant see it in thei photo. After it rains there are 3 beautiful waterfalls that come down the mountain behind the church. Oh and the ocean is directly behind where I am standing taking this pic.
This is me and Talemanu's wife, Sele and my boy Vitale. Every night after I shower the girls massage my feet and do my hair. This particular night I got some flowers for an extra special effect. This pic is behind our fale next to our cook shack.
Silina being herself. This was one of the first days Sally and I were learning how to husk coconuts, scrap them with a machete, and make shavings and coconut cream. Nowadays we are totally pros.
This is my dawg, Vitale. He is my brother, Talemanu's, baby. Probably the cutest thing alive and might possibly come back to America with me.
This is me after church in our village, Maasina. The girls from left to right are Silina 8, Aiva 14, and Hanna 11. The boy is Aropa 18. This pic was taken in the fale I live in. Notice ocean directly behind us.

Im still in the village technically, but we came into Apia to meet with out bosses and organize a 90 day work plan for after we swear in on the 13th (Yikes its so close!!) I thought I might upload some more pictures for everyones viewing entertainment since I never have very much time to write and my computer died after I was here for week. Things are going wonderfully in Maasina and I am going to be very sad to leave my goofy and crazy Samoan family next Sat. The big news in the village this week is that I got to go spear fishing with one of my older brothers!!! It was amazing, even though I didnt exactly spear any fish, but whatever Im working on it. Sally and I also got invited to spend Christmas with our family which we are super siked for as well. Alright, not as much time as expected so there will be more next week. We have our farwell fiafia with the village on friday night and then we will be back in Apia on sat. Miss you all, send mail!



our village kids! Yeah!

This picture is on the porch of our training center with some of the kids in our village. Meghan is the PCV next to me and she will be teaching computers in a village about 15 min away from where I will be working. Molly is the the other pcv on the right and is teaching music in Apia.