I LOVE LOVE LOVE SAMOA!!!

So it took me a really long time to post this because of not being able to walk beyond the convent because of my boil, then marine ecology started [got an A!] and then we had to get ready for stuff cuz TODAY i'm leaving for a nine day vacation to hike/kayak/aquataxi through Able Tasman National Park. GORGEOUS. Can't wait. I leave in like 2 hours. Much to do before then.

 

So the last 2 weeks I've been in Samoa [pronounce SAW-moa rather than the American way of suh-MOA]. The older people don't speak english there, especially in the more remote village areas of Savaii, which made it quite fun. My homestay family spoke some english but didn't understand me a lot of the time and vice versa. One of my brothers was convinced I spoke samoan, along with my grandma, so I'd just respond with "uh", something they say all the time, and it actually worked quite well.  Of course I learned some. The essentials, of course. Like "No, I'm full, thanks" which is "Wa o ma ona fa'afitailava" or Play the music "Key le la ou fa'amolemole" I used those one a lot. Fa’amolemole is my fav word in Samoan. I’d yell it at everyone. Anyways, i must go, i would write more but i feel the pics tell more of a story. Oh and as always the pics are way out of chronological order. All mixed up. But they're great anyways. Enjoy!!!

Jungle faces?

My grandpa, the high chief, doing a dance at the fia fia

our huts [fales] were on the sand
Imada, my sister, coming back from school. I love her!!

The leis they gave us were absolutely beautiful

If you look real close at the top, i'm flying off the edge, jumping off the cliff.

still falling.

STILL falling. At that point your heart begins to freak out. I made that jump twice.

Westmont girls at the waterfall

Rosa and Kari & I in our pulitassis before the fia fia

I love these kids. They are my brothers and sisters. They followed us around everywhere. 

:)

FIA FIA!
My Faga family and kari and i the night of the fia fia, an honorary song and dance party night, while wearing our pulitassis she made us.

Sunrise out of our hut on the first day

Ants were everywhere. So annoying. So i fed them my boogers and was very entertained. They actually ate them.
I paid 6 tala for these cookies. The ants kept eating them but i ate them anyways. With the ants. So if i'm feeding boogers to my ants and then eating the ants does that mean i'm eating my boogers?
Me with my brothers and sisters. They'd always peek into our fale and hang out there
LOVE THEM.

Morning sun in our hut. I just slept in a lava lava every night cuz it was hot, esp once the sun rose and shined on us.

Me with Kari's antidiarrheal medicine. Saved my life.

The beach outside of our hut where we stayed. Simply paradise.

palm tree seat out of my hut [they call it a fale, pronounced fawlay]

Our beach for the week- outside of our fale. The water was SOOO clear

the sunrise directly outside of our fale

Zoomed in

We dangled our feet over the fale while watching the sun come up. My roomies: Kari and Heidi

The view I woke up to every day while staying in the High Chief's hut in Faga village. GORGEOUS sunrise.

Chris and his daughter Siu. We lived with them and their family in Safua Hotel.

I was taught the Samoan women's dance. I looked like a dying bird.

The family we stayed with in Safua Hotel got us fire dancers to honor us....SOOOO AMAZING!

THE SUNSETS THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!

God is such an amazing artist.

Kat and I looking for flying foxes in the crater of the volcano. We found like 5. It's the only place in the world where they exist. They look like a bird w/ a fox head. So weird.

HUGE spider in the rainforest. I was scared just gettin this close to take this pic. Knowing my luck it would jump over and eat me. I thank the Lord it didn't.

Chris

Samoan traditions
Toouh, Chris [our host's] son. he is SOOO cute. Always screaming Pulongi, or something like that, which means foreigner hahaha

THE western most part of the world. Right thur.

The tree outside our room

We drank/ate coconuts all the time. ONly 1 tala. That's thirty cents!!!!!! So amazing.

The gorgeous waterfall we swam in

There were some gorgeous black sand beaches we visited

I never took notes. I carried a notebook though, just incase

Me on the coast, sitting on cliffs of lava

The busses in Samoa have the funniest stickers

The most western bathroom on the planet. I used it.

The island we live on most of the time, Savaii. We traveled all around it during the day

Jo and I in the lava jungle
The lava lavas we wore were so pretty. I'd always pick a plumeria for my hair too. They were everywhere
We had a DD, Daily Double, which was a double scoop icecream cone, every single day. Only 2 tala! That's like 75 cents in american
Sinave and Kat and I. He taught us Samoan every day in the back of the bus as we annoyed him 

They eat chicken flavored stuff. Like chicken potato chips. Yum!!!

The beach where we lived/snorkeled.
The guys we lived with in Safua Hotel, part of the family who owns it and lives there, made up the band that played for us every night.
The lava fields. So gorgeous! These went on for kilometers and kilometers before reaching the beach
EAting Noni, a fruit that grows out of the lava fields and tastes EXACTLY like barf. I HATED it. So gross. But it is an experience.