Sylviax and the "domus"-tic animals

The concepts of domestic animals here in Samoa all takes a new turn. Or maybe it just goes back to the origins. Animals are domestic as they are part of the domus, the house (that is the latin root). When you move here and you rent a house, don’t be surprised if the house also comes with dogs and cats. They will be your animals so long as you live there, you can name them if you wish, and the next person that will rent the house will inherit them. If you do not want them, the house owner will take them, but not knowing where they will end up would be a spot on my conscience...

I know a dog, Edd, in Lion's Park that has actually been adopted by a whole palagi (the white people) community (post pics if you have them!). Dogs and cats (as well as mice and cucarachas that are so big they could be extras in Jurrasic Park) are just part of the furniture.

(this is a pic of Ed I got, I cannot make how is with him? Jeff? And the entrance of one of the house in Lion's Park)

Amazingly, not many people actually worry about renting a house with a couple of ferocious dogs. That is called a house with a security system. The only difference is that you need to remember to feed them, or they may revolt against you too. This is a quote from a couple of comedians, the Laughing Samoan: “the only time you see a samoan with a dog is if the samoan is chasing the dog or if the dog is chasing the samoan”. It summarizes the concept very well.

When I first moved here and I was doing field work nearly every day, I soon learned to keep a few good throwing stones in my pocket. I am usually against violence against animals, but here it is more a matter of survival, you or them. The problem is when you go off-island and you still feel like throwing stones at dogs that look menacing. After a few months here, a friend of mine went back to the US and she nearly hit her neighbor’s dog with a rock one day as she went running. Then she realized that would probably be something inappropriate there, but the temptation was strong.

About a year ago, a friend of mine rented a nice house, which came with a dog (beware if you get a female, my friend just recently got 4 more puppies!) and two cats. Recently, one of the cats disappeared, and the other one, traumatized, spent all day every day hiding in the jungle, and at night would come by crying, trying to get inside the house. This resulted in long nights of bad sleep for my friend, that, not wanting an inside cat, felt he should find a new house for the cat.

Now, I am more of a dog person, but I have to recognize that cats inside the house are the perfect solution to get rid of all the unwanted mice and cucarachas. And so Alyssa and I decided to adopt Sylviax (the “x” is mute, but I wanted to include it into the name, it is a French twist ;)).

I am surprised how Sylviax survived in the jungle all this time, because she is a total house cat, very affectionate and needy. And she has to be for a while because she has such a big belly that she cannot fit in the hole we have in the floor that our 2 other cats use to get in and out. It was a hole used for the drier machine, but it has an all new meaning here. So dieting is the goal now.

Now, the problem is that she is a female. Was she ever fixed? Will the veterinary we have on island able to tell?
Veterinary here is another issue. I am not even sure if there is a real certified one.

Once I phoned to ask when I could bring the cats in to be fixed (it costs $10, like anything else, like seeing a doctor, having a cavity fixed etc…). The vet phoned me back at 9.00 at night asking me where I was living because he wanted to come over to fix the cat at my house. ….seriously… no way!!!

The “vets without borders” came here last year and two years ago to help us (or better A.S. –American Samoa) out. They modified a fale to be their clinics and fixed and looked after an incredible number of cats and dogs, seriously worked no-stop for some weeks. I want to mention them because they were an incredible group of people and I hope they will come back! If anybody reading this would like to know more about them or make a donation, I will hopefully post some more information about them!

Finding Neverland

I guess it is about time for me to start a new blog... I apologize for writing it in english, but I figured few people would appreciate Italian, or Spanish, or Latin nor ancient Greek!

So, here I am, after 4 tragic years of my life, in which at least I was able to get a masters, I finally found myself again in the most unimaginable place on earth: Neverland!!!! (in Italian, “l’isola che non c’e’”, the island that does not exist!)

It is hard to find this island on the map, because it is tiny tiny and you do need one of those full-wall-size maps to actually see it, but it does actually exist! I can prove that I am in Neverland:

• First of all, you can only come here and leave from here at night, and that makes perfect sense because otherwise how could the pilots see the second star on the right that needs to be followed ‘til the morning?


• Secondly, anyone that comes here returns to being a kid and, no matter your age, you will find yourself playing until late at night and do silly things much more often than you normally would in the real world.


• You can easily find mermaids, lost children, pirates and even Indians (and other ethnicities)


• Ok, and this is the definitive proof, coming from Wikipedia: “Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J.M. Barrie (1860-1973). A mischievous boy who flies and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies and pirates, and from time to time meeting ordinary children from the world outside”. Sounds familiar?


• American Samoa became a territory of the US since April 17, 1900 Deed of Cession. Peter Pan first appeared in 1902, in a novel called “The little white bird”. Could this be just a coincidence...
  

And here a print of Neverland... you surely recognize the steep mountains, the dogs on the left side attaching Peter Pan... and what about that Spanish looking galleon that I also saw drawn on the back of a aiga-bus here in Samoa (the one that goes to Aasu... Massacre Bay)... still doubts???

Well, I could go on a bit longer, but truly, come here to visit, because this is heaven! A very funny heaven!

So, anyway, I am not sure how I got here, about 2 years ago, I guess I was still in that wheel mood, the wheel that spins and spins and takes me places. I like it here. I got a great job, monitoring stream water quality and managing databases (GIS work) and my co-workers are wonderful (a part from that one that stole my precious worms...;-P but that is another story...).
My stilt house on the side of the mountain is fresh and cozy, complete with an room-mate, Alyssa (american), 3 cats, Pisi, Sami and Sylviax, a guard dog, Attila, and a nice garden where flowers bloom all the time and the tomatoes grow just fine.