who said that working during the holiday sucks?

I am speechless. Taking a shoot like this has always been one of the dreams of my life. Another box checked…
My very own Thanks Giving: thanks guys for been so photogenic for me!!!
Playing with dolphins, sunbathing, exploring new beaches and streams… no, no, I cannot really complain about working on Saturdays… Wait! Am I going to do this once a month?

Enjoying the sun between one cove and the other...
Exploring a stream in Aaloao cove
A big catch! Jeff is pulling in my co-workers (who do not like to swim much!) with a rope tided to a fishing pole!

Date and hospital...

Two days ago I received a phone call from a guy asking me out on a date. At first I told him, no thanks, I do not go out in the evening, I like another guy, I am definitely not dating anybody until next year… etc. etc. but then I guess he buttered me up so well, that I accepted to go out for lunch with him. It felt good receiving a bit of attention for once. He asked me where I would like to go. I though about the food options on the island, and then I said, all enthusiast “let’s go to the hospital cafeteria!”. Long silence on the other side of the phone. “Wherever you want” he said.

Only yesterday driving home I realized that the hospital cafeteria may not be best place to go for a date. I was laughing with a friend about going for a double date! Yes, a double date to the hospital cafeteria! Oh god! I need to get out this island before it is too late!!! ;-)!

The funny thing is that all my friends asked me the same question: is he married? Well, I though, I guess no. But thinking about it, the only Samoan over 30 that I know that is not married is Utu, the guy that ran for governor this year. Unluckily he lost (for very very very little!) and one of the reason is that “he needs a wife”. On my opinion, he is one of the most charming guys I ever met, and maybe he does not have a wife because I could never find somebody he really likes. Is that a problem? Being picky? I really do not like this kind of politics. I still feel sorry for poor Clinton that had to go through so much for cheating. Like if he were the only guy on earth doing it. But, again, I come from a country where porn stars have their own well attended political party, so, really, what do I know about politics?

Anyway, returning to “dating in American Samoa”, some of my friends receive many phone call from laying married men, so now I am worried that there will be a jealous big Samoan lady ready to bit me up at lunch! I guess I just hired some undercover bodyguard to follow me! ;-)

I am leaving in 2 weeks! My whole days are revolving around this event: I need to prepare meetings in Oregon, finish my class on-line, study for the GRE, finish the food in the fridge, plant the garden, exercise, get a tan ;-) …. And the schedule gets more exciting to the day (so far, Honolulu, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Corvallis and somewhere in the mountains)!

The only exciting thing I did last week was to go out for Palolo another night. I slept in a fale at the very tip of coconut point and kayak outside the reef with a friend around 2.00am. The only light we had was the moonlight, with makes everything so silverfish… going over the reef was a bit exciting because of the waves, that you could not really see until we were totally immersed in them. No Palolo, but the moonlight tour of the Pala Lagoon was wonderful anyway. Then back to sleep in the fale. I love waking up and have that pure island feeling. No walls around you (just a very necessary mosquito net!), only palm trees, a sandy beach, some birds running in the low tide… and it is just another working day like another and at 7:30 I need to clock in my office... Island life.

T-bone steak with garlic and lemon on the grill.... and hidden dog ready to grab it!
The best place to spend a night once in a while... a nice fale on the beach!We used the same kayak we had in the North Shore expedition. Knowing how easily it tips, did not make me feel better when getting over the reef waves
Scaring eyes in the mangroves...
In the middle of the Pala there is a small island with a palm tree. The perfect place to hang out on a tuesday night at 3.00am...

Dancing show pictures

Cara nonna,
lo so che quando ti dico che sono una scienzata su un'isoletta nel Pacifico, tu non hai ancora un'idea di cosa faccio, quindi ti dico: ballo.
("dear grandma, since if i say I am a scientist here you still have no clue of what I am doing, I will tell you I am here for dancing")

And to make things more complicated, I uploaded the pictures in EXACTLY the wrong order, and I am too lazy to fix it, so PLEASE, just scroll down to the end of this post and make your way up to the end... it is always good anyway to look at thing from a different point of view! ;-P

Yeeee...EPA!!!

shake it, shake it, shake it!!!
but, ehi! I always wanted a grass skirt! Too bad that the mums did not want to wear the coconut bra and covered our belly too... ;-( (me and Kayla)
I could not make myself to spend $65 to have this pink dress tailored... so i did not do this dance

Tahitian dance
Matt and I during a dance break
a traditional part of the samoan dance is done... sitting on your ass!!! ...it is hot... save energy...
The samoan dance
the korean group
This little kids were the real star of the show! SOOOOO CUUUTTTE!!!!
the public...

shortage of priest....

Enjoy it!

Magic pajamas, grass skirts and crocodiles

I have a pair of magic pajama. They used to be Lady Naomi’s, but I put my hands on them last naked woman night; I cannot really get rid of them.
They look common inoffensive pajama: they are long, white with red vertical; the kind of pajama a girl would wear went prince charming would unexpectedly knock at her door, in the movies.
But they have a hidden power. In the morning, when I get out of bed, I cannot take them off. They are just too cozy, too temping, too nice… Why would I ever want to take them off, get dressed, go out somewhere in the heat when I could stay home in the breeze, enjoy the view, reading a book about Magellano’s circumnavigation or the geography of happiness? Even readings on ecological restoration or mock GRE tests seem enjoyable when wearing this pajama… Add crepes with nutella for breakfast too…. What else could I want? (-knock, knock-;-) (I think my cats have a magic fur too, they are always sleeping).
So here I am, my pajama and I, another lazy Sunday.
I apologize for not writing much lately, I still have not got internet at home and I depend from my neighbor’s mercy (which of course is wonderful!), and work as been hectic.
The other day I expressed all my frustrations to my manager. I told her that I am not interested in staying here much longer because I am negatively affected by current new policies (inexistent when I renewed my contract) which totally disagree with and hurt my patience level. Staying here by myself could be motivating if I can see a professional/personal improvement of some kind, and if I can do some good for the territory. But if I have to stay in the office, doing nothing new and not learning anything new than, well, ciao ciao, there are many other places I can go, I have already served my time on the rock. I feel for her too (my manager), because things can be hard for her too, and she is truly a wonderful manager. I know I am wanted and appreciated here, but it is also time to be a bit more selfish and thing more on what is better for my future and me. I prepared few requests for the director, with time we are going to submit them all too, and we will see. Elections for governor are next week anyway…
My life seems well planned until April anyway (in a perfect and exciting way!), and by that time I should also know if I can go back to school at OSU or not.

Another big event, than kept me from paddling and taekwondo, was the continuous practicing for the dancing show we had last night.
I love dancing, even if my style resembles more brake (or break?) dancing than Polynesian (I think I can shake my ass, but when it is about doing those grateful movements with hands and arms, I feel very robotic). Unfortunately the dancing group is dominated by few elites that decide everything for everybody else, and some tension and bitter feelings arose before the show. I am not sure now if I am interested going back. Ideally I would like to still be able to perform, and donate the profit to same organizations that do good. Dancing for a cause is so much more motivating! There are few girls interested, so maybe in January we will start with this new project. It is fun though to wear a grass skirt and not feel totally stupid about it. I was hoping for coconut bra too, but the dress was changed at the last minutes. Pictures to come soon…

Crocodiles. You probably know by now that this island is crazy and magical, and that “incredibility” here is at the order of the day. While things like cops shooting dogs on the airport runway (or did the dogs die because the Hawaiian Airline plane simply landed on them?), or cops handcuffing employs at stores for not selling them alcohol (when, by law, they are not supposed to) do not amaze me anymore, there are still things happening sometimes that make you laugh out load.
Apparently, Friday a dead crocodile was found in Matu’u stream (the same day I surveyed that stream! Freaking!) The family that found the animal bought it to the Department of Fishery and Wildlife. But about 10 seconds, somebody though that a new specie has been discovered. Excitement! No, wait, it is a crocodile (what the heck is a crocodile doing in the middle of the Pacific!). As the media flow in (I think the media was already there to film a meeting), they opened up the crocodile to find out the cause of death (maybe was a released pet animal?).… no, it is a staffed crocodile!!! (When they told me this story, at this point I feared for my staffed teddy bears: a dog, a sheep and a walrus).
Somebody must have decided to get rid of the doomed animal and throw it into the streams (some people here still do not understand the function of garbage bins and keep on throwing their garbage in the stream –which was fine 30 years ago when plastic was not very common, but that has disastrous consequences now). Just imagine it.

(A Samoan friend of mine went off-island for the first time about a year ago. She saw for the first time a staffed dear. She asked if it was real. "uhm, well, yes and no". Why would people ever do it (we think this place is illogical, but most locals must think we are illogical too… we staff animals, we walk dogs…)? Then they went somewhere (a shopping mall?) where there were wax people... She asked if they were staffed people too….)

Airport beach

First of all, you should check Liz's entry about the election, it is... perfect!

There is a beach along the airport runway. It is far from people and you can wear a bikini (yeah!) and you can swim on Sundays (double yeah!!). I have not been here for ages, and I promest myself to come more often. Snorkeling here is easy and nice. There aren't strong currents, and the waves brake far away. It is like being in a swimming pool! But there are also many treasures here... fishes, shells, corals, perls (? I never saw one, but I like imagining there may be some)...
The treasures are also guarded by reed sharks and barracuda, which I openly try to avoid as much as possible.

Since my new camera is waterproof, I decided to try it out! I am far away to be an underwater photographer, but... well... this is my life! For wonderful underwater pictures, check out Paul's blog! And... the first treasure! Lucy found this as soon as she entered in the water!

Fish party in this coral branches!
me-Mary-Lucy
This interesting thing was attached to an underwater net. Hypothesis are: it is a GPS unit that fishermen use to track the nets (fish aggregation devices) they let drift in the Pacific (since, apparently, there are anymore many logs around), or it is a bomb from WWII (sometimes they pop out...)
I love the reflection of the sun on the sea floor, and the way it dances with the waves on top.
Hiking back we saw a couple of whales breaching offshore. This is a sight i think i will never be able to grow tired of.
The hike is along cliff formed by an old lava flow. many fractures on the floor make perfect blow holes. This place is actually spectacular (and scaring!) during big seas!

Slow life

This morning sunrise... the whole sky was on fire...

How come the life seems to pass so slow sometimes? I am literally counting the days for me to go to Oregon. 41 days left. I am trying to keep busy in between... but it never feels enough!

I have so many things I want to talk with to my manager next week (finally she is coming back to the island -lucky her that can leave!). Asking for more vacation days in march; asking if they will support me teaching a class in the community college (the class will benefit different EPA programs directly and indirectly. I am just going to ask if I can teach it during working hours. After all, all my other co-worker can take time off to take a class, why shouldn’t I be able to do the same?). Also next week I will know if EPA is going to support my ecoregion work or not (ecoregions are areas of similar ecology... US EPA did a huge work subdividing the whole US, I would like to do the same for American Samoa...). Their answers are going to decide what direction my future will take. If I can stay here producing something useful for the territory I will be happy, but otherwise, I can think of many better places to just hang out.. If they say "Yes", then good. If they say "No", then good anyway because in that case my reasons to be on island will diminish a lot and I may as well leave... no idea where or what, which is very exciting! There are new friends around the world that are due for a visit... all I would have to do is to choose if I will fly east or west from here... SUSPENCE….

My feet are hitching… hitching…

This are the leaflet I prepared for the tourists... I planned to donate 25% of the earning to the John Dau Foundation ( http://www.johndaufoundation.org ) but 25 cents would not be much... I saw the movie "God grow tired of us" and it really inspired me. Highly suggested. I really have nothing to complain about in my life, overall , I am super lucky....)

Oh yes! I forgot: for the first time since I moved here… There is Prosciutto in K-S Mart! (the whole leg would costs me $120… I think I may just buy ½ of it…)

Election day!

Elections in Italy are easier. Apparently, since 1945 there are been already 61 governments ("Pasta and fries".The Economist Volume 382, Number 8517 -February 24th -March 2nd 2007 Issue-), so we can say we have a lot of experience in it. That seems quite a lot to me too, but I have to recognize that in my life I saw many left-right-left-right government chances. Politics are just folklore, if you do not like somebody, you can have a rebellion (usually just big manifestation, drama, dinners and wine) and have somebody else on power. Easy. Thanks god we have tourisms and fashion and la bella vita.
In American Samoa the government changes about every 4 years (things like FBI investigations do not really matter, but heart attacks may although be influential).
In the US, elections are punctually every 4 years. They are very anal on this. And today in one of those big dates. Usually American president are white people with wife and kids. But this year is quite different, as there is a black guy (whose father was kenyan) and a woman (from Alaska, very young and bellicose). From a foreigner point of view I can only say that the world loved American when Clinton was in power (in Italy we felt very bad he had such a bad time about cheating on his wife... big deal!!!! That is his own private life! Not your business!). But when Bush went in power, gradually, everybody started disliking Americans. And he got in power twice! Amazing! We say "to err is human, to keep on erring is diabolic".
I would like to see the US being a loved place again, mainly because I am planning to go back there to study and I do not want to hear again comments like "you are going to the US? Uff! How can you do it? With the politic? You are mad!" (PS: the animation "Team America" is quite genial if you haven't seen it).
A friend sent me this... http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikg6gj71U9k
I do not generally like doing politics... but I really hope people will be smart today!!
Now I better go... the candidates from here are offering free food to all the voter. Even here, it is illegal to pay voters with money, for offer free lunches is not....
And... can I say it? GO UTU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween in American Samoa

In many they asked me how Halloween is in American Samoa.
I think this is probably my 4^th Halloween ever and I cannot say that I am an expert on this matter...
My first Halloween I was 21 in Oregon. I was baby sitting and accompanied my kid for “trick or treat” (i was a gypsy witch). it was fun, different, sometimes even a little bit scaring…
My other 2 Halloween where the ones of a college student: crowed parties with crazy dresses and lots of alcohol. The kids came early to the house to get their candies, but at night, it was no place for them…
In American Samoa, I had the impression that Halloween it is not really a big thing. I have an intern that told me that she is not allowed to celebrate Halloween because it is against her religion (she is Pentecostian... -one of the 100000 branched of Christianity, that are all represented on island). Few kids dress up, but most are just after the sweets.
There is a zone in Tutuila where most contractors (mostly palagis) live, called Lions Park. Apparently, kids are bussed in to get candies on Halloween evening. When candies are finished (and it happens fast), they may ask you for anything else in the fridge, or money… until the poor palagi either leaves or hides under the bed. Yes, it does sound like a scaring night to me.

Personally, if a 200 pounds 8-years old kid asked me for a candy, I think I just could not do it… (it happened to me (and to others) more than once that big kids would ask me for money to go to buy sodas… This thing always leaves me shocked. Maybe it is cultural, but if I have to give my money away I would rather donate them to kids that are really starving, not for kids that should diet…).

The Halloween party I attended was great. The theme was “pirates”. Remember this?
"To all buccaneers, rascals, and old scallywags
(those with lots o' loot and those only with rags):
Ye be invited to a hearty piratey Halloween party,
on Halloween night, startin' around seven-tharty.
Ye should come dressed in yer swash-bucklin' best:
ye needs a wooden peg leg or an old eye patch,
a fierce-lookin' hook or a beard ye can scratch.
We's gots snacks and drinks enough fer a large crew,
ye should bring somethin' along to eat or drink too.
We'll drink lots o' rum faster than ye can blink,
pirates all know ye can't have too much o' that drink."

It was too temping in that case to go dressed like Peter Pan! There were also other costumes, one funnier than the other!

The star of the night was "bad boy", and adopted batBest costume should go to this happy guy surrounded by girls.