Much Ado About Everything

Long Term Update

2010-10-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

Okay everyone I apologize for not updating my blog in so long. I have been busy with a new girlfriend and also with getting ready to move. I thought putting something up today would be nice and I will try to be better about it in the future. The plan is to move to Hawaii in a couple of weeks. I am still without a job and an apartment (looking for a room mate) so if anyone has anything let me know (shameless self promotion).

The pics wont attach for some reason so I will update this later.

To Western and Back Home

2010-07-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Eventually I had to come home from my trip. We had work to do in Western Samoa as well and so we spent a couple of nights in Apia before hopping over to American Samoa. Apia is great. I would recommend Western Samoa to anyone. It really is a fabulous place with great beaches and a nice little town with good food and fun stuff to do.

Not much to say about Apia. I have been there so many times that I am used to it. To interesting things happened while I was there. First, there was a rugby championship going on in Apia and so Japan, Fiji, and Tonga were all in town for the championship. BTW Japan beat the Manu Samoa, which was a very big upset. Anyway, surprisingly enough the Fijian rugby team was staying at the same hotel as us. This is surprising because they were also staying at our hotel in Nadi, Fiji.

Here is my story about these guys. I was swimming laps in the pool at the hotel in Nadi, feeling pretty good about myself. I am thin, fit, and man I look good - right? Well here I am in the pool - my new fit good looking self :) and suddenly twenty enormous Fijian men come walking out and get into the pool with me. Each one of them is over 6'4" tall, packed with muscle. Good looking supermen - each one could be a model. I stared at them in amazement and then was like - wait a second hey this isn't fair. I eventually moped off to my room and got ready for work. They were then at my hotel in Apia as well. I think the entire team journeyed over there just to rub it in a bit. Here they are in the pool in Apia.

Here is a picture of Will and Kava with Manu Samoa Sevens Winger Mikaele Pesamino. We ran into the Manu Samoa team at the hotel where we had our morning meeting.

A picture of Apia from the wharf.

Home at last and back with the boys. We went on a walk to the store and on the way the boys collected can. We recently discovered that you can recycle cans and the boys were eager to make a little money. Simon begs me almost every day to go can collecting. A good way to get them out of the house.

I just liked this. Everett decided to help carry my chairs back from Steve's place. He carried it in all different sorts of ways and finally settled with this.

The boys are at a summer camp right now put on by the department of marine and wildlife resources and they are learning all about the ocean. It rained today but it looks like it has cleared up and maybe they will have a dry night. I had to buy a flashlight for Simon because he couldn't sleep without a light. I will see if I can get some pictures of them at camp to post.

Goodbye For Now

2010-06-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

Alright well I am out of here tomorrow for my two week sojourn around the South Pacific. I have to get all packed up tonight, pick up my per diem check, and get on the darn plane. I still do not know what my work schedule is, which is very frustrating as I want to plan a dive in Fiji and I will be there on Saturday (Sunday in Fiji). Fiji has some of the best soft coral diving in the world and I really do not want to miss out on it so I need to know when I am working so that I can set up the dive tour. I think that we may have Sunday off and we fly into Nadi (pronounced Nandi) at 6a.m. So assuming I can get over the hangover from the night before I could go immediately to do a dive. I was looking it up online and there are also dives in Fiji where you can possibly see manta rays and maybe even whale sharks - this would be cool.

For all of you that are interested here is my schedule. I arrive in Western Tomorrow. Fly to Nadi, Fiji the next day. Then I fly to Suva, Fiji on Wednesday morning and then to Papeete, Tahiti via New Zealand on Thursday. I fly out of Tahiti on Saturday and have an overnight in Auckland where I will visit my good friend Tim. Then I fly to Tonga and get back to Western Samoa on the 21st. I stay two days in Western and then return to American Samoa. Intense travel. I will be in 6 countries in 13 days - three that I haven't been to before. I will visit my first military dictatorship (Fiji), my first French territory (Tahiti) and my first kingdom (Tonga). All in all it should be a fantastic trip.

The kids have been funny lately. You know you have lived here for a while when you see tater tots in the store for the first time, buy them, and serve them to your kids and they ask what they are. Yeah my kids have forgotten what tater tots are. Hopefully I didn't relay this story already it is a couple of weeks old. I was able to wow my kids with a simple basketball game on my ipod. Always nice to look like you are talented in front of the kids even when you know that you are not.

The ipod touch has been funny. Everett found an app that supposedly allowed you to take pictures just using the touch screen. He was super excited about it and asked if he could download it. I was skeptical but was actually like - sure if it works that would be cool. He downloads it - holds it up to his face - clicks the take a picture button - and I hear him say "He what the heck that is a chimpanzee - this thing isn't working right." He then takes another picture and is like "what...Dad." He hands it to me and there is a picture of a funny looking dog in spectacles. I then take a picture of myself and there is a funny picture of a cat with bulging eyes. A practical joke app. I give it back to him and say make sure you have more light and he does it again with the same result. I just had to laugh and finally explained it to him. He then got his brother and his uncle. It was super cute. Now that he is almost eleven not many more moments like that are coming I am sure but for now its cool.

Anyway. Samoa is still here. It is getting cold. Down in the upper 70's at night. I may need someone to send me a heavy blanket.

Slosh Cricket

2010-06-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend Freddy's Beach Apartment - aka (Foxtrot Bravo) or (FB) hosted the first of hopefully many Slosh Cricket games. So imagine this. A few Americans, with minimal (absolutely no) knowledge of the game of cricket trying to invent a drinking game out a very complex English game with only an hour or two lecture from a Kiwi about the rules. To say the least we were looking forward to a fun time.

Charlie was the lead on the invention of this game and he set the entire thing up. He hand made an amazing cricket bat. I wish I had a picture of it. I will have to get one and update this post later. The bat is made out of a four foot long stick. A one by four board is duct taped to the side to make one side flat like a cricket bat. on the end of the bat there is a plastic doll head taped to it.

We created a very complex wicket in the batting cage (a board balanced on two sticks) and put a line in the back. The rules evolved as we went and...well the game pretty much turned into a game of baseball - sort of. I was the first up to bat. The one thing I knew about cricket was that you do not have to run if you hit the ball. I hit a bad ball and so I didn't run and got yelled at by the judge (JZ). After explanation this resulted in a new rule that you could decide not to run on the first hit but you had to run on the second hit, thereby speeding up the game.

The objective was to hit the ball and make it to the base (coolers full of beer) before you got beamed by the tennis ball or tagged out. If you got to base you had to open a beer and continually drink it the entire time on base. Each team could have up to five people on the base at one time. Since we had only four people this rule didn't really matter. After getting to base you had to run back across the line to score a point. Basically it ended up being a combination between an American's view of cricket and baseball - which are basically the same thing - right?
Next time I think that everyone should be required to wear all white to really get into the spirit of the game. We had people sliding into base, people hitting long balls, people getting beamed, and overall just had a good time. Luckily it was all Americans because anyone from a common wealth country would have laughed at our version of cricket.

Corrine took some photos for me. It was really an afterthought on my part and it was getting dark so they aren't all that great. You can see the field (I took the first photo) and then some spectators, Noah - who seemed to score more than anyone, and sweaty old me with my back to the camera.

My team won the game after a close call. It got dark near the end of the game. We hung out for a few more hours and then everyone went home. Good weekend. Went dancing Satuday night without hurting myself at all - a feat in itself.

This next Friday I am going on a trip to Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Tonga. I am super excited and ready for a break. I will have to work most of the time but should have some time on each island to look around. If anyone has been to any of these places and has any advice on what to do please let me know. I am thinking of going to Bora Bora and/or to swim with the Manta Rays while in French Polynesia. In Fiji I want to do a good soft coral dive. I haven't really made any plans for Tonga yet as I haven't gotten into the tourist book on that country quite yet. I am typing this on the wii so if there are mistakes - sorry.

Smoker to Professional Athlete

2010-05-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

As part of the healthy Clif initiative I pulled myself out of bed at 4:45a.m. last Saturday to run a 5K race. The first race that I have ever run in. My old creaking limbs and the fact that I had been out till midnight the night before almost forced me back into bed. However, I pushed my lazy carcass out the door and into the waiting ride and sleepily rode out to Nu'uuli to start the race.

I was standing there when the director over the race set the age categories. They were set at 18-34 and 35-39. I was like "awesome" I am in the senior division. I couldn't quite figure out why the category stopped at 39. My only guess was that here locally they figure if you are over 39 you must be walking the race or that there is no way you would be competitive. Regardless of the reason I felt pretty good about my chances being in the elderly division and started the race out with great optimism.

I ran like the wind for the first two miles in pretty much complete darkness. Then my knee started to hurt right about at the half way point. I had done something to it a couple of weeks ago but it had seemed fine at the beginning of the race. I ignored the pain and pushed through it - thinking the entire time that I was in first place in my division. I cruise into the finish line limping and there is Dave in his fancy Nike running shirt. I was like - wait a second - you are over 39 you are supposed to walk or be uncompetitive - how did you get here before me? Then I wondered if they would give him first place - because technically he was not in a category and I won my division - right?

Well Dave got first place in what was called the "masters" division. He got $100 and I received $50. Actually the top five finishers were all Palagi. We walked away in a big group - although we didn't come together and I felt like people must think that we trained just to come and steal the race. Honestly I didn't train at all and have only been jogging for exercise for a week. I did get interviewed by the local television station on my way out though. So in the course of three months in American Samoa I have gone from a smoker to a professional athlete. I am pretty happy with my progress - except that now my knee hurts and I am remembering that pain was the reason I was lazy in the first place. Here is a pic of me after the race.

The kids had their end of the year dancing show. Every year the school puts on some type of show which usually involved Polynesian dancing. The sound was out on Everett's performance and i am still not sure exactly what country they represented. The sound was bad through most of the performances and that terrible screeching sound that can come from a mic was a common occurrence. The kids did a fantastic job. Simon's class represented Samoa and Simon got to play the part of David Tua in the skit and got to knock out another kid.

Simon Dancing

Simon boxing - Then the other fighter on the floor knocked out.

Everett and his class.

Here is Everett giving money during the Suva.

Note on American Samoa Diversity

2010-05-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

So I realized that I left a little aside story out of the last post from last weekend. I hiked up to the waterfall with Lainie, Phil, Lucy, and Phil's friend. When we got to the second waterfall Lucy's friend Alice joined us. So after sliding down the waterfall and jumping off of the cliff (I really wanted to capitalize this word but resisted) I was sitting in the water mellowing out and talking with all of the other hikers and it suddenly dawned on me that I was the only American in the group. The group consisted of one Australian, one Kiwi, one Welsh, and two English and me.

When it dawned on me I was a bit startled. I mean I have lived here in American Samoa for several years now and am used to being in the minority. However, this was the first time that I had been in the minority among the palagi crowd. At least that I recognized. One of the interesting and cool things about American Samoa is that there is a huge diversity even among the palagis. There are a lot of Kiwis here and a good amount of Australians and for some reason there is a rising population of people from the UK. Phil's friend said he thinks it is because it is as far away from the UK as you can get. Literally all the way around the world.

It made the hike more interesting and I couldn't figure out where Phil's friend was from. I thought I was getting better at these accents. If I had listened more attentively maybe I would have figured it out since he is from Liverpool and I am a Beatles fan. I don't feel too bad though I had three people in Australia ask me if I was from England so Americans are not the only ones that have a problem with accents.

Palagi Mardi Gras and More

2010-05-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not posting much lately. I have been busy and a bit preoccupied. This post will probably in no way make up for my laziness, but you will have to be the judge of that. Last weekend there was a Mardi Gras party. Apparently the people planning the party were forced to put the party off due to one of the hurricane scares. So after a couple of months of waiting the party was thrown. Two groups actually made floats to celebrate the occasion. I didn't take pictures of the floats but here is a picture of one of the mascots.

Nate dressed up as a can of pisupo (corned beef). Nate always has awesome costumes and I think that this one was probably one of the best. What was amazing was that Charlie found fireworks on the island. I am not sure if they are legal but they are some type of strange sparkler. In this picture you can see Lainie (Maddona), Nate (pisupo can), and James (very excited cone headed person).

Anyway the party was a lot of fun and I tried doing yoga and fell over a few times. Yes we do silly things here because...well there isn't really anything else to do.

This past week went by fast. Working and looking for jobs. I am looking into moving to Hawaii and am hoping that something will open up in the near future. There comes a time when it is time to leave the island. I will be sad when it finally happens but my time has come and I need to look forward to moving on and having medical insurance and a retirement plan and all of that mumbo jumbo. This past weekend was mother's day and the boys got their mom presents. Everett bought her a bracelet and Simon didn't want to buy her anything but instead made her a cool little present. Sometimes kids are just so inventive. Simon wrote out a detailed plan for the folding of a paper airplane with pictures and everything. He then decorated up a piece of paper to give to her to fold. Super cute. Check it out. Here is the picture of the directions.

Here he is decorating the paper.

Here he is Mother's Day morning before his mom picked him up. Mohawk boy.

Everett brought his pencil box home from school this weekend. I opened it up to look in it and this is what I found.

I just thought this was the funniest thing ever. The kid has rocks, plastic caps, plastic straws, and broken pencils. This is so kid like. You couldn't create this stuff. It is too perfect. I found out later that these are the pieces to a strategy game that he invented and that he plays with his new friend James. He carried the pencil box around all weekend. He seems really excited about his new friend who just moved here from off-island. It sounds like they may have similar interests. On Mother's Day when the kids were visiting with their mom I went hiking to Nu'uuli falls with Lainie. Went down some of the rock slides again and had a fun time. Going up there is just so wonderful. It really is what you think of when you think of the South Pacific. Amazing.

More Bats for the Weekend

2010-04-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

The boys and I had a fun weekend. Friday night we hung out at Kevin and Corrine's house and watched movies. The boys watched kids movies upstairs with Noah. They were going to spend the night but there was a kid breakdown and so they got to go home to sleep. It got me out of going to Maliu Mai where there was a ladies night out. They had fun though and I got to watch several episodes of 30 Rock. Yeah we live it up here.

Saturday we went into Pago with James and picked up our mail. Everett got a couple of books that I had ordered for him. Books written by Stephen Hawkins for children. He has already finished reading one of them and is eating the second one up. The kid really loves to read and loves science so I thought the books would be a good combination. After we got back from Pago we hiked out to airport and the kids swam around in the water. I should have taken some pictures of them but wasn't thinking about it. They were being very cute body surfing on the waves. The waves were huge. Here is a picture of the waves from the hike over - and no they were not body surfing here. There is an actual beach with sand.

The boys got to see Lainie's bats again and Everett took some pictures for me. These kids are amazing at playing around with electronics. Every button must be pushed. When I got the camera back the flash worked. How the heck he accomplished this is beyond me. It almost makes up for his breaking my ipod - almost - well not at all really. But now I have a camera with a working flash so better pictures. Here are Everett's pictures and some pics of the boys. Simon is making a frame for some drawings that he made for me - very cute. He must have asked 20 times whether I liked the drawings better with or without the frames.

Best Shore Dive in American Samoa

2010-04-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was flag day. I apologize in advance to everyone that read my Fautasi post. I missed the races - both the preliminary heats and the final. I was diving during the prelims and...well slept in on Saturday. I think Pago Pago won the race and the team from Western Samoa came in second. I did hear some gossip that Manua was having a hard time getting used to the moving seats in its new boat. I am not sure what place they came in. I guess technology isn't always what it is cracked up to be. They probably need someone to come in and give them lessons on how to row with the moving seats. The second part to that rumor is that they put the seat on the boat backward (not sure if this is true). Anyway, the fancy new kiwi fiberglass wonderboat did not win.

When I was walking out of the Executive Office Building on Thursday I snapped this photo. It is fairly common in Samoa to see people sleeping alongside the road or on top of a concrete bunker - etc. This was the first person I had seen asleep right outside the EOB though. How people sleep so soundly on concrete is a mystery to me. But perhaps they have had enough Vialima that they could sleep anywhere.

So we got Friday off to celebrate Flag Day. Flag Day is the day that American Samoa became part of the United States. A friend Sarah was leaving the island and she wanted to go on one more dive before she left. We decided to go to Aunuu, which is a small island close to Tutuila (the main island in American Samoa). The problem with Aunuu is two-fold. First, you must wait for the small boat to ferry you across. If you have a schedule then you are not going to be happy. Never be in a hurry when going to Aunuu. Second, the current around the island is quite strong and can be very intense and dangerous and only good swimmers should attempt the dive. On the flip side Aunuu is an awesome dive. Fantastic. A lot of fish and coral. Best shore dive on the island.

Anyway, we had a small problem. Sarah had a schedule. She was trying to fit in as many things as possible before she flew out of here. So we sat and waited, and waited, and waited. Then we decided to just try diving on the Tutuila side of the island. There is a clear channel out where the boats come in. You just have to watch out for the boats. So we geared up and swam out the channel. We dropped in and it was fantastic. Just as good as diving Aunuu but without the current. Our dive lasted around 50 minutes and we went down to 100 feet. I have some pictures. My first diving photos!

This one came out a little blurry. My camera had some fogging issues early in the dive - but as you can see it is a rock with a heart shape on it. Lame I know. But I had to take a picture.

Here is Sarah diving.

This picture was taken right around 90 feet deep. There were some juvenile humphead parrot fish hanging out by this large corral formation. These fish are pretty rare here and these were the first that I have seen. There is one in this photo in the upper middle-right section of the photo - but it blends right in with the reef. There were three or four swimming around. If I get any of the fish ID's wrong forgive me I am no expert.

Bennet's Butterfly Fish - you usually see these in pairs.

Clownfish. I will have to look up the exact type in my fish ID book.

Coral Formation

It was a great dive. Clear (100 plus visibility) - warm - and calm. Only a little bit of a surge on the way in and out.

The Weekend and Fruit Bats

2010-04-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well the kids and I had a great weekend. We went to help on a cleanup of Fagasa on Saturday morning. The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources was supposed to be doing an underwater cleanup. We got there late and no one was there. Apparently not enough people signed up. But we did get a nice beautiful ride over to Fagasa. Sorry I forgot my camera. We went to the library instead and Everett got some more books to read. He was so excited because I let him go up and pick out a book upstairs in the young adult section. He felt soooo big. He is reading the Nicholas Flamel books on magicians. Not sure what the reading level is but the kid is breezing right through them. I actually checked the first one out for myself but he took it and read it.

On Sunday we went to a birthday part at our friend Matt's house. He has a small pool and the kids and all of the other kids that were there played in the pool for about four hours. We rode with James who competed in an ice cream eating contest. Each contestant had one half gallon of strawberry ice cream and six big boys to eat. The first to eat all of theirs and take a bite of one of the other persons big boys would be the winner. James won hands down. A good showing from the Freddy's Beach crowd (those are the government employees living at Freddy's Beach Apartments in Fagagogo). Lions park was represented by Jeremy. The apologists said Jeremy lost because he had a big lunch. The party was a lot of fun and ended with a few horseshoe games.

Yesterday Laine brought home a baby white-naped fruit bat that was found that she is trying to nurse. The kids were really excited about it. They only got to look at it for a second. I am sure they will get to see it again when they come back from their mom's house. I have a few bad pictures and will post more some other time.

The Samoan Sevens are in Town

2010-04-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

So the big news for today is that the Samoan National Rugby Team is in Pago Pago. One of the local mobile phone companies (Blue Sky Communications) brought them in. I am assuming for advertisement. They flew in this morning and were supposed be met by a big crowd but unfortunately the airline company changed the time of their flight. (I heard that no one showed up but if you check the comments to this post there is a utube link by a viewer showing that people were there.) These guys are popular here for sure.

I didn't think much of the Samoan Sevens until about five minutes ago when they went by my office with a police escort. Yes a private (for profit) company who brought in a rugby team for promotional purposes was able to get a police escort to take their promotion around the island. For some reason I found this highly amusing. Here are the pictures as they did a drive by of the Executive Office Building.

The Samoan Sevens just won a major tournament in Hong Kong says Samoan News.

Its too calm

2010-04-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

Okay well this may be a boring post. But I am bored so I am posting. Something to pass the time. It is calm here. I mean extra calm. There is no wind. Absolutely no breeze. It is possibly the worst time in a couple of months for my stupid fan to break. Went to buy a new one today and the store's credit/debit card machine was down. I didn't have enough cash on me to buy it. So this probably means at least one more night without a fan. I may end up in the kids bed tonight. Or I will take some benadryl or something and pass out. It really is intolerable.

I finally got everything in that I need to renew my contract. The boys and I spent another day at the doctor getting our physicals. The doctor checked out Simon's rash and ear ache and said that he is fine and to keep treating with hydro cortisone cream. The Department of Health was very nice and only made me pay for myself. At $60.00 per person it gets really expensive. I turned it in and then there was another wrinkle, which I will keep to myself, but which really ticked me off. Hopefully it will work itself out soon because I cannot really afford to go without a paycheck while I fight it out with the powers that be - and I was getting so used to getting paid.

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I got a long Easter weekend. The American Samoa Government gives all government employees Good Friday off. The kids got to go to school though to make up for all of the days they have had to take off due to emergencies (tsunami, tsunami warnings, hurricanes, etc.). This was good as it gave me an opportunity to clean up the house and do the laundry. Both of which were needing to be done. Friday night we rented a couple of movies. I rented "The Informant," which is possibly the worst movie that I have seen in a long time. Very dull and boring.

Saturday we took it easy. Went swimming in the pool, got sunburnt - the norm. It has been really hot for the past month. Nice beautiful sunny days every single day with little or no rain. This is not the norm here in American Samoa. It has been in the 90's for the past month. This is too hot. I am ready for it to cool off. Last night was exceptionally bad because the clouds rolled in in the afternoon and kept the temperature up. I had a hard time sleeping.

Anyway, Easter...so Saturday afternoon we went to take the movies back and Simon was like "Oh I am so excited about Easter. I am going to get a basket full of candy and toys from the Easter Bunny. It will be great." In my head I was thinking. Oh yeah Easter Bunny. To say the least I had a little stop at the store on the way home and got candy and toys and Easter baskets. Each kid got some colored pencils and candy. The Easter Bunny was smart enough to put a sticky note on the Frisbee and checker set that said "To Share." I hate buying the cheap throw away toys that they sell here so they got something to draw with. They seemed to like it though.

On a side note. When Simon was talking about the Easter Bunny Everett was like "should we tell him the truth dad?" I looked at him and was like "are you crazy - why would you want to tell him the truth. Let him believe in the Easter Bunny until he figures it out for himself." Wow. Once they find out they want to burst the bubble for the rest of them. Well for Simon it is one more year of believing, which probably will not last until next year.

We dyed Easter eggs and I hid them outside once and then once in the house. The kids had fun looking for them. Everett got beaten by Simon in the hunting twice. I think this may have been the first year that this happened. Everett's excuse was that the eggs were out in the open and not hidden well enough and so he wasn't looking in the obvious places. Here are some pictures of us dying eggs and the hunt. As you can see Everett only found one egg.

The Cleanup of the Chehalis

2010-04-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

They are finally here. The U.S. Navy has come to pump out the gas in the hulk of the Chehalis. A little background. The U.S.S. Chehalis sunk in the Pago Pago harbor in 1949. The Chehalis was a gas tanker and was carrying a full load of high octane gas for high performance airplanes. It caught on fire while tied up to the dock in Pago Pago and sunk into 150 feet of water. It has been sitting there since full of fuel. Yes it has been there for sixty (60) years!!! Full!

Since I first moved here the government has been talking about doing something about the Chehalis. It is a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. One marine biologist said if the boat broke open that the resulting spill would kill the entire coral reef around the whole island of Tutuila. There was immense speculation as to why it took so long. People said that the government got mad because the original group that was going to do it wanted too large of a share of the fuel pumped out. Apparently you can still use this stuff and it will be sold. Tests recently revealed that even thought the fuel can still be used that it has degraded to a point where it is not worth what was expected. Maybe this is why the American Samoa Government has finally allowed the fuel to be pumped out. No idea really. As with everything here the rumors could be just that rumors.

This is the best picture I could get of the Navy boat here doing the salvage. I thought it was funny that the barge is twice as big as the ship. It is awesome that they are finally doing something about it. Another environmental disaster avoided.

Another short update. Apparently the U.S. Navy has said that not only are they emptying all of the fuel and oil out of the Chehalis. They are also going to make the ship safe for diving. Not exactly sure how they are going to go about this. From what I understand the top of the superstructure is in over 150 feet of water. I will try to get to the bottom of this. If the ship is shallow enough it would be cool to dive it. Well at least swim around it a bit.

Dolphins and Such

2010-04-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

I saw dolphins on the way to work yesterday. I think that they were spinner dolphins but I cannot guarantee that. You may thing "big deal" if you life in California or Florida. But here it actually is a big deal. You just do not see dolphins that often. This is only the second pod that I have seen. You see a lot more sea turtles than you do dolphins. You can see the turtles popping their little heads up to get air at many of the beaches here. You can also see them while snorkeling or scuba diving. But dolphins - not so much. I used to see them swimming along the coast in California all of the time. They are just cool animals - fun to watch. The spinners will spin when they jump. I haven't seen this yet but it sounds cool.

Tomorrow is a Territorial holiday - Good Friday. Its always nice to have a day off. Thing is due to all of the days off from the Tsunami and all of the other disaster warnings the kids school has decided that the kids should go that day. This I found very odd since spring break was just last week and it seems that just taking a day out of spring break would have worked better. But nope the kids now do not get a long Easter break. I still get the day off. Sometimes things just do not make sense around here. The funny thing is that the principal's rational was...well a lot of religions do not recognize Good Friday as a holiday. But I think most of them do recognize Easter and...well that is really why you are getting the day off. I can tell you that here in American Samoa most people recognize the holiday.

Simon's rash is getting better. I think it finally turned the corner. I am not sure what was wrong with the kid but once I started giving him Benadryl the rash cleared up. Now it is scabbing over = no fun...but at least it is on its way out. I would post pictures but I think that neither you nor Simon really want to see that on this website. Suffice it to say that he has about another week towards full recovery...but he may have gotten out of going to the doctor. Nothing major planned for the weekend. Will probably have an Easter Egg hunt with the neighbor kids sometime on Sunday. This should be fun. I'll make sure to get some pictures to post.

Boring Days

2010-03-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Okay so things have gotten boring lately. I think it was my illness. I just have to get back into the swing of things. Swam in the pool for the first time in a week yesterday. Forty laps. The water is getting a bit funky. Hopefully it doesn't start to turn green again. That means I am out of the pool for a couple of months until the landlord gets the incentive to clean the damn thing out again. I guess I will probably replace swimming with running at that point. At least until the pool is cleaned up. I suppose I could also find a place to swim in the ocean. Tonight I may go to yoga - but I have to take the kids with me so we will see how that goes.

I have the kids for almost three weeks while the ex is on vacation in New Zealand. Its nice to have them. Simon has a wicked rash and I am hoping that it starts to go away because I really do not want to take him to the doctor. The kid hates the doctor and it means another two to three hour wait in the emergency room since you have to make appointments for the pediatrics clinic. Fun stuff. By the way rashes are NOT good in the tropics as everything stays moist here all of the time. In case you were wondering. If anyone has any suggestions on treatment please let me know.

Sick Days

2010-03-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Okay people sorry I have not posted so far this week and the title to this post stinks but what do want? I got sick. I mean really sick. It was horrible, terrible, very bad. This is one of the downsides to the tropics. Hopefully I didn't just ruin it for all of you who think this is paradise. Well...it sort of is actually in many ways...but getting sick stinks and there is now way around the fact that you get sick more often here and it last longer and is more intense.

So my weekend started out fine. I went to a going away party for a big group of Palagi ex-pats who are leaving the island for the big imaginary continent called the USA. These people actually believe that this place exists and that and airplane will take them there. Boy are they in for a surprise. The party lasted too long and too late and may have (did) add to my problems that began later on in the weekend. The party has a barbecue with pig and everything and lots of questionable beverages that may possible help a person become dehydrated (this becomes important later). I danced and may have sang and believe that my friend may even have gotten me to share a smoke - but I am sure I was just holding it for him.

I am trying to remember what I did on Saturday. Not having any success but I think I went to the post office so that is something. I do know that I was in bed by six. I thought it was because of the late night on Friday. On Sunday I woke up sick. I tried to shrug it off but then just went back to sleep. I slept through sweltering heat and all. Slept all day. Finally took my temperature in the afternoon. Over 101. I took some tylenol and started trying to drink water. You need water when you are sick.

Monday morning I was feeling even worse and I stayed home from work. Temperature still over 101. I really wasn't too worried at this point. I did start to get some joint pain which started to remind me of dengue. It hurt bad. My back was on fire. I curled up in front of both of my fans in my somewhat cool living room (just below the temperature of what you would think of hell being) and slept fitfully. As a side note. The cord to recharge my phone had somehow ended up at the office so by this time my phone was dead. Also, I drive a work truck and as I take two other Assistant Attorneys General into work every day they were using it to get to work.

That night the pain was so bad I broke down and took some vicodin that I had stashed in the refrigerator. Wow that did the trick. The pain went away and so did my fever. Perfection. I slept like a baby. I woke up in the morning and felt great. Got up and ate a real breakfast, which I never do even when I am not sick, and started getting ready for work. After about twenty minutes I started feeling a little tipsy and decided to stay home again. This time I have no phone, no car, and was soon to discover no Tylenol left.

I quickly degenrated into a shivering mumbling mass of sickness. It must have been at least 82 degrees in my room and I was shivering. I had my thick sheet and blanket (not really thick) which is all you should need here ever let alone during the middle of the summer during the day. I finally got up and warmed up with a bath. I knew this was a bad idea. But apparently I am not a capable caretaker of myself and frankly I just wanted to be warm. Well I got warm quick and got out of the bath...eventually.

About an hour later I took my temperature and it was 103.5 YES 103.5. Incredible. I then had to take a cold shower. I had no tylenol. I hate cold showers. Even when I am not sick. It was torture. But I did it. I stood under that thing for 20 to thirty minutes cooling off. I finally got my temp to down to 101.7 and I felt good about that. The rest of the day was a series of drinking water, watching the clock, wishing I had Tylenol, and watching my temp go from between 102 to 103.5. When Charlie came to give me the keys to the truck I begged him to take me to the hospital (always a last resort here).

Charlie was great and took me to the hospital and even stayed with me. Luckily and amazingly the emergency room was empty and it only took about 45 minutes to get back to see a doctor. Oh and the nurse gave me some Tylenol. Woohoo. The doctor did her analylsis and then I was hooked up to an I.V. Oh this was horrible. I almost forgot. They needed blood samples and the nurse dribbled blood out of the IV insertion into tubes to get them - it took like ten minutes. I hate giving blood. I was already sick. I Almost threw up and for one of the only times in my life I thought I would actually black out. I mean - damn - I could write a whole book on local nurses but one paragraph will have to suffice.

Someone needs to include a class in their training on proper treatment of patients. In my opinion, and this goes for all of you in the medical profession, try to be more peaches and cream. Sappy but damn. I am not a piece of dead meat. I can feel it when you pinch my skin. It hurts. You are stronger than me. I am a little skinny palagi lawyer. You are the product of a thousand years of evolution resulting in extremely strong hands. Pinch softer please. Also tell me when you are going to purposely hurt me - even if it is necessary. I am already scared of the hospital. I have heard about its reputation. I represented as its lawyer for two years. Believe me I am scared. Gently please.

Anyway, someone must have figured out that after getting poked here that you will need something so I got some medicine to calm down my stomach and it worked for about an hour. After that I to finally lay down on the COT OF PAIN. I honestly believe that lying on the tile floor would have been better. The thing must have been made of rough concrete. Its even worse because you know its supposed to be padded so you are trying to find the softness the entire time you are on the thing. This added to no pillow, a paper thin sheet and air conditioning and you can imagine my situation. To say the least the joint pain returned and so did the shakes.

The doc finally came by with the results of my tests and says she thinks I have Rheumatic Heart Disease. It sounded bad. Really bad. I left out the part that I had been hallucinating and was otherwise completely out of it most of the day. I mean I was really sick. I usually cross examine every doctor. Give them the third degree and such. I was like wow. She was like yeah the test aren't conclusive but it looks like a possibility. I am like okay. I am seriously lucky I didn't get open heart surgery right there on the cot of pain. No joke. Instead I got a really really pain full shot. Oh and by the way there is no way I had rheumatic heart disease. No way.

The doc did do one good thing with her Fijian MD credentials she ordered another bag of saline. I needed that. She said my platelet level was really low. Extreme dehydration. New add for alcohol people. Excessive drinking mixed with the remote possibility of getting an extremely rare and serious tropical viral infection may case extreme dehydration with the possibility of death.

THE SHOT PART ONE: The doctor said there is a shot you can take for the disease. Me in my state of idiocy. Okay. She hesitates. Or there are pills. You can take either. I finally pull out of my idiocy for one second and ask if the shot is dangerous. She says no - It just hurts. I am thinking great. I already almost blacked out over some dribbling blood. I opt for the quick treatment and suck it up. Nurse Bruno gets it ready. The shot didn't hurt. What hurt was first the pinch. She took ahold of about two inches of my thigh and squeezed. I looked down to make sure she wasn't using a vice grip or something. Man that woman could pinch. It was insane. The shot had to be given slow - very slow. The pinch went on for a long long long time. I bore it up. It was fine. Finally she is done. Ah no pain...

THE SHOT PART TWO: Suddenly I feel fingers very harshly and solidly pressing down on where the shot had just been given. No warning. No "okay sir this will hurt a bit" Nothing. I almost sit up. She is finally like sorry it will swell otherwise. This hurt and she savaged it for a good five minutes. I wouldn't say massaged because...well this was no massage. She stopped and walked away. I closed my eyes and relaxed. Finally it was over...

THE SHOT PART THREE: Suddenly I feel something jabbing at my thigh again. This time I do sit up and say damn woman you need to give me some warning. She didn't really know what to say but I felt at this point I had to educate her. Peaches and cream you know. I can feel that shit. She actually apologized after some other patients commented (apparently they had been to LBJ before). She finally finished and put a bandaid on it. I took this as a good sign that it was finally over.

I ended up staying ten hours at the hospital. They checked me out even though an hour before then had checked my temp and it was 103. I drove myself home and fell into a real bed. It was great. I had tylenol and I went to sleep. My fever broke that night and I even went into work the next day for a short time. I am fine now but believe me I thought I was in trouble there for a while. This post is way too long and I am not going to edit it. To say the least when you start hallucinating when sick this is a bad sign. I mean I love to hallucinate - who doesn't? But not a good sign. Just good times in American Samoa. See you all next week.

Fautasi Boats

2010-03-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

It is getting to be that time of year again. Fautasi racing. Flag day is quickly approaching and the teams have started to get their boats out to begin their practicing. I am not sure but it seems like the boats have come out a little bit early this year. There is also a new addition to all of the boats. For the first time one of the High Schools has its own boat. The Samoana Sharks bought a boat and refurbished it. I actually watched the entire process out my office window (I can see down onto Samoana'a practice football field). When the got it the boat was all beat up. They sanded it down, patched it and repainted it. It turned out great.

Samoana High School Fautasi Boat:

The Nu'uuli boat was also out to day. Or what we call the Satani (which I was recently informed actually means Satan - I thought it was a last name- I like Nu'uuli even better now).

As you can see they have embraced the Satan part of their name and always have a devil and flames painted on their boat. I will explain more about the Fautasi later as the races get closer. The bottom line is that Samoans used to row these things between the islands. 35 to 40 people sit down in these and row. These boats get going fast and they used to be able to get between the islands pretty quick in these things. Now it is all in good fun and there is a lot of competition between the villages during the flag day races. We even have teams from Independent Samoa come over and race sometimes.

A lot of smack talk goes back and forth and all of the villages are constantly trying to find the money to upgrade their boats. One village is currently paying a boat builder from New Zealand to construct them a state of the art fiberglass boat. Hopefully it will be done for the flag day races so we can see how fast it is. There has been some smack talk from one of the schools in independent Samoa already saying that they will beat the tar out of the Samoana boat. If you like paddling and boat racing this is fun stuff.

Ten Year Olds Version Things

2010-03-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

Everett said the kids at school were scared of him because of his black eye. I couldn't quite figure out if that was good or bad. When I picked him up from school he handed me a paper with a typed version of the story from his perspective. Apparently he thought that it was important enough write down. Here is what he said:

"How I Got My Black Eye."
"It was at a birthday party with one of those big blow up water slides it was taller than the first story of our two story house. We were doing what Colt called a bobsled thing where we held onto each other and slid down after being first for awhile then I wanted to be last but my brother still held on I was still trying to tell him to hold onto the person I was holding onto when we slid down and his forehead hit my eye."

He is definitely my kid. Knows exactly how to write a run-on sentence. lol. I liked his account of the event. Cute and simple. Here are some pictures or Utulei Beach that I took today. I usually try to take a walk on the beach a couple of times a week over my lunch hour. It is right across the street from my office. Actually I can see this beach out my office window. It is a nice little calming thing to do and I usually beach comb while I am at it.

Birthday Party Bash

2010-03-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday Simon Everett were invited to a birthday party at their friend Franchesca's house. If I spelled her name wrong - sorry. Her dad Roger rented a giant inflatable water slide for the kids to play around on. Here is the picture of the slide:

The kids thought it was very cool. Well...because it kind of was. They slipped and slid down this slide for four hours. I went and ran some errands. Mainly because Roger lives in my old apartment which is directly below my ex-wife's house and it felt a little (very) uncomfortable to hang around since she was home and just upstairs. Near the end of the four hours of sliding Simon comes running up crying because his brother yelled at him. So I made Simon get Everett and drag him over. When he walks up this is what he looks like. BTW he is not upset because he is hurt - that look is because he is annoyed that I made him come over to talk to me.

Yeah and you can see Simon in the back. Apparently Everett yelled at him for running into him on the slide. I am still not sure exactly what part of Simon made contact but you can see the result. Everett was having so much fun that he had to be pulled off of the slide. Obviously Everett did not get in trouble for yelling at his brother. We got some ice from Roger and Tylenol from their mom and once Simon saw his brother's eye he got sad and cried. After the bee stings and now this Everett has been having quite a crazy month.

The eye was looking better until later that night. While playing tag Everett ran into Simon (yes Simon again) and banged his eye (same eye) so hard on Simon's head that it left a bump. This time he came to me crying. This kid is tough he never cries so it must have really hurt since his eye was already tender. I carried him inside and got some more ice for him. I let him calm down and then told him to take it easy. You could see the swelling double almost immediately and right then it was obvious that it would be a pretty good shiner.

Anyway, that was the most exciting part of the weekend. Here is what it looked like this morning.

Oh and I took a picture of this moth. Thought it was pretty.

Real Lawyer Work

2010-03-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

Okay one of the benefits to living in American Samoa is that the work week as a government attorney for the American Samoa Office of the Attorney General is generally forty to forty five hours a week. Sometimes it is more and as the Chief of the civil division sometimes I have to put in a few extra hours. This is fine. However, the hours rarely equal that of a lawyer in the States, which is good. The problem is that when you are up against a deadline you go into crazy lawyer mode. Last night I stayed at the office until 4a.m. trying finish up this brief. I was back in the Office at 8a.m. Man it came out good though. I am happy with it. Just filed it and got back from Court.

Yesterday was a bummer. I was under a ton of stress. My dad was put out to pasture at his job that he has had for over thirty years. He says he is okay but it still worries me. I am sure he will be fine. I had the stress at work on top of that and stress over the settlement agreement for my divorce. It all just hit on one day and baboom I was down in the dumps. I vented to some friends and came down a little. Then I went to yoga and the exercise really calmed me down. Great stress relief. Today was better. But damn am I tired. I bet you thought this blog would be all about interesting American Samoa stuff - right. Didn't know that I would just babble on sometimes about personal things did ya....are you even reading this anymore? Ha - its the weekend so cya on Monday.

Rant and Raves

2010-03-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

1. Child Abuse in American Samoa

I love American Samoa. It is beautiful. People are nice. The ocean is 84 degrees. It has plumerias. But there is one thing other than the terrible situation with the dogs and the trash that bothers me and that is the child abuse. The blatant ignorance of this abuse hits me hard sometimes. People slapping their kids around in the store. Women telling me that they hit their children to punish them - uh yeah she didn't get a second date and I lectured her. Her response was well you have palagi kids Samoan kids are different - my thought - perhaps that is because you hit them. Do not get me wrong this isn't just a Samoan thing here. I have seen palagi's do it as well. But the question is - why is it ignored?

This weekend was the worst and I think I have reached my limit. Next time I witness a child being hit I am going to say something or call the police. I was in the laundry mat close to my house and this grandson was helping his grandma do the laundry. He dropped a shirt on the floor and she backhanded him as hard as she could. I couldn't believe it. Everyone just completely ignored it. He was around ten to twelve years old and the kid was just trying to help. The grandma then shoved him away and proceeded to drop at least ten pieces of clothes on the floor. I was thinking that she should have been backhanding herself.

It was intolerable. I did just what everyone else did and ignored it. But tears came to my eyes. I actually got emotional. I barely held it in and left as soon as my clothes were dry. No one should have to be treated like that and why do we put up with it in public here? Im not religious but damn this is wrong. If you are religious I can tell you as a former missionary Jesus doesn't agree with this either. Honestly we need to stop ignoring this in American Samoa. People deserve to grow up and live their lives without violence. Kids cannot even go to school here without the threat of being hit by their teachers. I am done with my rant. I just had to get it out there.

2. American Samoa Department of Agriculture Dog Killing

Okay if you have been following my blog you saw all of the work that people here and abroad have done in the past couple of weeks to help bring the dog situation under control. We captured dogs, set up clinics, spayed and neutered, tattooed the dogs, re-released the wild ones. We de-sexed over 400 dogs. As president of the American Samoa Humane Society I was extremely proud of all of our volunteers and organizations that contributed. It was great.

Within a week after Animal Balance leaving we have discovered that the American Samoa Department of Agriculture is backing and financing a large culling of the dog population. We have heard that they are paying someone over 30K to come in and kill as many dogs as possible in three months. The vet techs who helped in our clinic are being used to euthanize the dogs. We have also heard (and this could be rumor) that Ag is going to round up any dog outside including dogs with collars and dogs with tags (which are issued by Ag). This is so ridiculous. They are going to kill some of the same dogs that we just desexed. These dogs are no longer a big issue since they cannot reproduce. The stupid thing is that Ag could use that money to hire a veterinarian. Maybe not a state side vet but someone from the Phillipines - etc. - that could come in here full time and develop a good spay and neuter program to take care of the population problems once and for all.

If you are opposed to this and feel like voicing your opinion please send comments to Samoa News. Something needs to be done to stop this and we need as much help as we can get.

Night Dive

2010-03-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

So there are no pictures in this. This my fault. Well and that backhanded ebayer who sold me a camera with a broken flash. But I think that with my dive light I may have been able to get a few good pictures. I didn't think about this until after the dive and I was really disappointed about it as you will see below.

Yesterday I heard on the radio on the way to work that there was a high surf advisory today. The lady on the radio said it would be crazy to go surfing. Kevin and I laughed because we were going to do exactly that even with her warning. After work we headed over to the Pua Trees and watched the waves. Due to the wind they were actually small and beaten down. We figured it wasn't working but we went out anyway just for the excercise. We were out there a little over an hour and I only caught one wave with enough force to stand up on. The rest of them were battered down so fast that I quickly lost my momentum.

After surfing I rushed home, got my dive gear and went for a dive at Faga'alu. I always do my night dives there because I know the area well and it is hard to get lost. When snorkeling out I was a squid. It was about eight inches long. If you haven't seen a squid in the water you are missing out. They are about the coolest looking animal in the ocean. They have a spear shaped body with the tentacles in front. They are sort of iridescent and see through and light up at night when you shine your light on them. I could have ended the dive right there since I knew it was the coolest thing that I would see all night. This is where I got mad about the camera. The squid was only about 12 inches away from my light and I could have snapped an awesome picture of it. I have never been able to get that close to a squid before that didn't swim away immediately.

The dive went well. Dove really shallow for about an hour. Saw some cool snails, a crown of thorns star fish, some flowery looking worm thingys, and a lot of sleeping parrot fish. Night dives are creepy though. There is no way around it. It is creepy. But there are cool things out at night - creeping around. Love it.

Yoga

2010-03-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

Many of you probably do not know that I started smoking last year when my marriage started to really disintegrate. I knew it was stupid at the time but I needed something to calm myself down. Sort of self prescribed anti-stress medication. Well for the past few months I have been trying to kick the habit without success. I think that I may have finally done it. I have gone two weeks without a cigarette and have attempted to replace smoking with exercise. I met a guy in Chicago when I was there in October that said that he had kicked the habit by running. He said after about one week that he didn't want a smoke anymore. So I have taken his advice and so far it is working. I am not out of the woods yet but I think I may make it this time. I just need to be careful not to fall of the wagon when drinking.

Oh yeah - yoga. This is about yoga. Well really about exercise. I didn't want to call it I stopped smoking because...well I feel like I need to stop for at least a month before I can claim to be a non-smoker. So two weeks ago I started exercising, trying to get in at least two hours of exercise every day. I surf or swim laps in the pool for about an hour every day. Increasing the amount of laps every week. I am trying not to overdo it (a problem that I have had in the past). Then I have been doing wii fit yoga for an hour and then push ups and crunchers. I am already starting to feel great. This past week I was trying to think of what else to do. One of the problems with exercise that I have is that I get bored doing the same old things.

I decided to go to the local Yoga lessons. I told my buddies about it and they said that only gay men do yoga. Well you can do yoga without being gay or feminine - right? I thought - hey - I do wii fit yoga at a minimum I will be a little prepared. Well there was some truth to that...but. This yoga was much more intense and it moves faster. Unlike Will Fit Yoga you get your heart rate up. Up and down - stretch stretch stretch. I felt totally uncoordinated in some of the poses and almost fell over a couple of times. Old ladies were doing better than me. It was great. I just sort of laughed at myself. I have always been pretty limber but its been a long time since I have really stretched out and pushed myself and this definitely did that. One one pose I just couldn't figure it out. You cross your arms and clasp your hands together. I still dont get it. I was practicing it at home and it just doesn't make sense. Hopefully I can keep with it. I need to figure out the routine so that I can do it at home every night.

So wish me luck. Exercise or smoking. I pick exercise. I haven't really been in good shape since High School so this may not be easy.

More Hiking Photos

2010-03-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some more photos of the Sunday hike up Nu'uuli Falls. You can get a good idea of how steep the waterslides are. The one in these pictures is the shorter and less steep of the two slides. The slide of death is much steeper and longer.

Kevin Sliding down Kornegay slide:

Barbie and Me after sliding down Kornegay slide:

Waiting our turn to slide down Kornegay slide:

Showing Jeremy my wounded arm, which I blamed on him since he didn't tell me to keep my arms in:

Climbing back up for another go:

Taking a break under a waterfall:

More Volunteering, Snorkeling, Dancing, and Hiking

2010-03-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

So this weekend started out with more volunteering at the American Samoa Humane Society clinic. We did a mobile clinic in the village of Lauli'i on the eastern side of the island. The clinic took place inside of the police station in Lauli'i. The volunteer veterinarians for Animal Balance did a fabulous job. If you want to donate to either the Humane Society or Animal Balance please click on these links. We need all of the help that we can get to bring the Animal population under control in both in American Samoa and other island nations.

As president of the Humane Society I send out a big thank you to all of the vets and to all of the other volunteers that participated in the clinic. We really appreciate the sacrifices that you made to come here and help out our small island. Giving up your vacation time and spending your own money to come out here is a fantastic sacrifice that not many people are willing or able to do. If you need anything from the the American Samoa Humane Society just let us know. Fa'afetai Tele Lava.

On Friday My neighbor Dave and I set out to Lauli'i. We got into the truck and drove to Coconut Point in Nuuuli, where Cheryl the Humane Societies most valuable and dedicated member lives. The veterinarians for animal balance all either slept in Cheryl's house, Kelly's (another humane society member) house, or slept in tents. We picked up two vets Barbie and Diane and some supplies and made the drive out to Lauli'i where the clinic was set up at the Fire/Police Station. Dave and I were assigned the duty of recovery. Cheryl starting checking the people in and we got the clinic set up and underway. Please excuse the bad pictures. This camera I have now stinks. I will try to get a new one soon that takes better pictures.

Cheryl checking in some puppies for desexing:

Setting up the Clinic:

Once the dogs and cats were given their anesthesia then they started being sent over to the tables for de-sexing. At this clinic all of the action took place in the same room. The tables you see above was where the vet techs prepped the animals for de-sexing. The animals were then moved over the operating tables on the other side of the room where Diane and Barbie did the desexing. Then the animals were transferred onto a large tarp where Dave and I did recovery.

As a person working in recovery you have a few different tasks. The main task is to watch the animals, monitor their breathing, heartbeat, etc to make sure that they are all doing fine. Only the dogs were sent to our recovery area. When the dogs came over they have a tube down their throat. The tube is not removed until the dog attempts to swallow twice. At this point your remove the tube because the dog could swallow the tube and choke. While the dog is still sleeping my job consisted of removing ticks and spraying tick, flea spray on the back of the dog, and clipping toe nails. We also give each dog de-wormer after they wake up a little. On this day I became the puppy guy for some reason. At one point I had eight puppies all lined up. I was monitoring them all at once.

Puppies:

More pupppies:

Me working with the puppies - picking off ticks:

Local Department of Agriculture Vet Tech working with Barbie to desex a dog:

On Friday we desexed around 40 dogs. For some reason we got done a bit early, packed up, and went back to Tafuna. I asked the volunteers if any of them wanted to go out snorkeling and got one taker. After returning to Tafuna and dropping off the supplies Barbie and I went snorkeling out at Airport Beach. I didn't take any photos but it was nice and we did see a turtle. We hung washed the salt off in the pool at my apartment complex and then I took her back to Coconut Point. I then went home, hung out with some friends for a while, and went to bed. I bet you wanted to know that - right?

Cheryl had asked me to stop by the clinic the next day. Which was the last day of the desexing clinic. I stopped by around noon and helped by driving the volunteers around so that they could use the internet, go shopping, etc. Basically just trying to make their trip as easy as possible since they all spent so much money to come here and help us. On a side note. I went shoe shopping with Emma, the director of Animal Balance. I commented that the shoes she was looking at were cool and she tole me I was a feminine male. Well not exactly like that but that was the gist. She quickly followed this up by saying "oh and of course feminine males are the best." Well...I can appreciate a nicely fashioned shoe without be feminine - right?

We had some crazy stuff happen at the clinic on Saturday. Sometimes people can be so cruel and callous. We had two separate people say that they would kill their animal if we didn't take it. One of the animals was just a tiny little puppy and one of the Humane Society members took it. The lady that had it threatened to throw it in the garbage if someone didn't take it. The dog had a wound on its back and is sick and weak. Lisa is nursing it back to health and said that it is already doing better - but that the antibiotics do not agree with its tummy.

Lisa and the puppy:

After the clinic wrapped up I helped cart supplies back to Coconut Point then took Barbie out shopping. I ate dinner with the vets over at Cheryls. The volunteers then all sort of went their separate ways. Some of them went out with Cheryl to get Wilson to do traditional Samoan tattoos. If you want a traditional samoan tattoo you can get in touch with Wilson by clicking on this link Tisa's Barefoot Bar. After dinner Barbie and I went to a party at my apartment complex and then went dancing at Maliu Mai Beach Resort. She takes dancing lessons and knows what she is doing. I tried to remember some swing dancing moves I learned 14 years ago and ended up waking up with a sore back, which still hurts today. Yes I was trying to show off - it happens on occasion. Usually with some consequences.

The next morning I was finally roped into going on the "Man Hike" up Nu'uuli falls. Kevin and Jeremy went as guides and were taking Barbie and me. The hike was sort of grueling - but not at all as bad as I had imagined. I suppose that all of the crazy hikes I did as a kid in Idaho made it seem not so bad. There were some areas that you had to be extremely careful and the hiking through the rain forest is hard. The ground is slippery, the rock are slippery, the tree branches are slippery, basically everything is slippery. My Keen sandals which usually have an amazing grip were slipping all over. I almost feel a couple of times and did fall once, luckily I saved myself from harm.

The hike took about thirty to forty minutes. We hiked up past two or three waterfalls to the waterfall known as the slide of death. I will have to admit when I got to the top of the slide of death it was intimidating. I do not know if I would have done it a year ago. But now in my current reckless and adventurous state I thought wtf. Well that and Barbie did it before me so I couldn't really let a five foot tall 100 pound girl do it and then chicken out could I. I learned the hard way to sit up the entire way on the first slide down. The second time down I sat up. For some reason sliding down waterfalls made me feel like I was in the movie South Pacific or something. It seems like a south pacific island sort of thing to do.

We also jumped off the side of the cliff into the water. I would say it was about a 25 foot jump. I hate jumping off cliff's. But I did it a few times. It was actually exhilarating. My adrenaline was pumping faster than it had in a long time. I think I will go on more of these crazy hikes with Kevin and Charlie when they go. It can help me get in shape and quench my desire for an adrenaline rush. We did a couple more rock slides while we up there and hiked to what was termed a "romantic waterfall cave." Well it sort of was actually. I will try to get more pictures from other people that were there and add to this post later. I only got one clear photo. The rest were too fuzzy.

Barbie about to jump:

After the hike (and after jumping the battery in the truck because the lights were left on). We all went over to an Umu at Cheryl's house for the vets. The Umu was fantastic. Levi did a fabulous job. The palasami was great, as well as the Taro, Pig, and breadfruit. After the Umu I said goodbye to the vets, went home, and took a nap. I then went to a birthday party for Phil and said hello to Barbara, who is back on island to attend Phil and Lucy's wedding. It was a nice little night. But I drank a little too much wine. Stopped at the airport on the way home so Charlie and Kevin could look at the fighter jets parked on the runway and argue over what type of jets they were. While there I said my final goodbye to the Animal Balance volunteers and ended the weekend. Sorry about the long post. But it was a fun weekend for me.

Destroying Wasp Nests in American Samoa

2010-03-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

Okay so just to update you on the wasps at the school. I talked with one of the teachers at the school yesterday and asked if the nests had been destroyed. In the last post I gave you my imagined scenario of what happened. I know you were all thinking - yeah right. I mean they have wasp spray in Samoa - right? Uh, yes we do. I would buy it. I would even use it even with my aversion to chemicals (I would probably wear a mask and gloves). Those cans shoot forty feet. I can stand back and aim and be safe. Wonderful invention.

So I was a little bit wrong in my prediction. The man that was delegated the task of getting rid of the wasp nests went a little more prepared than I thought. Instead of a stick he had a machete. Instead of a tank top he had on a t-shirt. Not sure if he was wearing shorts. He went out and whacked all of the weeds down and destroyed the nests. The greatest thing was that the palagi principal was asked if the man needed to cover up and the answer was "oh...I don't thinks so. He has been stung before." I mean - what? No idea if he survived or how many times he was stung. Gotta love Samoa.

Wasp Attack

2010-03-03T13:00:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I got a chat on g-mail from Everett's teacher telling me that Everett had been stung by wasps at school. I chatted with her a bit and asked how he was doing. Then I e-mailed Julia and asked if she had any Benadryl at her office that she could take by and give to him. She works in Tafuna, which is close to the school. She was nice enough to go buy some benadryl, drive to the school, and give some to Everett. After looking at him she was concerned that he may have been having a significant allergic reaction and she asked if I would meet her at the hospital. I met her at the hospital and the kids and I started yet another LBJ Tropical Medical Center adventure.

Everett's Face after stings:

We arrived at the hospital and went in and paid our ten dollars for an emergency room appointment. After looking at the crowd at the emergency room I estimated three to four hours of wait time. Here is a view of the front of the hospital:

Here is where we waited. We waited inside but you can wait outside if you like as well. As you can see:

So we went inside and sat down. Inside of emergency room:

And waited....and waited...and waited. An hour went by...still hadn't been able to be seen by the nurse.

Kids after one hour:

We finally got into the nurse after about an hour and a half. We then waited about another forty five minutes to see the doctor.

Kids after two hours:

This picture was after the Disney Channel started the same movie over again. Yes even cable television stinks here. About fifteen minutes after this photo we were seen. Everett was examined by a doctor. The doctor looked at him, looked in his ears, looked at the stings, asked what medicine he had taken, the usual. The doctor seemed to think he looked fine. I asked about steroids. The doctor said sure if you want them. Bam 15 minutes later we were walking out with two doses of steroids and a prescription for more (just in case we have another bee sting in the future - doc said he would only need two doses for this). Doctors have no problems handing out medications here. Sometimes it really amazes me how if you ask = you receive.

Anyway, overall it was actually a short, efficient, wait at LBJ. I have waited there for five hours before. I have to say thank you to Julia for helping out on her week that she didn't have the kids. Fa'afetai Tele Lava. Everett is fine. The swelling has gone down and he even went to school today. Perhaps he will think twice before running around in the shrubs at school. I was told that the school took care of the situation. They sent someone out there. Then I imagined a man with a stick in a tank top and shorts "taking care" of the situation. I hope whoever got rid of the wasps is okay.

Pillow Talk

2010-03-02T12:17:00.000-08:00

Last night we wen to Cost-U-Less to do some shopping. Cost-U-Less is the Pacific Island imitation of Costco. Some people call it Cost-U-More because of the prices. But you they still shop there because...well the prices are still better than the rest of the island. If you are thinking of moving to the South Pacific and are reading this post and just got excited thinking that life will be good with a Costco type store - you may want to calm down. Cost-U-Less, although wonderful, is not at all on the level of Costco. The selection is slim and they usually always have the same stuff. That being said its the best place to shop on the island...ha.

So yesterday Simon, Everett and I went to Cost-U-Less with James. James is new here so he was buying not food items and one of the things that he picked up was a big long pillow. Simon got a hold on this pillow and started being silly. He really liked it. The pillow was made out of really soft material and he was wrapping it around himself and saying how soft and perfect it was. He did this for like ten minutes. It was really funny because Everett finally said in response to Simon's playful antics "Actually its sort of embarrassing." Really fun night - lol - after shopping we went home and had chicken, french fries, and cheese sticks for dinner. Lovely.

Everett Being embarrassed

This is what he was doing basically the entire time in the store. Funny Kid.

American Samoa Webcam

2010-03-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

I decided that I would try to hook up my webcam to broadcast out my office window. I do not believe that there are any live streaming webcams in American Samoa right now. Well the radio station may have one. Anyway with all of the recent disasters and warnings of pending doom I thought that a webcam showing a beach and the outside would be a great way for people to see what is actually happening here. Also it is just sort of fun isn't it. If I can figure out how to make it zoom in I will so that there is a better view of the ocean. Here is a link to the cam American Samoa Live Streaming Webcam.

Simon and the Bird

2010-03-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Since we have lived in American Samoa we have been fortunate enough to be close friends with many of the local scientists. Tutuila is a really small island and the palagi community is even smaller. This fact combined with the fact of government housing and living next door to each other means that you get to know each other really well. Sometimes this is great and sometimes not so great. But in this case it is great. Anyway, back to my main point. We have a friend here with injured fruit bats in a cage in his yard. The same friend is the turtle guy and every now and then we get to see him work with sea turtles.

We now have a good friend named Lainie who I will call the bird girl of Tutuila. I just made that up. Nice huh? Lainie has brought several birds home since we have lived here on the island. Right now she has a White-tailed Tropicbird and she is nursing it back to health. I believe that she released the last two birds that she had back into the wild. She has been really nice about letting the kids see and handle the birds. She has also explained to my science hungry son what they are doing with them. Well the whole purpose of this post is to post pictures of Simon holding the bird so...

Here is Simon holding the White-tailed Tropicbird

Tsunami Warning

2010-02-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

So the first two years that I lived in American Samoa I think we may have had one warning for an emergency. That all changed on September 29, 2009 when we were hit by an earthquake and then five minutes later a large tsunami that devastated a large portion of the island. Since that time we have had around five tsunami warnings. Some of them were unnecessary and some were legitimate. Yesterday we had another one after the earthquake near Chile (yes Chile is around 7,000 miles away). NOAA sent out a tsunami warning for the entire pacific ocean including American Samoa, Hawaii, Australia, and even Alaska.

So Friday night the boys slept over at their friend Noah's house and I went out with some friends. We went to Rubbles bar and then to the Airport Karaoke bar. This is where I realized that the flash on my new (used) camera does not work and takes creepy red pictures instead. I sang until my voice was gone. Yes people I actually sang. I have found that I actually like singing Karaoke. Everyone sounds decent through those microphones. Maybe they are magical or implanted with a device to smooth out the voice. I have no idea.

Anyway I returned home and James and I walked over to Maliu Mai where we were planning to end the night. But when we got over there everyone was gone. The band wasn't playing and the lights were off. We had no idea what was going on so we walked back home and went to bed. About twenty minutes later I got a call from James who told me we were under a tsunami warning. I asked when it was projected to hit us. He said 9a.m. I thanked him and went back to sleep. But sleep was not to be. I got another call an hour and half later and another call at 6 a.m. I only slept about an hour.

In the morning the kids came home around 6:30. We got ready, piled into the car and drove up the street to the service station. It is about 90 feet above sea level and a half mile from the ocean in any direction. We hung out there with Pirate Chris, Stephanie, and James. The kids got bored and were climbing trees and all over the cars. After the time that the tsunami was scheduled to hit had passed we drove down to the end of the runway, which is a safe distance from the beach, to see if there were any waves. We stayed there for about a half an hour and then went to McDonalds and had some lunch. Here is a picture from the end of the airport runway.

The warning was finally lifted at 12:30 and we were able to return to our home at Freddy's Beach. Unfortunately a warning to stay out of the ocean remained in place and the kids were not able to go to their sailing lessons. We hung out around home, went swimming, and their friend Noah slept over. That was the end of a very long day. Oh and I do not think the waves increased in size more than a couple of feet. Absolutely no damage and we are all fine.

Spay and Nueter Clinic and Airport Beach

2010-02-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

As a member of the American Samoa Humane Society I have been helping try to improve the situation of animals here in American Samoa. If you do not know already we have a huge stray dog problem. There are many factors that go into the reasons for the strays which includes no fenced yards, inadequate veterinary services (none), poverty, lack of education on animal welfare, and the list goes on and on. This week we are fortunate enough to have an animal welfare group in American Samoa (Animal Balance) on the island to do a huge spay and neuter campaign. So far the group has already spayed and neutered hundreds of animals. Yesterday I volunteered to help out and went around the island helping to catch stray dogs.

I arrived about eight in the morning and was asked to join the dog catchers. We loaded into a large service van and hit the road. Our first business of the day was to release a stray that had been picked up the day before. We took the dog over to the airport and let him go. By this time the sun was beating down. It honestly had to be one of the hottest days so far this year. Normally in American Samoa there is some cloud cover but yesterday was bright and clear, hot and dry (for me - probably only 90% humidity). It was obvious that the day was going to end up being a scorcher, which worried me because we were next going after the notorious KS Mart Mangy dog.

A little history on Mangy dog. She has lived at one of the local supermarkets since she was a puppy. The first time I saw her she couldn't have been more than six weeks old. By that time she had absolutely no hair. Her skin was black, flaking, and oily. The mange bugs had completely taken over. She was also extremely malnourished and obviously suffering. Many attempts were made early on by many different people to catch the KS Mart dog. None were successful. Eventually several concerned local citizens began feeding KS mart dog and her health began to improve. But she still was covered in mange. So yesterday first thing we set out to capture her.

We arrived at KS Mart and started looking around. No KS Mart dog. It was a real let down. Fortunately when we were just about to leave she came trotting up. A few treats later and she was loaded in the car and on the way to the clinic. She was actually a really nice dog and easy to capture. I give credit to the Animal Balance volunteers for being able to pick her up so easily. On a side note she almost was forgotten at the clinic. She is so small and cute that I think she almost got passed up and the Vets were so busy that if it hadn't been for one of the Humane Society she would have had to wait until the next day.

KS Mart Dog at Department of Agriculture Kennel awaiting spaying (she was named Dingo):

After we captured the KS Mart dog we went looking for more dogs. We were very successful and were able to capture some dogs in Lions Park and out by Maliu Mai Beach Resort. They were all taken in for desexing. After KS Mart Dog the day just got crazier and crazier. There was a small white dog that was running around in the Tafuna Correctional Facility. We talked with the prison guards and asked them if we could catch her. The guards were very nice and let us in. This is when me and two animal trainer volunteers from Florida entered into the correctional facility. One of the trainers being a five foot two - ninety pound lady. Yes they let us right in. In the yard there were prisoners just strolling around unattended. This is the general population.

The lady and her husband from Animal Balance followed the dog around attempting to capture it. Luckily for them the prisoners jumped right in to help. Calling out the dogs name and trying to entice it in with treats. Then possibly the biggest most muscular man that I have ever seen in my life came to assist. He was following right behind the lady volunteer helping out. He was at least four times her size. One of his arms probably weighs as much as me. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. I turned to the prison guard and asked if they were okay and of course he was like oh yeah they are fine no one here will do anything. Uh...yeah ITS A PRISON. I knew one of the guys helping and he was in for murder...MURDER. Insane.

But you know the guard was right no one did anything. They just helped out and we were able to catch the dog. I was so overwhelmed with the entire scene that I didn't even think to take any pictures. So you will just have to picture it for yourself. Lets just say that I was not overly impressed with the security at the prison and was glad that it all went well. Man those volunteers are dedicated. I would have never done that by myself. At Maliu Mai I was able to capture my first dog. A puppy. Yeah Im good at this...lol.

That is my catch on the right - I think they named her princess and the dubyaks are trying to adopt her out.

Here are some pictures from airport beach when I hiked out there the other day with the new Assistant Attorney General James. It has been really sunny the last few days so everything was very beautiful.

Surfed the Line

2010-02-23T18:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you just need a break. Something to perk you up. I need one right now. It would be nice to get out here for a month and go back to the mainland or to Hawaii. This past weekend I got perked up a little. I finally surfed the line. I surfed down the face of the wave instead of just going straight. Too bad high tide isn't at a better time this week or I would be going out every day after work. I may have to go out by myself. There just are not enough surfers here to always have company if you want to surf every day. Im looking into buying a new board for the transition off of my learning board. Hopefully I have enough cash to do it.

Oh you know what is crazy. Today the Lt. Governor of American Samoa's trial concluded. Ended in a hung jury. The judge polled the jury and 11 were for acquittal and only one for conviction. This was on all counts. Maybe the case wasn't as airtight as the feds thought. Not the result a lot of people were expecting.

Pictures

2010-02-18T13:03:00.000-08:00

I thought that everyone would like to see some pictures of the kids. Now that I have a camera again I will try to post more. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong memory stick so I can only take about 12 pictures at a time. I will have to order another one soon.

Everett Being Silly:

I went out to the pool to try out my new camera in its underwater case. It was fun and I took some pictures of the kids. Now I just need to get out and take some pictures diving.

Simon in the Pool:

Simon and Everett's friend Noah in Pool

Everett in the Pool

Clif in the Pool

Simon Drawing on my cheap learning surfboard. Everett, Noah, and Simon had a good time drawing on the board. This way no one will think that my board is theirs. A lot of new surfers have the same cheap foam board since they were on clearance at the local "surf" shop.

My injured feet (from surfing) - now I have booties so alls well. Coral Reef is brutal on the body.

Blind Date

2010-02-18T11:48:00.000-08:00

Alright so I have entered back into the dating scene lately. Strange experience really. A friend of mine told me that they know someone who thinks I am "cute" and wants to set me up. Thing is this friend is a Fafafine and...well I am a little bit nervous about exactly what I am getting myself into. Im sure it is a woman (pretty sure) but not too sure what a fafa would consider as beautiful. Anyway, this is a good friend of mine and I feel obligated but I am sort of getting cold feet. It may turn out to be one wild weekend. But surfing comes first so if the waves are good = no date. I may be a different man after this weekend. lol.

Near Miss

2010-02-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

Wow the anticipation of waiting for a huge storm is overwhelming. The predictions of when hurricane Rene was supposed to make landfall on Tutuila went from 9p.m. to 12a.m. to 9p.m. to 4a.m. and then the darn thing missed us entirely. It was a long crazy stressful night. The kids couldn't go to sleep. I think somewhat out of anticipation and somewhat because they were scared. Luckily it ended up totally missing the island and we were fine. We did get some strong winds - but not hurricane strength - and some rain.

On Thursday I got in trouble with my friend's wife when I convinced him to go surfing with me the day before a hurricane was supposed to come. Yeah there were warnings of strong rip currents and big waves. We went out anyway. It actually sort of stunk. We are not good enough yet to surf the bigger waves and end up catching the second break farther in on the reef. On Thursday there was not enough force to really get us going and it was sort of a downer. The ava (riptide) was pretty strong and it got a little hairy there for a minute but overall it was good times.

Today looks great for surfing, but I have the boys so stuck in the office and then at home. Darnit.

Learining to Surf Continued

2010-01-25T19:12:00.000-08:00

Alright so I went surfing three times this last week. I learned some quick lessons the first time out. Such as - when you surf in the tropics and there is a reef 1.5 feet down DO NOT jump in feet first. My feet can tell you all about how this is a Big problem. I think I may have broken a toe. A piece of coral went between two of my toes. This does not feel good at all. I ordered reef booties today to help fix this problem. My feet are scraped up and battered now. The idea is to jump in perfectly flat and cover your head. Not exactly easy when you are learning but you get the lesson quickly once you get hit.

So far I damaged my feet, got a 4" by 4" coral scrape on my left thigh, and got a 3" by 3" coral scrape on my rear. They all itch like crazy. Coral scrapes itch I believe because the coral continues to live in your skin for a few days. I have gotten many coral scrapes scuba diving but have never had so many at once and never on my feet. It is worth it though. Being out in the ocean is amazing. It is so beautiful and tranquil. Then when you catch that wave and ride it in its like nothing else. There is power behind that. Nature giving you a ride.

I can get up pretty easy but now I need to learn to actually carve the wave. No we will see how that goes. Expect more scrapes. Okay one of the scrapes got infected. On my ankle. Which may mean no surfing this weekend. These types of infections are common here. Coral scrapes get infected easily. No fun. This is my third bad infection on the island. On crazy strong antibiotics. Hopefully I will not get a scar like the last two infections.

The Joy of Reading

2010-01-22T11:59:00.000-08:00

For the past several years I have been trying to read a biography on each US president. I actually thought that I would be done with it a long time ago. Lately I have been fortunate enough to actually have the time to read and have been breezing through the bio's. Yesterday I finished the biography of Chester Arthur - who right? Yeah he was a machine politician. He only became president because Garfield was assassinated. Probably the least impressive president from Washington until he assumed office. Anyway, I am on to Moby Dick now. I need to finish that up. Here is a quote that I got out of it that I liked:

"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God Keep Thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return." Moby Dick.

Oh my trial is over. It ended up only going for two days. I think that we did fine but you never know what the judges will think. I now have to write a written closing which will be my main project over the next month and a half - well that and the next trial that I have coming up in two weeks.

Trial

2010-01-20T19:27:00.000-08:00

So I just got through my first day of trial in High Court. It went fine. Wish me luck, it looks like I have two more days left.

Surfing

2010-01-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

So I had a great weekend. I decided that I am going to learn to surf. I have put it off here at first because it is fairly dangerous because of the shallow breaks over the reef and then because I was dealing with the disintegration of my marriage. Now that I am moving on I decided that I need some new hobbies. I am hoping that surfing will replace snowboarding. I bought a $40 surfboard. I dorky foamy training board that I am going to use to go out and try to learn on. Hopefully I will get out around four times a week when I have the kids and ten to twelve when I do not. I tried going out to night clubs and such but am already getting burnt out on it and think that surfing will give me the fix that I need. This should be fun...if I survive. Wish me luck.

This is where I went surfing. I wish it still looked like this. Now there is a road along the shore. It is still, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island of Tutuila.

Alao Beach:

Ode to Coeur d' Alene

2010-01-15T15:15:00.000-08:00

Okay so lately I have been nostalgic about Coeur d' Alene. I miss the smell of pine trees in the mountains. I miss going to the lake and walking the boardwalk. Right now I would be the happiest man in the world if I was sitting at one of the businesses on Sherman Avenue drinking a glass of wine and reminiscing with family or old friends. God it would be nice to be floating down Schweitzer Mountain on a good powder day. I love the freedom and solitude of snowboarding. There is nothing that compares to it in the entire world. Im sure I will miss American Samoa when I leave. It really is a wonderfully beautiful place but there is something about home that never really leaves you. You walk into your parents home and you feel 16 again. Its like all of the responsibilities of being an adult wash away. Fuck I could use this right now.

Tsunami

2010-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Okay I know this is old news but here are some of the photos that I took the day after the Tsunami that hit American Samoa on September 29, 2009.

Church in Leone

Pago Pago

Cleaning up the Territorial Registrars Office - files where placed in boxes and taken to Samoa Packing

where they were placed in the freezer with the frozen fish to prevent mold from destroying the damages

records.

The soccer field. Navy out cleaning.

Leone

Pago Pago

School in I believe Tula - entire bottom floor of the school damaged

Cleaning up in Leone - Of course we had to light a fire

Hanging out the day of the Tsunami - It was crazy and it took me

over two hours to track down my kids.

We had a visiting vet come from WSPA to help any injured animals.

As a member of the humane society I helped set up and coordinate the visit.

This is a picture of the Humane Society meeting we had to discuss the work.

Introduction

2010-01-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

Well I decided to start up my own blog. If you want to see what my life was life was like before I became a single man see HartyParty. Just some information. I live in the US territory of American Samoa. I have shared custody of my two boys, who stay with me every other week. I work as an attorney for the American Samoa Government. I have lived here in American Samoa for 2.5 years. This site is mainly for family and friends to keep up with me and the kids since we do not get back to the USA that often. Actually I haven't seen my parents since I moved here. It is a very small place.

Photos:

Everett's Birthday Party

During Everett's Birthday party we attended the magic circus of Samoa, which is a circus based out of the Independent Nation of Samoa and which tours the pacific island nations. It comes to American Samoa about once every three years.

The globe of death at the magic circus of Samoa - five motorcyclists were riding around in that ball.

Sunset on Coconut Point in Nuuuli, American Samoa

Okay folks well that is it for now. I lost my camera in Chicago and just barely got a new one but have to buy a cable so that I can download the pictures. But more photos will be coming soon.