many of the showers in samoa skip the hot water altogether, a fact i discovered all too quickly this morning. after my chilly rendezvous with cleanliness, i walked across the yard to see if tar was up.
we decided peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fresh papaya would make a fine breakfast. as we constructed our sandwiches a neighbor or a cousin or both showed up with a steaming casserole dish of cocoa rice. this chocolaty treat is rice prepared in coconut milk with cocoa mixed in. a few minutes later, someone else showed up with two bowls full of samoan pancakes, which are donut hole sized balls of banana batter deep fried to make yummy goodness. what started off as a modest PBJ snack turned into a samoan breakfast feast.
after breakfast, we walked through the beautiful and lush garden that surrounds tar’s grandmother's house. i don't know what an acre looks like, but if i had to tender a guess, i would say her property is at least an acre's worth.
tar's sister tatiana walked us around the corner to the neighborhood market run by a relative. the village is littered with small markets that are much like the bodegas in the mission district or in nyc, although some are in the front of people's homes. after stealing their cousin lu’ai to be our tour guide, the four of us set out the explore the expansive village of leone. i can only put this in terms that i know, so bear with me. leone, i guess, must be about the size of willits, which is to say it's several miles long and has a few thousand inhabitants.
we made the swimming holes our first stop on our late morning walk. the swimming holes are actually a network of caves in the volcanic rock that the local kids swim through. them things looked kind of scary to me, but then again, the tide was out, so the holes looked deep and dark. the ladies climbed down the lava rock-ed cliff face to put their feet in the water, while i stood above them taking pictures.
it was agreed that spelunking was not the day's charge, so we headed east towards another swimming area favoured by the locals. again, we had to climb down some lava rock, this time to a small beach. the beach was mostly worn down chunks of coral and a pockets of rough sand.
i got to put my feet in the water this time, and it was the best. when i was a wee lad, i went swimming at a beach in Santa Monica, but i've never experienced warm ocean water before. none of us were clothed for swimming so we splashed around in the water for a while. this mostly involved lu’ai taunting tatiana with a sea cucumber, and picking up a handful of water and dumping it on tati's head.
at certain point tatiana decided she wanted to go for a quick swim, but her gray shorts immediatly turned translucent. a group of boys roughly tatiana and lu’ai's age came hacking through the brush with a machete and jumped in the water. one of them used the machete to flick crabs off the lava rocks at his swimming friend. i think the girls got kind of shy around the boys, so we decided to leave. tatiana borrowed la’ui's lava-lava to cover her translucent shorts.
tar and i were pretty tuckered out from the morning's activities and decided to relax with a game of cards on her grandmother's front porch. being lunch time, it wasn't long before the food started arriving again. this time it was boiled breadfruit smothered in coconut milk, boiled bananas, and oka which is like a ceviche of raw tuna soaked in the lime juice and coconut milk with slices of green onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. the breadfruit was good, especially with some salt. the starchy fruit tasted similar to, but not exactly like, artichoke. i am not sure why they boiled the banana, because it rendered it incredibly bland. the banana wasn't bad once i dipped it the oka sauce.
still kind of jet lagged, tar and i retired to our respective quarters for an afternoon nap. i woke up before tar, and went with her mom, peti, to drop of her friend at the other side of the village.
it's really hard to describe what leone looks like. there aren't any zoning laws, which explains why people open business in their homes. some houses have sidewalks, some houses are built right next to the street, while others are way back from the street. every once and a while a house is parallel to the street, but usually they are canted any way from 5 to 45 degrees off the street. the houses a are generally made of cinderblock, presumably to withstand the hurricanes that blow through here in the winter months. most of the roofs are made of the ripple corrugated steel.
obviously everything is intensely green, and every front yard looks like it has been masterfully landscaped, but that's probably more of nature taking it's course than anything else.
there are dogs everywhere, and i am told i should carry a stick when i walk because some of the dogs will come at you. they are responsive to threats of stick or stone, though. all the dogs on the island seem to be of the same genetic mutt stock. they are small, maybe 25 pounds, lean bodies with long faces that give them a sort of an ancient dog look. they are usually brown or tan, but sometimes they have black markings. there's a few scrawny pathetic looking cats around too.
people don't keep dogs and cats as pets here like they do in the mainland. in fact, while any bodega back home would have a pet food on its shelves, i think you'd have to drive pretty far to buy actual dog food. the cats are totally feral, and live off of table scraps and whatever else they can scrounge up. they are tolerated because they take care of vermin, but you never have one those filthy creatures hop in your lap for a petting and purring session. although cute because kitties are cute, samoan cats are contemptible scrounges like pigeons, and like the dogs, they have an ancient, lean look to them.
you don't pet the dogs either. the dogs have it a little better. most dogs are freelancers, and they'll enter a contract with a family, exchanging vicious barks at strange cars or people and general protection duties for choice table scraps. the dogs act like regular dogs, wagging their tail excitedly when you come by or acknowledge their existence, and they take long naps in the shade of the carport. but they drink rainwater out of buckets and puddles, and scrounge for human leftovers.
later that evening, tar and i had dinner with her auntie salu and her uncle john at the equator restaurant, which is connected to the clarion suites tradewinds hotel. the hotel is prolly one of the nicest in american samoa, but was exactly what you would expect of a clarion suites anywhere's in the US. during the daytime, tar's mom peti has been heavily involved with a samoan language conference at the nearby american samoa community college. this evening the tradewinds hotel hosted a buffet and floor show for all the delegates. after dinner, the four of us walked over to the poolside floor show and met up with peti.
what can i say? the evening was absolutely stunning. we pulled up some chairs to the edge of the pull and watched the traditional polynesian dances from behind the stage. the almost full moon rose up the sky directly in front of us, illuminating the tops of the coconut trees. an occasional gentle breeze caressed our faces. it was one of those moments to sit back and enjoy, while thinking about how nice it is to be alive.
