After stumbling off the airplane at 3 in the morning in the rain (might as well get a realistic view of the weather from the first moment on) and being greeted by a host of current volunteers, we got on a beautiful brightly painted bus and bounced our way into Apia. When we finally arrived at our hotel and got our massive quantities of luggage to our rooms it was already five in the morning and the roosters were crowing. Speared on by a portion of us that had actually gotten five minutes or more of sleep on the plane, we decided to watch the sunrise and stay awake rather than napping a bit before our morning activities began. We all wandered into “downtown” Apia at least a bit, just to check it out. The water in the harbor is pretty much all surrounded by large lava rocks and there is a beautiful boardwalk that you can traverse from one end of town to the other with the ocean on your one side and a view of the town with the mountain looming in the background on the other. All along the water are planted huge banyan trees that are not only breath-taking but provide a much-appreciated respite from the heat of the direct sunlight. As we were wandering around town we kept nudging each other and saying “guess what? We LIVE here…” It was an amazing feeling. I think within a couple of hours we all felt so comfortable and excited and in a weird way at home, even if we are living out of duffle bags with what basically amount to complete strangers. At 10 we convened in the outdoor courtyard area of the hotel to be debriefed on the ‘ava (kava in some other Polynesian countries) ceremony that was to be held in our honor by the Peace Corps staff and current volunteers. We then loaded into vans and went, all fourteen of us desperately stumbling over the five word Samoan phrase they told us we were to say when we were offered the ‘ava which is of course still relatively gibberish to us all since we have not begun language training. We arrived at an open fale (houses and buildings here, particularly outside of Apia, are called fale’s and are basically large oval structures with no walls that are thatched roofs held up by large pillars. They’re beautiful because it gives you the sense of being inside while still being completely a part of your surroundings. We all sat in a large circle and all of the important individuals gave speeches in Samoan about how glad they were to have us and how excited everyone is. Then one of the current volunteers made the ‘ava by rinsing and ringing out root fibers in this large wooden bowl with tiny legs all around the base. A small coconut shell was dipped into it and in an order that I’m sure made sense although I couldn’t quite figure out what was driving it, each new trainee was offered a cup of ‘ava. We did our best to regurgitate the phrase we had been running through our heads of the past hour, poured a little out for respect and drank some. I have heard many things about ‘ava, from it looking and tasting like dirty dish water to it making your whole face go numb when you tasted it. Maybe it was the 36 hours without sleep that I was running on, or my overall adrenaline, or the fact that most of it made it on my shirt (those of you who know about my drinking issues will of course have seen this one coming) , but other than it being vaguely particulate and crunchy tasting I didn’t get much of a sense of what it was like. The ceremony as a whole, however, was an amazing experience. Every time I looked out the fale to the left, there was the huge mountain that divides Apia in two looming at the end of an open field. At one point a huge mass of clouds swept over the top and we watched them descend down the mountain towards us. In the middle of the ceremony it began to rain and all around you could see the water coming down all around. We came back here for lunch where we drank cold fresh young coconut milk straight out of the fruit, which was the most refreshing thing I have ever tasted (this impression possibly fueled by the streams of sweat that were by then rolling down my back). After lunch we had a brief common expression language lesson and hopped in vans to be taken on a driving tour around town. I must admit that eating lunch was the kiss of death that turned my exhaustion into full-fledged delirium and I spent the majority of the rest of the afternoon having a psychological war with myself over the fact that I had to stay awake whether or not my brain was capable of functioning. I wish I had been more coherent when we were driving around but we definitely got a little bit of a sense of the area if nothing else, and were taken to a place where we could actually walk into the water and get our feet wet in the local ocean for the first time, which was cool. In the evening the whole group of trainees went out to dinner together at a little seafood grill place where I think at least half of us ordered fish and chips. They said they had a vegetarian burger on the menu. All of a sudden my mind is racing a mile a minute conjuring up images of black bean burgers and soy protein, but when pursued it turned out this meant egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato and pineapple, so I figured I would pass. We all ate quickly and realized we were absolutely exhausted and in no mood to socialize so we walked back here and retired to our respective rooms to crash. I woke up at five o’clock this morning (yes, Mari really woke up before the sun), only 24 hours after first arriving in this amazing place, feeling a little congested and a lot in awe and amazement that our time here so far has been so brief yet so rich and powerful. This is truly a magical place and an extraordinary opportunity and I feel blessed (yes, my non-religious self is choosing that term) with the honor of being a part of it all.
CLICK ON THE PHOTO LINK AT THE LEFT TO SEE ALL OF MY PICTURES OF STAGING AND OUR FIRST DAY HERE!!!!!
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