I miss you grandmom!

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January 3rd (part three)

Sorry, this is definitely the last part for January 3rd. There was just way too much to write in a single blog post!

After I dropped Mike and Mark off on the 29th I went back home and stayed at Leafa’s for a while. I went to drop something off and the rain didn’t want to stop so I stayed and taught Leafa how to play solitaire. In the late afternoon, Keith (Leafa’s son) and I went to put traps out for the coconut crabs. Like their name implies, coconut crabs eat coconuts. They use their strong claws to rip open the husk and then get in for the meat. The trap consisted of some coconuts that Keith opened and attached on a wire which hung from a tree. The trap is just to keep them there eating. We needed to get back later that night to actually catch them.

Around 9:30 that night we went back into the bush with Leafa. We found three baby coconut crabs and one big boy. The big crab was hiding in its cave (their homes) so we couldn’t get to him, but we took the three babies home and they are currently our pets! I hope they stay our pets but Leafa probably will eat them when they get big! :-(

On Wednesday the SAT tutorial’s resumed. I stayed upstairs for a couple of hours working on some grades and cleaning my classroom. At 12:30, I walked home ready for lunch. As I was getting closer I heard drumming. I figured people were practicing for New Years Eve. When I entered the village, I realized they were playing cricket. I decided to watch for a bit before I joined the action. Eventually I went up to hit. I hit a few before I got out. Samoan cricket is a bit different than how the rest of the world plays cricket. You are split into two teams. When playing recreationally they don’t care how many people play on each of the teams, but there are only supposed to be 20. One team is out playing the field while the other is up to bat. You always have two people batting. On this slab of concrete probably 25 feet long you have a hitter at both ends. Behind the hitter is a wooden slab. For the ladies, the pitches are always on the ground rolling into you. For the men, the pitches are semi-professional up in the air with one bounce. You receive points depending on how high you hit the ball. If you hit it in the ocean or really far you receive two points. If you hit it anywhere else that isn’t right next to you, you receive one point. You can receive more than one if you and the other batter both decide to run and switch sides. If the ball comes back and makes it to the new side before you, you are out. If you hit a fly ball and it gets caught, you are out. Lastly, if the pitch gets past you and hits the wooden slab, you are out. Otherwise, you can stay up there all day long. Each team gets one chance to bat. At that time, you must get through every single one of their players before your team can go up to bat. The games usually last two or two and a half hours. On Wednesday, I caught the end of the cricket game when I got home. I decided to run home to eat lunch when it ended. When I arrived back after lunch, they started up a new game and I participated. The best part about cricket is I finally saw some liveliness within the village. The entire game is filled with music of some sort and people dancing. The drums are playing the entire time and then you have the person blowing the whistle who is in charge of the dancing. Every time someone gets out, the whistle blower blows the whistle and performs a little dance. It is very amusing now that the fafafines are home for the holidays. If you remember back to the beginning of the year, fafafines are just males dressing up as females because that’s what they feel more comfortable as.

Once cricket finished for the day, Crystal and I went back to my house for dinner. We hung out for a bit then walked in the back to look for some coconut crabs. I brought her to the place the Leafa, Keith, and I went the night before. This time, there were no coconut crabs. Very disappointing. Instead, I just showed her the ones we caught and she was happy.

On Thursday morning, I was woken up to some devastating news. Rest in peace grandmom Melvin, you will surely be missed. I stayed in bed all morning calling my sisters. I finally emerged from my room once Josh and Holly left to go up to the high school. Crystal was the only one that knew what was going on so I had her come over to keep me busy all day. We baked oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, and chocolate craisin cookies all morning! Around noon we threw the recipe for cinnamon raisin bread into the bread maker and then decided to head over and watch cricket. Once the games were over, we went on a hunt for tapioca. Tapioca grows all over the side of the road and we have been trying to figure out how to get it and cook it. We finally understood what to look for so we went hiking behind my house. On the trail there was no tapioca to be found. We ended up going off the path to find a whole field of tapioca behind my house. On my knees I started digging out the tapioca with my hands! Eventually we retrieved five small roots of tapioca! After showering, Crystal came back and we made some mashed tapioca for dinner. She didn’t like it but I didn’t mind it too much. It tasted like a potato but with a little less flavoring! Along with our cinnamon raisin bread, it was a nice dinner! That night Josh offered some cheese his brother sent for Christmas! Amazing! There is no cheese out here.

Friday was the last day of tutorial for the week. No one asked me why I didn’t show up on Thursday which I thought very interesting but we continued from where we left off and finally finished the geometry section!! Yah! At 1 o’clock I walked home to catch some cricket. I was pretty bored and didn’t watch for too long. After lunch, I grabbed Crystal and we went swimming for a bit. Instead of showering I decided to go for a long run and then come back to shower. I was running back into the village at around 5 when I found most of the kids swimming in the ocean. I decided to take off my sneakers and jump in with them. It was a nice cool down from the long run. That night was New Years Eve and of course that meant there was a church service to attend. At 11 PM Josh and I walked over to sit through the hour and forty-five minutes of torture! It was awful. There was no countdown, no happy new year, nothing. I just watched the entire village sleep while the pastor and high chief just kept on talking! After the service we went home and changed and walked back out for the New Years festivities. For two hours we walked the village behind a bunch of kids drumming a barrel of gas. Towards quarter to 3 I stopped walking and sat watching the stars. Eventually I got bored and went home to bed.

On the first day of 2011 I woke up at 9 o’clock and went to watch more Samoan cricket. After an hour I went home, did some carving, and relaxed. I eventually went for another run over to Ta’u and then had dinner. That night I received a phone call from Tautua. Trish made some Samoan pancakes and offered us to come over and eat!! Yah!! Of course I ran over and ended up staying and hanging out for the night.

On Sunday I just sat around the house. I didn’t have too much planned for the week except review so I didn’t need to go up to the high school.

First week back at school from Christmas break, yah!!!

Love,
Gretchen