Southern Coast

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the WorldTeach organization.

March 10th

After the boat ride on February 26th, I spent the next day, Sunday, recuperating and writing lesson plans for the week. It took three days for my reddened skin to tan. On Monday the 28th our field director, Alison, took a boat ride from Ofu to visit and sit in our classrooms for the day. The boat picked her up rather late on Monday and she didn’t arrive until around 3 PM. Crystal and I walked down to the village to meet her. We spent the night talking and catching up. On Tuesday, Josh rode in the truck up to school with her. She spent the day sitting in each of our classes. After school, we walked up to Saunoa’s and he drove us to Fitiuta showing us the park. It was a nice tour of our island but made for a tiring day. We didn’t arrive back in Faleasao until around 7:30. Josh cooked up some fish for Alison and I put on some rice and an hour later we ate dinner.

On Wednesday, Josh took the truck to school with Alison again and then she left for the 11 o’clock flight. I spent most of the week up at Saunoa’s. This coming Monday will be his last day in American Samoa so I have been spending a lot of time with him. Josh and I went up on Wednesday and made plans to go hiking for the weekend. We didn’t really set any specifics at that point but I was still very excited for our last adventure! On Friday when we discussed it again, we decided the best day would be Sunday and we would leave early in the morning to see the sun rise.

I woke up early on Saturday, brought my laundry up to school, taught the teacher’s in the praxis course, and walked to Saunoa’s with Crystal and hung out for a couple of hours. Around 3 o’clock, Saunoa brought us home and I went to work with grout, sea glass, and coral rock. In two and a half hours I was done one large piece and two smaller pieces. After I cleaned up my mess, Josh and I decided to go for a swim before the sa bell rang so we headed down to the wharf. The water was very rough and pulled us every which way so we only swam for about a half an hour. After swimming, we headed home to rest for our adventure the next day.

On Sunday, I was up at 4:30 baking some rolls and preparing for the long hike ahead of us. Saunoa came at 5:30. We sat around for about ten minutes before heading out. We managed to make it to Fitiuta just in time for the sun rise. After stopping for some photos, Saunoa drove us to the end of the road. We left my house at 5:30 and we returned home at 5:30 that night. The hike was pretty awesome. You alternate between beach, forest, and mostly lava rock the entire way. Our goal for the day was to go to the waterfall and swim and after that we would see what else we wanted to explore. The walk to the waterfall took about two to two and a half hours. It was a great time to stop. I unfortunately forgot to bring water shoes so I had the most difficult time at the waterfall. There are two huge drops to the waterfall. After the first one there is a pond and then another fifty foot drop. After this second drop, there is about a mile of streams and ponds that lead to the ocean. We walked along the water and rocks until we reached that second drop. There is no real trail to get to the higher drop so we didn’t attempt it. I managed to lose my balance and slip on the walk; I hit my shin on my right leg and sliced open my big toe on my left foot. It made for an interesting rest of the trip. I felt like a complete monkey the entire day using my arms to support my sore toe and leg. It didn’t stop us from continuing to the waterfall though!

After completing the walk to the waterfall, we ate lunch/midday snack and I cleaned up my toe before heading back out. We continued hiking the coast for probably three or four more hours. We walked on more lava rocks for most of the way. Eventually, we went on the trail up into the jungle where we stayed for a couple of hours. That was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. We came across coconut crab after coconut crab. I estimate that we saw twenty that day. The best part about coconut crabs are that each are different colors and very beautiful. Most of the crabs were small so we think their mom’s sent them off to get food. Saunoa decided on keeping two of the bigger ones and he took the head, pulled it back, and the crabs were dead! :-( Poor crabs. Right after we turned around, I spotted a coconut crab climbing up the limbs of a fern. It just looks like a huge spider climbing up the leg of an octopus!

As we were walking through the jungle we were joking that we were back in the Jurassic time period. You can see through some of my photos of the crazy trees that formed. One trees root’s connected to three other trees and formed a semi circle. The roots just stuck up out of the ground. The new fern shoots look like octopus arms coming out of the ground. There are ferns that grow on tree limbs or on rocks and can grow to three times my size. There are taro leaves that are as big as a person. It was pretty amazing to see this jungle which few in the world have seen. When I went to school this week and showed some of my students’ photos, they didn’t even know there was a waterfall on their island!!!

When we arrived home on Sunday, we were completely exhausted. I couldn’t go to sleep without uploading my new photos though! Saunoa ended up giving Josh and I both of the coconut crabs so while I continued to organize my photos, Josh boiled them up. Even though I don’t like seafood I decided that I better try a piece because there aren’t many places in the world that have coconut crabs and I have heard they taste amazing. I ended up eating a little over half the crab. It was actually very sweet and delicious. It didn’t taste fishy at all.

Unfortunately riding home on Sunday I was losing my voice and didn’t realize it was the start to an awful week of sickness. I had a cold all day Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday I started getting an upset stomach and it got to the point where I was in the bathroom all night. I ended up having to change my clothes in the middle of the night because I sweated through my first pair. I was pretty miserable the next morning and stayed home from school. I literally have been running to the bathroom about every ten minutes. Yesterday I got worse in the middle of the day and couldn’t eat and just felt nauseous. Last night wasn’t as bad; I only woke up three times to run to the bathroom. This morning I ate three frosted mini wheats and for the next 5 minutes ran back and forth between the bathroom. My biggest concern has been about getting dehydrated. Fortunately, I think I may overcome that as I am finally feeling better and am able to write this blog entry without getting up to run to the bathroom. I had the field director, Alison, look up a recipe for a rehydration drink and after having a cup of that I started feeling better. I have been taking cipro since yesterday and I think after that rehydration drink it is finally starting to kick in! Yah! I believe I lost ten pounds in the last two days though. Nothing has stayed down until my lunch of rice this afternoon!

Tomorrow I leave on the 11 AM flight to Tutuila. On Saturday I will be going to a wedding with Saunoa and then Monday I leave for Western Samoa with four other volunteers. We will first go to one of the outer islands for a few days and then spend the remainder of the week on their main island of Upolu. I will be back next Sunday so don’t miss me too much!!

Love,

Gretchen