Manuia Aso Faafetai (Happy Thanksgiving)

I say each time I write a blog that I will be better at posting, however, it seems that my posts keep getting further and further apart.  I’m sorry.  I want to keep everyone up-to-date on what I am doing, but I rarely seem to have the time to sit down and type something out.  I’ve started keeping an old fashion journal though the remember what is happening. 

Anyways, I’ve survived my first holiday in Samoa and away from my family.  It actually didn’t really feel like there was a Thanksgiving.  Yes, it is celebrated here, but not like in the States.  It is much more low key; no huge feast, a small turkey run, and no Black Friday.

A lot of the volunteers used the break to go visit the volunteers who are placed in Manu’a, the outer islands.  I decided to stay home and relax for five days.  Here is a peak into what my Samoan Thanksgiving looked like…

Wednesday 11/21 started at 3:15AM (I’m not a morning person).  Jill, Sara, Amber, Drew, and I made our way to the school (walking of course) with out any dogs chasing us!  Leone High School has a Turkey Run every year, similar to the Drumstick Dash in Roanoke, but much smaller.  This was the 29^th year of the run.  About 300 people ran and walked the 4.5 mile route.  The route went through the different villages surrounding the school and along the shore of Sliding Rock.  Amber and I finished our walk in an hr and 16 mins.  I’m pretty sure the time was wrong.  We did not walk that fast.  The winners to the race won a turkey!  Sara won for the female runners and Amber came in 3^rd for the walkers.  The entire race and awards ceremony was over by 8AM and we were able to go home.  No school that day.  I enjoyed having the day finished that early and being able to do whatever I wanted for the rest of the day.  Maybe I will become a morning person and start getting up early everyday.  (probably not)

(Sara, Amber, and I ready at the starting line)

 (The view towards the end of the race)

 (All the turkeys waiting on the winners)

Sounds like a great time, right?  It was except for the fact that I saw a man died right in front of me.  I’ve seen dying people before and have been to funerals, but I’ve never watched a person die while I stood there.  Amber and I were walking about 20 mins after the race started and the man in front of us collapsed. A woman started CPR, another one called 911, and I called the school.  There were no free ambulances and the hospital is 45 mins to an hr away.  He had to be driven until the car met up with an ambulance.  He was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.  I have a friend who is  a nurse at the hospital and she said they think he had a heart attack.  I watched the man die and there was nothing I could do.  He was only 40 years old.  He left his family that morning to support the local high school and never made it home.

Tafuna Baptist Church invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them on Wednesday night.  It was a church potluck, but mostly typical American Thanksgiving food.  There were about 20 people there and there was so much food, everything except for pumpkin pie.  The church has a school connected to it.  There are volunteers teaching there from South Carolina, Tennessee, and one other southern state that I can’t remember.

On Thanksgiving, my landlords, the Purcells invited us to go to their family land in Utumea to swim and have lunch.  We had Thanksgiving dinner right on the beach.  The food was spread across a bench, we ate on a piece of cardboard, and the kids played  in the water.  We had turkey, hotdogs, bbq chicken, chop sui (I don’t know what it is and don’t want to know, but it is so good),  potato salad, green bean casserole, stuffing, rice, pumpkin cake, and banana cake.

 (Sara and Amber)

 (Jill, Alison, and Drew)

 (the meal)

 (Serving table)

 (My landlords grandkids)

(The beach)

After eating some of us napped on the beach while others went for a swim.  The beach was an actual sandy beach and had trees to offer shade.  I loved being able to be on the beach, even if I was wearing a tshirt and skirt instead of a bathing suit. 

Thanksgiving in Samoa was fun and relaxing.  I was able to talk to my family for a few minutes during the morning.  I missed not seeing the Macy’s parade, not hearing a football game in the background, not walking the Drumstick Dash with 15,000 other people, and mostly not laughing around the table with my family.    However, since I felt like Thanksgiving didn’t really happen the homesickness wasn’t too bad.