Waterfalls, Fire Dancers and BUGS!

It is my turn now. Please notice that we put up a new album of pictures from Samoa in the N.Z. pictures. I think the best thing about Samoa are the wonderful, humble, generous and kind people. I loved them. Of course we met the expats, missionaries and employees. I wanted to meet some of the local people. Four of the days I was by myself so I took off walking and met some neat people. One woman asked me where I was going and we had a great conversation on the side of the road. Agnes invited me to come to her Fale and she would pick me some Mango's. We had a nice time together. She picked them with the longest wooden pole I have ever seen. Three sections held together with rubber strap & a bucket on the other end she would shove up and the mangoes fell into it. I loved the people in the temple where I did 4 ordinances that week. I loved the temple. WOW. It was so beautiful. Total strangers would come up to me and give me a hug (and sometimes a kiss) and tell me that they love me. Their attitude toward their temple is best put by what one brother told me. "We could hardly believe that our Heavenly Father could love us this much." The children and even teenagers were delightful. It was so fun to drive around in the evening and see everyone out playing in their front yards with each other. Lots of people playing in rivers, oceans, and big puddles after the huge rainstorms. We stood in back of a huge group of people at the stake center where they were holding a youth conference. We were the only palongies (white folk). The teenagers were even so welcoming and kind. People on the street would smile and greet you (even teens and youth). Family is everything here. Even church in may circumstances. We went to the CES graduation. It was for the high school that the church runs. 95 graduates with probably a huge pavilion full of people there supporting them. The kids broke out into there choreographed songs and dance at the conclusion. It was wonderful. Before I leave the people I need to always remember Albert Niuelua (the service center manager) and his fun wife Judith. They didn't need to host us but they absolutely were incredible hosts. Taking us all over and sharing their lives with us.

The thing I didn't care for was the bugs in the house. Bugs are okay outside. That is were they belong. But gecko, huge (did I say huge!) spiders, endless ants and very big cockroaches are not my idea of a indoor living environment. But I survived thanks to Bob's help in this area. We enjoyed the many beautiful fish we saw while snorkeling. Loved all the piggies everywhere. We stopped and feed the very large turtles. If you go you must do that. It is just by the side of the road and they are everywhere. Now they do have a dog problem. I stopped walking in the community because of it. I don't like to be surprised by a dog especially if they are in a pack of 6 or so. We saw several dogs actually get run over by cars. The next day we would see a new barbeque stand go up in that same spot.

Okay, you all know that I love waterfalls. There is a great one which people swim under in Sauniatu. We swam and slide down a smaller one called Pauasaea Sliding Rocks. (300 steps down to that one) The largest and coolest one is called Papapapatai Waterfall. It is 300 feet high. I bet there is a great trail to it but we didn't have time to look. You can see it from the Cross Island Road. As you continue on that road you find some really exclusive resorts. The beaches are white and such gorgeous sand. We ate at one of their buffets and saw the fire dancers there. We really loved that. I must say that I should have been more careful with the food. An expat that took us around claimed some things were safe that were not for my system. I did have to take the medicine that we brought with us for those problems. It worked very well.

When it rains it really floods things out. The last day as we were going to the airport it almost did not stop. They said it would last for a few days. I am sure that is one reason all the fales are up on stilts (also to keep out unwanted animals somewhat). We left for the airport at 10:30 pm. Our plane was to leave at 2 am. It did not leave until 4 am. We arrived in Auckland at 8 am. We hadn't slept hardly at all. It was 30 hours before we got some sleep. What a wonderful adventure.