Update

I have completely fallen behind on updating this mainly because I recently moved and I am still waiting for the internet to be installed at my new house. I absolutely loved my little house up in the mountains but unfortunately my roommates had three cats and in the end my allergies got the best of me and I realized I needed to move. I am now living in an adorable little yellow house down by the water. Almost all of my neighbors are either people I work with or people I knew prior to my move so it's been a really easy transition. I am going to miss my roommates but in the end I think this is going to be for the best. Plus now I get to share my house with bats, mice, ants, and about a million geckos that like to fall from the ceiling into the sink while I am brushing my teeth! If anything will wake you up in the morning it is a gecko staring at you as you reach to rinse off your toothbrush. I have also heard stories about the infamous giant centipedes but fortunately I have not had any encounters...yet!

In other news, this week I got to spend a day at the environmental summer camp being hosted by several environmental agencies on the island. Both SeeSeei and Alyssa were helping to run free workshops for children 8-14 to educate them about environmental threats to American Samoa. Here are some pictures from the camp:

A junior counselor who has attended the camp in years past teaching campers about Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary (where I work):


SeeSeei and Sole (a colleague from work) using a chocolate cake with M&Ms to tech campers about the effect of depositing garbage in wetlands:


Alyssa and me:


Alyssa (playing "the ocean") and Derek demonstrating how polyps eat by throwing cereal at children (playing a "coral reef"):