A word about my job...

I realized I haven't really written much about my job here. I am working for NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary program as a fellow. Currently there is only one National Marine Sanctuary in American Samoa located on the island of Tutuila. NOAA is interested in developing a National Marine Sanctuary Network that extends throughout the American Samoan Archipelago. My job is to conduct a socioeconomic analysis to identify the variables that would could impact the success of this expansion. I will work with SeeSeei to develop a survey to distribute to local villages. Since my Samoan has not accelerated quite as quickly as I had hoped (i'm only up to about 10 words!) SeeSeei will mainly be responsible for the village visits and I will focus on the statistical analysis (which would be a lot easier if Matt had ever given me his book!). Thank goodness for Aimee Barnes and her wise insight into the daunting world of survey analysis last year! Other than that I help out with a lot of things around the office and eat far too much of my boss's wonderful baking (today we had banana bread!). We share an office with the coastal management program and we are located in the executive office building in downtown Pago Pago (the same building as the Governor!). Most importantly however, I work right across from the boat house where I go out paddling on outrigger canoes in the afternoon. Life is good!