Adventures in the South Pacific

Life in the South Pacific is an adventure. One thing you can be sure of is that no two days will ever be the same. In fact, there is probably cause for concern if you make it through an entire day and some crisis has not occurred that day. That being said, you quickly learn to laugh at everything. After all every crisis can be solved with a little patience (and the help of a couple of the friendliest people I have ever come across). Here is a sampling of the events that have occurred in the past couple weeks:

The Car
Three weeks to the day after purchasing my first car, I was driving to work along the coastal road and my car decided to stop driving. Mind you, this wasn't a gradual slow down. One moment I was driving along the road at a casual 25mph (the local speed limit) and the next minute nothing. Fortunately since most cars drive well below the speed limit I was in no danger so I sat there for a couple minutes debating my next move. After calling everyone in my phone and learning that everyone was already at work (at 7:15 in the morning...who said people don't work here??) I got out of my car and stood there hopelessly for a couple minutes. Low and behold within 5 minutes half a dozen cars had pulled over and several very large Samoan men came to my rescue and pushed my car a considerable distance down the road to the closest pull off area where I could wait for a tow truck. When the tow truck came I was quoted a price of $85, which I did not have on me and so I offered to stop off at the bank on the way to the mechanic. Turns out the ATM was out of money (very common on this island) and since there are only two ATMs on Tutuila that take my off-island ATM card all I could do was offer them the $25 that I had in my purse (about $4 in quarters) and a box of chocolate my boss had brought back from Hawaii the previous day. And it worked!! Chocolate works miracles on this island I have discovered and tow truck drivers seemed very satisfied by the deal. Anyhow to sum up, it turned out my radiator was broken and the car dealership offered to pay for a majority of the replacement costs. Success!

The Flood
A couple day later I was trying to figure out why I only got hot water sporadically in my house. Now I would like to believe that I am an independent modern type of girl but really when it comes to anything technological/plumbing related I really should know by now that I am completely useless. Nevertheless I decided that this time I was going to solve the problem myself and braved the hot water heater in my back closet. I turned a couple knobs and switched a couple switches and everything seemed to be going all right until I found the red handle. Now it made perfect sense to me to turn the red handle. After all red is often associated with heat and maybe this was the problem. IT WAS NOT. I hadn't turned the thing more than a quarter inch when it popped off in my hand and water went flying EVERYWHERE. And this wasn't your normal trickle of water either. This was a major flood of water that was quickly distributing itself all over my house! I panicked and pushed my entire body up against the water cooler to temporarily stop the flow. This kind of worked and I was eventually able to force the knob back in long enough to get a plumber out to the house. By the time I got back from work that day the heater had been replaced and I am pleased to announce that I know have hot water! Never mind the damp floor...

The Intern
Later that week I got some truly terrible news. My intern, Seeseei Toa, recently had to leave the internship. Seeseei is a Natural Resource Management student at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC). She has been helping me to identify key informants, gather contact information, translate documents, and identify cultural nuances that could impact our data collection. In addition, she was planning on assisting with informal interviews, focus groups, and surveys. Since I do not speak Samoan, it is essential that I work with a native speaker on site visits. Although most Samoans do speak English, it is a cultural sensitivity to visit villages only when accompanied by a local resident. In addition, federal restrictions limit the number of surveys that I am allowed to collect as a federal employee. By working with Seeseei and ASCC I am be able to collect more surveys without violating any federal regulations.

Unfortunately, Seeseei recently received news that her eight year old sister was diagnosed with Leukemia and would have to leave for Hawaii to receive treatment. Seeseei was chosen to accompany her sister to Hawaii for the duration of her treatment. We all wish Seeseei’s sister a speedy recovery but unfortunately it could be months before she is able to return to American Samoa. Regrettably Seeseei had to quit the internship program one week before we were planned to begin our interviews and I am unable to proceed as scheduled. I have contacted ASCC but given that the summer is already half way over and most people already have plans, it is proving to be really difficult to find another replacement. Even when a replacement intern is found, I will then need to begin training them on the survey and interview process. Hopefully I will have this latest problem cleared up shortly!!

In other news...
The Pacific Arts Festival begins this week. Many many many stories to come...