Fagatele Bay and Thanksgiving

     I'll start with a couple videos of Fagatele Bay, mainly because I uploaded them first and can't figure out how to post around them too well.  Without further ado, Fagatele Bay:

Here's another video, a panorama of the bay:

      I'll pass over work for a few days, and will try to make that a post in and of itself.  Let's talk Thanksgiving.  They do celebrate the holiday here; let no excuse for a day off and a feast go unused.  My kind Chief PD, Ruth, invited me over to her place for Thanksgiving dinner.  This came as something of a surprise to her, as until Wednesday she was going to the in-laws for dinner.  Somehow that changed and she was to host dinner.  We stopped several times on the way home for supplies.  That's not as easy as it sounds.  Stores don't carry everything; even when they are supposed to carry something, they are often out, while another store somewhere down the road has lots.  So shopping is hit & miss; you have to make several stops to get several things.  It's different down here.

     So I arrive at the appointed hour to find Junior, Ruth's Samoan husband, roasting a whole pig on a spit near the back fale.  I didn't bring my camera, but picture a whole pig with a stick through it from head to, umm, tail, turning slowly over the coals.  When done they cut it up on a bed of banana leaves.  The skin was a delicacy, kinda crunchy almost like peanut brittle, but with some fat on it.  I tried some, had to.  I also had some palisami, maybe spelled wrong, which is taro leaves wrapped around a dressing made of coconut milk, onions and stuff.  They also called it Samoan spinach, and it did resemble cooked spinach in taste and texture.  It was actually very good, the stuffing was delicious.  Junior is proud of his palisami, and righteously so.

     Ruth, being American, made turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, cran sauce and a pumpkin cake of sorts (that rated an A+).  Someone also made a ham.  There was taro (everywhere here, it's a starchy root veggie much like a potato).  Lots of people came and it's a small house, so everyone grabbed a plate and sat wherever.  I ate out on the fale with the guys.  So while it wasn't a Norman Rockwell look, it was a true Thanksgiving dinner, with a Samoan flair.

     OK, I also had raw fish made by Junior - it was meaty, in a sauce with some veggies, and lime juice.  Junior claims that the lime juice "cooks" the fish.  I don't know, but I ate a bunch and I'm still here several days later.  I won't say I'm a fan, but I did have some.  I drew the line at bat.  An injured bat turned up - the big kind that fly around everywhere, so the men cooked it and ate it.  They claimed it tastes a lot like chicken, but I am unable to verify.  I tried to ask if it was much the same as eagle, but no one got that one . . .

    Cyndi, I promised that when you come down here I would buy a pig for Junior to cook in the traditional Samoan way, in the ground with hot rocks.  The pigs cost about $160 so that was no small offer.  He said OK if he cooks it, then we all go over to our place to eat it.  So we'll see about that.  Palisami too, and taro roots.  Everyone wants to meet you, I've talked you up pretty good down here.  You aren't yet a god to them, but they want to see how you manage to walk on water.

     Friday I bought a car - here's a photo:

The Batmobile.  Trust me, it looks far better here than in reality.

I call it the Batmobile.  It's what they euphemisticaly call an "island car".  It's really something of a wreck (OK, it's a POS but it runs, mostly).  I got it Friday, it wouldn't start Sunday (battery cable loose), it started today, tomorrow, who knows?  Whether it last 6 months, or I dump it for something else, will have to see.  I miss my Infiniti G35 so much!  But, it did get Kelly (my PD colleague here) and I out to Fagatele Bay.  It came with insurance through September.  Cheap rates, but I don't want to know how little they would pay on a claim.

     Fagatele Bay is near where I live, but on undeveloped family land.  The US Park Service has rights and it's a National Marine Sanctuary.  So we can go out there, but on a trail through private land that requires permission from the guy who lives there.  He quizzed me, but eventually let us through - which he has to do since he gets paid to let people through, but that's a tough argument to make standing out in the middle of god knows where with this guy, his family, a bunch of Samoan dogs snarling, and whatever else around.  I felt vaguely like I was in a scene from Deliverance.  But we got there, here are some photos and the videos are above:

Fagatele Bay from the ridge above

Fagatele Bay from the beach

Ditto, looking straight out

Kelly on the beach.  I'm at one end.  It's tiny.

From above, this is Larson's Bay

Mystery plant, everywhere, not edible, beautiful flowers

Seed pods for Mystery Plant

Orchid in cleft in rock cliff

The trail to beach.  This makes it look easy.  It's steep!

Native wildlife, a tree snail

Fagatele Bay cannot be accessed, other than this tiny beach on the trail that runs about straight downhill, as described.  Boats maybe, but the surf is rough and we saw no one around anywhere.  There's another bay, same kind of access, on the other side of the point, Larson's Bay (those darned Norwegians are everywhere).  I plan to go there soon.  That one can be walked to, by a longer trail, from the Turtle and Shark area.  It has a bigger beach area, and occasionally someone else is there.  But really nice too.  You can usually snorkel there.

     I want to post soon about life here - the people, the churches, and also the legal system.  As to the latter, think about English practice in the mid 1800's and you'll be close, it's pretty medieval.  But I did get my pro hac vice signed, so I can appear in Court (finally) until my formal Bar approval comes through.  Yippee.

     That's it for now.   I'll leave you with last night's sunset:

White wine, or red, to compliment this?

     All for now from American Samoa, about which my new colleague's wife Sarah says: it's the land "where nothing is ever easy."