Snorkeling and Pese

      It's been a week since my last post, not because things haven't been happening but simply that I don't have photos yet. I'll update now, then post photos afterwards.  UPDATE:  Photos are here!

      I see reports that Minnesota had a huge blizzard last weekend. I sympathize greatly, it's no fun being stuck indoors with a couple feet of snow coming down, freezing temperatures, shoveling. But as I couldn't do anything about it from here, I went and played golf last Saturday. Refer to an earlier post for photos of the golf course; I was able to break 90 this time around so things are looking up there. Here's one more photo of me golfing:

Golfers on island

      Saturday night there was the annual Am Samoa Bar Association Christmas party and dinner, so I went. I'm not a member yet; my application is stalled on island time but will come through eventually. But I was able to attend and enjoy the fun. It was held at a new hotel/resort on the coast, not too far from where I live, called Moana O Cena – the translation of which I don't know. It's small, but modern by Samoan standards, and the setting is fantastic. It's right on the coast, with waves crashing against rocks, a small beach, trade wind gently caressing the palm trees:

Moana O  Cena at sunset

 They had a real Christmas tree as well, obtained God only knows how but it smelled great! It was a nice dinner, followed by an evening of socializing with most of the lawyers on the island, who are an eclectic and unusual bunch. Lawyers, amongst other lawyers, are a most fascinating group with whom to converse due to our educations, variety of interests, and personalities. At least I find that to be true. It was a nice, relaxing evening.

The setup for our party

Joe and Sarah

Junior with Ruth, and friend, by the pool

      Sunday began very rainy but it cleared up so a small group (Joe, Sarah, and two other palangi friends, Ryan and Mary) and I went out snorkeling. The nearest, and they tell one of the better places, is at Airport Beach so we went there. You get there by driving up a potholed dirt road right near the runway, then walking about 20 – 30 minutes along the runway as it extends out into a bay. For most of the length the shoreline is this incredible landscape of rocky cliffs and blowholes. The waves crash in, raise up, and simply explode against the rocks. Some of the blowholes send water maybe 20 – 30 feet in the air with a strong wave. So we walk along this spectacular scene for maybe a half mile, then out along the runway awhile longer. The runway here becomes fill, but there is a small beach aways out. This gives access to the lagoon, where you can snorkel.

Rocky shore en route to Airport Beach

More shoreline, with wave

Wave crashing, looked out to sea

Joe, alongside the waves

      So, picture the scene (I didn't have my camera, so will have to describe): maybe 30 feet of coral sand, a small shelf leading to the waters edge. Runway on one side, ocean on the other. No tree, no shelter, if it rains you get wet. A long walk back to anywhere. Sun blasting down from directly above. Out about 200 feet the waves strike against the outer reef; in the bay it is calm. You put on your snorkel and fins, and flop to the water's edge. Launch yourself into the water, it drops off and you are looking at the coral. Coral covers the bottom (there are here and there small sandy openings on the ocean floor) with bunches of colorful corals of different types. The main kind looks like small antlers, brown, with iridescent blue tips. But there are also wavy corals, brain corals, and others. Reef fish swim everywhere, all those fishes you see in aquariums are right in front of you, in schools, individuals, mixtures all over. They swim above the reef, and in & out of the coral tentacles. The coral appears to be plant leaves, gently waving in the current. A deceiving image; corals are solid and strong, they don't wave around in reality, and if you scrape up against some they don't bend but can cut you up badly. So you float along above this scene taking it all in.

      I saw no big animals; someone saw a turtle but I didn't. I'm told reef sharks sometimes are seen; these leave you alone (they say) but none were seen today. The floor of the bay had some big sea slugs, harmless; and I saw a number of small (maybe 1½ inch) cone snails, all that I saw were alive. I was careful touching these as they can sting with a poisonous barb. I did find a couple small shells, and one pretty nicely colored turban shell. But mainly I watched the tropical fishes, all colors, all shapes, just darting around the corals. A rain squall came up as we snorkeled, I could feel the rain, but it didn't affect anything other than our clothing up on shore got wet. We stayed there a couple hours and left as the tide was retreating. The bay can still be snorkeled at low tide in many places, but when you only have a couple feet over the coral its more likely to result in coral wounds. Many areas are up to 15 – 20 feet deep, so while we could have stayed longer, we had had enough for that day. I plan to return there, as well as other places, often.

      One big event here is the annual Pese, or Christmas pageant.  Every year each government department has a part in the show, which last three evenings in a row. The Governor, Lt Governor, all the local bigwigs attend, give speeches, and participate. We practiced our three songs several times. Song practice is a big deal; all the groups practice many times before the show. Of course, they practice during work time.  Most afternoons leading up to the Pese I could hear singing coming from various offices throughout our building, as departments met to practice. It goes without saying that work activities were on hold during these times. Each department also makes its own costumes for the show. We had Christmas shirts individually made from a brilliant red and green fabric. These were worn with white skirts (called ei for the men); they looked very nice. Yes, you will get a photo (see below). Other groups had costumes of all different kinds, they looked really sharp throughout.  Here's a couple photos:

ASPD Lawyers - Kelly, Rick, Steph, Joe, Ruth and receptionist Flo

Flo with her "boys"

Rick and Steph

     The festivities started about 7:00 p.m. last night, with the Governor's choir taking the lead. Now I've mentioned before how Samoans love singing; I like to walk around Leone on Sundays and listen to the singing in church. They are not just good at it, they are great.  Singing is so much a part of the culture here, everyone does it instinctively. When we practiced, people split up into soprano, alto, tenor and baritone automatically, and each group was able to sing counterpoint without needing instruction.  The blend of voices comes out superbly, as if by magic. Singing in a choir is definitely a situation where the whole is far more than the parts. Our disparate group was made up of several smaller departments and we sounded pretty nice despite only a few practice sessions. Far from the best, but certainly respectable anyway.

      After the opening choir, and quite a few long speeches usually in Samoan, the acts come on. We were group number 8. I thus got to hear all the acts before us. Let me say, they were very good, and very entertaining. One of them – which included the Dept of Public Safety (police and prison guards) did as a part of their act a traditional Samoan dance. This involves the men wearing nothing but loincloths dancing squat-legged in a circle; they don't dance in the sense we think, but kind of slowly stomp around to the beat, making arm gestures. Picture about a dozen rather large Samoans, bare chested, squatting and stomping. It may sound silly, but when seen it is almost mesmerizing in its effect. I was glad to have seen it.

Our group, on stage singing.  I'm just right of center.

Another view of our group

      So we took the stage somewhat after 10:00 p.m. and sang for our 15 minutes or so. We sang a medley of songs in English, mainly Jingle Bell Rock but with Jingle Bells and White Christmas thrown in as well. Singing about a white Christmas out here is incongruous to be sure, there never having been a white anything here. Then we did two songs in Samoan. Since I knew neither the melody nor the words I sang only what I could and tried to avoid singing solo out of turn. Did I mention that the entire Pese is televised across the island? It is, and everyone who is not in it, watches it. Our office secretary, who did not sing this year for some reason, watched the whole thing from her home. She told me this morning that I was on camera often – I suppose they thought their viewers wanted to see a palangi sing?   I did give it my all. I think our act had far more palangis than any other. Even if they may have seen me sing, thank God they couldn't hear me apart from the whole.  There also is a video, compliments of Sarah, and I'll post that too when I can. This Pese will now continue for tonight and tomorrow night as well, but our part is completed. As is this posting. Check back in a day or two for the video!