Tropical Browns

Tsunami update -- 1 week later

2009-10-06T21:09:00.003-11:00

This has been a long week. I'm finding myself referring to events as occurring either before or after the tsunami, but things are returning to normal for many on the island. White Sunday, a major Samoan church holiday celebrating children, is approaching. People were out in droves at the local shoe store on Saturday, hitting up the big sale for new White Sunday shoes. My favorite market lady sold me my bananas today. A neighbor returned to his loud construction project. People are moving forward.

For others on the island, this week has not seen much progress. Many people are still living in shelters. Some villages have yet to see much relief efforts at all. People are still waiting for FEMA to come and access their homes before they want to start their cleaning and rebuilding. There are many on the island still without electricity.

A week seems like a long time to wait... a long time to be without power, a long time to be without a house, just a long time. Some people are very frustrated by this lack of noticeable progress and the seemingly disorganized relief effort. I visited the most impacted village on the east side, Tula, with donations on Friday and Monday. Villagers I spoke with in Tula recognize that their village did not suffer any casualties and that there are areas on the island that just may need more help than theirs. They are patiently waiting.

I am not a relief worker and I don't presume to know how to go about handling a tsunami disaster. I do see things that don't seem right. I have also lived in Samoa for a few years now and the inefficiency of everyday life here is a common sight. There are people out there that need more help, but generally people are fed, clothed, and housed.

Everyday brings progress and I hope people will be encouraged as they see more visible signs. Clean-up crews have been working hard in Pago Pago and Leone. It is amazing the amount of bare ground visible where there was only rubble a week ago.

People are also frustrated by what has been going on behind closed doors, for example meetings between Samoan government officials and U.S. FEMA officials. We don't really know the whole picture and I don't want to. I do know that there has been a whole lot of good work going on behind the scenes. Individuals have been donating. Doctors and nurses have been treating patients affected by the tsunami. People are busy working and every bit is contributing to the larger effort. I washed and dried 80 NPS shirts that were covered in tsunami mud so that the guys on the crews would have a clean shirt to wear. Paul has been working 12-15 hour days getting the National Park office and operations up and running again. His list of various tasks is endless. He made maps for FEMA. He salvaged hard drives that were under 8 feet of saltwater and mud. He is starting natural resource assessments to see what effect the tsunami had on our coral reefs.

We are okay. Samoans are resilient people. American Samoa is going to survive this. After all, it has only been a week since the tsunami.

Leone, day after the tsunami

2009-10-01T23:33:00.021-11:00

Our 12-year-old daughter waited patiently (okay, not so patiently) for over a day and a half to see any sign of the earthquake and tsunami. We were so lucky to be safe in our valley. I decided it was important for her to see first hand, as she had already seen so much in pictures on the internet and television. We waited until afternoon when we wouldn't be bothering work crews, and we headed to the less traffic-congested west side of the island.

The drive to Leone is one we had done numerous times together, just me and Emma. We had a post office box there for over two years and I have many fond memories of the two of us driving out there with excitement to collect our packages. The drive to Leone seemed to take forever this time. We drove down the last hill into Leone to complete devastation.The post office was still standing and compared to other houses, standing strong, just without the actual mail boxes. The gapping hole in the side is where my box was and the second picture is the inside. Mail was strewn everywhere.
The bridge that connected the many villages on the west side washed away in the tsunami. Crews (directed by our friend at McConnell Dowell construction) thankfully temporarily repaired the bridge by evening time on the day of the tsunami. I can't imagine what people went through that day without having access to the hospital and the rest of the island.

We didn't travel the whole west side, but we did see a couple of the villages beyond Leone. The village of Asili was hit very hard. More houses were gone than standing and those standing did not look livable.This foundation was a shop in Asili run by a Korean family who lived in the upstairs. The family had two daughters, one was my student when I taught school. Tragically, she and her mother were inside when the tsunami hit. She was an amazing student with a bright future. She was Emma's age.Another empty foundation...
It was hard to see so many homes destroyed. I witnessed more stores and other buildings damaged in Pago Pago, but on the west side of the island there were so many people living right on the ocean.The force of the water to move vehicles, shipping containers, concrete is unbelievable.Emma said she felt better seeing the tsunami aftermath. I know she worries and reality is sometimes better than our imaginations. Now she is more eager than ever to assist. She is donating just about everything she owns and I couldn't be prouder. It hasn't always been easy for Emma living here for nearly four years, especially at the present time, but I know she is going to shine wherever life takes her.

NPSA Teamwork

2009-10-01T22:16:00.006-11:00

Today the park staff really came together as a team. Unfortunately, the territory has yet to launch much of a coordinated response to the clean-up. Numerous people are seeking ways to help and are being turned away.

It is frustrating on both sides. Many people just want to lend a hand in any way they can, while many of the response agencies just don't know what they need help with to get the job done. Of course this is not the whole story. Public Works and ASPA employees for example, have been working relentessly to get roads cleared, debris removed, and power restored. Some local residents are cooking meals for people that have lost everything and others are amassing stockpiles of clothes to get distributed for those that need them.

NPS efforts today turned to getting our offices cleaned and a temporary administration office set up. Everyone has been lending a hand, from shoveling mud and debris to salvaging paperwork and electronics. Everyone is pitching in. That's Mike, our superintendent, throwing boxes down the chain to get the items efficiently down from the second floor offices and out to the awaiting trucks.Before ending today, Mike got the entire crew of around 50 people pizza. Thanks Mike. Before eating we had a debriefing about the day. Peter thought it was an opportune time for a photo. I thought it was an opportune time for a shot of Peter. He just can't seem to get what to do with a car. First, he parks his car in the second story of the adjacent building; next he's using a truck as a step stool. Silly Peter.We got the essentials moved over to our makeshift temporary offices today. I spent most of the afternoon as the IT guy wiring network cables and getting computers set up. Too bad we just had a professional IT guy down here a week ago to do this in our Pago Plaza office. Sorry Andy, I gutted the upstairs office to pillage what I needed to get the park up and running again. Maybe Yellowstone can send you back out.

Since we basically finished off with the visitor center today, most of the crews are heading out to the some of the outer villages to assist in the clean-up efforts. Several of the villages that we lease land from (and where many of our work crews are from) were hit hard by the tsunami. Getting the guys out there should provide some much needed assistance right where it is needed. The staff and work crews of the National Park should be proud of their efforts so far.

Thanks to everyone who has asked how they can help and offered assistance. People in pay grades well above mine will certainly make decisions to let you know how you can help soon. In the meantime, be patient, everyone in the territory is a little busy right now.

What you can do to help...

2009-10-01T15:17:00.006-11:00

I have been receiving messages from people in the mainland U.S. who want to donate money and/or supplies to American Samoa. Unfortunately, that level of organization is just beginning. Thankfully, there are many local efforts in place. Schools, churches, radio stations and banks are holding drives to collect clothing, food, water, money. Samoans are very communal people and victims are being taken in by other family and friends. People are truly helping each other.

I asked one woman today who lost her house and entire possessions what she needed and her response was, "oh, nothing. we're fine." Seriously, this woman and her family need everything. They have no beds, no clothing except for what they were wearing at the time of the tsunami, no food, no drinking water... nothing, she has nothing. Yet, she asks for nothing because the other people in her family and village are taking care of her.

8 National Park staff and their families lost their homes in the tsunami. The Hawaii Natural History Association has set up a fund for people to donate. Currently, the way to do that is to mail checks (write "NPSA employee disaster relief fund" on your check) to:

Hawaii Natural History Association
attn: Margo
Hawaii National Park
P.O. Box 74
Hawaii 96718

I will post on the blog as soon as I know where people can donate to the larger relief efforts, outside of helping the National Park families. I know a number of you want to donate by way of sending money or care packages directly to American Samoa, but I don't think that is currently a feasible option. In the meantime, you could make a donation to the Red Cross through their website to support their relief effort here and elsewhere.

The first group of U.S. Red Cross workers are arriving today. We are hopeful they will help coordinate individual efforts on the island. Many people working in the trenches are frustrated by the lack of coordination at this point. I, personally, am frustrated by feelings of not being able to help enough. Emma and I are organizing all of our clothing to donate rather than the moving sale we had planned on. Tomorrow, my wonderful friend is supporting the efforts by watching my kids and I am going to go help the National Park crews clean up in the villages. I feel some good physical labor will help me.

When will it end?

2009-09-30T20:07:00.007-11:00

We just felt another aftershock at about 7:45 pm tonight (Wednesday -- that's a full day and a half past the big earthquake and tsunami). I feel my heart stopping with every aftershock. I think it is especially hard on Emma and the other children who fear another big one.

It turns out that there have been 52 earthquakes in our area the past two days! This map from the USGS earthquake center shows them all, with each one registering 5.o to 6.0 on the Reichter scale. The red one is the most recent one we just felt less than a half hour ago. We have obviously not felt all 52 of these, but enough to keep us all on edge.

I have so much more to write and pictures to post, but exhaustion is setting up. Both girls were awake last night at various times. I hope to get more up soon on the blog between my fulltime gig as a mom and keeping up on my emails and phone calls. Today we saw the devastation on the other side of the island (Leone and surrounds) and it is just as bad as Pago Pago. Paul spent his day assisting in the efforts in Pago, including scuba diving to look for victims on a yacht that sunk and setting up cell phone and internet connections at a secondary National Park site. Some help from the US has already arrived and we are expecting much more tomorrow.

Here is another map from the USGS showing the full extent of the water generated from the tsunami. You can't really make out our islands, but we are NE of New Zealand, just above the red area.

Tsunami in American Samoa

2009-09-29T21:12:00.008-11:00

This morning we experienced the strongest earthquake to date living on the island. Our kitchen cupboards were rattling, ceiling fans were swaying, and items were falling off shelves. Typically, we feel very subtle quakes that leave one wondering if a large truck just drove by. Today was different. We felt about 90 seconds of violent shaking followed by several aftershocks. We discussed the possibility of a tsunami, but having been warned of a 4-inch tsunami last year we didn’t take it very seriously. We live in an area of higher ground away from the ocean so it was not an issue being in the house. Paul decided to head into work and I was fine staying home with the girls.

Ten minutes after Paul left my neighbor came running over saying a major tsunami warning was in effect. I turned on the local radio station and sure enough they were reporting an 8.0 earthquake with a tsunami coming. I nervously listened as the Samoan d.j. started saying a huge 15-20 foot wave was coming towards the office building. She even starting praying for all of us, and then the radio station went to static. Talk about dramatic. This was especially significant as the radio station is in the same office building in Pago Pago as the National Park. I knew Paul wouldn’t be in the office yet, but it was equally worrisome thinking of him driving along the ocean. I have full faith in Paul’s abilities in a situation like this, but I was not looking forward to potential hours of worrying not knowing where he was.

Thankfully, Paul walked in the door a short time later, having been stopped by a police blockade. At this point we were getting some live news on CNN and the internet, but it was a lot of speculation. We finally were able to contact the superintendent at the National Park and were asked to assist if we could. We left the girls with the neighbors and headed into Pago Pago.

Most of the villages along the way looked fine. We did notice some mud and rocks on the road and more trash in the ocean than usual. As soon as we entered Pago Pago, it was a different story. There was major debris everywhere. Road crews were working to clear the road and we were able to get to Pago Plaza. It literally looked like a bomb had gone off. Cars and buses were flipped over. Paul’s boss' car is seen here, wedged into the second story of a building.
This is the back side of Pago Plaza, followed by the destruction on the first floor of the building.
The first floor of the National Park office was completely destroyed. We worked for a few hours trying to salvage things from the mud and water. A running joke during the cleanup was that this employee’s office was actually improved after the tsunami.
This is what was left of the NPSA visitor center.
Don't Drink the Water, a popular lunch spot, was recently renovated and is now in ruins.
As we worked we listened to people’s accounts of the tsunami. Apparently, there were a total of four major waves. Most of the staff ran upstairs for the first wave, but after having 8 foot high water fill the downstairs and listening to vehicles slam into the building, they questioned the building’s stability. After the first wave, they left and ran up the mountain. Reports of deaths were coming in fast. NPS staff recovered six bodies right after the tsunami. 22 deaths have now been confirmed and seeing all the rubble we suspect there may be more. All National Park Service staff and volunteers were accounted for and all 44 people survived.
We walked around Pago Pago seeing the devastation. It was amazing the amount of random items everywhere. This large boat ended up in the community bingo center.
Many other boats ended up in odd places.
Roadways and sidewalks were destroyed.
The vehicles everywhere really showed the force of the water. National Park vehicles were found under bridges, smashed against trees, even a quarter of a mile down the road.
It was heart wrenching to see the homes. Some people lost everything. More importantly, though, most people were safe in the hills when the tsunami hit.
One of the hardest parts of the day was the looting. Watching people at their worst was not something I will soon forget. People were looting stores, vehicles, offices, really anything they could get their hands on. Cars that were overturned were soon missing their tires as thieves came by. Some people were literally scavenging before a woman’s body was even removed. A lighter moment was some guy walking off with a couple volumes of the National Park Service law and policy books.
Luckily, the tsunami seems to have hit the major Pago area and only a few other villages. It could have been a lot worse. If people had been asleep or more people were on their way to school and work, many more lives would have been lost. We are grateful to be safe.

The cryptic and the deep

2009-05-31T22:04:00.017-11:00

I, like so very few marine biologists, like looking for small cryptic (secretive and/or camouflaged) fish and often go deep to find them. Over the course of 41 dives so far in Guam, I have seen numerous species which had not previously been seen in the park. We are currently working on setting up a full species list for the park which we can then publish as a technical report. The old list had around 150 species. So far we have 302 species listed! While some of the old lists have questionable IDs, our list even has voucher photos of most of the species. Some of these fish are small and cryptic fish and others were seen when Mark and I went and did a technical dive to 200 feet on our day off. Below is a sampling of some of our cool cryptic and deepwater fish we have seen as well as a few fun invertebrates.Clearfin lionfish- a relatively commonly seen cryptic fishLeopard blennyCoral banded shrimp- a type of shrimp which makes its living cleaning the parasites and dead tissue off reef fish papuan scorpionfish- close-up of the same fish as the top photo. Deepwater seafan of a wall at 200' Engleman's lizardfish Spotfin lionfish- no the picture is not upside down, this fish like many cave dwellers, spends much of its day upside down next to the cave/ crevice ceiling. In this case defended by their venomous spines Reef octopus Yellow cardinalfish Mark- narqed and excited about being at 200' Yellow-speckled chromisAnd finally, my favorite find so far, a surge dottyback. This fish was found in about 7 feet of water inside a small cave in the reef.

Update from another territory

2009-05-30T17:26:00.019-11:00

I was invited to do some work at War in the Pacific National Historic Park (WAPA). So here I am sitting in Guam. Guam at first glance is more like Oahu, HI than some of the other territories. The bustling Japanese tourist market ensures that much of the ills that plague smaller Pacific islands is absent, or at least hidden from view. Large high-rise hotels, high-end retail stores (Gucci, Rolex, etc.), and an overwhelming numbers of restaurant choices are all easy to find. Don't forget the strip clubs, adult stores and massage parlors (that seem to be everywhere).

I have mostly been diving though and have really gotten a good look at the marine waters of the national park. It is well known that Guam is neck and neck with Oahu in having the worst fishing anywhere in the Pacific. It is readily apparent as soon as you hit the water here. Not only are there very few fish, entirely absent trophic groups (apex predators), but what fish are here are tiny for their kind. With all that said, there are some good spots and I have seen some great things. Below for your viewing pleasure take in some of the marine life of Guam.

Ambon damsel

Barred thicklip Mixed school of Yellow tangs and Lined bristletooths Bullethead parrotfish- female Tiger cardinalfish Christmas tree worm in coral Slingjaw wrasse Crown-of-thorns seastar. These are the starfish that can sometimes reach plague numbers and devastate reefs as they eat live stony corals. Oh, and they are venomous. Big school of scribbled rabbitfish on the reef flat Well it's not called War in the Pacific National Park for nothing. This 8" shell cartridge from a howitzer was found on a dive called UXO reef. UXO stands for unexploded ordinance. While this shell is just the spent empty casing, there are many live rounds of various shapes and sizes found on top of this reef. Yet another reason never to touch anything underwater. Fire dartfish Latticed sandperch Lined bristletooth- Fun fact for the day... these fish eat other fishes poop. Saber squirrelfish Longnose butterflyfish And finally here's your clownfish, this one is an orangefin clownfish.

The walk to school

2009-03-07T15:07:00.002-11:00

Sharing one car is not always very easy, but Paul and I have managed to make it work for many years now. The first place we lived on the island was conveniently located across the street from Emma's school, but now it is a 3-mile commute on foot (round trip). Some days Paul rides the bus to work and some days Ona and I walk Emma to school.At times I dread the walk and find myself longing for sidewalks and white-picket fences, but then I remind myself that this life is much more fun. Really, is it that hot out there (90+ degrees and 100% humidity)? Who needs to worry about the mosquitoes when you have lots of deet products? Oh, and the stray dogs charging at us... at least Ona is learning the sign for dog. And really, do I want a boring sidewalk when I have the adventure of negotiating the stroller through toad infested ponds? Despite my complaints I honestly enjoy these walks. Ona loves being outside and Emma and I have wonderful chats along the way.

February Baby Recap

2009-02-23T21:01:00.001-11:00

Ona is now 9 months old and it is hard to believe that her 1st birthday is already around the corner. It has been quite the month! Ona crawls really fast and efficiently now (even on the hard tile). She often crawls right over something or someone in her way. Ona has turned into a crazy climbing monkey and is even trying to scale the walls. I think Paul has visions of rock climbing with his daughters someday. Ona seems to always be looking up and figuring out how to get there. When not trying to climb, Ona loves to be upsidedown. She even understands the words "upsidedown baby" and will stop what she is doing to turn herself in said position.A big first this month was the first tooth. It came in on the bottom after a bout of fussiness and night waking. I'm hoping the subsequent teeth don't cause such an ordeal. Ona is eating lots of finger foods now and loves her carbs - O's cereal, homemade bread, rice cakes. Ona got the chicken pox this month! She had a fever for a couple of days and then a bunch of spots appeared mostly on her arms and legs. I'd say it was pretty mild and most of the pox cleared up in a week. I thought we'd have a healthy household for awhile, but then Paul got dengue fever!I just love babies at this age as their personalities really start to shine. Ona is often very quiet and enjoys figuring out things on her own. She will not make a peep for hours and then she will suddenly babble a bunch as if to give us a recap. Ona may have a bit of an OCD streak in her (I swear she didn't get that from me!) as she must pull out every single book from the shelf, remove every single puzzle piece, clear the coffee table of each and every item, empty every block from the bucket, etc. I will replace one of the items and sure enough she has to go right over to remove it again. It seems to be a world of ordered chaos. Ona is also quite silly and will laugh and laugh, especially at her favorite entertainer, Emma.

Loving the beach... again

2009-01-20T14:15:00.014-11:00

If you are going to live on a small, tropical island you really should enjoy spending many of your days at the beach. Unfortunately, I started to despise the beach during my pregnancy and it has taken me awhile to get back into it. I think I am finally cured of my beach-itis after having many great days at the beach in recent weeks.

One day over Christmas break, the whole family and friends hiked to Fagatele Bay Marine Sanctuary. Now that we have to carry Ona and the associated baby stuff, we often opt to not lug the camera (but Julia posted a couple pictures here). Another day over the school break I joined several other moms and a multitude of children and hiked to nearby Larsen's Bay. The kids discovered a tunnel and "cave" and once they started swinging from vines, it really looked looked like something out of a movie set. We even saw dolphins! An amazing day, but again no camera (this time Sue posted pictures here). No pictures, but I did make the map, with Fagatele Bay on the left and Larsen's on the right. I love both of these hikes and beaches...typically the more remote, the better the spot!I finally learned my lesson and brought the camera along on Saturday to $2 Beach. Yes, they really charge $2 to hang out on their beach. There are few places on our island that are public domain, but most people allow you to use "their" beach just by asking, but the people of this village decided to profit from their gorgeous stretch of beach.I spread the word around Emma's school and lots of moms and kids turned up, which made for a fun day.

Ona says, "yum, humpback whale."

A date with scuba

2009-01-05T15:37:00.004-11:00

Yesterday, Paul and I were finally able to go scuba diving together. This is the second time Liz has offered to babysit Emma and Ona recently (our first post-baby date was a lovely dinner at Tisa's on the beach). She is a great friend, from midwife extraordinaire to now babysitting the baby she cared for in utero... is she really moving back to Oregon soon?

It was really windy this weekend and I think Liz was a bit surprised as we still planned on diving. It turns out all the wind must have blown the usual funk out of the harbor because the visibility was excellent! We saw several beautiful soft corals:My favorite part of a dive at Utulei is the oyster wall. There are oysters attached all along the reef wall and it is fun to get close to them and watch them quickly close. I am often tempted to stick my finger in one, but that is just asking for trouble. We saw lots of fish, including this grouper. It was a great dive and there is no one I'd rather dive with than Paul. We hit 120 feet and stayed under for about an hour. I am always looking forward to my next chance to go diving.

Merry Christmas from Samoa!

2009-01-03T19:26:00.014-11:00

Although I have blogged about Christmas in Samoa before, this was officially our first Christmas on the island. Emma and I went to Hong Kong and China in 2006, and last year we all went to New Zealand. It is easy to not miss family and traditions while traveling, but with no trip planned this year, I wasn't really looking forward to the holidays in American Samoa. In spite of the tacky island Christmas decorations trying to keep me down, I just couldn't stay a scrooge with Emma getting quite excited. It turns out we had a fine Christmas and I didn't miss family, snow, fires, food, and the associated holiday bliss as much as I thought I would. In truth, it didn't really feel like Christmas. With temperatures near 90 degrees, it felt more like we were just pretending by celebrating Christmas in July. It seems that the spoiling of grandchildren follows some sort of mathematical equation that the greater the distance apart, the more presents are sent. Given the 7,000 mile distance our little tree was barely visible amongst all the gifts. This being Ona's first Christmas we were entertained by the classic baby reaction of loving the boxes and wrapping paper more than the toys. Emma also had fun with boxes as she decorated dad in a box hat and lovely gift bag earring.Instead of a snowy scene out the window, we had a beautiful sunny day in the jungle, perfect for taking photos of flowers. The first is often visited by a wattled honeyeater, one of our favorite yard birds. The second flower is red ginger. Liz joined us for a delicious brunch. Her time on the island is winding down so I am enjoying every minute we get to spend together.In the evening we headed to a friend's house for a Christmas potluck. It was a nice evening of friends, good food, and incredible views (thanks for the photos, Liz). It was fun to search for our humble dwelling in the valley from their "castle" up on the mountain.

Apia, Samoa

2008-12-09T09:01:00.005-11:00

After the swim meet, we planned to spend a long weekend in Apia, the capital of Samoa. I was so ready for a trip off this island, even if it was just to another island. Island fever is a true affliction and I had gone 327 days (yes, I was counting) since our trip to New Zealand. The city of Apia has about the same population as our entire island. I'm sure to people coming from the mainland it wouldn't seem so, but to me it has that big city feel. Lots of restaurants, markets, tourists and even.... stoplights. Yes, it's true: we do not have a single stoplight in American Samoa!That being said on Sundays Apia pretty much shuts down. Considering Emma's outstanding performance I gave her the choice of renting a car to drive around the island (and therefore staying in a really cheap place) or spending our time in a nice hotel with a swimming pool. You'd think the kid would be tired of swimming, but she opted for Aggie Grey's. Emma was dazzled by the porter carrying our bags to the room and fresh flowers on the bed. We spent Sunday in the pool, taking a walk along Apia's harbor, and entertaining ourselves in the hotel. We had a great girls' time (Paul unfortunately missed out as he was at a work conference in Honolulu).After our relaxing day, we had lots of sights to see on Monday. We started with a major tourist stop in Samoa: Robert Louis Stevenson's house. The Scottish author lived in Samoa in the late 18oos. I once read Treasure Island and Emma loves visiting any kind of historical home so we really enjoyed our visit. As a follow-up to our trip, Emma and I are reading R.L. Stevenson's Kidnapped from our local library.This room was decorated with tapa cloth. I got a feel for what our house will look like someday as Paul bought a tapa in Tonga that is big enough to wallpaper several rooms. I love that Robert Louis Stevenson had faux fireplaces put in the house. I wonder if that would make my island house feel more like home? Next was our whirlwind shopping excursion to Apia's several large markets.One of my biggest complaints about living in American Samoa is the lack of good fruits and vegetables (although I have seen an improvement in the 2 1/2 years we've lived here). The other Samoa doesn't have that problem, as the island is less mountainous and has more available land for agriculture. The food would be nice, but I'm still partial to our island with the striking mountains. We purchased several handmade goods in the flea market. These items are also sold on our island, but for many times the price. There were several men making the traditional intoxicating drink of kava, and even more men drinking it. Kava is made from the roots of a plant similar to pepper. It looks like dirty water, probably is made of dirty water, and tastes about the same. I drank it once and once was enough for me. We had a fresh juice break at the Cappuccino Vineyard. So delicious and I felt like I had really left the islands for a moment as we sat on the umbrella-lined patio, watching the hustle and bustle. Oh wait, people walking by in lavalavas and puletasis... yes, we're still in Samoa. Four days off the island seemed to have helped, at least for now. I think I just might make it until June when I head to the States for a couple of months.

The Elephant Baby

2008-12-03T18:54:00.000-11:00

Samoa Nationals 2008

2008-11-29T21:53:00.020-11:00

As part of the Tutuila junior swim team, Emma was invited to attend the Samoa Nationals swim competition in (Independent) Samoa. The team of 5 kids (ages 9 - 13) have been practicing several times a week for the past couple months to prepare for the big event. Emma is now a pro at swimming, as this was her second appearance at the Samoa Nationals (the last one was held in May of 2007). In Samoan fashion, we wore matching t-shirts and lavalavas on the plane and to the swim meet. Emma even pinned a diaper cover on Ona of the same material and everyone kept referring to Ona as the team mascot. I have to put on a brave face for Emma, but I honestly hate flying on these little planes, and to make matters worse it seems every time I fly on one, the weather is crappy. As usual, we had to walk on the runway in the pouring rain. This was Ona's first plane ride and she enjoyed every moment of it. Since Samoa is a different country, she got her first stamps in her passport! The weather cleared by the time we reached Samoa and Ona was fascinated by looking out the window at the island and the coral reefs.Emma loved sitting with her friend, rather than next to mom.After arriving in Apia, we headed to the swimming pool so the kids could get some practice. This was especially important for our swimmers as they train in a hotel pool that is only 18 yards long. Samoa's pool facility is Olympic sized - 50 meters long. The kids spent a couple hours swimming in the outdoor warm-up pool and diving off the blocks, another thing we don't have to practice with in American Samoa. The kids woke up on Saturday morning to a great breakfast. Samoa has much more fresh fruit and veggies than we do in American Samoa. Then, it was off to the big event. The day started with photos and the teams paraded around the pool facility in an opening ceremony. The Prime Minister of Samoa gave the opening speech, and even stuck around to pass out ribbons to the winners of the first few events. Emma started the races off by swimming in the 50 meter freestyle for the 11&12 year old girls. She came in 2nd place and here is Emma on the medal podium. Where else would we live that she is presented her ribbon from the leader of the country? Emma's next race was the 100 m freestyle and she also placed 2nd. It was Emma's dream to get 1st place in the breaststroke races, as this is her favorite stroke. Emma's dream came to fruition as she got 1st place in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke races! Emma finished the 100m way ahead of her nearest competitor! I was quite the proud mom, watching from the sidelines. I wish I could have brought the good camera and taken action pictures of the swimming, but with all the baby stuff I had to lug, I opted for the tiny camera. The only disappointment of the day came when the 200 meter breaststroke race was cancelled. Emma had trained very hard for that race by doing many, many links in our small pool. Emma also swam a 200m Individual Medley, but she had to swim it as an exhibition race with some older kids, as there were no girls her age that would swim the 200m IM. Ona was a wonderful baby, even as it turned into a full day event. This is how she spent a good part of her time at the pool... All of the kids swam so well. We were worried in the couple weeks leading up to the competition as 3 out of the 5 kids had dengue fever! Thankfully, the kids were (mostly) healthy on the big day and our swim club came home with a total of 17 ribbons. Well done, Tutuila junior swim team! The kids were treated to a yummy dinner at Giordano's that night and they had a great silly time celebrating their success.

Geocaching in American Samoa

2008-11-17T20:53:00.024-11:00

Both of my brothers are addicted to geocaching and turned Emma onto it when she was in Michigan this past summer. For those of you not familiar with geocaching, it is basically modern day treasure hunting. People all around the world put "treasure chests" in hidden locations and instead of a treasure map, GPS coordinates are posted online. I was a bit skeptical, as it would seem to take some of the fun out of treasure hunting if you replace obscure instructions like "walk 10 paces towards the setting sun" with a satellite pinpointed location. But Emma was quite excited and any activity that keeps kids interested in geography and the outdoors seemed like a worthwhile adventure. We were pleasantly surprised to find that American Samoa has two geocaches set up. We loaded the coordinates into our GPS units, packed a picnic lunch, and headed out for a family day on Saturday. Both of the geocaches are located on the far east side of our island. Ona has rarely made it the ten miles to Pago Pago without crying (a 30-50 minute trip depending on the traffic) so we weren't sure how a day driving around the island would turn out. We took our chances and drove to the farthest cache location first. The whole way Emma was holding her GPS and giving Paul directions, as though he had any option other than continuing along our one road.

We arrived at our spot and saw that we were at a shipwreck that we had yet to closely inspect. Now we really felt like pirates looking for treasure with our very own shipwreck to explore! Although the ship looks like something from a long time ago, it is actually a Korean fishing vessel that was wrecked sometime in the last decade.

Emma and Paul searched high and low for the cache. Paul even braved the putrid water and searched for a while in the room of the ship pictured below. Ona had to get in on the action and tried to lend a hand with the GPS unit.A couple hours were spent picnicking and searching, but we came up empty-handed. We may go back and look again as there are lots of good hiding spots along the shore and in the ship. It is also quite possible that the cache is missing. I'm sure if someone found it by chance it would have been stolen. The second cache was located in a spot we often frequent. Unfortunately, it wasn't very hidden and the geocache was completely looted. Not a very successful day of geocaching, but we all had a good time. Emma requested that we make our own geocache so we plan to do that soon. We have a few locations in mind that will be off the beaten path so hopefully safe from looting. The other agenda for the day was a family photo. As many wonderful pictures as we have, this is our very first family photo since adding Ona to the Brown clan! Although we are all squinty-eyed, I love this picture of me and the girls. Have I mentioned that I am so happy to have two daughters?On the ride home I got a picture of one of my favorite buses... my precious, my precious. A Lord of the Rings-themed bus is pretty cool, but is not to be outdone by the Finding Nemo bus, the coral reef bus, or the fafafine jungle warrior bus.And finally, a floppy-haired Paul driving home with Rainmaker Mountain in the background (in the rain, of course).

New year is approaching

2008-11-13T12:53:00.004-11:00

The new 2009 calanders are out. Why is that all that exciting? Well because one of my photos was selected for inclusion in this years' National Natural Landmarks calander which is put out nationally every year by the US Dept of the Interior. I recieved honorable mention (for the photo below) and my photo is included for the month of May.For more information, or to get your own copy of the calander go to http://www.nature.nps.gov/nnl. My photo is of a spot we call Palangi Beach, though it is officially named Cape Taputapu National Natural Landmark. It is about 20 minutes from our house.
There really are some amazing shots in the calander. I really enjoy the picture by Dan Stone for the month of January. It is a shot taken with black & white infrared film. Also, September's shot taken by George Hornel is awesome. It really makes me rethink Tennessee.

US Navy mark 5

2008-10-28T09:04:00.008-11:00

For anyone who is into scuba diving, there is a feeling of awe when we think of the "oldtime" surface supplied divers. You see, while SCUBA was only developed and marketed to recreational users in the early 1960's, the hard-hat surface supplied diving rigs had been around for hundreds of years previous.

Ever since I was a kid, I thought that it would be great to grab a garden hose and go exploring on the bottom of some pond. Turns out that this is physiologically impossible (constraints on the human lungs' capacity to draw in air against a greater surrounding pressure, etc.). However, if you take that garden hose and force air down through it using a compressor, then it would work. This is essentially what they discovered a few centuries earlier, you take a metal helmet and run a compressed air hose down to it from the surface, giving you a tethered surface-supplied diver, often referred to as a "hardhat" diver. These expensive, bulky, cumbersome, and heavy systems were only available to military and commercial divers. Not exactly available to a 10 year old kid, or a 33 year old for that matter.

So when the opportunity to dive a vintage US Navy mark 5 (mk 5) dive helmet presented itself, I jumped at the chance. This is the same rig shown in the Hollywood movie "Men of Honor". These rigs were used for a very long time in the USN, up until the mid 1980's when they were replaced by lighter composite versions. The entire Mk 5 rig weighs in at 196 pounds (the helmet alone weighs 65) and takes several people to help get you into the units.Obviously, you are not going to be running any marathons in these things, but like most things they are not too bad once you get into the water.

This was some of the most fun I have had in years. It really made me want to join the navy and go to navy dive school to become a salvage diver. They get to do this all the time, although in much different gear now. Carrying almost 200 pounds of gear, plus all the additional equipment needed to go surface supplied diving isn't exactly the "garden hose" dreams of my youth, but I would definitely go wandering around on the bottom of any lake, pond, or ocean with one of these rigs again.

Diving with Emma

2008-10-06T08:50:00.010-11:00

Emma and I had Father-Daughter Day this weekend. We started the day by going scuba diving. This was Emma's first "real" dive as she puts it. True enough, this was her first open water dive.Along with our friend Markus, we spent 30 minutes underwater at a maximum depth of 13 feet. We went to a spot we call the turtle pools, so named because there used to be a lot of green sea turtles that hung out on the sandy bottom munching seagrass (that is, until the poachers got them). Unfortunately no sea turtles, but we did get to see a whole bunch of cool stuff, including bright blue Linckia starfish, damselfish, a large porcupinefish (bottom photo), as well as one of Emma's favorite fish.... the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, also known as the Huma Huma or simply, the Picasso triggerfish (top photo).After we took care of our dive gear we got out the cookbook and decided to make a pound cake. While we didn't use the old pound of everything recipe, the recipe we used did turn out really well. In celebration, Melanie joined us and we had a lovely tea party.

A round of "Go Fish", and the day was at an end. All in all a very good day.

Tonga, part II

2008-10-03T08:21:00.028-11:00

We flew out of Vava’u and headed back toward the main island of Tonga, Tongatapu. This is where the capital, Nukalofa, is located along with most government, the main Peace Corps HQ, and of course most of the royal family. I still contend that it would have been fun to have a cup of tea with the King, but my friend said that he didn’t think it was such a good idea to simply ring the doorbell at the king’s house...probably right. Spending the vacation in Tongan prison probably wouldn’t have been as much fun.We stayed in Nukalofa, at a really cool B & B. Not usually one for this type of accommodation, it was actually our taxi driver who brought us to check it out. Ended up being way, way nicer than the hotel we were planning on staying at AND it was cheaper. Thanks, Edward (our taxi/ tour driver). If you ever get a chance to go to Tonga, you should look up Edward at...yup, Edward Tours. Anyway, once settled we headed over to the main market in Tonga. It is a huge two story building with vendors on both floors. Not much happens on the second floor, but lots on the first. There were all kinds of handicrafts, baskets, bowls, tapa (decorated barkcloth), ceremonial weapons, etc. as well as all the produce you could ever imagine. Melanie has written before about the sad fruit and vegetable supply here on Tutuila. Tonga had all the produce a tropical island should have and more. It was fresh, unbelievably cheap, and everywhere. The handicraft area was huge. There were really about 3 main types of venders: tapa (also known as siapo or ngatu), weapons and other carved goods, and mixed weaving. While yes, most everyone had the same stuff, there was a definite artistic quality lacking in some vendors or just simply poor execution. Some peoples’ work however was exquisite, gallery quality stuff. It was more expensive (by about $2), but definitely worth it. I got lots of stuff, but my one true goal was to get a big tapa while I was there. I did get a big tapa indeed. It measures about 45’ x 32’. This, by Tongan standards, is actually a small tapa! It weighs about 24 lbs. It became the albatross around my neck as I was trying to carry this thing around in later travelling days. A big tapa by the way is about 150 feet long.That's mulberry bark (below) before processing into cloth. The picture at the bottom is Hibiscus (used to make skirts).

One thing I have to vent about at the markets makes me sad. This by the way was true of the markets in Vava’u, Tongatapu and in Samoa... Every single market had several people selling sea turtle shells and items made from turtles. Many had cheap Chinese plastic knock-off jewelry they were trying to cheat the tourists with, but many more had actual endangered species carved up for sale. How much does a sea turtle shell go for? Anywhere from $15 up to $130 depending on the vendor. $15 for an endangered animal. Did they not realize these were CITES non-tradable goods that would be seized by customs agents anywhere in the world? I doubt they cared, and as my friend pointed out, you can bring anything you want into a country in a yacht.After our many trips back and forth to the markets we headed all around the island to see “the sights”. The highlights are the blowholes, the trilathon, the Lapati tombs, the bat colony, and the sound of tapa.
The blowholes are mostly just a really rough side of the island where the waves crash into the rocky shoreline creating some spectacular spray. They are very pretty.The trilathon is known as the Tongan Stonehenge. Having been to the real Stonehenge I can tell you that if you have that in mind and then go see the trilathon you will be sorely disappointed. No expectations? Okay, it’s a neat trio of rocks made into an archway.The Lapati tombs are big rocks... um, yup that is about it.Unfortunately fruit bats are threatened or endangered throughout the world. Sadly, they didn’t seem very common in Tonga. We did take a trip to see one small bat colony, but considering that I see 500-600 individuals in the colonies at work, this one just seemed sad. Still, any bats are cool and these were in a “bat sanctuary” so hopefully they will flourish.We keep stopping at random places to see the various island attractions. One thing always stood out, from all around you came the tap tap tapping sound of women pounding mulberry bark to produce tapa. As this is one of the favorite tourist souvenirs, more tapa is produced now than ever before and it all comes from a small weed-like tree, the paper mulberry.No trip to Tonga is complete with out seeing the world famous three headed coconut. My friend really wanted to see it. I think he would also really want to see the two headed snapping turtle at the carnival in Tennessee... but anyway, here it is, the three headed coconut. For an added bonus you get cows grazing under coconut trees, which is just odd coming from the midwest.Cows under coconuts.... weird.

Kingdom of Tonga, part I

2008-09-30T14:46:00.029-11:00

So I had a roommate my freshman year in college who was obsessed with the Kingdom of Tonga. As a fairly worldly fellow, I was rather impressed with this guy who knew so much about a random South Pacific island I had only ever heard the name of. I too resolved to one day go to Tonga.
Well it just so happens that the Kingdom of Tonga (yes, they still have a king) is right around the corner (in middle-of-nowhere Pacific island terms). A friend and I had some vacation time and decided to go make a trip to this nearby (400 miles SSW) island chain. That's New Zealand in the bottom corner for those of you that are geographically challenged.Turns out Tonga is very similar to American Samoa. Lots of the same hassles and daily efforts to cause insanity to Palangis (white people). A major difference which is apparent the moment you step off the plane is the absence of trash! While this may not sound like much, our island has significant apathy on this issue and so travel to a “nearby” island that is trash-free just flies in the face of the typical “oh, it's a cultural difference” excuse. Yup, a clean tropical island... good first impression. So we were on the main island of Tongatapu for all of about 3 hours before we boarded our flight to Vava’u (an island group back north, and closer to where we started...grrrr). Vava’u was to be our main destination in Tonga as this is where the diving is supposed to be quite good.We checked into our hostel (5 people shared accommodation) and we quickly realized that we are too old to be “backpacking” with the other 20 year-olds (though I passed for younger than my buddy). Nothing too exciting, it was just a place to keep the rain off our heads after all. The next day we went out whale watching and saw a few humpbacks off in the distance, but nothing that really wanted to come and say hi to us. Quite frankly it was just a long day out on the boat. Vava'u is the yachtie capital of the world. Port of Refuge, the main harbor, is naturally protected from the elements and so lots of boaters come in to weather the storm season. Lots of dock space and surprisingly little life, given that most yachts dump their "wastes" over the side.We found out that the market with handicrafts, souvenirs, etc. closed at 4pm each day. We then realized the only way to get some cool stuff for ourselves and families was to make a quick blitzkrieg-type visit in the morning. We ran through quickly and got a few things (a small tapa, a basket, and a drum- more on the markets later...) before having to run (literally) to the other side of town to catch our dive boat. We made it to the boat, got our questionably maintained dive gear (we rented gear because we wanted to travel light), and we off to the first dive site. It was a place called Split Rock. The divemaster gave an excellent briefing and familiarized us with the map of the site, which ended up being a good thing because he got tied up with a new diver and so we were left to wander around on our own. The dive was wonderful, clear water and lots of cool fish. I even found a live triton's trumpet [snail] (below). We found several large swim-thrus, caves, caverns, and canyons, even finding the “split rock” towards the end.

So the Split rock is huge! It is about 90 feet tall and 150 long with a 2-3 foot wide crack running all the way to the base just a few feet off the bottom. So I get about halfway through this crack when the biggest lionfish I had ever seen starts swimming towards me. Lionfish have extremely venomous spines so an accidental brush with one is...um... not good. So what happens next? The stupid fish stops about 2 feet from me. I am wedged against the wall of a crack 70 feet below the surface which is to narrow to back up or turn around. After what seemed an eternity I decide to use my camera housing to gently nudge it out of my way so I can continue swimming through.

Our next dive was China Town, so named because of the pagoda-like coral heads which were common to the dive site. The highlight here is a patch of anemones and clownfish. The anemones are just are standard everyday bulb-tipped anemones we see across the entire South Pacific. What was special was that these all lived virtually on top of each other making it appear to be one 30 foot wide anemone. The really amazing part was that these were bright red, having incorporated a bacteria into their bodies instead of the normal algae. Hundreds of clownfish of three different varieties swarmed all around making for quite a spectacle.
The next day with our dives done, and flying out the next afternoon, we decided to head for a hike to the National Park. We hiked up to the top of Mt. Talau, which from a distance looks sort of like a New Mexico mesa (covered in rainforest of course).Wonderful views of Nieafu (above), the main town of Vava’u. Having just been to the “mesa”, my buddy really wanted “Mexican food”. It just so happened that we had passed by a “Mexican restaurant” several times in the previous days. I hate Mexican food, but I conceded to go to...get this.... “Tonga Bob’s”. Apparently, Tonga Bob, his staff, or likely anyone who had ever met any of his staff had never seen or heard of Mexican food. Unimaginably bad. Even my friend (who has been known to eat frozen chicken fat) could not stomach it! Tongan cuisine is not likely to take the world by storm anytime soon.
We did not have to fly out until 5pm that evening and being a Sunday there was lots to do but very few places you could do it. Tongans take their “Christian” day of rest seriously. Church is very strictly attended and tardiness, absence, or small donations (worst offense) are severely looked down upon.Fortunately Tongans understand not all tourists have the same beliefs, so if you go to one of the many beach resorts you can take part in most of your tourist activities. (That's Mt. Talau in the background).We really wanted to get into the water once more and since we could not dive because we were flying out, we went snorkeling instead. I usually look down on snorkeling to be quite honest. This snorkel was quite nice though. We found many different starfish, clownfish and anemones and one anemone that even had a pair of shrimp living in the center (bottom picture). The highlight for me though was when my friend found a banded sea snake. We don’t have sea snakes in Samoa and this is one animal I have wanted to see in the wild since I was a kid. It seemed oblivious to our presence and just went about its business of hunting for food.More to come...

The humpbacks have returned

2008-09-25T10:37:00.012-11:00

The humpbacks have returned. Every year from about late August to mid-November the nearshore waters of American Samoa are taken over by amorous humpback whales (Megaptera navaeangliae). These whales, which have all migrated from their summer feeding grounds in Antarctica, come here to mate and calve.What is surprising about this journey of several thousand miles is that it is done by the same animals each year. Similar to a fingerprint in its distinctiveness, individual whales can be identified by the unique patterns on the underside of their flukes (tails). This actually gets easier with age as new scars, and scrapes aid in the differentiation. So even though they may look similar from a distance, a trained observer can easily recognize each particular whale. This is how we know that we have around 70 whales that make this arduous trip each year.During the southern hemisphere summer, the waters of the Antarctic are lush with krill and small fish, perfect for a baleen whale like the humpback. They gorge themselves all summer long putting on bulk for their long migration, because once the whales get here, there is no food for them. They fast the entire time they are here, which for the females can sometimes be several months. Once they are here then the shows really begin, humpbacks are one of the best known whales because these are the whales which fling their gigantic bodies (around 40 tons) almost entirely out of the water, called breaching. They also roll on their sides at the surface and slap the water with their huge pectoral fins, called... yup, fin-slapping. While there are many theories out there as to why the whales do this (some a little sillier than others), the honest answer is we don’t know (but we have a few pretty good guesses). It is easy to imagine that these massive 40-50 foot long animals are bulky and clumsy (especially after you see one breach). Surprisingly, underwater they are actually quite acrobatic and graceful. I suppose a few million years in the ocean will do that.What humpbacks are best known for is their singing. An unimaginably loud sound, these songs can carry for many miles underwater. They tend to last 10-20 minutes “per song” and the singing can on rare occasions go on for over 24 hours nearly nonstop. We actually hear it quite a bit this time of year while we are diving. Many times we have surfaced with thoughts of the whales being “very close”, only to find that the person on the boat saw their spouts (when they come up to breath) several hundred yards or further away. The songs are “regional dialects” and groups in different parts of the world have very different song patterns.
While males are putting on their best shows the females (which are certainly the more inquisitive sex), the girls are often curious about the things around them. They can often be seen spy-hopping, which is when them poke their heads out of the water to get a good look at things on the surface or the horizon. Sometimes they will even come right up to boats to take a peek at the curious creatures.The reason the whales make the journey to our barren and foodless water is for the good of their calves. Though they are almost 15 feet long and weigh 1 ton (2,000 lbs) at birth, these newborn whales have very little blubber to keep them warm. If they were born in the frigid waters of Antarctica, they would quickly chill. So they are born in the warm tropical waters around American Samoa where they quickly bulk up by drinking their mother’s milk which is roughly 50% fat! (whole cow milk is about 4%). Another reason is that most of the ocean is around 12,000 feet deep, while the shores immediately around our islands are about 300-800 feet deep. We are the shallow “kiddie pool” of the ocean. Once the calves have put on enough blubber, they start the long journey back south with their mothers. If all goes well, they could be back to have their own calves in as little as five years (assuming of course that they are not taken by Japanese fishermen for “scientific purposes”).One final note, all these photos were taken during a federal research trip to study the whales in American Samoa (NOAA research permit #NMFS774-1714). I was given the rare opportunity to get in the water with the whales. This is normally illegal, as these are an internationally protected endangered species. Also, I try hard to take good photos. Please do no steal these (or any other) images from our blog. If you want friends or family to see the whales that you get to see here (and I encourage this), please just make a link to this site.

Back to School

2008-08-16T19:56:00.002-11:00

Another year at Pacific Horizons School has begun. Emma is in the 6th grade! Wow, I can remember being in 6th grade and thinking how mature and wise I was, especially compared to those unrefined 5th graders.

After some unhappy times, things are looking up for Emma at school. She has a new teacher, Mrs. Peck, who has a background in fisheries biology and art. She is experienced and very energetic, two qualities that had been lacking in Emma's former teacher.

Emma came home from the first day of school and told me that her day was "excellent" and she has been full of smiles every afternoon since. I am hopeful that we will get through the year with less tears, but I am sure there will always be days when Emma has girl drama to report. I'm just hoping for less of it this year.

Reading good

2008-08-13T22:27:00.000-11:00

We have always taken reading seriously. Literacy and grammar are big topics around our house. For those of you that are not already members, I highly reccomend checking out the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar at http://spogg.org/. Given that I am plugging a grammer website it should come as no surprize that we are all avid writers and readers. In fact the worst punishment that we can impose on Emma is taking away her reading time before bed.

So it should come as no surprise that we are starting Ona off early...

I would also like to point out that Melanie has about 12 blogs backlogged. She has been very busy teaching our 3 month old daughter how to read. So all you stateside folks should not fret, there are more blog entries and pictures coming. I invite you all to visit the SPOGG website and see if you can find the mistakes in this post!

Birthday at the Beach

2008-08-12T07:55:00.010-11:00

Emma wanted to celebrate her 11th birthday with a trip to the beach. The night before we had lots of fun making cupcakes. Emma is becoming very adept at using the frosting tips. I am impressed as this is not an easy task, especially in our climate. The frosting melts almost as quickly as you get it on the cupcake! Emma chose to spend her day at the beach in Sa'ilele. It is a beautiful village and one of my favorite features is how the road turns to sand as you drive through the coconut trees (check out a previous post for more pictures of Sa'ilele). Always the hostess, Emma was happy to pass out cupcakes to all of our friends.Although they are everywhere here, I still get a kick out of seeing hermit crabs on the beach. Emma used to keep these as pets in Michigan when she was 6 and 7 years old! We enjoyed beach combing and I helped Emma add to her beach glass collection.Emma got some great gifts. Not many toys this year - clothes, shoes, cool pens, music and other 11-year-old must haves. It was a wonderful day. Thanks to Emma for coming up with a great way to celebrate her birthday.

Ona Lily -- 3 months old

2008-08-08T08:38:00.011-11:00

Newborns are amazing with their tiny parts, but I really get into babies once they hit that 3 month mark. Ona has become very interactive lately. She makes lots of noises and it seems we may have another talkative girl on our hands. She is also grabbing for toys and even holding soft ones. Ona doesn't go in for shots this month so I don't have a weight to report, but it is pretty obvious that she is gaining lots. I love my chubby baby.She blows lots of bubbles. She is really losing her hair now and I find little silky hairs all over me and the house. Hmm, drooling and shedding... it is almost like having a dog. We wonder if Ona may grow up to be a circus freak as she can't seem to fall asleep unless she is in an extremely contorted position. It just doesn't look right, but when we try to straighten her neck, she wakes right up! Although she enjoys her crazy sleeping positions, Ona is actually holding her head quite steady now.

Back to the Governor's Mansion

2008-08-07T09:09:00.006-11:00

It was finally Emma's turn to be invited to the Governor's mansion... along with a couple hundred other kids. While not an intimate dinner affair with the leader of American Samoa, Emma was very happy to get to see the mansion. The day was for children who had participated in a sport funded through the First Lady's program to promote healthy kids. Emma went with her fellow swimmers. Everyone got to wear cool visitor badges. Ona slept through the whole tour until the very last part when the First Lady greeted us in the library. Mary Ann was excited to meet Ona (she had already met Emma at an event) as I was pregnant during our previous visits to the mansion, but Ona chose that moment to start screaming. Unfortunately, Em was not feeling very well this day. She toughed it out through the tour of the mansion, but ended up throwing up in the Governor's fale. We discreetly cleaned up and left. Emma felt bad, but we told her it would make quite the story someday that she puked in the leader of the country's guest house!

Happy Swiss Independence Day

2008-08-01T20:51:00.003-11:00

Along with many other restrictions during pregnancy, I had to give up scuba diving. I didn't mind for awhile as I was avoiding the ocean anyways. Many pregnant women develop strange aversions, often of certain foods, but not me... I ended up with a beach aversion! I hated the sun, the sand, the salt. Not a good thing when one lives on an island, but by the time Ona was born I was really missing it.

I was plotting to go scuba diving 5 or 6 weeks postpartum while my mother-in-law was here and willing to babysit. Because of the c-section I ended up having to wait a lot longer to get back in the water. One day my friend Markus asked me when I would be diving again so I arbitrarily responded with August 1st. Being Swiss, he told me that August 1 happened to be Swiss Independence Day so it was decided that we would celebrate his heritage and go for a dive that day.

It was a beautiful day and Markus and I headed for the usual dive spot of Faga'alu. Although not the best dive on the island, it is close to home and work and an easy shore entry. Especially after the good diving in the Manu'a Islands last year, I had grown tired of this less than stellar dive site. It's amazing how a year-long diving hiatus changes your perspective! Markus and I got into the water and I was amazed by everything I saw! The visibility didn't even seem that bad as it often does on this dive in the outer harbor area. I saw several anemones with clownfish. Clownfish are very territorial and it is amusing to watch them defend their home. Several of the anemones had little clownfish families on them, complete with tiny babies. Maybe I just have babies on the brain, but it was quite adorable.We don't always see many schools of fish here so I was very excited when a school of about 50 or 60 moorish idols and schooling bannerfish swam around me. Towards the end of the dive, a hawksbill turtle swam by! Anytime I see a sea turtle I am thrilled.I'm sure it had a lot to do with the fact that I haven't dove in so long, but this dive seemed very magical to me! Carol and I are going on another dive already tomorrow.

Pacific Arts Festival, Final Installment

2008-07-31T08:46:00.028-11:00

Given that Paul has 4 1/2 months worth of leave accumulated, he took an afternoon off work and we enjoyed a last day at the festival together. The first performance was a group representing American Samoa, imported from the States. It was very entertaining as the announcers kept saying they were from the Island of San Diego! The next performers were from Kiribati: The costumes from New Caledonia were awesome, and their non-costume attire was pretty nice, too.One of my favorites is Tahiti. Tahitian dancing is all about the hips. It is amazing how fast they can move and how effortless it looks. I was a bit surprised to see Taiwan at the festival. These girls' costumes are identical to a doll that Emma has in her collection of dolls from around the world.Tokelou is a group of islands north of Samoa. I enjoyed their oar dance:

I was happy to see the Solomon Islands flute dancers perform again on the last day. They had missed a few of their scheduled performances as sadly one of their delegates died of malaria (he already had it - we don't have malaria here). And to finally end the festival blogging, I love this picture from the Solomon Islands group:That night there was a closing ceremony at the stadium. I assumed it would be a whole lot of talking, thanking, gift giving, and more thanking as is typical in Samoa. It turned out that there was a lot of that, but until we heard the booming we had no idea all the thanking was going to be followed by a fireworks show!

Pacific Arts Festival, Part V

2008-07-30T08:00:00.010-11:00

I am obviously partial to the dancing, but there was a lot more to the Festival of the Pacific Arts than just the performing arts. Aside from the stages, there was an area called the Festival Village where each country had its own fale (Samoan style hut). In the fales delegates from the various islands held demonstrations and sold handicrafts. I spent many hours wandering around there.As seen in some of our pictures of dancers, many Polynesian people are heavily tattooed. The demonstrations of traditional tattooing were almost too painful to even watch. The tools consist of a piece of wood covered with needles made from bone (it looks like a comb) and a second piece of wood which acts as a hammer. The person has to endure hours and hours of being "tapped" on. The Maori people (native to New Zealand) practice the art of face tattooing. There was a lot of weaving going on and I would still love to learn. I had visions of weaving becoming my next knitting while I lived in the South Pacific, but I have yet to go beyond weaving some palm fronds. The women weaving in the picture are from New Caledonia and the baskets below are from Papua New Guinea.Another art of the Pacific is tapa making. It is an intensive process to make the tapa cloth from the bark of the paper Mulberry tree. Then a design is carved into wood, the cloth is laid over the wood, and the design is printed onto the cloth. The traditional dyes are often a beautiful rusty brown color. The tapas below from Tonga are the biggest I have ever seen. We wanted to buy this turtle tapa, but decided that Paul can find one during his upcoming trip to Tonga.

Pacific Arts Festival, Part IV

2008-07-29T19:42:00.007-11:00

We were excited for another evening of dancing, this time at the Stadium. There were 14 different nations scheduled to perform this evening, but after 2 1/2 hours we only saw two of the groups. The first was New Caledonia: The next group to perform was from Samoa (aka Western Samoa or Independent Samoa):Considering that we see Samoan dancing often, we were anxious to get onto the other performers. Unfortunately, the third group, New Zealand, turned out not to be their native Maori dancers, but some really obnoxious rappers! We tried to wait it out, but after a few songs headed home. Although a little disappointed, a few days of the festival remain.

Pacific Arts Festival, Part III

2008-07-24T10:33:00.015-11:00

Paul finally got the chance to check out the festival last night, and it was nice to have someone else do the photo taking (which worked out well as I don't know if I could have gotten good pictures of moving subjects in the dark). In the evening, there are several venue choices around the island. We opted for the Fagatogo pavilion and saw some of the best performances yet.

Rapa Nui is a clear standout. Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is west of Chile and their main language is Spanish. I've always wanted to see the famous statues there, but now I would love to visit to see more of the beautiful people and culture. Their dancing is incredible - sexy, intriguing, high energy, and it is so unique to see a South American influence in our Polynesian world. Think Polynesian dancing meets salsa dancing. All of the festival performers create their own music, typically with traditional instruments and singing. I wasn't sure about Rapa Nui's modern drum set, electric guitars and such, but the music was fabulous. Again, the perfect combination of Polynesia and Latin America. Another favorite of the evening was the Solomon Islands. We're considering having a reunion with our island friends at the next Festival of the Pacific Arts in the Solomon Islands in 2012 (especially considering the scuba diving is incredible there). The best part of the Solomon Islands' performance is when these guys play bamboo flutes along with the bamboo drums. Some of the flutes are extremely large, but the men are still able to dance while playing them. The music they produce with these instruments is awesome. It makes you smile and feel like dancing. I even tried to find out if I could purchase a CD, but then something tells me these guys aren't sitting in a studio back at home, recording their music. Australia is represented at the festival by both of its indigenous people: the Aborigines and the Torres Strait Islanders, who we saw perform last night. Papua New Guinea has delegates from three different regions of its country. The differences between their traditional clothing and dancing is interesting. These performers were from one of the other regions than the Papua New Guineans I saw on the first day of the festival. I love these dancers with the crazy head pieces!
There ended up being 26 countries at the festival as Vanuatu was unable to come. I have now seen 12 of these countries perform and the festival continues on for another week. Our island is going to seem so quiet after all this excitement, but my need for travel and live music is really being satisfied.

Pacific Arts Festival, Part II

2008-07-24T09:03:00.010-11:00

Two days in a row I have spent hours and hours at the festival. I now have one very tired little baby on my hands so we are enjoying a day of rest at home. The festival is wonderful -- it completely exceeds my expectations. I am thoroughly impressed with American Samoa for the preparation and logistics of this event. It is amazing to see our island transformed into a global community. I love being surrounded by different languages, sights, and sounds.

During the day yesterday, I saw dances from Nuie, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Cook Islands, and Wallis & Futuna. Below are pictures of the Chamorro dancers. The Chamorro are the indigenous people of Guam and CNMI.

My favorite of the day was the Cook Islands. The girls' hip shaking and swaying is mesmerizing, and who doesn't love a coconut bra? I especially appreciated one dance and song that was all about their love and respect of nature.

Pacific Arts Festival, Part I

2008-07-22T21:45:00.020-11:00

The Festival of the Pacific Arts kicked off last night. I skipped the opening ceremony, but today Carol and I headed down for the start of the daily festivities, which include dancing, food, art and craft demonstrations. Our main beach park has been converted into the central location for the festival. As soon as we walked up to the park and saw the guy below, I was extremely excited that American Samoa is hosting this event. It is almost as good as getting to leave the island! The first people we encountered today, from Papua New Guinea, will undoubtedly end up being the most interesting-looking of the festival. Before they even arrived, they caused quite a stir as many people of the Samoan community were concerned about their topless dress.

Polynesian women love babies. Everywhere I go Ona gets quite the attention. In the stores here women are always offering to hold her while I shop. These girls from Fiji thought Ona was adorable and while I don't typically let random people hold my baby, they were too sweet to say no to.

This woman from the Solomon Islands was one of a group who I sat down with as I needed a place in the shade to take care of Ona. The women and I had a great chat about diapers, breast feeding, traveling, and more. They were definitely my favorite people of the day, and they thought I should come visit them when the Solomon Islands hosts the next Pacific Arts Festival in 2012. The people in the next two pictures are from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). One of the guys explained to me how they traveled to get here. I believe it was Rapa Nui to Chile to Tahiti to New Zealand to Samoa to finally arrive in American Samoa. Wow. The girls below are from our neighbor island, (Independent) Samoa.Carol and I did some shopping and ended up with a bunch of baskets from Papua New Guinea. It was pretty comical watching Carol try to push the stroller while balancing the baskets. It was even more entertaining as people kept asking if we were selling baskets.

We saw dances from quite a few of the 27 different countries today. I would love to see all 27 by the end of the two weeks. These dancers are from Kiribati. Rainmaker Mountain makes a stunning backdrop to the stage.

More fun with coconuts...

2008-07-21T20:31:00.010-11:00

....and paint ....oh, and fabric, ribbons, buoys, styrofoam cups, tires and whatever other stuff one may have laying around. I should have known better, but even after two years in American Samoa I didn't think it would go this far. Our entire island is covered in crazy decorations (i.e. future litter). It is hard to get the full extent in pictures, but think your crazy grandma's house at Christmastime. Or maybe this is just true of my Grandma as she would ensure that every square inch of her house was covered in chintzy decorations. Now that the Festival of the Pacific Arts is beginning maybe we'll see some real art. By the way... I, Melanie, wrote this. I realized with all my cynical humor that I may have sounded like the other Brown blogger.

Beautify Your Island?

2008-07-15T11:27:00.004-11:00

With the Festival of Pacific Arts quickly approaching, there are some noticeable changes happening around the island. It is a big deal for American Samoa to be selected as the host country for this festival that occurs only every four years. There will be thousands of people coming from 27 island nations so the locals here are really trying make our island look its best. Most of their attempts are rather tacky, but maybe it's just a matter of taste. How many different ways can you decorate with a coconut? Everywhere I go, all I see is painting, painting, painting. The paint store has done its market research, as the radio advertisement says to come buy paint for all your "coconut, rock, and tire painting" rather than for homes and buildings or other things I typically associate paint with. Who cares what your house looks like when you have a shiny, gold coconut stack sitting in your yard?There is some good coming out of all of this. The once graffiti-covered bus stops are getting cool paint jobs and on Friday there was an island-wide cleanup. The amount of trash is noticeably less, but I'm doubtful that it will last long.

2 months old

2008-07-14T18:47:00.000-11:00

I can't seem to think of a creative title when it comes to posting monthly updates on Ona. The Big 2? A Growing Baby? I only come up with cheesy titles so I'll keep it simple and to the point. Yes, Ona is now 2 months old. She has almost doubled her birth weight and now weighs 11 1/2 lbs. She is well on her way to being a chubby baby. Ona smiles all the time. She doesn't just smile, but she gets her whole body into it. She seems to be quite the ham already as she tilts her head to her shoulder, scrunches up her nose, and shows a big gum-filled grin. She is starting to finally use her hands a bit. She has had the tightest little fists for the first part of her life. I have to pry them open to wash them. She is now holding onto fabric things -- blankets, my shirt, her dresses. She really likes the tags on her Taggies blanket from my Aunt Cindy. We've had a few rough evenings of uncontrollable crying, but it doesn't occur every night and the spells seem to be getting more and more infrequent. Thank goodness for the swing, though. This baby loves motion, but me and Paul's arms can only take so much.

Ona is also starting to use her voice for something other than crying. She has said, "ooo" a few times, which surprised both me and her! Ona grew into her strawberry hat, which is good as it has been freezing lately. I even had Paul buy me pants in the States. Ok, I guess I've become tropo as "freezing" is 77 degrees!

A word about our buses

2008-07-03T11:13:00.002-11:00

Since I didn't start this blog until a year into living in American Samoa, there are many facets of everyday Samoan life that I never blogged about. The buses are one of those. While Michele was here, Emma played tour guide and took her grandma out via bus a couple of times. The buses are pretty entertaining, at least for a visitor. For me and Paul riding the bus quickly lost its appeal, as the music is deafening and often of the rap variety. Just about every song you can think of has been covered by bad Polynesian singers. Somehow they even managed to make a salacious rap rendition of “Lady in Red.” The buses are called aiga buses, with aiga meaning family. The buses are homemade by a family or village from a converted truck bed. The small buses are the most nerve wrecking for me, as with every turn in the road I am praying that the wooden bus doesn’t fall apart or tip over (especially when there is a large number of Samoans all sitting on one side). The buses are often packed full of people and it is not uncommon to see adults sitting on each other’s laps. More time is spent on the decorating of the buses than working on their engines (I have had to disembark several buses after they broke down on the side of the road). Some of the buses have beautiful island scenes airbrushed on them – my favorite is the coral reef bus. The inside is also decorated, typically with feather boas and bright fabric. Emma loved being responsible for making sure her and her grandma got where they wanted to go, which isn’t too hard as there is one main road here. You can flag down a bus anywhere, hop on, and when you want to get off you just knock on the wood frame. This can make for quite a long trip as people are constantly getting on and off, even within just meters of where the bus last stopped. I am officially done riding the bus as loud music, no seat belts, and the occasional cigarette smoke are not acceptable for a baby.

A Photo Shoot at the Beach

2008-06-29T08:20:00.008-11:00

What do you do when you can't get in the water at the beach? As the mom of a new baby, I guess you go camera crazy. I am still avoiding the ocean until my c-section incision is completely healed so to entertain myself I played with our Nikon SLR camera. After owning this camera for over a year, I am finally trying to venture beyond the auto setting. Wow, am I really the mother of two lovely daughters? It's still hard to believe. Carol got a similar Nikon camera for mother's day and she took this wonderful shot of 6-month- old Scott with Ona. She posted the same picture on her blog, but it is too cute to not be repeated.
Photos taken at Tisa's, June 22 (Ona - 6 weeks old)

Michele in Samoa

2008-06-28T14:05:00.017-11:00

We were very fortunate to have had a recent visitor to American Samoa. Paul’s mom, Michele, traveled all the way from Michigan to the South Pacific to visit her two granddaughters. Ok, maybe she came to see me and Paul, too, but we all know Ona and Emma were her true incentive to finally get that passport. Michele was a huge help to us, as I was still recovering from my c-section. She rescued Paul from having to do all the dishes and she of course held Ona and entertained Emma. Paul and I even went out without kids one night. Grandma arrived with a suitcase full of goodies, including a very yummy lamb (an appropriate gift for Ona as one of the meanings of her name is lamb). Emma also got a lamb and made a cool "sheep house." I didn’t get to take Michele on as many adventures as I would have liked, but I think she still saw most of the island and experienced quite a lot of Polynesian life in her three weeks here. One of the highlights of her trip was fabric shopping and she got a custom-made lavalava sewn. Another highlight was a trip to Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, where Candyman makes an awesome pina colada with fresh coconut and pineapple. No trip is complete to the South Pacific without dancing so we took Michele to a fiafia night. This is an evening of eating and dancing, and it was great that she got to see traditional Samoan dancing as well as try some of the local food. I was excited to drive again after not being able to do much for over a month after my surgery so one day we went on a long, scenic drive on the west side of the island. Michele particularly enjoyed getting to see the post office, where miraculously all of her many packages end up. I love the hand painted U.S. Post Office sign with the letter emerging from a hibiscus flower. Paul took his mom to do two of our favorite things – hiking and snorkeling. They spent a day together in the National Park, where Michele loved the jungle and the views from the mountains. We had a lot of winds and rough seas during June, but finally on her last day Michele got to snorkel. There was still quite a current, but she did great for her first time snorkeling and saw starfish, sea cucumbers, fish and coral. With her island experiences complete and her grand baby fix for awhile, Michele headed for home, taking Emma with her. Emma is spending 5 weeks visiting family and friends in Michigan and Colorado. It was a bit hard to say goodbye, but I am extremely proud of Emma's independence and I can't wait to hear all about her mainland adventures.

1 month old

2008-06-12T13:09:00.008-11:00

It is amazing how fast a month goes by. From making just a few squeaks for the first couple weeks (her little cry literally sounded like a mouse squeaking) to making her presence known now (especially in the evening), Ona has grown a lot this first month. She is smiling now and I can't seem to get enough of her smiles. I haven't caught much of a smile on camera yet, but I did get some great screaming shots. You can tell how much she loves her bath time. Ona went to the Tafuna Health Clinic (which makes our hospital seem like a palace) for her first check-up and shots the other day. That was quite an experience. The so-called check-up consisted of the doctor telling me to lay "it" on the table -- referring to Ona and then proceeding to ask me if my baby was ok. Isn't the doctor supposed to tell me that? Ona weighed in at 9 lbs, which I'm assuming is pretty close to accurate as she is starting to chunk up after her small start on life (she weighed only 5 lbs, 14 oz at birth). I noticed that all the other babies at the clinic were getting even measurements, too, but I'm not sure if the nurse was rounding up or down. Apparently ounces aren't important here. All in all, Ona is a healthy, mostly happy and very loved little baby.

Guppy trail

2008-06-09T14:54:00.000-11:00

One of my biggest "pet-peeves" is mis-information. The internet is thus somewhat of a thorn to me as there is very little if any fact-checking on things which get posted. If that wasn't bad enough, people then find this incorrect information and then perpetuate it further and are often adamant that they have the right information. Drives me nuts. Here is an example. I was recently told (by several people) that there was a new trail on the island. Great. I thought it strange that working for the National Park (that maintains most of the trails) I had not heard of this new trail. I love to hike, so I was intrigued. I asked where had these people heard of this "new trail" So and so's blog, they said. Really. So I looked. Turns out this "new trail" had been established only recently.... 1942. By the U.S. Army. In addition to being the National Park marine biologist I am also the park GIS specialist/ cartographer. Here then is the trail map I made about 6 months ago (before said blog post).

This trail is part of the Department of Interior's National Historic Site for the Blunt's Point Cannons. As a National Historic Site this area is administered by... yup, the National Park Service. I requested that the area be cleaned up and revitalized about a year ago during one of our weekly staff meetings. We then sent out our trail crew to clear the area and restore the guns. Ah.... a "new trail".

Incidentally, the second cannon up the hill which is still partially flooded has a freshwater fish species that nobody knew was here. Everyone has been "rubber-stamping" along that our streams had Mexican mollies, Poecillia mexicana. Well, Emma and I went and collected some for an aquarium I built a few weeks ago. I immediately recognized that these were not the Mexican mollies that were supposed to be there. More samples were collected and sent off to North Carolina and the Netherlands (museums that have the leading world experts on Poecillidae- the molly/guppy family). Turns out our fish are Gill's Mollies, Poecillia gillii. So no new trail, but we did get a new fish.

Quotations and bad mustard?

2008-05-24T09:47:00.000-11:00

Ever read the Harty’s blog? Well, there are often funny quotes posted there by Julia. They often make me laugh even though I have little idea of the context. I have often scribbled down funny quotes from people, usually on whatever random scrap of paper I can find. Unfortunately this leads to the quote being thrown out a few days later. So here then, in a effort to not lose the quote and hopefully make you grin, are the recent quotes I have heard.

Nudity and wicker do not go hand in hand... there’s probably a website somewhere.
-Jay

Paul: It’s magic.
Simon: No it isn’t, it’s the force.
-Simon Harty, age 6, on magnetisim

Ya know... just me groovin’ at the wheel.
-Melanie Brown on car dancing while driving

Emma: I wish I had toes like you dad.
Melanie: It’s alright Emma, at least you have a normal sized second toe. See, mine is all
stumpy.
Emma: That’s okay Mommy, that’s your personality.

And on a completely random note, I have something to say about mustard. Everyone stop reading this and go look at the mustard container in the door of your refrigerator. I know you have one. Even if you don’t eat mustard there is one there. They often come with the house when you move in. What did you notice? If you are like most everyone else you will upon closer examination realize that your mustard expired about 2 years ago.

In looking in the frig last week, it occurred to me that the mustard we had in there had come from one of our first grocery shopping trips on island. That was 2 years ago! So it got me to think, “How old is that?” and “Does mustard expire?”.

Well according to the packaging it does. Can’t say I have heard of anyone hospitalized from bad mustard though. What does the “expiration” date really mean? I suspect it is a ploy to get you to throw out your old mustard and go and buy a new one. You know what I say? If Jay can eat frozen raw chicken fat by the handful, then I can use my expired mustard. (Yes, I have seen him do that. I still owe him $10).

Especially for the Grandmas

2008-05-23T08:24:00.010-11:00

7,000 miles is a long way to be from your new grandchild so I am forgiving of the pressure placed on me to post new pictures on the blog. This one is for you, Michele.... pictures of both lovely granddaughters! Emma had her school's year-end arts festival last week. Each class performed dances from different islands and Emma's class represented Hawaii.

How Ona got her name

2008-05-15T10:15:00.008-11:00

So Melanie and I had a rough time deciding on names. It was about 2 days before Ona was born that we finally settled on her name. Etymology, the study of the origin of words is a tricky thing. When did the name first appear? Which culture had it first? What does it mean? Names are especially tricky, which is why so many of them have multiple meanings and origins.

We (and by we I mean I) really wanted to give our newest daughter a Gaelic (Irish) name. After much deliberation we came up with Oonagh, which is the Gaelic spelling of Ona. We decided that a lifetime of correcting people on the proper pronunciation of her name would just be cruel, so we went with the anglicized version. In Celtic folklore Ona is the “queen of the fairies”. It means “unity” or “the one” in Latin. It may have originally derived from the Gaelic “uan”, which means lamb. All are fun meanings to a name which we picked simply because we liked how it sounds.

There is a wonderful Celtic folktale about Oonagh. Actually it is about Finn McCool, but Ona turns out to be the wise one in this tale. Given that this is a folktale, there are of course various versions with subtle differences. Here then is the version I know and the one we will tell to Ona as she grows…

Once upon a time… (yup, it’s a fairy tale, they all start out like that) there lived a Celtic hero by the name of Fionn mac Cumhaill (later anglicized to Finn McCool). Finn was a giant and he lived peacefully with his fairy wife Ona in a small cottage by the sea. It was widely known throughout Ireland and the surrounding lands that Finn was the strongest and toughest man around.

Until one day a traveler from Scotland wandered past Finn while he was working in the fields. The traveler spoke to Finn without fear and without wonder. This struck Finn, since most who had come before were dumbfounded by his huge size and many trembled just to be in his presence. So Finn asked the man “Why do you not fear me? Am I not the largest man you have ever seen?” To which the traveler replied that he was indeed a great man, but certainly not big enough to elicit fear. “Now back in Scotland there lives a man twice your size by the name Angus the grand.” Finn was shocked. A man twice his size. Surely the man must be crazed. “I have not heard of this Angus you speak of”, Finn said, “Even if what you say is true, he surely cannot be as strong as I.” To which the traveler replied, “Do you challenge Angus to battle then?”

Finn pondered this question for awhile. He had no quarrel with this large Scot, but then his pride got the better of him and he wanted it known that he was the greatest and strongest man in the land and so he told the traveler to bring a message back to Scotland, to this Angus the grand, that he Finn McCool challenged him to a battle of strength.

And so away the traveler went. Weeks went by and Finn started to wonder if this Angus existed at all when word finally came that Angus was simply to large to fit in any boats and was working on a massive bridge across the sea. When Finn received this word he too began building a giant’s causeway. As both giants built toward each other word came to Finn from a fisherman returning to port that he had seen a giant so great that he had mistaken him for a mountain. On hearing this Finn began to wonder if his boldness and pride might have gotten the better of him. A second fisherman returned claiming to have seen the water rise when the giant stepped into the water. When a third fisherman claimed to have seen a great figure step in front of the sun and cast a shadow as though it were night, then Finn knew that he had boasted to quickly.

When Finn returned home that evening he spoke to Ona of all he had heard from the weary Irish fisherman who had seen the Scottish giant. Ona thought for a moment and then quickly ran to the bedroom and returned with the couple’s bed sheets. Finn suspected that Ona had gone mad. When she began tearing them up, he was sure. Ona assured him that she had a plan. She counseled him to return to his work on the causeway in the following days. Each night he returned home tired and growing more weary by the day. He spoke of this to Ona. She finally let him in on her plan.

The next day a messenger came to Finn’s home and announced that on the following day Angus would come and they would meet in battle. The next day when Angus arrived Finn was nowhere to be found. He pounded on the cottage door. Ona opened the door and invited her guest inside. She explained that Finn had gone to gather her more firewood and offered the giant a massive cup of tea. As they spoke a baby cried from the bedroom. Ona tried to excuse herself to attend to the baby. She was surprised when Angus asked to come and look upon this child of Finn’s. Upon hearing this she smiled and led him to the bedroom where Angus saw the most enormous baby he had ever seen. This great baby was wearing a massive diaper and appeared to be nearly half his size! What a great giant Finn McCool must be to have such a huge child. Thinking he was no match for anyone so large Angus quickly excused himself and fled back to Scotland and destroyed his side of the causeway so that he might be safe.

It was hard to say whether it was fairy magic or simply the giant diaper she had made out of the bed sheets for Finn, but her husband was now safe thanks to the quick wit of Ona. From that day on Finn McCool was much quieter when speaking to strange travelers and he was never known to brag or boast. To this day if you travel to Northern Ireland you can see the progress Finn McCool had made on his side of the Giant’s Causeway.

Yes, I did give Paul naming privileges, although I was not without veto power. I was quite pleased with many Irish names for boys – Liam, Finn, Orin, Kiernan, but when it came to Gaelic girl names many of them sounded so harsh to me. Paul would throw out a name and I would wrinkle my nose and counter with a name of my own. It turns out we were both keeping our number one choices to ourselves. I was afraid to mention mine in fear of Paul hating it, and I also figured if I threw out my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc choices first, maybe I would wear him down by the time I got to my number one choice. But given my husband’s stubborn Irish genes, I knew convincing him otherwise was nearly impossible. My due date was looming when I finally suggested the name Lily. In truth I had been thinking of this name for months. I imagined Emma and Lily together. I imagined holding Lily’s little hand in mine. I imagined Lily running around the house with her curly hair.

I loved the sound of the name Lily and I also found personal meaning in the name. Growing up my mom planted Lily of the Valley flowers in our backyard. I used to love to stare at the delicate little bell-shaped flowers. They looked just like little fairy hats, hanging in a row. In keeping with the fairy theme, I love Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies and it turns out there is a beautiful Lily of the Valley fairy. Also, we live in a valley so our daughter truly would be Lily of the Valley.

Yeah, I was pretty convinced Lily would be her name and I suggested to Paul that we use a Gaelic name for her middle name. Although Paul didn’t hate the name Lily, he did not want to give up having an Irish first name. Finally, he told me that his number one choice was Ona. When we put the two names together, it just felt right, and now I couldn’t be happier with her name. Welcome to the world, Ona Lily Brown.

(The non-Ona pictures are not our own, but were stolen from the internet).

Behind the hospital walls

2008-05-12T21:53:00.011-11:00

So Melanie made me hold off giving the full hospital story until things calmed down and everyone was aware that both Ona and Melanie were happy and healthy after their stint in the “hospital”. In truth, it is not a hospital but a tropical medical center. Knowing that LBJ does not try to be a hospital, but instead is a glorified med. center doesn’t really help though. Especially when you live here and you are aware that there is no real hospital and this is the best we have.Let’s start with the chickens. I have written previously about my own personal war with the chickens on island. Strangely, LBJ has embraced them. I have often found it humerous when driving past the hospital and you see 3-4 chickens hanging around the emergency department entrance. The orderly holding the door open for the chicken takes the cake though. The girl in the photo below dropped more bongos (Australian cheese puff-like snack) on the ground than made it in her mouth. This well meaning orderly held the door open so that the chicken could clean up the spilled snacks. Priceless. In an age old bad joke, we ask “Why did the chicken cross the road?”…..In American Samoa it is to get to the ambulances. Oh, of course. Why didn’t you think of that? Moving on… we now come to toads. Does anyone else find it strange to have 5 times the number of hospital staff in marine toads croaking outside the maternity ward? Curiousity got the better of me. I counted the toads. 34 toads were hanging out by Melanie’s room. Actually I found the toads somewhat reassuring as I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes in Melanie’s hospital room. Anything that might reduce my chances of getting elephantitis is okay by me.

What more could there be….? Well discounting the fact that they never finished the ceilings in the hospital; what else do you notice about the photo below? Yup, that is a cat running down the hall. I am pretty willing to bet that none of you have seen a cat running down a hospital corridor. Why the cat? Well to eat the rats of course. Silly question.

Why the rats? What else would be willing to eat this? Actually, to be fair, the hospital is known for being one of the better places to eat on the island. Ah, hospital food. “Mommy, mommy, Can we go eat at the hospital?” That’s an age-old question, right?

When you think of maternity wards, do you think of these guys with weed-wackers outside your room? So much for a well needed rest.So it is not a stateside (mainland as we islanders call it) hospital, but we had some great people looking out for Melanie and Ona. Carol even got to put in an IV for Melanie since the nurse at LBJ wasn’t comfortable doing it. From what I hear it caused quite the stir as other LBJ staff wanted to come look at her handi-work. Can you imagine someone off the street saying to the nursing staff “Do you want me to do that procedure for you?” No?

I have to say it was quite a deal though. Melanie’s hospital tab after delivery by emergency c-section, medications, 4 day hospital stay, etc…. $150. Yup, $150. So I suppose you get what you pay for. We got excellent care and a wonderful new edition to the Brown family to show for it. Worth every penny.

Friday Update from HOME!!!

2008-05-09T20:47:00.009-11:00

I am more than happy to say that we are now home, safe and sound. Both Ona and I were discharged from the hospital with a full bill of health around lunchtime today. I have many tales to tell about my experiences of childbirth, but that will wait until another day. For now, just a quick update and more photos. Emma has been amazing this week. It was a bit scary for her, but once she saw us at the hospital she knew everything was okay. Emma is already a wonderful big sister, as we always knew she would be. Yes, I had to knit a hat for my baby, even on a tropical island (the strawberry cap is made of cotton and silk, though -- no wool here). I have lots to say about my midwife, Liz, and my nurse, Carol. Their medical care and unbelievable friendships will be discussed on the blog later. Below are pictures of "the team", Liz in the first photo and Carol below.

Thanks to everyone back home for your thoughts, emails, calls, and comments on the blog. It is going to take me some time to recover, but feel assured that we have an amazing support system here.

Introducing Ona

2008-05-07T21:04:00.010-11:00

Well the day finally arrived. Tuesday afternoon (at 4:30pm to be precise) Ona Lily Brown was born. It was not without its drama.

Tuesday morning Melanie knew that today was the day. We got up, made a few phone calls to our own personal birthing team (yes it is REALLY nice to have your friends as the local hospital staff). Carol came right over and it turned out to be quite a pleasant morning. Labor was progressing along nicely, Melanie and Carol even went for about a mile walk! Liz (a friend of ours and Melanie’s midwife) suggested that to aid Melanie’s comfort she should hang out in her own little kiddie pool (complete with smiling fishes). Melanie contended that this was the best $26 she had ever spent.
Well, as with any good drama, the fun and games had to stop sometime. Melanie got checked out with the small fetal heart rate monitor and things did not look bad, but it was time to get to the hospital and Melanie’s contractions were becoming, um… lets say uncomfortable. Once at the hospital, the real fetal heart rate monitor confirmed what the little recreational grade one was showing. Every time Melanie would have a contraction it was slowing bloodflow to the baby. A decision was made for an emergency c-section as it was going to take far too long naturally. So in an effort for this country to frustrate me just that much further, I was not allowed to go with, but instead had to sit on the floor outside the OR with Carol, nervously wondering what was going on.

It turns out that the cord had been wound twice around the baby’s neck. Scary. Other than being a little cyanotic (blueish) she was just fine though. She did however have to go into the nursery and get placed under a “hood” so she could be given 100% oxygen for awhile. So while Melanie was in recovery I hung out with Ona.

Once Melanie got out of recovery it was announced that she had to remain in bed for at least the next eight hours. Ona had been moved into the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for observation. So Melanie couldn’t even see Ona. So I would take the camera over to the nursery about every hour and take some pictures, then return to Melanie and give her the update and show her the latest pictures.

By Wednesday morning Ona had stabilized, but Melanie was still bedridden as her surgeon needed to give the okay for her to get out of bed. Something like 30 seconds after the approval was given and her IV being removed, Melanie was gingerly setting down into a wheelchair to be whisked over to the NICU nursery. Finally, both Melanie and I got to hold Ona.

At the time of writing this Ona and Melanie are both looking strong and healthy. Both are much happier having gotten to meet each other in a more civilized manner. Ona is still in the NICU (until a doctor can clear her during their daily rounds; which only happens at 8am) but is looking really great. Melanie is also making a great and speedy recovery, mostly out of sheer willpower, I think.

Emma got to meet Ona for the first time this afternoon as well. After band practice I picked up Emma and she got to look through the doorway into the NICU to see her new baby sister (only parents are allowed in NICU).
So here they are, the cute baby pictures you all want; one beautiful, healthy, happy little girl. She is 18.5 inches tall and weighs in at a commanding 5 lbs 14 ozs.

Flag Day Dance II

2008-04-19T11:27:00.001-11:00

Emma performed in a dance for Flag Day again this year. It seems like we've been here a long time as annual events are reoccurring! We've been to so many of her dance performances that I don't even have much to say anymore, except Emma looked beautiful in her Samoan costume and she continues to improve in her dancing skills. Enjoy the pictures.

A Samoan Funeral

2008-04-13T10:16:00.001-11:00

One of Paul's coworkers recently passed away. In fact, Fale was one of our favorite Park employees. As a high chief, yet humble and realistic man, we could always count on Fale for information and humor about different aspects of Samoan life.

Funerals are a big deal in Samoa and it turned out to be quite the cultural experience for me and Paul. The funeral was scheduled for about two weeks after Fale died to give time for the family to prepare for the big event. I had to get a puletasi (traditional Samoan woman's outfit consisting of a coordinating top and skirt) made with fabric displaying the National Park logo and Paul wore the traditional lavalava (wrap skirt) with his Park Service shirt.

The funeral started off in a familiar way with a service at a church. The service consisted of singing, reading scripture, and different people talking about Fale, but we understood little of it as it was in Samoan. Following the church service Fale's body was brought into the family's decorated guest fale (traditional open Samoan house) in the village in which he grew up in and was the high chief of.

This is where the main event, the fa'alavelave, would take place for the next several hours and even days. A fa'alavelave is a traditional Samoan gift giving associated with funerals and weddings. These events can be huge financial burdens to families, as money and gifts are given out. The National Park employees and volunteers arrived for the fa'alavelave with truckloads of fine mats, fabric, bouquets of flowers, and even a fully cooked pig. These are the gifts that we would present to the family, only to have similar items given to the Park by the family. The women, myself included, followed the men up a hill to the fale. The women carried fabric and sang songs as we proceeded up the hill.

The men sat down inside the fale and were addressed by the chiefs as us women sat outside the fale. The men talked for over a half hour (in Samoan, of course), but I was told they were just basically saying what a good man Fale was and thanking each other for the soon to be presented gifts. The family gave each person a huge plate of food and a short time was spent eating.

Then, the gifts were presented. The women first ran in with all of the fabric. I almost tripped as I tried to get my flip flops off my feet in a rush at the stairs up to the fale, as it is not proper to wear shoes in a fale. We laid the hundreds of bolts one by one near the coffin and Fale's wife. We would set the fabric down and then run back outside the fale to get more. It literally was a big circle of women running around and around until all the gifts were given.

The fine mats were presented next. These mats are of great importance in Samoan culture and used to be the main currency for the islands. The mats can take months to weave and they are never used on the floor, but are hung on walls or usually just stay bundled up for the next fa'alavelave. We presented our mats to the family and then it was the family's turn to give the National Park gifts. The Park received cans and buckets of corned beef, mackerel, and sardines, tins of crackers, fabric, money, and fine mats. Each fine mat was unrolled and inspected and declared beautiful before moving onto the next one. At the end of this, the biggest and best fine mat was chosen. This mat was deemed too nice to be accepted by the Park so it was given back to the family.

This whole ordeal lasted many hours and the National Park was just one group that would be taking part in the fa'alavelave. The whole process would be repeated over and over again for each family, village, or church group that came to show their respect for Fale.

Tea Party

2008-04-10T11:54:00.000-11:00

As I was busy working away on a paper for work, Paul and Emma spent their Sunday afternoon having a tea party. They were having so much fun and looked so cute that I had to take a picture. I was a bit envious, but I can proudly say that I finished my work contract with plenty of time to spare before the baby arrives.

Emma's 1st Band Concert

2008-04-06T11:10:00.008-11:00

It was quite a big deal when Emma's school received a grant for 25 instruments and was able to start a band for kids in grades 5 up through high school. Emma auditioned and was chosen to be one of the flute players. I find this especially cool as I was once a flute player myself. Their instructor is the school's kindergarten teacher who just happens to have a degree in music education.On Friday the band had their first concert following a play put on by the junior high school. The band was just started in December and it was great to see what they have accomplished in such a short time. The kids did a wonderful job playing their 3 songs. The play was Alice in Wonderland and we got a laugh out of the rose bush/palm tree. I guess you create what you know. It didn't take Emma long of living on the island before she too started drawing palm trees rather than pine trees.

Easter Fun

2008-03-27T10:24:00.006-11:00

Our highlight of Easter is always the egg dyeing. Thanks to Grandma Mary for sending several dyeing kits! We especially liked the tie dyed eggs and were surprised at how cool they turned out. For the second year in a row our friends hosted an Easter umu. Last year I took part in the umu preparations, but this year we just showed up to eat (thanks to Jay, Carol, and Fua for all their hard work). Except for the Samoan cooking our Easter was pretty traditional. The kids dyed eggs and went on an egg hunt. Emma was so sweet during the egg hunt. She strategically dropped many of her eggs so the younger kids could "find" them. Emma later told me that she didn't want to just give the kids eggs, but make them feel proud that they found them on their own.

Paul fit right in at the kids' table!

Emma was excited to make jewelry with the floam she got in her Easter basket. She oddly loves to watch infomercials and for awhile she's wanted to order floam. Who knew the "only available through this television offer" floam could be purchased in American Samoa?

Governor's Mansion Party

2008-03-26T19:45:00.005-11:00

So your NOAA trip is over, now what do you do? Well you go to the Governor's mansion for a party of course. The Governor was very excited about his excursion to Rose Atoll. So to celebrate he threw a party for the Hi'ialakai crew and scientists. Turns out the entire ASG cabinet came too, all of the various directors and their families as well as many of the members of CRAG (the governor's Coral Reef Advisory Group), plus the requisite police security. It was a lot of fun. The last time we went to the Governor's mansion it was for a more quiet dinner around the table. This time it was a big outdoor gala complete with multiple umus. I think one of the reasons I like the Governor so much is that even though he is the head of the country he is quite down to earth. He helped with the umus and started passing out food to people to try.That and he is actually really funny. After we finished dinner he was recounting stories about our trip and everyone was very entertained.The only thing that really struck me as odd was that there was a shuttle bus from the bottom of the hill up to the mansion. A distance of about 100 yards. Melanie and I had started walking up and were quickly ushered into the awaiting van to go up the hill. Weird. Same thing on the way back downhill. The shuttle van drove us down the hill to our car. It was on one hand rather extravagant and made you feel quite important, while at the same time being rather silly. Always something new at the Governor's house.

Finally, did you all know that Melanie is famous? Yup she is currently on the National Park website. Go to http://www.nps.gov/npsa. Scroll down to the "things to do section". That's Melanie diving with the clownfish!

American Samoa Science Fair, Year 2

2008-03-21T15:12:00.001-11:00

It's hard to believe a year has gone by since Emma's outstanding performance at the 2007 American Samoa Science Fair. Her topic this year delved into the world of behaviorial science. She conducted a study testing about 50 people on their memory skills. She was trying to find out if there is any link between memory and color. Emma created a list of words, in both black and red and then looked at whether people were more likely to remember the red words. Her hypothesis that people would remember the red words proved to be correct. Emma was once again selected as a representative from her school to compete in the island-wide competition. There were 137 kids in the elementary division (grades 1-8) at the Territorial Fair. Emma spent the morning waiting and then being interviewed by a few different judges. I am so impressed at her speaking skills and her ability to convey her knowledge to the adult judges. We then had to wait a few days until the award ceremony for the results.

Emma came in 2nd place in the Behaviorial Science division! She was competing in the upper elementary level, grades 5-8, so she beat out many kids much older than her. Here is a picture of her accepting her award and then a picture with the Director of the country's Department of Education.

Way to go, Emma! We are so proud to have such a smart daughter.

Back on the Homefront

2008-03-20T08:57:00.005-11:00

With Paul off on his research cruise, I finally got around to getting some pictures and writing about our new house. We moved in January, right after getting back from New Zealand, and since then mothers and mothers-in-laws have been asking to see pictures of the new place so here we go. The new house is in the village of Malaeimi, in a valley at the base of Tau Mountain. This satellite image really highlights the fact that we now live in the jungle! I was tired of the apartment living, but we traded the sterility of our second-floor apartment to move into an older, rotting island house. As far as island standards go, though, it really is a nice house. The problem is that we live in a valley and although it didn't seem possible to be any more humid and damp, we are! It seems to rain more here than anywhere else on the island. My biggest challenge is to time the drying of the laundry in between the rain showers. The perks are, well, we get to live in a valley surrounded by the mountains and the jungle is our backyard. My favorite feature of our house is the screened-in porch. It is so nice to sit out there and we often enjoy our meals on the porch. Most of our walls are louver windows so it is very light and airy in the house. I love being in my house now, whereas in the apartment I always wanted to get out. We temporarily converted our kitchen table into a ping pong table and after lots of practice I am getting good enough to beat Paul once in awhile (unless he's just letting me win).I made curtains for the bedrooms and here is a picture of Emma's room with her fancy pink island curtains. Our yard is amazing. Emma wanders around for hours (doused in mosquito repellant). We are in a compound of four houses and all of our neighbors have children of various ages. One day Emma organized a kick ball game with almost 10 kids. She has definitely moved up from playing by herself on a cement slab.

And here's a couple of pregnancy pictures of me in our backyard. The photos were taken on March 8 when I was about 30 weeks pregnant. That was the day of the wonderful baby shower that my friends threw for me... thank you Carol, Liz, Julia & Deepa!

Swain's, part II

2008-03-19T13:07:00.000-11:00

So it turns out that only the north half of Swain's is spectacular. The other half has great visibility but the reef is severely impacted. What does that mean? Well it means something happened to the reef to change it significantly from how it should be. In this case, on the south side of Swain's there is a green colonial tunicate which is overgrowing everything. Great... so what is a "green colonial tunicate"?... Short explanation, imagine an inch of green jello coating the entire reef, killing it as it spreads. Not good.

The fish life is still pretty diverse and abundant though and I added another new species record for the territory, another anthias (like a tiny 3" grouper that lives in big schools). The highlight was this big school of blackmargin barracuda which kept mixing with a big school of rainbow runners. Both schools hung around for the better part of the dive too.

The fish below, the black durgeon, is one of the few "circumtropical fish". This means that you can find them around the world at virtually every reef system around the equator.And finally, after our fourth dive of the day we got to go onto Swain's Island. Yup, it's flat, covered in coconut trees, and has about 6 houses on it, along with a church (building on right in photo below) up on blocks (yes, the entire little building is sitting on top of a few cement blocks), and a weather station. With all this extravagance it is hard to imagine that there are only about 8 people living on this island. The central lagoon is brown, murky, and just generally unappealing. After a quick look around we swam back out to our boat, which in turn returned to the ship, and we were underway towards Tutuila.

Swain's Island

2008-03-16T18:55:00.012-11:00

Wow. Swain's is amazing! Though it doesn't look like much from the surface, just a roundish, really flat tiny lttle island completly covered in coconut trees, the coral reefs under the surface are spectacular. Until coming here I was always quite skeptical as to why there was such international debate about the fate of Swain's Island. Yes, it has even been debated by the US department of state and the UN. Apparently the government of Tokelau believes the island is theirs. Strange that they haven't mentioned it for nearly 400 years, but what is time in the middle of nowhere....Swain's is also an atoll just like Rose and so its topography (or rather bathymetry) is very similar. It is the tip of a very steep dead volcano which is slowly sinking back into the sea under its own weight. The strange thing about Swain's is that the central lagoon is completely surounded by land and the lagoon is freshwater, well okay brackish, but still very unusual. The coral reef here is just beautiful. It has steeply sloped walls with nearly 100% coral cover. Much of the coral is tan, but with bright blue polyps making the whole colony look blue from a distance. The coraline algae (think reef cement) is bright pink, and many other colors abound. There are large schools of big fish, not spectacular, but certainly better than Tutuila, or any other American Samoa island including Rose Atoll.So far, having done just three dives here I have seen at least 1 shark on every dive! Hopefully the diving will continue to be good. Oh and yes, that is 200 feet+ visibility you are seeing in those photos. We are out here for 2 more days, then the long trip back to Tutuila.

Giant coral, Ta'u

2008-03-15T10:17:00.009-11:00

Since we have VIPs on the ship it was decided to make a sidetrack to Ta'u to see the giant coral. Nice dive. I really enjoy swimming under the large overhangs and poking into the holes at the base of the coral. It gives you a chance to see a lot of the nocturnal and more cryptic fish.We were given a max bottom time for this dive, 30 minutes. Unusual because we normally have been staying down for an hour and a half or longer. I suppose they wanted to get started on our 22 hour transit to Swain's. Although politically Swain's is American Samoa, geographically and biologically it is part of the Tokelau group. Should be an interesting contrast and may have very different reefs.

On a seperate, but related note we have here a piano fangblenny. They are about the size of a half of a pencil. These little fish live by biting scales, fins, and mucus off other fish. They are also not opposed to biting the backs of divers' legs. Annoying little creatures. I have come to think of them as the mosquitoes of the reef.

Here to entertain you we have this picture. Feel free to comment with your own caption.And finally for Melanie, since she often complains that I don't ever smile in photos, here is one I got the the day from one of the NOAA crew from the last leg of the cruise. For those of you who haven't seen me recently, all the long floppy hair has since went away.

Rose Atoll, part II

2008-03-13T18:03:00.013-11:00

So I have finally gotten to go to some deeper dive sites. Very nice coral cover, extremely clear waters and some really cool fish. The highlights so far are the Olive anthias, a new fish never before seen in American Samoa (sorry, but that is the best picture I got of it) and a pair of multibarred pygmy angelfish, not seen since 1983!Lots of bigger groupers in the last two days as well as large hawkfish (close relatives), this greasy grouper (first picture) was 32 inches long. The diversity is somewhat better here and the fish are not nearly as skittish of divers.Tommorrow is our last day here. We will be diving inside the lagoon. Should be very different.Today we went over to Sand Island and I got to see several birds I hadn't seen, including sooty terns and red-tailed tropicbirds. Not the greatest photos, but I only had my little point and shoot in the underwater housing.

Rose Atoll

2008-03-11T19:33:00.013-11:00

Well, the moment I have been waiting for since moving to this island has come. I am getting to dive at Rose atoll and Swain's Island over the next 10 days. We arrived at Rose early this morning. I even got up for the sunrise, if you can believe that! Really...I did. Here is the photo.That little tiny dot on the right side of the picture is Sand Island the only part of Rose atoll which sticks up out of the water. It is about a hundred yards across and is the only warning for ships passing by that there is a sinking mountain nearby.

Rose is very steep as you can see from this 3D projection made using the NOAA bathymetric data. The top blue line runs from -2 to -500 feet deep! So you can see we only dive the very tip of the volcano.

Here is the satellite overview of the atoll. It is oldly square-shaped and has a central lagoon which is over a hundred feet deep in places!

Even close-up, Sand island is really not much to see. I was rather jealous that the governor got to go wander around on Sand island today, but then I remembered that I got to dive... That's an octopus for those of you not used to seeing them in the wild.

Touring the Hi'ialakai

2008-03-11T19:26:00.003-11:00

The NOAA ship Hi’ialakai has been quite the destination recently. Last week we had about 200 school kids and teachers come aboard for two days to see how the ship ran and see what science work is done while out to sea. This opportunity was only open to some invited high school students. Emma was disappointed that she was not in high school and so could not come aboard. So a few days later I took her around the ship for her own personal tour.

She was fascinated by the galley and the steepness of the ladders (stairways for all you none nautical people). What really entertained her though was my rack (bed) since it is a bunkbed and very little and that we all have TV in our staterooms. So after seeing my stateroom (I share with the ships divemaster) we headed up to the bridge. This was neat for both of us since I had never really had a reason to go up myself.

Snorkeling with the Girls

2008-03-02T17:18:00.006-11:00

On Saturday my friends and I headed out for a morning of snorkeling, minus the husbands and kids. It had rained all night Friday, but by morning it cleared up. We ventured out to the Airport Lagoon (described in detail on this past post). Apparently, a Tusa Serene mask is the one to have, as 4 out of 5 of us have the same mask! Matafao Peak, our island's tallest mountain at 2142 feet, is seen in the background.Because of all the rain the visibility underwater wasn't the greatest, but we still managed to see a green sea turtle and Julia saw a blacktip reef shark. Since we weren't seeing the best the reef had to offer, we got a bit silly with the underwater camera. I heard the words "synchronized snorkeling" mentioned at one point. And after a few requests I am posting some pregnancy pics. Instead of the classic belly shot, I opted for the snorkeling pregnant woman photos. I am now over 7 months along and can only fit into Paul's rashguards!

Research cruise

2008-02-23T11:07:00.008-11:00

It has finally happened, all the stars aligned so that I get the opportunity not only to go to outlying Swain's Island and Rose Atoll, but I get to dive these places as well! Rose Atoll is a National Wildlife refuge 165 miles east of Tutuila and Swain's Island is a private family owned island 220 miles north of Tutuila. These smallest American Samoan islands are rarely visited as special permission is required and they are more in the middle of nowhere than we already are. I am getting to do this as part of a science team aboard the NOAA research vessel Hi'ialakai. We are diving all seven of American Samoa's islands to monitor the marine resources (fish, coral, clams, etc.). It is a month long trip out to sea. Fortunately the way the trip works out it is not all at once and will be broken up into segments with a day or two in port in Tutuila in between. Right now I am on the Tutuila leg of the trip. As the ship is a 340' research vessel, once we leave port we don't quickly return. So that although I am only a few miles [offshore] from my house I am unable to go home. You can track where the Hi'ialakai is on the web at http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/researchships.phtml. Then simply click on the Hi'ialakai and zoom in.
This view of our island is from due east. The small dark island on the left of the photo is Aunu'u island. I have been able to get some fun panoramic shots of our entire island from sea. This image was mosaiced together from 12 photos. Although I added the sepia-tone for effect, this photo was taken just yesterday. I really get the sense of what the first explorers saw on the horizen so many years ago. While the diving has been good, with some really great visibility, it has not been all fun and games. We work 13 hour+ days and it has taken its toll. Currently I have strep throat and pink eye. I have to take 5 different medications each morning and as a general rule I feel horrible. All in the name of science though right?

*update* Since writing this post, I ended up being medically disqualified from diving (just until I recover from my current plague). So since I could not dive, I requested to get off the ship. An unusual request on an oceanographic research vessel. Anyway, in what Melanie is now calling "the great escape" I was given a ride into Larsen's Bay by small boat, from there (due to water conditions) I was taken to "shore" where I then had to climb a 50' cliff, and then call Melanie on the satellite phone to get a ride home. Rather than waiting and being eaten alive by mosquitoes, I stared walking. By the time we ran into each other I had made it about a mile or more down the road. Coughing and sounding like I was going to keel over at any moment I finally made it to my own bed. The penicillin is slowly working and I am starting to feel better. I may miss the Manu'a Islands section of the trip, but I will still get to go to Rose and Swain's (which is really all I wanted to go to anyway.) Sunset over the National Park.

Kaikoura -- The Final New Zealand Installment

2008-01-30T08:38:00.022-11:00

Our last destination on the South Island was the seaside town of Kaikoura, on the northeast coast. We chose this town for the possibility of seeing New Zealand fur seals and it was a good place for Paul to make a cold-water dive. The drive up the coast was pretty and we passed through many tunnels cut into the mountains. Kaikoura is a typical tourist seaside town with the shops and the restaurants, but the scenery was not so typical. The mountains seemed to plunge right into the ocean. It was gorgeous. It rained most of our first day in Kaikoura so we took the opportunity to hit the shops. We all were quite successful in our souvenir shopping. Paul got a sheepskin rug and a NZ possum fur to add to his museum back home. I bought tons of yarn and have big ambitions of knitting my first adult sweater. Emma chose the more classic souvenir of a NZ t-shirt. We feasted on fish and chips and enjoyed walking around the quaint town. This mural was painted on the side of the town's library and the fake whale ribs lined one of the park walkways. The rain let up in the afternoon and we headed out to the peninsula to find some fur seals. The first one we saw was this sleeping female. We also enjoyed the signs everywhere warning people not to move the seals. Move a sleeping seal? Is this the equivalent of cow tipping? I don't know why you would move a seal or where exactly you would move it to, if you could even lift it.The big splurge of our trip was to stay in a bed and breakfast for my birthday. The bed and breakfast I booked was on a farm and Emma enjoyed their sheep shearing show. We also went to a historic whaling home. The structure of the house was built with the vertebrae of whales. Emma loves history and visiting these type of homes/museums is one of her favorite things to do. She often says that if she had one wish it would be to live "back then." The next day the weather was perfect and we headed to the dive shop to drop Paul off for his scheduled dive. Unfortunately, the previous day's bad weather had churned up the water too much and the dive was cancelled because of poor visibility. Paul was quite disappointed and I know he, unlike other tourists, would have been happy to dive in any condition. Instead of diving, we walked along the coast and saw more fur seals. By the end of our trip, we saw over 100 of them! At sunset we took a walk on this ridge over the ocean. We had a spectacular view and Emma got really goofy during our photo shoot. Finally... it only took me over a month to get these posts on the blog! Maybe part of me wanted to hold onto our trip a little longer. This covers the highlights of our New Zealand trip. Although it is such a small country, there was so much more we would have loved to see. We would definitely like to go back someday.

Holiday in the Holiday Parks

2008-01-28T17:23:00.000-11:00

We stayed in a variety of accommodations during our trip: hotels, hostels, a bed and breakfast, cabins, but most of the time we slept in campgrounds. The most common New Zealand campgrounds are the ‘holiday parks.’ These campgrounds are everywhere and filled with amenities that I’m not used to in a typical campground: kitchens, pools, playgrounds, laundry facilities, computers with internet, and more. I often prefer to be out in the backcountry, but stopping at these campgrounds perfectly filled our traveling needs. I enjoyed cooking in the common kitchens with all of the yummy fresh food we had purchased at the grocery stores (yes, the grocery stores were truly a highlight of our New Zealand trip).

Our little social butterfly loved staying in the campgrounds and Emma quickly made friends each time. At the very least the campgrounds had playgrounds, but most also had trampolines or giant bouncy pillows. Even the backpacker Paul had some fun at the holiday parks, especially the day he was pretending to be a superhero with our tent tarp. On Christmas morning we woke up at a holiday park and proceeded to have a very un-Christmas like day. The campground was packed and it seemed strange that kiwis celebrate Christmas in the summer with camping and barbeques. Many of the kiwis even had little Christmas trees in or around their tents. Emma’s big Christmas celebration was renting this cool bike for a half hour. She was thrilled. Who needs to open dozens of presents on Christmas?I got my Christmas wish of delicious pancakes at a restaurant and then we did what we did every other day of our trip and went hiking. We were headed to the Peel Forest and along the way we passed by Lake Pukaki, another one of NZ's scenic lakes. It was another gorgeous day and we were lucky to see the impressive Mt. Cook (NZ’s highest peak) without any clouds obstructing the view. We arrived at the Peel Forest and had our choice of many hikes. We opted for the Big Tree Walk to see some huge cedar trees, and a second hike to Acland Falls. Although we kept forgetting it was actually Christmas, it was definitely a memorable day.

Mt. Aspiring National Park

2008-01-26T13:26:00.000-11:00

Before going to New Zealand, both Paul and I picked Mt. Aspiring National Park as one of the places we wanted to backpack. After stocking up on supplies in Wanaka, we headed out of the town towards the National Park. It was extremely dry and hot in Wanaka and it reminded me of being in the small, mountain towns of Colorado in the summer. By the time we reached the trailhead it was quite chilly in the mountains and with the approaching clouds it looked like we would end up getting rained on. We hiked up the West Matukituki Valley, along the glacier river by the same name. We were surrounded by mountains with waterfalls pouring down everywhere, forming little streams that flowed down into the big river. Again, the scenery was spectacular. Sheep could be seen grazing all over the valley and hillsides (in the picture below all of the white dots are sheep). At one point we encoutered a farmer and his dogs, herding the sheep. We sat down and watched, and Emma especially enjoyed getting to see the lambs close-up. The wind kept picking up as we hiked and at one point I literally felt like I was going to fall over (it could have something to do with my pregnancy imbalance and the pack I was wearing!). The 25 mph winds slowed us down quite a bit and then the rain came. It started to pour and we eventually decided to stop for the night, a bit sooner than we anticipated. Paul quickly threw the tent up in the rain and we all got in and out of our wet clothes.

Despite the rain, Emma was having the time of her life. She loved carrying her own pack and it had been over two years since we really backpacked. It is almost sad that she has forgotten so many of backcountry adventures. One of the highlights of this trek was the freeze-dried ice cream we brought along. This is the same stuff that astronauts eat and Emma loved it! It rained and rained all night long. In addition to the rain, the black flies were so bad. We left the tent only to go to the bathroom and within seconds we would be covered with the biting little pests. In the morning, we woke up on what felt like a waterbed. During the night a stream formed that flowed directly under us. We put on our dry clothes and ventured out into the rain. We used a trick from our childhood of wearing plastic bags inside our boots in hopes of keeping our feet dry. We packed up our wet belongings and headed off.

Below is a picture of one of the mountain streams that we crossed on the way into the National Park. It was raining too hard to get the camera out for the 'after-shot', but overnight this and other streams had become more like raging rivers. We were forced to ford the streams, walking in ice-cold water all the way up to our thighs! So much for the plastic bags on our feet -- we were drenched! We intended to be out for two nights and also hike the Rob Roy Glacier Track, but everything we had with us was soaking wet. Despite the rain we all enjoyed our backpacking adventure and wished we didn't have to cut it short.

Haast Pass, NZ

2008-01-25T17:13:00.000-11:00

After driving and sightseeing along the west coast for a couple of days, we headed inland and crossed the Haast Pass through the mountains. The winding drive was spectacular and we crossed many bridges along the way. Each time we had to check for oncoming traffic as almost all the bridges on the South Island are only one-lane! We had a whole day to complete this 145 km drive so we made several stops and hikes along the way. There were lots of waterfalls to stop and see. We randomly stopped at a hike called Blue Pools and it turned out to be gorgeous. The hike through the woods was pretty and we got to cross yet another swing bridge over another of New Zealand's beautiful rivers. The hike ended at the so-named Blue Pools and they certainly lived up to their name. We could see lots of huge trout swimming in the crystal-clear pools and had it not been for the freezing water, it would have made a good swim. Emma played along the river, alternating between being a goat or being Gollum from Lord of the Rings. In this picture she looks exactly like Gollum and her voice was also a perfect creepy match to the character.The Haast Pass travels by two amazing lakes before ending in the town of Wanaka. It was a perfect sunny day and the surface of the lakes looked like glass. Lake Wanaka was the first lake we saw, but the second lake, Lake Hawea, was even more spectacular.

More Monro

2008-01-22T17:30:00.000-11:00

So I have to add one thing to Melanie's post on our Monro Beach hike. Just before we set out for our hike we came across... a Paradise shelduck. This goose-like duck has kind of an attitude and Emma was certainly not a fan. She kept asking what was wrong with it. She did however, enjoy the pigs right next to the parking lot, though according to Melanie she mis-spoke and asked if she could go look at the sheep. A fact I found very entertaining considering we live on an island with pigs everywhere. They were cute pigs, and in truth the shelduck was a little demonic.

Monro Beach Hike

2008-01-21T14:48:00.000-11:00

We randomly picked a hike from our guidebook based on the claim of lots of tree ferns. It turned out to be one of our favorite hikes of the whole New Zealand trip. The forest was amazing and peaceful, and I couldn’t have been happier to be back in the woods with my family. What a perfect day.
We were treated to our first NZ swing bridge on this hike. New Zealand loves the swing bridge and we would end up crossing many more on our trip. Of course, Emma was sooo excited by this.The hike ended at a beach that is home to a breeding colony of penguins, but unfortunately we just missed the breeding season. Even without the penguins, it was still a beautiful spot.

The West Coast -- South Island, NZ

2008-01-20T12:14:00.000-11:00

Once on the South Island we headed from Picton to the West Coast. There were several places that we wanted to see along the scenic coastal drive. One of our first stops was the Pancakes Rocks in Punikaiki National Park. The limestone rocks formed in thin stacked layers, hence the name pancake rocks. We weren’t overly excited by the sight of the rocks, but it did start me on a craving to eat some yummy pancakes.

One of the most beautiful sights along the short walk was the flax plants everywhere. The Maori (native New Zealanders) use dried flax fiber to make baskets and other materials. Emma discovered that the dead stalks from the flax plants made great swords so we had an ongoing game of sword fighting while Paul was taking photos.

The views along the coast alternated between incredibly steep cliffs and sandy beaches. Seeing the coast on our right and views of the mountains on our left was quite stunning. Penguins nest in several places along the coast and we stopped a few times, but no luck spotting one. Emma thought she saw a group of penguins swimming until we looked with the camera’s zoom lens and realized it was actually kelp in the ocean.

A big tourist stop along this drive is one of two glaciers. We opted for the Franz Josef Glacier. To get close to the glacier, we hiked along the edge of a river. It was very surreal, as everything was grey. Grey water, grey rocks, grey mud….all leading up to the blue-ice glacier.

Along our hike we passed many waterfalls, flowing down the mountains into the river. On the hike back from the glacier, Emma made quite the discovery. She asked if she could pick up some mud and unexpectedly she discovered gold! She carried a drippy, gobful of mud all the way back to the car. She deposited her treasure into a ziploc bag, intending to keep it as a souvenir or possibly cash in her riches (she was dreaming of all the money she could get from her miniscule gold flakes). Unfortunately, you can’t take dirt out of a country into another so Emma just played with it for the next week in NZ and then took a picture before leaving it behind. In the parking lot of the glacier, Paul and Emma had fun playing hot lava on a line of rocks. Paul decided he looks like a gibbon with his long arms and it looks like Emma may take after him!

New Zealand birds

2008-01-18T14:55:00.000-11:00

Throughout the trip we were on a quest to find wildlife. Turns out New Zealand has 2 main types of wildlife lizards and birds. With the introduction (either intentional or accidental) of numerous small predatory mammals to the country, the native wildlife plummeted. The lizards are all but gone and most types can be found only on the small outlying predator free islands. During our 2 week trip we saw one skink in the lovely seaside town of Kaikoura (there will be a separate blog later about this little town). The lizards, like the birds, are almost all endemic (meaning occurring nowhere else). While we were unlucky with lizards, we were very lucky with birds. We ended up seeing 54 species of birds over the course of our trip. Most of these birds we had never seen, though there were a few of these birds that we have here in American Samoa. Here is a sampling of the birds we saw.

Wellington

2008-01-17T17:22:00.000-11:00

So we had to go through Wellington as it was our port to catch the ferry to the South Island. Have I mentioned that I love New Zealand’s choice of names? Could have been some long-winded hard to pronounce names, but nope… North and South. I love it. Anyway during our trip planning, I voted for spending an entire day in Wellington instead of just rushing through just to get to the ferry. When we woke up for our day in the city it was overcast, rainy, and windy. To add to that Melanie and Emma (who have gone tropo) were also freezing. So we opted for a day at the NZ national museum. It was a really well presented museum and I think we all had our distinct favorites. Melanie seemed to enjoy the scale Maori houses and Emma really enjoyed the kids’ natural history room. Mine was the x-ray room. This was a big room filled with marine mammal skeletons.

Being in a big city we decided to enjoy eating out at a nice restaurant or quite frankly anything that we couldn’t find in Samoa. In the end we came upon the Dixon Street Deli. It wasn’t in any of the tourist guidebooks, we just happened upon it. Delicious. I will say it again, delicious. I would go to Wellington again just to eat there, and it was cheap.

After lunch we headed out for the Wellington Botanical Gardens. Emma (and Melanie) was really excited because we got to ride an historic cable car to the top of the hill to get there. It was still rainy, but we had a nice time walking along the trails. It is rather like New York’s Central Park, just a big forest in the middle of the city. Emma even got to play on another wonderful playground. Toward the end we found the “duck pond”. Given that it was a city park and not the wilderness, we fed the animals. Yup, I took a luna bar out of my pocket and we fed it to the random park creatures. Given their obvious size (biggest mallard I have seen), this was not an unusual event for these animals and Emma was really excited to feed the birds out of her hand. They did not want to see us go (watch the video sometime, it’s funny).

The next morning, at the crack of dawn, we headed to the ferry which turns out is big enough to have a movie theater and a 3-story indoor playground. Emma as usual quickly met some other kids and played the entire 4 hour crossing to Picton. Passing through the islands of Marlborough Sound was quite beautiful and may have made up for the fact the Melanie had to be on a ship for 4 hours.

Driving in New Zealand

2008-01-10T10:45:00.000-11:00

Much of our New Zealand trip was a major road trip. After being confined to our 25 miles of island paradise, it felt so good to hit the open road. In the end, we covered 3500 kilometers (2200 miles)! And of those kilometers, I drove for about 250 of them. As far as driving in New Zealand goes, I had a lot going against me. So many things, in fact, that I came up with a list to rationalize my lack of driving:

a.) The steering wheel is on the right side of car and you drive on the left side of the road.

b.) I have been driving at a maximum of 25 miles per hour for almost two years. And in reality, most days 11 mph is my top speed. Cruising along at 65 mph in NZ literally felt like we were flying.
c.) Nearly every road in NZ, including the highways, are 2 lane, extremely curvy roads.
d.) Driving is simply not my best skill in life.

So, yes, Paul drove and drove and drove some more. Thanks, Paul. He did very well, too, except for a few little things here and there. It really cracked Emma up when he would go to turn on the turn signal and accidentally turn on the windshield wipers instead (even these are in the opposite spots). Emma would laugh and say, “Dad, it’s not even raining!”

We coined a new phrase in New Zealand: Automotive Narcolepsy. Just about every time we were in the car for more than 6 minutes, it would become very quiet and I would turn to see Emma sound asleep in the backseat. The child took at least two naps every day in the car. It wasn’t that she was bored… Emma loved spotting all the roadside sheep and she has quite the imagination, even contained in a single square of the backseat of a car. She just seemed to be lolled to sleep by the lack of stop and go driving on a Samoan road filled with potholes.

Auckland and Rotorua, New Zealand

2008-01-08T10:28:00.000-11:00

After a couple of uneventful plane rides, we arrived in Auckland, the capital of New Zealand. As it was sometime in the middle of the night, we headed off to a hotel for some sleep. The next morning we were all excited to pick up our rental car and get started on our adventuring. Our first stop on our grand adventure was the grocery store! After living on our little island for almost two years, grocery stores in the real world are very exciting places for us.

Our first major destination was the Auckland Zoo. We especially wanted to see all of the New Zealand endemic animals, many of which are endangered so we would not be seeing in the wild. We saw many birds, including the much anticipated kiwi bird. The tuatara (a reptile older than the dinosaurs) was also a highlight.

The most exciting part of the day at the zoo didn’t involve a NZ animal though, but an animal from China: the red panda. We had a few of these at the Calgary Zoo and they were one of my favorite animals to watch. So there was a bit of envy on my part when Emma got asked to help a zoo keeper feed the red pandas. She got right into the exhibit and took to her new duties as a keeper quite well. Emma said their fur was the softest thing she has ever touched.

After doctor appointments and a bit of shopping we left Auckland and started on our journey. New Zealand is made up of two large islands and we planned to spend most of our time on the South Island, but as Auckland is in the north of the country we had a lot of driving to do. We headed out of Auckland and drove for a few hours to the town of Rotorua. This town was the number one place we wanted to see on the North Island. Rotorua is teeming with thermal activity. As soon as pulled into the town, we saw the Kuirau city park and Emma shouted that it was on fire. We had explained the hot springs and thermal pools to her, but apparently she forgot for a moment when we saw steam rising everywhere out of the large park. We stopped at the park and the first thing to hit us was the intense smell of sulphur. This is one of the times that Paul’s poor sense of smell paid off for him. Some of my kiwi friends even refer to Rotorua as ‘Rotten-rua.’ We got past the smell and were amazed by all the boiling mud and steaming pools everywhere. Emma was pretty impressed until about the 20th hot spring pool. Then she was ready for the cool playground. Yes, playgrounds are another thing lacking on our little tropical island.

We camped just outside of Rotorua and the next day went to the Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland Park. Anything called a wonderland park that you pay a fee to get in to sounds a bit touristy and cheesy to us, but the place was supposed to have some of the best geysers, mud pools, and more so we took our chances. The park turned out to be great and we spent several hours there. The park is maintained by the Department of Conservation (New Zealand’s version of our National Park Service) and the trails were beautiful and much of the park was quite natural. With all the steam, weird colors from the different minerals, and burbling mud it was very surreal there. I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book.

Fisheyes

2008-01-01T20:02:00.000-11:00

Many of you have been wondering (and asking)…”Where are the New Zealand blogs?” “Where are the pretty New Zealand photos?”. Well, I am still working on them. Considering that we don’t go to New Zealand every weekend I took a lot of photos. Somewhere around 2800 photos were taken in New Zealand. Those have been whittled down to 450, but more editing, color correction, and then resizing still needs to happen before they are ready. Blogs are being written and will be posted as soon as some pretty photos are available. Likely many blogs, as we have a lot to say about New Zealand. However, in the interim here is a fun thing I noticed in playing with the photos the other day…..Melanie has fisheyes! Yup, I was screwing around taking a silly super close-up one day and in looking at them afterwards we noticed that she has the perfect outlines of fish in the iris of her eyes. See for yourself….

Okay so one is a little less distinct, but seriously isn’t that weird?

For those of you with less imagination I traced around the shapes to clearly point them out. I find that amazing. I have done a lot of close-ups of eyes as an art student. I never found anyone who so clearly had a shape in their eyes, and then to be both eyes, and then fish…. Weird.

Finally, for those of you that can’t wait any longer here are 2 random NZ photos.

Christmas Samoa-style

2007-12-13T08:53:00.000-11:00

Manuia le Kerisimasi! Yes, that's Merry Christmas in Samoan. Given that everyone speaks English to us here, singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is one of the few things Emma has picked up in the Samoan language. Emma's school had its annual Christmas program last week and we put up our 3-foot tall, somewhat sad-looking fake tree.... I guess this means the holiday season is officially here. Since I was born and raised in Michigan, I just find it very hard to feel like it is Christmas when it is in the high 80s and even higher humidity outdoors. Sure, we've celebrated a few Christmas seasons without snow on the ground, but it is at least cold out there. You can't really roast chestnuts over an open fire in this climate.

But, alas, it is Christmastime in the South Pacific. Despite the outrageous electricity costs here, Samoans get pretty serious with their Christmas light displays. It seems the philosophy is the more lights the better. I described one place as being a bit obnoxious and tacky, but Emma found it enchanting. The strangest thing to me is that the places with the biggest displays are the churches. Many of the churches are absolutely covered in lights and also hundreds of statues of Santas, Pooh Bears and, Mickey Mouses. I wonder if the church attendees are required to tithe more this time of year to cover the cost of the church's electrical bill.

If you have ever seen my husband you may already have guessed this, but I enjoy a man with a beard. There are not many islanders with beards so this one already stuck out, but then you throw on the Santa hat and I had a good chuckle.To get into the spirit a bit more, we baked cookies and listened to Christmas music on Sunday. The whole family joined in and we had a great time with the decorating. Our favorite cookies were the ones decorated with the Christmas spider and the Christmas bat. We're off in search of cooler weather and a non-tropical Christmas in New Zealand so we'll have lots to report on the blog in the new year! Happy Holidays!

Swim Meet

2007-12-12T11:52:00.000-11:00

Emma participated in her second swim meet this past weekend. The meet was held at a hotel, which has the biggest pool on the island (at a mere 20 meters long, it is minisclue compared to the Olympic-sized pool Emma competed in last time). Emma swam in several events. She ended up with 4 ribbons:

1st place 20m breaststroke

1st place 40m backstroke

2nd place 40m breaststroke

3rd place 40m freestyle

Emma's favorite and best stroke is the breaststroke, and the coaches are amazed by how fast she goes. In fact, Emma wishes that she could only swim the breaststroke and skip the rest of the strokes. In the 40 meter breaststroke, Em did not dive out as fast or far as the top swimmer at the meet (a girl from Fiji who went home with 10-1st place ribbons) so she started the race a couple meters behind. Emma clearly was swimming a whole lot faster than her main competitor, but in the end, she just couldn't catch up to her so Emma was a bit disappointed with 2nd place in that race. It was such a close race that the two girls finished with less than a second difference between them.

It was a great meet. The kids worked really hard to get ready for it and they all swam their best. Unfortunately, swimming lessons and practices are coming to an end as the swimming association's funding has expired. Some of the parents are hoping to find a coach to hire so the kids can continue with their competitive swimming training.

An Evening With the Governor

2007-12-09T21:28:00.000-11:00

I was quite excited to get invited to dinner at the Governor's mansion. It isn't too often that you are asked to dine with the person who is essentially the President of your country. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this evening. I kept jokingly referring to going to the Governor's Ball all week. Unfortunately, I didn't get to wear a ball gown and there wasn't any dancing, but that is probably for the best.

The Governor's mansion is located up on a hill, overlooking Pago Pago Harbor. We arrived at the guard station at the bottom of the hill and were directed up the long driveway. We were greeted at the top by several of the Governor's security men. I felt like these people were under the false impression that we were a bit too important, but hey, it was a fun fantasy for the evening. The mansion is a big, white plantation-style home.

We were greeted inside by one of the maids and promptly led into the "great room" where drink orders were taken. We admired the beautiful room and then Governor Tolioga Tulafono and First Lady Mary Ann Tulafono made their entrance. They warmly greeted us and I was proud as they thanked Paul for the wonderful job he did as the Governor's SCUBA instructor. It was immediately apparent that they are both warm, genuine, smart people.

While the First Lady finished some dinner preparations, the Governor gave us a tour of the house. The house was built in 1903, as residence for the commander of the U.S. Navy stationed on Tutuila. After the Navy left the island, the house went on to be the residence for American Samoa's governors. During the beginning of Governor Tulafono's term, major renovations and restorations took place. As the Governor led us through each of the rooms, you could sense the pride he felt in restoring the house to its historical state. The location of the mansion has cultural significance as well and is called Mauga o Ali'i -- Mountain of the Chiefs.

One of the highlights of the house was the library, with beautiful floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves. Paul was especially impressed with this room. The Governor also pointed out his rock collection and he even said that his wife gives him a hassle sometimes because he is always picking up rocks on their travels. Hmm, that sounds all too familiar.

Dinner was very nice. We sat in the formal dining room. The table was huge, especially for 10 people so the conversation was a bit divided between each end of the table. Paul and I sat right next to the Governor and he entertained us with many stories. After dinner, Paul and his dive assistants were presented with signed copies of an American Samoa commemorative book. We also had a photo shoot, and even the Governor and First Lady wanted lots of pictures with their diving instructor. It was a great evening, but a bit sad to leave the mansion and head back to our humble dwelling.

This is a link to the American Samoa Historical Preservation Office website that has aerial photos of the Governor's house.

Check out the press release of the scuba training on the government's website. It was well circulated on the island, with the newspapers, tv, and radio all picking up the story. Plus, Emma's school Christmas program was broadcast on tv tonight so both Paul and Emma got their 15 minutes of fame today.

Training the Governor

2007-12-08T21:00:00.001-11:00

So these past few weeks have been incredibly hectic. I have been running two beginning diving courses concurrently. Why two? Well, because one of my students is important enough that he gets his own class and I can do it during work hours as part of my regular job. That person is the leader of our small pseudo-independent country, the Governor of American Samoa, Togiola Tulafono. Back in August, the annual U.S. Coral Reef Task Force meeting was held in our balmy country. At that time various senators, congressman, white house staff, and a few marine biologists got together to discuss the state of reefs in all U.S. waters. Well, during this meeting it was suggested that it would be a good idea if the Governor could be certified to be a SCUBA diver. This way the next NOAA ship that headed down here (scheduled for this coming February 2008) would be able to take the Governor out with them to see the reefs in his jurisdiction. Now being the only federal dive instructor (and in fact, the only SCUBA instructor on the island) I was asked by the Asst. Secretary of the Interior and several high-ranking NOAA people to certify the Governor. Fast-forward a bit and you find me training the Governor and the Deputy Director of the Am. Samoa Dept. of Commerce.

Surprisingly, it was a very smooth class. I went into it expecting the worst and have been pleasantly surprised by my students’ effort and water skills. The Governor in particular seems very comfortable in the water and had no troubles with any of the training. This past week we had their certification dives. This is when the students get to go on real dives and show me that they have actually learned something from our classroom and pool training. So the first day I decided to do their certification dives in a place near and dear to my heart Faga’alu Bay. This is where me and my friends, and in fact most people I have trained to dive on island, go on a regular basis. It is basically centrally located, has easy shore access (even for night dives), usually has decent visibility, has interesting (albeit dying) reefs, and most importantly we go in at a public elementary school so we can go there on weekends and without having to ask for permission. Did I mention you often have to alert other divers that trash (such as used disposable diapers, etc.) is floating their way? Well, for all these reasons I took the Governor there for his first cert. dives making sure to point out that the school simply throws their trash over the hill behind the school (where it makes its way into the water) rather than proper disposal. They did okay on their skills and as usual Jay (my indentured divemaster) was a huge help, all the more impressive since he was distressingly sick and should not have been in the water, much less diving. For the next set of dives (dives 3 & 4) we got onto the National Park boat, along with Jay and Markus on hand to help with the training, and headed up into the National Park to an area called Tafeu Cove. This area is a protected bay that has really nice coral cover and lots of (small) fish. Again, my students did well enough despite poor visibility from all the rain.

The only really significant part to these dives was that we had a police escort. Now this police escort is not just the marine patrol boat we had along with us (which we did), but in fact one of the marine patrol officers (George) came on our dive with us to watch. Funny for so many reasons, mostly because I had trained George to dive about 3 months earlier. That is not the significant part though. At about 60 feet down I found a HUGE giant clam (a local delicacy) and pointed it out to everyone. George then grabs this clam so he can bring it up and eat it. Never mind you are diving with a park ranger in the National Park. Never mind you are a police officer and it is illegal to fish/ harvest anything with SCUBA, never mind you are diving with the leader of your country. Nope, just mmmmm… tasty. Funny. I gave a good underwater scolding. George is a great guy, but come on.

So after having completed 2 weeks of dive training with the Governor, culminating is his being certified as a “new diver”, Jay and myself got invited to go to the Governor’s mansion for dinner. Not often you get to go to a head-of-state’s private residence. So I asked if we could bring spouses, and since Markus dove with us for the second day of dives I asked if he and Liz could come as well. I found myself actually discussing what I was going to wear with Jay... “So what do you wear to the Governor’s house?” (mind you- He asked me). What did I have to say? Ah, the quintessential flip-flop. Yes it is okay to wear flip-flops and a t-shirt just about anywhere. I say “Ha” to all of you who said I would have to dress like “an adult” once I got a real job.... “Ha.” Anyway, Mel will tell you all about our evening at the Governor’s in a later blog. All I will say is that he is now a certified diver and a really smart and really likable guy. I had a lot of fun training him and look forward to more dives.

The Case of the Bloated Dolphin

2007-11-28T20:36:00.000-11:00

Last week I was presented with a unique opportunity. Friends of mine gave me a call after they discovered a dead dolphin washed up on the beach. So I dropped what I was doing and drove across the island to recover what turned out to be an approximately 5 foot spinner dolphin calf.
It looked as though it had been dead awhile, as the skin was already starting to slough off and once removed from the water started to take on a decidedly dead cetacean odor. Dead things smell. Nobody would argue that point, but dead marine mammals take that odor and somehow ferment it. As a result flies from all across the island were moving in to get their share. In what seemed like a good idea at the time I decided to put the dolphin into the back of my car. The thought was that I would keep the hundreds of flies away and it would be less disgusting later on. Well it turns out that dead dolphin is that attractive to flies that they all found a way into the car, I assume through the vents since all the windows were rolled up. So when I returned to the car 20 minutes later, there was warm smelly dolphin sealed up in a car in the tropics with hundreds of flies buzzing around inside my car. It looked like something out of a Hitchcock movie. It was at this point I considered just setting fire to the car and cutting my losses, but science prevailed and I then got to drive about 17 miles with a rotting dolphin carcass in the back of my car. Melanie and Emma contend that the car smelled for a few days afterward. Sometimes it is nice to have virtually no sense of smell.
Emma had come with me to collect the dolphin. She was really excited about the idea that I was going to do a necropsy (animal autopsy) on it and she really loves mysteries. Why this little calf had washed up on shore certainly fit into that category. So given that educational opportunities are scarce on the island, I took her out of school the next day and let her come to work with me and help with the necropsy. She was a great help and got right in there and donned some surgical gloves and started taking measurements for me. We took some initial notes and photos and then started cutting into the calf. Emma and I discussed what we saw and took notes on various biology items as we went. Emma got right in there like a surgeon and was cutting away tissue and removing organs. Pretty soon was had discovered the cause of death and were well on our way to having the skeleton cleaned as best as we could. Once cleaned, I had planned on setting the dolphin bones out and letting the bugs finish the job so I could make a skeleton display out of the bones. Incidentally, in case you wondered the cause of death was that the calf had drowned secondarily to having been struck by a boat.
So the bones of this poor little mammal will be put to some use, and other kids besides Emma and I will hopefully get to learn something from it. I am sure we’ll get some photos of the finished product when it is done for you all to see.

Just Another Day at the Beach

2007-11-25T19:48:00.000-11:00

Most of our weekend days are spent at a beach. Although the monotony of going to the beach gets to me at times, it's still a pretty great way to spend the day. The other weekend our friend hosted a birthday beach day at a beautiful spot I had never been to before. It is amazing that after 18 months of living on this little island we still find new places to go to. The tiny village of Amalau is surrounded by the National Park, and apparently the head of the village passed up the opportunity to lease his land to the Park Service in hopes of one day building a resort for all the tourists (hmm, considering we get about 30 tourists a year on this island that stay longer than the 4 hours allowed by the cruise boats, I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing Resort Amalau anytime soon).

Paul and the dive crew went for a dive. The rest of the day was spent playing in the waves, snorkeling, kayaking, getting competitive over some badminton, and grilling out. The highlight of this beach for Emma was the rope swing over the stream.

Dinner at Tisa's

2007-11-03T11:58:00.000-11:00

With three of my girlfriends' birthdays falling within the same week, we celebrated with dinner at Tisa's Barefoot Bar. The whole place is constructed out of driftwood and other random things that wash up on the beach. The decks are built around the trees so the effect is a bit like being in a tree house, overlooking the ocean. We've spent lots of Sundays at the sandy beach here that I sometimes take for granted just how cool Tisa's is.

Dinner was delicious. Fresh-caught yellow fin tuna, New Zealand steaks, and coconut vegetable curry were the main courses. For dessert, Tisa made us the best chocolate cake I've had in a long time. The plates were woven from palm fronds with a banana leaf laid on top to keep your food from falling through the cracks.The combination of the ocean breezes, the kids home with babysitters, and the great food and close friends made for such a nice night. This is why we live on a tropical island!

Halloween Fun

2007-11-01T08:19:00.000-11:00

One great thing about Halloween in Samoa is no snowsuits over costumes! Emma gets to wear all the warm weather costumes she always dreamed of. This year she dressed up as a cave girl. The main Halloween event on the island is a carnival hosted by the other private school. Paul gave Emma a cave-esque tatoo with Sharpie markers and I ratted her hair and added the sticks she had collected outside. After watching it pour all day, we headed out to the wet and muddy outdoor carnival. We spent a couple hours playing all of the games and Emma ended up winning 1st prize in the costume contest! It was quite exciting and she won a gift basket filled with random stuff from one of the Korean stores.

Last year pumpkins on the island were going for about $5 a pound, but this year Paul and Emma came home with a perfect bargain-priced $5 pumpkin. Maybe it pays to wait until 5:30 pm on Halloween night to buy your pumpkins. Emma did a great job carving her pumpkin, with minimal help from Dad. After her many lessons in the kitchen over the years, I think she now uses a knife better than I do.

As she was very hot with her authentic cave girl hair, Emma went for the more refined look of a bun the second time around. Despite the dogs and busloads of kids descending upon the palagi neighborhoods, we headed out for a bit of trick-or-treating with our friends. Nate was the cutest ninja. He's become my substitute nephew while we live so far away from Brendan and Caleb.