la manuia le malaga: Turtle Sighting!

Checked off the Bucket List:

# 6 See a Sea Turtle

Matt has seen like 4 sea turtles while snorkeling (also, sharks). Jackie saw a sea turtle while we were sitting on the rocky cliffs on the other edge of the village (it dove under just as I looked). Cat and I started the “I’ve Never Seen a Sea Turtle and I Live in the South Pacific” Club, and I’ve been a loyal (if unhappy) member until yesterday. Because, yesterday, I finally saw a sea turtle! And it was even better than I thought!

I was sitting out on the beach after school, a little ways off from the house, when Jackie and our 8-year-old neighbor, Avi (the future Ravens quarterback... unless, of course, someone else wins the Super Bowl that year. Samoans are true fair-weather bandwagon fans), ran out onto the beach, waving at me. I heard calls of something that sounded like “turtle”, and Jackie was wearing her palagi shorts with no lava lava, so I figured it was important. When I got to our front yard, all the neighbor kids and our adult neighbor, Patiasa, were gathered around a cracker container filled with water…. And a tiny turtle! It must have just hatched in our neighbor’s front yard and started heading down to the water when one of the kids saw it. How it got there, none of us know, as Faleasao is not really a normal turtle breeding ground. We’re also not sure if there will be more coming. But it was definitely, definitely cool.

We took lots of photos, played with it for a while, and then ceremoniously walked it down to the beach and placed it near the water. We silently and reverently watched the little guy make its way to the ocean, each hoping that it would beat the odds and survive. The moment was slightly ruined when six-year-old Talofa got impatient and picked it up, dumping it closer to the water, but still. We watched it swim away until it was out of sight. It was pretty awesome.

Moments like this remind me how lucky I am to be where I am right in this moment. In 8 months, this will all be over. Sure, I’ll live in the same zip code as a Starbucks and probably a mall. But I’ll never again find a baby sea turtle in my front yard and release it into the ocean. Stuff like this is what life is all about.