That Time I Joined a Choir...

Two weeks ago, Jackie went running after school and was stopped by a neighbor. “You need to be at the church tomorrow. 4:30.” Hm. Jackie came home and relayed the message. I was doubtful. The next day, though, the message was repeated: “The church. 4:30.” We asked why. “Practice.” Hm. I was still doubtful. The principal explained a bit more: every few months, the village churches of the island all come together for a big joint service and program, where each church puts on a show (the last one happened in November, but Jackie was sick and I was quite busy hammocking so we ended up missing it). Most of the village joins in the performance, and the practices are held at the church starting a few weeks before the big day.

Ok. So. Everyone who knows me knows I don’t dance (except in very special circumstances) and I never, ever, ever sing (not even karaoke). Also, I don’t really go to church (the amount I spent in church so far in Samoa, even before this program thing, was probably more time than I’d ever spent in church before combined). Probably the last thing I would ever normally do, then, is join a church choir.

And yet. At 4:30 that day, Jackie and I showed up at church, dressed in puletasis (the very hot, semi-uncomfortable formal Samoan clothing we were told to wear). The church was empty except for a few kids running around (which was lucky, since, before their help we had settled down in the old man section of the choir seating). The rest of the congregation got there sometime between 5 and 5:15, and only the kids were wearing puletasis. Hm. Ok. Practice started. The songs, for which we were given the lyrics, were all in Samoan. The instruction, too, was all in Samoan (it took me 3 days to figure out that we were seated according to whether we were altos, sopranos, tenors, or basses). Practice that first day lasted for an hour, for the entirety of which I tried to puzzle out the pronunciation of the words on the page (because Samoans don’t use consonants) and sometimes mouthed words when it seemed like I was supposed to. It was probably one of my most awkward and frustrating experiences in Samoa so far. Finally, after what seemed like 3 separate speeches from 3 separate old men, we were free to go. Jackie and I wandered home, wondering aloud whether this wasn’t one of our worst ideas so far.

But, the next day, we were back. This time, we got to the church at 5. Everyone else wandered in around 5:30. Ugh. And… we were dancing! Ugh! Like I said, I don’t sing. I don’t dance. And I certainly don’t sing in Samoan while trying to do Samoan siva moves on a church altar. But I did, and the Samoans giggled, and at the end of the day we got a special thank you from the choir leader (both for joining them AND for being the only people on time…).

So we kept going back, and, with every day, practice got less awkward, less frustrating, and more fun. I met new people from the village, got to see my students in a new light, and I really got to feel the spirit of the community, and become a part of it for just a little while. People talked and laughed and teased, complained about the heat, fanned themselves and each other, shared candy and snacks, braided hair. Toddlers raced up and down the aisles and in and out of church giggling, eating candy, and every once in a while stopping for a hug and a kiss from someone in the choir. Teenagers giggled and flirted, took selfies, chewed gum, made jokes… and, for once, it wasn’t my problem. Many of the students also had leadership roles in the performance, which was wonderful to see!

Last Sunday, a week before the performance, we were invited to sit with the choir during the church service. This meant that we had to wear all white and I couldn’t read Harry Potter, but during the service the choir director made a special point to thank us for joining them and made me feel like a real part of the community which was very cool.

And then there was last week. We practiced every day for at least 2 hours. This meant that I got home around 4, went to practice at 5, and came home sometime between 7 and 8, with just enough time to shower and grab a quick dinner before bed (because, you know, we still had to be up at 6 to teach…). The first week, we practiced 3 songs and 1 dance. Last week, we added 5 more songs and 2 dances, and 2 of the songs and one dance were added 2 days before the performance. Um… But, really, it was a lot of fun, even though I spent the week exhausted AND missed half of the Olympics Opening Ceremony :/ .

Sunday was the performance. We were told the bus would leave our church at 8am to travel to the neighboring village where church would be held. Honestly, I have no idea why Jackie and I actually bothered showing up at the church at 8… I guess we’re slow learners. We ended up hanging out at our friends’ house until almost 9, when the bus finally arrived. At the Ta’u church, we were served a huge breakfast and told the program would start soon… once the church leader meeting was done. 2 hours later, we finally started.

I think we finally got home around 3pm that day, after which I promptly showered and fell asleep. The last few weeks have been exhausting, and I’m glad to have the afternoons back to my own devices. However, no matter how awkward it was at first, and how much I sometimes regretted signing up for this (remember how I don’t sing or dance?) it has turned out the be one of my favorite things I have done since coming to Samoa. So much of life here revolves around the church that I think I would have really been missing out if I hadn’t participated. I know the village appreciated our attempt to become more a part of the community, and all my students appreciated the chance to see me make a fool of myself on stage in front of all their friends and family.

A year ago, I would never have imagined joining a church choir (no matter how temporarily). A year ago, I also would not have seen myself sitting in a hot classroom with a sleeping kitten in my lap, helping a girl apply for an NIH summer research job as two other girls used my room to blast music and practice their hula dance for the talent show. But hey. TIS.

*I was going to try to post a video of the performance, but just the one from our village was almost an hour long!!! So I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it!

Why Samoa?

I have been asked that question probably a million times, and I'm going to be honest: there is no Reason. Oh, there were a million reasons why I chose AmSam: I wanted to go abroad for at least a year (but the Peace Corps 26 months seemed daunting), I wanted to work with youth, I didn't want to live in the middle of nowhere all by myself (and WorldTeach promised roommates aka NEW BEST FRIENDS), I wanted to go somewhere I’d probably never get the chance to go otherwise (and the South Pacific definitely qualified), and, after I had decided on WorldTeach, the American Samoa program was fully funded (and I was a broke college grad). Those are all reasons, and decent ones… but they’re not a Reason. There was just something inside me that told me it was what I needed to do; maybe I’d feel the same way if I was in Tanzania or Costa Rica right now, but I guess I’ll never know.

Anyway. When I give people the above reasons, they’re never quite satisfied. So I have another story.

Way back when I first started looking into WorldTeach, my friend Melodious and I were clicking through programs on the website and we got to the AmSam main page and saw this:

And I thought, man. Those kids are cute. I can see myself teaching kids like that. So I put AmSam on the list, and as the list got shorter and shorter, Samoa moved farther and farther up. So, I’m not gonna say I moved here because I saw a picture of cute kids. But, I mean, maybe a little bit?

The cutest part of this story though: the kid in the front? His name is Nainoa. He’s my neighbor. And it’s his 9^th birthday today.

Happy birthday, Nainoa! Thanks for being so adorable! If not for you, I might be in China right now. That's why I always try to remember... everything happens for a reason.

Meet me halfway

I’ve been in Samoa for 6 months. I have 5 months left. That means I’m officially past the half-way point, and for some reason I feel like I’m on a slide: like the last 6 months I’ve been climbing to this point, to halfway, and now the last half is just the slide down, and it’s going to go by so fast. In September, I realized how long a year actually is. In January, I’m realizing how short it is. 5 more months.

So my plan was to have a really nice reflective blog post to mark my 6 months living and teaching in Samoa, but nothing especially deep is coming to me, and I think the best way to sum up my current state of mind is to give you all a few quick snapshots from the past week, a typical one as far as Samoa is concerned (except for the ultra long weekend… which rocked).

On Wednesday, Wes and Matt took me and Jackie spear fishing at night for the first time (since I had just gotten the underwater flashlight my parents shipped me… THANKS!)! The goal of the night, as stated by Wes, was for both me and Jackie to catch something- anything. And (drumroll please) WE DID IT!!!! We ended up going out in the wharf because the waves were rough, so there weren’t too many fish out, but I ended up spearing a tiny red fish stick and Jackie got a slightly bigger guy with a gigantic will to live who ended up eventually escaping the line (though we tried to chase him down, he ended up disappearing to lick his wounds in peace). Though the fishing wasn’t prime and jointly we only got a few, it was still a really amazing experience just to be out in the ocean at night. After I got over freaking out that YOU CAN’T SEE ANYTHING and that I never actually knew what direction I was going, it was incredibly peaceful out there, with the moon and the stars overhead. And I didn’t run into any sharks, so, cool. Walking back through the silent village (there’s a newly reinstated curfew for the kids now, since they’ve been, ahem, misbehaving…) soaking wet, carrying snorkeling gear, a spear, and a line of teeny tiny tropical fish, it was weird how unweird it felt*. Just another night in Samoa, I guess. 5 more months.

Friday was Tusi Day**. 27 years ago, on January 17^th, Hurricane Tusi hit the Manu’a islands. The villages of Ta’u and Faleasao were almost completely destroyed, but, miraculously, not a single person died. To commemorate that event, every January 17^th the villages of Ta’u and Faleasao have a mandatory midnight to dusk Sa. Sa means sacred in Samoan, and stands for a time of prayer and thanksgiving. Practically, it means that you’re not allowed to leave your house. Or go to school. So we got the day off!!! I slept in until 10am (which is amazing… I don’t know the last time I did that. Even on break, when I occasionally didn’t go to sleep until 6, I was up by 8 or 9), and spent the day in bed watching movies and enjoying the time to relax. I thought that by 6pm (the time Sa ended) I would be going stir-crazy and have to go out, but honestly when the bell rang to end Sa I just shrugged, made dinner, and put in another movie. It was the perfect day of mandated rest and reflection- not bad!

Saturday, though, I couldn’t sit inside to save my life. I woke up late (but normal late, not 10am late), had a breakfast of coffee and Pop-Tarts (yum!) and went for a long run: through my village, over the mountain, and down the beach road to the end of the next village, Ta’u. I started getting back into running at the end of last semester, but on weekdays I usually just go to the elementary school and do laps, and I haven’t done anything more athletic than walking between restaurants since vacation so it was a nice change, and a beautiful view! I got stopped several times by little kids asking for friendship bracelets (SO MANY NEW FRIENDS) and parents wanting to know how their kids had done on finals. Everyone also wanted to know what, exactly, I was doing… running for fun isn’t really a standard pastime in Samoa, but the people pretty well know that palagis are strange and generally accept it. At the end of the village, I met Matt who was coming back from spear fishing and went home with him for some water and a quick visit before running back to Faleasao. After a stop at home to drop off my iPod and break up a rock-throwing fight between two of my little neighbors, I went to the beach for a swim. Usually, I kind of hate having to wear actual clothes to swim, but after a run in the Samoan sun it was kind of nice to just be able to go in with what I’d had on. The rest of my afternoon was spent chatting with little neighbors and the kids from Ta’u (who were visiting because their parents were down for Bingo, a big activity here in Samoa), and playing Trivial Pursuit, version 1996 (for which I am at a stark disadvantage, since I was SIX when it was made, and know nothing about the 80’s- and I still got second! Yes!).

Sunday I spent all day at school, lesson planning for the week and taking advantage of the internet to catch up with things (and people) back home. Whenever I miss having internet at home (Tutuila spoiled me!), I remember how, coming out here, I honestly didn’t think WiFi would be a possibility, so it’s daily availability is pretty awesome (even if I can’t Facebook from my couch). On the way home, I got caught in Sa (like the Tusi Day Sa, there’s a daily 15 minute Sa around sunset every night, when everyone is expected to stay in their homes to pray) and was invited to spend it at the high school principal’s house, where Diana fed me coconut pudding (yummy!) and one of the high school student’s regaled me with tales of his pus-y infected eye (and how it popped during the night and he woke up with a pus-covered face… boys, ew) and admired my badass Samoa sandals, because I’m that cool. I then spent the night watching Downton Abbey with Cat, because YES TV’s exist here, and YES they have real shows on… who knew?!

Monday, Jackie, Diana and I wandered over to Ta’u and, with the boys, hiked out to Second Beach (just past First Beach, but not quite as far as Third Beach). I complained about the long hike, the rough water, and the rocky beach… and then I realized that it’s January, and I’m on a beach. Getting a tan. Warm. So that kind of took the wind out of my grumbling (though I’ll still always vote for Toa, the beach that’s a fifteen minute hike from our backyard). That evening, as Wes and Matt played nerdy strategy games (not board games) in our living room, Jackie and I completed some craft projects we’ve been meaning to get to for some time, and I’m extremely happy with the turn-out. Thank God we’re roommates and have such fantastic ideas. I don’t know what I would do living on this tiny island with no Jackie to plan gecko mazes, make hand turkeys, and create wall-sized Cultural Adjustment Curves complete with Flat-Us’s!

Sometime over break, I think I realized that I’ve fallen a little bit in love with Samoa. I also started calling Manu’a home. Sometime over break, I started realizing that moments that seem to be inconsequential matter, and that you can’t take time back. I started stopping at times and taking a breath, trying to make sure I could catch that moment in my memory, remember what it felt like. Because, eventually, things that seem everyday now won’t be anymore. I’ll be back in the US (because no matter how much I want to go wear leather in Italy or work at a milk factory in New Zealand***, I think I’ll be back in the states at least for a few years after this), and I won’t be spear fishing at night, observing Sa, running along a beach on the Pacific. Samoan kids won’t be begging for friendship bracelets and giving hugs, Samoan teenagers won’t be telling me about their disgusting infections, Jackie and I won’t be decorating our beach-side home with awesome art projects. 5 months is a pretty long time, but it’s also not. 5 months can fly by. I miss so many people and things back home (currently, mostly Target), and I’m getting antsy to figure out what I will be doing next year, because I hate not knowing. But I want to make sure that I don’t wish these next few months away, that I don’t spend them worrying about the future instead of living right here right now. So I’ve started stopped, taking a breath, saving a moment. I guess that’s why I decided to blog about normal things that happened on a semi-normal weekend- it wasn’t anything special, or anything exciting. But it’s part of a life that I am coming to love, one that I am excited to keep living, and one that I know I will eventually miss ****.

Oh! Also. I spend a lot of time teaching. Kids just took finals, everyone passed (Yay!!!), and now the new semester begins!!! I’ve gotten many promises of New Years Resolutions: good behavior, straight A’s, no skipping school, turning in assignments… we’ll see how all that turns out. I give it a week…

(COMING SOON: a post about our long boat-y homecoming, and probably some pictures!)

*What was weird, and will always be weird, was the midget-legged ghost dog who kept trying to commit suicide off the wharf  wall. How do you talk a dog down from the ledge?!? Hm.

**Friday was ALSO my dad’s birthday!!! I couldn’t call because, oh yeah, my parent’s are in EUROPE skiing and celebrating. So I don’t feel that bad. But HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! And I’m so jealous!!!

***Just kidding. I would never in my life work at a milk factory. Yech.

**** Also, in speaking with certain people… I really, really think many of my friends might be a little confused about what life in Samoa is actually like… I hope this helped clear things up!

Christmas Break!!

I promise a longer blog post later, but I realize that it’s been a while so this is more of a YES, I’M ALIVE check-in. We just got back home from break yesterday, and it’s all been quite the adventure. Thank God, we were able to get off our tiny island to go first to a slightly bigger one and then to a GIGANTIC one that ACTUALLY SHOWS UP ON (some) WORLD MAPS. That’s crazy, yo. It had restaurants and cafes and pizza and bars and umbrella drinks, and was all so wonderful. ALSO, we time travelled, skipped December 23 altogether, and then got to celebrate the coming of 2014 TWO times, so we were both the first and the last to ring in the New Year! Awesome!

Look!!! A world map with Samoa!!! Also, notice the international date line which we crossed!!!

For a very brief recap of our break: during the past few weeks Matt was pleased to discover some out-of-place German and Canadian architecture in the South Pacific, Jackie was overjoyed to experience the New Zealand influence on the Samoan culture, and I decided to stick to exploring the Samoan side of things. We also explored some of the awesome Upolu scenery, enjoyed the amenities of a big(ish) city, and had fun reconnecting with old friends and making a few new ones. Needless to say, our time was filled with plenty of cultural experiences. Also, plenty of naps. I’m sure everyone else has more detailed descriptions, but I think that’s pretty much the gist of it.

So now vacation is over, and it's back to real life on a South Pacific island. There'll be some things I definitely miss (like pizza, and lattes, and umbrella drinks, and Tutuila friends, and aiga buses), but overall it's pretty good to be home! 

Stay tuned for a post on our very adventurous return home (4 days late, after a very long time on a very tipsy boat, a stop on a neighboring island, the experience of the Olosega Rollercoaster, and much, much more)! Also, if I’m feeling ambitious, a post on the differences between Western Samoa, American Samoa, and Manu’a (because apparently no one on Tutuila actually considers it part of AmSam), though if you’re interested in that you might just want to ask me because I’ll probably forget.

Lot's of love from the South Pacific! You'll be getting all your Christmas presents (aka painted seashells, coconut bras, and banana leaf hats) in June, so get excited!

Just casually sliding down a waterfall... TOTALLY safe and stuff...

Christmas Day on the beach! Notice the Santa hats! Also, the bikinis... We're not in AmSam anymore!!!

The house of Robert Louis Stevenson, aka The Worst Author Ever, aka who lives and is buried at the very top of a hill? Sea level is where it's at, I hear... (Also, look at all the culture I experienced!!!)

New Years, round II!

So. Many. Naps. Vacationing is REALLY hard work, ya know.

Thanksgiving in Samoa- Palagi Style

I think I've finally been in Samoa long enough that things don't phase me anymore. Was Thanksgiving in Samoa really weird? I honestly couldn't even tell you. I CAN tell you that Jackie and I were very proud of ourselves for hosting our very first ever Thanksgiving Dinner sans parents, with all of the staples INCLUDING a turkey. 

Because I currently have so few words for what the weekend was like, I think I'll just post pictures instead.

Thanksgiving festivities started with a Turkey Run on Wednesday morning

And then the Traditional Thanksgiving Eating Contest: a can of cold spaghetti, a can of mackerel, and, for dessert, a piece of cake... YUM! (The kid on the far right won. His prize was the turkey we ate the next day!)

Also traditional: each class dressed up a turkey. This is the freshman turkey.

Sophomore turkey!!! GO SOPHOMORES!!!

Junior turkey, aka Cat.

The senior turkey... there was a miscommunication and they thought it HAD to be cooked... still my favorite.

Kids posing for pictures.

Bad ass.

The kid in the orange asked if I would show his picture to everyone back in the states... here is the beginning of his fame.

 And now, on the home front:

Jackie and I LOVE HOLIDAY CRAFTS.

The Samoan Thanksgiving breakfast we started the day with... or half of it. These are the leftovers...

Casually thawing our turkey in the laundry bucket. Not worried about it.

Biscuits!!! 

Not a HOLIDAY CRAFT, just a LIFE CRAFT. This is totally not directed at anyone in particular. Just general things we've noticed....

A Very Samoan Centerpiece for the table, featuring coconuts, a breadfruit, and bananas. Made completely out of stuff we can find in our yard...

The turkey!!! Thawed!!! With the guts removed (one of my prouder moments of the day/my life)!!! Stuffed!!! WE ARE SO IMPRESSED WITH OURSELVES!

In the oven!

Annndddddd 3.5 hours later.... the finished bird. It was delicious.

The line of food... all of the Thanksgiving staples (except gravy, but who even likes that?)

The table... notice turkeys and centerpiece.

For all these things we are thankful...

AND: The Hannukkah Candle!!!! 

Thanksgiving was pretty great, and I was really proud that Jackie and I were able to make a very American Thanksgiving on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. It will certainly be a good Thanksgiving story to tell: the first time I made Thanksgiving dinner, I was in the South Pacific... I did realize, though, that this was the first Thanksgiving I spent away from my family, and this will be the first Christmas I spend away from my family, both real and Claver. I'm definitely going to miss some of the normal traditions I have gotten used to.

THERE IS A BRIGHT SIDE, THOUGH: in 17 days, we will be boarding a plane to take us on VACATION. Instead of skiing, I'm going to spend my Christmas laying around on beaches, learning to surf (hopefully), and going to restaurants. And bars. And supermarkets. And that is all very, very exciting. And, to sustain me until this glorious thing called vacation comes... Jackie and I have continued on with our Holiday Crafts. Might I say it's beginning to look (a tiny bit) like a (very tropical) 602 Christmas Wonderland in the last house in Faleasao?

I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving wherever you happen to be, and I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas season! Keep me and my friends here in your thoughts, prayers, and Christmas wishes, and, more importantly, send happy thoughts to Interisland Airways... our only way off the island in 3 weeks. Keep those planes flying!

6 Months Post-Grad

Today, it is exactly 6 months since I graduated from Boston College. It has been 6 months since I left BC and Boston. 6 months since I last saw (most of) my best friends for the last time. 6 months since MA’s, Lower dirt, Higgins, the Chocolate Bar, JTree’s sourpatch fish bowls, Hillside frips and espresso shots, Eag’s Tuscan veggie subs. 6 months since I got out of bed at 2pm. 6 months since I went to class (as a student). 6 months since I lived 5 minutes away from 95% of the people who made up my entire life. 6 months since that surreal night when we all said goodbye, when Rob played Wonderwall while we all sat around with fake candles (where did those even come from?), when we did cartwheels in the rain (I still have those videos), when I ate a meatball sub in the Rubi kitchen, when we all spent the morning angry as hell because we hadn’t showered, hadn’t slept, hadn’t had coffee, and graduation started in an hour. 6 months since that surreal afternoon when none of us knew what to do with our hoods, when I slept through most of the Commencement speech except the part about swings (why swings?), when it was so, so hot, and there were so, so many people in the College of Arts and Sciences. 6 months since we all burst into tears at the same time in the Gate common room, since we said a very real goodbye to the Not-a-Real-Table, since I said goodbye to my best friend on the corner of a street near Coolidge Corner. 6 months since I left the place that had been home for the past 4 years. 6 months since I left the people who had been my family.

And where am I now? My life is so, so unbelievably different. Monday was a horribly, horribly long day. The kids misbehaved, I was distracted, and that night all the palagi teachers were shocked that the next day was only Tuesday (apparently it had been a long day for everyone). Oh, and I had sugar cookies (and ONLY sugar cookies- Jackie knows) for dinner at 9pm. It was what it was. But Tuesday, walking around the village after school, I remembered to look around, to really see where I was. Samoa has a lot of problems, some that I am only starting to see now. It’s also one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. That night, after a dinner of fresh Manu’a roll sushi (thanks to our brilliant co-workers and friends- I guess you can’t actually live off Ramen for 3 years…), I walked home and stopped on the beach to look at the stars. There are so many more of them here than anywhere else I’ve ever been, and there’s something about looking out at a night sky filled with stars over a vast ocean while standing on a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly, in this little and sometimes claustrophobic place, the world seemed huge.

It’s weird looking at your life and realizing it’s so different from anything you could ever have imagined. It’s even weirder, I think, to look at your life and realize it has somehow become exactly what you imagined. This is what I wanted when I decided to travel to the South Pacific for a year, this exactly: billions of stars over an endless ocean, puppies, island children who come to play, students who, every once in a while, show how much your presence means to them, a job that I really believe matters, weekend adventures, new friends; a whole new world.

I came here to prove to myself that I could do this, and if I could do this then I could probably do anything. I wanted to show myself that I could leave everything (and everyone) I knew and loved and set out on an unknown adventure on my own, and that I could make it work, that I could be happy. It’s pretty cool to be proven right. It’s also pretty cool to know, though, that even though I came here on my own, I’m not alone at all. I’m surrounded by wonderful people on this island, and I’m surrounded by wonderful people outside of the island, too. 4 months into my time in Samoa (and 6 months out from graduation), I know that the people who mattered to me before are still a part of my life and always will be, and that if I need them they’re always there. So thank you for that.

I could say a thousand more things, and I did mean to blog about the adventures of last Saturday, which, between our fearless leader Saunoa and the mythical Saua were pretty much legendary. But I figure this is getting long enough, other people have done it better than me already (google it, yo), and, anyway, all anyone really cares about is pictures.

So. Here’s what I did on a casual Saturday in November. Yes, you should definitely be jealous. 

(OH. And I finally saw a whale this weekend!!! Thank God! I still want to see one in a zoo and/or beached (probably because of my childhood whale-induced trauma) but this is a step in the right direction!)

Pololo Season!

“Are you going out tonight?” one of the other teachers asked me as we were leaving school on Friday a few weeks ago

. A pretty typical question to start of the weekend… except when you’re in Samoa, and it’s one week past the full moon, and “going out” actually means standing out in the middle of the ocean at 2am catching sea worm sperm with a giant net. Of course I was “going out”!

Pololo is a Samoan delicacy beloved by all. It’s also basically sea worm reproductive organs. Yummy! The pololo “rise” once a year, one week after the full moon in either October or November (there’s lots of ways that people believe you can time it exactly, but not that much is actually known about pololo rising and people usually end up checking the ocean for a few nights before actually hitting the jackpot). On the night the pololo rise, entire villages plunge into the ocean in the dead of night (they usually come between midnight and 3am or so) with buckets, nets, and, in some cases, bed sheets, to catch the worms as they rise out of the reef. They’re attracted to light, so they swarm towards underwater flashlights… or, as we discovered, headlamps!

After successfully staying up all the way to midnight (this included the use of lots of caffeine and lots of dumb TV), we (the palagis of Faleasao) went out to the beach where some Samoans were already sitting, having snacks and talking and joking as they watched the ocean. We hung out for a bit as more and more people gathered, nets and buckets in hand. Wes guessed that the pololo wouldn’t come until 3 or 4am, based on when the moon would rise, but we actually got lucky and the rising started around 1am! We went into the ocean about waist high and all took turns holding nets or buckets and catching the wiggly little worms as they flocked to our flashlights. We stayed out until about 3am, by which time our buckets were half full, the pololo were slowing down, and all of us were slowly approaching hypothermia (in the South Pacific! That might be a first).

This was probably hands down the strangest Friday night in my life. But hey, when in Samoa...

From left to right, Leafa, Jackie, me and Cat, all looking ravishing at 3am after spending 2 hours in the ocean swarmed by worms.