Hello from Samoa

Hello from Samoa

During our week break between terms, we were able to get some sight seeing in as well as work.  We were over on Upolu and we don’t get to see much of Upolu so when we had an opportunity to go visit some sight we took it.  They have some big Banyan trees on the island and a couple from Oregon built a couple of tree houses in a Banyan tree.  They have a big tree house and a little tree house and they took us for a tour.  They rent both houses out as a bed and breakfast.  They are very quaint and they are a bit pricey but they are very neat.  We didn’t stay there but we had a tour and we had lunch at their house.  It is all very impressive; here are some pictures from our tour.

This is a picture of some Banyan trees from out of the tree house.  All the big tall trees are Banyan trees.

This is a picture of Sampson, the Banyan tree in which they built the tree house.  This Banyan tree is about 300 years old.  They estimate this age from the time of the last volcano that erupted and covered this land with lava. This is the big tree house.  Sampson is about 180 feet tall and about 140 feet around at the base.  The reason they think that Sampson has withstood the tsunami and a cyclone a couple of years ago that knocked down a number of Banyan trees is that its roots are anchored in the lava flow under the tree.

Sampson is pretty impressive.  Each huge Banyan tree is made up of many roots and trunks of other trees

This is the bottom of the Banyan tree

called Sampson

A better look at the bottom of Sampson

This is the wall of the main bedroom in the tree house.

This is the main bedroom in the big tree house.

This is an interesting branch they had to deal with in the middle of their kitchen.

They made a stool out of it.

This is the wall of the shower .

This is the floor of the shower.

This is the bathroom with hot and cold running water.

This is the shower and shower wall.

This is the upstairs bed in the second bedroom.

This is the way up to the second bedroom.  It's a nice ladder straight up the wall.

This is a resting place on the way up to the rooms.











 These are pictures of the small Tree House.

 It is much smaller and built around a smaller tree but still impressive

The steps are a killer, I would hate to have to climb them too many times in one day.

The outside door to the tree house.

The kitchen, small but all their meals are brought from the main house .

A cosy place for two because this tree house won't hold much more than 2.

This is the only bedroom and the bed has a sky light so you can lay in bed and watch the stars, the sunset or even the sunrise.  They all are beautiful over here.

This is a deck where you can sit and have your meals or just relax and enjoy yourselves.

This is a tree near the small tree house, notice how the roots and vines are growing around the tree.  Many of these vines will actually infuse themselves right into the trunk of the tree itself.  It's all very interesting.

These pictures are from the coastal trail.  It is a trail that leads along the coast that is not protected by a reef.  It has some high cliffs where the waves just continue to come in and beat against the rocks.  There are a number of arches where the water has washed through the weakest points of the rocks.

Joanne standing on the edge watching the water below.  She is a little bit nervous thinking that one of those bigger waves will break down the lava she is standing on.  

These are the lava flats at the edge of the ocean.

These tree all have multiple roots going into the ground.  There is one main trunk but it branches into many roots as it goes into the ground.

There are lots of these trees.  The people here say that these trees help to stabilize the ground so that the waves won't wash it away.  I don't know but that sounds good to me.

These are some of the lava cliffs that the waves beat against.

This shows the power with which the waves hit the banks with.  It is amazing that the cliffs stand up so well.

Here is a lone tree on an island and you can see the holes that the waves have worn. It is an impressive sight.

These are the other couples we are working with. To the left are the Hammonds, they are the ITEP couple from Idaho who we work with.  Joanne is in the middle.  The couple on the right are the Goodlets, they are from Australia and they are the TVET couple who work with the vocational education program.

Hello from Savai’i.  The past couple of months have been very interesting for us.  We started teaching our class on assessment and we have 12 of our staff members taking the class.  We have really enjoyed teaching in the past and we now have the opportunity to do it again and we are having fun doing it.  It is very interesting to teach teachers where English is not their first language.  We are constantly defining word for them and we are much more cognizant of the words we are using.  In the end of March all the schools in Samoa (both private and government) were closed down because of an epidemic of pink eye.  We had many students out and we even had 10 or 12 staff members who got it.  We were shut down for a week.  We came back for a week and Term 1 ended and so we had another week off.  During the break we went over to Apia on the island of Upolu to meet with the Hammonds to discuss what courses we could offer next and to see what books were available for what classes.  We also had some time to do some sightseeing around Upolu.  Our first class will end in May but we are looking to start another class sometimes this month.  Hopefully the internet will cooperate with me this time as I lost all the pictures I had downloaded the first.  Maybe the second time it will work, so here goes.

This is our house in Vaiola.  Notice the fale in the background, it is the agricultural classroom.

This is a sign as you come on our campus.  It is a great motto as we have students here from Vanuatu and from New Zealand.

This is my very first lava lava.  It is much cooler to wear than a pair of slacks.  I wear the lava lava or shorts when it is after school or on P-days

 This is an "uma" that the dorm students us to boil and bake their taro.  They take the food from here to the kitchen where the rest of the meal is prepared and served to the students.

This is how they carry coconuts.  They slice the husk and slide the stick into coconut husk.  He is just starting and he will put another half dozen coconuts on the stick before he goes home.

This is called an Indian Apple tree and it has huge fruit which is inedible.  We have a teacher who grew up in the Philippines and he says that the people from India eat it but nobody around here does.  Check out the size of the fruit, it's about a foot long and has a 6 inch diameter.

This is the ferry we ride back and forth from Savai'i to Upolu.  When it comes to Savai'i  it swings right and backs int to unload the cars.  At Upolu it goes in straight and then has to back around to start out.  They sure know how to pack the cars in.  They have to let the drivers and passengers out first before they park the next car or they won't be able to get out because they are packed in very tightly.

Here is our little red car packed in between everything else.

In Samoa they often bury their dead family members in their yards and by their fales.  You can see the graves right in their front yards.  It is an interesting concept.

 

 They beautiful waterfall in Samoa.  The next three pictures are of three different water fall on Upolu.

This is the bottom of a "Ma Tree".  It is a baby Ma tree.

This is a Mama Ma Tree.  It takes about a 30 minute hike off the road to see it but it is worth it.

This is the back part of the Ma Tree.  The roots are a couple of feet over my head (Nelson's head)  When I asked the question of how deep the roots went into the ground, nobody knew.

We finally found a beach where we could use our snorkeling equipment.  This is a beautiful beach that is being rebuilt because everything was wiped out with the tsunami.   All the fales are being rebuild and they charge you for using a fale. The sandy beaches are beautiful.

In this picture you can see the reef out away.  It protects the beach from normal ocean waves and keeps the temperature up which keeps away the sharks which I like very much

This is the fale we used and it is just a shack with no walls and a wood floor two feet off the sand.