Paradise

Saturday was an exploration day. Lou, the clinical director, took us around the island all day on Saturday. The really nice beaches are actually on the other side of the island and take about 45 minutes to get to. We really got to see a whole new part of Samoa and all of its great beauty. We visited a few waterfalls that were really rushing after the rain we’d been getting. We drove through quite a few small villages too with more fales, wild dogs, chickens and pigs. A lot of the kids run around half naked – one because its hot, and two I’m sure because they’re pretty poor and don’t have much clothes.

Lou took us to a great beach where they have small fales right on the water. All of the beaches are owned by the local villages so usually someone will come out and ask for some money to use the beach and one of the fales. Its about 5 tala per person or 2-3 U.S. dollars. We got to go snorkeling here and Tyler got to swim in the ocean for the first time. It was an overcast day, but there was a great breeze and no one else around! Its strange – the Samoans don’t swim in the water and there really aren’t a lot of tourists either. So we were the only ones on the beach. Andy and I got to go out snorkeling while Nathan watched Tyler. We saw so many bright colorful fish and some bright blue star fish. The current taking you back in to shore was pretty strong so it was a good workout too trying to stay out far enough to see some fish. We’ll have to go back often to do that. As we were leaving a few kids from the village came out and Andy took their picture and talked to them for awhile. Andy’s has his charm with kids and they were all gathered around him smiling and laughing while he showed them their pictures.

The following Saturday we went to Vavau beach. Its probably our favorite spot thus far. There’s a little resort right on the beach with this little cove and small islands right off shore. Its hard for me to describe right now. But the cliffs, shallow water, tall palm trees and secluded area made it all beautiful for us. We sat in the shallow water for awhile and played with Tyler. He still doesn’t really like the sand and it takes him a little while to warm up to being in the ocean, but I think he’ll get used to it.