Making Cookies in Samoa

I had a long talk with one of the owners on Monday, mainly about what they were going to pay me but also about our being Americans here and how we are perceived by the Samoans. Basically he told me that a lot of former American employees have left a bad impression on the Samoan staff here and have come across as pretty entitled. He made me more aware of some of the small things we do that make it look like we deserve better treatment than they do.

I thought about this a lot after he left. I made a resolve to not leave the same impression with these people. I don’t feel like I’m entitled and I don’t want to give them that impression. I’m a guest in their country and should act like it. I should feel grateful that so many of them speak my language while I haven’t made a huge effort to learn theirs yet. A few of the administrative staff have been particularly helpful in making sure our homes were cleaned and comfortable for us. So I decided to make sure I showed them how grateful we are for that. So I thought I’ll make them cookies – simple enough right? . . .

Although I was glad to find most of what I needed in town yesterday to make cookies, I couldn’t find chocolate chips anywhere. I remembered seeing them at a few stores but we weren’t close enough to walk to them with our huge bags, plus I figured they must melt so quickly here. Suzie had a good solution to use her M&Ms that she had brought from the states and put those in. So after lunch today I get out my ingredients to make the cookies and realize I have no measuring cups, large bowl, mixer, or cookie sheet. I decided to be resourceful and do the best I could. The only measuring device I had was Tyler’s bottle that measured in ounces so I used that to convert into cups and measure most of the dry ingredients. I had to eyeball the teaspoon measurement s on a spoon and just mixed everything by hand. I used the rice cooker container to mix everything in. I didn’t have a cookie sheet but I did have a cake pan. So surprisingly the consistency turned out right and things were looking good until I remembered that the degrees on the oven were for Celsius not Farenheight (sp?). I didn’t know the conversion and my internet wasn’t working so I couldn’t Google it either. I guessed what it would probably be instead and just kept checking on them every few minutes. Although they took 20 minutes to cook instead of the usual 10 – they actually turned out pretty good. They tasted yummy too, although who can go wrong with lots of butter and sugar?