Savaii

Its been awhile and I need to catch up on my blog entries. Here's a short synopsis of our August trip to Savaii. The other larger island that makes up Western Samoa. Its about 20 years behind this island. But its beautiful and untouched. We had to take an hour and half ferry ride to get over there which was way over crowded and not very safe for toddlers. Andy was a good sport to hold Tyler most of the way over. But once we were there we had a blast!

We swam with turtles

We swam in waterfalls

And we visited some beautiful beaches.

Interesting fact; Savaii is the farthest western land mass before the International Dateline. There are some places on Savaii where on a clear day you can see to the Tongan islands which are across the International Dateline and technically in the next day. So some say - you can see into the future. We sat next to a man on the ferry on our way over who was from a village on Savaii. When we asked him where his village was he said “I live where the sun sets.” I’m not sure he even understood how poetic that statement was because when I started to tell him how true it was with the proximity of the International Dateline, he didn’t seem to follow me. I thought of that statement a lot though as I sat on the beach later that evening and watched a near perfect sunset. There I was where East meets West and Today meets Tomorrow and where the sun would set for the last time that day. I thought: this will make a great blog entry.

Kalala

This is a picture Andy took of Tyler and Kalala on Monday. I am so grateful for Kalala. I've talked about her in quite a few of my emails, but for those of you who don't get those - Kalala is our helper. She watches Tyler four days a week for about 2-3 hours and cleans my house and does my laundry. She is every mothers dream. She has made life so easy for me here in Samoa. And the best part of all is that Tyler loves her and she's so good with him. It makes me feel so good when I'm working upstairs and I hear Kalala reading books to Tyler or singing songs with him. As soon as she arrives Tyler tells her "down, down" and points to the floor near his toy bin so she'll get down on the floor and play with him. She's always telling him "Good boy, good boy." and giggles when he'll repeat a Samoan word she says. I just feel so lucky to have her during our time in Samoa.

Beach Boys

Saturday we all decided we needed a day at the beach. Although the weather looked variable in Siusega we decided to venture over to the other side of the island. It was beautiful there. We went to a beach Andy had been to on our Anniversary trip a few weeks back. It was perfect for the little boys. We were they only ones there and the water was only ankle high on the boys for yards and yards. They just walked around in the water and splashed and had a great time. I think Tyler is progressively getting over some of his beach phobias and dumped sand all over himself and walked by himself in the water. Nathan found a few coconuts and husked them to make some toys for the boys in the water. Later, Andy and Nathan played batchie (sp?) ball with them.

Chief Squish Pic

This was the "Chief Squish" picture I really wanted to post with my blog awhile back. It was on Nathan's camera and I only just found it. This is what I mentally think of - Tyler on his Samoan throne (his high chair, by the pool).

Tee Time

I've decided to take up golf. We have a beautiful PGA style course within walking distance of our house and it only costs $3 to rent a driver and get a large bucket of balls, and 9 holes is $4 a person. I haven't actually tried any golfing on the green yet. I've still been practicing a few times a week at the driving range. Suzie's a good teacher though and she helps me get in lots of practice. The boys sit in their strollers and watch us. This is one of those things I'm sure I'll miss after leaving here. Where else can you get a view like that for such a great price, within a short walk from your house?

Morning Exercise

Suzie and I decided to start an exercise plan this week after a motivating talk at church on Sunday. We've been walking in the mornings around the sports complex and will hopefully be able to run once I get my jog stroller here. One day we did a little kickboxing with Denise Austin too, just to get some variety in.
This is a picture of Tyler with my running shoes on after our morning walk. After this picture I decided to do some crunches (it had been awhile). As I laid on the floor to do my exercises, Tyler decided to sit next to me and tried to do his version of crunches too. He sits up and brings his face to his knees at the same rhythm that I do my crunches. Never can start too early.

The Creepy Crawlies

About 8:00 Saturday night, Andy and I went out onto our front porch to change the light bulbs. He was standing on a chair to reach the lamp lights while I held the flashlight. Its pretty dark at 8:00 around here and usually going out onto our front porch you see a lot of geckos and some rather large cockroaches up on the ceiling or on the outside walls of the house. Because our outside lights don’t work we haven’t been able to see much else.

Well as I shine my flashlight into the corner for Andy, I see a big black mass out of the corner of my eye. I whip my flashlight around to see a cane spider about the circumference of a soft ball creeping along where the wall meets the ceiling of our porch. Not only is it extremely large, its carrying an egg sac about the size of a quarter. I yell “Andy!”

“Geez! what!?”

About the time he would usually reprimand me for making too big a deal over little bugs - he sees the spider too and yells - “Geez! That things big”.

We hear Suzie yell out the window “Are you okay over there?”

“Nathan you gotta see this!”

Unfortunate for me the spider is hanging onto the wall just above where the screen door opens to get inside.

I’m stuck.

I run around to the back door, yelling “Kill it! I don’t want that thing procreating or leaving its egg sac anywhere near my house.”

I go inside and get our bug spray. Nathan is fascinated and more than willing to kill it with the spray. Suzie finally musters up the courage to come over and have a look too. We watch from the sidelines as Nathan sprays the giant spider. Because of its size it takes quite a lot of ant spray to slow it down. Finally it drops to the floor and separates from the egg sac. Nathan sees that tiny Cane spiders are already starting to emerge from the egg sac. He quickly doses it with spray and steps on it. The spider finally gives up the fight, curls up and dies as well.

I’m a little worried about the few stray baby cane spiders that might have escaped and gather up the courage to come forward and spray the perimeter of the porch next to the house to prevent any spiders from entering the house. Well there’s quite a large crack along the foundation of our porch separating the porch from the house. This is exactly where I sprayed.

No more than 30 seconds passed when the next sequence of events happened.

“Move!”

That’s all Suzie and I needed to hear before we lunged into the house. We turned around and saw that Nathan had trapped a 5 inch long, thick centipede underneath a table leg on the porch.

Just then Andy says “No way! Over there!” A 6 inch long, also very thick centipede emerges from another part of the crack. Nathan climbs over the railing to go after it and kill it. Suzie and I are in the house still and hear:

“Give me the spray”

“ I don’t have the spray”

‘Kill it with the rock”

“Give me the flashlight”

“Do it!, Don’t be such a pansy!”

After about a minute, they tell us its dead and Suzie and I come out to have a look. As we’re peering over the railing looking at it, Andy yells “Look out!”

We again, run into the house, and look back to see another 5 inch centipede scurry past where our feet had been. More shuffling of feet out side, patio furniture moving around and yells back and forth from Andy and Nathan deciding whether to spray it or cut off its head and the third centipede of the night is also killed.

Whew!

While Andy was getting photo documentation , Suzie and I spent the next 15 minutes online researching centipedes, including what they eat, how painful the bite is, where they hide, and how to get rid of them! Everyone says, “Just cut off their heads.” Well lets just say this is easier said than done. Nathan said even when he’d trapped one of them under a table leg, it took a lot of work with a rock to get something that thicks’ head off. All I have to say is – I’m not going out onto the porch at night again with a flashlight. Ignorance is bliss.