A Dump, a Dog Bite, Broken Shoes and a Shipwreck: my first 24 hours in Samoa

After being up for 26 hours I had traveled through 3 time zones, leaving SC for Savannah, GA and then Dallas, TX and lastly San Francisco, CA before landing in Honolulu, HI for the night. That was my pit stop before a 5+ hour plane ride that finally got me to Samoa late Sunday night. Lucky for me, I had the next day to rest... or so I thought!

Monday was Memorial Day and everyone had the day off from work since I'm in American Samoa, a U.S. territory. For the holiday, 5 of the people I'm working with and I decided to go explore the nearby island of Aunu'u (the tiny blob farthest to the right):

It proved to be quite an eventful trip...

The Dump

We drove along the coast winding around several coves before taking a ferry across to the island of Aunu'u. It was GAWWW-gussssss!!!!

We had a fairly easy hike... only we hiked to the wrong part.

They don't mark things in Samoa so we were just going down a random path that actually led to their dump or landfill or something like that. We were going to try to cut through but - then I saw rats, and decided to turn around. Plus, it smelled pretty bad :/

Fortunately, the next path we took led us to where we were trying to get to in the first place: the cliffs.

It was so VERY beautiful. We sat and watched the giant swells crash into the cave and spray up over the shore:

Unfortunately, we could not sit and watch the waves for hours, though I wanted to. We had to start back down the trail to get back to the shore so we wouldn't miss the ferry back to our car.

The Dog Bite

Hmmm, where do I start.

1) I am a dog lover.  Times a thousand. I've owned one my whole life and we spoil our dogs. Rotten. 
2) It breaks my heart when people are mean to their dogs. Michael Vick level or even just leaving them on a chain outside, etc. I hate to see dogs being hurt.
3) Samoan dogs are mangy and mean. They are not well-fed or groomed or attended. They fight each other and are aggressive towards people. (I learned this the hard way, obviously.)
4) Also, Samoan dogs are everywhere. Outside stores, along the streets, at people's homes. Everywhere. Including the island of Aunu'u...

We were walking back to the shore when the girls ahead of me stopped to pick up rocks because there were about 5 growling and barking dogs running towards us. I followed their lead and picked up rocks too, though I was sure we weren't really going to use them.

Well, I was wrong.

The dogs were coming at us but their owner was trying to call them back. He even threw a machete to try to scare them off. We thought it had worked and, despite the continued barking and growling, the dogs were staying in the man's yard so we started walking past his house. I was second to the last out of the six of us.

All of a sudden, a brown and black dog darted straight towards me and lunged at my left leg.

Rocks in my hand, I froze.

The dog lover in me just couldn't throw a rock at a dog. (And let's be real, I'm sure my aim would not have been accurate anyways!) Plus, he came so quickly.

I felt him get me and the force of his jump knocked my feet out from under me.

I fell. And screamed. And bled.

I freaked out because once I was on the ground, I was like, "Great! Now he's gonna rip my face off." I'm happy to say, that was not the case! I kept from crying but it scared me pretty bad.

The part that scared me most, however, was when the owner rushed off to get me something (which I assumed was some local plant with magical healing powers) and brought back hair from the dog that bit me. Seriously. He just plucked it right out of the dog's side because they believe that has healing powers.

All I could think was "Heck no! Infection!" because the dogs here are so dirty.

Fortunately, a sweet girl I was with diffused the situation by saying that she would take it and give it to me later if I needed it.

I hobbled away and a few minutes later (once we had put enough distance between us and the dogs), I washed it off in the ocean. It kept oozing for most of the day but, lucky for me, I live with an RN. Convenient, right? She cleaned it up good and put fabulous Avengers band-aids on it before I went to bed. I woke up with bruising this morning and it is sore but I think I should be good :)

Broken Shoes

As if that wasn't enough, while hiking in the washed out muddy part of the trails (which at times were like small ponds) I broke first one shoe and then the other. I wish I could say it happened in some grand adventure or while rushing away from the dog or by saving a screaming baby or something, but no. In reality, the mud just suctioned the soles right off of the shoes!?!

But, they still functioned so I made it off the island :)

Shipwreck

K, maybe I took a little too much artistic license on this last one ;)

I did not get in a shipwreck - Praise the Lord - but I did visit one.

After we finished our hike at Aunu'u, this was on the ride home so we stopped to check it out.

______________________________________

That that was Day 1.

Who knows what other adventure lies ahead...

I'll keep y'all posted on future adventures/attacks! Let's pray there aren't any more attacks!