Missing Samoa: TIS Round 2

I've been back "in the states" for a about a week now. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the air conditioning, friendly dogs, lack of ants everywhere, etc. but I do miss Samoa and the people l served with.

In honor of that lovely place (and after loading my nearly 1,000 photos) I have decided to write another TIS - "This is Samoa" - post:

TIS: Because it is so remote, many things have to be shipped in which raises the price way more than waht I'm used to paying at home. In fact, the one big grocery store on island was called "CostULess" but the pastor's wife always joked and called it "CostUMore," like below:

 

However, you could find some local things at very affordable prices - oh, you know, like machetes for $2.99, no big deal. In the states kids buy a snack for that price and in Samoa I saw children carrying those things around and the machete was about as big as they were!?! 

 

TIS: (1) Chillin at the beach in the rain; at home we rush off if the rain comes but not in Samoa. (2) If you look at what I'm holding, you'll see that in Samoa, the starfish are blue. I have no idea why either of these things happen there but I appreciated both :) 

TIS: This is how they do tree houses. If you can't tell, that looks out over the ocean.

TIS: Their beaches have military bunkers because since the 1940s the island has had a strong tie to the military. These bunkers are left over from WWII.

TIS: They bury their family members in their front yard. The different heights of the graves depend how high they were in the family or village hierarchy; chiefs who had the most authority got the highest graves and some were like 10 feet in the air.

TIS: Roosters and chickens were everywhere. Side-note: in case, like me, you thought roosters only crow in the morning at sunrise as every book/movie leads you to believe, I'm here to tell you that is false; they pretty much crow all day long... and into the night. Yep, at least in Samoa ;)

TIS: These were one of the snacks one day at one of our VBSes... chicken flavor chips. They also had a brand called UFOs (Unusually Flavored Snacks) that were tomato and the other flavor was burger. I am not making this up. 

 
TIS: They have waves like nowhere else I've ever seen and the water was such a gorgeous color. This was one of the most magnificent things I saw on my entire trip!

TIS: Kids here have are so spoiled needing video games and ipods and computers and games to have fun. I loved the simplicity and the JOY and the imagination in the Samoan children. One day we were playing around and they just started jumping on a tree and oh the joy! I just had to get a video of it to remind me how we don't need a lot to have fun :)

TIS: They are ridiculously athletic. These teenage boys just scaled this rock wall with their bare feet and no equipment and then jumped into the water!?! I couldn't even make it up 5 feet.

TIS: They have McDonalds but their signs say "Talofa" or "hello" instead of "enter." It was funny to see such a similar image but Samoa style.

TIS: Another hilarious familiar sight was with a Samoan twist was SpongeBob Samoan Style. He has traditional tribal tattoos on him. I guess his pineapple under the sea was located off the coast of Samoa ;)

TIS: They had very interesting local transportation. Each bus was once a truck that just had a bus built onto the back of the truck bed, and each had very original interior decorations. It made me think of Pimp My Ride! BUT, what was really cool was you could create your own stop... as long as where you wanted to get off was in the village the bus traveled through. I wish our public transportation let you pick your own bus stop... It came in very handy several times on our trip :)

TIS: They are incredibly resourceful and hardly anything went to waste. Here some ladies were scraping the bark off a local, edible root called Taro but they used the end of a vegetable can. And it worked really well.

TIS: This one was a double-whammy. So first - I'm not sure you can see but many Samoans store coins in their ear and use it to pay for public transportation. It was clever but not a sight I'm used to seeing. 2nd - notice his rat tail blowin in the wind. These are still very trendy in Samoa or have made a comback since they were big in the states or something cause a ton of guys had them.

TIS: This was one of my favorite things of the entire trip. The kids here in the states don't get into the songs; they are shy about doing the moves and don't always sing very loud. In Samoa, however, the kids sang SO  loudly and with such enthusiasm! I loved it!!!

TIS: One of the prettiest places I've ever seen with some of the kindest people I've ever met. It will always hold a special place in my heart and memories; hopefully I'll make it back one day...