I have finally gotten around to uploading some photos.

These include a shot of the pool area at our accommodation with our unit in the background, a shot of us working down our road with the ocean in the background, and also our beer fridge (samoa style) with drinking coconuts. Note the plastic covered lounges. There are plenty more to come!!

In other news, we have finally got ourselves some wheels, having hired a little Daihatsu Terios for the duration of our stay. Not the cheapest way to go but significantly more cost effective and worry free than buying. This means we can get out and about the island. While it has been lovely hanging out in the pool and playing tennis, the boys and I have been a bit housebound through attempting to manage our taxi budget.

First stop today was the town area which was absolutely bedlam with the markets bringing a surge of people into a one block area. We skirted around the edge of the chaos and hit up the Police headquarters to get our licenses validated at the direction of the people who hired us the vehicle (also the owners of the place where we are staying) to find that in fact we need to go to the Transport Bureau less than a km from our house. We are learning this is a very typical samoan experience. We ended up at an ice cream parlour across the road from the markets. The street sellers were out in earnest and we bought some lavalavas from a kid wandering around who looked no more than ten.

Sunday saw us attempting to circle the island to find a spot for snorkelling. We ended up well and truly lost on an inland road somewhere that just kept going, driving through pretty (as well as some pretty basic) villages in the hills. Eventually we picked up a hitchhiker who confirmed we were heading back towards the coast. A stop at a pool in front of a church to feed captive sea turtles finished off our day.

To wrap up, I also have a new addition to the list of creative samoan names. Paul saw a referral on a patient's chart to a Doctor with the first name Rexona. I think we have a winner!

Day seven

Day 7 sees us continuing to settle into our home at Vaitele and work through the myriad of things we need in order to live and study here for the next five months.

My list of things to do today:
1. Work out how to set up a regular laundry service as the unit does not have a washing machine. In the villages washing is done by hand, with clothes laid out over a bed of lava rocks to dry (often the grave for a family member which sits in front of their fales/houses). Coincidently, it also doesn’t have hot water which is quite common for Samoa, particularly in any outlying area. With an average temp of 30 degrees it isn’t really a problem. The washing by hand will be unless that is sorted out quick smart!

2. Set up a cost effective broad band service. Most services here are pre paid and very expensive- I saw a monthly rate for 15GB of internet advertised at $2,037 tala. Internet is typically sold in 50MB lots for 60 tala. I used 4 MB after spending 5 minutes on facebook so it gets used up pretty quick.

3. Calculate how much electricity we have used. As another pre paid utility, electricity may also prove to be significantly more expensive than we are used to. It isn’t helped by the fact that no one told us that when you buy electricity you have to type a number into the meter - god only knows where the receipt with said number is.

4. Work out if it is better to buy or rent a car. Taxis are plentiful here and there are rental companies everywhere, but as with all things in the pacific it is bloody expensive. At least if we buy we will get a small return. The road switch from right hand side to left hand side driving late last year means there are an increasing number of cars coming into the islands from Australia and New Zealand as opposed to the significantly more expensive freight from USA. On the other hand the people who own the accommodation place are happy to rent us a car long term and allow us to swap over to bigger cars when we need to accommodate visitors at no extra cost.

Other bits and pieces:
Paul has met the most creatively named (or in some cases nick named) Samoans including Hobart, Navy Collins, Banana and April (a man). I on the other hand have only met Ricky, Sam and Eddie.

The only TV channel we get with any clarity is the Church channel. The kids are enjoying their cartoons with a strong moral message. The choir interludes between shows are also very entertaining and uplifting! Samoa is a very religious country and as we speak I can hear one of the staff singing a hymn like song outside.

School doesn’t start for the boys for another week and a half. They are attending a private school which teaches in English, has many other expat students and a strong Samoan cultural curriculum as well. In the mean time they are entertaining themselves swimming, exploring the complex grounds and playing with other kids staying here.

Day four

Today has been another lovely and slow moving day in the pacific.

The language barrier has not been a problem to any great extent so far- most people speak English and if not we have been able to get ourselves understood.

We’ve been into town and purchased Paul’s medical uniform- he wears scrub tops (very nicely screen printed with a samoan design border) and a lavalava, which is what most males wear here.

We’ve also started to get a handle on the differences in costs by doing some grocery shopping. The currency is the samoan tala- which roughly exchanges at about $1 aussie dollars to two tala. Best and most outrageous costs difference were:
- $29 tala for a 500ml bottle of soy sauce.
- Oyster bay chardonnay was $43 tala. We opted for the Debortli semillion at $23.60 tala. Luke warm you could hardly tell the difference. There has definitely been developments- in 2006 the best we could do was a bottle of Jacobs Creek at $37 tala. I don’t think so.
- Happy hour at the hotel you pay $7 tala for a 750ml tallie of beer, which people here drink just like a stubbie. Valima is the national beer and it is very nice, similar to Cascade. In fact it is often cheaper than buying bottled water.
- Taxis are cheap as- $5 tala from our hotel to the “city”. There are no meters, just accepted costs. You agree to the price before you set off. As noted in an earlier post, having exact change is necessary to avoid hassles (ie getting ripped off).
- Bunch of lady finger bananas direct from the markets for $2 tala.
- 4 drinking coconuts, called nui, sold like soft drink with a straw for $6 tala. Sweet and light.
- Gym membership is more or less the same as Oz- $100 tala per month.

Other interesting things I have learnt:

• There are less letters in the samoan alphabet- no b, c, q, x, y, z for example. Sounds are also different, so while the language is phonetic, we can’t read it in the english way. So ‘g’ makes the sound ‘ng’ and ‘u’ makes the sound ‘oo”. Paul is picking up words left, right and centre thanks to an iphone app. There is an app for pretty much everything!!
• Everything stops at six pm- a time called Sa. This is when bells toll and a conch is sounded, even in the urban village areas. This is a time for prayer and quiet.
• Apparently our accommodation is particularly nice as it was built to meet American expectations. Until recently it used to house a USA based “brat camp” style therapeutic program for delinquent youth. It has a night watchmen and is based next door to the house of a samoan MP.
• Our house is in an industrial area apparently, though most businesses are not really obvious and look more like housing compounds (probably because they do house families and businesses). There are a couple of larger factories closer to the main road, which is about a km away. I mention this as I was starting to develop visions of living in the middle of Rocklea. Despite having quite startling views of the ocean from the road, all the houses face inwards or to the road, and are generally hidden behind big fences or hedges.
• Samoans are both the best and worst environmentalists. They reuse building materials so many buildings have a somewhat shanty town look to them. With everything that can’t be made here having to be freighted to the island it is not surprising. On the other hand, there is rubbish everywhere, and mostly takeaway food wrappers.
• We have been taught how to shoo away the many stray dogs that roam the streets – “halo” (said as Har – lo!!) in a guttural yell. The closest Paul and I can think of as comparison would be to yell “git orf” or something similar with aussie swearing.
• Leai fafetai (no thankyou) is used for the many street sellers hawking fans, koko samoa (a local drink), lavalavas and xray film (apparently for screen printing). I haven’t been here long but many of the sellers I saw today were stressed looking children.

We move into the new place tomorrow, so hoping to get settled into better routine with internet, phone calls and uploading photos.

We've landed

We have now been in Samoa for three days, staying at a hotel up the hill in Apia. The Uni staff have been fantastic, letting me tag along in some culture and language orientations, and taking us out to see the kid's school and our accommodation(we move in Sunday). Also kindly letting us know that yes, we were ripped off by paying ten tala for a fan, and providing some useful strategies for avoiding it next time.

I'm pleased to say the accommodation is more than satisfactory- the pool, tennis court and facilities all look better than promised on the internet. We are also right at the foot of a big hill, but high enough to be able to see the ocean from the road, considered a safe zone for any tsunami, but also only metres from a several feet elevation into the hill behind us. No washing machine though (damn I will have to pay someone to do it!). Angie the OUM staffer who ferried us around today was very impressed with the standard which is good enough for me and price.

I was also very impressed by the Faleata sporting complex, only a few minutes from our new home (and part of our tour today). The acquatic centre is equivalant to Chandler and seems underused. If we feel like playing beach volleyball, lawn bowls, fencing or archery, we will be well catered for. Most facilities were built for the 2007 Pacific Games with Chinese support. Something to do with voting for the "Taiwan issue" (I had thought it was whaling and japan).

Thinking of everyone will be in contact soon with phone numbers etc.

Eight lessons learnt while moving house

1.Take note people: missing socks hide behind the washing machine. When moved, we found exactly 12 individual socks hiding here. Not a single one matched any others.
2. Junior handy man toys are not a good idea. Strategically placed furniture and toys hid the multiple plaster holes our little cherubs made while trying out their tools.
3. While you’re at it, it would be best to ban pens and crayons as well. Children draw on EVERYTHING! Doors, walls, cupboards.
4. If you haven’t recycled those washing liquid bottles within a month, get rid of them. Several layers of bottles had accumulated over years on shelves despite our good intentions.
5. Tampons will breed if left to their own devices. They particularly seem to like drawers, handbags and god knows how but under the lounge. Best moment of the day was the look on a friends face as a lounge was moved by the truck guys to reveal a tampon lying on the floor.
6. It’s best if I don’t mention what was under the beer fridge, but suffice to say this really should be cleaned out more regularly.
7. When renovating, timing is everything. If you want your renovations hurried up, just organise to move out. Everything was finished in time for the new tenants to enjoy it!
8. My mother was right, Gumption is gold.


Now only four sleeps to go……….