SAMOA....Day 4

last night there was a big thunder and lightennig store. It woke me up and I found myself counting to see how far away the lightening was. Who knows if I wasdoing it righ but I think it was pretty far away. It rained into the morning but eventually the sun did come out and I was able to hang dome laundry up to dry. I have never been without a washer and dryer. This is a new humbling experience. I tried to talk Kasala into taking our laundry to the laundry house. They do the wash for you and fold it.... The one thing I HATE doing... folding laundry. BUT...he said it cost to much. 6 Tala for a washing and 8 Tala for drying. Or something like that. We'll see how long I last hand washing and line drying my clothes.

Today was just another day at home. Terina and I spent about an hour doing homework that her teacher sent. Terina is very determined to stay up with her studies which is good. We sit in the room under the netting so we dont get bites and her cousins sit out side the door waiting for her to finish.

Kasala spent the day cooking food for the family. He made curry, which Terina asked for, banana and rice. It was very good and I was glad that they didn't have to kill a chicken to put in the curry.

Manamea isn't doing very well over here. She came with a cough and she hasn't been able to get rid of it. Now she is having the worst diapers ever. She usually has 1 poop diaper every day but she had 3 nasty ones today. I went to the pharmacy with Peta and Maima to get some medicine. Their prices are ridiculous! I keep converting things back into US dollars to see if it's a good price or not.... mostly they are not. It kind of sucks but what can you do?

After the pharmacy we went to Farmers Joes which is the grocery store to pick up some baby formula and peanut butter. For a small jar of peanut butter it cost 10 Tala. For the formula it cost anywhere from 38-60 Tala! The little Enfimal cans of formula cost 45 Tala! That's like 23 dollars for a 15 dollar can of formula! Like I said before... I just buy what we need because we need it.

After dinner we had a family meeting. They were making plans for the next week and what we were g oing to do. All of the kids and grandkids are here and who knows when they will all be together again so they are making this like a mini family reunion. Tuesday we are going to drive around the island with a family friend. Wednesday after Dad and Maima get off work we are having a family dinner. Thursday we are doing a project around the house and yard and then Friday we are having a movie and pizza night. The pizza here I guess is really good. I need to start taking pictures of the food. We are going to a place called Georgie's. I've heard about it from a lot of people at BYUH so it should be good.

Things are going pretty good. I am getting use to showering outside. I thought it would bother me but it doesn't really. The only weird thing is when I'm showering and my father in law walks by and says "good morning" or "is the water clear?" things like that. It just makes me laugh cause I"m trying to shower and the kids are looking at me from the house or there is a chicken walking by... or a pig wandering around.

I was thinking last night and I'm not sure how many people would be able to come from America with all that we are accustom to and live in Samoa. Things are different here in Magiagi. Not many people have nice houses but things like that don't really matter much. People are self sufficient. They grow and raise their food and buy very little. The kids don't have the latest clothing or the fancy cars... people make due with what they have. It's different. It's nice. But I've only been up in the mountains. I'm not sure what it's like in town. I guess the next few days we'll see what it's like in town.

Tomorrow.... It's off to the government building early in the morning to fix my Dad's birth certificate.