The 1st Adventure With Only More to Come!!

Today was Melinda and my first whole day in Samoa. It's pronounced Sahhmoa. (Like when you say ahh when the doctor asks you to open up) We woke up and looked out our window to see the following: Coconuts, Mountains, The Ocean, Ginger Plant, As Many Different Flowers that you could think of, and the everywhere around us was green! David and Danna fixed us breakfast which consisted of eggs, sausage, toast, a great orange juice, and tiny bananas called I believe...Missy Lingas. David then took us outside where we could hear and see the rain coming in from the ocean and the ten seconds later it was at our footsteps. An amazing sight to see this was! Then Coleen, who is a college student at ACU whose parents live here, gave us a tour of the island. We saw the ocean and stopped at what they call the "Flower Pot" because it's oh about three stories tall and if you described it you would say it looks like a flower pot with palm trees growing from it. The water was clearer than Dasani water. Roosters were everywhere they run wild here and happen to be the Islands state bird. We drove across one side of the island and we saw the view from the north side when we drove up a mountain and let me tell you it was scenery straight out of a magazine only ten times better! We went to the canneries where over 1/3 of the economy work which is sad because the canneries are threatening to move out since the minimum wage keeps increasing (which is around $4 here). Coleen then took us to eat at Sadies just a cute little island(that's what they call American Samoa the island for ex. the say most people have never left island). Coleen then proceeds to tell us that her parents were paying so we could get whatever we wanted. I thought in my mind sweet!! I decided I wanted to get some fresh fish, Sashimi, it happened to be called and you could get it with a cajun flavor. The fresh fish is supposedly amazing here! I didn't want to get the typical American burger ya know. So when I ordered the Sashimi the waitress kind of looked at me funny, but I just smiled thinking of how wonderful the fish would be. We also had fresh lemonade that was extremely good since I had probably four glasses of and on our way home had to go pee for about 30 minutes. Then my food got to the table and what appeared before me I was not ready for..I giggled and told Coleen that I had no idea that I ordered what I did and she laughed and thought I knew what I was getting. What did I see, oh raw fish red little strips with cajun spices drizzled around the sides. Everyone got a big laugh out of it and then I wasn't really laughing because I now had to take my first bite. Coleen told me to drench my tiny plate in Soy Sauce and then add just a little bit of Wasabe(which is apparently very strong) and our waiter kept telling me more wasabe. So after the first bite was swallowed it wasn't terrible it tasted like raw steak and soy sauce with a cajun flavor mixed in. After about the 13th strip I was struggling because it is one of those foods that you can't really have that much of. Melinda tried one strip and gagged the whole swallowing process which was hilarious. I ate all but 3 strips and Coleen was very impressed by me. We are going to visit family's of the church tomorrow and the rest of the week and it is courteous to take whatever they offer you (which Coleen said might not be the most appetizing of things). So, I thought of this as a preview/warm-up of what might be to come. One more thing about the meal we had amazing sweet rolls that were delicious so I had about 3. I have a feeling that we're in for a long ride. We are looking forward to day 3 and beyond...and the many more adventures that are to come!

Samoan Words learned today:

lava lava: wrap around kilt type of clothing worn by men and women

Ili Ili: this is the village we live in

Tafuna: this is the village the church is located at

Missy Lingas: tiny little bananas

The Flower Pot picture needed to be rotated, but we are too tired to figure it out.