Barefoot: The Samoan Way

We taught Bible Class this morning, since it's Sunday, ya know. It went really good! We talked about Paul's Shipwreck and they made the ocean with just a plastic bottle, food coloring, glitter, and the shake of their hands. It was really fun Melinda made them shake their bottles 14 times since there was 14 days...well you know the story. They laughed and thought it was the coolest thing since to little kids most anything can be cool and entertaining. Then we had a couple of minutes until it was time for worship service to start and so the kids got to add the different food colorings they wanted to their beautiful blue oceans...most of them ended up brown. We got some questions like.."What is it that they made?" and so on...We just replied well it used to be the ocean you know the blue pretty color with sparkles. We also wore our Pula Tasi's, our Samoan dresses to church, and everyone really appreciated us trying to appreciate their culture. I also wore a sei, which is a flower that the women put in their hair.

Then after church we went to the traditional Deluxe Restaurant where I got my new favorite thing Banana Pancakes..Yumm! Then Colleen, our tour guide, took us on an adventure to Nu Uli Falls. So she said it would be a short hike so Melinda and I decided that we needed a hiking outfit and matching hiking hairstyle to go along with our hike. After we were ready we asked what shoes to wear and Colleen told us that what she would do which also happened to be "The Samoan Way" was to go barefoot. So Melinda and I decided to try it and we brought shoes along just in case...It was one of the hardest things I've done to my little poor feet. The hike was muddy, rocky, slippery, and painful..but also filled with loads of laughter because it was so funny trying to walk barefoot the entire way..Colleen on the other hand was a pro, a natural. Once we got their and basically the whole way up but sometimes we were to focused on stepping on the easiest course possible to try to admire the beauty..anyways it was amazing!! We got to swim in the little area, but we couldn't go near the waterfall because it rained a lot yesterday and it was to powerful..Sums up God's creation in a simple way beautiful and wonderful but at the same time powerful. We also got to climb up the waterfall a little ways and see it from a different angle. It was lots of fun and I am still to this moment baffled at how the Samoans can walk barefoot up to the waterfall...Fact-Samoans don't really have arches on their feet more just flat since they usually walk barefoot everywhere. That's all of the experiences God showed us today.