Cocoa Samoa and Turtle and Shark!

So today I am amazed at the Ashley's that have lived in Samoa for 15 years. I have been thinking all day of how great their story is. They came here to work here and get to know the Samoan's through the church. They were involved in the church, but wanted to be missionaries through the work they do. Lynn is a lawyer here, and Mara has started her own private school. I know that this is only our second full day here, but this is something that I admire about the Ashley's. I admire anyone who does any type of mission work. God is opening up my mind and allowing me to see him working here in Pago Pago. I know that my plan is to get a job after next year, but depending on where God leads me, after six weeks God's plan for me might change. I am moved by the true relationships that the Willis' and Ashleys' have with the Samoan people. It inspires me to strengthen my relationships with friends back in the United States. I truly believe that relationships should be honest and open, and that as Christians we can hold each other accountable through these relationships. I know that God works through and in relationships. In Samoa, time is not very relevant. Everyone is laid back, which is something that in the United States I have forgotten about. With school and work I sometimes forget about the important things. I have been able to truly admire God and the beauty of his creation. He is so powerful and working even when I don't realize it. We got up this morning and ate breakfast looking out at the ocean. We went with David to meet some important people that we would be working with in the church. The first person we met was Luaao (pronounced loo-ow), he is the preacher at Nu Uli (Pronounced new ooli) Church of Christ. They have the most people out of the four churches of christ here. Their services are only in Samoan though. Luaao offered us cocoa samoa which is a very Samoan drink. It is made from cocoa beans like you would make coffee. I was nervous to taste it, but it was not that bad. It is served hot, and I drank all of it. At the bottom of the drink are the cocoa beans, which you are not supposed to eat. We talked to Luaao about his family. He became a member of the church when missionaries came from the United States, he now is the preacher which is so neat. He was so appreciative of us coming, and already started to thank us for the work that we would be doing. We are having a VBS on his property where the church is for all of the churches of christ. We also noticed today, that it is tradition for the females and children in Samoa to be more servants. They did not come and talk with us, and only came out to serve us our drinks. There was a little girl that was gorgeous, that would smile through the window whenever she saw us. Luaao told us a story about an eel. Seena (spelling unsure) was a girl who was swimming and caught an eel. The eel fell in love with her, the eel was little to start out. It grew, so she put it in the pool. The eel kept wanting to kiss her, and would always ask if he could kiss her. Seena said no though. Seena swam to the other island to get away from the eel. Seena said to the village that you can have the eel as long as I can have the head. Seena buried the head of the eel in her front yard, and it is now known as the coconut tree (po po). So now whenever Seena would eat a cocunut, it was like she was kissing the eel because if you peel off the outer layer of the coconut, then you can see two eyes, a nose, and the mouth of what is supposed to be the eel.

David then took us to a place called Turtle and Shark which is another story or tale, but I will save it for later because I don't remember it. This was the most incredible thing I've seen so far. The power of the ocean was so amazing to watch and hear. It just affirms how powerful God is. I could have stayed there for many days I think. Instead of being a sandy beach, the black that you see in the pictures are lava rocks formed from the volcano. The water would just come and crash into the rocks. It was such a sight to see. We went during high tide, but during low tide you can see little crabs that live in the rocks. I don't think that the pictues do the sight justice though, it is something that I will never forget.

After that, we went to see one of the elders of the church Tia. Lynn is the other elder. Tia works for the forest department of Pago Pago. He gave us each a forest shirt. Tia was very nice and friendly. He talked with us about visiting him to work and getting to know some Samoan people. We are very interested in this, and hopefully going to plan a time when we can do this. Religion is talked about very openly and honestly here. Tia encouraged us to share our faith and ask questions with Samoan people we came in contact with.

We ate at Carl's Junior, where Lynn, Tia, David usually meet to talk about things going on with the Tafuna Church. Tonight we will go upstairs to eat and have a bible study with the Ashley's and some people from the church. We are starting to prepare our lesson for Sunday morning.

Iaga are buses that are used for people to travel from village to village. The bus is basically the bed of a pick up. The buses have the name on the front of where it will be traveling to. It costs about 50 cents to a dollar to ride. We definitely plan on taking an iaga bus sometime.

There is so much that we are learning about America Samoa and we are trying to learn it all and take it all in.

I know that is probably too much information, but we are experiencing things that I hope to never forget and want to share with all of you.
Here is Kate's blog address in case you want more pictures and more information:
http://www.katesworldtravels.blogspot.com/

Samoan words:

po po-cocounut

fa'le-house

'o a mai oe?- how are you? (o ah may oh eh)

fa'a mole mole- please

iaga-family (i' inga)