Hi Everybody. Just wanted to let all of you who inquired about Mari's and my Christmas/Chanukah list, that we created a wish list at amazon.com that has just about everything that we want. You can buy it from amazon or you can go out and get it somewhere else. Click below to check it out, and Happy Shopping!

Today Mari and I finished up all Peace Corps related business. Closed our telephone account and made sure that we aren't going to get charged for services that we don't want and won't pay for. We are coming home tonight on the midnight flight. We've got all of our lives from the last year packed neatly into five bags. We're not capable of carrying all of our luggage at one time, but fortunately we have some help getting it to and from the airport. We are really looking forward to being home for the holidays, and especially putting together a home together. See you all soon!

So the big date is finally less than a week away. That makes this week our wedding week. Mari and I are spending it up in Los Alamos at the house we are getting married at. Mari is having her hair dress rehearsal sometime today, we plan to get massages done tomorrow, go wine tasting on wednesday, start setting up and eat at a fancy restaurant on thursday, finish set-up and rehearse on friday, and party on saturday. This week is just as it sounds, busy. But we are having a lot of fun getting ready.

Everything now is in wind down mode. My classes are quickly coming to an end, Mari and I have been making up lists of things we would like to get while we are home, and we have begun to think about how and what we are going to pack. The trunk is full of Samoan handicrafts in case we decide we want to travel after our service instead of coming straight home. This allows us to bring some mementos of our time here in Samoa home with us, and not have to worry too much about shipping them internationally. In general we are very excited to be coming home, even though it's for such a quick visit. We are really excited to see what our families have put together for us in regards to the wedding, and we are especially excited to see all of our family and friends at the wedding. The guys of Peace Corps Samoa will be throwing a bachelor party / going away party for myself and Nick Erico (who is leaving Samoa for Africa). That will happen on Saturday evening. I have no idea what it's going to be, or what they've got planned, but I'm fairly certain it will involve at least one faaf.

Well it seems that I am unable to keep the evil internet demons from defacing my site. I am going to try putting the same password on the photos section of the site. The username / password will be: username: andrew password: andrew Sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd rather not promote the kind of stuff that's getting put on as comments to my videos.

I am now getting spam comments on the photos section of the site. I thought that I would be immune for a while, but the evil Internet demons have found me and decided that my site needs defacing. I have enabled a setting that may keep them from posting comments, but allow all of you regular users to still post comments. But I'm not sure of it's effectiveness. Please bare with the nasty comments on photos while I try to get this fixed. And just in case you were wondering, No, none of the videos on my site are gay porn, or about large black fallic members.

The powers that be here in Samoa have made a proclamation. They have conferred with the Chinese calendar, cross referenced the dates with the Iranian calendar, consulted with a specialist on these sorts of things and concluded that this week shall be dubbed the week of the funnel cake. Avanoa Tutusa (an NGO I am affiliated with here) is putting on a fund raiser during the week long Samoan festival called the Teuila (Tay Wheela) festival. They have decided that they are going to sell funnel cakes. "What is a funnel cake?" is the question I get asked most often. I can only smile and say "Would you like to try a sample?" My days are spent either covered in oil behind the frying pans, or practically heat stricken out in the sun trying to push these strange cakes onto unsuspecting Samoans. Today was day three of funnel cake week, and needless to say I am beat. Tomorrow will probably be the most trying day. Mari and I are headed out really early (6:00 am) to try and catch the crowd watching the fautasi races in the harbor. We'll be frying up the cakes earlier than ever before. We figure that we can catch many more people this way, and hopefully get some more loyal customers. The work is hard, but I'm enjoying an honest day's labor whilst school is in recess. And we got hot water finally. That really helps wash after such a messy day. I'll try and post some pictures of the funnel fun soon.

In case anyone was wondering. I'm still here and alive. I just wanted to drop a line and let everyone know why I wasn't posting. I'm a little bogged down right now trying to get my papers marked before next week for midterms. I'm trying to upload some new pics right now, but the friggin Internet is so slow it might not happen this week.

I had a hot shower this morning. No, our hot water saga is not over. Mari and I have been entrusted with the care of a home high up on the hill. It belongs to a couple of New Zealanders who have returned home for a short vacation. It's not the home of an extraordinarily rich couple, but it stands in such sharp contrast with our current living situation that it makes them seem to be. The house is in Tiapapata, which is just North of half way across the cross island road. It has a veranda overlooking Apia, a ping pong table, a swimming pool and five refrigerators (counting their two wine climatizers). The reason they need anybody staying there at all is because they have a puppy that they didn't want to leave alone. She is a 5 month old black lab named Manu (Animal). She is fairly well behaved, except for the shoe terrorizing. It's fun to have a puppy around for a change. She has major A.D.D. and is quite funny at times. Her behavior is so different from typical Samoan dog behavior that it's refreshing. She actually likes people, and shows no fear of them. That said she wouldn't survive a minute on the street, but she's nice to be around. Mari and I will be on mini-vacation until next Monday when they return. Until then we are "living it up", with swims in their pool, frequent games of table tennis and long luxurious walks around their property.

Our big endeavor of late has been to try coaxing physical facilities here at NUS to install a hot water heater in our flat. Now we don't think that this is such an unreasonable request for several reasons. Firstly the flat next door is a storage room in which we can see several brand new hot water heaters, secondly other flats on the compound have been outfitted with hot water in relatively recent times, and thirdly I found out that money was allocated to remodel all of the flats on the compound, but the job was never completed. The money was probably siphoned to someone's faletua or village matai. I can't even imagine whose because the villages in town are for the most part without matai council. Since the job was never completed many of the flats still have the old, broken water heaters installed (ours included). The new water heaters are of a smaller, more efficient design and so need a minor refit job completed before they can be installed. This, apparently, is where the problem lies. The equipment for the refit: water pipe, fittings and such costs money. Money which no longer exists. The office of finance is throwing a fit, justifiably I might add, that physical facilities now wants new funds for something that has already been paid for and should have been completed. I've been in to see the manager of physical facilities several times since the intial request two weeks ago. Each time I get a new piece of information that I can use to figure out what's actually going on. The story I have summarized above is what I have pieced together from numerous encounters with him. The only thing I know for sure is that he is lying to me when he tells me that they will buy the parts tomorrow. Our other main problem is our telephone. Samoatel, the best telecom service provider in the world (dripping with sarcasm), puts a "friendly" reminder message on your phone line when phone bills have become overdue. This message occurs every time you try to dial out. So each phone call takes an average of 30 seconds longer than normal, since the message is in both English and Samoan. Now, Mari and I are very responsible people. We pay our bills on time. Not just because that is what is normally expected, but because that message is really, really ... REALLY annoying. When you pay your bill you ask for the message to be turned off, and it is. Luckily our telephone line is lumped together with all of the other lines on the compound and at NUS. This gives us the added benefit that, as soon as any of the bills under the NUS account are overdue the "friendly" reminder message gets put onto all of the phones, include the ones belonging to customers that have already dutifully paid their telephone bills. This situation, seeming a bit unfair and quite annoying, needed to be resolved. The resolution involves having the phone number seperated from the NUS account. I expected this to be the case from the outset, but for some reason NUS decided that they were going to commandeer the responsibility for the phone bill. Now I wouldn't mind them being responsible for the phone line if they were actually going to be, you know, responsible. The great part about all of this is that the person that is going to write the letter required to get the phone line seperated is the same one who is going to purchase the parts for our water heater ... tomorrow. Needless to say Mari and I are a bit frustrated with the situation. I get the feeling that further pressure will lower the priority of our requests to the point where he is no longer going to do anything tomorrow (as if he were anyways), but whenever he gets around to it (read, never). I will let you all know what happens.

Finally the Cisco training has finished. I passed both modules with flying colors. There are two more modules after this, but they won't be offered until November at the earliest. I'm glad I got the opportunity to take these courses, but I'm also very glad they are over.

Cisco Systems has training academies worldwide. NUS wants to offer the Cisco curricula here in Samoa. So they contracted with the Asia / Pacific regional Cisco academy (an academy responsible for starting up new academies in this region), to send out a trainer to train us as Cisco trainers. As a result I get free Cisco training, and will possibly get the CCNA certification. I will also be able to teach the Cisco courses here at our academy, and with a little extra work I can get a certificate that will allow me to teach at any Cisco academy. The training is intense. It's 10 days of training, 6 days a week and 8 hours a day. The training on its own is tiring, but having to set up material for the next semester which starts on Monday is downright exhausting. I'm having fun working on routers and setting up networks, and I look forward to whatever we are going to learn today. It's really nice being in a classroom where it feels like the instructor knows what he's doing (as compared to my classrooms).

So today I got my tatoo. We took lots and lots of photos, but I only have time on the internet to put one up. I'll get more up soon. Check out the new photos here. ==This section added on Monday June 19th 2006== The traditional Samoan men's tatoo is called the pe'a. It has many pieces and covers the man from mid back to knee. Each part has a traditional meaning, but the whole tatoo carries special significance. It represents a dedication to culture and family and to the challenges necessary to support and lead the family. The pain involved is excruciating, and the entire tatoo cannot be finished in one sitting. Before we got our tatoos we watched a man not much younger than I undergoing the process of getting his pe'a. He was nearly done with the process. The damage to his body was so great that he could not sit down, or stand up for very long without blood pooling and bruising. [URL=http://www.samoa.co.uk/tattoos.html]Here[/URL] is a good webpage explaining the process of the Samoan pe'a. This is a good webpage about both the traditional men's and the woman's Samoan tatoo. This paper has a good description ofthe meanings of each piece of the men's and women's tatoos. The subject of the paper itself is questionable, but the explanations are good. Use it in conjunction with the previous link to undertsand what he's talking about. It references the artist that did our tatoos, Suluape Paulo II. I got a piece of the traditional pe'a in a non-traditional location. At the top of the men's pe'a is a va'a (boat or canoo). It represents the family that the wearer of the tatoo must protect. It rides on a sea that represents the geneological lines and thus the strength of the wearer's family. Since I am not about to get a full pe'a I decided to forgo the sea. I had the va'a lifted to my shoulders and fancied up a bit. The va'a is traditioanally all black with a little patterning on the sides. Mari got a band around her thigh that has elements from the sea I decided to forgo. It is stylized with a point on the outer thigh, and incorporates parts of the traditional women's tatoo, the malu. Mari has a post up about her tatoo here. I know that the most asked question will probably be "was it safe / smart / hygenic to have a tatoo done in a third world country?" The truthful answer is that there are never any guarantees, but the Peace Corps recommended our artist. In fact they drove us out to his place. That's about the most reasuring mark of safety you can get here. The artist travels all over the world giving tatoos the traditional way. Because of his travels he practices recognized international cleanliness standards. I felt safe enough, and wouldn't have done it if I thought there would have been unnecessary risk. Mari and I are still recouperating. She got some pretty serious bruising and was ordered to stay in bed all weekend by our medical officer. Mine still hurts like I got a bad sunburn and it itches occasionally from the dying skin. We keep our tatoos clean to prevent infection, and well moisturized with coconut oil to keep the dying skin around as long as possible. The pain after the tatoo is nothing compared to the 90 minutes of agony I endured in order to get it. This will definitely be my last tatoo.

On June 1st Samoa celebrated it's independence. Now here's an interesting story about the date of Samoan independence. The official date Samoa acquired it's independence was January 1st 1962. The independence was from a UN trusteeship administered by New Zealand. Since January is right in the middle of the "rainy" season the government of Samoa decided to move the date they celebrate their independence. And what would make more sense than to move it to June? So that is why we celebrated Samoan independence this last Thursday. Now it seemed silly when I heard why it was moved, but they couldn't have picked a better day to hold the festivities. It was clear and sunny all day long. A gorgeous day to be outside. I even got a bit of a farmers tan. The day started out with the Fautasi boat races.These are traditional Samoan longboats with about a 40 man rowing crew, a captain and usually a drummer. Only traditional wooden paddles are permitted. The race takes place at high tide and the course runs from Wesley college in Faleula to the harbor in Apia. The winning boat was from Manono, a village split across two islands: Upolu and Manono island. So naturally their residents have good rowing skills. Second place went to the trade school Don Bosco. Don Bosco actually trucked students in uniform from the school to the races so that they could make as big a ruckus as possible. After the boat races we were encouraged to travel down to Mulinu'u and see the Marching Girls. Mulinu'u is the village at the end of the peninsula in Apia, and is where the parliament house is located. We decided it would be a long trek, but walking on such a beautiful day sounded nice. On the way down to Mulinu'u we saw one of the boat crews hauling their boat out of the water and into a long boathouse. This was probably the most impressive sight we saw. Nearly 80 men, 40 to a side holding a boat that easily weighed over a ton. The entrance to the boathouse was directly across the street from an unforgiving brick wall. The boat was so long that they had to put it partly inside the boathouse before the back end would clear the brick wall. Every time the boat would start to drop dangerously close to the asphalt the men in the back would start shouting and a man in the middle would pound on the boat yelling "kasi, lua, kolu" on the fourth count all the men carrying the boat would lift the boat a bit while issuing a very guttural grunt. They would do it again with louder shouts and gutturals if the first attempt didn't produce enough of an effect. Now we didn't know what Marching Girls were, but had some suspicions. It turns out it was a marching band competition, with a bit of Samoan flair. Those of you that know me, know that I love a good parade. So this was right up my alley. They had a marching band do a kind of a field show. Then they had two squads of Marching Girls, which are a squad of preteen girls that march in formation. The festivities rounded off with some traditional Samoan siva that we didn't stick around for (one of our party was feeling ill). I took some good photos of all the days events. [URL=http://thelansfords.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=29887]Check them out.[/URL] The Samoan horse racing club also held two race days in honor of Samoan independence. Mari and I went to go check them out. It turns out that we are really bad at picking which horses will win. It's a good thing the races are only twice a year. We might have had a problem otherwise. [URL=http://thelansfords.com/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=29951]Check out the photos here.[/URL]

Now, I'm not sure if that's where the name came from or not. I hear stories both ways. But in the spirit of the hilarity of that meaning I have created a graphic. This one I drew myself. It's not a copy. (Image removed during Site Move)