seizures and tsunamis

Malo, O e mae oe? (Hey how are you?)
We had a sad piece of news today…one of the people in our group who is super amazing is heading home. On Monday when we had our water safety day she had a seizure on the boat. It was real scary. We were all joking around on the front of the boat and then all of a sudden Amanda looked like she had collapsed. Someone yelled out that she was having a seizure. We all began yelling out to our safety and security officer to stop the boat while others began yelling out what to do to help her. “Open her mouth”, “Put a spoon in her mouth”,” Does anyone have a towel?” It was insane. As soon as she came to they put a towel over her to give her shade. When the rest of us got off the boat to go snorkeling she went inside to the cabin to lay down.
Snorkeling was awesome. I haven’t used my equipment in a long time and forgot how my snorkel works. I forgot that when the snorkel is in the water….no air comes through. I almost had a panic attack in the water….and then realized I just needed to reposition my snorkel. I had a blast taking pictures of the coral reef. It wasn’t as colorful as many of the other places I’ve been to, but it was still awesome. We saw tons of little fish and an amazing star fish.
After the snorkeling trip we rode on the bus to the beach. The busses in Samoa are so different. They should have told us to bring seat cushions for the bus….because it is all wooden. It kind of looks like the front of the bus and the back of the bus don’t match….like they build their own wooden seats and put it on the front of like a regular bus from the US. The bolts that screw the wooden seats to the wall also stick out of the wall so if you sit straight up, you get poked by the most annoying screw. There are also Plexiglas windows that can go completely down which is nice because you get an amazing breeze and never are too hot on the roads. Samoa is also full of many many many many speed bumps. So it seems like you can never go too fast because you will be stopped in a few hundred feet by another speed bump. On the bus I sat next to Maka (Matt) and annoyed him with my game of not just twenty questions….but more like 500 questions… I think I know his whole life story by now!
We went to the beach. Phono (our safety and security expert) told me that you have to pay to get onto all of the beaches. It is about $3 tala (Samoan currency) for walkers, and $5 tala for bikes. The sand at the beach was so clean. It was full of dead coral…I wish it was cheaper to mail things back to the states because I would send you all some! A bunch of us played Frisbee on the beach…. And I learned most people in my group can’t throw a Frisbee… The water in Samoa is so amazingly clean. It is the most beautiful blue. We played in the ocean for like an hour before we continued our bus tour of Samoa.
On the bus we went all around the island…U’polu (that is the island we are on, and the main island). We heard it takes about 4 hours to get across the island. There are about 3 main roads from the map we looked at. Most of the villages are on the coast line so the busiest road goes that way. There are also two roads through the mountains. We travelled all the way to the disaster areas from the tsunami and the earthquake. It was ridiculous how far the devastation travelled. There was garbaged washed up everywhere. We could see how far the water travelled because wherever the land was brown instead of green, the water hit. Someone said it took about thirty minutes for the water to leave the area. There are still some areas where there used to by swamp, and it seemed like the swamp was still overflowing. This was over a week after the devastation so I can not imagine what it looked like last week. There went little blue tarps set up for tents in many places for temporary shelter. It was pretty amazing how some of these buildings survived that were close to the water, while others that were a few hundred feet away from were completely.
When we got back we decided to go out for pizza, however because the holiday on Sunday they were closed. A few of us went out for Chinese. Although I keep telling myself I am never going to have chicken again…we somehow ordered it. We pretty much demolished our meals…except for our sweet and sour chicken so we got it in a to go box. The volunteers that are serving currently always give their leftovers to the only homeless person in Apia. He is a sweet old man who is missing his legs. It always makes you feel good when you give him the food with a little “Manuia le poi (have a pleasant evening).
Tuesday we had a lot of language classes and I feel like I am doing good with the language. I decided to make myself a liquid diet….and it was pretty interesting how people treat you in Apia when females are getting alcohol. We heard it is socially accepted in Apia for females to drink, and at the bar I have never seen a problem with others ordering drinks…however when Lacella (Rachel) and I went to the KK Mart to buy a beer. The woman who bags the groceries asked me rudely “How many of those do you have in a day?”, while others shot me nasty looks. This really surprised me because we often see little kids buying alcohol and cigarettes for their parents (all they have to do is say they are of age….and they agree…even if they are 5). Lacella and I had an amazing night giggling and enjoying the evening. We watched some South Park and had a good ol’ time.
Today like every other day we woke up for our run. We were going to try for longer, but I couldn’t do it. My muscles are so soar from running every day. After our run we went to the third floor balcony to do our yoga. Since it was so hot we were dripping with sweat and our hands were slipping all over the floor. It was pretty funny.
However, when we got back to reality and out of the exercising world we heard the news that Amanda had another seizure. Because of that she has to go back to the States to finish testing to find out what is wrong with her. Tuela (Our Medical Officer) is going back to Nashville with her to make sure she makes it okay. I really hope they solve the problem and she can join us back here ASAP.
Today Tana (Dana) and I went on a fast walk to town to buy cell phones. It is crazy how much cheaper cell phones are here than in the US. My Samsung phone and SIM card cost only $59 tala. It was pretty awesome. It kinda made me upset how much more they costs in the States because for our cheap phones we did not have to sign up for a crazy service plan. In our language class today we walked around town asking people in Samoan what their names are, where they are from and about their families. It was really interesting. I think my class is the most amazing class ever!!! It is really upsetting because we are switching groups so we can learn from all of the instructors tomorrow. I will really miss them.
Anyway the evening awaits and I have to find some dinner…Manuia le po’i!