New Years

New Years
Most of the people in my training group and a few others got together for New Years at Falealupo. This is where the last sunset of the year is. If you were to pick up one of the tourist guides for Samoa, it will tell you that at this location is the only place you can see the next day.
We were lucky that even though it had been raining constantly recently, and it was cloudy, the sunset was still gorgeous.
At 6:00P.M. a few of us had a countdown for the East Coast New Years. We were sad to not see the ball drop, so Rachel grabbed a coconut, and at the end of our countdown it dropped. It was a great taste of home while we were enjoying the beach. I was also a part of a screaming celebration for the Mountain Time Zone New Years.
In the evening we had a fire on the beach which was beautiful. For the New Years we had our own countdown ass we sat around the fire. It was beautiful. But since everyone has their clocks set on their own not from an atomic clock, a minute after we announced the New Year another group on the beach began screaming for the New Years.
On January first we decided to head to the Rainforest Preserve and the Canopy Walkway. We were told it would be about a 30-45 minute walk to it. After walking for well over an hour people in our group began to lose their drive to make it to our destination. (Part of the reason was that we were tricked into paying money to see a footprint of a giant from Samoan’s history.) When we were about to head back to our beach fale, a car came by and offered to give us a ride. We gladly accepted and made it to the Canopy Walkway. Sadly I made the mistake of having an open bag in the car, and my camera fell out.
We climbed up steep stairs on a tree. At the top of this gigantic tree was an amazing overlook of the rainforest. We could see far around us. It was beautiful. I would to recommend anyone coming to Savai’i to come the Canopy Walkway to see it. We also got to cross the bridge between the two old trees. The bridge is very small and only one person can go at a time. Since it had been raining, the wooden planks holding us up were slippery. It was a fun experience, even though others thought it was scary.
During the night the people at the beach resort put on a show for us with their amazing dance moves. The night concluded with us doing a fast version of our dance we did at our farewell to Manunu.
The next morning we all said our goodbyes as we knew it would be another few weeks until we saw each other again. It is amazing how much we all keep changing the longer we are here. We are all growing as people and becoming such strong individuals. I love the members of my group and are so proud to hear of all they have gone through in the less than three months I have known them.