Apia

Being in Apia
Although it is nice to have the luxury of the “big city” life, it can be very stressful as there is so much to do, and so little time to do it. Group 82 had to come into Apia for training, which meant that during our first school break, we had to spend 2/3 of it in class.
I do love seeing my Pisi Koa brothers and sisters, but I would just love to be able to be around them when there was no newsprint involved. There can be only so many group discussions before we practically lose it!
We also have so many obligations that there are never enough hours in the day for them. Being in the southern hemisphere we are in their “winter” and so there is less daylight during the day. The sun rises around 6:30, and sets about 12 hours later. We had our group meetings from 8-4:30, and sometimes had to stay later for various things such as language refreshers. Because we wanted to eat, there was usually not much time for us to do much in the city. Shops in Apia usually are open between 8 and 5, usually less which meant shopping would always be very brief.
We even had class on Saturdays, which meant there really was no time for enjoying the Apia experience since by the time class was over, all of the markets were closed.
Of course being in Apia was not all bad. We did get to enjoy each other’s company by doing many group activities together. Most nights we planned group dinners or quick lunches and took turns shopping for the 18 of us to prepare for them. We have eaten such amazing meals as chicken parm, Mexican night (with homemade tortillas), stir fry, lasagna and much, much more. We learned quickly that our group is full of plenty of pretty darn good chefs.
There are also plenty of other good things to enjoy, such as fundraisers, other meetings, exercise, walking around, game nights, and enjoying those amazingly trashy good magazines that someone brought from overseas (We are in desperate need of colored pictures and random stories. Even though the celebrity gossip we get is often several months old.)
We have also been fortunate enough to experience some of the great power outages of Apia. Almost daily we have been enjoying an extended power outage. Being in a hot climate, this makes life miserable! (Imagine working in the hot month of August all day without a fan or air conditioning.)
Even though life in Apia can be stressful and crazy, it is great to see everyone and enjoy the good food.