Are Can Openers Like Riding A Bike

Cooking a meal in a Samoan kitchen.


Yumm...Breadfruit cooked in an umu.



Palusami, so delicious. When Jen visited she called this and taro, chips and dip.




My host brother in training climbing a tree to get me a delicious drink. I think i am a niu-aholic.





Valu the popo, to make palusami.





Can Openers-Is it Just Like Riding a Bike?
They say riding a bike is something you never forget how to do. I had a five year break from riding in my teen years, and picked up riding again with only a few minor crashes. Being here I am wondering if that is how I will be when I go back to America. There are a few things I am nervous to try again.
The worst of which is driving. The speed limit is about 35 miles per hour here, and I am used to being in vehicles travelling much slower than that. I am not in vehicles all the time, so when I do get in one, I feel a rush going faster than my bike can take me. Living in the western part of America, the speed limit on highways is 75 miles per hour, and that seems shockingly fast for me right now. Or, if I drive when I visit my parents in New York, the speed limit may be a lot lower, but the amount of cars on the road is frightening. (If I think Apia can be busy with their amount of cars, it is nothing compared to New York City.) This is something I know I will get over and get used to again.
There are a few other little things that I think I have forgotten how to do in the past year…the most embarrassing of which was showcased when I visited with Sarah. When I visited we decided to make dinner together. To make our dinner, we had to open a can. While Sarah was hard at work with cooking rice, I picked up the can opener and decided to open the can myself. I have not used a can opener in about a year, since we have none in my house, and probably in my entire village. Instead we use knives and machetes. I can sometimes open a can with these tools, but usually people stop me before I am done and finish it for me since it has already taken me such a long time.
I picked up the can opener, and put it on the can, and began turning it. It turned a few times and then got caught. I tried on another part of the can, but ran into the same problem. It kept curving to the center of the can. I resolved my problem by just using the can opener as a knife, cutting the circumference of the circle.
Sarah saw me doing this, and I don’t think she knew what to think of it. I told her there must be something wrong with her new can opener. However she tried it out and it worked without a problem. The problem was me.
What was once normal everyday items to me, I know I will get used to again. Everyone will just have to be patient with me!