Travelling

Coconute for sale


Beach life of Samoa



Where is your machete?



Travelling
Even though travelling is so long and takes all of your energy out of you, I secretly love it. It is so much better than travelling in America because on the city busses, trains or boats in NY or Colorado I rarely ran into people I knew. Here I see people I know constantly and it makes me love living in Samoa even more.
Knowing so many people everywhere can make a few hour wait for the bus or boat into a nice, enjoyable relaxing time.
I feel so close to the different Samoans I meet as they sit on my lap (or sometimes I sit on theirs).
It is always interesting because each time you are on a bus you will have a different experience. Sometimes you get to experience the busses where there are so many people that are literally hanging off of the bus. (Which is always interesting when you are going by one of the police checkpoints since they need to be inside for the police.) Other times you can just sit down with plenty of space and enjoy the music as you people watch to see what events are going on in the different villages that you pass by. Often you never know what will be on your lap or placed at your feet. (Or blocking the aisle, making standing a great big balancing act.) Some things are, cooked pigs, pots of food, the gigantic bags of flour, sugar, cement, or baskets full of food that have already been cooked.
On the bus you never know how long it might take for you to get to your destination. Busses might stop at the hardware store for half an hour before going back on the road again. The busses also go to the petrol station, not for them to fill up, but for the people that carry gas cans to bring home. Quite often they stop at shops for people to get those goodies that they are unable to find in their village. (I often give money for the assistant to the bus driver to buy bread.) Sometimes the busses veer off the main road to the plantation roads to drop people off that have too many things to carry a far distance.
Even though the busses may seem a little more hectic than they are in the States, it makes me love riding them so much more.