Oceania Cup

Oceania Cup

Two weekends ago I was in Apia for a weekend marathon of events, one of our staff members hosted a murder mystery party for us, then most of us were volunteering at an event hosted by Samoan Victims Support, there was also a Halloween party, and still if there was more time, a rugby tournament was taking place.

Family Fun Day through Samoan Victims Support was held at Apia Park, to ensure it was able to reach out to the most amounts of people.  Many people were volunteering at it, there were representatives from JICA (the Japanese Volunteers) AYD (Australian Volunteers), Peace Corps (USA Volunteers) and many host country nationals. 

I woke up and it was a day like any other day…nice and sunny.  However, that changed quickly… the hour leading up to family fun day was complete downpour and the rain never stopped. 

You would think this would deter people from attending this outdoor fun event, but it didn’t too much. Everyone was having a blast playing the different carnival games, relay races through the mud, eating, dancing and doing many many other fun activities.   There was a fire truck there to give the children rides as well as a police car.  All of the kids that stopped by my station had a blast as we used wire hangers to make gigantic bubbles.

As the day continued, so did the rain.  In many places on the grass the water reached well up my calf, which made me covered in muddy water.

When it was over, I decided why leave the park when there is rugby going on and I wanted to see Samoa win another cup.  My wishing came through as Samoa was dominating against the other teams from the Pacific coming out undefeated.  There were so many amazing games to watch because of the weather there was so much sliding and falling all over the field.  The Australian games made me laugh the most as they were covered in so much mud by the end of each of their games they came out looking the same as the other non Palagis from the Pacific.  In the end, it really made me feel pride for this country I have been in for the past two years.   (Of course I did cheer for my fellow Americans from American Samoa when they played….well except for their game against Samoa…)