June 6, 2007

Arrived in Samoa for my Peace Corps adventure safe and sound. I'm ready to get started!

June 9, 2007

There's a lot to learn and take in. We are in a classroom setting each day, albeit outdoors. Actually in the courtyard of the hotel. There is some shade and ceiling fans, but it still gets hot and sticky part of the day. I don't know the actual temperature or humidity. It seems a bit hotter and more humid than Hawaii, but I'm not often outdoors at sea level there. There has been some rain overnight, but I haven't heard it. In a few days we go inland to our training village and the weather will no doubt be somewhat different there depending on the altitude.

I'm still feeling pretty good about learning the language. It is a lot like Hawaiian. It's mostly learning the proper accent and inflection and of course vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary. We haven't gotten to sentence structure yet. I am determined to give it my best effort to be able to speak as fluently as possible.

I found out that I am supposed to work on an agricultural project as I was originally told. Don't know any more than that though.

June 10, 2007

Today we went to Matareva Beach - a picture perfect spot where we went snorkeling and played in the ocean. There is a reef that keeps the surf from being too strong. There were fish to see and I saw a cool blue star fish. Maybe it was just the beach we were at, but there weren't as many fish or fish as large as I'm used to in Hawaii. It was a lovely day though and I really enjoyed seeing the countryside and the villages along the way. We went on a bus across the island. It's Sunday so people were out on the roads walking to church in their white clothes - very picturesque. Tomorrow back to work in the classroom.