Dead Cat

Okay, I know this is disgusting.  And I know I'm supposed to be writing about Christmas.  But for some reason, I found this hilarious.  Think of a cat that's been run-over in a cartoon.  Bulgy eyeballs, tongue hanging out ... flat.

Well, that exactly what they look like!  Here's one on our road.  

And lucky us, a few days later, the dogs had brought it right on our driveway!  So nice.  Merry Christmas!

Fortunately it was garbage day.  My sister Rachel and her friend Paul are visiting, and Paul is fearless so he found some sticks, scooped the cat into a handy pizza box, and delivered it to the garbage man.

And the garbage man didn't even look inside, but he said, "What, a cat?"
Ummm, as a matter of fact, yes.  I guess when you're a garbage man in American Samoa getting a pizza box full of rotting cat parts is normal.

I'll write about Christmas soon.

Pua'a

Samoans love food.  Life is a constant round of preparing it, serving it, consuming it, cleaning it up, giving it away, buying, selling, thinking about it.  It's very important.  And very tasty.  I love Samoan food.  Love my palusami, boiled fa'i, taro, and ulu.  Love it.  But sometimes, there are things I won't eat.  Like this!

This was served at Ephraim's Christmas lunch.  When it still has its HAIR, I draw the line.  To me that's still "pig" and not "pork."
At least we know it's not processed, right?
Would you eat this?

Mt. Alava 2011

Last weekend Ephraim and I got to hike Mt. Alava again.  It had been a long time.  The Monson's watched our kids so we could go, and yesterday we watched their kids so they could go.  Read about their hike and some history here.

 We took our little skipper along. And he was pretty much like this the whole way up, which was like 1.5 hrs.

 Okay, I went paddling first thing in the morning.  It was lovely.  And then Ephraim came to pick me up at Sadies.  While I was waiting for him, I bought the "Mt. Alava Breakfast" at Goat Island cafe.  It was HUGE.  Two plate-sized pancakes, two eggs, to slices of bacon, two ham, to strange sausage slabs.  The kind of meal where you can't decided to use ketchup or syrup, or both.  I couldn't finish it all obviously, and Ephraim was already full, so we packed it up the trail with us.  And this is what it looked like at the top:  Mmmm, mmmm.

 Lovely view, makes all that pain worthwhile.

 This path comes up from the other side of the mountain starting at Vatia.  We'll do that someday, but it involves ropes, ladders, and more pain.  Not in a hurry.

 At the top you can sign the guest book.  We had a laugh at this guy who wrote: "Great place to sleep.  No pen" scrawled with some kind of char.  It was funny until we realized we didn't have a pen either! So a scrawled our names with mud, sticks, some spit, chlorophyll, you know... like that.  Jokes on us.

 Getting ready to head back down.

 That styrofoam came in handy when it started dumping rain.  We used it as baby's roof.  Sad, I know.  And we ripped off a piece to put in Ephraim's heel to save him from a nasty blister.  Don't forget the styrofoam when you hike!  Or if you're here you'll probably find some in the bushes already.

Since most of our dating was done on muddy trails, it's always fun to reconnect--with each other and with the fun people we once were!  Hiking provides metaphors for life.  Quiet time to reflect.  And a steady exertion mentally and physically.  Wish we could do it more.
By the way, Ephraim's got a beard.

 The styrofoam wasn't enough of a roof, so we fastened a banana leaf to the backpack.  Gone tropo, I know.  That poor little baby.  He wasn't so happy on the way back down.

Overall, it was a great day.  Loved the workout.  Loved the view.  Love my hiking partner.