Afio Mai!

Talofa! Afio mai i Amerika Samoa! That’s what the sign at the airport says, so I bet you can guess what it means. It means we’re not in Oregon anymore, Toto!

I’d meant to start this blog weeks ago, but in true Samoan style, it’s taken awhile to get all the pieces in place, namely computer and internet. We’ll work on luxuries like couches and cars later.

If you’ve ever moved across the ocean, maybe your process was smoother than ours. I’ll describe it briefly:

July 2 – Ephraim found out he had the job, starting Aug 1.

July 3 – We applied for passports—expedited.

July 5 – We bought Isaac a minivan for his 1st birthday. We traded in the ’89 Taurus for a ’04 Sedona.

July 15 – We bought a washer and dryer on craigslist for $200.

July 27 – Ephraim’s 30th birthday and storms of bad news. We found out we couldn’t ship our car or our washer and dryer, and Ephraim’s passport application hadn’t been processed. And we bought tickets to leave in less than a week.
(Shortened long stories: The car couldn’t be shipped out of the country with a lienholder—which spoiled our plans to never paying off the loan—so we had to make other speedy financial arrangments. The washer and dryer measured 2’ 2” thus exceeding the newly estimated 2’ of remaining container space after our car was loaded, but we just prayed and lo and behold they fit fine. And the unsigned passport application zipped around from Hawaii (his boss) to Oregon (got signed) to D.C. (processed) to Hawaii where we got it with plenty of time.)

July 31 – Movers packed what was left after garages sales, craiglist sales, boxes shipped to mom, etc. We prayed it would all fit in the 20’ container, but wouldn’t find out it did until Aug 31. And wouldn’t actually see it again until October 2nd.

August 1- A tear fell as the plane left solid ground at PDX. Just five days after the opening of Portland Ikea. Somethings are just not fair.

August 1 -15 – Can you imagine getting paid to stay in Waikiki for two weeks? Well you’d have to pay me to do it again! Our strong aversions to Waikiki were made stronger, but we really can’t complain because, well, complaining is unhealthy and because if you had to be homeless and stressed out, wouldn’t you prefer do it in Hawaii?
We played a lot with family and friends in sweet, familiar Laie. Ephraim got to spend a night on the Big Island with his folks. Ah, sweet Hawaii.

August 15 – HNL to PGO. Ephraim’s boss lived here for three years and accompanied us here to help us get situated. We were greeted at the airport by ASCC (American Samoa Community College) folks and taken to our new home in the village of Mapusaga.

That’s the end of that chapter, and there’s much more to come, trust me. But I’ll conclude by telling you our current conditions. Our container should arrive on Sept. 28 meaning we’re carless and stuffless until then. We have what we came with: a pot, a pan, 4 cups, 4 plates, 3 knives, a clock, some toys and books, suitcases of clothes and shoes, and a couple of towels and sheets.
And you know? We’re doing just fine. In fact, compared to some people here, we’re living in luxury.
I’m just glad we’ve made it far enough to see the sign: Afio mai! (Welcome!)