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.

Smashing Pumpkin's Pie

We didn't really do Thanksgiving.  And that's fine.  We did make two pies, an apple and a pumpkin. We took the pumpkin to a new friends house, but when we got to their house we realized the pie wasn't in the car.  And we remembered that Isaac had left it in its container on the hood of the car, and as I pulled out of the driveway it had fallen to the ground.  We went back and retrieved it.  And ATE IT!  It was lovely.

 And today (Friday) Isaac decided he wanted a snow storm so he shredded some styrofoam all over the floor.  So clever.  He wasn't so happy to vacuum it all up after.

And this evening Owen went surfing for the first time.  He was a trooper and came out smiling.

 Isaac's had some scary experiences with the ocean, so he's been hesitant about it for many months.  But today he and Ephraim caught a few waves and then just played around with the surfboard.  Now he wants to "surf" everyday (except Sundays).   Sounds good!

Happy November Holidays to everyone!

Weirdos

 With all these holidays we get a little strange.

Sliding Rock Swimming Spot

Thanks to the Monson's who trade babysitting with us, Ephraim and I have been able to get out more and enjoy this beautiful place again. (We take Linus with us, one baby is so easy!)  Last Thursday we went to Sliding Rock swimming spot.  The conditions were perfect and we saw lots of fish, coral, and seaweed.  I love this spot.  If it were in the states, it would be off-limits, expensive, or crowded.  But here we get to go whenever for free by ourselves.  Yay!

Our Road

How would you like to drive this road a few times a day?  It goes on like this for about half a mile.  Think you'd be needing car servicing pretty frequently, huh.

This is the road to our house.  It has no name.  It could be called Malaeimi Valley Road. But no one would know what you're talking about.  We usually call it the dirt road by Sunrise Sewing Shop.  Then people might know.

I'm entertained watching Ephraim navigate the puddles on his bike.  Add the dogs attacking him, and him spraying ammonia in their faces, and it's pretty nuts.  Why would we want to live in a boring suburb with "paved" roads and "domesticated" animals?  Our minivan craves adventure.

The road crew occasionally comes and scraps it flat.  The last time was 6 months ago.  I know because it was done the day before I went into labor with Linus.  Ephraim had called our county representatives a few days previous to that and thankfully they listened.

Think it's time to call again.

October

So Halloween and stuff...

Ella was a witch.  Isaac was a superhero guy.  Owen was a chef.  Linus was a one-eyed baby. (He woke up with eye gunk sealing it shut. I obviously thought it was funny and snapped a picture.)

My and Ella's stockings

And this is our family, Potato Head style.

By Ephraim

By Isaac

The Problem of Pain

I like to read and I read a lot. Lately, I've been reading an old chemistry textbook while I eat my cereal in the morning. A lot of what I read is not very substantive, like a Star Trek novel, children's book, or Japanese manga. Other material makes me think, or evokes emotion and spirituality, like scientific literature, the Book of Mormon, and a book I just finished, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks".

You may have noticed I'm willing to read a wide variety of material. It's all mostly for fun or curiosity, but every now and then I read something that changes the way I think about or perceive things. Along with the chemistry book, I've been reading "The Problem of Pain" by C.S. Lewis. I got to thinking about the role of pain and how we respond to physical and emotional pain after reading "Shaken Faith Syndrome", a speech by Michael Ash, and decided to give Lewis a shot. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to psychology and tend to rely on instinct when dealing with other people and stimuli, so when I read Ash's speech I felt smarter. It's such a nice feeling to read something and feel smarter afterwards. It's also nice to know there are smart people around sharing their knowledge with the world. My favorite part of his speech is the discussion of cognitive dissonance and different psychological responses to this dissonance caused by attacks, confusion, doubt and pain. He focuses primarily on dissonance in established belief cognitions. Just because I don't know the answer to someone's tough questions doesn't mean that their argument is correct. I may feel uncomfortable and I may start to doubt, but that is a normal response. We like to feel comfortable and will go to great lengths to get that comfort. Even abandon our established beliefs for novelty. However, it's nice to know that we can also respond by getting second opinions and studying matters thoroughly to find resonance. We can also pray to obtain answers from an all-knowing Heavenly Father. He wants us to find truth and will show it to us if we ask for it.

"The Problem of Pain" is Lewis' attempt to describe the purpose of suffering during this mortal existence. He doesn't include physical suffering but, rather, everything else. How do we respond when things hurt? Do we hide? Do we ignore? Do we justify and cover up? Do we try to numb ourselves with chemicals? He argues that pain exists to remind us that deity exists. The Book of Mormon and other Christian scriptures declare the same message: we tend to forget our dependence on God when things are running smoothly, but are quick to turn to prayer when things get dicey and painful.

I'm not a good writer and I apologize this post is a ramble. The bottom line is that I think more about what other people are feeling when I'm talking with them after reading these two pieces. I try to figure out if their responses are due to an inner conflict and if I'm part of that conflict. Their anger or snappy attitudes may not be my problem. It helps me to not take things personally and overreact. It helps me to resolve my own cognitive dissonances. It helps me to be happier.

The Little Aquaponics System That Could

Ephraim has been preparing for a workshop next week. It's gotten coverage on the radio and internet. This attention has caused him to reflect on the impact of his work here in American Samoa. Read Ephraim's post on Aquaculture Hub about the qualities of aquaponics. You may just want to start a system in your backyard.

September

There's a lot I could say if I wanted to catch up. Basically we went away for a month this summer, saw family, we're back, school started with a whirlwind, and we've been in that whirlwind since then. It's good. More busy than I'd like to be while living on an island. But good.

Here are some random pictures of September.

Here are the kids after school on the hammock with lil' lappy.

Ella did my hair.

Owen's dressed as a "guy".

Can you tell who's who?

Doesn't he look like Ephraim?

Matching hair again.

This was teachers-dress-like-a-superhero day. We were the only two that remembered/were aware. That could be embarrassing. Or not.

I'm SuperNerd. Ms. Tania didn't have a name. Maybe just "T".