American Samoa's QUEST

Coordinated training in underwater surveying techniques has not been conducted in AS before. I got this grant for around $25,000 to buy some equipment organize local expertise, and bring down some folks from HI for this 6-day class. It was a hard, but fun, start and we'll be doing it again. The plan is to have it become an annual course offering for credit at ASCC, similar to the one at UH-Hilo.

Samoa News has an article that I wrote with Kelley Anderson, the marine science coordinator at ASCC. I forgot to send a caption with the picture. It's me in the blue shirt and Francis Leiato in white. All in my self promotional spree.

Web Presence

My friend Benny Ron has been kindly helping me improve my "online image". Seems weird that a lot of jobs require this type of self-promotion. But in the spirit of marketing and social networking, I'd like to share with you all a little url.

www.aquaculturehub.org

I guess this isn't purely self-promotional because I'm promoting this website simultaneously. What I really like about it is right now, I'm the cover story! AND, I have a great caption: "Ephraim Teaching how to sex tilapia at the 1st Aquaponics Workshop in American Samoa 16feb11"

Do you need to promote yourself in your work? How do you keep up with this activity? (hint: the more hits this post gets, the more web presence I get.)

Two Dollar Beach

Our excursion to $2 Beach yesterday






All My Glory


This lovely lady is moving in month or so. Off to Rarotonga, Cook Islands. We'll miss them a lot.

Random Things

Hey all, just some recent photos to prove we're still alive, and random updates on us.

I'm still teaching 5-6th grade at our new school Ta'iala Academy, so I often look like this:

School is going really well. The students are really fun. My faves: In science we're learning about Space Exploration and the International Space Station. So cool! And in art we've been doing calligraphy.

Ella just got another beautiful puletasi made by our friends at Sunrise Sewing Shop. I got one, too, I'll show you later.

Ella is perfecting her Fifty Nifty States song, so she and Isaac are often singing, "Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut..."

She's one of those sponges that absorbs all information.

Here we're reading a story of a girl named Ella and her pet kitten. Could a book get more perfect? (Thanks Shellie)

Owen's cute as a button, although he's revving up for his two's. He repeats everything in two or three word bytes. He's learning colors and shapes and wild animals. "Lello tiankle" (Yellow triangle) "Alol, hoo hoo" (Owl, hoo hoo).

Isaac loves science. He often sits in on Ella's science class, since his kindergarten class ends at 11, and he has to stick around school until 2:30. Science yes, but for some reason he doesn't care for social studies. Maybe he'll be a scientist like Ephraim.

Apparently he can hold his breath for longer than Ephraim. A minute and a half.

I know what kind of mood he's in by how pretty I am. He informs me: "Mama, you're really really really really SUPER pretty" or "Mama you're NOT PRETTY!"

It reminds me of when I told my dad I liked my goldfish more than him. And he laughed at me.

Here are progressive photos of Isaac's haircut a month ago.

Ephraim's been totally busy running a successful workshop this week, among a hundred other things. But he took a break last weekend to swim with friends at the Maliu Mai swimming hole.

We just ordered some of Ephraim's favorite movies, so we've been watching Emperor's New Groove and both Fantasia's lately. Both are big hits. We also got Waking Ned Devine on Netflix. Hilarious.

I haven't really mentioned it, but I'm 7 months pregnant. Due middle of May. We'll find out next Monday if it's a boy or girl. We're all really excited about it.

That's all for now!

Dishes with Dylan

I love my husband washing dishes.

I don't love Bob Dylan.

But if a dose of Dylan helps get the dishes done, I'm all for Bob.

Thanks for being a dish-washing hero, Ephraim.

Isaac's New Skill(s)

Oh the fun things you learn when you're 4.