Seek the Higher Ground

This "Mormon Message" highlights the tsunami in Samoa and the need to run to higher ground. In the spiritual sense, the need to follow Jesus to the moral high ground.

And for those of you wondering, yes, those views and people are what we see everyday. So nice to live in Samoa.

Scrawny Chicken and a Soaring Eagle

For some reason, my macho side gets a kick out of Tuilaepa's treatment of Bainimarama.

Forum not your business, Tuilaepa tells Bainimarama
Friday April 23, 2010 By Tupuola Terry Tavita, le Savali newspaper

APIA— Samoa Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi believes it’s best that Fiji dictator Commodore Frank Bainimarama keeps quiet and learn from the valuable lessons he is imparting on him “free of charge”.
The Commodore this week lashed out at his “Samoan counterpart” as “desperate” to have the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat relocated from Suva to Apia.

“My counterpart?” said a bemused Prime Minister Tuilaepa.

“You know, calling the commodore a Prime Minister is like calling a skinny dog a vicious lion, a scrawny chicken a soaring eagle.” He laughs.

Of the Forum Secretariat, the Prime Minister said:

“Oh? Is it Bainimarama’s Forum now? Best he (Bainimarama) sticks to planting cassava and leave Forum issues to the big boys— bonafide elected leaders. Small-time unelected thugs are not welcome.”

“He has neither say nor business with either the Forum or its secretariat.”

Fiji, three years after Commodore Frank Bainimarama usurped its elected government, was suspended by the Pacific Islands Forum February last year.

And what becomes of the Forum Secretariat will be the result of a collective decision by the Pacific Islands Forum leaders, said Tuilaepa.

“Whether it gets relocated to Samoa, Papua (New Guinea), Tonga, Vanuatu or even Bikini Atoll is neither Bani’s nor those working at the Secretariat’s decision to make,” he said. “And if it (Secretariat)

Tuilaepa maintains that the Secretariat cannot operate “under the thumb” of an unelected military regime.

“Especially a regime that has done away with the rule of law, democratic government, an independent judiciary and [suppressed]... the media and freedom of speech. It’s against the exact fundamental principles the Forum was founded on,” he said.

How the Commodore connected any possible relocation of the Forum Secretariat headquarters with Samoa bewilders the Prime Minister.

“It appears that he is scared that it’ll be relocated to Samoa? Well thank you very much Mr Bainimarama for your vote of confidence in us. But, frankly, we don’t need your endorsement,” said Tuilaepa.

[Editor’s Note: Samoa News reprints this story with permission from Tupuola, who is also the editor of the Samoa government owned Le Savali newspaper]
does relocate, well Bani only has himself to blame for it. He is the root cause of all these problems.”

http://www.samoanews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=14524&edition=1272016800

Vatia

Ephraim's on spring break, so we played tourist on Tuesday and went to Vatia on the north side of the island. I had never been there before (after 2.5 years on this 20 mile island) so we HAD to check it out. Although the weather was too rainy and cold (?!) for swimming, the drive was lovely.

To get there you have to drive the main road along the southern coast, past Pago Pago to Aua. There's a road there that cuts north, zigzags up the mountain to the pass and goes down to the north coast. Continue on that road and you'll find the National Park and eventually the village of Vatia. It takes about an hour and a half from our house.

This is the lookout showing Pola Island with Cockscomb Point at the right. It was actually chilly, so we pulled out the handy emergency rain ponchos.



Just as we were driving to the end of the road, we drove over a big bump and heard "pop". We went a little further, found a nice place to park, and then Ephraim got out and saw our tire was losing air. Perfect place for a tire change.

As he lowered down the spare from the back underside of the car, Ella said, "Wow, do we have any more tires under there?"

While our competent hero Ephraim attended to the tire, we explored the cobble beach.



There were two natural arches that we could see.



Ephraim had the car taken care of by the time we got back and we were on our way. What a guy! Vatia has a unique-looking sea wall.

Would you like to live in this village?



Paka = Park

A view of the beach we were at.

We drove through another village, Afono, and saw this school classroom that was gutted by the tsunami, and the temporary school room they are using now.




A view from the pass, looking towards Pago Pago harbor. The open ocean is at the left of this photo. You can see how the harbor curls around making a long funnel.

On the way home we stopped by a barbecue hosted by the ASCC Marine Science Club. Thanks for the lunch, guys!






It was a good day. Ephraim and I were commenting how it felt like we were new on the island again, except now we knew people and places. We had a bbq to go to, friends called to us as we drove by, and Ephraim knew where to find his buddy Ben surfing at Pua Trees. We had a good "local vacation" for a day.

Easter Hunt 2010

K: Ella, let's go play games.
E: I don't want to.
K: Me neither!!


Our Primary Easter Egg Hunt was last Saturday at Lions Park. They played some games before the hunt, since egg hunting only takes about 10 minutes. Ella hung with her friend Kira. They skipped out on the games. But Isaac played. Here he's choosing a goose.

I knew the actual hunt would be a disappointment. The big kids always seem to clean house, no matter how careful the planning. My kids were crying as soon as started. Isaac found 1 egg, Ella found zero. But their friends shared with them.
And everyone got a goodie bag in the end, so we left happy.


Thank you Primary leaders!

ONE Year Old

march 25. it's been one year since owen's birth. it's gone by so fast!
we had a banana cake with his friends at playgroup. he was more excited than he looks in the photo.
then we had cake again at home. he's such a sweet little thing, we're so happy to have him.
he's been doing a lot more of this lately:
pretty soon he'll be walking...running...jumping...pole vaulting...winning the olympics! can't wait!

one stone

(an update to my family, but posted here to kill two birds...)

temple family update: ephraim is leading a stake youth musical play. they're singing and acting out Oh Lord, My Redeemer. he's looking for ways to motivate and control youth. he has a colleague coming from UH tonight to explore the possibility of students in AS taking aquaculture courses through the program they've set up in Second Life. he's from israel, and i don't know how familiar he is with samoan style, or slow samoan internet. hopefully this goes far. ephraim wanted to see if it would even work so set up his avatar on second life last night, and it's really bizarre at first.

melinda: i hopped in a plane and went to apia (western samoa) wed-thurs while a friend watched the kids. i went with my friends bro and sis pili to tour this program called south pacific business development (you can google it) that does microloans to finance womens groups doing small business. it finances like 5,000 women who do anything from selling peanuts, fruit, flowers, handicrafts, to electronics and car parts. it's remarkable. eye-opening. freeing thousands of families from poverty. they use the grameen model, which you should also google. i loved watching it in action. we'd like to do something like that here, but our people will have to get over their lazy dependence on welfare, wic, and taxes. we also went to the temple in apia and i enjoyed quiet time to reflect without having to wipe a nose or change a diaper.
lately i've been reading "bonds that make us free" and "active parenting today", both provoke frequent self-evaluation, which i'm grateful for.

ella borrowed a movie from our friends today. it's called Barbie's Learn to Dance Like a Princess! so she's excited to try it out tomorrow.

isaac runs around like a hoodlum with the neighbor boys. they ride bikes, catch and torment toads, have at least two water fights with hoses, and scream and fight then come in a house and demand food and drink. is this healthy? what can or should i do? fortunately we get a break on sundays, but keeping those boys apart makes me feel like a prison guard.

owen is cute. i'm sure he'll be walking in a few weeks. his new discovery is climbing on a chair and then on the table. and he's attracted to plugs.

that's basically us. i loved all the conference talks about teaching in the home. i feel like it's a huge task laid on my shoulders, but lucky for me i feel like i've been preparing for this task all my life and there's none other i'd rather do.

Unhappy Hipsters

My sister Jan shared this blog with me. I'm sometimes annoyed by shared items, but this one's good.
Enjoy! Unhappy Hipsters