...more pictures

...from the July 4 barbecue. Will do some new things soon; this evening is the fa'amavae (going away party) for three of the "Old Group" 72. I'll miss them.

July 4 Barbecue, belated

Since we here in Samoa don't get the 4th of July off for a holiday (different country, you know) a bunch of Peace Corps met at Lalomanu for a barbeque (hotdogs and hamburgers). Not nearly as chaotic as the last Lalomanu visit and lots of fun! Lots of new faces, trainees and directors alike; saw some awesome stuff while snorkeling. A note on that: one of the guys (namely Bob whom I will thank forever) loaned me his prescription snorkel mask (our eyes are about equally bad) and for the first time I saw the underwater world clearly! I could actually see the little fish hiding behind their one inch boulders; I could see the camoflaged fish chilling in their places; I saw mushroom corals for the first time (they are all over Lalomanu, I just couldn't see them before). It quite literally brought tears to my eyes. I've posted a few pics and I'll try to post some more once I figure out more about this site. Since this is a public site I'll have to keep the pics very innocent, not that there's anything really bad to post but you never know....
Until next time!!

Exercise

I finally found the guts to ride my bike to work this morning. Traffic isn't as bad on Fridays as it normally is, so no major events...just a slight run in with a bus or two. Must do this more often, especially if I want to bike around Savaii in the near future!

New on the Blogger Scene

Yeah, so I thought I'd finally join the 21st century and try out this whole Blog thing. Still have no idea where the word 'blog' comes from. Either way, this kind of a site sounds like a great way to keep in touch with people when I don't have time to write 14 e-mails in a week. So the rundown:

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in Samoa currently working with Fisheries. I live in Vaivase-uta, a good walk to the south-east of Apia (the capital city of Samoa). My 'Palagi' name is Robin, but I've been re-named in the Fa'aSamoa to Ropina (it means nothing, as far as I know).

Don't really know what to say for this first post; the next one will contain current events and pictures, I just wanted to get the ball rolling on this thing. Well 'til the next posting, I guess.

Ropina