Another post for Wednesday, April 10, 2013.  We had so much going on in the last week that we decided to do two separate posts.  The other was getting so long and this post is all about fun Teacher Retreats.  Every other year here in Samoa, the teachers get to have a retreat that is totally paid for by the schools.

On Thursday evening, April, 4, 2013, the Sauniatu teachers did their evening activity because they wanted to see the show at the La Manumea Hotel and they only perform on Thursday evenings.  We all met together and ate a very nice Samoan buffet then they had dancers, singers, drum players and fire dancers perform for over an hour.

 They had this group playing and singing as you came in and sat down for dinner.  They were also the drummers and performers during the fia fia.

 This lady is making kava in the kava bowl.  It is a ceremonial drink that has been used for hundreds of  years.  It is made from kava root. They served it to a few guests.  They did not offer it to any of us. 

 The girls performing a traditional Samoan dance.

 This man shucked a coconut, cracked it open, grated it, made coconut milk all within a couple of minutes.

 Girl on left spreading the coconut milk on her tattoo.  The female tattoo like this is called a malu.

The girl on the right is showing one of the many ways to tie and wear a lava lava.

 The fire dancers performed in the dark which made it a little harder to take pictures.  You can see that the one on the left has fire in his mouth.

 They danced and twirled their fire sticks around.

 At one point all three of the different ones came out and performed together.

 Brother and Sister Gase.  He did not come and get in the group photo.
The photo on the right was all the performers at the end of the fia fia (performance.)  Some of them were the waitresses and office help.  The picture below is all the teachers, staff and spouses at Sauniatu except for Brother Gase.

 

 

On Friday morning, April 5, 2013, LDS Church College Pesega and Pesega Middle School had their retreat together.  As we were walking to the gym we saw this beautiful rainbow, nice way to start the day! We met at the gym for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. then drove out to Aggie Grey's Resort in Mulifanua by the main airport.  It took us 40 minutes to get there.  We drove some of the teachers in our van.  They played all kinds of games at the Aquatic Center area right off the beach then had lunch at Aggie Grey's.  It was not a very good lunch but the games were fun.  Then some people swam. Reed snorkeled but said the water was so full of organisms you could not see anything.

 The men were sitting outside and said it was a chiefs meeting, no women allowed!

 The women were inside the room eating.






The picture below is a dish called faausi, it is taro with coconut milk and brown sugar over it.  The brown sugar mixture almost has a burnt taste to it.  Not our favorite.

 This was the t-shirt they gave everyone to wear.  It had a scripture on the front side 2 Nephi 1:21.

 When we got to Aggie Grey's they divided us into teams.  Reed was our team captain and we were called the Hurricanes.

 This is our team, the Hurricanes, huddled up doing a math quiz.

 Doing a scripture game that includes math equations.

 This is our team the Hurricanes.

 Leo, the high school principal is in the middle and Brother Lolo the middle school principal has the hat on.  Brother Iafeta, with the turban, is one of the teachers.  People here, especially the men, cover their heads with shirts, lava lavas or whatever to keep the sun off.

 They had people tie their legs together and then tie balloons on their ankles and then you tried to step on the other teams balloons to pop them.

 They did races with straws that had a bongo, like a round chip with a hole, on them.  You had to get the bongo from your straw to your teammates straw without touching or dropping it.  It was very clever and they had a lot of fun.  This is Joyce, one of the high school secretaries and Reed.

 They played a game where you had to pass the ball over, under, over, under and then run to the front.  It was hard to get a turn to play.  Nobody wanted to ever sit out.  They loved playing the games.

 They seem to play music for every event.  Rather it is a game, activity, assembly, dinner, they always have music.  Brother Fa'aola just started dancing while we were getting ready to start the next game.

 Sister Te'o lives right behind us and has been in some of our classes.  You had to put the egg on your spoon and carry it in your mouth to the other side.  They were not hard boiled eggs.

 Another relay race.  You had to toss it to every member on your team and they had to toss it back to you.  Then the first person in line had to run and take your place and then throw it back and forth to every member on your team until every member had a turn.

 They had a speed walking relay race.

 This was the funniest game.  They put a lava lava in the middle then called numbers.  A member from each team with that number would go to the middle and try to get the lava lava back to their side.  Some got it fast and others they kept calling numbers until it looked like a football scrum.

 Reed got right in there with the rest of them.  He got pushed around but he did his fair share of pushing, too.

 Some people ended up on the ground.  They were all laughing and having a great time.  A little too rough for Nada, she sat this one out.

 No matter the age or size they all love to play volleyball.  They play it on cement, sand, grass and in the middle of a hot sunny day.  It doesn't matter.


Below is a picture of the beach.  The water was very warm.  It looks nice from the top but Reed said you couldn't see anything.  It was a lot of fun.  That night we went to Kokobana's for dinner.  It was the best Samoan food we have had so far.  The teachers and spouses visited, ate and danced.  It was a great retreat.  We forgot our camera so we have not pictures of the dinner.  We were tired when we got home just after 10 p.m.

 

 Saturday, April 6, 2013 we got up early and headed to the South side of Upolu to meet up with the Sauniatu teachers and spouses for the rest of their retreat.  We went to Hideaway Beach which took us a little over an hour to drive to.  We had a little devotional and then breakfast.  They, too, played a lot of fun games and then we went swimming and snorkeling.  Reed and Nada snorkeled and then we let some of the teachers use our equipment.

 

 Nada getting ready to get in the water.  You can see the big dining area of the resort.  It was very cool with a light breeze under there.

 You can see how beautiful the water and beach are here.  This was a very nice beach and the water was warm.  Okay snorkeling but great for swimming.

 Sister Filifili showing us how to tie and wear a lava lava.  Her version from the fia fia on Thursday night.  She is a crack up and a lot of fun.

This is the whole group that was there.  This was a great location for pictures.

Brother Gase in the middle.  He is a very large Samoan man and a very great guy.  He is the only male teacher and the women teachers really cater to him.

We played matt volleyball.  You have to sit and you cannot see the ball coming until it is almost to your side.  It was a lot of fun and actually kind of hard to just sit and hit the ball.

 Reed falling backwards after hitting the ball.

They played the game where you call a number from each team to get the ball in the middle and try to get it back to your side.  It was much more fun and harder to play it with the lava lava yesterday.

 Teachers sitting around after Sister Peresetene got a bunch of sand kicked into her eyes.  We were waiting for her to get it cleaned out.  She has had eye surgery and is having her other eye done next week so everyone was a little tense.

They played hockey on the sand.  It was hard to hit the ball and run in the sand but fun.

 

We saw this lion fish while we were snorkeling.  It was very cool to see.  However, when we got back to our office we looked it up.  They are poisonous and very harmful to reef fish.  Reed kept poking at it trying to get it to move.  Good thing it never attacked or he would have been very sick!

 

Sister Peresetene with a fish in her mouth.  Her husband and Steve, the principal, caught this fish and she wanted Reed to take her picture with it in her mouth.  She said she likes to just eat these fish raw!  She loves her picture to be taken.

 

We were able to watch some of conference from our house live.  We really enjoyed that.  We have watched the rest of conference on our computer in our office.  It is always great to hear and learn from our leaders. 

 

We have a two week break right now so we have no classes.  We have been working on classes for next semester and trying to get a little ahead while there are no teachers or students around.

 

We hope you enjoy seeing what our lives are like.  We had a lot of fun on these retreats getting to know the teachers in a whole new way and getting to meet their spouses.  We love our mission and love the gospel.  We hope you are all well and busy doing good things.  Until next time.

 

Love, Elder and Sister Spencer. 

 

 

 

 

 

Malo,  today is April 10, 2013.

Two big things happened here and we had pictures but Reed pushed the wrong button when copying them from the camera and deleted them all.  We were so sad, but we could not get them back.  One event on Thursday March 28th was a really fun missionary day for the middle school.  Brother Fata, who on Saturday during General Conference was just sustained as the Area Seventy for Samoa, spoke to the students.  He did a great job talking about being a missionary now.  He told them to do four things, open your mouth, be a missionary now by the way you talk, act and think, you are the church, and no buts.  The students really responded.  Then they divided them into groups to go to four different missions, Spanish speaking, English speaking, Tagalog speaking and Papua New Guinea.  They learned a scripture, I am a Child of God song and their testimony and then presented them before the whole school in the afternoon.  They really enjoyed themselves. 

The other big thing, which we lost the pictures for, was on Saturday March 30, 2013.  One of our YSA girls, Ingrid Taavao got married.  We were able to attend her wedding to Leon Roache at the church.  We were a little sad it wasn't a Temple wedding but glad to be there.  The Stake President, President Utai, married them and then they took pictures, which we deleted so sad, and then had a dinner at Sunset Restaurant which was Chinese but they let them bring in their Samoan food and served it along with the Chinese food.  It was very nice.

Now for things we do have pictures of.  On Easter Sunday, March 31st we took the ferry after church over to Savai'i to spend the night and Monday with the Budgett's.  They fed us a great Sunday dinner and we walked around the Vaiola campus before it got dark.  The campus is up in the mountains a little so the air is a little cooler than where we live.  It was nice!

 This is the sign on the main road letting you know where to turn and the picture below is of the main campus where the teachers live, there are student dormitories up to 40 boys and 40 girls live on campus and then the school.  They have around 100 acres up there so the teachers actually have little plantations they work and the dormitory kids grow some of their own food.  They have shops and rugby and net ball fields.  It is very nice.

 The dorm kids have to climb that hill and white wash those rocks once a year. 

Reed loved these rusted out buses with vines and all kinds of plants growing through them.

On Monday morning, April 1st we got up and headed to Le Lagoto resort to snorkel.  They let the Budgett's snorkel there for free so it was great.  The day was perfect and the water was just the right temperature.  Very refreshing and we saw a lot of nice fish.

We just put a couple of pictures in.  The water was so clear and we saw just a big group of all different fishes swimming around together.  It was relaxing to just watch.

We went back to Budgett's ate lunch, changed clothes and went to hike a volcano crater.  There wasn't much of a trail but it was a great little short hike.  Lots of beautiful scenery.

 

 There is so much green everywhere.  Sometimes we think if we stood still long enough the plants would start growing on us!  The crater is all filled in with foliage so you cannot see the bottom.  In the picture below you can see the ocean.  We hiked to the top and then you just come back down the same way you went up.

 

 Below is a picture of a big sow.  She was just wallowing in the muddy water as we were trying to get through the gate to the ferry.  We finally got her to move enough so we could get past.  This is a common sight here in Samoa.

On Thursday, April 4, 2013 the middle school had a field day.  They ran the 100, 200, 400, 800 meters and did some relays.  They did the long jump, high jump and discus.  Pretty much no one did any training so there were students laying on the ground with leg cramps and quitting half way through a race.  It was very interesting to watch.  They had a lot of participation and the kids acted like they were having a great time.  These guys all support each other and laugh and just have fun.  Some are competitive but most of them are just out to have a good time!

First they lined up in houses.  Each color is a different house the Red Sun, Blue Marlin, Green Giant and Yellow Submarine.  Then they have prefects just like Harry Potter.

 After the students lined up they had them parade around the track with their houses.

A lot of the students ran barefoot and others were sharing shoes because they thought it would help them run faster.

 This is Sister Fuatimau's daughter doing the high jump.  She participated in the long jump, also.

They had the students competing in grade levels.  The girls did the discus and then the boys had their turn.

 The is brother Lolo, he is the middle school principal.  He was the one shooting off the starting gun the whole day.

 Both boys and girls did the discus.

 Handing off the baton for the 4x400 relay.

 From left to right our famous timing judges.  Sister Fuatimau, Sister Fepuleai, Sister Tulaga, Sister Uili & Sister Tanuvasa who is a substitute.  Sister Spencer is standing up and just learning about the teachers and the different kids. The teachers want their pictures taken just as much as the students do.



Hope you enjoyed seeing some of the beautiful sights and people we are getting to know here in Samoa.  We are well and keeping plenty busy.  It is nice to have different things to do.  Reed has become the official photographer for all the activities it seems.  He loves being involved.  Until next time.    Love Elder and Sister Spencer

Below is Katherine, a girl from our ward, doing the long jump.