Samoan Food

August 27, 2012

Hello everyone.  Just a brief message about our last week and then we decided to do a food blog this week. 
On Thursday August 23rd, we had a Pacific Area polycom meeting all morning with the leaders from New Zealand , Australia, Utah, Tonga, Fiji, Kiribati, and Samoa.  Modern technology is wonderful!  We had to leave the training early because they had let all the kids out early so we could do the first Professional Development workshop.  Reed did a lot of preparation and some really good handouts. Reed did it on Cooperative Learning and Student Engagement.  It went really well.  Teachers have told us they have already tried some of the suggestions and felt like they went successfully. 

We have decided what classes we are going to start teaching this week.  One administrative course and one ITEP Endorsement corse here in Pesega and one up at Saniatu.  It is a lot of preparation.  We have to get permission from the Professor at BYUH to use his syllabus and course work and then tell him what we are going to do with it.  A lot of red tape to get through before the teaching can begin.

This is inside the cave.  Reed took pictures of our legs.

The gentleman on the right in blue is the one telling
everyone to get out becuase the pool and
ocean were closed.

This is where you first get into the Piula Pool!

We did have fun on Saturday though.  We went to two new places with Elder and Sister Osborne and Elder and Sister Gertsch.  We  drive because we are the only one with a van.  That makes us the designated drivers if more than two couples go anywhere.  We went to Piula Cave Pool.  It is a fresh water pool and the water was quite cool.  It gets some ocean water though because it does change depth with the tide.  You can actually swim all the way to the back of the cave.  It gets darker and darker but the lava rocks on the bottom of the pool actually glow a little bit. It is behind Piula Theological College and they own the pool and apparantly the beach and ocean right behind it.  At 4:00 p.m. a man came around and told us we had to get out of that part of the ocean because the school owned it and it was closed now!  We have never heard of the ocean being closed before.


You could walk all the way to this small island
from the beach.

This is the LDS Church across the street from the Ocean.

 Then we stopped on the way back to Apia at an LDS Church house that is right across from the ocean and there is a beautiful beach and you can actually swim there for free!  The water stays real shallow.  Reed went all the way out to this Island and could still stand up.  He saw some beautiful fish.  The three of us women just stayed close to shore and enjoyed the water, sand and visiting.


This is a very interesting fish.   Look carefully, it's
face is not where you think it is.

The Senior Couples are great and we have a lot of fun together.  We do family night twice a month and usually go out to eat together once or twice a month. 

 

We thought we would share some pictures of the food that we buy at the fresh produce market. 

This is Nada holding what they call a pumpkin.  We would call it
squash.  It is very good.  It tastes a little like acorn
or hubbard squash.

 These are some tomatoes that a neighbor gave us out of his garden.  We actually ate a tomatoe sandwhich with them.  They are not very big but tasted good.  The others are avacadoes.  They have very thin skins but taste very good.  We have really been enjoying them.  They cost 3 Tala each.

 This is a bag of tomatoes that we bought at the produce market.  This is how everyone packs them to sell.  They pick them a little green so they can get them to market and sell them.  They are a little bigger than a grape tomatoe but quite a bit smaller than a roma tomatoe.  They taste pretty good.  They sell them in the market and in little stands all along the roads here.  At the market you pay around 8 Tala but if you buy them on the road usually around 5 Tala.

 This is our kitchen.  This is the water we drink and to cook with.  Mr. Ahoy is the man with the business.  He comes around three times a week and picks up the jugs you leave on your front porch and leaves a full one.  They cost 13 Tala which we feel is very reasonable.  They are really efficient with the delivery and pick up.

Below is a bag of carrots.  They sell these usually in bags of five and these are smaller than usual.  Most of the carrots are very large.

This is how we buy milk and juice.  You cannot buy fresh milk here.  It is all shipped in and most of it is from New Zealand.  We have a hard time finding anything but full cream milk so we just mix it with water and it actually doesn't taste too bad.  The juice is very good.  We haven't tasted any that we haven't liked.  The milk costs 4.20 Tala a liter and the juice is 5 - 6.20 Tala a liter depending on which brand you buy.                 On the left are Nius.  They are fresh green coconuts.  They pick them for their milk.  The top you see there you cut a little bit and then there is an eye there which is quite soft and you poke it with a knife and put in a straw and drink the milk.  It is quite clear not white like milk.  One of these is usually enough for Reed and I to share.  We quite like them.  They serve them for drinks in restaurants all over.  They are only 2 Tala each.  2 Tala is equal to about 90 cents in the US.

We also found a big block of cheese at a store called Ah Liki.  This store is a wholesale store and very nice.  This cheese block is not quite 5 pounds.  It cost 55 Tala.

 

You always buy bananas in bunches.  They are usually very green.  We bought these on Friday the 24th and today on Tuesday the 28th you can see how quickly they are changing. This whole bunch cost 4 Tala.  They are very inexpensive.  They are smaller than what we buy in Utah and the skins are not as thick.  Reed put his watch next to them so you could get an idea on the size.  They grow everywhere and are very good.  We will keep the food blog going off and on as we try new foods and different foods come into season.                    

That is it for this time.  We hope you enjoy sharing our Mission with us through this blog.  We are doing better and better every week.  So for now le aso (good day) from

 Reed and Nada Spencer in Apia Samoa!