September 17, 2012

Well today is our 39th Wedding Anniversary.  My how time flies.  We have had 39 wonderful years together.  Some ups and some downs but mostly great memories and experiences.

We didn't post last week because we took a little trip over to American Samoa while school was out.  We will post all about that later on in the week.

Today we are going to talk about the Teuila Festival here in Apia and our Senior Day at Sauniatu.

From September 3rd until September 8th they had a big Festival here in Apia called the Teuila Festival. They have long boat races which are called Fautasi races. They are interesting to watch. They have booths set up down by the harbor and they do demonstrations all week long. They have people showing how they learn how to do the fire dance, carving, weaving to name a few. It was fun learning a little more about the Samoan culture. They had programs every evening where people sang native songs and performed native dances. They had comedians and fire dancers perform. They also had the Miss Samoan pagaent and even a big rock concert. This is a big festival they do every year and people come in from all over to be here. Our favorites were the Fautasi races and watching the carvers.  The picture on the left is Nada walking on the wall that goes all around the harbor and getting a place to watch the race.  The picture on the right are the long boats lining up to begin the race.  The next picture is the patrol boat out in the harbor to keep the way clear.  The water was a little rough this morning and they had patrol boats following them and keeping the path clear from any other boats.

 Reed and I think this might be entire Samoan Navy!

 This group of men are the carvers.  They are making Kava bowls, serving trays and weapons.  They do most of the work by hand.  They are carving, cutting, etching, sanding and planing all by hand.  They did cut the big pieces of wood with a chain saw until it was manageable enough to use a hand saw.  It was very fun to watch.

This wood is called Ifilele and is very hard.  This tool he is using is called an Adze.  They use it to chisel out the wood until they get to the beautiful pattern in the wood and the shape they want and then they do the fine work.  Here he is making a Kava Bowl.  Reed said he has to get him one of these tools because his little carving tools are really hard to use on the hard, hard wood.

On Saturday September 8th we had a Senior Missionary church history tour.  We had the Church Historian, Brett McDonald, here in Samoa take us on a tour.  We first went to the Fagalii cemetary where some of the first missionaries who served here are buried.  This little village is also where the first mission home was located.  It was later moved to Apia where the Temple is.

From left to right, Sister Spencer, Sister and Brother Partridge the office couple, Sister Harker whose husband is off in the distance in the red shirt.  They are the MLS couple.  Sister Moaga who is a Temple worker.  Elder Fife and his wife who are Temple workers.  Elder and Sister Budgett who are the other ITEP couple that came out with us and live on Savai'i.

 Elder and Sister Osborne who are the TVET traveling couple, Sister Fife, Sister Gertsch and her husband, who is teaching a class, are the CES missionaries, President and Sister Pauga who is in the Temple Presidency and Brett McDonald the Church Historian here in Samoa.

These three graves are all of children that belonged to the first Mission President and died here.

 This is the home of a member named   .  They were gracious enough to let us visit and experience an actual working fale.  They are an active family trying to survive.  They have 9 children and he works the land trying to make ends meet.  The stake is helping them build their new bigger fale (house) on the left and teaching them how to use their land better.  As you can see, their land is covered in lava rock.  They grow bananas, papayas and coconuts and what they don't eat they try to sell for money to buy other things.  They are trying to grow some tomatoes, taro, green beans and eggplant to supplement their diet and have a little extra to sell.  Very humble and kind people. 

 This is Brother who lives here on the left and Francis Leung Wo who works on the farm at Sauniatu. Francis is in the Stake Presidency up at Sauniatu and works on the farm there. His wife is the librarian at the Primary School up at Sauniatu and attends our classes we teach.  He is also in charge of the Umu they are fixing for our lunch today.

 This is the families youngest son and their kitchen.  This is how they cook all their meals and they have a pitcher and a small bowl that they use for washing hands and cooking.  The roof of this cooking kitchen is tin and no walls.

This is their fale (home).  There are no walls, the roof is made of tarps with palm fronds and there is no furniture.  They put woven grass mats on the floor with a blanket for a cover to sleep.  They wash their clothes in a bucket and hang them on a piece of rope to dry. 

 This is Nada talking to their 16 year-old- daughter.  She helps her Mom and Dad work in the garden and with whatever they need her to do.  She speaks English quite well which she has learned in school.  Her Mom speaks English okay but the Dad not so much.  This is sugar cane on the left they are trying to grow.  They are really trying to be self-sufficient.

 We are on the farm at Sauniatu.  They are cooking an Umu for us.  This is where they heat up rocks like we would do charcoal.  When the rocks get hot enough they put the food wrapped up in banana leaves among the rocks and bury them and then cover them with more banana leaves.  They grew a lot of the food right there and they are preparing it out in this little fale.  Reed is peeling a taro root.  He is using a cut off tin can.  They peeled all those taro that way and then cut off the ends with a bush knife.

They are growing pineapple up at Sauniatu on their farm.  They are trying different ways of growing things and then teaching the members how they can grow their own food by using local resources.  They grow papayas, mangoes, coconuts, cocoa beans, taro, corn, cabbage, watercress, bananas and sweet potatoes.  It is very interesting.

 This is Elder Mariner who is over the Missonary housing and vehicles.  Francis watching over things and Elder Partridge shredding coconut.  They said it was quite hard.  They are going to squeeze it to get the milk out and use it with the young taro leaves it is called palu sami.  It tastes like cooked spinach with a little sweetness.  We like it a lot.

 This is President Pauga showing Reed how to husk a coconut.  They use a sharp stick stuck in the ground and then you hit it hard in the right place on the stick and then peel the husk off to get to the coconut inside.  Then you have to crack open the hard coconut and shred it.

They are getting the little pig ready to cook.  He kept stuffing hot rocks into his belly and mouth and then stuffed taro leaves in behind them so he cooked from the inside and the outside at the same time.  It was interesting to watch.

 This is Francis, Sister Osborne and Sister Harker learning how to wrap up the young taro leaves and put the coconut milk in the center and fold it together then wrap it in a banana leaf so it doesn't burn. This is the palu sami and very good.

 We are all sitting under a fale by the David O Mckay fale where we are going to eat.  We are learning more about the history of Sauniatu and the people who first came here and settled.

This is the cemetary up at Sauniatu.  There are some very old graves up here.  These are early settlers of the the Village of Sauniatu and some of the children of Mission Presidents who served in Samoa.

 This is the bust of David O McKay in the fale up at Sauniatu.  They love and honor him.  He was a real blessing to them and loved the people.  This was carved by a man named Sven.  He was not a member and he had leprosy and was cured.

 Reed is taking pictures from the pond under the waterfall.  Some people went swimming, some of us didn't.  This is Elder Budgett, Sister Hanson the Mission Nurse, Sister Osborne and Nada.

This is Sister Budgett, Elder Harker and Sister Roth who is married to the Dentist doing service here and she is a hygienist. They are some who wanted to swim and cool off.

 

 

 Reed is at the top of the ladder and Elder Osborne is at the bottom trying to help Sister Roth climb out.  It was a big step from the rock to the first rung of the ladder.  They all enjoyed cooling off after the hot day.  Some of them decided to brave the waterfall.  It was running pretty fast because it had rained during the night and morning.

 This was a wonderful day.  We learned a lot about the early and current church members in Samoa.  There is a lot of history here.  We are enjoying learning more about the Samoan culture and learning a little bit more of the language each week.  We know the gospel is true no matter where you go and there are wonderful, faithful saints trying to do what is right everywhere.  We love you.  Le aso and alofa  Elder and Sister Spencer.

 

September 3, 2012

Wow it is already September.  We have been in Samoa for over a month.  Sometimes it seems like longer and sometimes you wonder where the time has gone.

This past week was a busy one for us.  We started teaching the 312 Pedagogy class on Wednesday.  Not very many showed up.  We went around and talked to all those who had signed up on Thursday and they said "Oh did class start last night?"  It is the end of the 2nd semester and school will be out for the next two weeks, yes I said two week break at the end of the semester, and they were all looking forward to that I guess.  Hopefully when school starts back up they will attend.

We went to a YSA Fireside on Wednesday the 29th.  We have a young woman in our class, Sister Kolopa Aiono, who is leaving on a mission next week and they have a going away fireside for them.  They sing, play games, tell riddles, quote scriptures and say some nice things about the person leaving.  They did a lot of it in English so we could understand.  Theat was great and when they did talk in Samoan, O.J. one of the young men in our class and returned missionary, translated for us.  We were very glad to be there.  We feel like the YSA's are accepting us and including us.  When we see them on the street or at the Insitute they make a point of waving or talking to us.  We hope we can be of good service to them.  They served some yummy refreshments.  There were two sweet rolls with sweetened coconut milk with them called Panipopo, some cookies, egg salad sandwich and Cocoa Samoa.  Sometimes the Cocoa Samoa is way two strong.  It tastes to us what burnt coffee smells like.  They roast the cocoa beans and put very little sugar in with it and it is black.  I could barely even take a taste.  This time at the church, it was very light almost like it had milk in it and very mild and a little sweeter and tasted a lot like our hot chocolate.  This Cocoa Samoa was much better than the last time someone served it to us.  It is a very popular drink here in Samoa.

             This is Nada standing in front of the Robert Lewis Stevenson Museum which is the house where he lived when he lived in Samoa.   He called this place Villa Vailima.

This is the front of the Robert Louis Stevenson home now a Museum.

 

 This is Reed standing in front of the statue of the King of Samoa with his son.  This is on the patio where the program and dinner were held.  The King's name is Malietoa Uilamatutu and he was a cannibal.  He required two victims a day.  Yuck!!!  The son offered himself up as one of his victims and the King had to decide either to eat his son or end cannabalism.  He stopped the practice.

Below is a picture of the back of the house and patio where the program and meal took place.

 They gave us leis as we came in.  Reed and I waiting for the program to start.  They served us drinks and appetizers.  The appetizers were raw tuna over cabbage and some rice balls with some kind of raw fish on top.  Reed ate them and said they were good.  Nada did not try them.  That is way too fishy for me!!!!

Below is a picture of the reigning Miss Somoa and the contestants for 2012-2013 Miss Samoa.  They asked them to anwer this question. "Why should you be the next Miss Soman?"  They answered both in English and Samoan.  They were very cute and did a great job.  There are six contestants.  We thought our granddaughters would think this was fun to include. All of them had different flowers and arrangements in their hair.  They were very interesting.

 The girl in the blue gown with the crown is the reigning Miss Samoa.

This is Bill Winegar.  He is the President of the foundation.  He was very friendly and talked to everyone.  He conducted the meeting.   Rex Maughan is on his left and the speaker in the picture below.  He is the Chairman of the foundation and the money behind it all. He now lives in Scottsdale Arizona.  He was very friendly and talked about his mission here in 1957 for 21/2 years and his love for the country and the people.  It was interesting.  

 

 On Thursday night, August 30th, all the Senior Missionaries were invited to attend the annual Memorial Garden Party at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum.  Wow is it beautiful up there.  This is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived and is buried.  There are two men, Jim Winegar, the president and Rex Maughan the chairman of the foundation and they come every year and do a party.  It is to promote interest and money.  They were both missionaries and companions here in Samoa starting in 1957.  They love the country and people so much and have done so much to help them.  Rex Maughan is the money and Jim Winegar is the promoter.  They invite the Missionary Couples and the Mission President and his family every year.  They had a great program and music and food.  It was a very nice evening. Below is a picture of the plate of food Reed got.  The stuff in the little glass dish is octopus.  The green stuff is taro leaves with coconut milk that was actually quite tasty.  There is chicken, turkey, roast, taro, salmon and pumpkin (squash).  It was very good food.  Reed said the octopus wasn't real good but the sauce was tasty.

To Sua Trenches on the Southeast side of the Island.   It costs 15 Tala each but it was worth it. They are really trying hard to keep this area clean and beautiful.  The grounds were planted and mantained very well.  The water is chrystal clear and it just has a great feeling and beauty there. 

On Saturday September 1st we drove over to the other side of the island to go swimming at the  To Sua Trenches.  The top picture is as you are walking from the parking area to the ocean. We never did see the blow hole. Maybe it only happens at high tide. On the left Reed and I are holding a leaf of the Ta'amu plant to show how big they are. It has a root that the people eat that is like taro only bigger. The ocean is below us.  On the right Reed is standing in front of a grave.  They have graves just wherever and they are quite the monument to the people buried there.  What a beautiful resting place for this woman.  Below is a picture of a fale (house).  This was a really nice little one that people can use when they come to the Trenches for picnics or to just lay in and rest. 

 We drove Elder and Sister Gertsch and Elder and Sister Osborne there.  Elder and Sister Harker and Brother and Sister Roth came together and we met there.  We had a fun little picnic overlooking the ocean before we climbed down to swim in the trench.  It took us a little over an hour to get there.  It is right by Vavau Beach which we love but we will definitely be back here.  We didn't have time to go play in the ocean which we want to do next time.

 Below is a picture from inside the trench.  Reed is taking the pictures that is why he isn't in very many of them.  You can see that we had to climb down a ways to get to the water.  You can stand up in part of it and not in other parts.  The water is quite cool and as the tide comes in and out it pushes you back and forth inside the hole.  Reed swam through an opening about 12 feet that took him out to the ocean.  He said it was a little tight and hard.  Brother Roth went and ended up surfacing too soon and got cuts all over his head from the corral.  That is one of the reasons we didn't go and play in the ocean.  We thought we better get him back.

 You had to walk down some steep stairs to get to this ladder in order to climb down into the water.  It was a little scarey because they get slippery when they are wet.  You can see how many steps on the ladder there are.  Then there is a little platform you can either sit on or jump off into the water.  Under the platform there are a few more stairs that you take to get into the water.  Reed jumped, Nada climbed into the water.

 The water was so clear and refreshing.  The couple on the platform were some kids from New Zealand, not part of our group.  You can see how beautiful the coast line and ocean are from the picture below.  It was a great day. 

As we were leaving the To Sua Trenches area we looked over and this man was taking a rest laying in this fale.  You see them doing this all the time.  Fa'a Samoa!  There is usually a nice breeze under there so it is quite a bit cooler than just even laying under a tree.  Well that does it for this week.  We had a lot of fun things going on.  We love you and wish the Lord's Blessings on you all.  Love Elder and Sister Spencer.

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!