Wednesday was Independence Day here so I went to the celebration in Apia (along with the rest of Samoa). It started with something similar to a parade that was what seemed like every school, organization, village, and university marching, some dressed in traditional Samoan outfits and showing off their traditional tattoos. After nearly 2 hours of this, we decided to take a break and walk along the sea wall to a market and enjoy some passion fruit ice cream. We also stopped by the big food and crafts market and bought luao which is coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves to scoop up and eat with breadfruit; both are baked in an umu, the traditional lava rock oven. I would compare it to spinach cheese dip and bread. The second part of the ceremonies was several types of dancing from Samoa and the Pacific and it began after the Head of State of Samoa (like the president) arrived to watch. My favorite was a boys school that had over 200 dancers and in their "traditional" performance they included Thriller.
Yesterday Emily and I went on a fishing trip with the boys on the base.
The traditional Samoan way of fishing uses a very large net and several people slapping the water with sticks and making noise to get the fish to go into the net. Emily and I just walked around because the ocean is shallow for quite a ways. We found bright blue starfish, sea cucumbers, coral and something living in a pukka shell. The boys cracked open sea urchins and ate the inside. Emily tried it but was not too impressed. We mostly played with them and saved them from imminent death.
I received approval for my research from my university so we are planning to begin surveying people today as soon as it stops raining. We are also going to visit a Matai (leader)/pastor and bring him a gift so we can get permission to survey the people in his village.
More pictures coming soon!
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