Samoa Visit

Hi Group 75 Supporters:

I too am home from Samoa and along with Carla and Jack, Al and I would like to share our exciting news. Mari and Andrew are officially engaged and plan to come home to Southern California to be married in fall 2006 before heading back to Samoa for their second year of service - quite the extended "honeymoon"! This was the big news of my visit to Samoa and definitely colored my week there.

Overall, my visit to Samoa was wonderful and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing where and how Mari and Andrew work as well as having a too brief glimpse of their non-work lives (shopping, commuting, hangouts, homes, friends). Like Carla, I found it very hot and humid, but very beautiful. I'm usually very energetic, but Mari, wisely, saved the long hike up the mountain behind the Robert Louis Stevenson homestead until my last day when I was a bit more heat acclimated. I'm amazed at the energy of many of your volunteers - bicycling round the island, running, walking miles each day, etc. and also understand and appreciate the slower Samoan pace of life that they're beginning to adopt.

On a typical day in Apia, we ran into at least half a dozen volunteers between the Peace Corps office, the waterfront walking area and the market area. I think this is fairly common for our Apia-based volunteers to have these casual encounters on top of the planned ones. Even those out in Savaii have similar experiences on the weekends when they come to town. The community they've formed is quite exceptional, fun, supportive and dedicated. Everyone I met was delightful and seemed to me to be thoroughly enjoying the overall experience in Samoa. It's a beautiful place and quite an exceptional posting.

My favorite special activities besides visiting with Mari and her friends, students, coworkers and Samoan family were snorkelling, kayaking, hiking, the market (try the palusami and taro!) We spent the weekend on the south shore of Upolu at Coconuts resort which was very beautiful and highly recommended if you have the time. (Look at the links on Mari's and Andrew's blogs to photos from the trip to see all of the above as well as their engagement announcement.) I've also posted two brief videos of a sitting "Siva" her students did for me which was incredibly special, particularly considering that Mari's students are all developmentally challenged with about 50% of them having Down's Syndrome. They were a delightful group and she thoroughly enjoys interacting with them.

Links to videos:

• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8681541952535522965
• http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6612670726997542258
  

Like Carla, I'd encourage you to visit for yourself if possible to see what your son/daughter/significant other is doing firsthand and to meet the generous Samoan and Peace Corps communities they live among. I found it extremely interesting and reassuring. I'm so proud of all of them!

All the best,
Rudi

Visiting Samoa

Hi All,

I hope 2006 has gone well for all of you so far. I'm going to visit Mari in Samoa at the end of the month (for only one week, sigh...). If there's anything special you'd like me to bring to your PCV there, please let me know. I'm really looking forward to meeting all of them and seeing their lives in Samoa first hand.

All the best,
Rudi

From a Group 73 Mom - Re Phone Cards

Hi! My daughter Cecilia is Group 73, been on island for a year. I noticed your Group 75 parent blog link tonight and the mention of mail and phone cards. Thought I’d share from experience:

Phone Cards: I frequently use the 24/7 TCC card available from www.leancard.com . There are many cards available on that site, but this one gives you 26 minutes for $5 and is best used for one call only. I have success with zaptel.com also, but the leancard site is the cheapest.

Mail: I tried every way possible, and it is such an adventure! Know this, no matter how long it might take, the package really will get there. The day after Cecilia left in Oct 2004 I mailed three small boxes US airmail. Two arrived within 15 days; the third box arrived in April 2005. It was intact, although the Halloween candy melted into a brick of candy corn. It was all good, she said, you could cut it with a nifi. I sent an M-Bag (the cheap-rate surface mail intended for books, but everyone stuffs other stuff in there) that also took about 6 months to get there. Look up M-Bags on the USPS website, very specific rules to follow in packaging. I sent DHL Jumbo Boxes – DHL has a very special rate for up to 55 lbs in one special size box, called an international jumbo box. Flat rate of around $185 to send that, AND it IS trackable and it WILL get there within a week (but not at Christmastime). You have to contact DHL directly to arrange jumbo box shipments, and you cannot arrange that shipment online.

I must say that after we visited Samoa last June, my care packages now only contain items she requests. I now weigh the cost of the item plus shipping versus buying that same item there. I was very surprised to visit her favorite grocery store in Apia, and find it is air-conditioned and carries a limited variety of normal grocery store items. It is fascinating what products get shipped to Samoa and what do not.

Cyclone season begins for Samoa in January – here are some links to monitor the cyclone activity (miraculous last-minute turn last year spared them from a direct hit by Olaf). Peace Corps will evacuate all of them to hotels on higher ground.

http://www.meteorology.gov.ws/forecast.htm

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/samoa/

http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Tropical/S_Pacific/

http://www.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc.html

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/91762.html

Enjoy the adventure along with your daughter!

Anita Fly

They've come a long way!!

I know you all join me in being so proud of Group 75, the first group in 5 years to all be sworn in. What a great day! Congratulations to all of our new PCV's and best of luck to them tomorrow in their new homes. I can't wait to hear about everyone's new adventures and placements! Rudi

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday, strange though it was without our PCT's. I'm anxious to hear how their festivities went as I expect are you.

We haven't spoken with Mari since they left for their final 3 weeks in the village and are planning to call her sometime mid-week this week. (Her family has a phone she said we can call and try to reach her.) If any of you has news to share from successful Falevao contact we'd love to hear it or if you wish us to pass on a message from you to your son or daughter, please let me know and we'll try to do so if our call is successful. We plan to try to call on Wednesday evening (November 30th).

One news item, we finally received our first airmail letter from Mari - mailed about 4 weeks before it arrived here and she received some cookies I sent her airmail (took about 2 weeks). Nothing we sent by ship has arrived, including 2 boxes she sent herself about a month before they left. I'm curious to know if anyone has had more success.

Best, Rudi and Al

Comments

Hi Again,

We were having some problems with "spam" in our comments, so I've changed the comments settings so that only blog members can post to the comments. Please let me know if you have any problems posting. Sorry for any confusion this has caused. I've posted responses (in the comments below) to both the telephone and shipping postings.

Meet the Parents...

I'm Mari's Mom, Rudi, and am hosting this blog for Parents of Peace Corps Samoa Group 75 trainees. If your son or daughter (or mom) is in this group and you're not yet a member of the blog, please send me an e-mail and I'll send you an invitation to join. Then you'll be able to post here too.

Mari grew up in Irvine, California, where her dad Al and I live and work at the University of California. We're both biologists and love exotic travel (as does Mari) and are thrilled to be able to experience Samoa through her eyes. We also can't wait to see her new home and meet her new friends and family!

So far, though, we're happy to have so much information from all the Group 75 bloggers (see links on the right) and to talk to her when she's in Apia. If you're looking for a good, relatively inexpensive long distance phone card, I'd recommend the one sold online by tel3advantage (http://www.tel3advantage.com/). I've bought a prepaid $25 card and chosen the automatic recharge option. Whenever the card runs out of time, my account is recharged (even if I'm in the middle of the call) and the interruption is very brief and doesn't require a new call. The rate is $.38 per minute. If you've found a less expensive rate, please let me know.

Please join this blog and post information about yourself and your Samoan parent experiences!