The Samoan Life

Monday July 13, 2009

We have survived our first full week in Samoa and loved the experience. We especially love the people we work with. We sit in our office and hear the people laughing and singing all day long. Everyone seems to really enjoy life and love what they are doing. And they are so helpful and kind to us.
Paul has signed up to learn the ukulele. The IT specialist that helps us work out all of our computer problem, is a professional player and has even been in some movies singing and playing his ukulele. He has a great voice, is very talented and has consented to teach Paul. I’ve got to think of a reason not to be home on Wednesday evenings.

This is a Fale and Paul wants to build one on the grass at Bear Lake.

I am still having trouble sleeping because of the dogs and the roosters but I now turn my fan on, use earplugs and sometime put a pillow over my head and then get some sleep. Everyone says that you get used to it, so hopefully I will start sleeping a little more in the near future.
The other night Paul found a whistle in the desk drawer and thought it was one of those silent ones that have a really high pitch when you blow it, the dogs hear it and leave because it hurts their ears.
I was in the bedroom and all of the sudden I heard this high pitched whistle and it was killing my ears. I ran out into the front room and there was Paul blowing the whistle. I told him that it was killing my ears and to stop it. He said “Can you really hear this?” I said “Yes, it’s loud and very high pitched.” He didn’t believe me because he couldn’t hear anything. I finally convinced him that I could hear it. He’s now convinced that I have dog ears and has threatened to take me to the vet to get me fixed. “Ouch!”
Our work is slow but I think when we get a committee organized and start having regular meetings that we will be able to do great things here. Our contact here was finally able to meet with us and by the time we left we could see that he was starting to see the big picture and maybe getting the vision of what public affairs can do.

Sister Squires and me at a cave. Notice the reflection of the moon on ther water.

There are so many wonderful members here that are trying to do good things for their country. A lot of them have gone away, became highly educated and then returned to help their country.
Friday we went to the Temple for the English session. What a beautiful temple. The Celestial room ceiling was incredible. It was painted in a beautiful geometric design with lots of gold leafing. It’s too hard to describe but it was really beautiful with a large crystal chandelier hanging below it. The seats in the endowment rooms were not very padded, they were very firm and there are no arms on the sides.

Saturday: We went with the Squires, another senior couple, for a little sightseeing and snorkeling adventure. They took us to some of the most beautiful waterfalls. I swear that one of them is the one in the temple movie.

This the top of the water fall.

The actual Fall

Looking down the waterfall.

The land for each waterfall is owned by an individual or village and their home is usually out front where you pull in to park. Once you get out of your car, someone from the village or home comes out and you pay them a few tala’s (Samoan money) usually around $3 US dollars per person. Then you can walk through their yard and to the view area for the falls. We saw 4 waterfalls and they were incredible and if you can imagine, they are right in a person’s back yard! Now that’s a view I could live with.

Another waterfall. I wish I had written down the names.

We then went to a lovely beach called Tafatafa. It was a gorgeous white sand beach with little fale’s all along the upper edge interspersed with beautiful palm trees. A fale is a hut like structure with thatched roof and a wooden floor about two feet up off the sand. You can set your beach chairs, mats or towels down and then sit or lay in the shade while looking out on the most amazing beach and azure blue water. We did do some snorkeling and I couldn’t believe how warm and comfortable the water was. We were out for more than an hour and I never got even slightly cold. The coral and fish at this beach wasn’t as spectacular as other places on the island but the beautiful beach and warm water more than made up for it.
Just a beautiful day at the beach with the Squires

Lunch Yum. Notice the pinkish red. That's the pig being uncovered.

We decided this week that we would feature one of the local members or a senior couple each week so that we could remember them when we get home and also so that our friends and family could get to know a little more about those who we are working with.

This week, we would like to feature Elder and Sister Kimball. Elder Kimball is a first cousin to Dr. Gordon Kimball who many of you know and love. He was born in Provo Utah in 1939 and spent most of his life down there. His father was an athletic trainer for BYU so the family had deep blue running through their veins. I won’t hold that against him.
Elder Kimball was an educator all of his life and now serves in the ICS department and teaches professors from BYU Hawaii.
Sister Kimball was also born in Provo Utah but grew up under rather harsh conditions in Kemmer Wyoming. Her parents were not members of the church. When she was 13 years old she was in the band and there was a senior girl that she admired. The senior girl was always so kind, happy and had wonderful standards. Sister Kimball wanted to be just like her so she looked into the church and became a member just because of the good example of this senior girl. Elder Kimball said that he wished they could find her and tell her how much they loved her because of the way she lived her life had blessed their whole family. Her family later moved first to Delta Utah and then to Provo where she met Elder Kimball at B.Y.-High School.
In addition to her mission duties, Sister Kimball teaches key boarding to the local members and has 16 students who can now play the piano for their church meetings and other social gatherings.

The Kimball’s have 9 children, (6-boys 3-girls), 25 Grand Children and 2 Great Grand Children. This is their second mission, the first being to Zambia Africa. They leave for home in about 5 weeks but hope to serve another mission in the future, health permitting. They are one of the cutest, most dedicated and helpful couples that we have met and we love them dearly. We have only known them for a little more than a week but we will really miss them. One last note, they sang in Church this past week and Elder Kimball sounds a lot like Willy Nelson, or maybe it was Gene Autry, one of those two.