A few pictures

The top photo is of Josh and I killing chickens on the cooking day. We did everything from scratch from killing, cleaning, building the umu to cook it in and cooking it.

The next picture is of the volunteer I will be replacing. Old and new. He's a good guy, too bad he's leaving. But, then if he stayed, I wouldn't have a job... :)

The next picture is the sunrise the day we all went palolo hunting. Beautiful. Islands in the background.

Next picture is of Josh on Thanksgiving day eating a turkey leg. It was nice to eat a lot of food and feel at least a little part of the Thanksgiving traditions.

Next picture is of some in my aiga Samoa (samoan family). Left is Tavita, my 15 year old brother, then my dad Siuleo, then me, then my mom Talasanga, then my 11 year old brother Jason.

Next is of Tavita coming back from our plantation with banana (fa'i) and coconut (popo).

And last picture is of the pig prepared on the cooking day. They cut out it's vocal chords. Cut a whole in the stomach and carefully pulled out the guts, and cut a hole in the butt to drain out all the blood. Then they stuffed it with hot rocks, why the throat is steaming. Then covered the holes with mango leaves, and stuffed a few mango leaves in the pig, then put the pig on the umu. The stuffing part helped the inside of the pig cook as fast as the outside.

I swear in tomorrow morning. I am excited. My principal of my school will be there, my aiga samoa, all the other volunteers... It will be great to finally be sworn in. Then we celebrate and move into our sites the next day. We get our bikes tomorrow. I can't wait to ride it around the island. I have to watch out for dogs though. Maybe keep a stick or pepper spray with me to ward them off.

Hope this finds everyone well during the holidays. I might say some tomorrow after swear in, but I can't promise. Manuia le kirisimasi. (Merry Christmas)