Post-Awful

The U.S. mail is consistently the only cheap, reliable way to get packages to American Samoa. That said, problems still crop up. Sara and I were expecting a few packages to arrive in time for Christmas. When some of them didn't, we rolled our eyes and brushed it off like anyone who's going to make it on this island needs to. That said, when we finally made it to the Post Office today and picked up a package from my grandmother, we managed to be stunned by the condition of the package that arrived. It was trashed on the exterior. The Postal Worker explained that sometimes the staff in Honolulu leaves the packages on the tarmac while waiting for the aircraft.

Lucky us, the contents survived intact and we're looking forward to good coffee and scones. Just take this as a lesson to insure your packages and keep the receipts (as you'll need that to collect on the insurance).

Christmas in the Tropics

It's been a little disconcerting to experience my first Southern Hemisphere Christmas. The weather's been hot and humid, with regular rainstorms giving way to the searing near-equatorial sun. Most weekends leading up to the holidays have either been too stormy to get out and do much or too hot to be out in the sun. So we've run to cover for the last few weeks.

Further social gatherings were fast and furious in the weeks leading up to the holidays. The Bar Association party was memorable as was the Legal Affairs office party (a special tip of the hat goes to Blake and his dancing...). However as the 25th approached more and more of our small palagi community began to catch the flights back to the mainland and home for the holidays.

About the time that Christmas Eve rolled around, our group of friends was severally reduced and we invited the crew we still had around over to spend the holiday at our house. Sara and I were happy to share one Sayles household family tradition with all of our friends, cioppino. For those of you who haven't experienced it, it's a traditional Italian fisherman's stew that has a long history in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the days leading up to Christmas Eve I was stunned to see good, cheap dungeness crab in a few of the markets here on island. While it was frozen, I wasn't going to let an opportunity like that pass us by. The rest of the shellfish was easy to find and swordfish stood as our whitefish. Then I was stewing the broth from the shells and trimmings in my brew pot on the stove. It was a full days worth of work to gather, prep and cook the ingredients, but once that tomato-y was ready, it all was worth it. Despite the fact that 90 degrees and rainy is not the normal temperature for hot soup, it helped make the holiday feel a little more like home in Northern California.

Pese Performance

Our big pese performance was last Friday. We had a midday practice (with last minute changes still being made to the songs we were going to be performing...grrr). At the end our rehearsal the AG told everyone to go home and relax for the rest of the afternoon. That sounded great, but with looming appeal deadline and motion deadlines, most of us attorneys were back in the office for the rest of the day. Once 4 o'clock rolled around we rallied up at Sadie's-by-the-Sea for some pre-performance libations and a bite of food. Our department was scheduled to be the second group to go on the third and last night of pese. After some grub and socializing it was time for us to get in uniform and head over to the field where we perform. I was worried about parking, as this was a big festival that I'd heard people discussing all year. Much to my surprise parking was easy and close and we were over and waiting as the first group of performers go on stage and started in with their singing.

Several large tents occupied the area in front of the stage. This played into the lack of crowds in front of the stage, most views outside of the VIP tent would be blocked. Most Samoans stay home and watch the performances on television. Only the VIPs who are invited by the governor are expected to be at the live performances. We gathered with the rest of the Department of Legal Affairs staff and watched the first group of performers take their turn in the spot light.

Eventually towards the end of the first performance we lined up in the back of the stage and prepared to go on-stage. We filed out, I ended up near the rear of the group (one of the advantages of being tall). Our performance started out with a speech by the Attorney General and the head of immigration, both in Samoan.

We then launched into our songs. We'd settled on an order and how they would be performed and it felt like a good performance. We received several compliments in the following days and people also told us they were impressed we were singing in Samoan. Looks like the broadcasts did focus in on us for our pese. We've also heard that there's video out there of us, we're working on getting a copy and will update accordingly.

The Great Movie Crisis of 2011

Living on a remote island results in shortages and lack of variety of products and services available. After being here for 7 months, I'd thought I'd gotten used to the rhythms and beats of this isolated market place. Buy the shipped-in fresh vegetables when they're in the grocery store and mostly green. Go with the canned, pickled, frozen or limited supply of local when it's been awhile since the last container ship has called on Pago Pago Harbor. These are the trials of living in paradise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

It was the entertainment shortage that I wasn't prepared to handle. It all started on Friday, November 18 when Happy Feet 2 and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 were released at the Nu'uli Place Cinema, the only movie theater on island. These two films replaced Tower Heist and Puss in Boots, another two movies that had little draw to Sara or myself, but had put a few butts in seats at the theater. Not having an interest in the animated animals or teenage heart throbs, I was happy to avoid the theaters for November.

When Happy Feet and Breaking Dawn held down the movie theater for a second week, I held out hope the next week would bring new cinematic entertainment to us here in American Samoa. Another week passed, yet new movies did not materialize in our theater.

Instead of bringing us The Muppets, Young Adult or Hugo they continued to run out night after night and show after show freaking Happy Feet 2 and The Freaky Vampire Abstinence Movie. Once the fourth week rolled around and still new movies didn't arrive, one of my friends openly called for a riot with pitch forks and torches (I suggested the more readily available machetes and coconuts). The movie viewing public didn't have the fervor of the Occupy movement, but we bided our time.

Finally, last Friday saw relief to our crisis. We were greeted by the marquee that read: Happy Feet 2 and Sherlock Holmes 2. We welcomed the end of our entertainment drought. Sunday evening we attended a packed showing of Sherlock. It was enough to stave off the turmoil of another week with the same two god-damned movies.

To our surprise we also were blessed with a midweek replacement for Happy Feet, on Tuesday it was replaced with Mission Impossible 4. We could go to sleep knowing that we had survived the Great Movie Crisis of 2011 and were able to get out of the house and be entertained.

We even managed a double date tonight to see Mission Impossible tonight. It was awesome. Now starts the wait until the next new movie comes to us...

Case in the News

One of my cases has been making the news in this otherwise quiet territory. It's even been catching some media attention in New Zealand and other places. Looks like resolution is close, at least on the American Samoa side of the matter, so it'll be back to the day in and day out of litigation here again.

Only in Samoa...

Sara and I took a quick coffee run to the McDonald's Drive-Thru (ironically one of the only places you can get a decent cup of joe on the island) this morning. In the line for ordering saw one of the odder moments that has happened tin front of us here. Someone was ordering their meal from the back of an ATV. This had us both laughing out loud.

Transportation on the island is pretty laissez-faire. It's frequent to see 5 or 6 people riding in the back of a pickup truck and aiga buses are colorful and loud substitutes for public transportation that often fill up to the point that new riders need to sit on the laps of people with seats. That said the sight of a four-wheeled dirt-bike grabbing a bite at McDonald's was new on us. Just another reminder that even though we've been here for 7 months this island will still find ways to surprise you.

Pese is in full swing

On my way back from High Court this morning, after arguing an interesting case, I was greeted with quite a set of sights and sounds in the atrium to the Executive Office Building. One of the government departments was in full rehearsal mode doing choir practice. It made for a livelier walk than usual back up to the office.

With the first night of pese scheduled to start tonight the American Samoa Government departments are doubling up on their practice time. This whole week there has been music echoing through the office building as well as long practices for our office every afternoon. Even at Court this morning the witnesses I had were bragging about last years' performances and talking up their shows for this year. Should be quite a festival over the next three evenings.

Sara and I were among the members of our office to help pick out the pese uniforms for the Department of Legal Affairs. This meant that we got to go to the fabric store pick the fabric that all the members of the Department would use to make their uniforms and then had sample designs knocked up by one of the local sewing shops for the men's and women's uniforms to show the rest of the office how to have their's made. It was classic group decision making, with several opinions pulling the print and design their own direction, but we were happy with the end product and are looking forward to seeing it on display at our televised performance on Friday.