Best Explanation of American Samoa's Place in the U.S. I've Seen

This is the best explanation of American Samoa's unique place in the U.S. sphere of influence I've seen.

That's a wrap!

Sara and I had our last day of work in the Office of the Attorney General on Wednesday last week. Since then it's been a flurry of packing and paperwork (OK the paperwork part wasn't a flurry, it's just been showing up at the Payroll Office everyday for the past 8 days to get them to figure out my final payment and W-2 amounts). We had a tofa lunch with our coworkers last Friday and a Waterslide Tofa Party out at Coconut Point on Saturday. I walked away from the slide battered and bruised, but with a huge grin on my face. The grin was less enthusiastic on Sunday when one of those wounds started to get infected, but a trip to the emergency room and a double dose of antibiotics later, I'm good to go. Since then it's been farewells and packing. We had a wonderful goodbye dinner last night with a group at Moana O Sina. If we were able to get meals that nice and in that kind of atmosphere, there wouldn't be as much of a push from Sara and I to leave. Alas, the best meal I had on the island was my last night before flying out. Too little, too late to convince Sara and I to re-up. Next up is two nights in Honolulu followed by five weeks in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Not sure what our internet connections will be during that time, but wanted to update the blog one last time before Sara and I shut off our internet connection here.

Mustache Slide

Not all the ridiculous parties we throw on island are worth a blog post. This one is. We did a mustache and waterslide party. It resulted in this video:

Who wants a Mustache Slide? from Alex Messina on Vimeo.

Which is awesome. Enjoy.

Price Per Pound

The Pacific Islands don't make international news very often for their business innovation. However, the new airline, Samoan Air, flying into American Samoa has managed to do just that. How, you ask, by charging passengers based on their weight. With through the roof obesity levels here, it will be an experiment that either does well or fails. The airlines currently flying between American Samoa and Samoa charge $120-$140 roundtrip per person. At $4.16/kg and 2.2kg/lb that's $1.89 per pound. Which makes Samoa Air cheaper than the competition if you weigh less than 74 pounds, not necessarily my choice at the moment.

UPDATE: the earlier article reported in Samoan tala (worth about $0.45). So the pricing actually works out to be $0.97-1.06/lb.

UPDATE II: Turns out the quoted price is per kilo and in dollars. So that makes it a little more price competitive. The break even point for the Pago to Apia flight ($0.93/kilo vs. $140 roundtrip)  is 165lbs. The better deal is flying to Savaii, where there currently aren't any flights from American Samoa (at $1.06/kilo).

Sinking Boats

Sara and I have been back from New Zealand for over a week, our photos are coming up soon. But some work related stuff couldn't wait.

Since I've been in American Samoa representing the Port, two marine vessels have sunk in the harbor. The problem is American Samoa has no laws dealing with abandoned or derelict marine vessels. Thus its difficult for the government to be proactive about dealing with these problem ships. To help alleviate this situation I drafted a proposed statute that lays out the procedure for noticing, removing and disposing of abandoned boats. The proposed statute is adapted from Alaska's Title 30, Chapter 30. After a bit of lobbying by the Coast Guard, the Director of Marine & Wildlife Resources, the Director of the Department of Port Administration and myself the proposed bill is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday morning.

The Attorney General has asked me to attend and testify on behalf of the Office of the Attorney General. I'm excited to see some action on this issue. With less than two months left on my contract, I'm eager to leave American Samoa with a better legal means of dealing with dangerous ships. I'll give an update after the hearing.

8 minutes from Auckland

I've got 8 minutes of internet to burn here in Auckland. It's been a great day thus far. Sara and I have been living a culturally austere lifestyle in American Samoa. Thus being dropped in a city like Auckland is a welcome thing for both of us. We hit museums, tapas bars, the yachts in the harbor and foreigners... and nice weather. We're off the visit the Northlands tomorrow. Should be another round of awesome.

A Programming Note

Sara and I are off to New Zealand (with a small layover in Samoa) for the next three weeks. Therefore we're scrambling to pack and I'm busy making it rain "pretend" money. Good times. We'll check back in when we're back in American Samoa.

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentines Day. Here's an ula for your trouble. We need to celebrate these occasions with a little island flair while we can.