Wet Season Doldrums

I want to say I've been remiss in updating the blog due to all the excitement and adventures we've been having. The reality is not that thrilling. The (fairly mild, according to the veteran members of our community) wet season has us firmly in its grasp. Days where we're not in the office are spent either beating the heat or hiding from the rain.

The wet season in American Samoa is the Southern Hemisphere tropical summer. Instead of the warm dry weather of California's Mediterranean-summers, we treated to maximum humidity all the time, searing sun and frequent heavy rains. Also, most tragic, we lost our trade winds from the south that would cool our side of the island. You wouldn't think a little sea breeze could make such a difference, but it makes a world of difference. Even during the dry season a little activity would work up quite a sweat. Doing the dishes or sawing through a piece of wood would leave you dripping, the difference now is that it's particularly difficult to cool off. In the dry season a little down time and some ice water would do the trick. These days you're sitting on the couch with your shirt off, with a fan pointed directly at you and slugging ice cubes and cold beverages and it still takes hours before you cease to soak thedorm furniture in salty water.

Sara and I still make an effort to get out and be active, but there is much more picking our spots. Instead of a hike and a snorkel every weekend, we're lucky to get a weather window to do either. Too many weekends have been spent on the couch watching movies to hide from the sun. Last week we had a cloudy and drizzly Sunday, so a group of us took another hike up Mount Alava. This was the best hiking I've done in months, mostly due to our avoiding the sun until the last little bit of the down hike.

Now that it's March, we're supposed to be on the up swing out the the wet season, but it can't happen soon enough in my mind. I'm ready for the heat to be slightly less and the breeze to stir our palm trees once more.