Gills

Siva Afi! Me and Laura thought we found Jesus on the beach.. but is was only Sitivi
Aleipata island group

An old picture I stumbled upon from the tsunami evacuation
Click this picture for a full-size map

I arrived at my new home in Leulumoega last Thursday. I brought a bottle of wine and some pasta as a way of greeting my new roomate Ryuta Takeda from Japan but he was nowhere to be seen. Instead it was really quiet and lonely and I spent an entire night in silence with very little to do. Having said that I hopped on the first bus I saw the next morning to head to Apia where I have been ever since then. I packed my bag full of randoms and hit the road to once again live a life out of a bagpack. Now that we are all official volunteers and have been spread out through the islands I have more opportunity (places to crash) for exploring. I ended up at the 'luxurious' Tatiana hotel with Meghan, Rob, Wes, and Aaron for the first few days and their company was well appreciated. Yesterday we went to a small beach called Palolo deep where one can witness giant sea clams that seirously can grow to about 20 feet! The fish in Palolo are big because the waters are protected. Big as they may be I still caught a glimpse of my tiny favorite fish, the beaked leatherjacket, in his comfortable home of acropora coral. In the week to come I plan to travel to the Aleipata island group with my mates, perhaps tomorrow, and explore the depths below. On my first trip to Aleipata I spotted a few endangered hawksbill sea turtles and just looking at them is truly a wonderful experience. I have been motivated by factors from every angle to become proactive in the support of the environment of these wonderful islands including the effort to preserve the struggling mangrove forests of Samoa which play a keep part in the ecosystem. One can get involved in various organizations around the island that raise awareness and actively take part in the preservation of the Samoan ecosystem. In instances such as the mangrove, the trees play a key role of filtering and providing nutrients for the animals below thus becoming a link in a very important chain. Last week we were back in Ma'asina for our swearing in and becoming official volunteers. I caught one last sight of my favorite pacific bird, the pacific reef heron. I'm trying to spend as much time as possible submerged in water these days.. working on developing gills.. anyone out there want to send me a cool Christmas present? Send me some biomechanical gills.. I'm envious of fish.. Thats all for now. Speaking of Christmas, I'm working on forgetting about it. Its not hard out here with the weather being so hot. Christmas is great and all but it makes me miss my family.

Our ancient friend, the Hawksbill seaturtle

Mangrove forest

Pacific Reef Heron