Noticing things in American Samoa
We'd booked a tour with the title “Village Life” today, hoping to learn something about how people live and work here in a country so very far from home.
Blue Sky, a communications company were omnipresent, there at the dock welcoming us with so many generous promotional freebies. It seemed strange to promote their network to foreigners like that, until it dawned on me that we were probably being targeted as potential investors?
Our bus was both basic and fur-lined with the best air conditioning - no windows! That made taking snaps out from the vehicle so much easier than usual, but it also added the noise of the engine and the exhaust fumes to our “enjoyment”.
And since all the vehicles were painted blue with the Blue Sky logo, we noticed the small feature which differentiated one from another. Ours was the bus with the red flowers along the side.
Government buildings were easily recognisable!
The adjacent oil/fuel depot was adorned with locally painted murals with colourful images depicting Samoan life.
First stop, the flower pot rocks.
As we drove, we couldn't help but notice many of these open sided contructions. What were they? What was their purpose? Our guide, sweet as she was, did her best to explain and we did our best to listen but sadly, the engine noise won out and we hadn't a clue!
Some buildings needed no explanation of course.
As we drove, I was intrigued by these spectacular flowers, different from any we've seen previously.
We also noticed that most houses had some kind of gravestone in their garden and I thought back to one of the French Polynesian islands where our guide had told us that Polynesians prefer to keep their family close to home after their death. It looked as though the Samoan people had similar views.
The larger and more elaborate the house, the grander the memorials, some of which could almost be described as mausoleums.
As we drove, we passed shopping centres reminiscent of America, this one with “the only” cinema. Our guide stressed that there was “only one” of everything on “the island of American Samoa”
Passing one of those “mausoleums”…
The signs along the way were becoming quite familiar too. The threat of a tsunami is ever present.
Another structure we noticed was there by the roadside and looked pretty familiar - it was a bus stop. There followed a lengthy explanation about how to catch a bus in PagoPago; stand by the road and put out your hand. In other words, do exactly the same as we do in the UK!
I snapped this photo as an attempt to capture the American Samoan flag, but include it here because it proved to be one of the few saloon cars we noticed on the island!
Most vehicles were large pick up trucks as can be seen here in the McDonalds car park.
This one is of what I thought to be the Post Office, but then turned out to be the Election Office on closer inspection.
Along the road, we seemed to be passing the college just as the students were leaving or changing classes, so we could see their school uniform. This was another feature of Samoan schools - no uniform and you'd be sent home for the day.
As we were approaching the site of the 2009 tsunami, it seemed sensible to have a clearly identified evacuation zone “just in case” it ever happens again.
As we jumped down from the bus, one feature we'd noticed in American Samoa was ever present. Sadly, the pristine nature of French Polynesia was lacking here.
The Tsunami site was peaceful and there was a memorial somewhere in those trees (I think), but it was a short stop and my attention was drawn to the nearby hibiscus blooms.
Around six inches in diameter, the flowers were spectacular.
Hah! This was the Post Office - an open sided empty space, with a few banks of post boxes.
We continued to pass these open sided pavilions, prompting me to ask our guide what they were called. I wanted to know more about them and thought that if I had the correct terminology, I could do a search later. I was advised they were known as “guest houses”.
Needless to say, searching for “American Samoan Guest Houses” later offered plenty of ideas of where to stay, but no information whatsoever about what I was looking for. (Thankfully the answer came later…patience required!)
Our final stop was at the Village. Since we'd booked this tour, I had looked up more details and read that this was a “reconstructed village”, leading me to fear that we were going to see a tourist experience rather than the real thing.
The next post will continue the story. For now though, rather than risk losing this whole post due to the flaky internet service, I'll start afresh for that.
