This will be my last post before coming home.  I leave next Monday morning at 1:30 am.  I will miss this place and the loving people but I am excited to return and see my family.  Yesterday we were invited by a family to join them at their home for a day of fishing and food.  The invitation was too great to pass up.  1st, we stopped by the church in their village of Safaatoa where they were having a young men/young women cultural activity.  The were having an umu (native cooking) followed by singing and Samoan cultural dance.  They killed and cooked chickens, a pig, and cooked taro, samoan noodles, cocoa Samoa.  They gave us a soup/drink appetizer made from bananas and tapioca served in a coconut shell.  Drinking it was like kissing a woman with a mustache.

We then went to the families home then to the sea.  The ocean was too rough beyond the reef so we just had a ride in the outrigger canoe and Tasi did the fishing, free diving with a spear gun.

He got a mess of colorful fish.  Then we went back to his plantation.  He and his brother cooked the fish and some taro in coconut cream.  The best taro I had eaten in Samoa.  I even took seconds.  The cooking was done in a separate kitchen fale over an open fire.  Water is taken from a tap in the middle of the yard.  There is no indoor plumbing.  They do have a shower but no hot water.  It's like camping out all the time.  Tasi hunts wild pigs and fishes to supply the family with meat.  They also raise pigs and chickens, and everything else is supplied by their plantation, ie, papaya, bananas, mangos, taro, pineapple, and breadfruit.  They have no mortgage because the property is handed down to families for generations, so they sell their produce at market to provide money for electricity, water, gasoline, clothing, and automobiles.  Very simple life but they are happy.

Some images from the last few days.

About an hour ago the mission nurse called and needed help with an elder who had cut his finger on a mirror.  I went to the mission home, stitched up his finger, cleaned it up and sent him on his way.  10 minutes after I got home she called again about a missionary sister who stepped into some tree stumps and got a sliver in her leg.  This was yesterday and already her leg was red and draining pus.  We numbed the area and felt around and found two good sized splinters in her leg.  Cleaned her up, gave her antibiotics and sent her home.  It seems sister Casita, the nurse, will resort to magic before she sends someone to the hospital.  Just don't tell the authorities Cidne.
     This week Samoa is the host to the Youth Commonwealth Games and the Teulia Festival, which is a celebration of Samoan traditional music and dance.  The festival

is a competition with groups competing from all around Samoa.  Dr. Larsen and I went Thursday evening and sat on the lawn surrounding the stage and enjoyed the performances very much.  These are talented, musical people.  Two girls came into our office this week just to sing to us.
     We went to the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games.  It's like the olympics but not as grand.  There were participants from all over the world, countries who are or used to be part of the British commonwealth.  The British really got around.

The Gillettes, foreground are farmers from Gooding, Idaho, the Jacobs behind them are from California and they are our zone leaders, and next to them are the Whittles, horse ranchers from Ferrin, Utah.  The lady in red, standing, is a patient of mine as are the children directly behind us.  They're everywhere.

Wednesday I went golfing for 9 holes just to check that off my list.  It cost 3 tala for nine holes, or about $1.25.  I rented clubs and a cart which brought it up to $20.  The clubs were almost unrecognizable and the putter was pink.  Along the way a kid came out to sell me some golf balls.  I bought one just so I could take his picture.  He's got a way better swing than I do.  These guys are not only musical but athletic.

I don't think the video works and I can't erase it...........So long for now