The big boys playing cricket in their lava lava's and flip flops.  Man, they can hit that ball a mile.  They put a couple in the ocean while I was watching.

Boats and palm trees.  They're everywhere!

 Downtown Apia from the sea wall

                                                                 

I love this picture

 Oh O.  More flowers

There are lots of coincidences in my dealings with Samoans.  I've been invited to go out on a date with a Samoan woman.  She cleans my apartment and does my laundry.  I decided to "why not" and give it a go.  Her name is Tia.  She is a nice lady, a widow, and works at the temple on Saturdays.  I think she felt sorry for me and said she thought I needed a friend.  Well, anyway, Tia lived in Phoenix when her husband died.  She moved back home to be with family and works with them at the housing motel where I'm staying.  I was telling Beth Hunt, our receptionist at the clinic, who is the same age as me, about my date and she said "The Craige family are very nice people."  I said, "Are they Craiges?"  She said, " yes they are a very big family and have been in the church for years."
Well brother Craige's mother is an Ah Mu and he is William Ah Mu's cousin, Elaine's brother in law.  So my date is Williams cousin somehow. Beth said she knows William.  She went to school with him in Hawaii.  After graduation Beth became the first principal of the Ah Mu academy which is on property adjacent to the church college. William Ah Mu is connected somehow to almost everyone I know who has a Samoan connection.

I went Wednesday on a sightseeing trip just to take pictures.  The colors here almost overwhelm the senses.  I took a bunch of photos and hope you enjoy them.

Isn't this a beautiful place?

Went snorkeling Saturday with the senior missionaries.  The mission President let us take a big mission van so we could all ride together.  We had a fun time.  The senior zone leader asked me to present the next home evening with the senior couples.  He knows I'm leaving soon and that I was easy pickings.  There are so many different things the senior couples do here that he would like us all to know what we're all doing here.  There are humanitarian missionaries, self reliance, education, financial, mission home couple, transportation, nurse, dental, and probably some others I don't know about yet.  They are a good bunch.
     The driver of the van locked the van and I had my camera in there so I didn't get a lot of pictures.  And with so many people it was hard to stop along the way to take photos, so my selection is slim, but I hope you enjoy them.

 The wifi hasn't worked out so I'll just use the internet at the office.  It's a little inconvenient to drive here with my laptop but it's only for another month so it'll be ok.

Wednesday I went to the fish market. The lady that we dealt with last year, Beverly, recognized me and asked me where my cowboy friend was.  I told her he was in Africa and she said "Well at least you came back to Samoa."  The boat had just come in and they had a nice catch of snapper.  They filleted one for me and I have enough for 6 meals.  I had one tonight with rice pilaf and oh man, was it good.

 Snapper just off the boat

 This is Beverly.  I remembered her name and she was impressed.  I didn't tell her my sister has the same name.  And no they don't even come close to resembling one another.

 Swattin the flies away, swattin the flies.

 This pic shows the lawnmowers at work.  They use weed eaters and mow great swaths of lawn as you can see on this rugby field.

Laundry day at the fale.

 Some shots in the clinic.

Have a nice weekend.  Going snorkeling tomorrow with the senior missionaries to one of my favorite spots where we see giant clams

Oh oh.  More flowers.  Very aromatic.

 Samoan feet are wonderful.  Always a space between the big toe and next toe.  That's from wearing flip flops from the time they can walk.  It's like orthodontics for the feet.  Following are views from the clinic.

Tofa!

In the Togitogiga Forest Preseve stands a tree that is 500 years old.  A Ma tree.  There is a trail leading to it thru the rain forest which I walked.  I missed seeing it when I was here in 2015, so I took the chance Saturday that it would still be there.  It's stabilizing roots have grown into huge ribbons some of which are 8 feet tall.  My walk thru the jungle led me to huge ferns, massive vines that covered acres of ground, beautiful leaves filtering the sunlight, and lots of black lizzards.  I should have worn hiking boots instead of sandals.

  On my way around the islandI saw black sand beaches, bare bottomed children, meager huts where families were living, beautiful mountains and great fence posts.  I'm taken with the fences here.  The posts are either sporting moss or growing branches.

My apartment is cleaned twice a week.  I'm given clean bed linens and towels.  This week I found that my laundry was done and my shirts were ironed and hanging in the closet.  I had a bouquet of fragrant flowers on the table and doilies on the night stands.  I just learned that the housekeeper is a widow who just moved here from Phoenix.  Oh, oh.