One Year Mark!

The new group is arriving tomorrow, which is crazy to me as it marks one year in-country for me! It’s exciting, I feel like I’m finally getting it here. Thinking back a year ago- remembering how nervous and worried and confused I was- I feel proud of how far I’ve come, and really relieved that I don’t have to go through that again. (Anytime soon… who knows what I’ll do next, but I’m sure I’ll eventually have to start over and figure out another culture from scratch!)

Even learning the many acronyms alone was a feat- APCD, RPCV, PST, CD, COS, ET, ICM, CB, VBD, MNRE- I’m glad those are finally a comfortable part of my lingo.

On the more negative front… I just found out that my village has decided that they “need” to build a sea wall. I’d say that sea walls are one of the most dangerous things, environmentally speaking, for this country. Yes, rubbish, chemical pollution, land reclamation are all pretty big issues, but sea walls are kind of the “en vogue” thing to do in your average coastal village.

With global warming drastically affecting many small island nations, (and as contentious as that topic may be in America, there is absolutely no doubt, no debate, as to it’s existence in most low-lying islands- the affects are apparent in every village), most villages are trying to cope with how severely waves and subsequent erosion are destroying their coastlines. The problem is that Samoa was very quick to jump on the “sea wall boat” and obtained funding to build many sea walls throughout the country. The reasons this has become a huge problem are many- one of which is that many villages seek the funding, without understanding how horribly most sea walls affect their

reefs and fishing areas.

The companies that get contracted out to build the sea walls often don’t build the sea walls correctly (for a variety of reasons that I can’t go into in a public forum) thus wreaking havoc on the coastal ecosystem. If a sea wall (built of large rocks and boulders along the coastline) is built too steep--as most are--the waves hit the wall with a lot of blunt force, and that force must go somewhere, which means that it often goes down, straight into the sand. This pulls the sand out from the beach and drags it out onto the reef- which smothers the coral, dramatically reduces the fish population, and causes extreme turbidity in the water.

So basically, in less scientific-y/engineer-y terms: The companies build a wall that the waves smash into really hard, which causes the sand to get dragged out to sea, which kills the coral, kills the fish, and pollutes the water. End result: The villages have a hugely messy lagoon and have no fish to eat.

I think some huge amount- in the 70% range- of villages rely on fish for daily consumption. Needless to say, sea walls are NOT usually a great idea. And my village has requested one.

I am just one white woman, which doesn’t lend me a lot of credibility when faced with a large group of revered matai (chiefs). I am really concerned that they are going to get funding from the government and go through with it. I hate that one of my biggest accomplishments here could end up being stopping a project in my village- I’d rather be the pisikoa that helps them build a new school, or helps them get computers, or a gets a small business project going. But in several years, having a sea wall could mean the complete end of fishing in my village- an activity that they’ve been doing here for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Wish me luck.