Peta in Samoa: COS conference and MANY pictures!

Fa le Soifua Group 76!

Group 76- After two completing two years of service in Samoa!

(back row: Texas, Ray, Jan, Jordan, Steph, Sita, Jame, front row: Vik, Tim, Erik)

I just wanted to put up a few photos from our Close of Service conference, at Coconuts Beach Club. It was three days of great food, lots of 'processing our experiences', and hanging out with most of my group one last time. A highlight? Hot water in the showers!

We ate really, really well at Coconuts- although the restaurant manager was a total jerk, the food was excellent and it's always nice to eat free food! It was also nice to be at a resort where very few people knew me- most of the beach fale resorts I visit- the backpacker-y type places- know many of us PCVs, so there's very little privacy and anonymity.

This is the 'room' that Sita, Jame, Sefa and I stayed in- it was incredible! Apparently it was $850 US a night, although PC Samoa is waaay too cheap to pay that much, so we must have gotten some sort of a deal! It was a two story fale, and beautiful! The bathroom even had a bidet, which is not fa'asamoa. Did I mention there was hot water?!

Sita, Sefa and I in the 'room'. PC likes to 'treat' the outgoing groups to a nicer place for our final conference... Clearly!! We made the most of it and felt very touristy the whole time!

Jame, Sita and I- the ICM girls!

I'm enjoying my last few weeks, although I'm starting to feel a bit antsy to come home, which is good. I'm spending this next weekend at my counterpart, Tavita's village, as well as visiting my family in my village. Then, next week I'm helping with a few training sessions for the new PC Trainees, and finishing up at work. I'm trying to get as many of those last-minute touristy things done, as well as tie up the loose ends of the PC-related stuff. I'm really looking forward to being done with the bureaucracy of PC, and being independent again.

Students from Lefaga Secondary School- Aaron, Matt and I helped with a group of students fro University Prep in Seattle when they came to Samoa for a few weeks, and arranged for them to paint a gigantic world map mural on the wall of the school! Most students don't have any access to a map, and thus think that Samoa is pretty much it when it comes to the world. This was a great project and a really fun day!

The UPrep students and some of the Lefaga Secondary School students after completing the map! The right hand map is the world map, and the left is a map of all the countries in the South Pacific.

An impromptu ava ceremony at the beach at the Ecotourism Conference in May.