Six Month Anniversary

Today marks exactly to the day six months since I left the comforts of familiarity in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I have no idea how it is that I've been in the Peace Corps for half a year. I've now spent two major holidays without my family and I'm still here. Easter wasn't nearly as tough as Christmas was and I spent a wonderful 2 1/2 days in Savaii. I left Thursday and caught the last boat to Savaii with some other volunteers. Upon arriving at the warf in Savaii we missed our bus that was to take us to the other side of the island where we were staying. With my expert Samoan I negotiated a taxi fare that was within our budget and off we went. We stayed in Manase which is a village completely catered to tourists. We stayed in beach fales right on the ocean and ate amazing food until Saturday when we left. It was definitely a splurge on a Peace Corps salary but well worth it. Saturday I slept from 4pm until 6:30am Sunday morning (I think this is because of the dramamine I took for the boat ride) Sunday I went to church and then spent the day at the house of another volunteer where we cooked more good food. Today is Easter Monday, a holiday here, so there are no buses. So I left her house early this morning on foot and walked into town where I saw a Samoan from my paddling team who gave me a lift home. Other mundane details of the day included washing a ton of laundry (by hand of course) and hanging it outside on the line whereby of course it begins to rain shortly there after. (this is usually how it goes when i decide to make a day an laundry day) oh, well! I've been here six months and I'm proud to say that I'm still in this thing and even more excited for the next 20 months here in a tropical paradise.