Boulevard of Bumps

I love EPC, the Electric Power Company here in Samoa.   Today they came for a drive up Hollywood Boulevade, admittedly they drove sraight back out again but then I saw................     him, a Knight in high vis, just beyond the tree split by the cyclone.   A courageous and hard working EPC man at the end of our road.   Tonight we continue to be without power, but much of the centre has power and it is quickly venturing up the hill to our house.    Yippee EPC! Yippee Samoa!

A Quick Post while I have internet access.   We are safe and now living without power or running water.     Cyclone Evan was frightening and terrorised Samoa for 24 hours, it reached category 3 at 3am, then hovered off the coast threatening to return as a category 4.   We bailed out our house for hours trying to keep the last two rooms dry, one for sleeping the other for storage.  At 12pm we set up a cyclone shelter in a bathroom, with matress, passports, food, water, medicine and bag with change of clothes.       We lost a small part of the carport roof and along with the rest of Samoa prayed that the roof of the house would hold and it did.       The boy's cubby was destroyed.   For many Samoans the cyclone was 100 times worse and continues to make life difficult.  Our friend BRoss down at Salamumu lost his house and accommodation fales, but he and ...

Smiley's favourite phrase is "I'm Hungry". When he walked out at the Parade of Nations practice for the Judo World Cup holding this sign I had to smile. This week our wonderful Samoan doctor decided Riley might need to see an ENT specialist to investigate what is going on with his ears. He was brave when she said he might need grommets, he saw what Bunny went through and he knows what might be install for him. Monday he got his yellow belt at Judo, he actually passed the grading three weeks ago, but we had to leave Judo in a hurry so he missed out on the presentation of the new belt. We celebrated with a yellow belt burger at Apia Yacht Club, well done Smiley.

Sometimes living in Samoa is like living inside a large petri dish of disease. Over the past two years we have experienced a range of viruses and the like, if we were living in Australia DOCs would be becoming suspicious!   Recently Smiley was stung by a nasty orange wasp, these big fellas agressively defend their nests in October and on our first year here one attacked Bunny, chasing him into the house and stinging him five times.  The welts are nasty and Bunny still has some scars. The next day Smiley came to show us his red shoulder and I observed some other small r ed spots on his torso. His mate at school had just been diagnosed with Chicken Pox although he had been immunised in Australia.  Smiley has also been immunised but these Samoan viruses are strong and Smiley ended up with some red spots sans blisters, fever and pain.  Little did he know he got off lightly. Bunny happily ended up having three days off with Smiley, with a mere th...