A Beautiful First Day

14 Commentsby   |  05.30.11  |  Pago Pago, American Samoa

May 17, 2011

A Beautiful Samoan Sunrise! What a wonderful Birthday present from God. :)

Here's a picture of all the personless bags. I'll explain in the blog.

Well it is now 7:25 a.m., and my body is really confused. We arrived at the airport yesterday in Austin, TX at 4:30 a.m. and arrived at the airport in American Samoa last night at 11:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. for Texas). Of course our eating patterns were completely thrown off, and there was only one flight that fed us a meal. Obviously, yesterday was a LONG day! I am really looking forward to today because I will feel like there is actually a normal schedule again. I woke up this morning (5:15 because my body thought it was 11:15), watched the beautiful sunrise with Dean, went out to take some great nature shots (giant snails included), ate breakfast, and now I’m writing! Wonderful day so far…….oh yeah. And…..today is my birthday!!! What a wonderful beautiful place to spend a 21st birthday! It truly is beautiful here. All the picture I saw online (google pictures) really weren’t lying! J I’m trying to capture God’s beauty with my new camera, but I just can’t seem to do it. God is truly amazing!I do want to share some experiences from yesterday. (I’ll try to keep it short…but it probably won’t happen.) The flights were pretty normal really…until the very last leg. Standing in line to check-in our luggage was interesting. Dean and I were standing in line behind about 50 bags, but absolutely no people. The people were in the same room, but they trusted that no one would take anything. You FOR SURE wouldn’t see anything like that anywhere in the states. Pretty much everyone on the flight was returning home to American Samoa, so I got an introduction to the friendliness of the people here. I really could not tell who belonged with which family. I did my best while waiting in the gate to fit families and friends together, but I was continuously proved wrong and just got really confused. My mom and I love listening to conversations and watching people in places like airports to figure out who’s related to who and how. Well… I just was not able to do that here. It was definitely frustrating at times to here a conversation going on and not understand much at all. Dean did tell me that if people were talking, they probably weren’t talking about me, unless I heard the word ‘palagi,’ which is the word for ‘white people.’ I would know they were talking about me especially since I was the only obvious white person on the entire flight.

As soon as I walked out of the plane, Dean pointed out the Southern cross constellation…which of course I have never seen before. The next thing I realized was how extremely humid it is! I was warned, and they were of course right. After getting our luggage, I was welcomed by Dylan, David, and Danna (my host family/Dean’s family) with an ‘ula’ which is like a lei in Hawai’i. We drove home which is another thing Dean warned me about. The road was definitely bumpy and full of pot holes. Mosquitoes are another thing that are quite different here. I mean, I know there are mosquitoes in Texas, but when you see a mosquito in Texas, you follow it, kill it, and move on with life. When I got here, I saw a mosquito, followed it, saw five more around it, and moved on with life. J There is no use in killing only one. After calling my Mom to tell her I made it safely, I crawled into bed and fell asleep to the sounds of crickets, dogs, the wind in the trees, geckos, and maybe some toads? I’m not sure if that was part of the noise I heard. Needless to say, it was great to fall asleep to the breeze coming in through the windows and the sounds of nature.

Thank you thank you thank you everyone who prayed for the safety of our travels yesterday! Our only problems were getting to the airport 30 min. late in Austin and sitting on the plane in Hawai’i for an hour before we began our taxi to the runway. I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family to pray for me and encourage me. Be sure to check my facebook for pictures!
Also, read Dean’s blog: deanwillis.blogspot.com!

14 Comments

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