This has been a busy week - mainly due to school resuming for the Church College. I (Kathy) have been working with two remedial classes of English as a volunteer and will do so in any spare time I have that we don't have company. We have a senior missionary couple in charge of the classes and they have set out a predetermined course for us to follow and have tested the students to place them into similar grade level groups. My third period class includes two students, one of whom has been absent all week. Faaolataga (student's name) is such a delight to work with and it is nice for me to work with someone who actually can read and follow written instructions. My past classes were the lowest level achievers and I believe they had learning disabilities as well as poor english skills. Well, Faaolataga was so cute one day as he left class, he pulled out a $2 tala bill and handed it to me - "for your lunch"! I declined and told him to use it himself but he assured me he had more for his lunch. I still declined and told him to spend it himself for something. I was really touched that he would do such a kind thing.
Roy has been busy with meetings trying to get things going for a sign in front of the school, etc. He can enlarge on that in his Amu Academy blog.

Our weekly excursion to the beach began with us inviting the young adults to come with us. We didn't know until it was time to go who would show up so the Wagstaff's were waiting to go with us or hop in with the other senior missionaries who decided to go to the same beach. We did indeed have two young men come - Ezra is a recently returned missionary from the Sydney South Mission, and Luke is a young man who recently came here from New Zealand to be with his family who are stationed here while he prepares for his mission. They were delighted to ride in the box of the truck for the over-an-hour trip to the beach. Luke was excited as he had never ridden that way before, it being illegal in New Zealand like it is in North America. The Wagstaff's kept us company in the air conditioned comfort of the cab.
Vavau is one of our favorite beaches and we enjoyed snorkeling, swimming, the boys played football with some drunk Samoans and we played with the other members of the ward that had come. At one point I asked Roy for the keys to the truck that he keeps in a velcro pocket of his swim suit. You guessed it - they were gone. We have done this for 3 months and have had no problem but they were really and truly missing from his pocket. We were ill as it is a good hour back to the rental agency to get another key. Roy pulled his snorkel mask down and proceeded to look around where we had just been in the water. I had walked up toward the truck and by the time I got there, I heard a shout from the sea and saw some waving hands and the keys had been found! The fact that they had a lime green fob to be easily seen and three keys so they were heavy enough to sink rather than be taken with the waves was helpful. The fact that the sand hadn't covered them was a miracle of it's own as the sand under the waves in that little bay is constantly shifting. We were truly looked after yesterday!

On the trip home. we hit a speed bump that Roy failed to slow for - I don't think it was marked very well, as most are painted with big yellow stripes. Well, the boys in the back were air borne! They must have lifted a couple of feet and Ezra came down on a plastic bag with Sister Wagstaff's sea shells in and scraped his leg. We felt dreadful but I think they secretly enjoyed the thrill.

Speaking of scrapes, Faafetai is the sister of the home ec teacher who lives across the street and down a house. She came over on Monday night with a dreadful looking foot. She had been playing basketball on Friday and had fallen on the asphalt, causing a wound about 2x2" and her foot was so swollen we wondered if it was broken. Sister Smart and I took care of her that night by washing it with salt water and applying some antibacterial spray and have her elevate it with ice. I went over after FHE to see and just thought to take a ziploc bag with ice cubes to put on it. They had water boiling - when I asked for water they indicated the boiling water. No, I just needed tap water to mix with the salt to cleanse it. Well, as it came out, they don't have any ice cube trays and were just using cool water. We limped though the night with what we had and the next day we took her to the nurse for the missionaries to consult whether she needed x-rays, etc. We both felt it probably wasn't broken as she could walk on it and there was no bruising - only swelling. I went down to Maria's Pharmacy and asked for some antibiotic to ward off cellulitis and other infections. We put her on a 7 days course of keflex and started her treatments right away. We had her stay home from school and elevate it all day. I washed it with salt water and sprayed it several times in the day. By the end of the day, it was forming nice scabs and we decided to keep bandages off so it could dry. She had been putting antibiotic ointment on it and vick vapor rub on the swelling! It had been ooziing since Friday so we thought it best to let it dry. Anyway, we sent her home and I checked with her in the morning. It was horrible again and it came out she had showered twice and scrubbed it with soap, taking all the scabs off and it was oozing again! Well, a bandage with ointment covered by an elastic ankle support set her for going to school (she wouldn't take another day off) and by the end of the day, all the dead skin, etc. came off with the bandage. I kept her for a few hours while it dried after we cleaned it and she had been healing ever since. (a lot of that has to do with following strict instructions to not wash it or get it wet). It was good to monitor her pain and tolerance to activity with the 1-10 scale and it was so cute - she would go by my house and call in "It is a 1" and then later "It is 0". Faafetai is such a cute girl and I enjoyed getting to know her. Why didn't we take her to the Dr. you might ask. I have my personal reasons for distrusting the Samoan Dr. and my experience seeing the results of any local visits makes me realize that my experience in the Dr. offices at home qualifies me for more common sense than I see the Dr. use. Sister Jensen was a great resource. When Elder Argyle had his heart attack here a month or so ago, it took hours to finally find any nitro (even at the private hospital the ex patriots use) and had to go out to the airport (45 minute drive) to get a defib. machine to use. When I took Chris, a neighbor boy, with his mom to the Dr. to sew up a good 1 inch cut in his leg, the Dr. put in 2 stitches and I watched occasionally over the next 3 weeks how the sore gaped and healed very slowly. I almost felt I could have done a better job, having only watched the Dr. stitch at home.

Monday was the beginning of the Teuila Festival - an annual event that was scaled down this year due to the efforts in the South Pacific Games. The only thing we did was attend the fautasi (long boat) races Monday morning. We went down to Apia Harbor with the Smarts and saw a few of the boats as they came racing past the point. We then went down by the Apia Yacht club to watch them bring the boats out of the water. These boats are powered by about 45 people and there is a drummer beating time for the rowing. Graham and Jacqui heard and saw one practicing when we were staying on the island of Namua. It was nice to see the group of participants kneeling in prayer all together at one point, as they were getting ready to pull it out and store it in the long boat shed.


We will try to write in the next two weeks but I don't know how much time we will have. We are so excited to have Ian, Sharleen and Neko come on Wednesday morning!