Welcome to the Rock

Thanks to CKD for finding this on YouTube. A little local hip-hop flavor. "I'm from the 684 and proud of it too" -- classic.

Christmas is electric

Christmas is big on the island. Surprisingly, I have seen very few Christmas lights in the last few weeks. The one huge exception is the Catholic church in the village of Leone. Legend has it an old Samoan lady felt bad that Samoan children weren't able to see Disneyland for themselves. So the old Samoan lady took her old pen and wrote an old letter to Disneyland. The good people at Disneyland were so moved by the story they shipped hundreds of Disney-themed decorations to the church so Disney could be experienced by all Samoan children. The result is the electric church seen above.














There are literally hundreds of plastic light up Santas, Winnie the poohs, Mickeys, snowmen, and other fun plastic figures (Mary, Joseph, the donkey) covering every inch of the church's facade.














Across the street is a memorial to John Williams, the English missionary who helped Christianize the area and was later killed and consumed by Polynesian cannibals. Now, instead of cannibals, his tomb is surrounded by electric penguins in top hats and fifty or so Frosty the snowmen.


































"Hooray for missionaries!"















Sad penguin and I trying to figure out the church's electricity bill.

Fa'afafine Pageant

An interesting aspect to American Samoa culture are the Fa'afafine. Fa'afafine are transgender individuals that live in American Samoa and other areas of the South Pacific. Fa'afafine assume a female gender role and are an accepted part of the Samoan way of life. Every year the fa'afafine association holds various talent and beauty pageants to support local causes. This was the annual beauty pageant, which included talent, fashion, and evening gown/Q&A portions.













Almost every contestant chose the same talent, which was lip-synching and dancing to some pop song. My favorite was the contestant that "sang" "Jesus, Take the Wheel" with American sign language.



















The clothes were impressive











and in the end Trinity Ali was crowned Miss (Fa'afafine) American Samoa. It was a unique evening to say the least and an interesting insight into American Samoa culture. Samoa news has a good article about the pageant and the winner here.

Ofu Redux

More big times on little island

This month I officially became a member of the American Samoa Bar Association. With this honor, I can practice law in the territory. Here I am taking the oath with my boss Chief Justice F. Michael Kruse. Note the Chief Justice's traditional lava-lava. Note me, looking like I should be attending a barbecue in the 1950's.





Signing my oath...













Justice Kruse pointing out that, actually, I just bought a time share in the Wisconsin Dells.








All kidding aside, I am happy to be a member of one of the most unique bar associations on the planet.

Thanksgiving in Ofu

For Thanksgiving a group of us went to the small island of Ofu. A quick 20 minute flight to what is considered one of the best beaches in the world. We stayed at a great resort on the island, seconds from the water...

Saying goodbye to the big island


Ofu airport


View from the runway


The beaches




A unique feature of Ofu is the bridge that connects it to the other small island of Olosega. The bridge spans a narrow straight of coral reef that at low tide is about 7 feet deep. From the bridge to the water is a drop of about 35 feet. Naturally, and not heeding the childhood advice of my mother, I jumped off the bridge because all my friends were doing it.

The bridge

Flying palagis!
Co-clerk Chase
New new guy Sean
Haz-Matt
Gwen

Lisa and Sarah (Sarah trying to climb Lisa back up to the bridge)

Doug

Me, taking the leap (and pathetically trying to flap my arms)

Flapping didn't help...


Eventually, growing bored with just jumping off the bridge, some upped the ante by driving a truck over the bridge and then jumping from the bed of the moving truck and off the bridge. Regrettably, I didn't try this but there is video of it, which hopefully will make it to the blog in the near future.

After a couple of days of sunburns, cuts, and bruises the plane came back for us.

I also had the added bonus of celebrating my 31st birthday on the last day of our trip ... there are certainly worse ways to spend the holidays.


Glad to see Shaun Alexander found work carrying bags at the Ofu airport.

Big times on little island

Having grown tired of sandwiches made of white bread and corned beef cans, American Samoa has opened its second 24 hour McDonald's! Right across the street from the Court, the new McDonald's opened with great fanfare last week. The Governor and other dignitaries attended the ceremony.
Expecting large crowds, no less than six members of the police department manned the front door.
The hoi polloi in line for their free McNuggets...


Not quite as incredible as the new McDonald's, last week co-clerk passed the California bar exam...


To celebrate, the palagis went to the American Samoa Community College production of the "King and I". Here I am, ready to be transported to magical Siam...

Magical Siam

I was asleep 30 minutes into the show so the photos stop here but I was told the production was incredible.

Ride to work

Although quite ordinary to me at this point my drive to work is not the usual commute and so I thought I'd post some shots from my daily grind...



On my 20 minute ride to work there are approximately 4-5 signs warning the youth about the dangers of teen pregnancy, here's one


Cruising along the coast...


Passing Samoana High School...

This is probably the best of the teen pregnancy signs: "Don't Be Fooled Because He's Cute." Awesome because of the blue-eyed white guy on the sign.
The port...
Some non-pregnant youth outside the court...

Election day in the territories

Voting [for Obama] via absentee ballot a few weeks back, my election day had already taken place but politics were in full swing in the territory. There were three parties running for governor of American Samoa this year and various groups vying for county representative spots in addition to three candidates running for American Samoa's [non-voting] seat in Congress. In the end, the gubernatorial election was too close to call and there will be a run off between the teams of Togiola/Faoa and Utu/Nua. I can't say much about the candidates since I have only been here a few months but their foot soldiers were out in force on election day.


An Utu supporter fraternizing with a Togiola supporter...scandalous.


One of my favorite candidates this season has been Fagatogo Steve. He is running for a county representative position and his signs have been up since I arrived on the island. Fagatogo is the village where the court is located so I have seen a lot of Steve propaganda. He also has a big blue truck that drives around with a giant "Fagatogo Steve" decal on it. In the States it'd be like a candidate calling himself Pasadena Jerry.


After months of anticipation I finally met Steve outside the court. He's the dude in the middle. Steve thought we were newspaper reporters and seemed genuinely disappointed when he found out we were just non-voting palagis. However, he did offer us one of the free lunches that he was giving out to his supporters.

Sad postscript: Steve lost.