Day Four (August 28th)

Thursday?! Must be on island time, aye. When you are in a beautiful place like this, it is difficult to keep track of days and pay attention to clock dials. Today was a day of rest and recovery from the past few. We were awoken by a shake and holler from outside our fale telling us it was breakfast time. Although it is a sweet-as deal when both breakfast and dinner are included in fale tees, it is kind of annoying that we have designated times for them (8am and 7pm). Dan, Kristi, and I mumbled “thanks” (fa fa tai) to the Taufua dude and rolled back over. We were a tad-bit late for breakfast, but they had already pre-loaded plates for us. We followed the typical mealtime routines of 21 questions with stranger and new faces at the tables and headed straight back to our fale to nap! Ah, it was so good! We spent the whole day relaxing with the tarp pulled up in our hut. Mid-afternoon, we did manage to grab a pina coloda and wader down past the jetty. ON the way, we made a cute little friend named Rupert. Rupert was a dime sized hermit crab enclosed in a pearl white shell. The little crustacean was so adorable that not after long, Kristi decide to adopt it. We continued through the crystal clear shallow water and up the jetty another 30 meters or so to get some sweet pictures in front of the far off island. The rest of the day we spent relaxing in the shade and taking cover from the cancering sun. As much as I wanted to absorb the sunshine that we rarely receive in Hamilton, I knew I would be on my death bed soon if I beach bummed it any longer. We are much closer to the equator, where the sun’s rays are at their peak. Later on, we discussed plans for the following day and decided to make the leap to the upper island of Savaii! The rest of the night we took it pretty easy knowing that we would have a long journey awaiting us in the am. After supper we sat on the bench outside the office and hung out with the Taufua crew for the last time. We watched new comers pay their numerous visits to and from the bar adding line after line to their fale tabs. It was nice being sober for a change, gaining entertainment from the quirky vacationers raving and mumbling about wars, their alternate careers (broadway and basketball) as they struggled to gain balance on the stairs.