Back Home; after all the blog effort, really who cares?

One of the problems of living in another culture and trying to impart all of the implications is reentering the atmosphere of here and now; it ain't easy; it's a set up for depression; and how many really care back here? Who really reads my blog, there are so many now? (I know my sons and dughter-in-law do, thank you.) TV has Survivor, Lost, the Great Race, everything is vicarious or unreal reality.

My saving grace is that these are my experiences that were real reality; I write about them the best way I know; at least I give it the effort. I feel the spirit of what was there, I met and lived with local people that I will never forget, I felt dangers but knew I was being watched over, I hope I contributed, and I was honest as I could possibly be. I left a comfort zone, I dared to go, I felt called to do what I did and I am glad for every last minute of it all. I thank the Lord for He did it all for us.

Samoa and Robert Louis Stevenson

One of my goals, besides the medical mission, in visiting W Samoa (the country prefers just Samoa now as apart from American Samoa) was to climb up the mountain where RLS is buried. It was a very rigorous climb and a 11 yo nephew of Dr Alailima accompanied me, taking 3 hours since part of the trail was blocked with trees from a recent cyclone. It was very worthwhile to witness his white mausaleum with the famous poem "under the wide and starry sky-- home is the sailor from the sea, home is the hunter from the hill". Later I toured his home Vailima which has been renovated several times. The extensive travels of the man and his adopted family would put any jetsetter to shame. He sought something special, besides his health, from the South Seas. He was a true romantic.

Samoa

I have been in Samoa since Feb 26, wiil return Mar 11-12. I will fill in a long blog when I return to Hawaii and NC. So far it has been incredible!!

March 22, 2010; I have some time to catch up on this blog now.

I returned to Hawaii from Samoa nearly a ghost. I barely made the once a week flt from Apia back to Honolulu because of: a cyclone caught us on the island of Savaii-rhymes with Hawaii-its the probable ancestral Polynesian home of many of the islands there in the South and Western Pacific. It may bave been James Michener's 'Bali Hai' since he spent time there in Samoa during WW11, writing later his 'Tales of the South Pacific'. His recollections with Aggie Grey, the famous hotelier there in Apia the capital, are well documented.

Finally after all ferries had been cancelled on Thursday Mar11, the captain decided to 'go' about 330P because another cyclone was on the way. (That one struck Fiji a devastating blow the following day.) See the satellite pic on this blog. The lowlying ferry was crammed full of cars and trucks and we pedestrians had to cling to the superstructure. Waves 10-14 ft slammed us from the quarter port bow, with splashing seas deluging the vehicles and even us 20-25 ft higher hanging on. It was quite a 2 and half hour ride that Disney could never duplicate. The usual 17 mile straight takes about one and half hours.

Prayer either was to save us for His Greater Purposes here or for that in Higher Places. I was asking for the former and pledged anew His Plans for me here.

Samoa never got boring; the very night we arrived Feb 26, the Chile earthquake occurred, the largest on earth in 100 years; the island folk got busy buying up all the gas on the island and supplies; the tsunami never materialized, but folks were still very nervous from the one that struck Sept 30 last year killing 140 people on the southeastern coast area. This is one of the areas we worked with our program of providing up to date emergency equipment, O2 machines, and a teaching program for the machines and BLS.

At the Poutasi Clinic, James, the chief nurse there who looks like Omar Shereff, pointed to his ransacked house where he used to live; the doors and windows were all gone, the walls inside sitting a wierd angles; totally unlivable; all his possessions swept away in the waves. He used the 7-8 minutes after the earthquake before the 40 foot wave struck to shepard his patients out of the clinic, many in-patients to higher ground. All were saved. I worked with him and I dare say he is as good as any physician primary care giver I have worked with including yours truly.

Our team of two, Dr Cecelia Alailima, herself half Samoan who gives of herself often to her kin there, and who organized the mission to provide O2 machines worth over $30,000 to the outer island clinics, and I lived with a Samoan chief, a Matai named Alamoana, and his wife, Liesai, and 3 children, 18 yo boy Monihan, 16 yo Gloria, and 11 yo Lasalilly; we ate the local foods and enjoyed their hospitality immensely. They gave us a roast pig banquet one evening and barbequed bat another; both were manaia, Samoan for delicious. This was a highlight of staying in Samoa. I would never stay in a hotel there although Aggie Grey's Hotels are beautiful and so locally colorful, but one cannot appreciate true Samoa that way.

If you could imagine being there and humming the music from 'South Pacific', you can have an idea what I experienced. I relish all my memories, even the scary ones, but I see a beautiful people, a culture maybe like Hawaii 100 years ago, I look up at the Southern Cross on absolutely clear tropical nights, I see being served the after church meal Samoan style sitting with Matai with our lavalavas on mats, served by robust young women in the most elegant Samoan way. Maybe I will try this at home here and maybe my wife will serve me in this cultural way; then maybe she won't.