Sloshball and Maloata Bay

So the fourth of July was anticlimactic. I mostly stayed at home pouting and pretending it wasn’t the fourth. It’s my favorite holiday. All of us palangis had a bit of a downer about there not being any hoohaa over the fourth. If we were in say, Portugal, Vietnam or the Sudan it would make sense, but for the love of Pete we are in a U.S. Commonwealth! Where’s a little patriotic celebration about our freedom from the Red Coats? I think Samoans would love fireworks and it’s too bad that with the strong Chinese influence on the island that we couldn’t get some good imported Chinese big-bang fireworks. I think the Samoans enjoy their Flag Day and that’s that. We had a nice BBQ at a friends but as the next day was a work day, it was an early evening (haha, as if there's anything else with me and my deep love of sleep).





The weekend was much more fun!
Alas, sometimes living in the tropics with endless opportunities to snorkel, swim, paddle, and hike just isn’t enough and we expats are forced to come up with some way to spend our days. I had been wanting to participate in the renowned “Sloshball” created by some intrepid expatriates out in Lions Park (the government housing enclave).





“Sloshball” has as it’s main goal the drinking of the horrible, cheap beer we are forced to consume on the island. The current favorite, for it’s $17/case price, is San Miguel. I brought Corona-the only beer I can tolerate here (other than Markus’ microbrew). The drinking of beer is facilitated by wiffle ball. In order to pass 2nd base one has to retrieve and open a beer. The beer must be drunk completely and if by the time you get to 2nd base again your beer isn’t gone, you carry two. The buckets in the pictures are 2nd base. When the unwise choice is made to slide into 2nd, disaster can ensue.

Being the newest players, Markus and I got to be team captains. I think this is good-a little healthy rivalry in a relationship keeps thing interesting. Luckily for me, I’m not a superstar so getting past 2nd base only occurred twice. For others with more talent with a plastic bat, the frequent visits took it’s toll, and, as was bandied around the diamond, “San Mig is the great equalizer.” As the best players became a little sloppy on the field, we lesser players rose in the ranks. Though it must be said that many of the good players can knock them out of the park one handed and holding a beer. How the pitchers do it one handed I have no idea.

Einstein enjoyed himself and he also had a drink or two at second base. He also took a couple for the team when he was on the pitcher’s mound and a ball hit him and later when Aaron decided throwing bases was an awfully good idea. Aaron’s dad was in town and being a good sport took part in the game. He was a good hitter too, glad I’d picked him for my team!






Of course, my team pulled it out in the end, though it could have had something to do with Jeff telling Markus’ team they could have the inning over a disputed out, if every single one of them chugged their beers. As team captain, after the beers had been consumed, I promptly nixed this, not ever having been involved in the negotiation. It worked incredibly well in our favor!





Last weekend we also were invited to a family’s private beach in Maloata Bay-on a Sunday no less! The property is beautiful. Markus, Paul and Jay took a dive and saw an octopus among the coral. We brought our kayaks for some friends to borrow. They made they traveled around the coast into a couple of bays and found waterfalls tumbling into the ocean and they were able to paddle behind them and jump into the ocean from the waterfall. Next time we’ll have to kayak around and see them for ourselves.



The property owners have a flower business growing imported orchids and supplying local florists. We got a tour of the green houses. It was fabulous. There is only one wild orchid I’ve seen here in American Samoa and it is very tiny. Seeing so many beautiful flowers in one place was amazing.

The son of the property owner went out spear fishing later in the day and came back with the octopus that the boys had seen on their dive. It made me a little sad, but I knew he’d be eaten for dinner and the kids were fascinated with the chance to see a real (if not live) octopus.

















Some times life on this island can be pretty marvelous-even if there isn’t a Fourth of July. As always there are a ton more photos on my flickr site.