After another night of going to bed early, Dallas awoke at 2:30 A.M. Samoa time to check the registration desk to see if our luggage had arrived on the flight from Auckland that arrived at midnight. Unfortunaltly it did not ! We tried to get back to sleep and finally awoke at 5:30 A.M. and Austin and dad and myself played Pokeman Pinball until it was time for breakfast. We were the 1st to arrive of course. It rained very hard through out the night but was only misty while walking to breakfast. Oucie and the other cat were there to great us. In fact Oucie was craving affection it seemed so he jumped on my lap without an invitation. As usual we ordered the continental breakfast which included papaya, banana, oineapple with whole grain toast, banana muffin served with marmalade, papaya flavored. Austin loved it!!
After breakfast we were given a letter from Air New Zealand stating that our bags had not arrived (which we knew all ready) as scheduled and it may be much later, possible a day or more before they would arrive in Samoa. Naturally, Dallas was upset as was Austin and I. Another day in the same clothes, I haven't shaven my legs...At this point we would be quite happy to leave all together and head back to America where the people were more friendly and things weren't so stressful - or so it seemed.
We headed to downtown Apia by taxi cab, a Mercury Sable American car..$25.00 U.S. dollars each way. The growth of the island is so green with the smell of trash burning constantly. The FALES that the natives live in are really only raised floor with a thatch roof, some have curtains, other have nothing, no walls just a roof. There is no running water, no electricity, just nature. Some have a shell of a house built from bricks or cement, and some have TV's. They like to paint what they do have bright colors.
All day we stayed in downtown Apia, Samoa. There were a variety of stores around for the natives to purchase personal items but it seemed everything was outdated, dusty and allways kept the light low. Saving on electricity bill I would assume. We stopped at one of the banks and there was a line about 2o0 deep. Onto another bank were we had no wait at all and got our new $2.00 bills for our picture frame. We headed towards the flea market. Dallas and Austin went over to the fish market where all the fresh fish are sold daily while I broused at materials and pareo's.
While I was waiting, I spotted Steve one of the construction workers at Co Co Nuts. He said he was contracted here from Hawaii but was originally from Chicago. A building supervisor. He tried to get us a ride back with one of the natives but they weren't to cooperative. So I decided to continue onto the so called flea market where I met up with Dallas and Austin and heard all about the large fish that were being sold and then we headed over to Air New Zealand to hear of any news of our missing luggage. The last we heard was that the airplane the luggage was supposed to be on had broken down in Auckland N.Z., so the saga continues. Although, Air New Zealand did give us $80.00 Samoan dollars to buy some clothes, converting this into American was about $38.00 U.S. dollars. We opted to keep the money and live in our clothes. We were told that we would have to return tomorrow or each day to get more money, but considering the cost to even get to town, we would not come out ahead.
We walked thru the flea market where they sold a few hand made trinkets, not many. Items such as woven baskets, lots of handbags, a few hats, lots of items made out if coconut shells. I am contempating picking up a KAVA bowl. It's tradionally used as a ceramonies by the Chief of the Villages to drink from. The stuff taste like dirt! It actually taste more like dirty warm dishwater that has been reused many times, but they have done this for centuries. Needless to say we didn't buy anything but bread from the local grocier. I almost forgot, we did get to eat lunch at McDonalds Somoa style. Dallas ordered the classic and Austin had a cheeseburger which he inhaled. The french fries were wonderful. It was later in the day that they didn't feel to good. The cartons had the New Zealand Olpmpics 2000 advertised on them.
July 18th, 2000
July 20th, 2000 