Two weeks of school holidays are done. The kids seem to have had a great time with their new minder, Mane (pronounced almost like “money”) who we managed to get started just in time. I know there’s been a lot more sugar consumed and a few more rules broken than when we’re around but we come home to peaceful happy kids and a tidy house at the end of the day which is fantastic. Hopefully things will continue this way. In Samoa family definitely comes first which is great for us with young kids being able to get time off work but it also means that if something happens in Mane’s family then she may not turn up to work for 2 weeks or possibly longer.

The kids are excited about getting back to school which is really encouraging for us. Justus especially is starting to really make some buddies at school and it’s amazing how often we run into his classmates in all sorts of places – although in such a small nation I guess it’s not too suprising.

We’ve had a few lovely weekends enjoying the local beaches now. Last weekend we stayed overnight at one of them. We weren’t overly stoked with the accomodation but the beach and scenery was amazingly tropical and the kids had a ball playing with there buddies and basically living in the ocean all weekend. I couldn’t help but sit and be amazed at the difference between life in Ulaanbaatar and life here. I think that after coming from the harshness of Mongolia, this really is a tropical paradise but it sometimes makes it more difficult to see the reality of the struggles that many families here face.

The creepy crawlies are now controlled which nice I now even occasionally venture to the loo in the night without a torch now. It seems like we’re adapting slowly to cold showers although getting a source of warm water for showers is still on our to do list.

Steve and the kids (mostly Steve) have done a great job of painting our front patio and with the longer evenings its been lovely sitting outside and enjoying the view in the evenings.

Steve headed down to check out the local Anglican Church today and the kids and I went for a wander along the seawall in town where we watched some local guys preparing their Sunday meal of Tuna heads and taro leaves cooked with hot rocks and generally had a leisurely time picking flowers and collecting them in a coconut husk and running barefoot.

We have been a little anxious to take the kids to church here as the children are often expected to sit quietly through very long sermons. Sunday School is usually held before the actual church service. Steve happily reported though that the children are at Sunday school through out most of the Service at this particular church. We’ll head along as a family next Sunday and check it out again. Sunday the 10^th here is White Sunday a special celebration for children so it seems like a pretty fitting day to take the kids along to church.

We’re hoping to start ‘official’ language lessons this week which will hopefully give a bit more direction to our informal lessons with work mates. Although most people here speak english it is definitely appreciated when Palangi attempt to speak some Samoan.

Belinda had an emergency dash out to a cat with a fish-hook caught in it’s mouth the other evening. Luckily for the cat the owners had enough money to pay for  transport out to Savai’i  (the bigger of the main islands). The last half of the surgery was by torch light after the power went out then there was time to enjoy a meal and room compliments of the resort where the cat lives before heading back to the clinic at 6:30 the next morning.

We’re still working on some plants for our section and trying to come up with cheap, crafty ways of making our place more homely. All in all though we seem to be relaxing into Island life and there’s been no major suprises. The allowance through VIDA seems to cover our expenses quite comfortably so far which makes life much less stressful.

photos from Steve's work.  They're a big cheesy and posed but VIDA wanted some professional shots for promotional stuff.