Palolo Fishing – November 22

When I arrived in the village there was a man from Australia staying with my host family. He’s a doctor that practices an old style of acupuncture. Faleseu, my trainer, asked him to look at him because he has pain in his knees. We went to the school fale and when we were done it was Sa (curfew) so we had to stay there. The family had Lotu (prayer), in which Onofia led. I had the pleasure of joining in prayer with my trainers.
We had a safety and security session that was top-secret and so they kicked me out and sent me home. While I was eating dinner Candice showed up at my house and told me that a typhoon was coming and I should take alert and start thinking about getting a bag packed as part of our emergency evacuation plan. She came back saying that the typhoon was getting closer and if she came back again we would have to leave. She came back a third time and took me away. We jumped in the car and headed for the school. When we got to the school we talked about emergency evacuation plans and what to do in that type of a situation. It was about 10:30 PM and we were planning on going palolo fishing, so we went back home to get ready.
Palolo Fishing: palolo are sperm of the coral that are considered a delicacy here in Samoa. They only surface twice a year – one day in October and one day in November. They surface right before dawn and they glow. People spend the night at the beach and wake up right before dawn and walk out in the water to grab some wormy sperms. After the mock emergency drill I went home, got dressed up (apparently the palolo are attracted to you if you look and smell nice) and got picked up by the Peace Corps van. We arrived at the beach around 12 AM. I laid down, enjoyed the soothing breeze, listened to the waves make music, and gazed into the vibrant sky – bright, shooting stars and beautiful Milky Way. It was the best night that I’ve had since I’ve arrived here. At about 4:30 AM, we all grabbed our nets and headed out into the water. There was coral was abundant and rough. The waves were rocking us back and forth and it was everywhere and the waves were rocking us back and forth. It was dark and hard to see so everyone was falling and scraping themselves on the coral. Mari and I thought that the trainers were playing a cruel joke on us when no palolo were surfacing. I immediately thought of my cousin in Nebraska who took me snipe hunting. The guys caught a few, as a group we caught a total of 12.