Mid Service Conference ~ Group 75

Friday:
All of our group except for Julya and Ryan left for the wharf around 8 AM on Friday morning to catch the ferry to Savaii. We were missing Julya because she lives in Savaii and we were picking her up on the way to our beach fales. Ryan, unfortunately, was still in the states. We arrived in Satuiatua, ate lunch, and settled in. I roomed with Julya and Dianne and our fale had a big deck. We came back for a few sessions: medical, safety and security, administrative and language. We finished all our sessions in a couple of hours and then Teuila offered to take us to Falealupo (the "end of the world") to go for a swim and collect seashells. Only Dianne and I took her up on the offer. Leata and Lesina joined us. The white sand of the beach was covered with an ample amount of colorful seashells and the waves crashed onto the lava rock to create momentary waterfalls. I enjoyed picking seashells for Teuila and Dianne, but soon found myself holding onto some for myself...in fact, I think I found a new hobby! On the way back, we ran into Maka (group 74 VBD volunteer), who was riding his bike. When we arrived back in Satuiatua, Tim (group 76) and Derek (group 74) were there to visit. Dinner started around 7:30 and lasted until 9:00. We all got to choose from a menu what we wanted for dinner, and there were some mixups - Julya was the last one to get her meal at 9:00. I went to bed shortly after, as I didn't sleep well the night before because of a slight fever. I had to get up in the middle of the night to use the ladies room, and on my way back I looked up at the bright lights shining down from the sky. It was breath-taking - the well-defined Milky Way was luring me to lay down for some star gazing.

Saturday:
After breakfast we started what was supposed to be a full day of sessions. We started at 8:30 and finished at 8:50. We talked about the process of extending and what the next few months were going to look like for us. When we finished, we all clapped, as we were excited to have a lazy day. My day was filled with snorkeling, Sudoku, reading, listening to music, and chatting. Maka showed up in the afternoon to hang out for the rest of the day and to spend the night. Apparently our group is so cool that the other groups couldn't leave us alone ;-)



Sunday:
We woke up and had fresh bacon (left over from the pig for dinner the night before) for breakfast, got ready and left for the wharf. Most of us attempted to sleep on the ferry back to Upolu and then the Peace Corps dropped each of us off. It was sad to say "goodbye" to the rest of the group - there is nothing like just being around your group, and it felt too soon to be apart.