motivated to publish another post. Not because I enjoy posting but
because I hate nagging.
As the title says the one year anniversary of my arrival in Samoa is
just around the corner (October 8th). All in all the last year has
gone relatively fast though the last few months have dragged a bit.
Time tends to move a bit slower when you have nothing to do.
Hopefully with my newfound work the calendar pages will start flipping
by again. Speaking of work, it appears that I will be working on a
few projects at the Red Cross helping to relieve some of the workload
from two current employees and expanding the services that can be
offered. I will be working in the area of HIV and STI awareness
including condom distribution and medical service promotion for STIs,
First Aid and CPR training and community health assessment and
education. I am currently working with the Red Cross staff to find
out where I can be utilized the best in their operations.
Ok on to the rumors with regards to the road switch. Now please keep
in mind that these are rumors and nothing has been confirmed though I
will say often times here the "coconut wireless" as they call it can
be a reliable source of information. I have heard claims that the
number of accidents resulting from the road switch, particularly in
the first weeks, have been under reported. I was even told by an
supposed eye witness of an accident one day that the news reported no
accidents that day despite the fact that the accident happened early
in the day and was witnessed by multiple people including a police
officer. Now whether this was simply an omission by accident or on
purpose is unclear but remains disturbing none the less.
I saw a victim of the road switch last week in person. It was a young
boy at one of the clinics here in rural Samoa. He had bandages on his
head and his right arm. He appeared very banged up and sad. His dad
brought him to the clinic to have his bandages changed. Apparently he
was in a car crash in which one driver was on the wrong side, both
cars tried to swerve to prevent a collision and they collided head on.
Traffic is also an increasing problem since the switch. For those who
don't know, roads and intersections are designed with the flow of
traffic in mind. When you change the direction of flow there is the
potential for disruption of this flow and that is happening in
downtown Apia. A number of areas that do not flow well with the new
direction of traffic are resulting in traffic backing up and stand
still traffic in some areas. It remains to be seen if these problems
can be fixed and if they can, how much it will cost.
The buses are slowing getting back on the road, an from what I have
heard their strike was unsuccessful. So the buses are getting back on
the road, they are having new entry points put in the bus on the left
side and the old ones covered up. The drivers are still on the
lefthand side of the bus though because the switch of the steering
wheel and the pedals is quite expensive and beyond the budget of many
bus drivers.
Personal update, I did buy my ticket home, well, halfway anyway. They
had a sale on tickets to Hawaii that only cost around $600 US so I am
flying to Hawaii on the 18th of December and coming back to Samoa on
the 15th of January. I didn't plan on being gone that long but that's
the way the flight worked out and I get to see Whitney for 4 weeks so
I'm not complaining.
Well, there is the update. I hope this will put a halt on the blog-
post inquiries for the time being. And no, the new pictures aren't up
yet, have patience.
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