Dogs don't like shoes

So since I had my Teva sandals go missing (still so sad!), I have been
wearing shoes. I did go get some jandals yesterday but I think I will
still wear my shoes when I bike, for safety reasons. The only thing
is, I haven't really had dogs try to get really close to my on my bike
until the last week when i was wearing shoes instead of my Tevas. On
two occasions I had angry dogs rush me on my bike and actually try to
bite me, in the middle of the day. This is odd for two reasons, the
first being it never happened on my usual routes before. I mean they
may bark or run at me from a distance but never try to close in, this
time they did. Second dogs don't usually go after you in the day
here. It's just to hot, when the sun goes down, that's when they kick
the harassment into high gear. So the only factor in this equation
that changed is my footwear. So through scientific deduction I have
determined that shoes piss off Samoan dogs. Look at the facts, you
can't argue, it's science.

So actually on both these occasions I had to kick the dogs in the face
a couple times to get them to go away. All part of the Peace Corps
experience! Of course if for some crazy reason it wasn't the shoes
doing it, if I were wearing the flimsy jandals instead the dogs
probably would have gotten a chunk of my leg or foot. So, shoes it
is. The problem does arise when it rains, which has been
uncharacteristically frequent lately (it is the dry season right
now). I still need to figure that one out.

On to the topic of work, it looks like I am going to Fiji in June! I
have been asked to be one of the Samoa Red Cross representatives at a
Regional Community Resilience Forum in Fiji. The exact location of
the forum is still to be determined. I am keeping my fingers crossed
that it is in Suva. I hear it's the place to go for Fiji's urban
life. The other option is Nadi, though I was there on my layover on
my way back to the US for my brother's wedding. From what I saw not
too exciting. Of course the location is just an added perk and will
present the opportunity for a bit of leisure time activities, what I
am looking forward to the most is the forum and hearing about what is
going on at other national societies to help give us some insight into
ways we could improve our approach. I will be there for an entire
week in mid June.

Other than that I am working on the secondary projects, most time
consuming is the health project. Trying to find some ways to get more
insight into the social, psychological and environmental influences on
healthy eating and physical activity. We have till September to
finalize the curriculum so there is time. I am looking to do some
focus groups with some ladies from rural villages and Jim, one of the
other volunteers who has been working on health projects in Savaii has
volunteered to try and run some of the material with some women from
his village. It's all very exciting and I think the potential for
this program is very good. Of course this is uncharted territory so
we will see how it works out.

Samoa Independence Day is next week on Tuesday. Since I am no longer
with NUS, I do not have to go and do the march in front of the Head of
State and the other "important" people. If you all remember from last
year, the march amounted to showing up at 6:00am, standing in the sun
for four hours and then walking as a group in front of these large
grandstands with, I say again, the "important" people. Needless to
say, not how I prefer to spend my public holiday. Of course I went
last year, because NUS was going and that's part of the gig. But this
year, I am with Red Cross and as far as I know, our organization is
not marching, whoo-hoo!

I am looking forward to the long boat races. I didn't get a chance to
see them last year. Rumor has it though that they are on Monday
instead of Tuesday. Monday is not a public holiday so I am going to
look into it and find out what the deal is. The race is the talk of
the town though, because there is a big rivalry between Samoa and
American Samoa. I guess in the last race in American Samoa, the
American Samoa team started before the gun, quite a bit before the gun
actually and ended up winning by only a few seconds. Rumor has it the
difference in the time would have made the Samoan team the winner but
the judges or who ever was in charge dismissed the complaints. Or
something like that. We all know how rumors and stories spread and
change. Regardless, it has charged the atmosphere for the competition.

Enough rambling for today. Want to give a shout out to my cousin Kim
Huhmann who graduated from high school this week with Salutatorian
honors among others. Rumor has it the colors of all the extra
tassels, stoles, medals, etc, clash. Unfortunate. A small price to pay
for greatness eh, Kim? ;)