At 2 a.m. the clocks went forward 24 hours +1 which is fine
– nobody really knows what day it is anyway! So not to break my daily habit
might I ask “What day is it again?” J
What it actually means is that it will still be the middle of the night in the
UK for another few weeks when we are awake, only now we are ahead not
behind. Funny I had never even
contemplated an International Date Line until this cruise. Come to think about it, I had never really
thought about the two sides of Samoan islands being separated by it either. So
much to learn still.
Anyway, the day started beautifully with my d.h. giving me
the red rose he’d painted in our last art class. And it really is
beautiful. I will make sure he borrows
it back again for the second sector art exhibition, and if someone wants to buy
his original I’ll be more than happy with a print J. And a rose courtesy of
P&O was on my pillow later this morning too.
We woke up later than we expected (all that clock-wizardry I
guess) had a very quick breakfast and then went off on our island tour along
the coastal villages and tropical gardens. We were “wait-listed” so had to hang
around in the sun (a little bit grumpy L
) until everyone else arrived, but luckily there were 2 spaces and we got on
and soon felt good again. No rough buses
today for the tourists – cool air blowing delightfully at our fickle UK skin. Several stops along the way – Plum Pudding
Rock, waterfalls, village life, sad tales of the 2009 Tsunami and 2013 floods,
and then a cultural show, more shinning of coconut trees (this time with an
ankle band for support), demonstration and sampling of cooked bread-fruit in
coconut cream in the tropical gardens. This was followed by a lot of eating and
healthy drinking (fresh coconut water, fresh oranges and freshly squeezed
orange juice, papaya, lychees, mountain apple, little bananas). More unforgettable
moments today.
There was a lot of focus from our excellent tour guide, Mira
on community and family structure (a patriarchy) how communities work together,
the culture of service, large nuclear
families and the importance of extended family get togethers. How that notably manifested itself as far as
we could see was that we saw no people living dangerously poor lives on the
streets (and this was notable because we have seen so much of this in many
other ports, even in San Francisco.) We did hear about the Samoan open houses,
looking very like bandstands with no windows or doors, just pillars holding up
a roof. Inside was all the evidence of a
real home, e.g. beds, seats and of course a telly. Clearly no fear of predators or burglars
here. In fact our guide said there’s no dangerous
wild life of this island, and only snakes on one of the others but nothing
deadly.
Religion is huge, and dates back to the times when the
islands were invaded and missionaries came (six Christian denominations were
mentioned, not the other big world religions and we saw loads of Christian
churches in each village).
Now we are cooled off, been in the pool and spa and are
ready for our evening meal. So will sign off for now. Enjoy Valentine’s Day if it's your thing. xx
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