Well, I've been here almost 2 weeks now and am starting to get used to life here in AS. The island is fairly small (no clue about sq footage) with a mountain ridge right down the middle. There is one main road (road 001) that goes along the coast and is what you take from here to anywhere on this side of the island. That road does not go all the way around the island so if you want to see something on the other side you have to take the one road that crosses the mountain (road 104). As far as I know these are the main roads and they have with no plans to build more. Why they couldn't be Hwy 1 and Hwy 2 is beyond me. The speed limit on these roads might top out at 25 but it is usually 20 which means there is always plenty of time for darting in front of someone because they aren't going that fast. Oh, did I mention all of the roads are only 2 lanes? So if you want to get where you are going you will have to join the queue. It is ok to let people ride in the back of your pickup and seatbelts are nice to have but not required by all riders. In fact, most people get chairs and other things like that for the back of their pickup so that riding in the back is as comfortable as possible. The roads are very bad - there are a lot of potholes and areas where there is no real shoulder - (a four wheel drive with a higher bed seems to be a must as what I am describing are the good roads!) this makes riding in the back of the truck even more interesting as you might be balanced rather precariously in the first place! Also there are a lot of ambulances racing by at all hours so you might have to pull off the road several times on your trip into town and slam on your brakes -again, this makes riding in the bed of the truck even better. I don't think there are more accidents than usual here, I just think the ambulance drivers don't want to wait their turn to get through the traffic. Pedestrians have the right of way mostly because they just walk out in front of you without looking - there are crosswalks but those are really just a suggestion. If you hit one you can get out to assist, unless it is a child. If you hit a child you'd better get out of there fast and head to your nearest police station to tell them what happened - if you stick around the villagers will chase you down and stone you. Luckily though you are only going 20 mph so there should be plenty of time for you to stop for everything that might cross your path. The thing to not stop for (apparently although I do not agree) are the dogs. These are everywhere and are a pretty sad looking lot. Some people keep them as pets but they are not spayed or neutered so there are a lot of generations upon generations around. The puppies hide really well - you usually only see the adult dogs looking for a meal. They are pretty smart and seem like they have a lot of practice avoiding the cars that may or may not be aiming for them. There are also a lot of chickens and cats around but both of those seem to avoid the road altogether which is good so you don't have to try and avoid them. At night there are not a lot of streetlights so you take all of the above and throw in the fact that you can't really see anything before it looms in front of your headlights. All in all, driving here can keep you on your toes!

This has been a week of encounters with the local wildlife. Let's start off by saying that things are not just bigger and better in Texas. My first encounter happened while I was helping set up the new teaching supply store (which is almost all ready, they are planning on having the grand opening this upcoming Fri). My job of the moment was to take backpacks out of a box and hang them on the hooks. I looked in a box to see if there was anything else left to hang when I saw a stuffed spider at the bottom of the box. I thought that it was an odd size for a toy - it was the shape of the spider on a spider ring but I could tell it was not that and I could see that it was not really big enough to cuddle. I glanced around the store really fast to see where we were displaying this toy and then looked back into the box to grab it. That's when I realized that it had moved and that it was not in fact a toy but a huge 6" (at least!) spider -- the living breathing kind that you see in horror films. I jumped and tossed the box. I believe there was probably some yelling in there too so of course everyone wanted to know what I had just seen. I told them and of course everyone wanted to see what I had just seen. I took them to the box, looked in to point out the spider - AND COULDN'T SEE IT ANYMORE!! At that point we all jumped back and searched frantically for the spider. Luckily we spotted it almost right away and hurried the box out of the store. There were some workmen nearby and they very kindly (with not too many comments about the scared palagi (white lady)) took the box off somewhere.
That evening I talked Karen into going swimming at the local beach. Once we were in the water and happily bobbing about Karen tells me about the time a shark was beached on that very same beach. They cut the shark open and found a ton of babies inside of her almost ready to be born. Karen took one home to her kids so they could see it and then let it live in her bathtub for a short while. She also told of how they stuck a pencil inside the tub near the sharks mouth and how the shark bit it in half. Thanks Karen - now it is dark out and it is hard to see whatever it is that just wrapped itself around your leg. Ah! That swimming didn't last long!!
Sometime later in the week we came back to the apt unexpectedly to grab some stuff on our way from one meeting to the next. I walked in the bedroom and saw something skitter across the floor out of the corner of my eye but I didn't think much of it because the night before I had seen a giant cockroach near my stuff (which yes, I had freaked out about but we didn't manage to kill it before it hid somewhere and I didn't think I was going to be able to smash it this time either) so I just thought it was that and kept going. The light switch is all the way across the room so I got almost all the way there when I realized that it was not a roach, it was a rat!! I jumped and yes, once again there was probably yelling. Karen came running in, the rat went running out. No clue where it went to ground so now there are several friends that I know of who live in the darkness that I hope not to encounter again.
I also have some daddy longleg type spiders that share my shower with me as well as ants everywhere I look. I think that it will be impossible for me to get lonely here - there will always be millions of friends ready to share my space with me! I just would like them to not be so unnaturally sized!!!

My first day

I made it to American Samoa safe & sound. Somehow I managed to lug all 7 million pounds (and that was just the carry-ons!! ((thanks to some great friends who helped me get it that full!!))) from Phoenix to Pago Pago and not die with the effort! We landed early and then had to wait for 45 min for them to move 4 Australian fighter jets off the runway. They were told they could park there because air traffic control didn't remember the 1 of 3 international flights that land weekly was happening. Mind you, the air traffic control tower is in Apia which is in an entirely different country. Not sure how they can be in charge over here but I guess that is just the way it is. We made it to bed around midnight finally which by the way was 4 am AZ time so I was very happy to throw myself down! I am currently staying in Karen's apt over their teaching supply and hardware stores. This is right next to the little fitness center they run here so I got to wake up at 5 am to some exciting zumba tunes and some serious booty (and floor) shaking. Luckily it only held my interest for a song or two and then I was able to fall back asleep. Today I got to meet the principal who I hadn't met before and the vice principal who I had. I also met the vice chair of the board of directors, the head of the government center for childhood development, got a tour of the school (which is still being renovated but we are assured they will be done in time for school), discovered that there is only 1 post office on the entire island, and got a tour of the new, almost ready to open teaching supply store that I will be working in tomorrow. It has been a pretty full day and I think that there is a bunch of stuff that we are going to work on tonight. They are still figuring out where they are going to put me so for this week I am in Karen's apt with her and then both of us move to her daughter Tracy's house either this weekend or the beginning of next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me that they will find me someplace good : ). Right now it is sunny, warm, and humid but with a very nice breeze off the ocean. Don't be too jealous!