You Never Get A Second Chance to Make A First Impression

Worry not! I did, in fact, survive the first week. Actually, I've now survived the first twos week. It's a very strange feeling to know that the first week is over because I know there wont be another one for me in American Samoa. There will be plenty of other firsts this year but not another first week.
It was my roommate, Sarah, who pointed that out to me the other day. We were sitting by the water waiting for Sa to be over when she pointed out that, because we are only here for a year, the majority of our firsts are also our lasts. (Sa is Samoan for "sacred" and it is daily time of prayer/reflection. It usually happens around 6pm and no one is allowed to be walking through any village that practices Sa. They have people who patrol the streets during Sa. We call them "Sa Police".) Anyways, once I fully wrapped my head around what she was saying I thought it was all rather bittersweet. On the one hand, I know that I will enjoy everything that I am doing to the fullest because I know that it could, very well, be my last time. On the other hand, what if I missed something? What if I didn't get the full experience and I'll never have another chance? Honestly, I'm not too worried about it because, for me, it's more sweet than bitter. I'm glad I'm only here a year because I know I'm not going to take anything for granted.

Speaking of firsts, I had a lot of very exciting firsts last weekend. For instance, last Saturday, August 18^th, some of the other volunteers and I made our first trip to Airport Beach. After a not so quick trip to the Cost-U-Less (the local Costco/BJs/Sam’s Club) for not my first time and certainly not my last, we decided to venture out for the beach. As the name suggests, Airport Beach is out by Pago Pago Airport. What it does not allude to is that it is on the complete opposite side of the airport from where the trail starts and, since the airport is out on a peninsula, the beach is only accessible by foot. Needless to say, we had to hike there. At first, the hike was rather enjoyable. We walked along the rocks, the water of the bay moved gently in the wind, and we were provided with a beautiful view of the mountains as seen below. 

It was rather picturesque until we reached the trash. As beautiful as American Samoa is, it is still an island and, therefore, there are very few good places for garbage. The island does have a landfill but, according to recent estimates, it will be full by this time next year. Thus, a lot of the garbage winds up on the side of the road or, worse, in the water. As far as I can tell, most of the garbage on the walk to Airport Beach has washed up with the tide. Of course, we knew it was going to be there. It is the one caveat that people give when they talk about going to Airport Beach. What they fail to mention is which beach it actually is.

The first “beach” we came across was comprised of small rocks in place of sand and no good place to swim. Having just walked for 20 minutes through garbage, we were pretty disappointed. Luckily, two of the other WorldTeach volunteers had hiked from the opposite direction (Note: I did not know there was an “opposite direction” because, if I had, I would have taken it…you’ll see why). They informed us that, if we kept going, we’d find some sandier beaches. So, we kept going…and going…and going.

When we finally arrived at a place that might have been “Airport Beach”, we were, again, less than impressed. Since we had arrived around low tide, there wasn’t really any good swimming water. Of course, we weren’t going to have walked for over an hour and not make the best of it. So, while two of our cohorts headed for other adventures, Sara Morgan (we have multiple Sara(h)s. Each must be addressed by their full name for clarities sake), Josh S (we have two Joshes. Each must be addressed by his last initial. Alternatively, Big Josh and Little Josh. Or, Big Tex and Little Minnesota...yes, HIMYM reference that I did not, initially, catch. Don’t hate.) and I decided to stay behind, lay in the sand, and talk about life. Once we had finished our chat, we took some pictures (see below) to remember our adventure (we didn’t really plan on coming back) and then continued on. Little did we know that our adventure had just begun.

            As we continued to walk along the giant fence that surrounds the airport, the tall grass that blocked our view of the ocean suddenly ended and opened up into a giant rock cliff with, what we could only really describe as, blowholes. The cliffs were right on the open ocean. As far as we could tell, decades of being pounded by waves had formed holes in the cliff. So, when the tide is especially rough, as they were when we were there, the water is directed up and out of the holes. They were some of the coolest things I’ve seen on this island, thus far. Now, I definitely want to go back.

            While my visit to those blowholes probably won’t be my last, I know that I’ll never be able to relive the first time we’d realized what we had stumbled upon. We had so much fun taking pictures and trying to time the picture just right so that we would get hit with the spray.  There are so many possible firsts on this island and I can’t wait to experience them all.

One of the blowholes about to spray

They were almost like sea caves without roofs