"That's some high quality H2O"

How can something that brings such joy bring such pain and suffering too? First, the bad news, (I like the bad news first so the good news can linger because you know, “love lingers”) anyway, Several months after we arrived in AS we were having a conversation with a local friend in which he turned to us and asked, “so your boiling your water right”…
“ah, no, are we suppose to?”
Apparently everyone knew that you are suppose to boil your water before use. Everyone except the polongies who have never had to perform such a task as a necessity. (I don’t know if spoiled or blessed would be the right upu…um…word) So, we started buying bottled water and we immediately started feeling better. The physical symptoms that we thought were part of adjusting to a somewhat new diet, subsided. We thought we were home free.
Unfortunately, the water that is bottled off island and shipped in is no longer available. We started buying the local filtered water…the jury is still out on this one. After several kids have been from school sick with fevers, diarrhea, and vomiting because of the water, one teacher informed me that we aren’t suppose to use the water even for washing dishes.
One rainy Sunday afternoon matthew and I were so thirsty and had just ran out of our last bottle of water. “What are we going to do? I’m so thirsty!”
“Well duh, lets get some rain water. What do you think people did for thousands of years?”
So we put all our pans….all 2 of them, out on our car and caught about a gallon of some of the best tasting water we’ve had since we’ve been here! So we are hoping to use rain water for everything now, showering, cooking, cleaning, ect.. (side note: it is now our summer which means less rain. Since we have to wait till it rains to shower you can probably already smell us from the mainland)

As for the good news, we were led to this amazing cove by some great new friends the DaBells. They are AMAZING! and they brought us to this AMAZING beach. We felt rejuvenated, revitalized, and recharged as we climbed down in. It lifted our spirits and as we stepped into the water we couldn’t help but smile to once again have our feet in soft sand and the waves swirling around us, engulfing us in good juju. There are some things that are difficult about living on an island, especially here in AS. But then there is so much that makes up for it and makes life oh so good.

Uh-Oh

At times I get so frustrated with the language. I want so badly to speak to these people in their own toung but the words just don’t come and I have no idea what they are saying and I hear them speak and think I’ll never understand. And then there are other time I am quite proud of myself. The other day the kids were out in the plantation searching for coconuts or popos. I stuck my head out the door and hollard, “lua, oi ai uhoh?” (or in really retarted samoan, lua, you eating the center part of the young sprouted coconut?)(if I hear one word about my spelling i'll let ya have it! I can't spell in english, what makes you think I can spell in Samoan!) They all shook their heads and said they were still looking. With that I closed the door, smiled at myself for putting together a whole sentence in samoan and went about my business.

Next, I boiled water and hopped in the shower. Just as I got soap in my eyes I heard a knock on the door. “jeshka you uh-oh”
“ya I’m uh-oh! Go away!”
“Jeshka, you uh-oh” - at this point I realize that on the other side of the bathroom door is a 4 foot tall chubby samoan that dosen’t speak english. I panic as I hear the doorknob twist. I scream and yell the only other samoan word I know, “Lay ie!” or NO! (
The doorknobed stopped and I heard another voice translating what was going on. I said,” tell him to go away, I’ll be out in a minute.” I hurridly finished my shower and went out to find 3 little boys waiting with a fresh uhoh, or the center part of the coconut.

Fale Sweet Fale

As we drove up to our new home we were so excited! It’s 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a huge family room and kitchen. We still don’t know what to do with all the room! But the family has been very sweet and told us we could paint and make it our own. Matthew went a little wild with the calking sealing every nook and cranny he could find, so far I think the calking count it 12 tubes and counting. The best was when we sealed off a geckos home and a few minutes later the gecko returned and just stared at the place where his home use to be. The next morning we realized what it really meant to not have a hot water heater. When they said their wasn’t one we thought, ya, but it’s Samoa, it’s hot and humid, it’ll be fine…..but we came in the winter and it can actually be below room temperature here and cold showers are just un friendly in the morning. So Matthew, being the genius that he is rigged up a warm shower for us. He found a foil pan and poked holes in it and then we boil water on the stove and pour our hot water in and the cold water from the shower and wamo….a warm shower! That lasted a few days till our tin broke. We went and got a camp shower,so now we take really short showers! Here is a frightening yet modest picture to show you what we mean.




Though we still don’t have furniture except for a bed , table, and a few chairs from the family we are still working on furniture but the home is coming together nicely. I’ve sewn drapes and Matthew has done an amazing job on the painting! I think after a month we’re really starting to settle in but, be it ever so humble, theirs still no place like home!

Aloha Oi Hawaii

By now most of you have heard that we have moved to American Samoa (ya, it’s a real place, go look it up on a map). After some quick packing and a lot of prayer we arrived here safe and sound on May 20th. On the 16th, which was the Sunday prior to our departure we were greeted at church by our wonderful bishop Schlag.( We believe he was asking questions in regards to a few possible callings, that’s really why we left so hastily J) “Hello bishop! “ “and how are the Hydes today?” “we’re doing great, thanks, and yourself.” “doing well, Congratulations on your graduation.” “ Thanks bishop, it’s been a long time in the making!” “Well congratulations, and how long are you planning on sticking around now that school is finished?” “ we’ll we’re not quite sure about that, we’re still waiting for a little direction but when we know, you’ll know.” “ I appreciate that. You two have a great Sabbath.” “ You too bishop”……that was the last time we ever saw bishop Schlag . Which reminds me, I need to let him know we’ve moved.

Anyway, that got us thinking, we need to make some plans. So we arrived home from church with a bit of an uneasy feeling. As we were discussing this feeling Matthew blurted out, “lets move to Samoa.” To which I offered a sarcastic “ um, okay, I’ll start packing.” Surprisingly, Matthew was serious. As we applied reason to this seemingly unreasonable decision it truly started to make sense, that’s when we knew we were in trouble. So we decided to leave it to the Lord. We decided to go and prayed that the Lord would confirm our choice if it was right.

With our prayer said, Matthew set off to choir practice like the valiant saint that he is and I stayed behind to chat with family online. Several minutes passed and I got a phone call in Samoan! My friend Jen Fiso from back home called and started talking to me in Samoan with such a thick accent that I had no idea even who it was. Once I figured out who I was talking to I told her we were thinking about moving to American Samoa, and by the end of the conversation we had a place to live and someone to pick us up at the airport. …..The Lord has such a sense of humor!

When Matthew returned from choir practice we started making our list of what needed to be done by Thursday at 5 o’clock pm HST. Why Thursday you may ask? Because that was the next flight leaving for American Samoa, and we were going to be on it!