Ethan and I are learning how to post pictures. Here's some Samoan scenery.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Friday, April 28, 2006
Welcome to our blog! We booked our ticket RTW (round-the-world) today and in celebration, we opened this website.
Fia Ta’a
Fa’amatalaga o ma malaga
(Stories of our Wanderings)
Wow, now that this site has a name, we can get started. First, let’s provide you with a definition of it.
Per G.B. Milner’s Samoa English Dictionary:
Ta’a v.(&adj) 1. (of animals etc.) Run freely, be loose, be at large. ‘Ua ~ le solofanua: The horse is ~; ‘o le ma’a ~: Loose stone, rolling stone. 2. (of woman) Be loose, unchaste, wanton. ‘Ua ~ le teine: The girl is ~. 3. n. Lover, suitor. “O le ~ a le teine: The girl’s ~.
This word is used often now in slang for when someone leaves the house and ‘tafao’(hang out) outside the family compound. Hence, those of us that live in villages but do things in other villages (with girl friends, boyfriend, or actual work or PC related business) are generally teased as being kaa. I have been called kaa a million times in the last two years here, but significantly more since I have been in Apia working and leaving the village every week.
Fia Taa means that we ‘want’ to be taa. Faamatalaga is an explanation, o is of, ma is our (two people, listener not included), and malaga is a travel/journey/wandering/traditional introduction.
With the start of this new blogsite, we hope you know that our opinions are just that our opinions. We give an outsider/traveler perspective of the places we visit.
WHO ARE WE?
We are two Peace Corps volunteers in our thirties, who joined Peace Corps to live in another culture and learn about something about the world, to share our own experiences and maybe leave a little piece of ourselves. Since we are very different people, it is hard to write about us as a pair, but this journey is about sharing and learning to spend more than two consecutive weeks together. We are finishing our two year services separately in Samoa and excited to start our lives together. We met in San Francisco June 7th, 2004 at staging and became friends before we started dating. But after a time, we just couldn’t fight it. We continued our service in separate villages, both on Savaii although we were both still part of each others lives. Our projects were different but we did help each other with our respective skills. We talked about trying to do it together quite a few times and know we would have been successful and enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Maybe next time right?
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
We are working on booking our skeleton RTW ticket this month and we’ll get back to you on that. If you have advice for us on any of the following countries, please let us know:
Fa’amatalaga o ma malaga
(Stories of our Wanderings)
Wow, now that this site has a name, we can get started. First, let’s provide you with a definition of it.
Per G.B. Milner’s Samoa English Dictionary:
Ta’a v.(&adj) 1. (of animals etc.) Run freely, be loose, be at large. ‘Ua ~ le solofanua: The horse is ~; ‘o le ma’a ~: Loose stone, rolling stone. 2. (of woman) Be loose, unchaste, wanton. ‘Ua ~ le teine: The girl is ~. 3. n. Lover, suitor. “O le ~ a le teine: The girl’s ~.
This word is used often now in slang for when someone leaves the house and ‘tafao’(hang out) outside the family compound. Hence, those of us that live in villages but do things in other villages (with girl friends, boyfriend, or actual work or PC related business) are generally teased as being kaa. I have been called kaa a million times in the last two years here, but significantly more since I have been in Apia working and leaving the village every week.
Fia Taa means that we ‘want’ to be taa. Faamatalaga is an explanation, o is of, ma is our (two people, listener not included), and malaga is a travel/journey/wandering/traditional introduction.
With the start of this new blogsite, we hope you know that our opinions are just that our opinions. We give an outsider/traveler perspective of the places we visit.
WHO ARE WE?
We are two Peace Corps volunteers in our thirties, who joined Peace Corps to live in another culture and learn about something about the world, to share our own experiences and maybe leave a little piece of ourselves. Since we are very different people, it is hard to write about us as a pair, but this journey is about sharing and learning to spend more than two consecutive weeks together. We are finishing our two year services separately in Samoa and excited to start our lives together. We met in San Francisco June 7th, 2004 at staging and became friends before we started dating. But after a time, we just couldn’t fight it. We continued our service in separate villages, both on Savaii although we were both still part of each others lives. Our projects were different but we did help each other with our respective skills. We talked about trying to do it together quite a few times and know we would have been successful and enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Maybe next time right?
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
We are working on booking our skeleton RTW ticket this month and we’ll get back to you on that. If you have advice for us on any of the following countries, please let us know:
India
Thailand
Turkey
Israel
Vienna
Frankfurt or other European cities on a budget from there
We are on the tightest budget we can be on, but know this is a trip of a lifetime. I am most nervous about the European part since the dollar is week and we will be ending our travel there.
WHAT WE WANT TO DO?
My goal is to learn to cook local food and flavours of every country we visit. After eating taro and breadfruit smothered in coconut cream and tinned mackerel for the last two years, I am looking forward to world flavours and earning some of my taste palate back. I want wine wherever it is available since I have only drank box and jug wine here.
Ethan’s goal is to travel with local transport wherever we go. Tuktuks and trains…I agree, lets stay away from tour vans and taxis whenever possible.
Homestays: We both want to do some museums and temples and I am interested in local art, but we both want to see and learn about the culture. We are NOT sick of the beach, despite what one may think after two years on a tropical island. We love the beach and look forward to finding other countries version of ‘beach fales.’
Thailand
Turkey
Israel
Vienna
Frankfurt or other European cities on a budget from there
We are on the tightest budget we can be on, but know this is a trip of a lifetime. I am most nervous about the European part since the dollar is week and we will be ending our travel there.
WHAT WE WANT TO DO?
My goal is to learn to cook local food and flavours of every country we visit. After eating taro and breadfruit smothered in coconut cream and tinned mackerel for the last two years, I am looking forward to world flavours and earning some of my taste palate back. I want wine wherever it is available since I have only drank box and jug wine here.
Ethan’s goal is to travel with local transport wherever we go. Tuktuks and trains…I agree, lets stay away from tour vans and taxis whenever possible.
Homestays: We both want to do some museums and temples and I am interested in local art, but we both want to see and learn about the culture. We are NOT sick of the beach, despite what one may think after two years on a tropical island. We love the beach and look forward to finding other countries version of ‘beach fales.’
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
