A probligo's perambulations in paradise - 2...

Day 5

Out and about. Went looking for one of the local volcanic craters ( Savai’i is “active” in the sense that the last eruption was less than 100 years back). Didn’t find that, but did find another “attraction” – The Dwarf Cave. Paid our T20 to the family at the bottom of the track, for which they provided a teenage guide and junior torchbearer. Quite interesting, if a fairly bog-standard lava-flow cave. Mrs Probligo stayed at the top while guide and I walked about 100m down the cave. The entrance is actually a wall collapse, and there are at least three separate flows evident within the tunnel itself. The major early flow created what is called “the dwarf’s table” – a long flat section of rock low in the cave (there is barely headroom for me). There are at least (to my inexpert eye) one other small separate flow before the tunnel was formed in the last eruption. We walked to the top of a waterfall that was about 2.5m high. It was suggested that a swim might be in order in the pool below. I asked whether it was possible to climb back out, having in mind the probligo’s 6 decades versus the guides 2 at the most. I later mentioned this to one of the staff at Tanu and got that quiet Samoan smile and “Yes, but it might have cost another T20 to get you out.”

Mrs P told me after, that once her eyes had adapted to the half light the young torchbearer drew her attention to the swiftlets flying in and out of the cave. We had seen many of these tiny birds (about 6 inch wingspan) hawking the beach at Manase. They are very fast, and very aerobatic fliers – a challenge to photograph that would rank alongside the piwakawaka (NZ fantail).

After once again trying to destroy the undercart of the probligo’s (rented) chariot on sundry rocks and coconuts (more about that later), a lengthy discussion of the attractions of professional rugby and the potential benefits of investing in our guides latest CD (as yet unrecorded) we got back to the bottom of the track.

As it was still comparatively early, we decided to take a look at the rest of the north coast and perhaps the “treetop ropewalk” out on the NW peninsula. After finding it, the latter looked a pretty dead duck in terms of “attraction”.

We “found” a beach, paid the T10 for the right to walk on it, and had a pleasant look around. Quite different from Manase, it was almost entirely volcanic rock outcrops. There was quite a bit of vitrified coral lying about.



Oh, not a piece of vitrified coral.










Oranges and the last of the keke for lunch and then wend our way home.

Following the sunset game of touch, dinner, and a good night’s sleep.

Oh, a quick word about some of the local wildlife. On the beach, and around the fale are holes in the ground that range from about 10mm or so up to about 30mm. The ones around the fale I found were made by a very shy dark grey crab – much the same size as the hole. I tried to photo one of them as it was doing a spot of housekeeping (just before sunrise) but missed.

The ones on the beach were a little easier to get, once you had spotted them.



Yep, somewhere almost exactly in the middle of there is a crab.




Ah, there he is. The camoflage is amazing. That one is about 25mm across.

Day 6.

Time to do the rest of the island.

We took a quick look at “the wetlands” and “swim with the turtles” just around the corner from Manase, the lava flows with the church and “virgin’s grave”. All of them are well documented as tourist attractions, seen the photos, so we didn’t pay the entrance fee.

I did take several close examinations of roadside vegetation. Frusemide has a lot to answer for in these circumstances. There is a weed, I have no idea what it is called, but it is choking the life out of the local forest. Trees of 10m or more completely smothered by this creeper with no chance of getting any light for food making.

We made our way around 3/4s of the circumference, to the Alofaaga blowholes. A T40 fee and a 1km walk took us to the best parts, including a single blowhole that regularly spouts up to 30m. The guides take a bunch of coconuts down there and toss them in the hole. With the right timing they can be blown up to 25 or 30m. Being on our own, we did not have a guide (that was another T100) and one member of the party gets very jittery when the probligo starts to move away from what is considered to be “terra firma”. However, that is life.

This of the largest of the blowholes shows up two defects; my very slow reaction time and the delay on a digital camera compared with film. Google "alofanga savai'i" for plenty more.




A smaller version here



The blowholes are through a lava shelf where the soft rock and sand has been eroded out from under. This is a similar structure, much higher, on the other side of the bay.

As always, some of the colours are amazing.

I was really glad that we walked, rather than try to drive the car down. Again, more on that later.

On the way back, and with three or four unsuccessful attempts to buy lunch from roadside stores, we stopped off at one of the other major attractions; a waterfall. Here the probligo did go for a swim, an event that thankfully has not been recorded for perpetuity or anyone else for that matter.




That water was absolutely delicious, beautifully cool and as clean as any I have ever tried. The Mrs probligo was very patient and waited.



One of the purposes of the trip was to make sure that we could find our way back to the ferry in two days’ time. We missed it twice before narrowing the turnoff down to a 1km stretch of road. By this time our poor little car was in bad need of its first feed since we had made friends with it and fortunately we found a gas station. We also found that it had ice-cream. Perfect treat for a hot humid afternoon. Never mind that the only flavour was banana and chocolate chip. So both the car and probligos were suitably replenished and comforted.

A comfortable drive back to Manase, another beautiful sunset and the boys playing touch in the lagoon.

To all those who blame the education system...

... this should be required reading.

'The Dumbest Generation' by Mark Bauerlein

In the four minutes it probably takes to read this review, you will have logged exactly half the time the average 15- to 24-year-old now spends reading each day. That is, if you even bother to finish. If you are perusing this on the Internet, the big block of text below probably seems daunting, maybe even boring. Who has the time? Besides, one of your Facebook friends might have just posted a status update!

Such is the kind of recklessly distracted impatience that makes Mark Bauerlein fear for his country. "As of 2008," the 49-year-old professor of English at Emory University writes in "The Dumbest Generation," "the intellectual future of the United States looks dim."

The way Bauerlein sees it, something new and disastrous has happened to America's youth with the arrival of the instant gratification go-go-go digital age. The result is, essentially, a collective loss of context and history, a neglect of "enduring ideas and conflicts." Survey after painstakingly recounted survey reveals what most of us already suspect: that America's youth know virtually nothing about history and politics. And no wonder. They have developed a "brazen disregard of books and reading."

Things were not supposed to be this way. After all, "never have the opportunities for education, learning, political action, and cultural activity been greater," writes Bauerlein, a former director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. But somehow, he contends, the much-ballyhooed advances of this brave new world have not only failed to materialize -- they've actually made us dumber.

The reviewer concludes -

The book's ultimate doomsday scenario -- of a dull and self-absorbed new generation of citizens falling prey to demagoguery and brazen power grabs -- seems at once overblown (witness, for example, this election season's youth reengagement in politics) and also yesterday's news (haven't we always been perilously close to this, if not already suffering from it?). But amid the sometimes annoyingly frantic warning bells that ding throughout "The Dumbest Generation," there are also some keen insights into how the new digital world really is changing the way young people engage with information and the obstacles they face in integrating any of it meaningfully. These are insights that educators, parents and other adults ignore at their peril.

As always, that list should have "parents" in there three times.

A probligo's perambulation in paradise - 1

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“The Nation Founded On God” is proclaimed on a memorial to the independance of Samoa just across the road from their Parliament Buildings. Next door stands a corrugated iron shed and behind is a rather more conventional European style “house”, which from memory is the headquarters of the Samoa Institute of Research.




There are two things that hit you when you step off the plane from Auckland. First is the heat. The second is the fact that it is just 0030. A half hour after midnight. You do the immigration, ag, customs things. You wander through a small door into the main part of the terminal to find a small wiry Samoan holding a card with a list of names. Oh! Part way down it says “Probligo”!! Well, not really, but this is the probligo’s perambulation so it will have to stand.

I learn, very quickly, that our car is “just over there” and that very soon I will be driving it into Apia. At 0130. In the dark. I have no idea of the landmarks I need to find the hotel. There is no way that I could identify them in the dark if I did know them. We had asked to pick up the car tomorrow, in Apia, and to bus/taxi from the airport. However, nothing daunted!! So I open the door and ... no steering wheel. Ooops, silly probligo. Left hand drive. You can always tell a tourist in Apia. They turn on the wipers to turn at intersections and the turn on the indicators when it starts to rain. After getting lost just the once when I turned right... wrong... left at the wrong time, we reached the hotel in double quick time at about 0240. Yeah, well quick time would be about 40 minutes. We took about 80 minutes. That makes it double quick time...

In the warm light of day, another will certainly catch the attention– apart from the heat that is – and that is the number of churches. I counted Catholic, Methodist, Methodist Ecclesiastic, Assembly of God, LDS, Church of Samoa, Chapel of the Triple Heart, and one Bahai’i Temple. I did not find any hint of Freemasons or Oddfellows. Every village has at least one church. In one stretch between Apia and the airport, it would have been possible (given the right viewpoint) to photograph up to five churches and shrines in one frame.


There are two things that I have “discovered” in our various jaunts into the tropics. They are directly related, and can heavily impact one upon the other.

The first is “attitude” - your (or my) attitude to your surroundings, your expectations.
The second is the reasons why you went in the first place.

So, to explain –
The probligo’s first reason to visit Samoa is to see the place – as honestly and as unsanitised as possible; the “real” Samoa.

The second reason is as far as possible to have a relaxing time, doing things as different as possible from the normal humdrum routine of life. The second reason is, not to go “native” (though that would be a lot of fun) but to at least have genuine and unmodified contact with “people” rather than “tourist events”.

Then being the good mix of Scots and Yorkie that the probligo be, I want to do it at the cheapest possible price. So that, for starters brings back the expectations somewhat. Like accommodation for example. We stayed at the “Kitano” in Apia. It was a convenient tourist hotel, not expensive, and looked like what we wanted. It turned out to be acceptable with one or two individual disappointments. So when you walk into your hotel room, and one or two of the slate tiles in the floor are broken, you notice that the bottom corner has rotted off the bathroom door, the laminex is starting to lift off the bathroom vanity… Turn around; the toilet is spotless, the shower clean enough to eat in, there is a small millipede gliding between two tiles, the mirrors and handbasin are clean… Which is more important? What you use? Or the fact that the place is getting a bit old and tired and needs a bit of a tarting up that they can probably not afford? The disappointments? Two meals, one that I had and one that “the better half” ordered. If I wanted to be really picky I could point at one particular member of the restaurant staff who was a bit too likely to go walkabout while on the job. But that is all.

We also spent a week out at Savai’i at “Tanu Beach Fales”. Tanu is the family name, not the beach name. It is one of four similar establishments in Manase village. “Fale” is the Samoan for “house”, or more correctly “building”; it relates directly with the Maori “whare”. There is a whole, for me fascinating, trail of thought – the probligo theory of organic development of culture – that connects such things as traditional architecture with environment. Hence the Inuit make the best use of their most abundant materials – hides, rock and ice - to construct houses. So too with the Samoans – their traditional fale is designed (has developed organically) in response to several centuries of hurricane, heat and rain. The most available materials are timber and coconut palm. The need for shelter is minimal; a heavy rain storm is as good a warm shower as any you will find; the need for ventilation is paramount; the need to withstand the forces of a hurricane is minimised. So, as one person ( another Nzer I think) described them it was like camping in a wooden tent.


Inside, the sleeping arrangements were just as basic – a 4 inch foam rubber squab on the floor.







We had arranged one day (2 nights) in Apia to pick up the car, change money, general orientation. With the first two achieved the second took a little longer. We set out with the intention of finding two points on the map we had been given with the car. First discovery – there are one heck of a lot of churches in Samoa. Second discovery – there are no street name signs in Samoa. Oh, we did find two; one just outside the original Aggie Grey’s Hotel, the other in the hills on the Cross-Island Road.

Our only success was to get ourselves to the enigmatically indicated “sliding rocks” which, once found, immediately became better defined. “Sliding” as in for sliding on or down (at some risk to the crown jewels), and rocks in terms of waterfall over lava shelf with the intent of sliding down....




No, I didn’t. We had left the togs in the hotel.


Day 2 – On our way to Savai’i...

There are interesting little details to Samoa... like having you car sprayed before driving onto the ferry at the Upolu end. The tourist brochures make it quite clear, but give no reason. So, you drive into this little dirt pull-off area with a bit of a shack at one end. A youngish lad trots out with an ordinary garden hose and kinda points it in the general direction of the car. After a brief “wash” you drive the car down the road another couple hundred metres or so to the ferry. No one else seems to make the effort, though there was a 4WD pulling in when we pulled out. A sign on the door of the shed proclaims "Giant African Snail Control".

There is quite a wait at the ferry; the instructions are to turn up an hour before sailing time. There is a coffee bar which is well populated. We are still digesting the (very strong) cup we had at breakfast. And it is starting to get B****y HOT!! Not coffee weather at all atall.



The ferry appears out in the strait, rocking and rolling its way over, disappears for a while behind the buildings, then reappears.



That is Savai’i in the background.

On the trip over, I was sitting next to a young lad who was returning from fruit-picking in Hawke Bay. Very nice young guy and he spoke English much more fluently than I could ever speak Samoan. About half way over, he said that he was very tired (another arrival at 0030) so he lay down for a kip or five.




After landing we drive the 40 odd miles round to Manase, find the Tanu compound, and settle in. A swim in the lagoon at high tide is like a very large warm bath.

In true Samoan / Polynesian style, meals are communal. Special guests are always at the right hand end of the wharekai (I don’t know the Samoan equivalent; terrible!). The food is good, well prepared solid local fare; meat (chicken, spam, pork on one special occasion, and beef), taro, breadfruit, potato, Samoan chop suey, taro leaf cooked in coconut (Samoan spinach) are all served on the same plate. Oh, and “lemon tea” to wash it all down. Lemon juice in hot water; and very refreshing it be too. If you want “civilisation”, there are two independent bars, a tourist hotel, and a coffee shop that hides behind the local gas station.




And so, as Pepys is so often misquoted, to bed.


Day 3

Having ended day 2 with food, day 3 starts with breakfast. No choice; papaya, pawpaw, pineapple, “ladyfinger” bananas, a small piece of coconut, local oranges. Deliciously ripe, deliciously simple.

The local oranges are a real echo to my childhood. I can remember Samoan (and Cook Island) oranges on the table; slightly “green”, easy to break in to, full of juice inside, and as sweet as anything you can imagine. They are rather like over-sized mandarin oranges. Buy a bag of five from a local for T2 (two tala – about NZD1.20) or so and you have lunch for two. You no longer see them in NZ. Med fruitfly, transport costs and CER with Australia have seen to that. Speaking of lunch, we have also discovered “pineapple pie” (a pineapple curd in a thick pastry), and keke. Keke is a “cake” in biscuit form, filled with what I am reliably informed is the local cocoa bean after roasting and grinding. Terry Pratchett had better watch out – there is a far more potent weapon in the culinary field armoury than dwarf bread.



Drove out and about for a bit during the afternoon. Had a swim. Watched the sunset. Had dinner.








Day 4

Sunday. We went to church – at the invitation of the Tanu family.

Oh, an interesting little sidelight from the latter part of the day. On every evening - except on Sunday - some of the young boys would play touch rugby in the lagoon in the late sunset. On Sunday evening, some of the young-uns were paying in the beach. Teenage (daughter) supervising them pulled them up at one point, "You know that you are not allowed to run on Sundays. Just walk."

Who remembers the "cigarette cards"?

Thanks to this morning's Herald, here is the 21st Century version -

A snack food promotion accused of encouraging children to eat the equivalent of more than a kilogram of fat has been stung by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The authority upheld a complaint by the Ministry of Health that Bluebird Foods' "Rugby Superstars" promotion encouraged excessive consumption of a treat food, and used famous rugby players to gain a high level of appeal to children.

The complaint said that to collect all 50 cards, people would have to buy at least 50, but probably more than 80, chip packets - with a combined fat content of more than 1kg.
...
In its reply to the ministry's complaint, Bluebird said the promotion was a "short-term competitive marketing strategy designed to encourage a person to select one brand of snackfood over another".

Yeah, well to me that response indicates that the intent was to encourage consumption of those 50 or 80 bags of chips in a short space of time. The great pity is that it probably would succeed.

"Chippies" are not a "snack food". They are a carefully crafted concoction of starches, fats and salt designed to encourage increasing consumption at maximum profit and minimum food value.

Thanks to the guys at Arts and Letters Daily

Here is a resource comprising much of all the to-ing and fro-ing on climate change. You will find both sides of the argument presented as a series of links, and it will continue to grow in the same way as ALD itself.

My first visit there was prompted by TFS's piece on the undersea volcanoes at the North Pole (yeah, TF they feature widely and both sides of the argement are presented) and a small ad on ALD itself.

Highly recommended... especially for those who like to let their confirmation bias roam free.