Pesaga College, rain, temple and church

First full week at Pesega College 

The Vocational Building has the Carpentry & Auto Shop,  Sewing, Cooking, Hospitality, and Computing.   Looks like this building will be our "place of business" for the next 18 months.  They just finished off our office complete with A/C and access to the internet.

Bud is helping in the Carpentry area and Karen in the Sewing and Cooking areas.  Both are trying to get smarter on Microsoft Office to go through the certification to help the students in the Computing classes.   (Pesega has a program to help students get certified in MS Word and Excel. )

The main gym for basketball and assemblies.  

The Angel Moroni looks on and can be seen anywhere on campus.

Here's an example of the student uniform - boys wear the traditional lavalava.  

Sometimes it's raining, it's pouring (even without the snoring)   

This last week we had a bunch of rain.  Our apartment is equipped with a solar heat device for our hot water, meaning lots of warm water when the sun is out  Overcast or rainy days mean quick showers!

The children really love the rain, especially when it floods the streets (which is common).  Below are  some of our neighbor kids playing in the water just outside our apartment.

Points of interest in Apia, Samoa 

The Samoa Temple is situated on the major street running into Apia, and is a landmark here.   The mission has taken advantage of that and converted most of the Mission Home (located right next door) into a Visitor's Center, where they have had a lot of success in sharing the gospel.

 If we aren't sure where we are, we just look up to see where the temple is and head toward it.

Church in Samoa

The members of our ward in Samoa have welcomed us in true Samoan fashion  We are attending an English speaking ward, which is a real plus for us Palagis (white people), though there are mostly Samoans in attendance.

The chapel can get really warm, with no air conditioning.  Last week I noticed many members bring a fan made of leaves--we now have one too.

We had a Mother's Day Ward Dance on Saturday.   We had fun hanging out with the Renchers, from Twin Falls, Idaho, who are helping in the dental clinic for a couple of months.  The church is built around a courtyard, where we are standing to get some fresh air.

 The dance was put on by the Young Single Adult group, and was well attended Bud was envious of the men who wore the traditional lavalava. (They even wear the lavalava at church and to the temple--.note the guy in the right of the lower picture.)   The Samoan High Priest had some pretty good dance moves.

The evening included some great food as well as some authentic Samoan dancing for our entertainment.