Day 302, Year 1: A Trip to Leone
Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Weather: Sunny, Hazy, and Windy Day; Pouring Rain in the Evening
Location: Pago Pago Harbor, Tutuila Island, American Samoa
Mark continued to fully enjoy our new high speed connection to the internet this morning. He called both of our kids via Skype, downloaded every file he had dreamed of for the past couple of months, and answered a number of emails that have accumulated on our land-based email server. I did some laundry and that was about it until it was time to head into town.
We hiked to the bus station and took a bus to Leone. This is where Mark lived when he was here in the 1960’s. At that time he was an employee of the Government of American Samoa as an instructional television producer. The government provided housing for the employees and Mark and his first wife, Lynn, lived in one of five houses out in Leone. Today there are houses everywhere, and lots of stores and shopping centers. He really couldn’t recognize anything.
We headed back into town on the bus and got off at the Yacht Club. This is where we were to meet Evelyn Bowles Weilenman. She was the daughter of one of the American teachers who was here back in the 60’s. Except for going back to the US for college and graduate school, she has lived here since then. Her brother and his family also still live here. She is currently the principal at a local private school here after spending 30 years as a teacher and administrator with the local Department of Education. She was able to help Mark reconstruct his time here. She is a wealth of information. She seems to know everyone on the island and is anxious to help us become acquainted with modern day American Samoa. We will tour the island with her this weekend. But the best part of our time together was meeting a woman named Kika who was in high school when Mark was here. She was at the Yacht Club waiting for her husband who was meeting with all of the football coaches from the island. They play American style football and take it very seriously. Anyway, Kika is an avid golfer and enticed Mark and Evelyn into spending a day with her on the golf course learning the tricks of the trade. She promised that I would get to ride in the golf cart and enjoy the show. I’ll have to let you know how this turns out. It should be good!
Evelyn brought us back to the dock just as the pouring rain was ending. We had every intention of returning to Windbird, but just at the same time as we arrived, George and Ute from Miami were coming ashore. It didn’t take much arm twisting to get us to go with them to Sadie’s. They are leaving tomorrow morning and we had never gotten a chance to sit and talk with them. It was a great evening listening to their tales of sailing from Malaysia around South Africa to the Caribbean.
We have definitely moved into a lower gear than usual, but we are enjoying the slower pace. The winds have completely died down tonight and the water in the anchorage is glassy. It is nice to have the calm waters, but I wonder what is coming after the calm.
