Third Goal

Lotofaga beach

View of the beach by Lotofaga village, in the Aleipata district, Upolu island.

Miko and the cat have a snack

When his older brother fell asleep while babysitting, Miko and the family cat had a snack of leftover ramen and boiled taro (then offered me some when he saw me snapping his picture).

Miko and Lio

Lio gives his baby brother, Miko a piggy back ride.

Around the kava bowl

I earned a seat around the kava bowl. Just about every evening, my Samoan host father, Tuugamau and his buddy Simi, and perhaps some other friends, sit around sharing news and stories, discussing village and national politics as they drink kava from a big cooking pot. (Kava is a common ceremonial drink consumed throughout the Pacific. A very mild narcotic, kava is made from the root of a kind of pepper plant, and has a mild euphoric effect.) To me, this nightly ritual represents both a quinte...

To Sua Trench: Samoa

My volunteer friend, Erica, had biked over to my village, Lotofaga in the Aleipata district of Samoa, for the weekend and I decided to take her to see Tō Sua Ocean Trench, an under-appreciated tourist attraction on the outskirts of the village. I’d been living in Samoa for nearly a year at that time, and Tō Sua was one of the first places my Samoan host family took me when I arrived at Lotofaga village – and I’d wanted to go back ever since. About a 15-minute walk from my house, the trench is...

Bintou

Some things are universal – like children’s distaste for baths.  Every evening Adama, the mother of the family with which I shared a courtyard, would try to convince Bintou, the family’s 3 year-old, to cooperate while an older sister gave her a bucket bath.  Sometimes the promise of a photo would help.  

Christmas Cake!!

My back was acting up and it was bone chilling cold, both, outside and in my Moroccan host family’s home on Christmas day in 2006.  I hadn’t planned on doing anything to celebrate Christmas.  My host family was not home.  I was just hanging out with a hot water bottle and a book when a fellow PCV phoned to say that he was outside in the street---he had something for me.  Andrew (who created thirdgoal.org) lived an hour or two from me and had been in country a year longer than I.  I went outsi...

Small Business Development Projects in Peru 2008 - 2010

Basket ladies

Local craft in my village

Philosopher King in a mud hut.

Sept 15 2004 I found the Philosopher King in a mud hut. At the end of his or her service, most volunteers have a wish for their departure. That is, that , although, he leaves the village, his legacy and good efforts will stay. I trusted John; he had that kind of determination to turn a mud house into a marble palace. The DDC. the African Inland church, the people in Ikutha, and even those in Ikutha were unsure of his capabilities. ‘He is a young man,” they thought. As if all ...