Photos finally

Although I haven't taken many in the last few weeks. Here we go:

Here's Taine walking back from the pool. There's 8 houses in the compound, all reasonably separate with lots of space around them. There's two different styles, one with all the bedrooms upstairs and a very odd layout downstairs, and ours with the master suite downstairs, the rest of the bedrooms upstairs and spacious living downstairs. It's by far the nicest compound on island - we're very lucky. It's just been sold to one of the churches, and there are rumours we'll all be kicked out but everyone says not to worry until it actually happens.

This is our green house. The others are all muted greys and browns. The colour must have been on sale. The round window is the stairwell. Our bedroom is upstairs on the left, and my studio is the right. Taine's room is the other side. There is a "busy" corner behind the house but there's plenty of foliage to muffle all but the boom of the buses. There seem to be two gardeners working fairly much full time, with a midday siesta. There are coconuts all around, but apparently by the time they fall down, they're old and dry.

Taine and his friends on the field trip to the supermarket. They have another trip on Thursday to their teacher's house for an Easter party and egg hunt. The notice says to bring a dozen (12) plastic eggs with things inside to be hidden. Do not put in chocolate, as they will be hidden outside! I'm new at this egg hunt thing, so I may have to ask the ladies at breakfast or go look at the display at the supermarket (not up to your standard, Jenny). The class are all getting the school lunch (pizza and cookies) on Thursday. No bring a plate here.

The ANZ Amerika Samoa soccer team. Spot the lone palagi in the back. Gives you an idea of the landscape: a village with a church surrounded by lush foliage with a mountain in the background. The football ground (Pago Park) is the other side of the harbour, about a 30 minute drive from here. There's the Veterans Stadium near us where they play American football . It has a grandstand on each side.

And finally, a food shot (again, Olivia, not up to your food styling standard). You've got to love the fat to meat ratio. Bacon is super cheap, and fried at home is just gorgeous, if incredibly unhealthy. At diners, they must deep fry it, as it comes out rock hard and flat. I think we had this for breakfast with waffles and maple syrup. I trid to ask for waffles at Deluxe Diner last week, and it took 4 tries to translate wofles to waarrffles. Water is also problematic! We had people round for a BBQ on Saturday, and Sue and I were trying to explain the difference between a Kiwi and an Australian accent to an American. He didn't get it at all! Matt finally tried the whole chicken straddling a beer can cooked under the hood on the BBQ. Was delicious, but looked slightly threatening while it was cooking.

Have a happy Easter everyone. The only chocolate eggs you can get are English creme eggs, with solidified creme. I just heard an ad on The Rock for caramello eggs. If only! Oops - this isn't a hint to send us some. By the time they stood on the port for a week, I don't think they'd be in a fit state. Helen sent us a parcel last week which took 19 days. Apparently that's very quick. I ordered a package from Amazon yesterday (a Cricut creative cutter for all you scrapbookers out there. Taine and I watched the infomercial open-mouthed, and it's less than half the price than in NZ shops) so we'll see how long that takes to get here.

Have an extra chocolate dose for us.

Sharyn