Be home soon

CUT


FLASH FORWARD:


It's 7am on my last day. Hardly slept last night because my last meeting with Vaasilli went longer than expected, which pushed the data transfer. Yesterday was Sunday, so just about everywhere was closed. Closest option for dinner was Aggies. I decide to have dinner there, rather than take it out to my room and work through dinner, as I've done with just about every other dinner in Apia. Maybe I can relax for an hour. Over a hamburger and a couple of beers I bump into Aggie again. She remembers me - "her masked man in the pool". I thank her and tell her that it meant a lot to me to be able to do the test in her pool. Samoan hospitality.


Time for breakfast, then a final interview - this one with Helen Leslie, leader of NZAid in Apia. After that I've got three meetings and other stuff to take care of. Flight goes at midnight. I can't wait to get home. It's been great and I haven't taken a day off since arriving. This is good, because I haven't had time to really get homesick. Now I just really want to get on that plane, sink back into the super comfy Air NZ seats, tilt the seat back, take in the air conditioning and sip on a cold beer. I'm kind of numb to the experience now. It's been intense and I'm ready to step back for a bit and then sink my teeth into the edit. I haven't even had time to really watch the footage yet...I've done spot checks to ensure that it's all there, but the true meaning of a lot of it is kind of lost on me right now.


Last night when I met with Vaasilli - my Samoan Auntie - we watched some of the footage with Seti at his home. I managed to have a breakthrough at one point. He was sitting with two of his buddies on the back step of their new hut. His grandfather and a friend played cards in the BG. The boys were talking in Samoan, so I was pretty much shooting blind. Vaasilli translated the boys' conversation for me. They were talking about how things have changed. One of them reminds the others not to look at the camera! Then they talk about missing their beach home. They wonder what Christmas is going to be like. Turns out my frustration with this situation may have been a small price to pay.


I'm not quite ready to declare mission accomplished, but the finish line is in sight. Time to upload this posting, woof down breakfast and rush through my last day in Apia this trip.


I'll post the rest when I get home.