Wednesday, December 9

As soon as the sky lightens I'm up and keen to shoot. I pull the tarp back to have a look and the light is extraordinary, but it's raining and I'm not set up for water, so I try to pull the tarps back to shoot from my fale. Finding something to tie them up with is futile - but my new friend, Julie from Australia comes to my rescue. She's got some wire, but cuts her finger on exposed end. I manage to shoot and get my first aid kit out for her at the same time. Who says men can't multitask?


Next up is an interview with Tapu, Va'a's father. He's keen to tell his story. Faofao's rebuilding was largely possible by generous financial donations from former visitors. This place affects people. I think It's hard to visit Samoa and not be influenced.


At breakfast, in the makeshift Faofao family camp I learn that there's going to be a graduation ceremony at the church up the road. I quickly pack up and head over with Julie and Robert, an Argentinian volunteer. The large church is packed. People stand outside and peer through the glass louvers. Some volunteers from a large international NGO show up in team shirts, with large stills cameras and start shooting. I approach them because their group is one that I had offered my services to. Turns out that they are staying in the building adjacent to the church, in this compound. I ask for the national leader by name and they say they don't know if he's coming today. I'm not feeling the love. The say they're at this event because it's an opportunity to get in to the local church...as if they weren't welcome at other times. I find this a bit weird. I wonder to myself how they can live in such proximity and not feel WELCOME in the church next door. I hand them my card but they pretty much blow me off. I stay for awhile then head back to meet with Seti and his father.


The swim is challenging. It's my first time in salt water with the camera, but thanks to the test at Aggies early on I feel confident about the water proof-ness. Language is a major obstacle again. I get frustrated because conveying simple concepts such as, "OK - you guys just do your thing and I'll shoot you playing in the water" are lost between the sound of the surf, the translation and general confusion. My requests are either ignored, or followed to the letter. There's no possibility of conveying concepts - only direct requests that result in stilted feeling behaviour. They are way too close to the shore. I'm getting bounced around in the surf like a beach ball. I try to tell them to come out a bit further. It's so shallow that I have to swim sideways. I have to kick my fins real hard to avoid getting washed up on the shore. I'm in about 18-24" of water...but they keep getting closer to the shore. My luck runs out and I bottom out on a rock. My knee takes the worst of it.

Cuts in the tropics can be nasty at the best of times. I had heard that the water is dangerous now because lots of toxins have been released after the tsunami, so I'm pissed off now. I want to wrap this shoot but keep going because it's a long way from home and I don't want to stop for something as minor as a scrape. But I'm not happy. I keep going with similar results for another 203- minutes and make the call. It's not getting any better. Time to cut my losses. I feel that it's very likely that I've got nothing to show for this. I'm demoralized and it's time to clean my cut. On my first trip in 2000 I got cut on the coral and it got infected. This time I came prepared with plenty of polysporin and bandages and tape. I had a feeling that something like this might happen.