Another Saturday, another beach. Tough life. This was the closest I have gotten to an actual beach on Am. Sam. Fred & Niki Castro found the beach while driving on the eastside a few days ago (hence Castro's Beach). We decided to check it out on Saturday. The beach was relatively big and had a couple of trees for shade. The water was super clear, but pretty shallow. However, we found a little hole that allowed us to lay in the water. Not too bad of a way to spend a Saturday.
You can see the island of Aunu'u in the distance.
We did hit one snag. Fred though it would be a good idea to drive the car down on to the beach, so we could listen to some music - no one thought to bring a radio. Well, the car quickly got stuck in the sand. Oops. The Samoans living across the street starting yelling us to get the car off the beach. They though we were a bunch of drunk Samoans joy riding on the beach. I apologized, said we were trying to turn around, and went to far into the sad. Stupid palagis. The anger turned to the Samoan helpfulness. They quickly brought chains over and Ruth's little car that could was able to pull the SUV out of the sand. crisis averted. A stop by at Tisa's was necessary after all of the excitement.
Yes, you read correctly, a circus came to Am. Sam. Sure, we might not be able to get lettuce on a regular basis, but a circus we got that. The Magic Circus tours the South Pacific delighting children (and many adults) everywhere it goes. The circus set up shop in Lion's Park, basically across the street from where I live, just a short walk to the magic. sweet. 
The Magic Circus is aptly named, it is pure magic. Or, perhaps after three months on the island, my concept of entertainment has dropped considerably. It does have "fun games" and cotton candy. 
It was a good time had by all. Even the palagi village mascot - Ed the dog showed up. Not sure how she found us under the big top, but she sat right under us. Way to go Ed. For the story on Ed, check out 
The Magic Circus was hosted by Bruno, the ringmaster:
The Circus had jugglers -
Acts of balance. The photo is not upside down, she is standing on her head. ouch.
This guy, the only Solomon Island circus performer, also made my cotton candy. Bruno puts these guys to work. yikes. 
A lady who loves the hula-hoop.
A serious game of double dutch, that got a little tricky.
Um, not sure what this is, but had to post it. 
A Samoan midget dressed as Elvis. 
He sang to the smallest circus performer in the South Pacific as she balanced on some rings.
Another head balancer. A little blurry, but she is on her head, spinning four rings on each appendage. How do you figure out you can do that in the first place?
Being in Samoa, they also had a little Samoan dancing before the intermission. 
During intermission, the Samoan children around us noticed that we had cameras. They asked us to take pictures of them. They really did not care to ever get the photo or even see the photo in the digital viewer, but they sure loved to get their photo taken. After awhile, some of us joined in as well. 
The second act included...
Tightrope walkers. 
Fun with fabric.
A couple guys riding different unicycles. 
Rico, master juggler and the best facial expressions ever (not shown here). 
A lady spinning on a rope.
Ice skating - the fact that that much ice existed in Samoa more than the actual ice skating was the real magic. 
Much debate rages in the palagi community if it was actually ice...Next was the worst magician ever. When he did the levitate milk upside down in a glass, the milk started to spill out. oops. 
The last performance was the Globe of Death. Two motorcyclists spun around the metal cage really, really fast. 
Please note the man holding the rope keeping the door closed - ah, Samoa. Now that is a Magic Circus. 
They had about twenty people for a pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought something, the food was really good, and everyone ate a ton. It was the first time that the American & Samoa really came together for me - we celebrated the American holiday of Thanksgiving and ate like a Samoa. It was a really great day. I think we all realized that this is our family in Am. Sam. and it is a pretty cool family and we are all thankful for that. 
My vat of cheesy potatoes. hmmm. cheesy po-ta-toes. It was basically gone by the end of the night.
Because the environmental club sponsored the event, one competition was recycled clothing. Everything the contestants wore had to be of recycled material.
Following the recycling section, it was time for the talent competition. One guy drew a portrait - while a good artist, it was not the most entertaining for the audience. 
Anthony played a traditional Samoan instrument - hollowed out wooden drums. That kid had talent. 
Another, along with his backup dancers, performed a traditional Samoan dance routine - I think the most entertaining talent of the night. During the performance, members of the audience went up to the stage and threw money at the dancers. I assumed the group was the Samoan equivalent of the Chippendales. Sharon explained that his was Samoan custom to throw money at performers during shows. interesting. 
Shane lip-synced a traditional Samoa folk song with a twist. It was completely in Samoan, so I did not understand a bit of it, but the Samoan audience was in stitches during his performance.
After talent was the improv competition. The contestants were give a skit and had to act it out. No photos cause this part was a little above a train wreck. Not sure if they will keep it next year.
The questions mainly focused on how the contestants would pick up women. My favorite answer was first, show respect to the woman, then ask her if she needs a ride home then ask for her phone number. I wonder if that works.
We all agreed that Shane deserved the honors - the guy was hilarious and the best constant all around. So congratulations Shane, you are the Big Man on Campus. 
