Puppies!

Picture 328, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

One of the most difficult adjustments I've had to make here has been the handling of dogs here. There's very few registered vets in Samoa, much less clinics, so dogs aren't spayed or neutered. Where's Bob Barker when you need him? They're a lot more aggressive and are notorious for attacking people. At the same time, the people are brutal towards the dogs. It's a vicious cycle. One of the first things I was told when I got here was that if I saw a dog approaching me, I should throw a rock at it as hard as I could, "it's even better if you kill the thing!". It has been rumored that some villages eat dogs. You'd better believe that shook my wannabe-vegan-bones.

H'okay. So as most of you know, my dogs mean the world to me. They are my best friends. When I'm home I spend almost all of my time with them, and when I'm away I spend all my time talking about them. So this has been a real conflict for me.

This picture was taken at my homestay in Lotofaga. One of the strays had a litter of puppies outside our house. When I would go and play with them, my family thought I was CRAZY. Initially, I kept a demeanor that said I was a happy always-friendly, never-angry palagi. But the first time I saw one of the little boys pin the puppy's tail to the ground and then kick her, all hell broke loose. I went off on him in English, and then Samoan. And if that didn't work, I used gestures to indicate exactly what I would do to him the next time I caught him hurting any of the puppies.

A pig getting stuffed: explicit content

P3301220, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

Sorry for the blunt and un-creative heading. I thought it would be courteous to people like my mother. I've been here for a while now, and I've seen many pigs killed, and I suppose that now is the time that I've been de-sensitized enough to not only take a picture of this, but to post it on the internet.

A lot of things have changed for me since I've been here.

From living here, I think my biggest shift in beliefs has been in my own conception of death and how much control I really have over my own life and the world around me. In Samoa, it doesn't seem like people avoid or fear death like we do in the States. When someone dies, the family lay touching that person... even sleeping with them. And then they bury their family members in their front yard with these HUGE and elaborate tombs. And years later the family members lay on them while they're gossiping about the neighbors. Or they lay on them and think about their deceased family member. Either way, it seems like the deceased are always remembered in daily activities.

At this point, this post looks like a huge digression. But in reality, it's these thoughts that help me make sense of the food chain and my own place in this great big world.

In the words of William Shatner,
"Life life! Live life like you're gonna die!! ... Cause you're gonna..."

To be or not to be? ... as though Hamlet had a choice

I had just written a super-long post that probably over-exposed my views on death since I've been in Samoa. But being on these unreliable computers, it was deleted.
It was probably for the better, as it was probably too dark and emo for parents and parents' friends and people who might still be under the impression that I'm normal and people I might run into at cocktail parties in the future...

So here's the (somewhat) abbreviated version:

-I was a "flexible vegan" before this trip
-I wanted to be culturally sensitive and live like Samoans do
-Samoans like meat
-I tell a long story about the first time I saw a pig get killed in Samoa
-Several more pigs get killed
-I am coping with "survival" tactics
-Everything I thought I valued is getting tossed around
-I am now an excellent spear-fisher
-And yet through it all... I still cry uncontrollably whenever I see or hear a pig getting killed...

Vegan Polygamist Valentines

292, originally uploaded by mandy.mantzel.

So we have one boy on our trip, and he's just amazing. Our director told him that it's tradition that the males of the group make dinner one night, and so he actually took her up on it. And we cooked the taro we harvested at the Lo'i and mashed poi as well! It was absolutely delicious. Technically, I had a dude cook me dinner on Valentines Day (for once!) .