Chapped in Samoa

Traditionally, people here wear the lavalava.  (Skirt).  I mentioned before it's for men and women.  It's respectful to wear your lavalava when you go into town or walk around anywhere, so I have just been wearing long skirts every day.  Super comfortable and wonderful, right?  Not with these thighs.  They've been rubbing together something fierce.  It hurts.  And so the only solution is to wear the running shorts that I brought.  They are compression shorts, and are made of breathable fabric -- polyester and lycra probably.  They totally solve the problem of the rubbing thighs, but cause a whole other problem of being very HOT.  It's so so so so so so so hot here.  I can't really describe it, except to say that it's like crawling into the fat folds of the man in the sauna inside of Satan's bathroom.  So naturally by the time you're towel-dried out of the shower, you need to towel-dry your sweat again within five minutes.  It's too hot to put on sunscreen, but you have to, and then you sweat it off right away.

Anyway I only brought one pair of compression shorts and I wore them once, hung them in the window, wore them a second time and today they were in the wash.  So thighs rubbed together again.  YARG.  Also, it's necessary to wear a tank top under your shirt in order to catch the sweat, but it just makes you hotter.  Also, there is no air-conditioning in the hotel.  Also, there are mosquitos and they are eating me alive.

And yet, I LOVE this place.  It's so beautiful.  A total paradise.

We just found out today that it's really not OK to wear a bikini to go swimming.  You really should wear shorts and a T-shirt.  People here are incredibly modest and conservative.  I'm glad that I brought clothes that work within those guidelines, but it can be pretty uncomfortable to be so covered up when it's 178 degrees.  Celsius.

Never point your toes toward somebody in Samoa, this is VERY rude.  But we have to take our shoes off at the door.  It's hard to remember.  But kinda cool to walk around our hotel in bare feet. 

I MISS FACEBOOK.  I had a dream last night that I could get on facebook and I had a lot of notifications and it made me really happy.  But, it was just a dream.