Shuraleff in South Pacific, 2015

The Reason

January 26, 2015
Mary and I first went to the South Pacific as Peace Corps Volunteers (Group78) to the small island country of Samoa in June, 2007. There we became immersed in Samoan culture, living in the rural village of Iva on the island of Savaii.

Later groups of Peace Corps Volunteers (Groups 79 and 80) joined us as we tackled our jobs and tried to acclimate to our alien surroundings. One of these volunteers was Rosie Wong, where she taught school and fell in love with a Samoan, Pati Sionaia, at the nearby village of Fusi.

Over the years we kept in contact with Rosie. We even planned to visit her during her subsequent year after Peace Corps as an English teacher in the Japanese city of Aomori. Rosie then moved to Auckland, New Zealand to earn a Masters Degree in Speech Therapy during which time she was joined by her Samoan friend, Pati. The question of marriage was a usual one in our infrequent emails. Then one day she said Pati had proposed and that they planned to get married in Samoa and would I want to be their officiate. My answer was "Of course".

As word spread, two other Peace Corps Volunteers in Rosie's Group 79, John Kleive and Hannah Siemmering agreed to join Mary and me on a return to Samoa with a side trip to New Zealand for Hannah, Mary and me, since we were in the area.

Ann and David Braden, long-time Edina, Minnesota friends, asked a casual question as to what foreign land we were going to next. We told them. Upon which they replied that they had always wanted to go to New Zealand. "Why not join us?" Since this was the year of their 40th wedding, it made sense to expand our expedition.

Plans were set for John Kleive, Hannah Siemmering, Mary and I to meet in Samoa for Rosie's wedding and meet old Samoan friends.John would stay in Samoa a little longer while Hannah, Mary and I would then go to the South Island of New Zealand to join up with Ann and David. Hannah would later return home while Ann, David, Mary, and I continued to tour New Zealand's North Island.

Mary's Broken Wrist

February 1, 2015
It was a hot, humid, rainy night in Samoa on February 1, 2015 at LeUarina Resort when a resort employee summoned me to the dining room. There on the floor lay Mary in pain with a misshapen left arm. She had tripped on an almost invisible step, cushioning her fall with her arm. In the back seat of our rental car, I drove one hour to the Emergency Room at the main hospital in Apia, trying not to drive too fast over the roads many speed bumps.

Now that night, it just so happened to be the night that the entire Emergency Room was being moved from the old hospital to the newly Chinese built hospital 25 yards away. There lay Mary on a gurney as file cabinets, IVs, bed pans, and employees scurried about. Now Mary was very familiar with Samoan hospitals from her Peace Corps days. The seemingly frantic state of affairs along with differing opinions as to what should be done with her broken arm did not ease her concerns. An injection of a strong pain killer helped to ease the pain, if not the concerns about what was her "good" wrist. Her right wrist and right arm previously broken on icy falls in Minnesota.

Laying helplessly in an Emergency Room anywhere is a frightening experience. Couple that with being in a strange country with different medical practices and being uncertain about what is to come next, may give you some feeling about the world we were in.

Samoans are a competent and resourceful people, although not as or too communicative as we might wish the to be. The medical staff determined the break to be a serious one, the end of the radius broken into three segments across the wrist joint. Their debate was whether to wait a week to set the wrist, manually manipulate the break into place, or to surgically implant pins, of which Samoa had none. Our choice was to use our travel insurance to return home for treatment or stay.

Mary was wheeled into the new air-conditioned hospital, given a brand new bed while she awaited the arrival of the Orthopedic doctor the next morning. The staff must have taken umbrage with me, my rusty Samoan, and my Samoan tattoo, because they provided me with a bed next to Mary, not usual Samoan hospital policy.

The next morning the Head of Orthopedics, a man with little compassion for Mary's condition, said they would manually manipulate the break. Mary was wheeled into the operating room, given a general anesthetic, and wheeled out with a partial cast. The young Samoan Fiji-educated surgeon who actually performed the manipulation explained what they did and why. He advised we have a CRT done, get a second opinion, and get a hard cast when we get to New Zealand, since Samoa did not have a CRT machine. We were given the original x-ray film and discharged.

In retrospect, I have always been impressed with Samoan hospitals and their staff. With limited resources, what they do is confirmed to be correct when we return to the "First World" at a fraction of the cost. In fact Mary's total hospital bill came to about $75 USD.

Now on our fourth day, we continued on in Samoa.

In Christchurch, New Zealand on February 11th, we got introduced to a different medical system. In New Zealand your first medical step was to visit an "Accident and Medical Clinic" to see a GP, General Practitioner, before seeing any orthopedist. At the clinic we were told they did not have a CRT machine and we should go to the Emergency Room at the hospital. At the Christchurch Hospital, we were told we had to first see a GP who would the refer us to an orthopedist. We tried to explain our situation while they conferred among themselves. While we awaited a taxi to take us back to the clinic where we had first started, a receptionist told us that after conferring with the accounting department we could see an orthopedist, but first we needed to pay $314.34 USD, all inclusive for the day, VISA card accepted.

The hospital GP, a former orthopedist, said a CRT was unnecessary, x-rayed the wrist again, put on a hard plaster cast in the "Plaster Room", gave some more pain pills, and said Mary should have the wrist looked at again each week for the next two weeks. He said the wrist looked as good as it could be, not the most reassuring statement.

Our last New Zealand hospital visit was in Wellington on February 18th. Again we first went to a "Accident and Medical Clinic" where x-rays were again taken. The GP said it looked good, explained the benefits of a plaster cast vs a fiberglass cast, and said there was no need to have the wrist examined again until returning home to the US. The visit cost $213.63 USD, VISA card accepted.

We learned that if Mary had broken her wrist in New Zealand, all medical costs are free. This program is to insure quick recovery from accidental, not extreme sport, injury and is part of their national medical insurance which applies to visitors too. Since Mary's accident occurred in Samoa, we do not qualify.

Just how good our travel medical insurance is, we will soon find out. The travel insurance company's main concern to date is whether Mary wanted to continue the trip or return home. As we continued our trip, many people confused her raised arm and exercising her wiggling fingers as a friendly wave. She became a minor celebrity as others shared their broken bone experiences.

Postscript: March 5, 2015

Today Mary went for an examination of her arm. The orthopedic surgeon saw the x-rays and plastic cast. She immediately called in her associates and medical students, exclaiming what a marvelous job was done in Samoa and New Zealand in manipulating the break and setting the plaster cast. She said that skill is a hard one to master. Here in the US, they would have done surgery and fixed the break with a plate and pins.

It is amazing how in both of Mary's Samoan hospital experiences, the right thing was done.

For those who might be interested, below are triage signs indicating the priority of treatment at New Zealand hospitals and clinics. Also New Zealand x-rays of the fracture.

Rosie's Wedding

February 6, 2015

Guests arrive from near

and far.

The bride appears in a native paopo

As she nears, excitement rises

She must not get her feet wet

Her father escorts his beautiful daughter to the wedding bower

The officiate begins

The bride places a hibiscus flower over her left ear, accepting the proposal

And now, "Please welcome the new Mr. and Mrs. Pati Sionaia"

The reception begins with Samoan food aplenty

Old Peace Corps Volunteers, Peace Corps Medical Officer, and Rosie's Auckland classmate swap tales

A traditional Samoan taupau (featured dancer) starts the dancing

Ladies show their graceful moves

As bare-chested men wildly dance and shout for attention
Family members do authentic Samoan dance

Rosie as taupau

Weddings are happy affairs filled with more emotions and events than photographs or videos can possibly capture. Hopefully these snippets give an idea of what a wonderful time it was.

Return to Iva

February 8, 2015

Iva is the rural village on the island of Savaii where Mary and I spent our Peace Corps years. Samoan culture is very inclusive and we became a part of the Toufilau Kapeli family. Now it is about 8 years since Mary was there and about 5 for me. The children who remember us and played around our house are now young adults some with children of their own. The babies are in school and they wonder who these strangers are that everyone else is making such a fuss over. There are those older members of the family who we did not know, but who have now returned to take on their new roles. There seems to be a general increase in the prosperity of the family and the village.

Some things are the same. People walking to church while from cooking fires lingers in the air

Taia with her garden

People dress in their church whites.

Our former little house with a beautiful garden for our welcome.

The family daughter who planted these gardens

The remodeled main house

Now a mother with her son

"Babies" on their way to school

Mary with her dear friend, Saloti, the mother

Mary with Lawrence who she used to hold so closely

The family's refurbished are larger home

Children serving meal

Kapeli Family in 2007

A family 2015 photo with two sons we had had know before and minus three daughters

Kapeli Family in 2007

A gathering on our porch

Getting ready to serve dinner to the adults

The pigs to be raised to support the family

Peace Corps Expatriots

February 11, 2015
Samoa is a great place for Peace Corps Volunteers to fall in love, stay, and raise a family.

Faye, Jack, and Jim M.

Umuafu, baby Judith, Ben H. with grandmother

New daddy Benj, a father of two hours

Doesn't take Samoan long before they on their feet

Christchurch, New Zealand

February 11, 2015

Christchurch is New Zealand's 3rd largest city and the largest on the South Island. It was a very robust city but all that changed after two earthquakes hit the city. On September 4, 2010 at 4:35am a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred a ways off shore and deep in the earth. Many buildings were severely damaged, but no fatalities. Residents thought they had escaped a bullet. However on February 22, 2011 at 12:51pm a magnitude 6.3 quake occurred right under the city and near the surface. This quake killed over 120 people, mostly students in one building which had been declared safe after the first quake. The quake for all intensive purposes destroyed the downtown area as hundreds of commercial and residential buildings were now deemed uninhabitable.

A tour of the city shows a place trying to rebuild itself with construction workers filling in for a large part of the population who have vacated the city. We see what was and what will be, for very little of what even remains is probably going to be torn down. Ironically, new construction is mainly lumber based for it absorbs earthquake shocks better than concrete structures.