Hotel T&S

On Wednesday as we were driving along the western coast we swung by Taylor and Scott’s to say hi, but they weren’t there. Later, on the phone with Taylor we decided to have an overnight the next day after our Thursday night dinner, and then all drive to the airport together on Friday morning to head to Manu’a. The plan sounded awesome to me and it fit the bill for showing Ryan the best of the island.

Thursday after school Thanh and I headed into town to meet everybody including Ryan at KoKo Bean for dinner. Our normally wonderful dinner was better than usual as everyone enjoyed a newcomer and the fact that we had the next day off and were headed to Manu’a. After dinner T&S piled people into their truck, Thanh and I hopped into Ryan’s car, and we headed out to Hotel T&S.

The night passed pleasantly with chatting, drinking, and watching the stars out on the beach. Eventually we had to call it a night and hit the hay. Suddenly I was jolted from my sleep by John waking me up, and then I hear the frantic ringing of the village bell. Tsunami warning?!? That’s what John and Cyn thought too. Soon we are headed out on to the road to look down towards the village but then it dawns on us, and Scott wakes up and confirms that it is just the 5 AM church bell for Good Friday! Oh Samoa… You’d think they could make their frantic ‘”come to church” bell and their frantic “OMG it’s a tsunami run!” bell sound a little different…

We awoke for the second time closer to eight and piled in and headed to the airport. Ryan accompanied us as we were going to try to get him on a flight with us so that he could join us in Manu’a. Sadly once we make it to the airport we found out that there was no room, and then we said our goodbyes to Ryan. After playing with Sandra’s little baby Pikasone for a while it was about time to get moving and we headed to the wonderfully air-conditioned departure gate to await our flight to Ta’u!