We got to the airport 2 hours before the flight was supposed to leave and were surprised to see that the line to check baggage was huge. Everyone in line had a whole bunch of big boxes and pieces of luggage. I guess it was just normal.

While waiting in line we met Jane, a librarian from Hawaii who was going to Samoa for a conference. She gave us the scoop on what we could expect in American Samoa.

When we arrived in American Samoa we waited a while for our bags to show up on the conveyor belt. While we were waiting we met a guy named Ben who lives out by the waterfall in Leone. He told us to swing by some time in the next couple weeks for dinner. We haven't been out there yet, but I'm guessing it's gonna be pretty awesome. Ben's a big fan of Vailima, which is a beer brewed in Samoa (it's got 7.5 percent alcohol).

After claiming our bags and making it through customs, we were really happy to see that there was a guy holding up an "Amy Zlot" sign. It was Jonathan King, who we'd been emailing over the last few weeks. Jonathan is going to be in American Samoa for 2 years working on the filariasis eradication program.

On Saturday night Jonathan got us invited to a meeting/dinner at Hong Kong Restaurant. The meeting was led by Dr. Julia Lyons. We met a bunch of people that are involved in childhood development. Here's Jontathan with Dr. Lyons:

And here are some of Dr. Lyons' nieces who entertained after dinner -- this is a Samoan custom. The people here love to perform!

We stayed at Tessarea's for the first couple of nights instead of Evalani's.

On Sunday we moved in to our room at Sliding Rock. Tai got us all set up and cooked us a great mahi-mahi dinner!

Here's the view from the deck where we eat our meals when it's not raining: