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How I got American Samoa on the map for World Cleanup Day 2018

How I got American Samoa on the map for World Cleanup Day 2018

Sep 15, 2018 | Culture, Lifestyle, Sustainable Living

Happy World Cleanup Day everyone!

That’s today (September 15) in case you didn’t already know, and I don’t blame you because I literally just learned about it on Thursday morning! I emailed the 2 contact folks for World Cleanup Day in the USA to see how I could get involved, and after a flurry of emails, I had unknowingly signed up to be Team Leader for American Samoa’s participation in World Cleanup Day!

What is World Cleanup Day?

Essentially, World Cleanup Day is one day of clean up efforts around the world. It started in Estonia 10 years ago when just 4% of the country’s population made one major mission: to clean up the whole country in 1 day… yes, that’s 24 hours!!! This sparked World Cleanup Day as a recognized civic holiday, now in its 2nd year, and with support worldwide! From Fiji to New Zealand, to India, to the UAE, Argentina, USA, and now American Samoa. Millions of people around the world took a pledge to do their part, big and small, on this particular day to address the issue of trash and waste in our environments.

On top of these initiatives, there is a huge media movement that follows cleanups from 150+ participating countries. A live feed was broadcasted online, tracking the cleanup progress around the world on September 15 at the start of the International Date line in New Zealand… and because of my outreach, American Samoa was officially dubbed the final destination for the 2018 World Cleanup Day! WOOHOO! You can find a screencap of the Live video broadcast here.

Cool! Now what?

I was actually really excited to get such great feedback from Jim Sharman and Steve Jewett, the representatives for Let’s Do It! World and National Cleanup Day. But because I had just found out about the whole movement only 12 hours before it was to begin on the other side of the International Dateline, I really only had a day to make plans.

*Warning: Long Post ahead!*

A Community, A Cleanup

Bluesky Cleanup / Laufou Shopping Center

I was doing all of this — sending emails back and forth, gathering information on World Cleanup Day, and telling my friends about the Coconut Point beach clean up — all during an off-site video shoot for work, and when I told my coworker Lauren, she suggested I ask our company to get involved. That was a great idea! I emailed my HR and Marketing managers and they said that if I could arrange it outside of working hours on such short notice, the company would sponsor trash bags, gloves, and a light breakfast. I was stoked! Soon after, I sent out the email asking for volunteers to show up an hour before work the next morning so we could clean up around our building. I knew not a lot of people could make it because it was outside of work hours, and a few of the departments were extra busy. But thankfully, we got a good group together and collected 100 gallons of trash; mostly cigarette butts, small plastics, and styrofoam.

Photos from our Friday, September 14 / Laufou Shopping Center cleanup at 7:30am

Capstone Cleanup / Lion’s Park

This incredible group of citizen scientists are members of Capstone AOG church. They already do monthly cleanups (working with the AS Coral Reef Advisory Group as volunteers to collect waste and extract data from what they gather), but when they learned about #WorldCleanupDay just 2 days ago (I told Ian, Ian told his coworker, and his coworker told her church group), they decided to do an extra one this month at the Lion’s Park!! We joined them this morning at 7am this morning and found a LOT of soda cans, water bottles, styrofoam cups and plates, plastic cutlery, chip bags—you name it!—just littered everywhere, ESPECIALLY on the shoreline! But I just wanna shout out this awesome group who made it fun, and made a big impact in just a couple of hours! Big thanks to Pa’i from the NPS Green Team for setting this up, and to Bluesky American Samoa for providing trash bags and gloves!

Photos from Saturday, September 15 / Lion’s Park cleanup at 7:00am

A Live Intermission

With an hour between the 7am cleanup at Lion’s Park and our 9:30am Coconut Point beach cleanup, I got a call from Jim Sharman, the Let’s Do It! World coordinator. He wanted to share information about American Samoa on the international live broadcast, and officially dub us the final destination for the 2018 World Cleanup Day! I was soooo excited to see them raise our flag, set it on the map, and then see the producer run in and write out ‘AMERICAN SAMOA’ next to our speck of an island, because people were getting us confused with our sister island, the independent country of Samoa. It was awesome, and it honestly felt so good to know that I played the part in making that happen.

Beach Cleanup / Coconut Point

Now THIS is the beach that I call home! This community is diverse, changing, and impactful. As soon as I learned about WCD, I immediately started a group chat about a beach cleanup, and everyone jumped on it! This morning, we started at 9:30am and in just a short amount of time, collected a lot of single use plastic and styrofoam, cans and water bottles, electrical wires, and old clothes that probably got left behind on the beach. It was a great feeling to see our beautiful beach for what it is, without the rubbish, and an even better feeling to be surrounded by a rad group of friends!

Photos from Saturday, September 15 / Coconut Point beach cleanup at 9:30am

From what I’ve learned in the last few days, it’s that people are interested and want to take part in effecting change. It’s just a matter of reaching out and getting stoked! And every bit of effort counts! Of course, this was only possible because of everyone who participated. Ya’ll are amazing! If you’re still reading, WOW. And fa’afetai tele lava from American Samoa, your final destination of the 2018 World Cleanup Day!

First Friday at the Fagatogo Market

First Friday at the Fagatogo Market

Mar 3, 2018 | Culture, Lifestyle

Fagatogo Market

Last night with Ian at First Friday.

I brought Sutton (my camera) along because since I started the Moments page on my site, I’ve been feeling motivated to photo journal more.

Adobo at First Friday | Nerelle | American Samoa

We arrived at the Fagatogo Marketplace a little past 7:30pm.  I was surprised at how dim it was in there – most of the overhead lights weren’t working anymore, and they had one big floodlight on the ground that kind of made it feel like a dark busy alley. It gave off a slight ‘black market’ type of vibe.

Really loud music blaring from grainy speakers outside.

Glimpses of bright fabrics through the shadows.

The smell of fried food.

Fresh produce lining the floor on cardboards.

A low hum of chatter – people exchanging cash for goods.

We hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we headed straight for the Filipino food table and got a chicken adobo, rice, and lumpia plate for $4.75! Then purchased a couple of niu for $2 each.

Walked over to the parking lot by DMWR and sat by the Pago Harbor.

We watched the moon come up from behind Mt. Rainmaker. What a sight.

And I swooned at the moonlit ripples in the pitch black ocean.

I like going to First Fridays at the Fagatogo Market.

There are handicrafts to peruse (I bought an intricately handwoven pale for only $10! I plan to wear it on my birthday coming up in a few weeks!), different dishes to try (Filipino food, Mexican food, and Samoan food), and entertainment (usually an array of local church groups or small bands).

I snapped this photo of styrofoam piled up in the trash because it made me kind of sad. We had a styrofoam plate from our dinner that we added to the bin and I kept thinking I should have brought my own tupperware and my zero waste kit. Next time.

The market’s entertainment for the night was a small carefree band with an electronic piano. If you know island jams, you know da kine.

These 3 dancing kids were the real entertainment though. They were so unashamed dancing out there, and made a lot of us laugh.

We left close to 9pm, and offered to drive one of the market vendors – who was a friend of my parents – home to Nu’uuli since we lived nearby. We chatted all the way home.

It was a good night.

2017 Samoana Jazz & Arts Festival

2017 Samoana Jazz & Arts Festival

Dec 19, 2017 | Culture, Photography

2017 Samoana Jazz & Arts Festival

Day 1 at Tradewinds Hotel Pavilion

Day 2 at Sadies by the Sea Hotel

Day 3 at Tisa’s Barefoot Beach & Bar

Photos sponsored by Bluesky

This was my 3rd year as the official photographer for the Samoana Jazz & Arts Festival. And even though I see many of the same faces year after year, and have made friends with the musicians, I still get nervous to take the stage and put on the “Official Photographer” badge. I’m always worried I’m blocking people’s view, or being a bother, or that I look like I don’t know what I’m doing. I always wear all black (something I learned from my time working for GradImages) to not draw attention to myself. And it really helped to take photos and meet the new musicians at the mixer event the night before, so I was familiar with who the musicians were, and they were aware that I’d be invading the stage periodically to take their photos. Last year I took almost all the photos without a flash, which is ridiculous. This year I brought my Altura external flash and brought a bunch of extra AA batteries just in case. The photos turned out SO much better thanks to the flash. Here is a clickable gallery of photos for the 3-day Jazz festival. Photos sponsored by Bluesky.

Pacific Roots Open Mic #12

Pacific Roots Open Mic #12

Dec 12, 2017 | Culture, Lifestyle

It’s been a year and some months since the last Pacific Roots Open Mic (a.k.a. “PROM”). A lot of the “usuals” have left the island and if you were worried that there would be less performances, you’d be wrong. Fresh new talents got up and spilled their struggles, their criticisms, their voices out on a borrowed stage.

Between spoken word, original poetry, reenactments, singing, rapping, instrument playing, and excerpts read aloud – that Tuesday night was not short of encouragement from an audience of young adults all different walks of life.

Shout out once again to Tamiano Gurr, owner of Pacific Roots and fellow poet, for inspiring us all and providing a real life/offline social platform.

Let’s Jazz Things Up

Let’s Jazz Things Up

Nov 6, 2017 | Culture, Lifestyle, Photography

It’s that time of the year again. Early November means Jazz Festival in American Samoa – or at least that’s what this time of year means for me, as of the last three years. I’ve been the official photographer for the Samoana Jazz & Arts Festival for the last 3 years in American Samoa leg. The 3-day jazz festival starts in American Samoa on the first weekend of November, and is followed by another weekend in Samoa.

This also means that it’s been a long weekend for me. I’ve been photographing and editing photos pretty much all weekend. These are just a few photos from the Meet & Greet night at Paradise Pizza  the day before the festival began. The bands all got together for food and drink, met the sponsors, and the board, and it was a good time.