American Samoa

I'm on the island of Tutuila now in American Samoa, where I've been for the past five days. American Samoa is in the southern hemisphere due west of Tahiti, just east of the International Date Line. Friday night I got in late at the international airport; although this is a US territory, you have to go through immigration and customs once you land (run not by the US Department of Homeland Security, but by the American Samoa Government; however, airport security is run by the federal TSA). Having an American Samoa stamp in my passport is a little weird; despite the obvious reminders of the US federal government everywhere, like the National Park Service and the US Postal Service and the USDA Land Grant facility where I am typing this message, this place has a lot more autonomy than any state. American Samoans are US nationals but not US citizens; if a US citizen moves here and becomes a permanent resident, s/he gains the right to vote in local elections (and for a non-voting representative in Washington), but loses the right to vote for US president. I never really thought that this was a "one country, two systems" kind of nation I lived in--and I'm not sure this is a bad arrangement--but like I said, it's a little weird. Especially after seeing how Tahitians in French Polynesia get to vote for French President and voting members of the National Assembly in Paris, and on all EU referenda--they may not care, but at least they have that right.

Tutuila, the main island, is about the size of Mo'orea, although a different shape. Most people here are Samoan, although there are sizable minorities of immigrants from Western Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, the United States, the Philippines, and South Korea, among other places. Americans are rather rare; I was told there are actually more Filipinos here than people from the US. Many people are employed in the tuna canneries in Pago Pago, which can tuna from all over the Pacific such that it can be exported tariff-free to the USA. These canneries have spawned a somewhat sketchy complex of stores and other unmarked buildings on the north side of the bay, where fisherman take shore leave. I'm on the south side of the bay, near the National Park Service office and a number of more reputable establishments.

The culture here seems considerably more conservative than in French Polynesia--I was amused by "No bikinis" warning in the National Park brochure. When I went to the wildlife department office to get my permit, there was a prominently framed Iraqi flag embroidered with the words "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and the names of departmental employees who were serving in Iraq.

Anyway, the fieldwork has been going well, and the people at the various agencies I have interacted with have been very helpful. Samoa is a LOT closer to Asia than French Polynesia is, and the forests here are much more species-rich, and much less invaded by alien plants. Walking through the forest, alive with birdsong (most of the birds in Eastern Polynesia are extinct), is a lot more like walking through a rainforest in Southeast Asia or the Neotropics. There are fruit bats, honeycreepers and starlings, and the carton nests of termites, and tall canopy trees with huge, bat- or bird-dispersed seeds. One downside is that someone has introduced cane toads here, and they are everywhere, hopping across trails and squashed on the roads every morning. There is an endemic swallowtail butterfly, and a native boa, neither of which I've been lucky enough to see yet. Tutuila is highly eroded, like Mo'orea or Rapa, and has some spectacular views.

I have been taking advantage of a generous offer to use the entomology lab at the Land Grant facility at American Samoa Community College. Here I can dry plant specimens and rear out insect larvae in an air-conditioned room. Yesterday I gave a talk at ASCC, which was surprisingly well attended, by an audience with a very large range of educational backgrounds, which was a challenge. After the talk, an employee of the American Samoa EPA invited me to her house to have dinner with her cooking club that evening--and I found myself having Eritrean food for dinner with a dozen or so young palagi (foreigners) who are employed here temporarily, mostly in territorial government agencies. Having arrived early, I was set to the task of picking suspicious white flecks off the injera that had been smuggled in from the United States.

Tomorrow I am flying to Ta'u to the west, and a few days later am hiring someone to take me in a boat to the nearby island of Ofu. These are far smaller, and far more remote than Tutuila, and everyone says great things about them. I will post again when I return to Tutuila. Now I am going to go buy some plastic bags and twist ties for rearing larvae before the stores close...