Much clearing and cleaning up has been going on in many villages, preparing for the April 17th, Flag Day, celebrations. Plantings, can just be stuck in the ground and they root and grow into large shrubs. American Samoa became a U.S. territory in 1900. A.S. celebrates with much to-do. We plan to watch the Long-Boat races, next Saturday. There will be 40 rowers in each boat. Hopefully, we will have pictures of the celebration to share with you.

There are 96 villages on the island and 90% had tsunami damage. There are 97 christian churches on the Island. Every village has at least one church. The Methodist church in the photo above is about one block from our compound here in Fagalele, in the village of Leone (pronounced Lay own a) . The Catholic church in the photo below is just around the corner.

Many of the churches had repairs and were repainted since September.

Enjoy the beauty of the ocean. This whole island is lava rock from a volcano.

The mountains are covered with vegetation, you would never know its lava rock below.