The GnRporter Family

Home, Internet at Last

2012-01-29T04:35:00.000-08:00

We finally got our home internet service connected, only took a month but worth the wait! It is so nice to be able to catch up with everyone, see what the rest of the world is doing and get back in touch with family and friends.

Rose, backing our car out of the shipping container that brought it and (almost) all our worldly possessions to the island .

Hottie on the shipping dock

We have pay-as-you-go cell phones but nothing that anyone stateside could reach us on affordably so we've been out of the loop for a few months. So since it's been awhile, for the next few posts we'll do a little updating, starting with our house:

1. Porter Hall
We felt very blessed indeed to find a really nice house at an affordable price, though to be honest it is much bigger than we are either accustomed to or need. It always feels to me a little like one of the big English Manor houses in a Sherlock Holmes novel, albeit without the tapestries and suits of armor, though we do have one long, drafty corridor running down the centre of Porter Hall. It runs the length of the house, and is drafty because we leave the lovered windows open constantly throughout the house; we have to, as there is no AC. We often joke that it's a little like camping every day since aside from the roof, we are basically open to the elements all the time. It's nearly always warm/hot and humid; we are pretty much sticky from the time the sun rises to our evening shower at sunset.

We're getting more accustomed to the bugs and other crawlies too: at dinner tonight it just wasn't that big a deal anymore that the termites were flying all around and landing on us/the table while we dined, it's just how it is here. We have lots of geckoes all over inside the house, and black salamanders outside too, but they are always welcome because they eat roaches, and we don't bother the little spiders if they stay out of our way for the same reason. We still kill the huge ones though, mostly because they are creepy, more so to think they could be walking on your face while you're sleeping! We have a beehive in one of our living room walls, but they pretty much keep to themselves so we haven't done much with them. I did kill all the hornets around the place though, since they are aggressive and one stung Rem.

We had to do some work to the place to make it livable again; it had been vacant for almost 4 months when we moved in, and the previous tenant was a military major who lived here alone (his family was stateside) so the place had been a little neglected. Though it took some work getting things cleaned and up to spec, we have great neighbors (the Corrys') who helped us in so many ways with repairs and friendship. Plus, the landlord (who lives in Utah) made sure that the electrical work in the place was safe and operable, which was in itself a huge blessing.

The first floor is actually pretty nice, and that's basically where we live. The 2nd floor needs a little work, including a roof that drips into buckets in 6-7 places when it rains...we're still trying to fix it. Eventually we hope to fix the upstairs rooms up nicely, and then we can have company!!

The house before we moved in.

Big front yard with imposing mossy stone wall :)

The boys' room. Like our bedroom, many of the tiles were peeling up, and had active ant colonies beneath them.

Rose scraping up some tiles.

Grant scraping and rubbing the sticky glue with baking soda.

Kitchen to laundry room: digging out rotten doorjamb and trash.

Grant's happiest when helping. He wants to be a construction worker.

Jason and Krista Corry with Rose. They were a huge help!

Rem on the front porch.

Checking out the house before we moved in. Living room.

More living room. None of the AC units work anymore.

Looking toward the kitchen and bedrooms.

After we finished making repairs and moved in:

Kitchen table/dining

Looking opposite, down the Great Hall to the Living Room

Kitchen (with our new gas range that we bought to replace the one the mice had eaten)

Our bedroom (with the AC we put in but don't really ever use)

the Boys' room

Bathroom...is what it is, though we fixed the shower and replaced the sink.

Play area and 1/2 bath

Living Room

Kitchen and dining, with bedrooms beyond.

We met our terrific neighbors, Jason and Krista Corry at church; Jason actually cued us in about the house. They have 5 little boys ages 12 to 1. Our 3 boys love having friends literally across the street. They play constantly, which is great! They have helped us so much with finding our way around the island, both physically and culturally. Rose paddles with Krista nearly every Saturday.

So, to sum up, things are good here. We have settled into our house, disposed of most of the giant roaches and mice, and are feeling comfortable in our daily routines.

The New Job

2011-11-12T03:28:00.000-08:00

So we just passed the one month mark and things are moving along nicely. I'm enjoying my new job, my first as a PA...in some ways it has been more challenging than I expected but overall the transition from student to practitioner has gone fairly smoothly.

The Setting:
I'm working in the Family Medicine clinic, which is a department of the hospital. So far it has just been one physician, Dr. Sean Stracensky and myself. Apparently his Samoan patients have difficulty with his last name (at least as much as I do with theirs) so he is known by pretty much everyone as Dr. Sean. He's also the department chief and my supervisor, and until we arrived last month he'd been the only provider in the clinic for 6 months. Naturally, he was overbooked and buried in work, and almost as soon as I started the word got out that there was "a new doctor at the clinic" so the floodgates have really opened.

The hospital

The Work:
I've had maybe 3 patients with simple cases of the sniffles, none with sore throats or ingrown toenails and very few people seeking narcotics, so thus far my experience here has not followed the pattern of the standard "doctor's office visit" I saw during my training in Seattle. Nearly every person I have seen here has had either severe (and often poorly controlled) diabetes, severe hypertension, obesity and or gout, and often all or many of these things mixed together. I saw a patient covered in ringworm from head to toe (who didn't bother to pick up the medications I prescribed in favor of visiting a native "doctor"), as well as several significant abscesses, cellulitis and serious infections. I have had a couple patients with new kidney failure. The people who come to this clinic are often legitimately ill; a number our patients who had been on the Internal Medicine service have now begun streaming through our clinic, so the acuity of illness we are seeing is really pretty high. Great opportunity to make a difference as well as gain some good experience in a short amount of time.

Cool to finally see it in print on my office door:) The placard our MA's made for me

The Office:
I find myself wishing that I had packed my carry on with the medical stuff I got for school, since our office is pretty bare; we share one otoscope between the two of us, and I could really use my reflex hammer, among other stuff. At least it'll be here when the rest of our stuff catches up! I guess the clinic used to have a microscope for checking urine samples 'in house' but it was stolen. We do have our own crash cart, complete with Lifepak 9 (tho it's missing the limb lead cables and has no fast patches, leaving us with only the defib paddles for everything)...
I do have a pretty nice little office, though, I have to say. Very pleased with it, even if it's not perfect compared to the cushy stateside digs I've seen. I even have a pretty nice exam table, which I felt lucky to get, as the previous provider was using a massage table, and I heard that some of the older and more obese patients wouldn't use it...they were afraid because it was so tall and narrow! So I felt lucky to get a "new" [circa 1977] table of my very own, even if it does have a few issues: the hydraulic ram is broken, so the back doesn't lift up, and it's leaking hydraulic fluid into the drawers, so I can't use them either. One of the cabinet doors fell off, but it had only been screwed on haphazardly with a couple wood screws anyway, so I just took it off and covered the opening with some of that crinkly tissue paper that goes on top, so it looks pretty sweet now. The office walls are a little bare, but I have plans for them too, so it will look pretty nice by the time I'm finished :)

Home sweet office

The Support Staff:
We have an excellent support staff up front, 2 MA's (Savali and Arona) who work very hard to keep things running smoothly. They helped get my office ready before I arrived, even made a label with my name on the door, which was nice. We're expecting two more providers to start in the clinic soon (a Fijiian MBBS [Pacific Medical Officer] here for 2 years and a Nurse Practitioner here for 6 months) so to keep up with the added patient volume, another MA (Paco) is joining the support staff up front as well. They are a great help with scheduling, translation, injections, and everything else.

The front office

Every provider has to be a member of a committee at the hospital; I'm assigned to the Code Blue 500, which means I get to help review all cardiac arrests that occur in the hospital, and how they are handled. Looking forward to that, even though the last meeting was cancelled because not enough peeps showed up. Plus, I start in the ER soon, which I'm looking forward to/apprehensive about. Not quite sure what to expect there, but have already helped lead one code there so hopefully I'll be able to be an asset and field anything else that is expected there.
Overall, I'm having a good time here at the new job. Still tons to learn, but its going okay..everything I had expected so far.

2011-10-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

MOSO'OI Outriggers Regatta

"The American Samoa Association of Paddlers (ASAP) was established in May of 2008 to develop the sport ofoutrigger canoeing in American Samoa.We are not only trying to promote water sports, but also promote tourismon island as well by providing activities such as paddling." [ Marrilee S. May, ASAP Treasurer].

The Moso' oi Festival... is a time for celebration of the Samoan culture and the week will have various activities related to culture, history, and crafts or sports.

We were fortunate to attend the ASAP Outriggers Regatta as part of the Moso'oi festival going on this week. We were invited to the event by Jackie, another doctor on the island that we happen to be neighbors with. (Yeah we're getting in good with all the locum doctors here!) After a fun filled day at the races we all went to dinner. The funniest part is that we ended up having Carl's Jr. with the boys while Jackie and Lars the radiologist (the boys favorite) had dinner about sixty feet away at a restaurant called Koka Bean (a much nicer and quieter restaurant).

About the race: There were five canoes and several paddler (six per)groups that competed. There were children competitors starting at age eight, to high school students, to adults up to the age of around fifty.

Jackie second from the left, in the yellow canoe

It was a double elimination competition. Jackie team was called Lau mei. She arrived on the island for a two-month visit/work on the island. She came just in time to sign up, train and compete Saturday the 22nd for the canoe races. This was Jackie's first time canoeing and competition, however, she is a kayaker, so she's pretty tough. Not only were these paddlers fast...they were also strong. Each group was made up of six members. The first or lead person set the pace, the last person steered the canoe and the other four basically worked to win the race (there's more to it than that). Starting out every other paddler is paddling on the opposite side, after about five strokes the change and again after ten to fourteen strokes. They would paddle out about two-hundred and fifty yards and then race back to the shore. It looked like a lot of hard work. Lau mei ended up placing third. They had some really great races. Their first race the came in second place, the next two they came in first and their final race they came in second. It was a very close final race, so close that if you weren't paying attention, you would have thought they had won. The two canoes were literally within about six inches of each other. Not a bad placement for a first time competitor!

Random kids...making a castle

Hunter, Grant and Remington also had a great time! They spent the whole afternoon playing on the beach, making sandcastles, digging trenches, throwing sand, making sand angels and playing with all the other kids. This is the sandcastle that was started by Hunter and help finished by several other kids and even a few adults. Remington enjoyed filling up the trenches with our fresh bottled water, before collecting more from the ocean. It was great seeing so many kids, some that we just meet today working so well together.

As you can tell the kids' castle was built just out of reach of the waves. So when it was time to pull the canoes out of the water...everyone that had worked on it had gasped when they saw the boat coming. Much to every one's delight the canoers assured everyone that they would step over the castle, and not on it. All the kids watched closely to make sure the cleared it.

Sand Angel

Grant's favorite part of the day was making the sandcastle with all the other kids. He also enjoyed playing on the extra canoe and making a sand angel.

Hunter's favorite part of watching the races was the castle he had built and swimming with his friends. He actually ended up building more than one. He also enjoyed throwing wet sand back into the ocean.

Making a sand castle

Remington had a blast! He enjoyed every minute out on the beach. It was a great place for him because he didn't have to worry about the current and he could go out to where the other kids were and still stand up.

Playing in the sand

Grant

Gregg's Wilson hand

Gregg enjoyed waiting in the water and seeing the boys have a great time. He helped build on their castles too.

As for me, I enjoyed watching the boys interact with all the other kids. It's nice to live in an area that is so kid friendly. All the kids played really well together and the adults enjoyed having them around.

School and Hiking

2011-10-19T03:46:00.001-07:00

South Pacific Academy

Hunter and Grant started at South Pacific Academy (SPA) on Tuesday Oct. 11. Hunter's teacher is Ms. Lana and Grant's teacher is Ms. Carmela. Both are really great teachers and the boys seem to fit well in their classes, and have already made friends.

This is South Pacific Academy! On the left is their new gym, where the boys have P.E...crazy to see it all completed. When Gregg and I visited the school last December they had just started working on it. The building just behind and to the right of the gym is the school cafeteria, where they get to eat breakfast and lunch. I believe it's the computer lab that is on the right. The boys were excited to be back in school.

World War II guns

This is just outside Hunter's classroom. In a lot of the schools and churches in Amerika Samoa the buildings have few rooms inside that don't lead directly back to the outside. That's pretty much how all the classrooms are at S.P.A. The only exception being the office. All the buildings on campus surround the playground. To the right of the above picture...they have a small playground with a couple of slides, the rest is all open.

Hiking in Amerika Samoa
Our first hike was a place called Blunt's Point, also known as World War II Guns in Utulei. This was a nice easy hike (at least to the first two guns) that took us up to obviously the old cannons that were used during WWII. This first was in great condition. It had been drained of the 2-3ft of water that had been collected. Only several frogs remain there. I don't know if the boys were more excited by the size of the gun or the amount of frogs and toads they came across.

Cable car

Inside the cable car

Monument on Solo Hill

Our next hike was to the Old Cable Car Tramway, on Solo Hill, which is no longer used. On April 17, 1980 a U.S. Navy plane, flying overhead as part of the Flag Day celebrations, struck the cable; the plane crashed into a wing of the Rainmaker Hotel. The tramway was repaired, but closed not long after. A monument was built to honor the six US Navy personnel who died in the plane crash; two tourists staying in the hotel also died. Our last and final hike of the day was to a National Park Lafauna Fa'asaoina. This started out to be quite an awesome hike. Shortly after we started we ran into the park rangers, for this park as well as the head park ranges from off island. The local rangers were very excited to have the boys visiting the park, they were teaching them the different plants they had planted and they helped to pull weeds. All three boys are going to have their names written down for having helped in cleaning a national park. Towards the end of our visit they presented each of the boys with a young plant to be replanted wherever we end up moving to on the island.

Park rangers

The Amerikan Samoa park rangers are on a mission to kill off all the trees that were brought in by the first missionaries. Forgive me for not knowing the name, they were imported because it was easier to carve canoes from. However, they are killing them because they contain nitrogen and kill all the other plant life below them. They are planting these native trees to help bring back the national forest. So far they are they only Polynesian island to have such great success.

Hunter with his plant...started pouring

Last but not least what would a hike be without ice cream? So we stopped and had some delicious homemade ice cream...so soft. It was melting before we made it outside.

It even dripped down his shirt...such a mess

Other News:

Saw my first Sperm Whale, the sad part is that it was washed up

onto the reef and NOAA was unable to save it. The tide never

got high enough to help it back out to sea, just pushed it back closer

to the shore.

Grant lost his second tooth while biting into a piece candy at church.

Hunter has yet another tooth (sixth) coming in so will be losing another

one very shortly.

Since our move Remington has become interested in collecting shells, seashells

and snail (they get pretty big). He already has a whole bag full he can barely carry...

and he still keeps getting more. :0)

Gregg is enjoying being a P.A. is getting the hang of things quickly.

End of our first week

2011-10-15T03:18:00.000-07:00

Flower that Rose found on our hike

So we are at the end of our first week here, and it's been a busy one! But, we've gotten quite a bit done, and made some new friends (as well as seen some old ones again), so we feel like it's been a succes

In our back yard near the hospital

football with the neighbor kids

We are living in the LBJ Locum's housing, right next to the hospital, where new and traveling doctors (locums) stay when first arriving on the island. It's not fancy compared with stateside digs, but for the island it is really very nice, namely because it's entirely air conditioned (rare!) and rent and utilities are free while we're here. It's right next to the hospital, which can be good/bad. Other good things: lots of traveling docs, so a truly international crowd to meet and visit with. Our neighbors include a radiologist from Sweden, a bubbly internal medicine doc specialiing in trop med, a Fijiian surgeon, another internal med doc from somewhere back east, and a pediatrician who has recently worked in Africa, Indonesia, and other places. Plus there are some local kids next door that also have been playing with the boys lately in our yard; they are really having a blast!
The only downside is that the housing is only temporary, so we do actually need to find a place to rent in the next few months. And until our car arrives, we actually get to use the hospital car, which is a plus, though we have to share it with the other docs in locums, so it can be a bit of a pain, since sharing can be a bit inconvenient for schedules. Still, we feel pretty blessed to have it, and after all, it's true to SAmoan style, as most families on the island share a single car between several families.

Dinner time in our apartment in locums

the car we share with 5 other docs and countless other staff

pic that Hunter took at preconference

We also were lucky enough to attend Stake Conference here, half of which was in Samoan, and although we had headphones for the interpreter, the static was so bad that they just gave up halfway through, so we had to go purely on the Spirit to figure out what was said. Still a cool meeting. We were tipped off about conference, as well as the "Pre-Conference" celebration (loud music, dancing, presentations and a feast) the night or so before by our friends the Temples.

Rose, Melinda and kids at the falls

We met the Ephraim and Melinda Temple and their kids when we came out here in December to interview, and have been hanging out and having fun together...on Monday we went with them on a hike thru the jungle to Nu'uli falls, a local secret. A cool freshwater waterfall and swimming hole, it was fun to see and enjoy on a hot morning..

Lastly, the boys had their first day of school, but we'll talk more about that in another post...

2011-10-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

Sina and the Eel

The Story of the First Coconut Tree

On the island of Savai'i in Samoa, one version of the legend tells of a beautiful girl called Sina who had a small pet Tuna. When the Tuna grew, it fell in love with Sina. This made the girl afraid. She tried to run away, but the Tuna followed her. Sina finally sought refuge in a village, and thinking that she had escaped, went to the village pool to get water.
However, when Sina looked into the pool, she saw the Tuna staring up at her.
Angry, she cried 'You stare at me, with eyes like a demon!' or in the Samoan language, 'E pupula mai, ou mata o le alelo!' Village chiefs came and killed the Tuna. As the Tuna was dying, it asked Sina to plant its head in the ground. Sina followed the Tuna's request, and planted its head in the ground. A coconut tree grew from the ground. When the husk is removed from a coconut, there are three round marks which appear like the face of the Tuna with two eyes and a mouth. One of the marks is pierced for drinking the coconut, and hence when Sina takes a drink, she is kissing the Tuna.

Now that you are all acquainted with the story of the first coconut tree...I'll tell you of our adventures with cracking open coconuts. Hunter and Grant were so excited when they grabbed something green of a tree. They thought for sure it was a coconut. After several failed attempts to convince them, their curious looking fruit was not a coconut, I unceremoniosly punctured it. To their great surprise (and somewhat disgust) they were able to look inside and see the small black and white seeds of a papaya.

Hitting it on a rock

Had I thought about it longer, I probably would have just gone in the house a cut it open with a knife. But this was definitely a lot more fun!

They boys got even more excited when it started to leak a thin white substance, which neither one of them was willing to taste.

Later while visiting with friends all three boys busied themselves with gathering up several coconuts. Then with hammer in hand and smiles on their faces, they worked tirelessly to pry open their much

anticipated prize. They worked hard, Hunter and Grant were successful in breaking through the coconut and tasting the water which waited them. Remington also worked hard.

Rem's was sprouting

Breaking into a sweat!

It was Gregg and I who actually reaped the benefits from their labors, as we were the ones who drank and ate most of the coconuts.


So good!

Gregg is such a great husband and father, the boys had the best time with there Dad and seem to have no trouble exploring the world around them.

a handy tool to have around!

We made it!

2011-10-11T02:17:00.000-07:00

So after a long wait of nearly a year and a slightly shorter trip via airplane, we finally arrived in American Samoa on Thursday night, Oct 6th.

First of all, we want to thank all of our friends and family who made our last few weeks in WA a great experience, from Geoff and Heather's party for us, and everyone who attended to show their support and friendship, to my grandparents who allowed us to crash at their place for nearly a week after the movers whisked all of our possessions away to the shipping container leaving us 6000 pounds lighter but without a place to sleep, to Rose's parents and family who graciously drove up to meet us in WA and took a large part of our more valuable things to keep for us while we're away.

So the boys did terrifically, from the early morning ride to the airport by shuttle (which Remington cited as his favorite part of the entire journey), to a 6 hour flight, 4.5 hour layover in Honolulu, and 5 hour marathon of restlessness and finally slumber in time for landing in AS.

Waiting for our next plane in HI

H and Bow

Remington checking out the planes during our layover

Once we actually landed though, the boys were so exhausted that they fell sound asleep on the floor of the airport in Pago Pago as we were standing in line for AS Customs inspections and we ended up actually just pushing Grant and the pile of pillows and luggage through...he is nearly impossible to wake up once he sleeps. No one seemed to mind much, though; they love kids here. Plus it was hot, no AC, late and at the end of a 20 hour day for them.


Sleeping on the floor of the airport in Customs line


Our first night in our new home

Fun at the beach...Rose found this live starfish and added it to our name

We were met at the airport by Ana, the HR director and a girl named White Sunday, a staff member in the department. They were great, very friendly, gave us leis, and true to Samoan style insisted on buying us some food and water for the kids. Of course we brought our car seats and they fit great too... in the trunk of the car. We kinda expected that anyways, even though the speed limit on the island is 25mph, it is definitely different from what our boys are used to and sort of made us cringe, but the boys were excited and riding in the car without their seats was a pretty good intro to the first of many things that are going to be really different in their new home.

time to dust off the page

2011-09-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

So I guess it's about time to begin using our blog again, as things are about to change for our family, and it may not be as easy to keep in touch with everyone as it is now. What's new for our family? Just a few things:

I finally graduated with my Master's last month, and a Physician Associate certificate to boot...It really feels good to be done, as I've been in school for most of our married life (due to working full time,etc) but now we're done and ready to move forward!

We have accepted an offer from the Lyndon B Johnson Tropical Medical Center in Pago Pago, American Samoa and are in the final stages of moving...looking forward to what promises to be a challenging but unique family adventure!

The boys are growing every day and their personalities are beginning to really shine; its a real pleasure and privilege to be their parents and guides.

We're disconnecting our phone lines at the end of the month, and though we'll eventually be in touch via phone over there it will probably be easiest (and most cost effective) to keep everybody updated with what we're up to via the blog, and peeps can check in on us at their leisure. Just don't forget to drop a comment or two when you can so that the process works both ways :)

Porter Family Newsletter 2008/09

2009-02-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Well, it took a little longer than expected, but we finally got our annual newsletter out... Rose can rest easy now! Anyhow, check it out...

We miss all of our family and friends... Drop a line, leave a comment, or whatever... We'd love to hear from any of you guys!

The Fam: Pre-Remingtonian Era

2008-06-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Our Family Portrait... from 2007. A little outdated (from the pre-baby Remington era) but still what the Porter Famiy Newsletter calls "a poignant statement of both timeless fashion and impeccable style."

Baby New!

2008-04-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Remington Clark Porter has arrived! At a stunning 7lb 14 oz and 21 inches long, he is sure to make a big splash as the newest addition to the Porter household. Already extremely popular with his two older brothers, he is also adored by his parents.