Merry Christmas from the Fig Fam

Merry Christmas from the Fig Fam

babyFig!

It's going to be a boy!!!!!!!

Soccer Girl

Baby Fig!

Coming March 2010 to a rugby pitch near you!

5 years ago today I met my daughter for the first time! It literally all started "under a coconut tree" in the little village of Siumu! That day forever changed my life! Love ya Ari!

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.”

Miracles

Lil Fig and LDay

Miracles do happen! I witnessed the result of one last night when I saw two good friends holding their little girl. I see another when I look into my own daughters eyes! "......that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

Choice

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing. ... You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.

Walter's lesson

Here's the thing about the life of Walter Cronkite:

At every turn, he acted as if he had a responsibility to his audience. He didn't do the right thing because he thought it would help him get ahead and then one day he'd get his share. Instead, he always did the right thing because that's who he was. No sellouts, no political consulting, no false transparency.

That's the way it is.

Transparency works if it's authentic.

My baby is 5 years old today! Happy Birthday Ari!

Test Product for work

Do you matter?

• When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
• When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
• When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
• When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
• When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
• When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
• When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
• When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
• When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
• When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
• And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

For all you Social Stalkers out there.....

Excitement builds in Hamilton

Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina admits it is difficult to keep excitement at bay as his side eagerly awaits its first Rebel Sport Super 14 home semi-final to be played against the Hurricanes at Waikato Stadium on Friday night.

It will be the second time the franchise has ever reached the semi-finals and the pressure is on as rugby fever hits the streets of Hamilton and ticket-sales soar.

Muliaina was part of the Blues outfit that won the competition in 2003 but said for most of the players it will be their first taste of semi-finals rugby and they must stay focused ahead of Friday night's challenge.

"We've had to contain some of our excitement, obviously Hamilton being a very small town there are a lot of people here wishing us luck who are very excited about the occasion on Friday," said the 28-year-old fullback.

"We've got to try and contain that the best we can and not play the game yet, but it's pretty hard when it's your first home semi-final and I know the guys have busted their guts out to get this far.

"We're not content to make it just this far, we want to go all the way."

The Chiefs will want to repeat their performance of two weeks ago when they defeated the Hurricanes 16-8 in a top-of-the-table clash in Hamilton.

That game saw the Hurricanes blow several scoring opportunities and subsequently the win, so they are expected to be a much tighter unit come Friday evening and Muliaina knows just how tough they will be.

"We know that they'll come fired up because we probably had the edge on them at the breakdown last time we met so we know they're going to be a fired up team, they showed that against the Reds," said Muliaina.

"We had a day off yesterday [Tuesday] and that was good for the guys so now it's about getting our bodies right and getting the details right that we need to ahead of the game.

"We're certainly well recovered and we're honestly looking really forward to this opportunity."

The Chiefs have been hampered with some bad news ahead of the fixture however with star centre Richard Kahui opting out of the clash with a calf injury moving Dwayne Sweeney into the midfield.

Sweeney, whose defence has been questionable throughout his career, will have his hands more than full against the Hurricanes midfield duo of All Blacks Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith.

Sweeney however, is excited at being given the opportunity and is not overly worried about his defensive duties ahead of the match and is promising to hit back at the Hurricanes with some attack of his own.

"I'm excited to have the opportunity, it's obviously a big occasion for the team and Richie's obviously a massive loss for us," he said.

"I'm trying not to really worry too much about trying to repeat what Richie does and I'll try and bring my own influence to the game.

"Probably the biggest thing for us to do is to not get too caught up in what they're [Nonu and Smith] going to do and to try and put our own influence into the game.

"Obviously we'll be on our toes because they're both class players but we want to take the game to them a little bit as well."

Prison Break ..... Samoa Style

Here is a post by our friend Kathy Arp in Samoa. If you think Samoa is paradise think again. A bit long but worth the read.

Where to begin, where to begin….



On Monday this past week, we had our very own prison break, right here in Samoa. How many escaped, you may ask? Forty one, to be exact. Yes, 41 prisoners escaped. How did they accomplish this? Well, it was a combination of factors, unique to the Samoan prison system:



1. The prisoners were actually OUTSIDE the prison gate on work detail, cutting hedges, grass, etc.

2. BECAUSE they were cutting grass and hedges, each one of the 41 prisoners had a sapelu (machete). Yes, they were armed. By the prison itself.

3. Said prisoners who were OUTSIDE the gate, ARMED with bush knives, were being guarded by TWO policemen, who were unarmed, because police in Samoa do not carry weapons.

The prisoners flagged down a bus doing its morning run, and fortunately it was not full of school children, but had two mothers and their children, plus the bus driver. The bus driver said, to the prisoners’ credit, that they did not threaten him, but that they asked him to take them to the government building in town, not to stop for anyone or anything. Being as how they asked so politely, plus they all had bush knives, he decided to comply.

The prison guards, realising that this was not a good way to start a Monday, contacted the police in town. Here is where I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. I’m not sure if police cars went out towards the prison (which is up the road a few miles past our house), or if they waited to see which way the bus was going to come into town. Whatever the plan, it transpired that the bus came down to the main road into town, the road that runs right in front of the mission home, the PBO, the Pesega campus (where three of my children were taking exams at the time) and the temple, and this is where the police decided to regain control of the situation. They parked a police van or two cross ways across the traffic and tried to clear out as many vehicles and pedestrians as possible, then when the bus approached the intersection right in front of the temple, the police, who by this time had acquired rifles, shot out the tires on the bus, thus effectively stopping it in its tracks. But now they still had to get the prisoners off the bus. By the way, this is all happening at 9.00am when everybody is heading to work.

The prisoners kindly let the women and children off the bus, as their beef was not with them. Once the tires were shot out, they even let the bus driver out, because hey! Of what use was he to them now? There was a negotiator who asked the prisoners, “What are you doing, and what do you want?” They wanted to be transported to the government building where their plan was to kneel on the ground in front of the building until a representative would come out and listen to their grievances, which are that the prison isn’t even fit for animals: no proper toilets, food is too little and of poor quality, and they’re not happy with their weekend furloughs (I’ll explain more about this in a moment). Alas, this was not to happen. The prisoners surrendered their knives and were transferred to a police-commandeered bus to return them to the prison.

But wait! Now there are only 40 prisoners! What happened to #41? He somehow managed to escape from a bus that was surrounded by rifle-wielding policemen and decided maybe things would go better for him if he just returned to the prison and nobody would be the wiser, so he began walking back to the prison, thinking he could get back before negotiations were over and the prisoners were returned. Alas, his plan B went awry, as he was picked up by the bus returning the other prisoners.

Several other things are notable about this:

Weekend leave is the one that boggles my mind most often. Prisoners here are given weekends off where they can go home to their families, do whatever. They sign out on Friday evening and have to be signed back in by a certain time Monday morning. For the most part, 99.9% of the time, according to my understanding, THIS WORKS. And we’re not just talking about shop lifters. No, thieves, rapists, murderers, man slaughterers and people guilty of general mayhem can go home on the weekends.
The police don’t carry weapons as a general rule. As far as I know, they never have. Just recently the police have been petitioning to be allowed to carry weapons because more and more of the citizenry are carrying weapons which have been smuggled into the country. (Even the police commissioner was found guilty of gun smuggling, but that’s a whole nother story.)
The fact the police even had transportation capable of bringing this to a close is newsworthy. They’ve been acquiring scooters donated by foreign governments but the rank and file of the police department don’t have transportation. Police vans take the police around to where they need to go. Very often, if a crime is being committed, or has been committed, and you need the police to come, they will say one of several things: (1) No cars available; we’ll come when somebody comes back with a car; (2) No money for taxi; we’ll come when somebody comes back with a car; (3) Can you come get us? Or (4) Will you pay for our taxi? So the fact that they actually had vehicles on hand to stop this thing is a feat in and of itself.
Quite a while ago an outside organization that does prison inspections looked at the one here and said it is quite lacking, thank you very much. But the report was done by outsiders, and one of the things this government does NOT like is the opinions of outsiders. This government likes outsiders’ MONEY, but if you’re not offering to fund/donate something here, keep your mouth shut if it’s all the same to you.

Another thing about this was an observation made by the head of Human Resources here for the church. (He happens to be an outsider, but he’s Niuean, so he’s not TOO FAR outside.) His office faced the street on which the shooting occurred, and he ran outside to tell the security guys to slam the gates, etc. – basically lockdown the entire church compound. But when he went out, the security guards were heading down the road to get a closer look – they had abandoned their posts. When asked, “What the ?...” he was told, “Oh, is okay. This don’t happen in Samoa.” Well, hello! It just did. He had been transferred here from Fiji, and he has some experience with uprisings and coups and things like that, and he believes that we better be prepared for more of this, that once some group is brave enough to make their displeasure known in this manner, it’s just a matter of time before the next group, and the next group does it. The government is ripening with unrest anyway over their heavy-handed decision to switch to Right Hand Drive vehicles and change the side of the road on which we drive. People are tired of the corruption going on and nothing being done about it.

For example, remember I mentioned the Police Commissioner who was caught smuggling guns? Despite an outside inquiry (to be fair it had to be done by outsiders) that said he at the least needed to be sacked from his job, - nothing.

There have been embezzlements at high levels in the police and health ministries and the University. They’ve been investigated, and – nothing.

A little over two months ago there was a rape at NUS – it was an evening function up there celebrating the anniversary of the University. Alcohol was being served, even though there were students in attendance. The boy involved turns out to be the son of one of our higher placed police officers. The girl is the niece of our newly elected Vice Chancellor, who was school mates with the boy’s father. It has not been investigated further. When the newspaper keeps pressing for information, they are told that the families did a traditional ifoga (repentance/forgiveness thing) and since the boy had been forgiven, no investigation needs to happen. The Samoa Victim’s group says, “Hey, glad you’ve forgiven him, but it still needs to be dealt with through the courts.” Nothing will come of it.

So, the country is ripening.

Single Dad for a few days!

Kel is at Woman's Conference so it's just me and Ari. Last night we were off to her soccer game and then to Fat Cat's. Coming home I was amazed how much my life has changed since this little angel arrived. I listened to her singing High School Musical 4 songs as we drove. I never dreamed my playlist on the iPhone would ever include Taylor Swift, the Jonas Brothers and Mylie Cyrus but Ari can twist my arm to do just about anything.(frozen cookie dough before bed) I love my life, I am so blessed to have such a beautiful wife and daughter!

Soccer!

Games this week: Tuesday 6:30 pm and Thursday 5:45 pm "Power Lines Park" Clinton

My little Rugby Girl

All deck out in her All Blacks Kit!

Me and my little Angel!

Night O Rugby

While Kel and Ari were at the mall shopping I mowed the lawn and caught up on some Rugby!
It's been a awesome year for my favorite teams. The Chiefs top the table in the Super 14 and the Leicester Tigers top the Guinness Premiership. The Tigers destroyed Bristol 73-3. This week they meet up with Bath(Jack and Sarah's old stomping grounds) for the Semi Finals.

Bath Rugby

Leicester Rugby

Alesana Tuilagi, Ari's favorite! He is from her village in Siumu!
The Chiefs are in South Africa on a 3 week tour. I don't work this weekend so I get to see all the games live! Can't wait!

Daddy's girl

My friend Terra did this photo shoot of Ari. She won't pose like this for me anymore. Thx Terra they turned out awesome!!!!

Amazing!

Mad Mad Skills....

None were with Him

Daddys Gymnast

Sivivatu show sinks Blues

Four tries to Chiefs wing Sitiveni Sivivatu has helped his side demolish the Blues 63-34 at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.

The All Black winger was on fire, picking up a hat-trick in the first half and another in the second as the Chiefs notched their most commanding victory of the season.

With a full-strength team, the Chiefs were unstoppable and ran in nine tries to the Blues five in an action packed week six Rebel Sport Super 14 encounter.

The home side opened up the points scoring for the night when Sitiveni Sivivatu got fed an outside ball and slid over in the far corner, allowing first five-eighths Stephen Donald to add the extras to take an early seven point lead.

After a stolen lineout the blues hit back straight away when lock Ali Williams burst down the sideline before flicking an inside ball to fullback Isaia Toeava who scored.

Sivivatu was able to score his second of the night in the 13th minute when he stepped his way through the Blues backline to notch his 33th super rugby try, a new Chiefs record for the most tries scored for the franchise.

All Blacks centre Richard Kahui made the most of the mounting pressure and recovered a handy little grubber kick to score the Chiefs third of the night and boost the score out to a 21-8 with only a quarter of the game gone.

The Chiefs were also looking good in their set-pieces, particularly in the lineouts that have been a real Achilles heel of the side and not only secured their own ball but managed to steal some ball in the process.

With the set-piece looking solid, the Chiefs backline was able to show just how dangerous it was and allowed Sivivatu to again get around the outside and cause some carnage.

The 26-year-old All Black wing soon grabbed his third of the night when he stepped inside the covering tackle of Joe Rokocoko and crashed over the line. Donald's boot added the extras and put the Chiefs in a commanding position after already securing a bonus point.

Chiefs halfback Brendon Leonard soon caught the Blues forwards napping, who were probably wondering how so many tries were being scored against them, and found a gap near the sideline allowing him to sprint unhanded to score the fifth try for his side.

The visitors were able to add some respectability on the stroke of halftime when Toeava found his way through some average Chiefs defence and score his second. Jimmy Gopperth's kick was true from the sideline, taking the score at halftime to 35-15.

Things looked to have calmed down a bit early in the second half before Donald set up a beautiful move that saw speedy wing Lelia Masaga score his first of the night and add to the Chiefs already mammoth score.

The Blues weren't letting things get away from them however and hit back immediately when centre Anthony Tuitavake made the most of an overlap and strolled through. Gopperth kicked another conversion and took the score to 42-20.

Two quick and well-deserved tries to the Chiefs soon followed when blindside flanker Liam Messam showed some gas to pierce a gap and score before second five-eighths Callum Bruce got passed an outside ball and added his name to the point-scorers list.

With the score sitting at 56-20 with 20 minutes still to play, the Chiefs were sending out a loud and clear message that when all their players are healthy and playing they are a side that has the ability to absolutely punish quality teams.

The Blues were pushing back however and threatened the Chiefs line for a long time before replacement Jamie Helleur scored in the corner.

Sivivatu scored his fourth try of the evening before a last-minute try to Rokocoko, his second, ended the game with the final score 63-34.


Chiefs 63 (Sivivatu 4, Leonard, Messam, Kahui, Bruce, Masaga)

Blues 34 (Rokocoko 2, Tuitavake, Toeava, Helleur)

HT: 35-15

Fitting in vs. standing out

You won't have any trouble at all finding someone who can tell you how to fit in.

They can tell you what to wear to that restaurant or this conference or that funeral. It's not that difficult to figure out how to fit in. If fitting in is your goal, you should be sure to get great advice on how to do that.

Standing out, of course, is trickier. Stand out too much and you're a jerk or a fool.

Clothing is not the point. You have this choice to make in everything you do, from your career to the words you use in a sales letter.

The point: choose.

Are you doing this to fit in or stand out?

My App has taken on a life of it's own!

Schools are loving my new App! I am currently writing one for BlackBerry phones. My competitors are going to be scrambling!

Lovin Soccer

Ari loves Soccer! Right now she is just learning basic skills and I thought she would be pretty timid. When they had a little scrimmage she was very aggressive and had great ball control. Yep, I am a proud Dad!

Cheerleader for a day!

Ari was in total heaven. She was a future Roy High Cheerleader at a Roy/Bonneville basketball game. She did so awesome. She cheered with her friend Armani.