 Yoga
in the South Seas: A 25th wedding aniversary gift!
 Every
so often, fortune hands you a bouquet. Last winter, Susan and I heard
about a yoga retreat, run by Taialofa and Kevin Petrini, of
Raw Shakti's Yoga Samoa. Susan has been “doing” yoga for a while,
and I had always wanted to see the islands of the South Pacific, a
desire left over from much literature and many movies. We decided
that the trip would be a 25th wedding anniversary present to ourselves.
Everything
you have heard about the South Seas is mostly true about Samoa. It
is lush, green, and set in a warm turquoise sea. Much of it is protected
by a coral reef, inside which one can swim and snorkel in perfect
safety. The water is so clear that you can count the rocks on the
bottom. For a New Englander like me, the idea of an ocean that one
can just fall into, rather than ease into inch by frozen inch, was
a novelty bordering on Black Magic. And on a clear day, you can see
American Samoa peak over the horizon, forty miles away. There are
very few tourists.
The
people in Samoa really do smile and wave at you when you drive past
them. They like to have their pictures taken, especially the children.
They like to laugh about each other and us. They call us palangi
(“burst from the sky”), which is a big step up from what Americans
are called in a great many places these days. They like you to spend
your money, of course, but you get good value. They don’t haggle because
they know what their wares are worth. And they are as hospitable as
you could hope. And the coconuts, papayas, and bananas really do grow
on trees, and without much coaxing you can get someone to shinny up
a tree for you with a machete, cut down a coconut, cut it open and
hand it to you, a circumstance we took advantage of more than once.
There
are places in Samoa where the modern age is still pretty peripheral.
Sure, they drive cars and have electricity in most of Samoa, and you
can even (sigh) find a McDonald’s in Apia, the capital. But without
too much trouble, you can find little, out of the way places, like
Namua Island, where we stayed two days, the place to ourselves except
for our guides and the people who lived there and took care of us.
Then there was Apolima, a little volcanic bubble of an island, with
about a hundred people and a cocoa plantation, where they welcomed
us with an Ava ceremony and congratulated us on our 25th anniversary!
Okay, the showers were buckets of rainwater, and the outhouses were
pretty primitive (Susan once had to share one with a really
free-range chicken!), but how many of you were ever fed like Polynesian
royalty? Or practiced yoga in a fiery Samoan dawn? Or snorkled past
purple coral and silver needle-fish, or bathed in a volcanic pool
under a waterfall? Who has seen the Southern Cross bathing in the
Milky Way, or the Big Dipper actually dip into the Southern Ocean?
Well, we certainly hadn’t.
Taialofa
and Kevin absolutely knocked themselves out for us. Taialofa (“love
by the sea”- wow!), the daughter of two Peace Corps volunteers, was
born on the island of Savaii, and Kevin is a former Peace Corps volunteer
who speaks Samoan. Together they drove us, ferried us, introduced
us, guided us, spoke for us, swam with us, clothed us in lava-lavas
(the traditional dress of the islands), trained us in some customs,
taught us some words (“malo”, “fa'afetai”, “manuia”) and, in between,
taught us yoga every day. Susan received many compliments on her progress,
of course, while I was told that I was “way ahead of most men my age”,
a comment I accepted with a weak smile and a smug heart.
After
a while, we came to know them as friends, not tour guides. We found
a lot to talk and laugh about. And they gave us two of the best vacation
weeks we’ve ever had.
What
else? Sala’s supper serenade on Namu'a; walking with Warren over a
lava landscape; breakfast by the beach at Regina’s Fales (my favorite),
Robert Louis Stevenson’s mansion (his favorite); birdsong in the Baha’i
temple; and, believe me, you’ve never been rained on till you’ve run
through a South Seas drench!
It’s
pronounced Sah’-moa.
We had the best time. Peter Eisenstadter Yoga with the Prime Minister
of Samoa
 Samoa is a destination of culture, nature, peace &
beautiful landscapes. Even the government of Samoa has a
lot to share with the world about how to work together as a group.
We were fortunate to be able to guide yoga classes for the
Prime Minister of Samoa and the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP).
After the recent election,
which is held every 5 years to elect parliament, the
HRPP held a few week long retreat. The group lives, works, and
sleeps together in a large room for the duration of the retreat. They
rise at around 5:30 am and sing together and have a prayer and then on
a few of the mornings they practiced yoga! It felt amazing to be apart
of a government event where the leaders were concerned with their
health and were taking action with yoga classes!
How great would it be to see other governement leaders all
rising in the morning, together as a group, practicing yoga and
healthy living before they start their big days of hard
work!
We felt blessed to be part of their healthy living routine. The
picture is of Taialofa with Hon. Fiame Naomi Matafa, the Minister of
Woman Community and Social Develoment and Hon. Gatolaoaifaana
Amataga Alesana Gidlow, the Minister of Health.
Filemu(peace),
Taialofa and Kevin
Learning
from Samoa
 Our trip to Samoa ended up being far
more than I had ever thought possible. My husband Gary and I were
well over due for some time off from our hectic lifestyle in Colorado. We both have careers which require
more of us than we’d like. Prior to leaving we had been
discussing the need to simplify our lives and get away from the stereotype
that American society deems necessary…ie. career, nice cars, big house.
I knew it wasn’t all necessary, but it is very easy to get
caught up in what our society thinks is important.We had
read about the fa’aSamoa (Samoan way) before leaving the
U.S.A. To be quite honest
I thought it sounded like a typical way of describing certain parts of
America like southern hospitality. What I didn’t expect was to be
touched so deeply by the Samoan people with their generosity and
kindness. They generate so much bodhichitta its unbelievable. No
matter where you are on the island the people are unbelievably
friendly, playful and happy. Everyone smiles and waves as
you drive by them as if you were best friends and they had known you
for years or in a past life. If you stop for directions be prepared to
visit for awhile even with complete strangers. This is the fa’aSamoa. We have
never traveled anywhere in the world where we have felt as welcomed as
we did in Samoa.
To many
Americans the Samoans would be considered poor but in their eyes they
are rich! Do they have
busy careers? Do they have
nice cars? Do they have
big houses? The answer is
usually no to all of those questions. They have much much more than
that. Families that live
together under one roof or fale, a sense of community within their
villages where everything is shared. Samoans don’t seem to need the
material items that Americans can’t seem to live without, and they
seem to be all the happier for it. Their lack of attachment to
material possessions is commendable.
One of
my goals in 2006 was to attend a yoga retreat. We were quite pleased
to find Taialofa and Kevin’s Raw Shakti Yoga retreat website. Not expecting to find anything
I was shocked to say the least. After reading Taialofa & Kevin’s
bio’s and about their retreats I emailed Taialofa and to my surprise
she responded immediately. I could tell instantly through
our emails that we would really enjoy a day spent with her. As it turned out, Kevin was
able to join us for our retreat too! They took us to a beautiful
grassy place overlooking the ocean where Taialofa guided us through a
meditative vinyasa flow practice. Since the air temperature is
naturally warm I found that I could go deeper into my practice than at
my studio back home. The
waves in the background served as a wonderful change from the
meditative music that I usually practice to. Once asana was complete Gary
and I went for a walk to take some snapshots of the coastline while
Kevin and Taialofa set out our lunch. We mindfully ate a yogi style
lunch filled with great conversation between the four of us. After lunch we drove around the
coastline through several villages and stopped at a local beach where
we snorkeled. Kevin had his underwater camera where he took some
amazing photos of the fish and coral for us. We were back to our hotel by
5:30p.m. It was a perfect
day!
Our trip
to Samoa brought several things to realization and I would like to
share a few of them with you. One, we must truly appreciate
our most inner qualities and not the material items that we think we
must obtain to make us whole.
They only clutter your home and do not enrich your life. Two, believe in yourself and
that you can make a difference in other people’s lives. I have finally enrolled in a
yoga teacher training program where I hope to share the practice of
yoga with many others. This is something I have
contemplated on for several years. Three, see the beauty within
everyone you meet and don’t be judgmental. These all seem like common
sense when you read them yet we tend to get caught up in our daily
lives and forget them. Let
each of us learn from the Samoans and show a little bit of their way
to the rest of the world!
Namaste,
Anais
 Yoga
Studio Partnership Program: All yoga studios
please contact please us and receive the benefit of expanding
your offerings to include Yoga Adventure Travel with Raw
Shakti!
2006/7 Yoga
Adventure Retreats:
The healthy vacation alternative! The wave of the
future is to get healthy and feel rejuvenated with a yoga retreat
vacation! Explore the world with our professionally guided
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Article
in USA newspaper: We have made our first USA Newspaper Travel section! From Surry
to Samoa! It is titled "Peace in Paradise".
  Highlighted AsanaPeter and Susan are in an intertwined Virkasana, tree
asana. This photo was taken in the rainforst on a platform near
the top of a huge banyan tree! Find a partner and help
support one another in the tree pose. Connect with each other by
looking into each others' eyes and enjoy the connection. To magnify it
go outside and do it near a tree.
I typically think of lasagna as a heavy winter dish but
this lighter version is meant to serve up a bit of spring.
Choose whatever type of greens are growing in your area or are your
favorites (I like fresh baby spinach leaves or chard). It can
easily become vegan by substituting soy cheese for the dairy cheese or
leaving it out completely. There are quite a few packaged
foods in this recipe. When I can't find fresh
organic ingredients I try to find as many packaged organic
ingredients as possible. I think organic offers superior
taste, lack of exposure to chemicals and higher probability of being
raised in a sustainable, earth-friendly way.
Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1
pkg no-boil lasagna noodles
12 oz package firm silken tofu
3
cloves pressed/crushed fresh garlic
1
cup chopped fresh basil
2
tbsp fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional)
freshly ground sea salt and pepper
1
28oz can crushed tomatoes
1
cup shredded mozzarella
3
cups fresh greens (spinach, rainbow chard, beet greens, etc)
Directions:
Review directions from 1 pkg no-boil
lasagna noodles (about 12 sheets of pasta). Preheat
the oven according to the package directions.
Combine 12 oz package firm silken tofu, 3 cloves
pressed/crushed fresh garlic, 1 cup chopped fresh basil and 2 tbsp
fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional) along with as much
freshly ground sea salt and pepper you would like in a bowl- stir
until mixture resembles ricotta or cottage cheese consistency.
Have ready the other ingredients for layering: 1
28oz can crushed tomatoes, 1 cup shredded mozzarella, 3 cups fresh
greens (spinach, rainbow chard, beet greens, etc) rinsed.
Cover bottom of 9x13x2 inch pan with thin layer of
crushed tomatoes. Place 3 lasagna sheets across bottom of
pan, topped with 1/3 of tofu mixture and spinach, 1/4 of remaining
crushed tomatoes and mozzarella. Repeat layering with pasta and
other ingredients in same order. Place remaining 1/4 of red
sauce topped by mozzarella on the last layer of pasta sheets.
Cover and bake according to package
directions.
P.S. the leftovers are extremely tasty as the garlic has
more time to permeate the entire dish!
 Peter
Eisenstadter
 Peter
retired from teaching English after over thirty years in the field.
He is originally from the Bronx in New York City, and now lives in
Marlow, NH. He is married to Susan Loman, a professor of Dance-Movement
Therapy at Antioch New England graduate school in Keene, NH. They
have two sons, David and Matthew. Peter was a professional actor in
the '70s, and now that he has retired, he is back on stage. He has
worked with the Actors' Circle Theater in Peterborough, New Hampshire,
where he won the New Hampshire Theater award for Best Actor in 2006.
He will appear this summer with the Peterborough Players. Having originally
been dragged by Susan to his first yoga classes, he has decided that
there may be something in it, especially when it gets him to exotic
locales where the practice of yoga is enhanced by such beautiful surroundings.
Peter's vitality is stong and his passion for life is abundant. Peter
is grateful to Kevin and Taialofa Petrini for their instruction and
encouragement. He admits to being a bit more limber these days.Anais
Brown
 Anais was born in Quincy, Illinois and grew up on
a small family farm outside of Ursa, Illinois
where her grandparents and extended family still live. Her love of nature, animals and
the outdoors were instilled in her at
a very young age. She was raised with seven Arabian
horses and many cats and dogs. For college she attended Illinois
College located in Jacksonville, Illinois where she majored in communications/
theater. Shortly after graduation, she
moved to Ft. Worth, Texas where she met her husband Gary and they
were married just ten months later. Gary was in medical school at
the time and was accepted into a residency program in Pontiac, Michigan
just a few years after their marriage. Upon completion of his residency
the couple moved and still reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Anais started her journey with yoga while living in Michigan where
she practiced hatha yoga. After
moving to Colorado she enrolled in an ashtanga yoga class and hasn’t
looked back since that fateful day four years ago. She continues a dedicated yoga
practice and has recently enrolled in a yoga teacher training program
where she hopes to enrich people’s lives through the practice of yoga. Her
sweet nature will touch many people in inspiring ways. Anais
also enjoys the Colorado outdoors where she hikes, backpacks, snowshoes,
x-country skis and downhill skis with her husband and black lab, Terrell.
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Canoe Canada 
