Talofa Samoa

Well, what can I say besides, Can I please go back for another week…or a year or two or three. I loved it! I love the people, the culture, the language, the weather! Faga village and my homestay! My first lesson on the language, cooking dinner of fish and taro and coconut, lavalava, fales, pe’a! fun! We flew into Apia and were welcomed by the heat and humidity amidst a flurry of Samoan people. My first thoughts were of Mexico City, but I soon realized I was on the other side of the world. There would be no taquitos or Spanish. And they drive on the left side of the road. This was a new development… as in they just changed the driving side a few weeks ago and everyone is learning how it works. All 30 of us packed our selves and our packs onto a bus and headed to Tatiana Hotel. I was so anxious to see as much of Samoa as possible those first few hours of the night. I was shocked to see so many people out in their villages at 9 pm. Everyone was up, and I could see everything that was happening in their homes. You see, there are no walls in these villages. Privacy…haha. It was a totally new experience and I soaked as much of it up as I could. We slept our first night in Tatiana hotel…(more like a pretty shabby hostel) But it was great! I couldn’t sleep too well I was so excited. There were many many noises in the night from dogs barking, to a phone in our room ringing to lizards on the walls and chickens outside the window etc. And I woke up like 2 hours after I fell asleep and was sure that my clock was wrong. I felt like I had slept the night thru and I heard a few people talking outside the room, so I figured it must be morning. I got up and took a shower, I really didn’t want to miss any part of the day by being late. Anyways, I realized it must not be morning when I got out of the shower, got dressed and fell asleep again thinking I’d wake up in a few minutes. It was like a night of many naps. Anyways, long story for the first night. I will try not to be so detailed about these silly details.
The next day we went to the market in Apia (we had an assignment to observe the culture) and our first introduction to the people began. It was awesome. Again, I was reminded of Mexico a little bit. It was lava shopping time! These sarong-like pieces became vital to our outfits for the next week. That afternoon we travelled to the other island and arrived in Safua Hotel, our home for our first couple of days in Samoa. We were surrounded by beautiful tropical flowers, palms, and coconut trees. The Hotel was decorated with palm branches and woven and braided traditional green coconut tree leaves. So Beautiful! It wasn’t luxury by any stretch of the American idea of comfort, but it was high end for those in Samoa. But let’s talk about the people. Our hosts were so warm and welcoming, cooking us elaborate traditional Samoan cuisine and teaching us about the culture and the community. I ate some crazy things. Well, not too crazy. Just different. On Sunday we went to a congregational church in Safua, all spoken in Samoan. The people sing beautifully! And this would not be our only experience with that. On our last two night in Safua we were blessed to listen to a little Samoan musical group entertain us during dinner. One evening we even had a little fiafia…which you don’t know what that is, hmm I will explain later. It’s awesome. We taught them some Dutch Blitz and they taught me some Samoan! I can’t describe to you how much I love learning the language. I was so excited to ask questions about the structure of questions and to guess on the spelling of their words! And it worked! I could put it together and they were so willing to help me learn! That was a moment I loved, and I know God has put a passion for language in my heart. I can’t even describe the feeling! I loved this experience!
The next 3 days in Samoa were spent in the village of Faga. This is where we had our homestays. Once again, I was (and still am hyped up about it) more than excited about being truly immersed in the culture first hand. And it definitely was complete and total culture. We entered the village and were welcomed to the village with a traditional ava ceremony. This involved us all entering the village fale, where all the leaders and matai of the village sit on the floor. We come in and shake each of their hands before sitting on the far side of the fale. The majority of the ceremony is in Samoan and we each take a drink of the traditional kava drink while the village leaders watch and laugh at our mistakes. After the ceremony we were divided and distributed into our families, spread out around the village. I was paired with Robyn and we spent the next 3 days living in a little fale right on the beach across from our families few fales. We ate all our meals on the floor of the family fale while they watched us eat, fanning us and our food. Not gonna lie, it’s a little awkward, but you get used to it. We spent the days waking up super early, getting to know the many many children of the family (it’s a large extended family unit), playing volleyball in the dirt with a bent stick “net”, walking to the plantation, cutting open coconuts, snorkeling right outside our beach fale, struggling to communicate while loving the struggle, and learning so so so much! We spent the nights taking walks with lina and trying to not get into sticky situations with her “secret boyfriend”. The culture for dating is very different. She’s 17 and they are not allowed to date until they are 21. Even these little things are so intriguing! It’s real life over there too! Haha, but you know what I mean. Language and culture does not make the people that much different. We are all still so human. I love it! And I love trying to understand the language in order to understand more about the people, not only be a part of the cultural tradition. Oh my goodness! This was a great time! On our last night there we had a Fia-Fia. This is a ceremony with amazing music and dance…on their part. It’s an alternating concert idea, where they do a few numbers then we do some. They dance a traditional haka and sing beautifully! We tried to deliver but…they definitely had us beat. Oh! Prior to the fun, our host family dressed us in a traditional Samoan outfit with a ula (a lei of gorgeous yummy smelling flowers). I felt so special and loved. When we left Faga I returned to NZ with pe’a on my arm. Pe’a is the Samoan tattoo. No worries mom, they only drew on me with pen. It was definitely sad to leave. But hey! Now I’m back in New Zealand.