Samoa (the good, the bad, & the ugly)

Finally, here is the promised report about our trip to Samoa.  Sorry this took so long in coming Jody. I’m going to try and be better about serving up some koko samoa on a regular basis from here on out:-). 

Samoa, what can I say?  Samoa is er…. still Samoa.   My last visit to Samoa was about ten years ago so I expected to find a lot of changes.  Well, there were some changes and not all of them for the better, in my humble opinion.  Case in point, too many cars on narrow roads.  I can’t even imagine how crazy the roads are going to be with the upcoming switch in Upolu and Savaii.  As if things aren’t bad enough already on the roads down there.   And the roads in Tutuila aren’t any better.  I wonder where or perhaps I should say, whose pocket all that federal money is going in?

So here’s a brief breakdown of our adventures in Samoa:

The Good – umu kalo and palusami from the makeki in Apia, kale mamoe from Pinati’s restaurant, keke pu’aa from a booth at the makeki in Salelologa, hot and delicious papa falaoa from Lyn’s in Moto’otua, hot water courtesy of Hotel Elisa in Apia, our very own private beach fale in Tutuila and a semi-private beach to go with it, and a hands-on lesson on how to valu kalos and popos that our boys will never forget.  Visiting and reuniting with family.  Great service at the various places we stayed or ate at including Jetover hotel in Salelologa, Vaisala hotel, Aggies in Apia, and a handful of other places in Tutuila, Upolu, and Savaii.  It was nice to be back after being away for so long and let’s face it, no matter how long you’re gone or wherever else you may live now, Samoa is still Home.   But that doesn’t mean I want to return and live there any day soon so don’t get any ideas hon.  I agree with our boys – a visit every ten years works for me too, he he. 

The Bad – Thieves at the swap-meet in Apia that charge double or triple when they see that you are visiting from somewhere else, and they can tell no matter how much you try to hide that fact.  The expectation that you have money to give to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that you meet down there.  It’s one thing to give money to close relatives and people you like and who’ve helped you and played an important role in your life, but quite another to give money to someone just because they’re from your village or know your parents etc.  The cost of food and everything else in Samoa.   Dang, talk about a total mismatch between the cost of living and the average income down there.  Being ripped off by an elderly man in Taga who said we owed him money cause the spot where we parked while we were taking pictures of the blowholes belongs to him.  I knew he was full of **** because we’d already paid at the “entrance” to the blowholes but I also felt sorry for him and figured he must be desperate to be stooping to such measures and gave him 10 tala anyway.  Ditto for the woman in Falealupo who said we had to pay her 2 tala for every picture of the kulaga vae a Moso we took because the kulaga vae was on her land.  This after we were told by a “council” for the village that we paid money for the skywalk to that this fee covers all the different sights there in their village.  Again, being the sucker for elderly folks that I am, I gave her 4 tala as well and told the boys to take as many pics as they wanted.  I may be a sucker but I’m not stupid, lol. 

The Ugly – the obnoxious fafas that harrassed our boys on our first night in Tutuila.  I’m sure the fafas thought they were just being cute but our boys didn’t find it cute or funny at all.   They were afraid the fafas were going to moekolo to them in the night so they refused to sleep in the beach fale that first night.  They opted to sleep behind a locked door instead.

To recap, we ended up spending way more than we wanted.  I’m sure that comes as no surprise to all of you my fellow Samoans, lol.  I also ate way too much but who can say no to all that delicious Samoan food?  Not me, that’s for sure.  Thanks to the aggressive use of mosquito repellents, our boys escaped fairly unscathed.  Overall, it was a wonderful trip and despite spending all the money that we’d set aside to remodel our kitchen on this trip, I’m still very glad that we went.   I’m sure that our boys will treasure the memories from this trip for the rest of their lives.  Now that our boys are older, they can really appreciate the things that we’ve been trying to tell them and teach them about the fa’a Samoa and about life in Samoa.  Perhaps now they will think twice about taking things for granted, and be grateful for the things that they are blessed with.  Maybe now too all our lectures about not wasting opportunites like access to a good education and a college degree will stick with them better, now that they’ve seen for themselves what we’ve told them time and time again. 

The stuff our boys seemed to enjoy the most were: swimming with turtles in Saleaula, swimming in Piula, canoe racing in Salelologa, shopping for souvenirs at the makeki in Apia, having their very own private beach fale, and of course getting on the plane to come home:-).  The one thing that they got the biggest kick out of was riding the aiga bus from hubby’s village to Pago.  They thought it was hilarious that we just sit on each other when the bus gets too crowded.  They thought it was even more hilarious when we told them that we had to ride the bus to the beach on our first date since neither one of us owned a car way back then, lol.

p.s.  Pics of our adventures in Samoa are posted on my bebo page so come see me there guys:-).  Manuia le Aso!