Bare Feet and Jandals

We have moved to the village of Lalomanu on the south coast of Upolu, the main island of Samoa. We have settled into the Samoan way of life, breakfast at 9, or maybe 10, beach and swim till 1 or maybe 3, then have our afternoon beer and a sandwich, bake till 5 and then out of our swimming gear and bare feet and into our short pants and tees and jandals for supper at 7 or maybe 8:30 ( whenever the kitchen staff get it served ). The staff set up the tables family style and then set out all the dishes, every one helps themselves - kind of like the old farm crews did. We never know what will be served but it is always good and always more than enough to eat! Samoans are pretty laid back and while I adjusted well, Loreen took a couple of days to get out of the swing or into it! Jandals?, these are the rubber sandals, the Aussies call them thongs, we call them flip flops and the Kiwis and Samoans call them Jandals. Thongs, as I know them are those skimpy little bikini bottoms that have no seat, I guess there are a couple of girls here from Argentina that are wearing thongs, at least that is what Loreen told me, I didn't notice!

Lalomanu Beach

This area of the coast, although very beautiful, suffered a tragic tsunami in September 2009. I am not sure what the total death toll was or the total damage, but as you drive through the villages along the coast there are still many destroyed homes and buildings. We went into three separate resorts where the restoration is still underway from the the destruction caused by the Tsunami.

Beach Fale, rent by the day or by the night.

The villages, like elsewhere in the world, some appear to be poorer than others, usually consist of two or three churches, two or three small stores were you walk up and order over the counter a limited supply of goods, and houses of varying style. The most common and traditional type of house is a fale - an open structure with a flat concrete or wooden base, six or eight upright beams down the length and then a thatched roof over all. Most have plastic tarpaulins that they drop down at night for privacy or when it is raining. There is a smaller similar structure along side where the cooking etc, is done. Some have furniture (foam mattresses, a few chairs) and others don't, maybe a few chairs outside. Then next door there could be a wooden framed or concrete block house complete with doors and windows.

Samoan House

 The village we are staying in seems to be richer than some others we drove through as there are mostly fully enclosed structures and even those that are open type structures have a walled off room or up to half of the building built into enclosed rooms. I have not seen any laundry facilities out in the villages, although we did see some ladies washing clothes in the creek, but the people always look clean and refreshed and have the biggest, whitest smiles.

More Modern

Churches are a huge thing here and the families of the villages provide everything for the pastors, a nice house, all the meals and usually enough money that the pastors children can go to private school overseas (ie New Zealand) even though some of the families can not buy school uniforms for their own children to go school. People are expected to contribute at the Sunday service and the amount each family gives is shouted out to the congregation putting extra strain on the poor families as it is a matter of pride to be able to contribute at least as much as your neighbor. This pattern is starting to change as Samoans that have worked overseas for years are coming home and saying, no, my home and family will come before the church.

There is no hunger in the villages as each family has a piece of land and grows their own food. One of the family members, Star, walked us through their plantation yesterday. They grow coconut, banana, various types of taro, (a root vegetable), yams, sweet potato, papaya, breadfruit, onions and some other western veggies. We had gone to their out door kitchen area where he and two other fellows were cooking an umu for our lunch. Now umu is not an exotic type of animal but their term for a traditional underground oven. They built a fire, covered the coals with rock, laid in a suckling pig, some chickens, some fresh fish, taro, yams etc. Then it was all covered with wet banana leaf and more rock. Four hours later, scrumptious.

Star also treated us to a coconut demonstration, where he husked a coconut, cracked the top off with a machete, and let us drink the water. Tasty, he then sat down and grated one half, took the other half and shaved out chunks and let us try both of those. Again, fresh coconut is very good, rich and creamy.

His cousin, Bati, then climbed a coconut tree and brought down some green coconut for us to try, these are full to the top of sweet coconut water. Bati, is pretty skilled up the tree, like a monkey, and when he had the husks removed, he simply banged the top of the coconut three times with another one and behold there was our drinking cup.

Bati



The coconut is called the survival tree, as it provides all a person needs to survive, while the banana is called the Samoan vending machine, as it always has some ripe fruit. Loreen walks out into the plantation every day and finds us a fresh papaya, she is a good provider!

I may try out for a rally car driver after driving in Samoa as pigs and chickens free range through the yards, the neighbors yards, the road edges, etc. You always see at least a hen and her chicks or a sow and a bunch of piglets sauntering across the road in front of your vehicle. So between dodging potholes, kids, pigs, chickens and the odd drunk Samoan man weaving down the centerline, where they exist, I think I could qualify. And, do not believe that 50km limitation on those small doughnut spare tires that come with new cars. We rented a car and drove across from one side of the island to the other, only to have a tire separate. None of the locals were to concerned, they could maybe get us fixed up in a couple of days! When I phoned the rental place, it was "Oh just drive the car back into Apia and we will look after you". On the small spare tire, oh sure! So away we went, through pot holes, around pigs, chickens and little ones and 2.5 hours later, there we were at the rental place. Simple fix, they just parked that car and gave us a new one. It seems that driving on these small spares is commonplace here - up to three or four weeks in some cases. 

We are staying at Taufua Beach Fales, a place that was mostly destroyed during the tsunami and has rebuilt over the past year. At least one lady from New Zealand died and the family that owns the resort lost twelve family members, from young children to seniors. This is an extended family where two or three brothers and sisters are involved in the business and the tragedy was spread across all their families. They lost the resort, the family home and 12 family members.

Despite the family and property loss the family has rebuilt their resort at the same site. I use the term resort loosely, as it consists of a closed kitchen, open eating area and combined bar. There are about 12 beach fales that are open structures with tarpaulins to drop at night for privacy. The backpackers traveling through seem to like these. They also have 8 walled fales with locking doors, none have bathrooms, there are communal showers and toilets, cold water only. Now I had quite a struggle convincing Loreen to stay in this resort, even in a locking fale, due to no hot water. But after checking out a number of other places, most that were more expensive, even more simple and basic, and only providing breakfast, this place serves two meals per day, we decided this was the best. We did compromise and picked up an electric kettle and a wash basin before we left town, which works good for shaving and washing our faces and hair. Cold showers here are not really that cold.

They did move the family home high up the mountain through the village and have added 10 tourist bungalows at the mountain site complete with their own cold water ensuites. That is where we are, it is quieter (we are the only guests up here) and the views out over the ocean are exquisite. We look out through a few coconut and papaya trees at a couple of small uninhabited off shore islands, one a previous leper colony, and then an endless blue sea. Scattered down over the hill are the roofs of a few village houses which add to the ambience and colourfull view. We drive down to breakfast and dinner, swimming, sunbathing and socializing every day. The island is mostly surrounded by coral reef and these create large lagoons between the reef and the beaches, the water in the lagoon is bath tub warm and salty enough that even I can float! The ocean crashes against the reef with large breaker waves and thunderous sounds, but the lagoons are quite calm. The drive back at night is a little like an obstruction course, as the locals mostly stay out of the sun during the hottest parts of the day and come out in droves at night, socializing seems like the nightly recreation.

Our Bungalow

The clientele at the fales is an international affair, with folks staying anywhere from over night to six months. The short term people are usually Kiwis on a week trip or backpackers passing through. The gathering of long term guests include a Canadian (3 months), an Aussie (3 months) a German lady (6 weeks), three Norwegian girls (6 months, they all have Samoan boyfriends) and an Italian man (with no arms) who is like part of the family. Visiting with this group results in some really good stories.

As we left this beach fale this morning the owner came and gave us money to buy Samoan souvenirs with and the manager and head bartender/accountant came out and hugged us and sent us on our way with good wishes, it felt like when you leave friends or relatives places.

Saying Goodbye