Manona was a step into Samoan culture that has not changed much over the years. No wheeled or motorized transportation is allowed, that includes bicycles. Dogs have been abolished, so you can walk throughout the villages without being chased or barked at. Motor boats transport the islanders back and forth to the main island, so you hear them once in while but mostly you just hear the surf and the multitudes of birds and chickens.
There are three pretty basic little accommodation places on the isle, two that have locking closed fales and one that is tarpaulin drop down walls. We stayed at one, Sunset View, that had full walls and a bathroom.
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| Our fale at Sunset View Fales |
It was more like a home stay, as we were the only guests and the family cooked all our meals and always had some one around to visit with us. Loreen made friends with their 2.5 year old grandson, who was comfortable enough to drop his drawers and pee on our steps while visiting. Euan's mom and dad do not live on Manono but run the family store and look after the jetty on the main island. Euan, at two and a half has the motor skills of a much older child and is fully independent in that he just gets on his Uncles boat and goes across the water to his Grandparents when ever he wants to. He is pretty much his own boss!
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| Euan, Samoan Dancing |
We were on Manono when the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. The Samoan government gave a heads up at 9:30PM and said that if the tsunami got to Samoa it would be about four in the morning. The island of Manono has had a number of tsunamis and the villagers are prepared. As our accommodation was quite high up from the beach, the family did not wake us but moved all their family from the beach up to where we were staying. They had one of the sons stay overnight at the jetty to monitor the ocean tides.
We found out at breakfast the next morning and by then all warnings had been removed. We walked around the island and the tide on the north shore had been higher than usual that morning, not extreme, but a couple of feet higher. They cancelled school as a cautionary measure and no fisherman went out, mainly because there was no low tide at all during the day. Loreen and I went out to the reef snorkeling, usually a pleasant experience, but the outgoing tide was so high and so strong that we got into a bit of trouble. We would look at where the boat was anchored and then leisurely swim towards it only to look up and find it was further away, as the tide was taking us out faster than we were swimming to the boat. I had to get down and dirty and swim with maximum kick and stroke to get back to the boat. I got some salt water in my snorkel and when I cleared it, Loreen heard the air explosion and thought I was in trouble so she quit swimming and hollered for the boat to quit moving away and come pick us up. The tide had drifted the boat so tight into the anchor the young fellow could not pull the anchor and threw out a rescue rope to Loreen and pulled her in. I had checked her a couple of times while swimming in and thought she was okay, but she was scared for me and thought the boat driver was jerking around. In retrospect we should probably have just stayed on shore that day. Hopefully she will snorkel with me again!
We actually had to power up the boat and pull away from the anchor to finally dislodge it, it was dragged in so hard.
They cooked traditional Samoan meals, vegetable soups, taro or breadfruit (the Samoan potato) and fish and did a special "umu", the traditional cooking with lava rock for us. We were invited to the outdoor kitchen and took part in the total preparation from building the fire to taking out the food. The process was all above ground, and consisted of heating lava rock to red hot, and then putting all the food on top of the rocks, the food was then covered with a second layer of hot rock and buried under banana leaf. Forty minutes later out came breadfruit, banana, taro leaf in coconut cream, and reef fish. We are not sure how traditional the lunch was one day as it was toasted bread and canned spaghetti sandwiches - which was a bit of a novelty.
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| Umu |
As part of the preparation fresh coconut is grated out of the shell, I attempted this and did not too bad, Moses the umu man had told me it would take me all day, it took me about five minutes, so he said that it was a soft coconut! Then the grated coconut flakes are squeezed through coconut husk fibre to extract a sweet coconut cream for some of the dishes.
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| Coconut Cream |
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| Umu meal |
During the walk around the island we seen both the old Samoan culture and the new.
The old: we stopped a man on the path and asked him how to get to the grave of Afutiti, a king that was buried standing up on the highest point to guard the island. Right away he said he would take us, he just needed to take his basket of scraps to his pigs and then he would lead us to the trail head. We stressed we had no money with us to pay him and he smiled, nodded and off he went to feed his pigs. As the trail head started at a fenced in pig pen that we had to go through we decided we would not attempt to climb up to the grave and started back the way we had come. Within ten steps we heard Fiatalia holler at us and motion us to follow him. Again we stressed we had no money to pay and all he said was, "no money, you come" so away we went. He led us up the mountain through the pig pen, through his banana plantation, showed us his shelter from the 2009 tsunami and finally we reached the grave site. After some pictures and a bit of a rest we struck out back down the mountain. As we had drained the last of our water at the grave site, when we reached his land again, up a coconut tree he went, dropped some green coconuts and provided us with the sweetest, best tasting coconut we have drank. Samoans, like most other South Pacific Islanders, use coconut water to quench their thirst before using regular water. So after an hour of his day and a lesson in Samoan botany we told him if he came to our fale where we were staying we would give him some money, he said "no money, you are my new friend".
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| Fiatalia |
The new: later on the walk we were joined by a young bandit, about ten to twelve, that just joined us unbidden, he showed us his school, his church, damage from the last tsunami around the village and we thought "what a nice kid". then, when we got close to the store he asked, "take my picture", so I did. After I showed him the picture, he said one more and ran out the blade on his box cutter and posed. When I showed him this second picture he was pleased, said it was good and then asked for ten tala (this being extra outrageous when you consider the average wage is 2 tala per hour!) We did not pay and I guess we could have got him in trouble as the village chiefs do not allow this and everything you read in Samoa requests that visitors do not give money or sweets to children. This is really the only place we had this happen in Samoa, and this on an island where the churches all signal the evening prayer at eight in the evening and no matter where you are you can not move until they signal the prayer is over (in about 15 minutes).
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| The Bandit |
Returning from Manono to the main island, where the family owns the jetty and store, Loreen got big hugs from Euan, enough to bring a small tear or two, and then back to Apia for a couple of days before going to Tonga.
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Leaving Manono with Jay our boat captain |
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