The Fale 'o Lili

January 19 -
My new house is finished and I have moved into it! It was one week from "groundbreaking" to move-in, but I had no electricity for the first two days. They came yesterday and put that in so now it's complete and I can run my electric fan again. Thank Goodness. I have a 2 foot fluorescent light hanging from the rafters and a single plug outlet. It took them an hour - 1/2 hour to put the wiring and fixtures in and another 1/2 hour to get the face plates screwed on the boxes. Packaging is done a bit differently here. You do not get the appropriate screws in the package. The store clerk collects what he thinks you need, puts it in a little baggie and off you go. Apparently he mucked it up because the installer was cutting screws off with wire cutters to make them fit in the holes.

The house is a traditional little Samoan fale with a thatched roof but with a touch of modern corrugated metal roofing at the peak. The method of preventing it all from blowing away in the wind is quite unique I thought. Somehow I don't think it'll hold up in a cyclone though. I keep asking them what will keep the rain from blowing in through the windows during a storm and haven't gotten a real answer yet. The traditional method is woven panels that they lower down in inclement weather, but I haven't seen any signs of those. I think I'll just get some tarps and make my own window coverings.


I actually got to help make some of the thatching and then watched how they put it on so when I get home I can make my own house. Oh, wait! I forgot, no Sago Palm trees in Oak Harbor. The thatch is made in 3 foot sections of leaves wrapped around a stick and stitched in place. These are then tied to the underlying roof structure, overlapping from bottom to top and also from side to side. The big coconut fronds are there, temporarily I think, to hold the ends of the thatch down until they dry completely. When you are inside the house you can look up and see daylight through places in the roof so I was worrying about it leaking but last night it rained really hard and nothing got wet inside so I guess they know what they are doing after all.

The floor is made from 1 x 6 lumber that they had lying around. Makes for an interesting walk across the floor as some boards flex more than others when I step on them. Actually the whole fale except for the support posts is made from recycled lumber. PC came out and wrapped the windows with mosquito netting and security wire which may make me more secure but it really doesn't do much good for mosquitoes. There are big gaps between boards on the walls and holes in the floor around the posts to say nothing of the 6 inch gap all around the house where the roof cap sits on the rafters. I had them leave me scraps of the mosquito netting and I'm going to try to close some of the access points. I have no hopes of making it mosquito proof but mosquito resistant would be nice. In the meantime Mortein and mosquito coils are my best friends. That plus anti-itch cream.

Inside the house I have mats covering the floor, pretty new curtains hung by my hostess, a 3' x 4' table built by her sons-in-law, an old army cot style bed with a mattress, my bicycle and my pedestal fan, a hanging clothes bag with compartments in it suitable for small clothing articles, and all my suitcases and boxes sitting around on the floor because I have nothing to put the stuff in or on. I'm hoping to be able to pick up an old used dresser of some kind eventually but the first item on the agenda is a little refrigerator. There is a store in town that sells re-conditioned (from New Zealand) ones for $500 tala (about $150 US) so I'll pick one up next week. Right now if I want cold water I have to fill a water bottle and take it out front to their little store where they have a freezer, then try to remember to go get it before it freezes solid.


What have I done workwise? One evening I went with some of the women down to their garden to help water and weed. It was about 1000 degrees when we walked down there, then the big black clouds rolled in and it began to Rain! Did we quit and head for shelter? Nope. Just kept on working, spading compost into the soil for new vegetable beds, planting the seeds and doing a spot of weed pulling. It was a great bonding experience!

Last Monday I had a meeting with a bunch of the prominent villagers to discuss formation of a committee to work with me while I am here. There are 5 organizations in the village: the chiefs (matai), the wives of the chiefs (faletua ma tausi), the un-titled men and their wives (Aumaga), the unmarried sisters and daughters of chiefs (Aualuma), and the youth group (Autalavou). People were selected from each group to be on the committee and I sent them home to talk with their respective groups and come back with one or two ideas each for projects we can work on. We have another meeting tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I went and met the principal of the primary school. They are on summer break right now but start up again next week and she invited me to come visit the school and meet all the teachers. That's about it for now. I hope to continue to have positive news to report on my doings. After the last three months it's nice to have something to do again.

In my new village

I was finally able to leave Apia and move to my village in Savaii. PC delivered me here on Tuesday afternoon and I was greeted by the Women's Komiti which entailed many speeches and a lunch.

The name of my new village is Gataivai, pronounced Na-tie-vie and there are 1150 people in it. However the village is huge. It is about 20 miles from one side of town to the other! Most of the people live in one concentrated area where my house is but there are scattered houses that whole 20 miles. I think I'll pass on the door-to-door village survey like the one I did in Faleu!

I am ensconced in a room in the family home while my quarters are being prepared. When I arrived they were in the process of building a new TINY faleo'o next to it for me. It was about big enough for a bed and that's it. I was expecting to have space to set up a cooking area and to have room for a desk for my computer so I was very surprised.

All I said was "It's so little" and the next morning they were out there tearing one end off it and making it bigger. As it is it is still really small but at least I can get a desk in it. I may have to re-think my plan to do some of my own cooking though.

The family is really nice and some of them speak fairly good English and they are committed to helping me learn more Samoan, which will be a good thing. There are 6 adults and 8 kids living in the compound. The whole extended family use the house for cooking and meals and evening prayer. Other than that they don't use it very much that I can see. No one but the boys sleep in it.

In addition to the son who actually lives here and the niece, right now one daughter, husband, and kids is visiting from Australia and another daughter who lives here in the village is staying with them too along with her kids. I counted 14 kids the other night but I don't know how many of them will be here permanently.

Obviously I haven't done much work since I just got here. We went down the road about a quarter mile to this little bay where the river runs into the ocean and went swimming. Also in the bay there is a big cold water spring that bubbles up out of the lava rocks. It makes for interesting swimming because the deeper water in the bay is warm from the sea, and the cold water from the spring is on the surface, just the opposite of what I am used to in a lake for example.

Yesterday we went into Salelologa (the biggest village on this island and the one where the ferry dock is. There is an annual event where every village in Savaii sends their Women's Komiti members to show off their fine mats and tapa cloth they have made. It's a really big deal I guess because the Prime Minister came over from Upolu to give a speech.

Then I got sick, couldn't eat, stayed in my room and slept all afternoon and evening. Today I feel better but still a bit iffy so I'm going to take it easy. Next week we will get down to business and see what I've gotten myself into.

Happy New Year

December 31-

Happy New Year and I'm still in Apia!


On Friday I went over to Savaii for V's 24th birthday party. Everyone from my group went to his village and spent the night and had a great time. We barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, and heated pork and beans in the can on a metal plate over an open pit fire of coconut husks and pretended it was just like home. From there I went to R and J's Saturday and stayed until Monday when I came back to Apia.

Here are some pictures I took at the party, of a church in V’s village, and a shot of the reef and Apolima Island from the ferry on the way back to Upolu.

The painted glass windows are of Samoan religious legends and Bible stories Samoan style, including Jesus with a body tattoo holding an ava stick and wearing a lavalava. The sun was really bright and these are the only two that turned out.












I checked in at the office as soon as I got back and they told me the new potential date for the move to the new village is January 10th. I'll believe it when I'm there!

I went to my training village to spend Christmas with my host family. That was great. It was really nice to see them again and I even had a little fake tree in my room with lights and everything. It's just not the same though when it's so darn hot. Santa doesn't even come to Samoa. Totally true folks. Gift giving at Christmas is not part of their culture, though I am sure some enterprising marketing executive is working on that. We did have carolers though. About 12:30am I was roused from sleep by the sound of beautiful music. I got up and looked out and what to my wondering eyes did appear but the choir from the Methodist church in the next village, all dressed in white, carrying candles in half coconut shells, 40 or 50 people walking down the road singing. I have commented before on how beautiful their singing is and that night was no exception. The church functions are pretty much like ours. Sunday morning service, evening youth program, and then a Christmas service too. All I did for four days was eat, sleep, read, and go to church, then I headed back to Apia where I embarked upon the next chapter of my continuing saga.