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.