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.