Life in the village

Trip Start May 12, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Samoa Western  ,
Saturday, November 11, 2006

Days start early in Samoa. People start getting up around 5:30, with the sun. We can hear the sound of coconuts being scraped out to extract the coconut cream. The smell of smoke drifts into the room from the cooking fires. The water runs a people take showers or wash laundry before going to school or off to the plantation. As things start to quiet down, about 7:00, we get out of bed. I am always amazed at how hard the Samoans work on less sleep than I can function on. They often stay up late talking or watching the last movie on TV that ends at 12:30. Often people will nap in the afternoon but usually only an hour or so. I wouldn't be so friendly and easy going on so little sleep but they are always smiling.

Across the inlet/river from our house there is a field where the young men play Samoan Cricket. We haven't been down to watch a game yet, mostly because we have no idea about the rules, but we can hear them laughing. The cricket bat is a triangular shaped piece of wood. It weighs about 12 pounds I think. Anyways the hit often goes wild. The big kids always make some of the younger boys stand in the water to field any hits that go that direction.

Sometimes we wake up to the sound of a conch shell being blown like a shofar. This signals the time for a special work day or some other pre-arranged event. Sometimes it is calling the men to go to the plantation for a workday. On Saturdays it is calling the women to work on cleaning the church and to get started on yard work so everthing is neat and trim on Sunday. Grass is cut with a machete or a weed eater, cuttings are swept up and burned. A lot of weeding gets done too.

Every evening at sundown the shell gets blow. This signals time for prayer. It also means that you need to hurry home. No loitering on the street or at the bathing pool during prayer. The families start with a song and then read from the bible. The service ends with a prayer and another song. The men that monitor the street are called leoloe, that means guardian. When the prescribed time is over they blow the shell again outside activities resume. Sometimes the leoleo's will gather in the fale below our house to talk and sing after their work is done. It is really nice to sit and listen to the a capella voices.

There is a bathing pool across the road below our house. An open fale sits next to the pool and is manned almost everyday to watch over the pool. It is a good place for waiting for the bus and visiting too. The light is on down there late into the night as people chat and rest and gossip.
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