Rainy Season
Trip Start
May 12, 2006
1
14
22
Trip End
Ongoing
Vailoa,
Samoa Western
Friday, February 2, 2007
School has started again and things are pretty much back to what we have come to know as normal. The kids head off for school about 7:30 and the neighborhood gets very quiet. Work is starting to pick up again too. We are working on grants for gardens and pig farms. Most of our neighbors are weaving either fine mats or sleeping mats. This seems to be the time of year for that sort of thing. Tulipe showed me how to weave a sleeping mat and I made one about 8 inches square
Fine Mat Show
. One foot can sleep on it at a time. I think I will need a lot of practice. Maybe I can make a set of place mats. The mats are made from very long leaves that have nasty sharp serrated edges and thorns along the spine. The leaves are about 4 inches wide at the base and taper down to a point about 3-4 feet long. You have to cut all the spikes off with a knife and then role the leaves into a big solid wheel. These wheels get boiled for 5 minutes or so and then are laid in the sun to dry for several days. The boiling and drying bleach all the color out and make a beige, flexible leaf to work with. Next you remove the spine and cut the leaf into strips. There are actually different varieties of the same type of plant used for sleeping mats and fine mats. If you are making a sleeping mat you cut the strips about ½ inch wide and use a double layer of them in the weaving. A fine mat has strips anywhere from 1/8 to ¼ wide in a single layer. Sleeping mats are usually about 2 ½ feet wide and 6 feet long. Fine mats are any size but usually 6 feet wide and 10-15 feet long. Fine mats are almost a form of currency and are given out during ceremonies for almost everything. Weddings, funerals, fines, finishing buildings etc. Some even have historical significance and have been handed down in families for generations. Most fine mats are not of really high quality anymore and the government is encouraging people to make the more traditional ones again. I guess the process is somewhat different and more time consuming
Tapa cloth
. The fine mats and tapa cloth used to be used for clothing.The rainy season has finally started in the last few days. Rain every day now, sometimes torrential for 5 or 10 minute but mostly just normal persistent rain. Still, the rain is different here-it has a pronounced edge to it. The other evening it began to rain up the hill behind us, we could hear it roaring in the trees, and see the rain advancing down the hill like a waterfall. We once walked along the road for a quarter of a mile, perfectly dry, while it rained in torrents right up to the edge of the road. It hasn't been quite as hot either, because the sun is obscured and there is more of a breeze. We had our first test of the Emergency Action Plan. There was a tropical depression to our north about 120 miles. It was expected to strengthen and hit the north coast of Savai'i so Ray and I finally put together our emergency bag that we had talked about for so long. As it turned out, the storm petered out instead. We didn't really see any change in the weather on the south side of the island where we live. Now we have eaten most of the food in the emergency bag and will have to start over when the next storm shows up.
Comments
Hi from AFS volunteer
Hi Ray and Jan,
I haven't had time to read all your notes, but the ones I've read I really enjoy. It is so weird to hear about your adventures in W. Samoa as I was in Group 6 back in 70-72! we landed on a grass runway! Have you been to the TTC? The teachers Training College? that is were I taught. If you do go there, see if anyone remembers Robbin Mester. that was my name then. I taught science. they might remember that I was friends with a guy, Alan Banner, who was killed by a shark while we were swimming together off aliapata. I'd have to look back at my journal to remember many names, but I imagine most are retired.
Well, I'm in the middle of finding host families for next years students and it's getting late. do take care and have a great time. Keep writing.
Robbin Lang
Robin Lang - a Samoan legend
Robin,
I was in G24 and spent quite a bit of time in Aleipata. Needless to say the stories of Alan's tragic death were still prevalent in daily conversations. I also lived with Art Whistler G3 (I think) in Honolulu for awhile and got a more accurate account of the tragedy from him. Your name came up often. It's funny to actually come across you at this blog. It may seem weird and it's hard to explain but I heard the story so many times it's almost like you are a fictional character.
Greg