Samoa

Apia, Samoa
As we docked we were greeted by a Samoan band playing “You are the sunshine of my life” followed by women and men dancers and singers doing traditional songs.
This is an island that takes you back in time to 40 or 50 years ago. The temperature was in the eighties and sunny and we toured in an open window bus. Samoa is very green and lush and the people are very friendly. As a matter of fact as our bus would pass through villages or rural housing almost everyone would look our way and wave. Old, young and in between seemed genuine in their appreciation of tourists. I noticed very, very little indifference on the part of onlookers. Our bus took us on a scenic drive along the northeastern coast to Falefa waterfall an area that once served as a trading post for the local beach whalers in the early 1800’s. Now the falls convey the natural beauty of the many scenic delights on the island.
Here’s a couple of interesting things about Samoa. There is a new stadium for the country and lots of new construction at the local university and all paid for by the one and only country that has an embassy on Samoa: China. At one point only English with a bit of French were taught in the university but now Chinese is taught and the Chinese population is currently at 3 to 5% but growing.
Beloved family members are buried in the front yard! Graves are covered with marble or concrete slabs of about 4 ft by 8 ft in size. Some are plain and others have elaborate covers and flowers everywhere. When I was younger we spent many a Sunday visiting the graves of relatives at the cemetery and it was usually an all day affair or close to it. From a childs point of view it would have been something to just walk out the front door say a prayer and then have the rest of the day for play. But even in Samoa it is more complicated than that. Beloved family members are in the front yard but all else are buried in the national cemetery. So that black sheep son or nasty in law are off to a communal burial and although it’s the law in Samoa that all must attend church (of their choice) every Sunday lots of anger and misunderstandings within families about front yard burial take place.
We visited a tropical garden with an abundance of tropical plants, flowers and fruit trees. Native young men scurried up coconut trees and threw down dozens of coconuts split them easily on a spike, cracked the interior open with a machete and served the freshest of coconut milk. Fresh fruit was spread on tables for us to sample and it was only slightly off putting that women in native dress kept fanning off the flies from the fruit.
Till next time…