The village family

24/09/2013

As expected I had a wonderful sleep in the treehouse, falling asleep to the sound of the waves and the wind in the tree.

I got to sleep in a little bit, but then it was time to go say hello to the village family. I was very glad to see the family again, I actually missed the place, the crudeness, this absolutely non-superficial life.

Everyone seemed very happy to see me again and was asking about my hand injury and how my family was doing.

The dogs were just as skinny as the first time I saw them and the kids just as friendly, this place seems to be immune to time and change. The sad truth however is that the western world is slowly but sure creeping in.

In the following few days I'll try to set up my solar hot water setup, that will be interesting to attempt with my one and a half hand.

Back in Samoa.

18/09/2013

My flight back to Samoa was considerably less stressful, delayed a little but all good (we even got given complimentary airline refreshment vouchers due tot he delay), In One onboard, I initially was even so lucky as to have an open seat next to me.

However, not long after I got comfortable, a hostess moved a young man into the seat next to me. The young man was very talkative and well mannered, but by his looks he looked like a South Auckland Tagger, looking for his next fence or letterbox, so initially I was rather sceptical talking too much to the man.

After a little while we started taking and I learnt that his name was Nigel and that he is in fact a New Zealand born Samoan, that grew up in Samoa up to the age of 10, then stayed in NZ for the last 11 year. He was going back to Samoa to visit his elderly grandmother, and he seemed very scared about the whole trip back. When I asked him why he was feeling anxious about the trip, he replied with a laugh "I've not been back in 11 years and have been living off government support"

 -He's got only a one way ticket and no money for a ticket back, and he's going to Samoa where he'll have to work for his food.. for the first time.

During the flight Nigel proved to be very good company, and certainly made the flight feel like a real short one, I'm sure I'll meet him again ... some time... somewhere in Apia.

When I landed in Samoa I was very happy to find Saya at the airport =)

I was finally "back" and on the way to Sanaapu Village.

Trip back to New Zealand and back to Samoa again...

16/09/2013

My days following the intrepid bus ride were spent exploring some more of Apia and a nice quiet two days at the Lodge. During this time I really started to miss "home" and my family in New Zealand and booked a flight back to NZ for Wednesday 14th of August.




To busy myself at the Lodge I went for another round of cycling, this time I ate breakfast and drank plenty of water prior my departure, I've had no intension of feeling like "I'm about to die" again. I cycled down the driveway, again picking the "chicken shit" way down as that steep steep driveway was still as intimidating as the first time I saw it.

I made good progress, everything going smoothly (or as smoothly as a gravel road can go anyway) no dogs chased me and before I knew it I was already back at the main road. Like my first cycling trip I decided to cycle to the left and further up the mountain first. My main purpose was to see whether I've become more fit or whether I'm about the same. -Lets just say it was very tiring and very very hot, lol.
Well, I did notice something though, I did seem a little bit more fit as it was not as hard to cycle up there as it was the first time, however after that I decided to just go back to the lodge... no cycling to Apia again... no thank you.

Back at the lodge I was actually starting to feel really lonely, I noticed now that I did not have Saya's company nor the "noise" of village life, I missed Saya, the village, the beach, the sound of the waves and the environment at Sanaapu.
I was really lucky though, as if sent by magic or set up by earlier coincidence, way earlier I agreed to meet a friend of Saya's on Monday 12th to look at some solar panel and battery issues he's had. With his visit to the lodge Saya visited the lodge to introduce me to her friend and was so kind to buy us a really good lunch.

-That was not the lucky part though, the "lucky" part was that during the Monday morning while waiting for Saya's friend, Saya invited me back to the village for my last two days, and offered to give me, my bags and my bike a lift not only to the village, but also to the airport on Wednesday.
-So back to the village I went :-)

My last two day was just pure magic, totally making me doubt my decision to book my flight back... but it now being too late, and I felt like I "had" to go back to NZ.



My flight back to NZ felt like it took forever, how a 4 hour flight could feel that long I do not know... Even with an "extra" leg room seat AND an open seat next to me I could not find any comfortable way for sitting.
-I was really glad to get out of the plane, but strangely not too sure how glad I was being back in NZ.

Four days of being in NZ and I was already planning my return trip to Samoa... I booked my flight back for 3 September, giving me about two and a half weeks to tidy things up in NZ and get my fix of family time.

My 3 September flight was a bit blown out of the water on 28 of August though. While cleaning the garden a little bit I lifted some already chopped vines with the machete, then in an instant the machete came loose from the vines I was lifting and hit on the back of my left thumb causing a bit of a cut.
-This cut ultimately landed me in the hospital for hand surgery, to re-attach the severed tendons on the back of my thumb... not only that, I also got told that I'll be looking at an 8-10 week rehabilitation time for the tendon... wow, how annoying!

I've had no intension of staying out of Samoa for that long, so after doing some research I've decided to fly back to Samoa on 17 September, 2 weeks and 5 days into my 8-10 week rehabilitation time.


I now have some pretty strict guidelines to follow for my thumb, this includes wearing a soft cast, not using my thumb at all and no swimming without my cast for at least 8 weeks...
Oh, did I mention the cast is not allowed to get wet? Yea... so swimming with one hand in the air... good luck!!

Samoan Bus ride...

08/08/2013

Wow, so this morning I got up very early after virtually no sleep at all. I need to be ready for the bus across the island to Apia. I need some internet access and to make some return flight arrangements.

This bus was one crazy experience, the early morning bus also act as the school bus and since it was raining this morning the bus was jam-packed with people and kids trying to avoid the rain. It's really difficult to explain the "bus" experience, but I'll try to paint a mental picture of the bus....

Think about the bus as a decommissioned flat bed truck, the interior, roof, seats and everything has been handmade from wood. The interior have small wooden benches bolted to the floor and looks much more like a chicken coop than a bus.

So when I got on the bus was so full that I was not sure whether I'm going to fit, let alone the 12-17 students waiting on the side of the road with me. We all rammed in there. I'm lucky that some guy took pity on me and elbowed a small kid off the bench next to him so that I can sit there. At this point the bus is loaded with about 70 people some sitting, some standing and plenty sitting on each other's laps. One would think the bus is full, but no... every now and then it will stop and more and more people will squash in. Everyone just sitting on everyone else and all you see is just heads...

Some buses in Apia... you get the idea...

The bus eventually stopped at the schools and a lot of passengers and students got off, it was really funny because at this point the buss would have well over 100 people onboard, and as people are exiting the buss it seems like it is a never ending stream of people getting out of the bus.... almost like it's a funny Youtube video and an optical illusion ... but there's no illusions here... the amount of people now getting off is just staggering.

The man I was sharing my bench with also hopped off and I moved to the position against the window. It's still a long distance to go to Apia and the buss will fill again very shortly... but this time I want to be next to an open window.

As we were making way and the bus filling I knew that before long I'll have someone next to me and in time people sitting on us... It seems that I got lucky though. On the next stop a giant Samoan man mountain and a real building size man sat next to me. He took nearly the whole bench and I was squashed against the window, it was lucky despite my squashed position... This man mountain was so large he blocked the entire entrance to our bench, haha, so no-one could get past him to sit on me :-D

I made it safely to Apia after just over two hours on the bus I did not freeze in a panic and did not vomit, however I was all sweaty and my bum was sore from the combination of  the hard bench and bumpy roads, (but bit less sore than when it was cycling up the mountain that day :-)

I think I was actually happy to get out of the bus, even if you're stepping off it right next to the Apia fish market..

Apia morning fish market

Will I take the bus again? Mmm, I guess I might if I really have too.

Saanapu Village and the tree house

06/08/2013

The first thought I got when I saw the village was "oh shit" and not in a good way either. It was already late afternoon and we got met by a group screaming and running excited kids and got led up too what I would describe as a "shack" built from cinderblocks and corrugated iron. There were dogs, pigs, chickens and children running in every which way and my first impression was that I've now stumbled onto pure poverty and lack of development. In many ways just like what you'd see in the poor parts for South Africa or perhaps the accommodation of the workers on a really poor or low class farm.

 

The people are really really friendly, almost too friendly and they keep give you food and water and snacks and coffee... At first I thought that maybe they can "smell" the money in my wallet and that's the reason for the friendliness.

It took me a bit of observing and talking before I could really understand what was going on. To make it simple is to understand a few things, one is the concept of a "village" here... A "village" here is just a description of a block of land owned by a family group, more like a family "farm" and less like an actual "village" that we can relate too, however you also get small villages that consist of only a single family. Saanapu village is rather a big one and it consists of many households, not just one.

Also, despite what it appear, the family is not "poor" how we think of it. Samoans gladly share food because that is how they are. It does not harm that they have plenty of food from the garden and from the sea, but it basically comes from their warm sense of sharing.
.

They only seem "poor" to a Westernized eye because we look for things like a smart house, a nice car, electronic toys, nice clothes and so on... the real funny thing is that they look back at us and see us as "poor"... The reason is that they have everything they need and want, the land belongs to the village and there's no rates or mortgage to pay, so they live free, they have no need to buy food as they produce all their own on the land and by fishing in the sea... they owe no-one nothing and live for free...

 

In the western world, we'll have a monster mortgage to pay, maybe even have other "loans" like cars or product to pay, we HAVE TO have a large income just to stay afloat...

So in reality, if you think about it, who's more poor? The Samoan villagers that have "no" money? or the Europeans who owe more money than what they have, thus putting them in the negative money..... ?

The tree house is build around a large tree, but uses palm tree supports for most of the load bearing work

The inside is very open but you have a lockable "closet" and rely on the mosquito net for protection

The ladder up/down from the tree house

While visiting the village I was staying in a beach front tree house, to be honest all the other fales on the beach looked good too and I'd sleep in any one of them with a large smile. There's a communal toilet block with a good setup, showers, two toilets and two basins all very nice and tidily constructed with logs and woven palm leaves.

The toilet and shower block

 The tree house was wonderful and the tree is right in the high tide mark so during high tide the small waves are lapping right under the tree. From the tree house you have a view of the calm turquoise blue inner reef and can see the monster waves in the distance smashing on the shallow barrier reef, only hearing the thundering waves in the distance.

Waves breaking on the reef

The general scenery is that which you would think to only see in the postcards or travelers guide brochures, when looking at the views it's almost hard to make yourself understand that you are actually "here", it's not a photo from National Geographic... it is really your here and now and reality.

Ancient lava flow over the beach

Empty beaches... I was the only person there..

I spent two nights in Saanapu Village, and I would love to spend more time there. For a very good price you get to sleep right on the beach, have good facilities and get three very large meals each day, and I'm talking really large meals... The meals are traditional village meals made with produce from the land and it's all cooked on an open fire. They also had fresh fish and fresh shellfish, (which the latter I was dodging left right and center due to my severe allergy to crustaceans)

The locals have no concept of "an allergy" so if ever you travel here do take care, ask what is in your food and taste a small bit of what ever first if you are unsure.

Over-all, the value in the experience cannot be measured, it can only be experienced :-)

Tomorrow morning I'm getting up early... I have to get the bus back to Apia and apparently the only bus that is generally on time is the 7am bus, for the rest of the day the bus might or might be on time and might or might not show up...

I'm stressed about this bus business, crowds and public transport make me feel very uncomfortable. It actually makes me feel a tremendous pressure in my chest and a strange stinging sensation in my lower rib-cage, a similar feeling to the one I get when I see or smell shellfish.

I hope I'll get some sleep tonight...

Last day at Monono and back to the Lodge.

05/08/2013

It really seems like time in Samoa seems to be less and less important to the population the further I venture out of Apia.

Our stay at Monono was officially over and were suppose to be taken back to the main island in the morning... The morning became later morning, then even later...

I was not sure if I was getting frustrated at this unknown time schedule or whether I was just plain happy to be there. I made peace with the lack of schedule and just embraced being there :-)

We decided to go to explore the little island some more, I was told that there were and Ancient Star Mound that dated back many thousand years on the island... naturally this became target of the exploration.

Getting to the mound was no mere task, so one of the local boys agreed to be our guide. I am really glad we did have the "guide" as the dense jungle that goes up the hill in the center of the island is a giant maze and for a non-guided person(s) your 2 hour trek would easily become an 8 hour trek if you even find the mound at all in such case.

On the way up we discovered an old grave of a historic Matai (leader) of the island, some randomly located taro crops and the remains of the earlier cell tower which were destroyed during the cyclone a few months ago.

Myself, Saya and our "guide"

 The mound itself was... well, interesting and really large as far as I could tell as the jungle has reclaimed the bulk of the mound and you cannot really determine where it starts or stops or really gage the actual size at all. -All I know, is that who ever took the thousands of tons of volcanic boulders up the hill, through the jungle and in this heat must have been borderline crazy or really strong and immune to fatigue. Even more interestingly, all these boulders and rock would have been carried up in baskets or on stretcher style basket-beds, as the wheel was never discovered or used here in ancient times, and you cannot use log rollers to go up a hill that's got a good 20-30 decree incline with boulders that's in uneven natural shapes.

I whish I could have taken some photos of the mound to share, but there's jungle everywhere and the photos will look like photos of the jungle with black rocks under the trees...

Returning from the mound we exited the jungle on the opposite side of the island and walked back on the beach footpath to our base.

Fresh water is a real "problem" on the island. We walked past three wells on the way back, these are the only three wells on the island and ironically none of the three is usable. The wells were polluted by kids/locals just dropping "anything" down the well and the water inside has become a festering green cake of rotten water only good for hatching mosquitoes.

So now the island is entirely reliant on rain water, which is "ok" if the rain tanks are kept full.

Finally back at base it was already near lunch time, and boy was it hot, but rest was not awaiting me. (A day prior me arrival at the resort their fresh water pump gave in and I've been helping to look at the pump and the spagitti of illogical pipes that connects everything to everything.) A soon as I got to base my assistance was again needed with the pump and the pipes, luckily though this was now only to get my input on the removal of the pump so it did not keep me busy too long.

Sigh, that tangle of pipes... the evidence of many years of adding "stuff"

 (It really seems that in Samoa there's a general lack of people with a technical mind and a mind that can think methodically and logically. This "lack" in expertise is evident everywhere in buildings, roads, bridges and the way technological things are done.)

After the pump business we got offered lunch "again", (I use the word "again" because our booking and payment was already over and we were now un-paying guests.) -and after lunch... yep... we got taken out to the reef for some more complimentary snorkelling before we actually left :-)

Back at the lodge I was just too happy to see a proper shower and some more "luxury"

Saya convinced me to join her again tomorrow, going to the village where she stays most of the time and to see the beach fales there and the "treehouse" which she had constructed with the aid of the village.

I'm looking forward to seeing everything she told me about and luckily I'm not worried about a potential "awkward" car ride there :-)

Manono Sunday

04/08/2013

Sundays around here are truly observed as a day of resting. Shops are not open, people really limit their moment other than going to church in the morning and in the evening.

So Sunday went very peacefully, I had a good day of resting and thinking. I think everyone should really attempt to "force" themselves to have such day of "doing nothing"