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.
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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...