Some More of Samoa: Christmas

Patamea, January 10, 2013

I didn't have a chance to write about what i did for Christmas this year yet, so I wanted to let you know how I celebrated the season in Samoa. First of all, the season is actually the rainy, summer season and not the cold, quiet, and introspective winter season of the northern hemisphere. Here, the sun will shine most of the day, its intense rays broken only occasionally by clouds and sudden rainfall. Christmas Day was no different, sometimes hot and bright and at other times humid, damp, and overcast.

There were eleven family members from extended family who live in Apia visiting for the holidays. They decided to take a tour of the island of Savai'i and invited me along. We headed out at noon after a morning church service and packing the van for the trip. Our route took us north along the eastern side of the island. We first came to the lava fields of Saleaula. These fields are remnants of the eruption of a nearby volcano at the beginning of the twentieth century. The eruption and consequential lava flow destroyed the village which is now rebuilt on top of the hardened lava.

We didn't stop in Saleaula but rather drove straight through. In fact, we didn't really stop in any villages during our trip except to refuel both the car's gas tank as well as our stomachs. Village after village passed my view. I took pictures when possible--the windows of the van were not very conducive to photography. One stop we did make was to buy a few niu (young, green, drinking coconuts) from a little girl on the side of the road. Her clothes were brown and torn and nearly matched her skin tone. We payed for the niu (about $0.50 a piece) and were off.

Along the way we passed through the villages of every Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on the island. In one of these villages we crossed the path of a fellow PCV. The van was brought to a stop and we reversed to meet her. I got out of the van and we chatted briefly about our experiences thus far and about how we were celebrating Christmas. We chatted for about five minutes then I got back in the van and she continued on her walk.

Our next stop was for lunch. We stopped at a remote beach. When I say remote, I mean it. For most of the people on the planet it would take days to get there. First, a plane ride that, again for most of the world, take more than half a day. This would be followed by a bus or taxi to the wharf. Then an hour or two on a ferry to get to the island of Savai'i from Upolu, where the airport is. Finally, a bus or taxi to the opposite side of the island which would take at least two and a half hours. It was a gorgeous beach. Check out the video here. We ate typical Samoan food--pork, chicken, taro--and enjoyed the beach. One of the people with us was a one and a half year old boy. He was so cute and quite intelligent. He was also quite afraid of the beach and especially the water. He screamed when anyone brought him near the water. When they attempted to set him down on the sand away from the water, he curled his legs up as if they were slowly setting him into a frying pan or a bucket of ice water. He didn't know what to think of it and therefore didn't want to touch the sand.

After lunch, we simply continued around the beautiful island until we were home in Patamea. We only stopped here and there to get snacks, to buy cash-power (Samoans prepay for electricity much like some people prepay for the use of their cellphones putting money into their accounts as needed rather than paying a bill at the end of the month), or even to try to see the blowholes on the southern coast. We would have had to pay quite a bit to enter so we chose instead to continue home.

We arrived back at home at about 6:00pm. Shortly thereafter we ate dinner. I quickly went home to read and go to bed. It's always fascinating to me how exhausting sitting down for hours can be.