Some More of Samoa: Village Party for the Rugby Team

October 4, 2013

For the past few months I have had the pleasure of watching dozens of muscular, shirtless Samoan men practice rugby in the muddy field directly in front of my house. They practice nearly everyday and then travel to a nearby village on Saturdays to compete against other villages. I wasn’t ever able to make it to a game because Saturday is the only day that I can go to Salelologa to visit the market, get any food or supplies I need, and check my email. Apparently, our team isn’t half bad it turns out—our team won a rather large trophy. I’m not sure if that means they got first or if more than one team got a trophy. But my village was excited.

The day started off with decorating the hall with teuila flowers and setting up chairs. As the people started to arrive the food was brought over in boxes and the untitled men watched over it, keeping the flies away. At about 11:00am, the matai (older, titled men) were the first to come and the sat and chatted while they waited for the rest of the village to arrive.

In true Samoan style, the party started off with about an hour of greetings, blessings, and prayers from pastors and matais. This part of a Samoan gathering can be quite boring from a western perspective where we might say a few words and dig right into the cake, music, and dancing. However, this is an important part of Samoan culture providing space for the matai. Once they were finished, bowls of colorful ice cream were passed around to most of the people present. (I was too busy chatting and taking pictures and didn’t get any.)

The winners cup

Ice cream and cake

After the ice cream, the music started and the dances began. Dancing at a party like this is very different here as well. In the US, once the music starts you dance if you want, otherwise you chat, eat, drink, and just enjoy some general merriment. In Samoa, the dances are always performed by groups of people as everyone watches. This time, the rugby team and some of the younger women were the ones performing. They definitely put on a show. I think there were about 10-15 different dances. One guy in particular really stole the show. I'll post videos soon-ish.

The team

Some kids watching the team get ready for the dance

One of my buddies in the village. He's deaf yet still completely part of the community including being on the rugby team. A real lesson for the US.

I tried to capture the whole scene in this one

During the dances we enjoyed some barbecue chicken and taro. The children played rugby off to one side of the field. It wrapped up at about 3:00pm. I went back to my house to rest for a bit. After about 20 minutes one of the men from my village who had clearly been drinking all day came over because he needed help “fixing” his camera. In reality, he just needed someone to explain how the flash worked. It figured it out and tried my best to explain it to him. However, I found that my vocabulary relating to the function of a camera is limited. After about 10 minutes we had a crowd of giggling children who I’m sure had a great show watching a foreigner with broken Samoan try to explain how a camera works to a drunken Samoan. I would probably have been giggling, too. In fact, I was.

My day ended with sharing some beer with a group of matai including my host dad and taking a slow walk through the village. It was honestly one of the best times I’ve had in country in the year that I’ve been here.