Tales from our trip to SAMOA from April 27th to May 19th 2010

We've been with the family in Hamilton for three days now. We've had a nice relaxing time. Tau's grandparents flew up from Welly to spend more time with him and it's been a lovely week-end. Jody and I have had our night out after our scrumptious dinner at Lone Star where I ordered a whole bowl of mussels and ate it all too. yum yum. It was just really yummy. Anyway we're now packing and head to the airport real soon. Next destination Brisbane to the Labans and meet the newest handsome addition to the family Mr. Lyell Jnr Laban born to Lyell & Victoria Laban. He must be my granddad's 100th great-grandchild as grand dad had a few to many kids in his scandalous time.
I better get going bro-in-law is busy cooking up a storm for brunch this morning and my tummy is making funny noises. I shall update on the tattoo journey as soon as I get on my own comp at home.
Here's a taste: On our first week-end in the village one guy was caught driving through the village locking a woman's head in his arm as he drove around. Then he stopped under an ulu tree and put a gun to her head and was threatening to shoot her due to her telling everyone about his indiscretion.
Let's call him the Unsub to borrow from Crim Minds. So this eventuated because the lady(victim) caught the unsub in an empty house she was house sitting with another village woman that was not his wife. The victim went straight to the pulenu'u(mayor of the village) and reported on the unsub. The mayer called a village meeting and punished the unsub 1. for breaking and entering. 2. for the extramarital affair (apparently he was caught before and was warned to stop of be banned form the village.) So this time the village banned him and told him he wasn't allowed back until further notice.
After the meeting the unsub went straight back to the victim and threatened that he will kill her when he gets the chance. The pulenuu was again informed and an emergency meeting was called. At this meeting the chiefs decided to ban the unsub for life and this time his family had to provide 50 aumatua(female pigs) and 1000 tala by sunset or all face banishment from the village for this guy was warned countless times and not respecting the village rules anymore.
By 1pm the family came up with 1 aumatua and 10 pusa apa(elegi boxes) but the village said it wasn't enough.
By 4pm they came up with 2 dead cows and about 40 pusa apas or something like that.
The village decided to accept this payment and let the family stay but the unsub remains banned for life. So that week-end we had lovely fresh steak for dinner as the pusnishment goods were distributed to all the families.
Needless to stay I was starting to like the village and was hoping for more steak as long as no one dies in the process....love the village police

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Samaga Pe'a

Image
The time came when the completion of the tattooing sessions were near. We went to Samoa for three and a half weeks and we were hoping that it would be done well before then but by the third week we were not so sure we'd be done well before or in time. You see in Samoa there are a lot of unforseeable circumstances that arise. One of those was the tattooist's family from ovearseas showed up for family meetings and all. So there had to be days off while the tufuga dealt with his family duties. On top of that Mother's day followed and then the final week was full on tattooing everyday until it was completed on Saturday. On this Saturday I dropped the two victims off to the tufuga's house, hung around to serve breakfast and then went back to our host family to help with the preparations for the samaga ceremony. Samaga is the ceremony that formalises the completion of the tufuga's work and where he lifts his taboos and bans and let's the new pe'as out into the wor
Read more

Fagu'u / Samoan oil

Image
Samoan oil in Fanta and tobasco sauce recycled bottles at Fugalei market. The bottle caps are made of coconut husks wrapped in plastic to keep the husk in place. You've got to love the recycling sense. Samoan oil is used as moisturiser, hair gel, ointment, antiseptic and mosquito repellant oh and used as 'glitter' when dancing. I remember going to school covered in it when we were little. I'm sure I had nightmares for years after whenever I smelled it. But then it was okay because everyone else at school was covered in it too. Oh and we made our own too. My grandma who was blind and paralysed sensed it was going to rain and would yell out to us to come bring the lolo (process or state of making Samoan oil) inside the house because water pollutes the pure oil. So I must attribute my smooth skin to the fagu'u that grandma used to remind us every morning to make sure we had covered our bodies with. Choo hooo fresh off the island ow:)
Read more

Jebel Sifa beauty

Early 2018 post We went to Sifawy Boutique Hotel last week with the family and we found it was quiet there. What a breathtaking set up they have there. Just beautiful with marina out front for the kids to ride their scooters and skate while we adults lounge around the pool and breeze bar. We ran into our friends there so the kids had friends to play with so it was lovely.
Read more