Our Travels

In a few hours we will celebrate the 44th independence day for Samoan citizens around the world. This was the day that our country was officially handed back to our forefathers to be governed by our own people. Even more remarkable we were the first Pacific Island nation to do so in 1962. Thanks to the Mau movement and their perseverence for now we daughters and sons of Samoa are enjoying being citizens of an independent state. OK we rely alot on aid especially remittances from Samoans overseas but hey its our people helping our own. Aid is help from other countries thank you very much but I think we deserve it after what Germany and New Zealand under the not-so-Great Britain put our people through during their rule. New Zealand is forgiven as Aunty Helen Clark had owned up and apologised to the Samoan people a few decades later two years ago. As my Mom puts it, "It takes a woman (PM Helen Clark) to own up and apologize for their wrong doing" Ok maybe Helen Clark was looking ...

Last night I happen to switch on Showtime sports and what do you know the Paris Sevens were on. A replay of course from yesterday's game. Samoa made it to the finals playing against South Africa. Awesome effort from the Samoan boys. They beat the South Africans in their pool games but according to the commentator the Springpoks were smart to identify the Samoan playmaker a player named Iosua or other and so their defense was fantastic. It was a nice game to watch. 35 to 12 were the points on the scoreboard at the end. London Sevens are next week so a big congratulations and good luck next week to our home team. Malo le faamalosi.

Crusaders won the Super 14 in the final against Hurricanes. I read that it was pretty foggy and the players could hardly see the ball. Hmmm must have been hard for the spectators to even see what was going on, but then again who cares when the booze is flowing heh heh. Moreover I got an email from Mum that the Savaii-Samoa team won the Pacific Cup Final. Awesome indeed go Savaii!! Great rugby news for me. Cheers Savaii boys & Crusaders.

Yesterday while Alex was in the sim I caught a taxi and went to another Samoan lady's place here. There I caught up with the other Samoan women representing in the desert. It was great to catch up with fellow sisters here in this mad city. All up there are about 10 Samoans who reside here with their spouses and its great to know that there are fellow country women and men here so that it always feels good to come here to catch up with them. Some of them have been here for more than 10 years so they have seen this place go from desert hinterland to big city within that short time frame and it is still going. They have amazing stories about the place and yes get a lot of tips from them on how to survive in this rugged terrain of too many choices to shop for heh heh!

We are in Dubai at the moment for Alex's sim this week. We are staying with friends for a couple of nights to catch up with them and other friends who live here in Dubai. This is one heck of a city. It is a concrete jungle there are new buildings being built as far as the eye can see. Though the roads are wide the traffic is quite horrendous due to too many cars on the road and everyone playing commando on the roads as a result there were 5 car accidents last week. We have just been to a nice restaurant where 4 months ago looked like it was going to be another year before completion. We are staying at the Greens and 24 hours 6 days a week the construction sites are operating. Talking to people here about life in Dubai it is something else. People from all over the world just lose their sense of discipline in this place. People get very spoilt here because things are fairly cheap and people are making big bucks. I think people lose sight of reality in these places. Maids are very ch...

Alex mentioned that they were going to Snake Gorge with George and the other guys once more. Having been there already I thought it was nice for him to go back and would have loved to go again myself. We spoke again after their trip and I swear I almost had a mini heart attack when he told me that they went absailing on the difficult part of the gorge... Arrrgghh Never mind George had not done it before and Ernie had not even been to the gorge, last time Alex absailed was more than 5 years ago. Well, I sighed and said a little prayer of thanks that at least he was on the phone talking to me meaning he was alive. One of them could have fell. A million "what ifs" flashed through my head. I just could not believe that they had gone ahead with it. Here are some photos of their near-death-experience. heh heh. Nevertheless they had fun but do realise that it was quite a dangerous feat indeed.

All this is what happens when a Samoan, Fijian and a Scandinavian get together and head off in to the mountains of Oman in 35+ degree heat and try our hand at some amateur rock climbing. It was a bright sunny hot day, a bit of the norm here, when we headed out of Muscat to tackle a 3+ hour hike through a long gorge. George the Scandinavian said there will only be a wee bit of rock climbing involved oh and also he had never been to this spot before but had spoken to a guy who had. Well if you know Scandinavians you never know how much they really know about things because they always claim to know everything. This should have had the alarm bells ringing but as we had nothing better to do we thought what the heck why not give it a go. Standing at the top of the 40m "wee bit of a climb drop" my alarm bells were starting to tinkle a bit. After some very careful planning and checking (which is one of the good things about Scandinavians) we started our descent. I have to say at tim...

Just a week ago before I left Samoa, Norah my sister in-law went to Tuasivi Hospital for a final pregnancy check up before her due date and she comes home with the news that she had been transferred to Apia for a proper scan as the nurse felt two hearbeats meaning the possibility of twins. Of course that got all of us excited and I'm sure poor Norah must have been re-organising her plans to include two babies not one. Anyway she had the scan in Apia and they saw a tall healthy baby boy instead of the two supposed babies which the nurse had gotten everyone excited over. Anyway Norah then gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday, thank you Lord. And it looks like Savaiian pregnant women have to go to Apia to get a proper scan or be told something else nine months into the pregnancy!!! What a classic. Plus the Savaii main hospital does not have a scan! Unbelievable! So lets pray the new Savaiian Health Minister changes this very soon.

I am now back home in Oman with my darling husband who has been here holding the fort alone for six weeks. Got here safely and my babe was waiting with open arms. yippee! Good to be home again to my hubby to our apartment, our pillows, our bed, to us. Now, it is really hot here, its about 40 degrees celcius already. Thanks to air conditioning its more bearable otherwise outdoor activities are a no-no in this climate. Just getting over the jet lag now and get back to a normal life once more. I had a good flight from Singapore to Dubai for 6 hours 34 mins and then in Dubai airport for 1 hr, 30 mins before departing for Oman on a 1 hr flight. It is great to be home again with my babe.

I'm now in transit in Singapore for about 30 mins to 1 hour. It hasn't been too bad of a flight this time around. Been sleeping heaps on the flight over which is great. Auckland to Brisbane was 3 hours, 1 hour transit in Brisbane then Brisbane to Singpore 7 hours and 30 mins. Now we're on transit for another 30 mins. I think they just called my flight to board again. Emirates has been awesome. For those that don't know you have your own tv monitor and you can watch your own selected movie. Its almost business class compared to other airlines where you watch the same big screen and if you're not seated appropriately you're lookin at the screen sideways like my Air New Zealand flight from Samoa 5 days ago. Mom, Relle, Neil and Aunty Lucy saw me off at the airport. We had a great time in New Zealand with my family. I miss my Mom and felt like the little daughter leaving Mom once more. Silly but what the heck we'll always be our mothers' lil' girls I gue...

I am now sitting in my sister and her hubby's place in Hamilton. Its pretty cold outside and I'm thankful for the gas heater thats heating up the room nicely. We're watching tv (surprise) and there's nothing good on. Chiefs beat Blues to Gui's delight and Hurricanes beat Warratahs. Looks like a Kiwi final this year tho' I'm very sure its a crusaders year again! Tomorrow our cousin Neil comes over for the holidays. Its his first time out of Samoa and we're all pretty excited about it. I think it may be a bit too cold but he'll be too excited to notice I hope. Mom is enjoying kicking back and relaxing. Tomorrow I hop on Emirates to head for Oman on a very looooonnngggg flight. arrggh I'm kind of dreading the long flight but well I guess I'll just catch up with all the latest movies and try to get some sleep. Better get going dinner is served. Laters

Its now my last night in Savaii yet again... I have mixed feelings about it all. Its funny coming home here I fall right back to my role ever since being a child except sometimes now I have a drink for a break(heh heh). Savaii is timeless, the world can go right by so fast and Savaii will forever be the same. Some people have huge plans for this island but reality sets in its not easy to move Savaii forward to catch up with other places. This is what some people do not understand, this island is unique and it carves its own path for itself. Whether it be trudging up slowly to development it will do it at its own pace. So I see Savaii as forever being my home just the way I left it and will leave it again. Except for my grandma who I will not find here next time. Soifua

We went to Falealupo last week and this was a picture of the sunset I took at the western-most village in the world. The last to see the sunset each day. Samoans in the past believed that when we die our souls go to this point in Falealupo...Le fafa o Saualii or the Caves of Ghosts. I entertained the idea that my grandma's soul was there and that she was enjoying the sunset just as we were.

Grandma was buried wrapped in tapa cloth as the tradition of our maternal family. We the grandkids helped to wrap her up and tied the afa around her. It was such a personal act and so final it was heart wrenching.

The funeral of our beloved grandma was beautiful. The quote above by Dylan Thomas, I believe fits my grandma's life story so well. All the eulogies that were said of grandma before our time was that she was a hardworking woman in every way. She not only did the women's role so well but she also outworked the men in her time. She was sought after for her workmanship and originality. She was a mother, handiwoman, a musician and quite the entertainer. It was interesting to listen to the eulogies of the older people as they were talking about Faleasiu from another time before we were born. So in a way I learned a bit more about our grandma from the eulogies which were being said. As we were growing up people in the village would ask after Faleasiu's health and then they would relate to us what a mesmerising mandolin player that grandma was. They would proceed to describe how she used to strum the mandolin amazingly that the women's committees' get togethers were never b...