In Samoa: Mom's 17th grandchild, Lani's 4th baby

Haven't had time to update the blog in the past three weeks. I will update it all with pictures when I get back to Oman. But briefly: Alex and I were in Hong Kong for a week where we stayed with our hospitable friends Brad and Rhonda and their lovely kids. We had the greatest time in Hong Kong, we managed to cross the border to China to shop! Hong Kong was amazing and better yet the Hong Kong Sevens was just something else. The best of all was supporting Samoa from day One and then we went on to WIN the final. It was an honour and a privilege for us to witness such a victorious game. We were going hoarse from calling out "Samoa, Samoa, Samoa" but it was all worth it. We went giddy with sheer joy and pride from the boys' win. We went straight to town Wan Chai dressed in our lavalavas, blues and flag to revel in our team's win and boy did we enjoy it. We had a great time and the atmosphere was just festive and party-like! It was amazing. Hong Kong Sevens being the biggest leg of the tournament Samoa was catapulted to being second in the IRB ratings and Fiji's still at the top. Its great that both are Pacific teams. Power to the Pacific indeed. Samoa also won US100,000.00 which is great and I just found out from a source that about half of it goes to the boys, the coach and manager which is well-deserved. Everyone is so proud of the boys and of course they are the Superstars at the moment.
.
Now I'm in Samoa to visit my family and Alex had to head back for work. We spent a week in Wellington with his family and had a lovely time there catching up with everyone including some of my family and friends.
.
My older sister's baby was born four weeks early and he is the cutest thing. He's so perfect. He's strong and quite big for a pre-mature baby but then again it's a Samoan baby. Both my sister and baby are well.
.
Today one year ago is the day our beloved grandma passed away. I miss her very much and its very strange to come home and she's not here. However I watch the little baby and am reminded of grandma so much. I think it's God's way of filling the gap left by others. I better go now it's typical sunny beautiful day in Samoa and I should make the most of it. I should work on the tan cos its obvious that I haven't lived here with the lack of pigmentation..hahaha! Cheers to all. Love you babe in Oman and miss you.




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