We Count

Recently there have been a number of ads on the TV that seem to be about the upcoming national population census, but because they have all been in Samoan we haven’t really been sure what it is all about.

Then, a few weeks ago some stickers appeared on our gate post, which we figured must have been related to the census, but again we didn’t really know what was happening.

Unlike in NZ there didn’t seem to be any forms being distributed to be filled in, just ads saying that the census would be carried out from 1^st – 10^th November. We figured that maybe we would miss out on being counted because we didn’t know what we were supposed to do to get our forms.

Then last Sunday afternoon a strange car pulled up at our gate and a woman armed with her census ID and booklets got out. It turns out that they do things a little differently in Samoa. Here the census officer comes to you and fills in the questionnaire for you. Well actually, she noted the answers in a separate notebook, and was going to transcribe the answers to the proper forms later when she went home. Talk about doing things the hard way!

So, we sat down and went through the questions. Most of them were the usual sort of things – age, level of education, do you rent or own your home, jobs, etc etc. But there were a few that I haven’t seen on a census form in New Zealand, including ‘Do you have a sewing machine?’ She seemed quite pleased when we said, yes we do have a sewing machine! There was a whole range of questions about which household appliances we have - washing machineü, fridgeü, air conü, dishwasher û. They also wanted to know if our kitchen was inside the house or outside. There were also the expected questions about religion and children (everyone here seems to ask those questions). The children one seemed to come up several times, and each time we got a very sympathetic ‘how sad’ when we answered that we have no children.

Anyway, we can now rest happily knowing that we have been counted.