Living in Samoa

We can’t believe we are actually doing it! Living and working here. It is warm, busy, laid back and beautiful. There are many coconut and banana palms around as well as tropical multicoloured leaved bushes, frangipani, hibiscus, ginger plants and taro. So far we have only found 2 streets with footpaths in the town of Apia and these lead to the Sports Complex where the South Pacific Games were held last year (the team from Guam actually stayed in our house during the games!) These are good streets for a walk after work or maybe a run once we dig out the running shoes. Other places you walk along the side of the road in the gravel. This is not good for your shoes! We have had a couple of cloudy days in our first week which have at least been less sweaty than the days of full sunshine. Being sweaty seems to be the accepted norm however. Ceiling fans operate constantly and shops and places with air conditioning feel like fridges. We have found it much easier to get up and running with normal life here in Samoa compared to the UK. In 1 day we managed to set up a joint bank account, connect to Digicel one of the local mobile phone networks and get a post office box for our mail. There are no street names or numbers in Samoa therefore where you live is described by your village. We are living in Vaigaga (pronounced Vaingunga). It seems everyone in the town knows our landlord and the 2 houses he owns down our street. Failing this we just describe it as the street in Vaigaga by the cake and video shops! When getting a taxi home it’s taken a few goes to pronounce the name such that the driver can understand where we need to go but we are getting there. Taxi’s are everywhere so it hasn’t been a problem getting to and from work. The other day I rode in a taxi with orange fluffy seat covers that the driver thought were “cool aye”! We have been for a few rides on the local busses which are definitely an experience and an education. They are big with open windows in bright colours and generally pump out Samoan and English pop music. You pay the driver when you get off so you have to know to climb aboard and just sit down. It costs $1 (Samoan Tala) for your journey. People are pretty good at moving over and making a space on the seat for you to sit down. We haven’t been on a chockker block bus yet but apparently the norm is to sit on each others knees for the journey. It freaked out our next door neighbour, a very slight Indian girl, when a big Samoan lady picked her up and plonked her on her knees for the trip!

Samoa is a very religious and family orientated country. There are churches every few hundred meters down the road which are usually elaborate with well kept grounds. Saturday is the day for all Samoans to do their housework and shopping in preparation for Sunday which is a family day and a day to attend church dressed in white. Shops are open until midday on a Saturday which makes down town pretty busy and manic in the mornings. I have been asked already which religion I am and I don’t think it is looked on favourably that we don’t attend church regularly.

A lot of the slow paced and laid back way of life is described as “We Samoans …..” or “The Samoan way is …..” It makes perfect sense when you are here in the country where it is hot and humid and moving about at a great pace just isn’t done. Although at a first glance it appears you can’t buy what you want or do what you need to, you actually can once you know where you need to go. Some dingy back alley place could be just what you are looking for to get a key cut or purchase one of the best meals in town. I am impressed at how efficiently things run in a so called backward and manual way. USP managed to process my starting allowance and refund on our flights within a few days of me starting work which was fantastic. We now have some Tala in our Samoan bank account.

People in Samoa are very friendly. Wherever we walk we get tooted at and waved to. The other night we were going for a walk after work and had a family sitting inside around their dinner table call out hello and wave! It means you have to go everywhere switched on and ready to be friendly back or risk being labelled as the ‘Pouty Palagi’! There seems to be a lot of smoke in the air around home time. I think some families cook dinner over an open fire and others burn their rubbish. Walking around as a little white girl seems to draw a bit of attention so I much prefer it when Adam is there to ward off unwanted attention. There is one benefit though, cars stop to allow you to cross the road! The most asked questions by everyone are whether I’m here with my family, where are we living and how many children do we have…….