A local man, passing in the street, noticed our renovations to the SWAP HQ, and popped in to see the boss looking for some work. Dennis sent us to meet and greet his family and I got my first taste of poverty in Samoa.
The first thing we noticed was that his home was right next door to a MASSIVE church. This church is the local AOG in Lotopa and looks like a very large barn. A farm shed on steroids you could say!
This is something quite common in Samoa, poor beside rich; a church beside residential. I remind myself “This is Samoa, Helena. Adjust!”
Mati (the Samoan man) would be about 30 years, and has a 4 month old son. His English was limited but we could communicate quite well, as long as I spoke slowly and clearly. He introduced me to his wife, who is from Savaii (the larger, less populated island). They moved to Apia for work, but she misses her own village.
We asked them how much they paid for their house. It cost them nothing because they are living on family land and the house was already on it. There are five people that live in the house including Mati’s mother, sister, brother and children.
The house is probably 20 years old, but totally empty of possessions. While it is one of the poorer homes it does have a corrugated iron roof, and closed in walls. There were a dozen tyres on the old rusting roof which Mati explained were there to help keep the roof down when the cyclones came.
To my own standards, the medical condition of the baby was alarming. There is no question that any Palagi nurse would have wanted to intervene if given the opportunity to care for this little one.
Everything about this home and people screamed poverty. It was clear that he REALLY needed the work – just to feed his family. One day it may be possible to offer Mati some work. In the meantime however, he will do what he can on his plantation – subsistence living within an urban setting.
The SWAP work continues, gathering experiences and stories and information ready for the launch of the Samoa information website www.thesamoastory.com. We all really look forward to it.
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