We just got back (10pm) from seeing Samoan friends off at the airport. If you wonder why flights from Samoa are often early morning or late at night – I think it’s because the airport is too hot to go to in the daytime!!!!! – only air-conditioned once you get through customs!!!! Then you have to walk out uncovered across the tarmac to the plane, and that is very humid during the daytime too!
We watched from the security fence as the plane was still being unloaded (it had arrived in late from Auckland). It was funny to watch the container full of food lifted up on the hydraulic lifts to load into the plane. Then as it was leaving, it came back and backed up to the other side door of the plane. With a little bit of Samoan ingenuity, a half dozen boys from the tarmac jumped in and they were hoisted up level with the door again. It was then, we noticed a stretcher being carried off the plane (with someone lying in it), and dropped down beside a waiting ambulance. I was pleased to see they emptied it of food first. I wonder if Air New Zealand knows this sort of thing happens on their planes in Samoa!!!!
We went to a Sunday To’onai today. This is a cultural family get together after church on Sunday where food is prepared in lavish quantities and served. Guests eat first – in our case, we ate first with the titled men and the older women. Practically, we could fit no more around the table, but traditionally, this would happen anyway. After we finished as much as we wanted, we left our seats for the ‘second sitting’ and the younger men and girls ate. We had corned brisket, roasted pork, deep-fried chicken, taro, palusami, chop suey, baked bananas, and sausages. Meat-lovers’ heaven here!!! A real lack of green veges and salads. I can’t wait until we get our own land, and then I can grow my own fresh veges in a little garden.
Well the Cabinet was finally selected and sworn in on Friday after the recent elections. PM Tuila’epa has only kept about three of his old Cabinet members, to the disgust of some of those who missed out! He has a new, young team, new Deputy PM and the youngest ever Speaker of the House. Samoan Government and laws very much resemble New Zealand’s. So with that out of the way, we are hoping for our land to be settled soon, and we can start building.
It’s been an emotional week, with our friend missing out on his seat in an electorate that clearly had some skulduggery, with over a thousand extra voters on the electoral roll. They may have been brought in from out of the electorate. To vote in an electorate, you have to be living there, and the local Mayor has to sign and confirm that you do. Our mate is the local mayor, but he wouldn’t sign anyone in from outside. He plays it straight. However the mayor in the next village looks like he did, and that’s where all the extra votes come from. Our man just says – Oh well, they might have won on the day, but I’m going to set up a funeral business and then I’ll bury them all – one by one!
An undertaker with a sense of humour and Samoan justice to boot!
PDF 
