This past weekend was Father’s Day here in Samoa – a time for families to gather and celebrate Dads. Family is important to Samoans and their culture. They celebrate ten public holidays each year and three of these are dedicated to the family: Mother’s Day in May, Father’s Day in August and White Sunday which is a day for parents and communities to acknowledge and celebrate childhood. Although all three of these holidays fall on Sundays, Samoans have the following Monday as a public holiday. I went the market on Saturday morning and was astonished by the beautiful flower arrangements that were for sale and being made for Father’s Day!
I’ve made friends here with a cohort of New Zealand volunteers who are here on a program similar to mine. They have more volunteers here than the Australian program at the moment. Thirteen at last count, as opposed to the Australian Volunteers program with five.
Lily, one of the Kiwis, is here on a short term, four month assignment working with Samoa Victim Support Group (SVSG), a domestic violence organisation. She’s never worked in that field before so I’m encouraging her to look after her mental health as much of what she’s seeing is quite confronting.
Once we learned that Father’s Day was a long weekend, Lily and I started planning our first beach weekend away. We decided to take a trip to Lalomanu beach, famous for its white sand and turquoise waters. Lily was able to book us a fale to stay in through her colleague Gina who owns Lululosa Bar and Grill.
Lily doesn’t have a car so I volunteered to drive. We headed out after lunch on Saturday and decided to stop whenever we felt like it along the way as we weren’t on a time schedule and it really doesn’t take that long to drive anywhere here in Samoa.
Our first stop was a small shop in the village of Lauli’i that Lily had visited with her work. It is run by a women’s collective that is supported by SVSG and sells beautiful handmade textiles, jewellery, coconuts and flowers. The women who make these items are nofotanes, indigenous women who after marriage live in their husband’s village with their husband’s family. Their role in the family is one of a servant. Their workplace is usually the kitchen and tending to the children, but they are also at the beck and call of the entire extended family. Nofotanes are referred to as the ‘hands’ and the ‘feet’. They are the first to get up in the morning and the last to sleep. Importantly, these women do not have a voice within this structure and must withstand whatever the family tells her to do.
SVSG help these women see that they are valuable and encourage their creativity. They teach them about managing finances and how to look after themselves physically and mentally. The women on the program are empowered to overcome their physical and emotional abuse and create a financially sustainable living for their families.
I was taken with the stencilled fabrics and bought myself a lavalava, a piece of fabric that Samoans tie around their waists as a skirt. It’s in my favourite green colour and I love it! I plan to go back and get lavalavas with my girls when they come to visit.
A bit further down the road and we stopped briefly at Piula Cave Pool. This pool is a beautiful freshwater spring pool and cave that originated from an old lava tube. It is located within the Piula Theological College and isn’t open for visitors on Sundays. It was teeming with people on Saturday so we decided we’d have to come back on another day for a proper swim and explore.
We continued down the road – it is absolutely picturesque – like something out of a movie. The Main East Coast Road winds through some of the most beautiful villages around.
About an hour and a half after starting out, we came to Lalomanu Beach. It’s absolutely stunning! It’s also part of a protected marine reserve so we had brought our snorkeling gear to check out the coral and marine life.
We passed a couple of resorts as we came into Lalomanu and then reached Lulolosa. The Bar & Grill was closed for Father’s Day as Gina had sent all her workers home for the weekend so they could spend time with their families. She came out to greet us and had already set up our fale for the weekend. We had a mattress each on top of a floor mat with a mosquito net hanging from the ceiling. She attached tarpaulins to the sides of the fale to keep out the weather.
The two of us, along with our Kiwi friends Robyn and Gordon, were the only guests there for the weekend. Because the bar and grill was closed, Gina had told us to bring our own food and drinks. Normally if you stay overnight at a fale, you expect to pay approximately $120 WST ($70 AUD/ $45 USD/ £33 GBP) for accommodation, dinner and breakfast the next morning.
We had a swim and then enjoyed a drink and nibbles as the sun went down.
Just as we were deciding to go to one of the neighbouring resorts, Gina and her husband decided they would cook us dinner. They made me grilled fresh fish with butter and garlic and some rice which was perfect. And then we all sat around after dinner chatting and enjoying each other’s company.
Jay, Gina’s husband is of Samoan descent but from the US. As soon as he met me, he nicknamed me Wolverine (due to the fact that I was born in Michigan) and throughout the course of the night, various Wolverine jokes were to be heard. By the end of the weekend, I had received a standing invitation to stay at Lulurosa anytime and bring my ‘kits’ (wolverine children) when they come to visit Samoa. I just have to ring Jay and sound like a wolverine on the phone, and then I have a place to stay! 😊
Saturday night was my first sleeping in a fale. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I didn’t sleep in a fale. I laid in a fale under a mosquito net and listened to the wind and surf. The wind was blowing a gale and despite the tarps up all around, it was pretty breezy. It was also incredibly noisy between the wind and the surf crashing in just metres away. It was also a full moon – beautiful but it meant quite a high tide during the night. Add in a bit too much wine and not being able to find my ear plugs, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, that’s for sure.
Sunday morning dawned with the promise of a stunning day, and the Kiwis and I were at the dock in Muiatele for the Namu’a Island ferry by 9am. The church in Muiatele sits next to a protected mangrove area and all we could hear was the sounds of the church choir singing out over the mangroves as we waited for the boat. It was beautiful.
We loaded our bags onto the ferry and took the eight minute trip over to Namu’a. On the way we spotted sea turtles cruising around the lagoon in the crystal clear waters. Once we docked, we found a fale and proceeded to chill out for the morning. Namu’a is uninhabited and lies off the east coast of Samoa. The whole island takes about an hour to walk around.
The morning became a bit overcast so Robyn and I decided to hike up the hill in the centre of the island and see if we could find the bat colony that we’d heard lived there. We scrambled up the trail, in places doing more rock climbing than walking on a true path but made it up to the top. We found fantastic views out to the ocean and we found the bat colony who were very loud for a Sunday morning!
After looking at the bats and looking out for whales (we didn’t see any), we decided to head back down to the fale and go for a swim. Unfortunately my trip down the hill didn’t go to plan. I was hiking in thongs/flip-flops and I fell. I heard something crack as I fell, I threw my phone in one direction and my sunglasses went flying in another. As I landed on my left shoulder, all I could think about was that I had broken the same shoulder almost two years ago to the day and I really hoped I hadn’t broken it again. When I finally came to a stop, I was worried I’d broken my shoulder. Robyn was worried I’d broken my knee or my leg as it was at a weird angle underneath me.
I’m not sure how but I have walked away without any broken bones. We did a good body scan and although I was cut and bleeding from a few spots, I was able to walk down the rest of the hill unaided. My ribs were hurting on my left side but whether they were broken or bruised, I knew there really wasn’t much I could do. And when you are on an uninhabited island off the coast of a small island in the middle of the Pacific, there really isn’t much you can do about anything!
Well except for snorkel.
So that’s what I did. The saltwater actually helped clean my cuts and it was good to get into the water. The snorkelling off the island is good but not great. The coral was damaged in the 2009 tsunami and still hasn’t fully recovered. Where it has come back, the range of fish was great. But they were all small. Except for two huge Moorish Idols which were spectacular. (Think Gill in Finding Nemo if you are wondering what a Moorish Idol looks like.)
After snorkelling, the sun had come back out and I decided to see if I could find a kayak and try to kayak around the island. I really miss my kayak from home and keep looking for places to kayak here. Eventually I found two kayaks, the origami kind that can be snapped together, and I was keen to try one as I’ve looked at them online and wondered about buying one. We pulled one out and launched it. I’m glad I haven’t bothered to buy one. This one couldn’t track straight and I really had to fight it to keep it going in a straight line. It was fun for mucking around in the lagoon but I think owning one would be frustrating. We all took turns having a go in the kayak which was fun. By three o’clock we all had enough and decided to head back to the mainland. We saw more sea turtles on the return journey.
We ended up going out for dinner at 5pm at a nearby resort and were lucky enough to see two whales from the beach who were passing by. The big day, the poor sleep the night before and the early dinner all took their toll. We were back in our fales getting ready for bed at 7! Once the sun set, none of us could stay awake! And luckily it was a much better night’s sleep!
Monday was rainy so we had a leisurely breakfast by the beach with Gina and Jay before packing up and heading towards Apia. On the way, we stopped at the Seabreeze Resort, a very up market resort that is very much not on a volunteer’s budget! The resort has a fancy restaurant and we stopped for a coffee. We had a good chat with the resort’s new owners who are originally from Adelaide, South Australia. They have a pizza oven at the resort and serve homemade pizzas on Sunday afternoons (and public holidays, it turns out). I asked if they did gluten free pizzas and they said they can, with some warning. So I’ve told them I will ring a couple of days before I head down and put my order in. Mmmm… Woodfired pizza. I’m looking forward to that special treat already!
My body was pretty sore from the stack the previous day so I was glad to get home in the early afternoon and have a hot shower and relax. The bruise on my arm probably tells the story even more than any words.
I am super thankful that my fall wasn’t worse. And I’ve learned my lesson to not hike in thongs. I will definitely go back to Lalomanu though. It’s too beautiful not to.
Now I’m busy planning my next adventure for the next public holiday weekend. I can’t wait!
Believing in Me 
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