Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

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How would you feel if you woke up tomorrow to the news that our beloved islands of Samoa are gone forever?

Think that’s impossible? Think again!  If you haven’t heard or seen reports of islands slowly disappearing into the sea then please watch the clip below.

Disappearing Island

Earlier today an Australian based radio show reported the results of a three year study into the effects of climate change on the Pacific region. The findings are alarming but not all that surprising.  Click on the link below if you’d like to hear the interview.

Pacific Islanders Facing Dramatic Climate Change

What’s causing these climate changes?  Is it a result of global warming or is it a natural phenomena that would have occured anyway even if there was no such thing as global warming?  I think it’s a bit of both.

I have to admit that I don’t usually think about global warming.  Like a lot of people I should be more concerned about global warming but because I neither see nor feel the actual danger I tend not to think about it so much.  As far as I can tell I’m not in imminent danger from the effects of global warming so it’s easy to push it out of my mind.  Al Gore would probably say that I’m out of my mind because we are in imminent danger, we’re just too blind or ignorant to see it and he might be right!

It’s the same thing with living green, I know I should try harder to be a lot more eco-friendly and recycle but it was easier to throw the can of Pepsi I had with my dinner into the trash can.  If the green police is on cyber patrol and reading this then I should mention that I do recyle paper, that counts for something right.  We also traded in our gas guzzlers aka the Ford Expedition and Dodge Ram for smaller and more gas efficient cars and we’ve been paying all our utility bills online for at least three years now so we’re saving trees too.  Gee, I’m doing more to save the planet than I realized, hooray for me!

Ahmm, back to global warming.  As I was saying, this isn’t really something I think about a whole lot but I should.  In fact, we all should especially those of us who live or have loved ones who live on the islands of the Pacific of any other small island for that matter.  Climate changes will affect you no matter where you live but can you imagine how much worse it is for the inhabitants of small island nations?

At least there’s time to prepare according to the research.  The study indicated that the climate changes will be seen and felt in the Pacific region around 2030.  Is anyone paying attention today in Samoa?  How about our other neighbors in the Pacific?

The Aftermath

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Hurricane like winds that at times were raging at over 120mph woke us up around 4am Thursday morning.  Even from the safety and warmth of our home, it was still a frightening sound.  When daylight dawned we went outside to survey the damage and to secure and tie down everything again as the winds were still roaring and whipping.

Now that the winds have dissipated and we’re off from work, it’s time to deal with the aftermath.  Already as I’m sitting here this early in the morning I can hear neighbors electric saws whirring.  We were fortunate because we suffered fairly minor damages;a large portion of our back fence was blown down, part of it was due to our neighbor’s shed blowing over to our side and taking that section of the fence down, one of our big trees was uprooted, and some shingles blown off the roof.

Many other families on our street weren’t so fortunate and have major damages to their property.  However, all of us are extremely grateful that as far as we know no one was hurt or killed not only in our neighborhood but in other parts of the state that was also hit hard. There is always something to be thankful for and we can’t forget that.

So the order of the day today is to repair, recover, and replace and help our neighbors.  The pictures shown here are just a few of the many that were shown during the media coverage of the aftermath.  Have a wonderful Saturday and weekend everyone and remember to hug your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you.

Winds of Change

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The federal deficit that’s now somewhere in the billions if not trillions of dollars hit close to home this week with news that people we care about either lost their positions outright or will have drastically reduced hours.  These changes and cuts are in response to the very real need to reduce the federal debt by reducing the federal civilian workforce. While I understand and agree with the necessity to reduce the federal civilian workforce, it’s impossible to be unmoved when it’s your friends and people you know that are affected.

It’s an understatement to say that this has been a very tough week for a lot of federal civilian employees.  It’s been an extremely hard week for the single 60 year old friend who now has to figure out how to pay her mortgage and other bills plus buy food and basic necessities with a job that went from 40 hours a week to just 20 hours a week.  To add insult to injury she is concerned (and rightly so) that at her age, no one will hire her over a host of other applicants younger and more tech savvy than her.

It’s been a very difficult week for the young mother who now has to decide if she can still afford childcare or try and ask family members to take turns watching her child while she works the 20 hours that she has now and hope that something else will open up for her.

Change is necessary and in the face of such an overwhelming debt, change is imperative and critical.  We need to make drastic changes in the way we do business as a country.  We just can’t afford to be in this much debt to other governments and countries.   The federal civilian workforce does need to be trimmed down, there’s no denying that fact at all.

Change is required for growth and progress. Change is indeed inevitable.  We have to change and adapt if we’re to grow as individuals.  But it’s so hard to say any of the inspirational things we normally say about change to someone whose life is being turned upside down.  How do we say to them that “sometimes in the winds of change we find our true direction” (author unknown) when all they’re focused on right now is how they’ll manage these next few weeks and over the holidays?

No doubt these cuts and changes will benefit “the many” and help to reduce the federal deficit but why does it have to be so painful for “the one” or in this case “the few?”

Never Again…

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Never again will I get up at 3:00am to try and score Black Friday deals.  This was the first year we succumbed to the madness. I should have known better.  I should have known it was just a marketing ploy to get suckers like me out of bed.   We left our house a little after 3:30am and headed first to the BX because their doors opened at 4:00am and not midnight like most other places.  By the time we got there all Black Friday deals including the laptop which was my sole reason for venturing out at such a ridiculous hour were gone.  No good!

Never again will I buy salmon from a discount supermarket.   For Thanksgiving toona’i we made a couple of our favorite Polyneisan dishes since the sister that hosted the toona’i this year made the traditional thanksgiving turkey.  Everything was onolicious except for the salmon.  It tasted bad, I mean really bad.  No good!

Never again will I stay up all night long if I have to work in the morning.   No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t not fall asleep a few nights ago so I ended up staying up all night.  By 11:00am the next day at work, I was ready to bite everyone’s head off, staff and customers alike.  No good!

Never again will I go dancing in a brand new pair of heels.  Hubby and I went dancing Saturday night at a fundraiser event sponsored by some friends.  By the time we got home my size 8.5W Samoan feet were swollen and sore and couldn’t even fit into the same shoes anymore.  No good!

Never again will I say “never ever” again.  Have you ever said ”I’m never ever going to do that” or some other variation of “never ever?”  How about “never ever” taking him/her back again?   Well, I found out today that “never ever” really doesn’t exist when it comes to taking care of our families.  A friend got a pink slip today.  This friend had sworn that she’d never ever go back to a particularly stressful and for her a “hated” job.  It turns out that that’s the only job that’s hiring now and with her experience she’s pretty likely to get it.  With limited options available, she knows that she has no other choice but to go back to this job.  Like all of us, she will do whatever it takes to feed her children so “never ever” is a luxury we can’t afford sometimes.

Count Your Blessings

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Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God hath done
(Excerpt taken from the hymn Count Your Blessings with text by Johnson Oatman Jr and music by Edwin O Excell).

It’s so easy to dwell on the hard things in life, isn’t it.  There are times in our lives when it seems as if no matter where we turn nothing is going right.   Sometimes we might be faced with heartbreaking challenges and loss and still other times when it’s something not quite so traumatic like a bad day at the office or an idiot driver cutting you off.  There’s no shortage of bad things that can happen and does happen at any given time to anyone of us.  I don’t know about you but I know that for me, I can become so immersed in my trials that I fail to recognize everything else that I’m blessed with.  So during this season of thanksgiving I want to be sure that I acknowledge and count my many blessings. 

Here’s my list, see if some of these things are on your list too, and if you have some that are really different I hope you consider sharing them here with us. 

I GIVE THANKS FOR:

  • a healthy body that although far from perfect works extremely well and allows me to live a full and rewarding life
  • good reads, books have been my friends every since I discovered them at a very young age
  • having a job in this economy, the fact that I actually enjoy what I do for a living is a huge bonus
  • a home of our own and being able to provide for our children and every now and then help our extended family
  • hard times because navigating those times made me a stronger woman, a humbler woman, a woman that is grateful for all that I have
  • living where we live today and the opportunity to go to school and pursue our dreams and goals
  • those whose sacrifices ensures all the freedoms that I enjoy including the freedom of speech even if that means speaking out against them
  • being born on the rock and being raised in a culture that taught me to respect my elders, love my family and take pride in my heritage
  • friends that put up with me, listen to me vent, share their lives with me and are always there when I need an extra hand or two
  • new found blogger friends who make me laugh and inspire me with their perspectives on life, my favorites are listed on the sidebar so go ahead and discover these funny and smart women for yourself
  • you, that’s right, I’m thankful that you take the time to read my posts otherwise I’d just be talking to myself and I’m especially grateful when you tell me what you think
  • parents who taught me right from wrong and raised me to believe that I can accomplish anything
  • siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins that support me even when they don’t necessarily agree with me
  • sons that drive me crazy with worry one minute and melt my heart in another with a simple I love you Mom or I’m sorry Mom or a clean room 
  • the love of my life, my best friend and husband for making me feel like the most beautiful woman on the planet, listening to me, respecting me, understanding me like no one else in the world, and especially for loving me

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours.  May we continue to remember and be thankful for all that we’re blessed with!  Hope to ”see” you again after Thanksgiving since most of us will either be traveling, cleaning or cooking the next couple of days.

…the Eye of the Beholder

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One of the challenges facing parents today is the media’s influence on our kids and families.  We’re bombarded with images and messages telling us that this is what “cool” sounds like, this is what “success” feels like, this is what “beauty” looks like. 

All too often these messages are taken as gospel not only by our children and youth but by us, the adults, as well.  When it comes to beauty we’re judged against a standard  popularized and immortalized by magazine publishers and Hollywood movie producers. 

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then why is it that there seems to be only one prevalent ideal of beauty?

Sadly this is also true in Samoa.  While we as Samoans may not be killing ourselves to be thin, we too have our own standards of beauty, don’t we? (I’m seriously generalizing here so if you’re Samoan and this post doesn’t apply to you then I thank you)

As a child growing up in Samoa I often wondered why fair skin was equated with beauty.  Now that I’m an adult (well most of the times I am) I still don’t get it.  Why is it that Samoans think that fair skin is desirable?  I mean I get it BUT I just don’t get it!    A woman or a man for that matter can be plain as heck but if they have fair skin they are considered beautiful in Samoa.

A conversation overheard at the makeki might go something like this 

Fiaola 1 ”Magaia le fui lale.”
Fiaola 2: “E a? Fea?
Fiaola 1: A lale e u mai le kua, pei uma lava o lae fa’akau sa ga fagu sea, magaia le pa’epa’e aulelei mai o si mea.
Fiaola 2: Sole, sa’o, seki a le fui le la.

Translation: Boy 1 nudges boy 2 and points out a girl seen at the market.  Girl’s back is to the boys but they can see that she is fair.  Boy 1 tells Boy 2 that the girl over there is beautiful.  Boy 2 looks over and concurs.

I wish I can explain a conversation like this away as just stupid boys with raging hormones. But those of us who grew up in Samoa or lived in Samoa for any amount of time know that this isn’t true.  We know about the mocking that goes on in villages and communities, even in our own families.  We know about the name-calling.  I wonder about the kids at the receiving end of these taunts.  What does it do to their self-esteem? Is it more damaging when the taunting is done in “good fun” by a trusted family member versus being taunted maliciously by others?  

 I wish also that this was something that we can just sweep under the rug and pretend it isn’t there.   But it is there and I for one am so sick of it. Why is white more beautiful than brown or dark brown or black for that matter?  Why are we as Samoans still perpetuating these attitudes and behaviors?

I’ll never forget the day a few years ago when our youngest son asked me why his skin was a darker shade of brown than his brothers.  I had to sit him down and tell him that his skin was exactly the same shade of brown as his dad and that it was the most beautiful shade of brown on earth.  Our son isn’t growing up in Samoa but if we’re to truly move past skin color then we need to recognize that its an issue that still exists today, even in Samoa.

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then whose eye are we all looking out of?

It Must Be Sunday

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Since it’s Sunday I thought I’d share an original poem about the sights, sounds and smells of Sundays in Samoa as seen through the eyes of a young girl.  I call it one of my “cheeky” poems for reasons that are quite obvious when you read it.  

Rooster crowing, voices grumbling
Water running, feet shuffling
Wake up my mother said
Oh no I said in my head, it must be Sunday

Pots clanging, men mumbling
Coconut scraping, taros baking
Hurry up my mother said
What’s the big deal I said in my head, it’s only Sunday

Whites starched, flipflops scrubbed
Hair braided, face unpainted
Where’s your bible my mother said
On top of the pusa ku I said in my head, where I left it last Sunday

Chickens shrieking, sapasui simmering
People walking, kids gawking
We’re gonna be late my mother said
Good I said in my head, it’s just another Sunday

Choir singing, faife’au preaching
Air stifling, everyone fanning
Stop yawning my mother said
Crap I said in my head, it’s still Sunday

Stomach growling, to’ana’i starting
Family laughing, neighbors talking
Open the pisupo my mother said
My favorite I said in my head, so glad it’s Sunday

Waves crashing, distant rumbling
Quiet laughing, everyone napping
I think it’s going to rain my mother said
Not like we’re going anywhere I said in my head, it is Sunday

If you want to share, use or copy this poem, please make sure you cite it as It Must Be Sunday by A Samoan Woman.

ReDefining Paradise

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Complicating Paradise

“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” Anais Nin

(Click on image to watch Part 1 of interviews from Samoa)
 
 
 What is identity? Who decides our identity?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines identity as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is; the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.”
 
Obviously, this definition speaks specifically to personal identity.  What about cultural identity?
 
Earlier this month our book group got together for our monthly pot-luck and discussion of The Bluest Eye by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.  The group is quite diverse in the sense of ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well as in our ages and interests so there’s a stimulating mix of pespectives during each discussion.
 
If you haven’t had a chance to read this book yet you may want to skip this paragraph.  The Bluest Eye takes place in 1941 and tells the heartbreaking story of a 9 year old black girl.  She is surrounded by poverty, hatred, ridicule and cruelty everywhere she turns even from those closest to her.  At nine years old, she’s known little to no love yet enough suffering to last several lifetimes.  She’s convinced that if she had blue eyes everyone would love her.  This more than anything else in the world is what she yearns for.
 
 
Morrison paints a vivid picture of what happens to a person or a community when they are conditioned to believe others’ perceptions of them.  I don’t want to give the whole story away so you have to read the book yourself if you want to find out how it ends.
 
 (Click on image to watch Part 2 of interviews from Samoa)

Complicating Paradise, pt 2

Identity. Perspective.  Perception. Who decides?   World-renowned Samoan author Albert Wendt wrote, “we must be active participants in changing and forming perceptions of who we are as a people…we can honor traditions and at the same time negotiate new identities as times change.”

 
 I hope you were able to watch the two videos posted here.  They’re parts 1 and 2 of a 4 part interview conducted in Samoa by writer Jane Manchon.  Parts 3 and 4 are also available on youtube.  The interviews explorers the challenge faced by many Samoans and other Pacific Islanders today - maintaining the core of who we are as a people while evolving and adapting to an increasingly westernized world.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Kauaga

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Kauaga –  pronounced kah-wah-gah

A facebook friend’s post today about this being sisters week made me stop to think about the sisterhood that exists among Samoan women.  I have other women friends, good friends that aren’t Samoan, we have a lot in common, I love them, trust them and consider them a part of our family because we’ve shared a lot – from watching each other’s kids to banding together when our husbands deploy.  But there’s something, a connection, a bond that I have with my Samoan sisters.  I know that this bond has a lot to do with our shared heritage, shared traditions and values, and shared memories and nightmares of growing up in Samoa.  Just so you know, Samoan women consider close women friends sisters so if you happen to be  around us you’ll hear us call each other “sis.” This can be very confusing to a casual observer as we also call our female siblings “sis”.

Why kauaga?  Well Ann Brashare’s sisterhood had a pair of magical jeans that traveled from girl to girl but those of us that are part of the Samoan sisterhood have our traveling kauaga.  How many times in Samoa did we hear these words, “fa’amolemole fai mai lo’u kiga pe i ai se kou kauaga se’i kakau ai le makou niu” so we hand the kauaga over and the next thing we know ua kakau mai ai le pe’epe’e a Fai ma Lafai ae o lea e fa’akali aku le fa’alifu a le aiga e oga le kauaga.  Ergo, the kauaga traveled just like the pants.

Ia ga laia, o kakou o le sisterhood o le traveling kauaga.  E maua? Also, just like Brashare’s sisterhood, we the sisterhood of the traveling kauaga aren’t necessarily kin, we share something other than DNA, we share TSA – Teine Samoa Auleleirings (new word for the next edition of the Samoan English dictionary).

So in honor of this being sisters’ week (which I’m now beginning to think my friend totally made up), I’m going to introduce you to the first group of women to be inducted to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Kauaga along with a couple of characteristics that come to mind when I think about them.  These strong and beautiful Samoan women inspire me, annoy me, make me laugh, make me cry, make me stand up and cheer, stand up for me, help me, hurt me, love me, and will go to battle for and with me.  They are my sisterhood of the traveling kauaga, some of them live close by, some of them are oceans away, some of them I’ve known forever, one of them I’ve yet to meet.  If you wonder about some of the negatives listed above you shouldn’t because a true sister will be brutally honest with you even if that’s going to annoy the heck out of you or even hurt you.  A true sister will tell you what you need to hear not just what you want to hear.

Don’t worry sisters, I’m using first names and aliases to protect your identity so you can deny everything later.  So (drum roll please) presenting the Sisterhood of the Traveling Kauaga:

  • Vae – spontaneous and daring
  • Joyce – courageous and faithful
  • Cam - independent and motivated
  • Milla - determined and dauntless
  • Julie – fearless and talented
  • Lotte - loving and well-spoken
  • Bella - funny and inspirational
  • Dine – caring and loyal
  • Cyn - patient and intelligent
  • Lyne -  adventurous and fierce
  • Goddess - witty and smart
  • And then there’s me, the last member of the sisterhood, and me you’ve already met.

This post is dedicated to all the women of Samoa.  We’ve made a lot of strides in the right direction but we still have a lot of work to do to help our people, our families, ourselves!

Legend of the SamoanTattoo

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One of the girls at work was proudly showing off her new tattoo today so of course we started talking about tattoos which in turn led to this post tonight. 

Now there’s already plenty of really good articles available online on the history and the art of the Tatau or Samoan Tattoo so I won’t go into that here.  I recommend Samoan Tattoo and Samoan Tattoo Art by artist Vanaya Taule’alo if you want to learn a little bit more about this traditional art form.  While you’re on her blog I hope you take the time to read her “about me” section as well for her insights as a non-Samoan married to a Samoan and living in Samoa.  Great stuff!  You can also try to get a copy of the Tatau: The Art of the Samoan Tattoo by Chief Sielu Avea.  

The one thing I want to point out is that traditional Samoan tattoo is not worn on the arm like popular trends today.  For men and women, it covers the lower half of the body from about the navel to just below the knee.  Women tatau aren’t as intricate or as detailed as the ones usually worn by men.

Tonight I want to share with you the legend of the tatau.  It also happens to be one of my favorite Samoan legends probably because this particular legend is told in song.

According to the legend the tatau was first introduced to Samoa by twin sisters Taema and Tilafaiga. The twin sisters were returning to Samoa after visiting the daughter of the Tui Manua (King of Manu’a) who now happens to be the wife of the Tui Fiti (King of Fiji).   As the twins prepared for the journey back to Samoa, Tui Fiti gave them the tools used for tattooing as a gift with instructions to tattoo the women NOT the men. 

Now the song says that they swam from Fiji to Samoa carrying the basket containing the tools between them but other versions of the legend tell us that they came in a canoe. The song also tells us that as the sisters swam they sang and the words of the song was the message to tattoo the women NOT the men.  As the sisters neared the village of Falealupo on the island of Savaii they saw a giant clam.  Whether the sisters were afraid of the giant clam or they  wanted to see it or harvest it is not clear from the song but they both dived. When they came back up for air they were a little confused and began to sing that it is the men that are to be tattooed NOT the women. This was the message that reached Samoa and from that day on the tradition of tattooing the men was born.

(These twin sisters figure prominently in other Samoan legends and one of them was the mother of the famous warrior queen Nafanua. Any guesses which one?)  The one thing you have to remember with legends is that there may very well be different versions so if you find another one that tells this particular one a little different, please share it with us.  For now, this is still my favorite version.  Click here to listen to the song if you wish.