Tag Archives: Upolu

Pride and Acceptance

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Yes, the whole question of white vs. black (and all other shades in between) is still alive and well. Do I experience it? Absolutely! Maybe not every day but enough so that it’s something that you need to deal with. Its enough of a concern so that when we found out where we were moving I emailed some contacts and friends (from graduate school days) I had in the area and asked about the diversity of the city. My high schooler and I went to the open house at his school just before school started and the first thing he noticed was that he was the only brown kid there. Not technically true, since I’ve seen one other brown kid there but you get the picture.

So how do I deal with it? By acknowledging that it does exist, accepting it, and dealing with it as it comes up. Sometimes I think I deal with it well, sometimes I totally lose my cool, but most times I think I handle it okay. Of course, like every other parent, I’m sure we all wish that our kids didn’t have to deal with this garbage but unfortunately our country is a long long way from there. So we deal with it as best we can – we teach our kids to be proud of who they are, that they come from a noble heritage, that they are every bit as smart and capable as the next kid whatever color they are. I also tell them that if they ever come across it, say a kid that thinks they are better than them to not waste their time with them because they do not deserve their time and friendship.

Will we ever get to the point where we are really and truly color blind? I doubt it at least not in my lifetime – what a pity! Why am I bringing this up now? Because I sometimes just get really fed up with narrow minded people who think that just because they are a certain color they are better and more deserving than someone else. O taimi fa’apea e vave lava le oso mai ole tiapolo. Ia ae ku’u ai pea ia, lava pea le onosa’i aua e maimau lava le kaimi i vale fa’apea, aea. Well, I really don’t want to generalize as its not everyone but that 20% who feel that way and look down their noses at others because they are different is a large enough number to bother me a whole lot.

To be completely honest and fair we do it too, don’t we?  People from Tutuila have their snide remarks about people from the “moku” and then people from Upolu think that they are better than their cousins from Savaii.  Yeah, we may think its all in good fun,  we’re just joking around, but are we really?  Deep down, don’t we feel just a little superior just because we happened to be born somewhere?  Aren’t we secretly glad that we weren’t born there?  Is that our one claim to fame?  Where we were born?  If that is the case I feel sorry for you sister or you brother.  If you’re going to feel that you are better than someone else, at least feel that way because of something that you have accomplished, something that you’ve earned.  You had nothing at all to do with where you were born, just the luck of the draw.  Oh, and the thing that really makes me laugh is that the people who make fun of their fellow Samoans from the “moku” or from “Savaii” have at least a parent or a grandparent from that island.  Isn’t that a hoot? 

Didn’t someone write a song about this?  Tiama’a, Malia and Alapati? It was an old time Samoan group but I can’t think of the name right now.   Anyway, why can’t we all just get along (ha, ha).  Now I sound like a cheap commerical.  Perhaps, there is no hope for our generation, but we can teach our kids.   We can do what we can so that the next generation can do a better job of accepting people instead of judging them based on color, birth country, or anything else.

I ga ve’a (hide and seek)

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I have such fond memories of growing up in Upolu and Savaii.  One of my fondest memories is playing i ga ve’a as a young girl.   Those days we didn’t have TVs or stereos or any of the other toys that young people take for granted nowadays.   We didn’t even have round-the-clock electricity.  Our village had a generator that powered all of the houses in the village which was turned on only at night, and then only for a few hours.  If I remember correctly it was always shut off by 9p.m. 

In the evenings after family meals the parents would normally gather in the malae to sit and talk and drink koko samoa.  It was around this time that we would start to play i ga ve’a.  The best part of i ga ve’a is that it seemed as if everyone played (except the parents of course).   So kids, older teens, young adults – everyone got into it.  Of course, ai lava ga iai isi vaega sa e ese lava lakou i ga ve’a sa fai, but I wouldn’t know.  I was only a kid then, 10 or around there.

I remember being scared out of my head – with the lights out the village was pitch black and my imagination was running wild imagining all kinds of aiku getting ready to grab me.   There were so many hiding spots to choose from, the ko ga fa’i, the pa povi, the faleuila (yes, we only had outhouses in those days too).  It was awesome.  I remember one particular night someone actually stumbled across a man who had been “lost” for a couple of years.  One of our group had gone into a family’s faleuila to hide, imagine his surprise when he opened the door and found a man sitting there.  Apparently this man was taken by aiku two years earlier.  We guessed that he probably comes down at night sometimes to forage for food etc.   Upon further investigation the next day, it was discovered that he was originally from a distant village and he was delivered there the next day.

I haven’t thought about i ga ve’a for a long time but when we were visiting my college son he told us that they play i ga ve’a at least twice a week.  Now you have to understand that my son’s school is out in the boonies, there is nothing there (which was all part of my grand plan).  There are about 7 Samoans and about the same number of Tongans in that school and apparently one of them knew about i ga ve’a and got all the others to play.  Listening to him talk about how much fun they have I am reminded of this favorite playtime from a lifetime ago and I’m glad that a new generation has rediscovered the magic of i ga ve’a.