Talofa from Samoa! We arrived in Samoa at about 5:00 a.m. local time on October 21. The Air New Zealand flight was very comfortable. Every seat had lots of choice for movies, television shows, video games, music,whatever you felt like. (I watched a really cool documentary called Around the World in 80 Trades. A guy from the UK travelled around the world buying and selling anything he thought he could make money on.) The airline fed us supper at midnight, real food with wine and tea then they had quiet time for about four hours and then fed us a hot breakfast!
We were pretty tired that day but our hosts at Livingstone’s Accommodations got us into our room as soon as we got there. The people in Samoa are really very nice and friendly. Most speak English but the ones who speak it best are either university students or people who have lived elsewhere. Older people and very young children don’t seem to speak English. One of the nieces (named Eta) told me it is mandatory in school. The owner of Livinstone’s, Filifilia (Filia) lived in Australia for 20 years before returning to Samoa so her accent is Australian. Her husband, Poi, is in Australia this week and will be back Thursday. Filia told me that she met Poi while living in Australia. Everyone at the motel is related to the owners (brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc.) They call us for breakfast every morning at about 7:00 a.m. (the kids don’t have too much trouble with that since we go to bed by 9:00 or so because it’s dark by 6:30.) It’s very quiet here. The only noises we hear at the motel are roosters (starts at about 3 a.m. and goes all day), muffled music sounds coming from other guest rooms or other homes in the neighbourhood, and the odd car driving by or into the gravel driveway. During the night we also hear dogs barking. There are quite a few dogs roaming around here. During the day they hang around their yards but at night they seem to roam around scavenging and barking at each other. Sarah wonders why they don’t eat the chickens that are wandering around every yard.
We were pretty tired that day but our hosts at Livingstone’s Accommodations got us into our room as soon as we got there. The people in Samoa are really very nice and friendly. Most speak English but the ones who speak it best are either university students or people who have lived elsewhere. Older people and very young children don’t seem to speak English. One of the nieces (named Eta) told me it is mandatory in school. The owner of Livinstone’s, Filifilia (Filia) lived in Australia for 20 years before returning to Samoa so her accent is Australian. Her husband, Poi, is in Australia this week and will be back Thursday. Filia told me that she met Poi while living in Australia. Everyone at the motel is related to the owners (brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, etc.) They call us for breakfast every morning at about 7:00 a.m. (the kids don’t have too much trouble with that since we go to bed by 9:00 or so because it’s dark by 6:30.) It’s very quiet here. The only noises we hear at the motel are roosters (starts at about 3 a.m. and goes all day), muffled music sounds coming from other guest rooms or other homes in the neighbourhood, and the odd car driving by or into the gravel driveway. During the night we also hear dogs barking. There are quite a few dogs roaming around here. During the day they hang around their yards but at night they seem to roam around scavenging and barking at each other. Sarah wonders why they don’t eat the chickens that are wandering around every yard.
We are staying right in the main city of Apia for our first two weeks. It is small enough to walk around but in the heat of the day that isn’t always fun. A taxi ride from the hotel to downtown is $5WST or Tala (around$2.50 CDN). Taxis are everywhere and the locals use them a great deal. The cost of living here seems quite high – I passed up a box of Oreos because they were $19WST. We are close to the harbour so can walk to the ocean but there is no good swimming beach here. Our beach week will be when we get to the other island of Savaii.
So far we have toured around the island a bit with one of Livingstone’s drivers (Pio – not sure if I’m spelling it right, pronounced Pee-oh.) We saw the damage from September’s tsunami on the south side of the island, swam in a cave pool, went snorkelling and have walked several places such as the flea market, and yes even McDonalds which looks out of place in the middle of downtown.
Cheers for now. Time to go to the “sliding rock” – a natural water slide the tumbles into a natural spring.
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