Saturdays in Samoa

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Senior Missionaries Have Fun on Saturdays

While we were in the Mission Training Center, we were encouraged to work hard on our assignments all week but to have fun on Saturdays. We try to go over to Apia, on the island of Upolu, once a month so we can join the other senior missionaries. It is like a battery being charged to ride the ferry over and socialize with other missionaries doing some of the same things that we do. The first Saturday in October we joined about 10 other couples for a trip back in history by going to Sauniatu. 

We met in the morning and Brett McDonald (a historian for the church) who took us first to a cemetery where early missionaries from the 1800’s are buried.

 He told of a family that came to Samoa on a mission in the late 1800’s and their children died because of a lack of medicine and clean water. Most of those early missionaries that came as couples lost their children and newborns. They sacrificed a lot to bring the gospel to the Samoans. We feel humbled to be one of those missionaries trying to serve these wonderful people. They (the Samoans) were then and are now a pure, loving society that easily grabs hold of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of their customs and traditions follow the teachings of Christ from thousands of years ago so they easily accepted the teachings of the missionaries that came here from many different faiths. All of the islands today are predominately Christian. There is a church of some denomination in almost every village and there are hundreds of villages. The whole island closes everything on Sunday and the roads are filled with people walking to church. It is a wonderful sight to see.

 After the visit to the cemetery, we drove to Sauniatu and on the way we stopped at a family of 11 to visit their fale (fall-ay).  A fale is a house without walls. It is good for the climate as it keeps the family shaded from the sun but allows for winds to blow through it to stay cool. This family lives in a 10x8 fale with nine children. They live off the land and are the poorest (monetarily) people I have ever seen but they are the happiest.

Humble fale

Boiled green bananas

Cooking on open fire

This family cooks in an open cook area, washes in a river and carries their water in a bucket. They are so humble and loveable that it makes what we have in America seem like mansions. Do we really appreciate the prosperity we have and share it or do we get caught up taking care of too many things that we don’t have time to help those in need.

Sauniatu is an area about an hours drive from Apia up in the mountains. The village is tucked in the crater of an extinct volcano. Even though it is only four miles from the coastline road it is very hard to get to because of the bouncy twisting volcanic path that appears to be a giant green tunnel through the lush growth on either side of the road.  It is an area where many of the first members of the church fled and congregated to escape persecution for joining the church and to escape the wars between many of the tribes of Samoa that were going on at that time. 

 

In 1921 David O McKay, one of the Twelve Apostles, rode a horse from Apia to Sauniatu.  Upon arriving there he pronounced an apostolic blessing on the people that they have an abundance of food and clothing that their plantations would be fruitful, and that peace would abide in their hearts and homes. The saints built a fale to commemorate his visit.

Inside McKay Fale

The Europeans not only brought the Bible and Christianity, but they also brought deadly diseases. There is a huge cemetery there where most of the village was buried during a deadly flu epidemic that killed about two thirds of the population in the early years.

There is a farm there where the church leaders teach agriculture and lessons on how to get the most from their land so the members can be self-reliant. There are a few homes and a small Primary School there just like there is in Vaiola.

 

In the afternoon, we were treated to a traditional Umu. (oo moo) We learned how to grate coconut and squeeze the milk, take tender taro leaves, add the coconut milk, wrap it in older leaves and cook it in the fire. We helped put hot rocks in a #2 pig (refers to size) and how to cook it on the fire.

# 2 pig ready for cooking

Grating the skin off Taro with a can cut in two

Grating coconut meat that will be squeezed for coconut milk

Putting coconut milk with tender Taro leaves to be cooked in the fire

Putting hot rocks inside the pig. Pig is then covered in hot rocks and cooked in a pit.

 We then ate everything we cooked. Actually it was pretty good. They also served fresh water shrimp and sang to us during dinner.

Baked Taro and other foods

Fresh water shrimp

There are a lot of fresh water caves and waterfalls to swim in in Samoa. After the Umu, some of the braver senior missionaries went to the waterfall and went swimming. I made it in but the climb out was tough. The water was warm and after a hot day felt wonderful. Here are a few pictures of us having fun on a Saturday!!