September 17, 2012

Well today is our 39th Wedding Anniversary.  My how time flies.  We have had 39 wonderful years together.  Some ups and some downs but mostly great memories and experiences.

We didn't post last week because we took a little trip over to American Samoa while school was out.  We will post all about that later on in the week.

Today we are going to talk about the Teuila Festival here in Apia and our Senior Day at Sauniatu.

From September 3rd until September 8th they had a big Festival here in Apia called the Teuila Festival. They have long boat races which are called Fautasi races. They are interesting to watch. They have booths set up down by the harbor and they do demonstrations all week long. They have people showing how they learn how to do the fire dance, carving, weaving to name a few. It was fun learning a little more about the Samoan culture. They had programs every evening where people sang native songs and performed native dances. They had comedians and fire dancers perform. They also had the Miss Samoan pagaent and even a big rock concert. This is a big festival they do every year and people come in from all over to be here. Our favorites were the Fautasi races and watching the carvers.  The picture on the left is Nada walking on the wall that goes all around the harbor and getting a place to watch the race.  The picture on the right are the long boats lining up to begin the race.  The next picture is the patrol boat out in the harbor to keep the way clear.  The water was a little rough this morning and they had patrol boats following them and keeping the path clear from any other boats.

 Reed and I think this might be entire Samoan Navy!

 This group of men are the carvers.  They are making Kava bowls, serving trays and weapons.  They do most of the work by hand.  They are carving, cutting, etching, sanding and planing all by hand.  They did cut the big pieces of wood with a chain saw until it was manageable enough to use a hand saw.  It was very fun to watch.

This wood is called Ifilele and is very hard.  This tool he is using is called an Adze.  They use it to chisel out the wood until they get to the beautiful pattern in the wood and the shape they want and then they do the fine work.  Here he is making a Kava Bowl.  Reed said he has to get him one of these tools because his little carving tools are really hard to use on the hard, hard wood.

On Saturday September 8th we had a Senior Missionary church history tour.  We had the Church Historian, Brett McDonald, here in Samoa take us on a tour.  We first went to the Fagalii cemetary where some of the first missionaries who served here are buried.  This little village is also where the first mission home was located.  It was later moved to Apia where the Temple is.

From left to right, Sister Spencer, Sister and Brother Partridge the office couple, Sister Harker whose husband is off in the distance in the red shirt.  They are the MLS couple.  Sister Moaga who is a Temple worker.  Elder Fife and his wife who are Temple workers.  Elder and Sister Budgett who are the other ITEP couple that came out with us and live on Savai'i.

 Elder and Sister Osborne who are the TVET traveling couple, Sister Fife, Sister Gertsch and her husband, who is teaching a class, are the CES missionaries, President and Sister Pauga who is in the Temple Presidency and Brett McDonald the Church Historian here in Samoa.

These three graves are all of children that belonged to the first Mission President and died here.

 This is the home of a member named   .  They were gracious enough to let us visit and experience an actual working fale.  They are an active family trying to survive.  They have 9 children and he works the land trying to make ends meet.  The stake is helping them build their new bigger fale (house) on the left and teaching them how to use their land better.  As you can see, their land is covered in lava rock.  They grow bananas, papayas and coconuts and what they don't eat they try to sell for money to buy other things.  They are trying to grow some tomatoes, taro, green beans and eggplant to supplement their diet and have a little extra to sell.  Very humble and kind people. 

 This is Brother who lives here on the left and Francis Leung Wo who works on the farm at Sauniatu. Francis is in the Stake Presidency up at Sauniatu and works on the farm there. His wife is the librarian at the Primary School up at Sauniatu and attends our classes we teach.  He is also in charge of the Umu they are fixing for our lunch today.

 This is the families youngest son and their kitchen.  This is how they cook all their meals and they have a pitcher and a small bowl that they use for washing hands and cooking.  The roof of this cooking kitchen is tin and no walls.

This is their fale (home).  There are no walls, the roof is made of tarps with palm fronds and there is no furniture.  They put woven grass mats on the floor with a blanket for a cover to sleep.  They wash their clothes in a bucket and hang them on a piece of rope to dry. 

 This is Nada talking to their 16 year-old- daughter.  She helps her Mom and Dad work in the garden and with whatever they need her to do.  She speaks English quite well which she has learned in school.  Her Mom speaks English okay but the Dad not so much.  This is sugar cane on the left they are trying to grow.  They are really trying to be self-sufficient.

 We are on the farm at Sauniatu.  They are cooking an Umu for us.  This is where they heat up rocks like we would do charcoal.  When the rocks get hot enough they put the food wrapped up in banana leaves among the rocks and bury them and then cover them with more banana leaves.  They grew a lot of the food right there and they are preparing it out in this little fale.  Reed is peeling a taro root.  He is using a cut off tin can.  They peeled all those taro that way and then cut off the ends with a bush knife.

They are growing pineapple up at Sauniatu on their farm.  They are trying different ways of growing things and then teaching the members how they can grow their own food by using local resources.  They grow papayas, mangoes, coconuts, cocoa beans, taro, corn, cabbage, watercress, bananas and sweet potatoes.  It is very interesting.

 This is Elder Mariner who is over the Missonary housing and vehicles.  Francis watching over things and Elder Partridge shredding coconut.  They said it was quite hard.  They are going to squeeze it to get the milk out and use it with the young taro leaves it is called palu sami.  It tastes like cooked spinach with a little sweetness.  We like it a lot.

 This is President Pauga showing Reed how to husk a coconut.  They use a sharp stick stuck in the ground and then you hit it hard in the right place on the stick and then peel the husk off to get to the coconut inside.  Then you have to crack open the hard coconut and shred it.

They are getting the little pig ready to cook.  He kept stuffing hot rocks into his belly and mouth and then stuffed taro leaves in behind them so he cooked from the inside and the outside at the same time.  It was interesting to watch.

 This is Francis, Sister Osborne and Sister Harker learning how to wrap up the young taro leaves and put the coconut milk in the center and fold it together then wrap it in a banana leaf so it doesn't burn. This is the palu sami and very good.

 We are all sitting under a fale by the David O Mckay fale where we are going to eat.  We are learning more about the history of Sauniatu and the people who first came here and settled.

This is the cemetary up at Sauniatu.  There are some very old graves up here.  These are early settlers of the the Village of Sauniatu and some of the children of Mission Presidents who served in Samoa.

 This is the bust of David O McKay in the fale up at Sauniatu.  They love and honor him.  He was a real blessing to them and loved the people.  This was carved by a man named Sven.  He was not a member and he had leprosy and was cured.

 Reed is taking pictures from the pond under the waterfall.  Some people went swimming, some of us didn't.  This is Elder Budgett, Sister Hanson the Mission Nurse, Sister Osborne and Nada.

This is Sister Budgett, Elder Harker and Sister Roth who is married to the Dentist doing service here and she is a hygienist. They are some who wanted to swim and cool off.

 

 

 Reed is at the top of the ladder and Elder Osborne is at the bottom trying to help Sister Roth climb out.  It was a big step from the rock to the first rung of the ladder.  They all enjoyed cooling off after the hot day.  Some of them decided to brave the waterfall.  It was running pretty fast because it had rained during the night and morning.

 This was a wonderful day.  We learned a lot about the early and current church members in Samoa.  There is a lot of history here.  We are enjoying learning more about the Samoan culture and learning a little bit more of the language each week.  We know the gospel is true no matter where you go and there are wonderful, faithful saints trying to do what is right everywhere.  We love you.  Le aso and alofa  Elder and Sister Spencer.