Another of my posts (my personal favorite), my musings on poverty in Samoa, can be viewed here.

Coconuts are everywhere. The fiber is used to make string used to decorate traditional handicrafts. The shell is used for cups, bowls and spoons and Samoans use the palm tree leaves as roofing. Although some homes are being converted to European style metal roofs, many traditional homes, called fales, still use palm tree leaves as roofing.

Leaves are also used for cooking. The tender and flexible baby taro leaves are used to make palusami, coconut cream. Also, Samoans use banana and palm leaves to cover their earth ovens. After placing food among hot rocks, these leaves cover the keep the heat in and bake the food inside.

Baskets. These baskets are everywhere. Watch my friend Francis construct an entire basket in a few minutes.

Mats. Women weave the leaves into mats which families then use to sit on, sleep on, or cover their bodies against the flies. There are two types of mats; fine mats and falas. Fine mats are the most expensive and prized Samoan possession. So prized in fact that they aren’t even used to sleep on or sit on. They are only used as celebration gifts for weddings, birthdays and other holidays. These mats are the traditional form of currency and families in a village end up trading them back and forth for special occasions. They are made out of thin strips of leaf.

Falas, the other type of mats are made with thicker leaves and much,much easier to make. As such they are much more abundant in Samoa and used more practically. These are the ones I see lining the floors of the homes every day. They are very inexpensive.

Necklaces for high chiefs ( matais) are made from flowers and leaves. They look pretty regal but actually feel very prickly and uncomfortable against your neck.

I was able to chat at length with one Kiva borrower, Pili, about her experience as a fafafine. Pili knew she was a fafafine when she was five years old. She remembers her father would play music through the radio and let her dance. Although biologically a male, Pili would dance “like a girl.” She started dressing in women’s clothing and

Although Samoans accept fafafines, they do not live without hardship. Not all of growing up was easy. In school, Pili was teased by both guys and girls for not fitting in. But compared to other fafafines Pili was lucky. By her own estimation, Pili was lucky. Other fafafines regularly are entirely outcast from their peers and sometimes verbally and physically abused. Pili is also lucky with her church. Unlike some churches, the pastor lets her come dressed in female clothing.

Pili is a very successful businessperson. She runs a shop along the Cross Island Road, the main road crossing the island of Upolu, and on the weekends works at a like restaurant bar, KokoBananas. In 2005 she gathered a bunch of women from her village together to start their own SPBD center. All the women took out individual loans at the same time. Right now, Pili just received another loan from SPBD for 3000 tala ( around 1200 USD).

First it’s the cats. July is feline mating system so the males go around pining for sexual partners. My landlord owns one cat (a male) as does nearly all our neighbors. Each one whines loudly until it’s satisfied.

Then it’s the dogs. Dogs are almost as abundant as palm trees on the island. Every family has at least two. (My landlord has 3) But for some reason it seems the dogs use the yard outside my room as a fighting ground. Every night there’s two or three scuffles full of barks, whimpers and growls.

Next it’s the geckos. These small lizards not only inhabit every single corner of the island from our kitchen to the bathroom to my bedroom to the SPBD office but they make loud calls that resemble a bird’s chirping. At night when I’m trying to sleep they only seem to get louder.

Around 5 am the church bells (there are two churches within 100 yards of my flat) ring to wake everyone up for daily 6am service. I don’t know anyone that goes but the bells ring nonetheless.

At 6:30 am the roosters start cockadoodling. Like cats and dogs, every family also has a batch of chickens.

Add to these noises 90-100 degree humid weather with no AC and you get a very uncomfortable sleep and a very grumpy Athan every morning.

In other words, I’ve learned the value of coffee.

Too many meals are fried – beef, fish, potatoes, taro, even vegetables. I guess it’s a cheap, quick way to cook food. But I’m tired of vegetable oil. Meat is served with everymeal and as a previous vegetarian, it’s not my preffered main dish. Moreover, the meat is very poor quality, more bones than meat.

Since Samoa is so isolated in the middle of the pacific ocean, it gets a lot of its food as imports from New Zealand and Australia. The imports tend to be poor quality canned goods that New Zealand and Australia don’t want. Canned foods are considered a delicacy in some cases – canned corn beef and canned baked beans.

Luckily, there is one local product that is especially delicious. Samoa makes a fabulous beer, Vailima. Served in abundance, everyone here drinks it way too often.