So, I know I don’t blog enough. Sorry! There are two majors
reasons I don’t blog more: one is that, at some point, even living on a
tropical island becomes mundane- every day stuff stops being excellent blogging
material and just becomes, well, every day stuff. The other reason is a bit
more complicated: some of the major stuff that we spend time discussing here,
the things that annoy me and frustrate me and drive me crazy, the things that I
DO want to talk about, are the kind of things I can’t (or won’t) blog about. If
you’re curious about the “other side” of paradise (and this is excluding the
lack of all uncanned vegetables, dairy products, bread, and Target), you can
hit me up privately. But, anyway, luckily every once in a while something comes
up that is neither mundane nor frustrating, and this is one of those occasions
(except that this was actually like 2 weeks ago, and for the delay I have no
real excuse except that I’ve been watching a lot of trashy TV lately. Sue me).
This blog post is very long overdue. But it also has lots of
pictures! I think it’s a good trade off, overall!
Friday, March 21st (shortly after hopping off a
boat from Ofu), Jackie and I went to our first Siva! Sivas are Samoan community
events that function as a fundraiser for something (in our case, I’m pretty
certain it was for the church). “Siva” in Samoan means “dance”, which is very
accurate because this is how the fundraiser works. Everyone in the village
turns up in someone’s fale (aka outdoor porch-thing), and as a DJ or band play
music, one family is called up at a time to perform a dance. Each family
chooses a taupo (female “princess”, usually the oldest daughter) to perform the
siva for the family. First, all of the matai (village chief) families go, then
the aumaga (untitled men), and then everyone else. As the taupo dances, people
gather around and literally throw dollar bills (or, as it so happened, $20
bills) at the dancer, and someone collects the money and brings it to the
matais to count. Not only is this a fundraiser, but it’s also a competition!
The family that raises the most money wins (though I have no idea what exactly
they win)! Apparently, our siva raised a whopping $32,000! What?!? All from
money being thrown at dancers?! I don’t get it, but it’s pretty fantastic!
The weekend of the Siva happened to coincide with our
(shortened) spring break, so we had a couple of visitors from Tutuila, one of
them being one of our WorldTeach cohort! We spent a few days hanging out with
them on Ofu and then returned late Friday afternoon, in time to take a break
and ready ourselves for a night of fun! We had some dinner (a sandwich! With
bread! And cheese! And deli turkey! THANKS ALEX!) and a pot of iced coffee
(necessary since we were staying up past 9pm), waited until “after dark” (the
closest approximation to when this thing actually started that we were able to
get- Samoan time, ugh!), and then headed down to the Siva! What followed was an
AWESOME night of dancing, playing with the village kids, and watching the
teenage boys get steadily drunker as the night wore on. In between the taupo
songs, the DJs played dance music and everyone (aka the kids, the drunk
teenagers, and the palagi teachers) had a blast dancing the night away. This is
probably the one time and place in which it is not only appropriate but
actually encouraged to dance with your drunk students… at a church fundraiser…
at the principal’s house. Hm. I have to report that Jackie may or may not have
injured her hip while “getting low” with one of the seniors… God, we’re getting
old!
Like I said, Jackie and I had never been to a Siva before,
but from the testimonials of Alex (who had been in Tutuila) and Matt (who had
stopped by one in Ta’u a few weeks ago), I can pretty safely claim that
Faleasao throws a good party! The festivities ended around 11pm and we stopped
in to the local store for some ice cream before heading home to bed. All in
all, a fantastic night, and an awesome cultural experience I won’t soon forget!
And, to help me remember, PICTURES! Enjoy!
 |
| SO READY TO SIVA!! |
 |
| Cas siva-ing with a high school senior |
 |
| The kids |
 |
| Breaking it down on the dance floor! |
 |
| These kids know how to dance |
 |
| So adorable. |
 |
| More dancing! |
 |
| Awww! |
 |
| The palagis are having a GREAT time! |
 |
| Jackie, me and Cat, all decked out in our Samoa finest (girls are required to dress in puletasis while mean, as you can see, can wear what they want. SO unfair!) |
 |
| The school principal doing her fundraising Siva |
 |
| Look at that attitude! |
 |
| Adorable! |
 |
| Crazies |
Also (and more recently), last Saturday afternoon we had a
really low tide, so I was able to walk out onto the reef from the beach, and
walk all the way to the break! Awesome! The tide had come in a bit by the time
I went to get my camera, but the effect is still pretty cool!
 |
| View from outside my house. You can see the reef poking out above the water. |
 |
| Just casual standing on a coral reef, nbd |
 |
| Looking out at the ocean (Ofu/Olosega are the islands you see at a distance) |
 |
| Looking back to shore |
 |
| So awesome! The water was crystal clear |
 |
| AN EEL! This one made me jump straight out of the water, since I've been terrified of eels since 5th grade. But once I was at a safe distance, it was pretty awesome! |
