Samoan orange

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I came to Samoa in October 2006 to work as a music teacher and Peace Corps volunteer. They gave me a Samoan name, Moli. It means orange.

Samoa is an amazing country, without hunger or homeless, that takes great pride in its culture. In my classes, I've had the opportunity to ask my students what they think the most important thing about being Samoan is, and I've had answers that range from God to family to having fun, but most people say it's the culture. I'm still learning what that means. It's not simply the ceremonies or the legends or being able to husk a coconut in 3 seconds (which they do). It has more to do with community, family, lifestyle, opportunities. I can't try to explain it. I'm not Samoan. I never will be. I stick out like a potato in a fruit salad. But I catch glimpses of it.

Two days ago I was walking down the road in Sinamoga. It was Sunday, so the buses weren't running, and as a volunteer, I don't make enough money to take taxis all the time. A truck stopped to pick me up. This is one thing I love about being in Samoa: people hitchhike all the time. Not only that, if someone picks you up, they will take you miles out of their way to make sure you get there. As we rode to town, I found out that this man who picked me up had worked for 20 years on an American fishing boat in the waters of central America. He's from Savai'i, and because his parents were sick and needed money, he left. For 20 years he worked on the boat and sent money home for his parents.

He's not the only person with that kind of story. I hear teachers getting frustrated because students are leaving school on the verge of graduation because they need to go work to earn money for their families. It happens all the time. The largest source of revenue in Samoa is remittances from overseas. This is the culture I want to know more about: why would a man spend 20 years on a boat far away from all the things he has known and loved so that his parents will be more comfortable? The decisions have more to do with duty and respect than desire for financial gain, regardless of whether or not I can see it. To my mind it seems so selfish that a parent would take his son away from higher education and send him out to earn money just to send it home to him. But I don't know what other things lie beneath the surface of what to me seems such a wasteful decision. Families are so closely linked here that individual property, wishes, or identity are difficult to distinguish. And in that case, what could be more natural than to work long and hard for the good of your family?

I don't have any answers, only two eyes, still too tiny to take in the world yet.

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