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Bike Riding

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This week my son’s class had their bikewise session. It’s a program that most schools do these days - kids learn about road safety by riding bikes around and completing set exercises where they have to put road signs and signals into practice. As my son excitedly recollected his experience my mind turned to my own bike riding experiences. I road my bike a lot on my mission as a young adult in my early 20’s. Especially around the Elizabeth/Paralowie area. Some of my companions couldn’t ride a bike and had to learn on the mission but as far back as I can remember, I always had a bike. And like they say it’s a skill you never forget. Once you can ride a bike you’ll always be able to ride one.   I started with a trike that had a tray so I could take passengers for a ride. I then graduated to a “grown up bike” when I was about 6. I never had training wheels. My parents bought the bike with training wheels but my Dad took them off saying that if I used the training wheels I’d ...
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A ga a'o a'i gi maile o sili (Would have been better to teach dogs)

I was speaking to a couple of friends after a church activity on Saturday. One has Filipina heritage and the other Korean. They both will be visiting their homelands at the end of the year and were both voicing their frustrations about their quests to lose weight. Their reason for doing this now was the same "because people back home are blunt and will tell you as a greeting that you're so fat!" I giggled as I listened reflecting on how Samoans are exactly the same. And relatives of any generation will embrace you on arrival regardless of whether or not they've met you before and say as loudly as possibly "Oh my! How fat you are (perhaps distant cousins of the big bad wolf... hehehe!) :) As a young girl just entering puberty I was horrified when one of my aunts almost suffocated me as she hugged me and went on and on about how HUGE I was and oh your legs and cheeks and arms were all so chubby. Mind you - this is when I was 17 and a size 12 Australian. My p...
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O le tulafono e lima (The 5th Commandment) ...

Sad news last night as I spoke with my parents and they told me of the passing of another elder in our Community. As I spoke with them about the truth of our mortality and encouraged them to look after themselves, inviting them to be healthier my father said something interesting. He said with all seriousness that he would live to see his 80’s because he had been obedient to his parents and had been a good son.   When Christianity finally arrived in Samoa, the Samoan’s embraced it whole -heartedly. So much so, that the Samoan coat of arms says “ Faavae i le Atua Samoa” “Samoa is founded on God” Or “Our Foundation is God.” In the evenings, visitors to Samoa are pleasantly surprised when passing by villages to hear the sweet melodies that flow from house to house as families wind down and give praises to God and thanks for the days blessings and further water seeds of faith planted from birth. The old adage that children are seen but not heard is true in Samoa. They lea...
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My Dad, His Dad

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One of the fears a migrant parent must have, is whether their child will receive the same positives, same influential experiences and ultimately cultural findings or conclusions in life that they did. Regardless of class, there are blessings of identity, family and national pride - that most gain through daily existence in any country…. These are held deep and a desire for offspring to adopt these values and ultimately ideals surely cause distress.   I imagine there would be a lot of angst experienced that these children may not understand or share these same beliefs if they are important to you… cause ultimately it also may mean that your children won’t understand you.   Growing up in a mixed racial community where Western ideals are the norm, it is easy to mistake these traditions and beliefs as your own. Chatter about boyfriends and girlfriends, parties, pocket money, the tooth fairy, debutants, debating with parents, teenage sex, abortion and leaving home at 18 w...
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Ole uo mo aso uma, a o le uso mo aso vale xx

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I imagine back in the 70's .... leaving Samoa in your early 20s, having never been overseas, let alone another island would be a mammoth undertaking. I can only guess at the feelings that would have swept over my father as he heard his parents' decision to send him abroad. Having given up school at age 8 to cultivate and care for his family's plantation, so his ailing father wouldn't have to-: wake up at dawn, walk at least 5kms inland (many times without shoes) and then labour at length as the sun reached its peak with blunt tools and cracked palms, clearing land, pruning, grafting, weeding and labouring with all his might to produce a crop worthy of consumption. Then making the long trek back but this time with a load of coconuts, or taros, or bananas or whatever was to make the meal for that day… sometimes all of those things together… and not sometimes but every day. His family and village recognised he was a hardworker (and continues to be). His family...
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