Or should I name more appropriately, "a" Big fat Samoan wedding cos it wasn't mines...it was a relies. But I call it mines because I felt like I planned it ...or at least tried to....
So, most of you who know me know I am currently residing in the lovely wop wops we so lovingly call paradise (bush) , AKA, Sakalafai, ,Hawaii, the big island...you choose.It don't matter, its my home and I'm here and it aint that bad despite my sarcasm at times about the bush. A wedding on the big island, for a resident of the big island, of course it not to ever be expected to be anything but Big. Big island, big wedding for big people..its simple logic right??? Anyways, so we just had one of those. At our lovely little hotel/motel. 3 days later I'm still trying to get used to walking again , on my feet, and keeping moi eyes open.
I think it turned out aiiight too. Its hard to know when you are planning and decorating and cooking and bar-ing and security-ing and shooing and greeting and all of the above. It all kind of ends up merging into this one great big bouncing ball of white ribbons and flowers and food and people and you just don't know. But everyone says it was great, who mattered, so that's all that matters really.
the highlights were
-my daughter being da most beautiful (and yes she knew it , such a little actress beaming from her Golden dress and shoes!) flower girl!
-da bridesmaid arriving on a paopao from the oceanfront
- the string band playing on the lawn to greet her and a soga'imiti'd male carried her from da boat to da shore
-da grooms siva coz their are so many pe'as in our family it was a tattoo show and not a siva, even the malus got up and did their stuff...it was o for awesome:)
-da food
-the dancing
-da grooms fathers speech spilling all the beans re:what the bride has to look forward to !(or not!)
-da brides grandfather doing an acapella number on the microphone after a few wines perhaps??
-da food
did I mention the food??hehe
And da lowlights-
well to begin with invitations were still being delivered the morning of the wedding!surprise surprise.
- far too many uninvited showed...from da village, from da matai system, some I don't even know where from
-those particular people almost gave me an aneurysm because they abused our bar which is nothing new. And any stern frowns from us (the providers the servers the forker-outers) were met with laughs of " o kakou e maua loa le avagoa alu loa le akoa le mea!!" (these men were ordering 6 beers each at a time, and stocking them under their table, and passing them around to the back of the building to other crashers who hadn't ventured as far as 'inside' the building.
-people also took our cutlery, our proper expensive plates we were serving the buffet with, home....(!) you dont have to think twice who, but seriously- who does that????some even had the nerve to come up to ME and demand i 'foil' their plate (my glass plate) so they could go home....ahh, if only they could read my mind, it'd be like spitballs of fire hurling their way, so we rescued a few plates, and lost a few dozens...
they also took the woven placemats I had decorating the tables with,
and the bamboo baskets (my bamboo baskets from overseas, good stuff not cheap woven stuff, varnished and everything) home as well...I mean, WHAT THE???
and whole bottles of unopened champagne (uhm meant for the toasts people not your bags!!)
There were infact little party favor gifts on the tables at every seat, but apparently, everything at a big fat Samoan wedding, on the table bar the tablecloth (surprised they didn't take those too) is a party favor!!
So i lost my temper for an hour or two over that but what for? it wasnt going to bring anything back so I shove my losses (one of many) down the toilet and carry on.
what else
the guests arrived to the reception earlier then expected (obviously those who skipped the mass) creating a mad rush of finishing the tables off (snacks and toasting wine werent out) and beer and wine ran out in two sniffs because we had only just started carting the stuff from the storeroom fridge 100mtrs away when they arrived. The reserved seats got filled with the unreserved (vasti) people making for very uncomfortable servers having to (shoo) escort them elsewhere, the MC ended up 4th in line to the microphone..1st,2nd and 3rd got taken over by locals:)
The village youth do not understand the words "go away" and get lost because we kept having to chase them away from the parking lot, and take beer they had somehow got their hands on, off them, only to have them reappear 5 mins later like flies ... if only i were a big muscely man i would have done more then just shoo because they were very cheeky always yelling back "fine! we are leaving now!" in Samoan everytime we did so.
Da dj was an hour and a half late,and came in da shirt he looked like he had been working on his ma'umaga in...
The person we allocated to gaurd the crates of beer outside was caught redhanded drinking and giving away beer to da village!
When the buffet started and all the staff were out serving the line, food was seen being carted out the back door of our kitchen (!) up to now we still dont know how and who!!! dang it...
what I have learnt from this occassion for my book of knowledge regarding future big fat samoan weddings?
-next time all the plates are plastic
-have the wedding during the day so you can see everything- people around the beer outside, plates going out your back door...the darkness does nothing for you and lots for da village
-plastic bowls on tables for snacks
-no fancy placemats or other decorations, lava a palugi pau ga
-prep talk your waiters over which tables to control (ignore) like the ones outside that wernt supposed to be there in the first place, maybe limit 1 vailima per person at a time:) maybe get muscely guys only to serve as well
-count your plates so you know exactly how many people came (we used all our cutlery, plus had to re-wash the ones we collected back from people who had already eaten and re-use.Also , then you'll know how many were taken (stolen) we had 170 chairs and they all got taken,with people standing about chairless..so have no idea how many actually came (this was meant to be a small wedding )
-plenty hands make light work but trust those hands, cause some of those hands actually handed out stuff to friends neighbours etc...
close da bar after so many (4-5) hours, just do it and tell everyone they have to pay after that, good way to break up the crowd
-send da bill to Santa at the north pole when its all done:)
-buy dye for the grey haired effect that is bound to sprout after such an occassion
...dats about all I can think of for now.
can you believe, we have another one of these to look forward to this weekend?? yes, 2 big fat samoan weddings in a row!our relies trying to kill two birds with one stone!! if anything this first one was a good practice run so by this weekend we should all be proffessional at handling the jandal of a big Samoan wedding!!
mm, das all for now, gonna get some shut eye!
Monday, June 07, 2010
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
last few days
In the last few days, my belly has expanded even further thanks to the little she or he (still dont know) who is growing a mile a minute in there:)
I have hunted the whole of Savaii up and down for Root beer (craving ) There are only 1 or 2 stores on the entire island that have a decent variety sporadically throughout the year, and they are all out of root beer, they did however have apple flavoured fizzy tea from somewhere in Kansas or something....something different for a change I guess!!
I have been holding interviews for new staff at the hotel cos just when we thought we had trained our current lot to the point of dependability and reliability, number ones family relocated to Apia (sorry I have to go) number 2 is on indefinite maternity leave (kinda saw that coming) and number 3s mother is "very ill" overseas and has to leave immediately...leaving me with nada in the restaurant this week
( heres me hoping that business remains quiet for once otherwise I am the cook the receptionist the waitress hahahaha how terrible would that look ! (just while the hubby is In Apia - today- back tonight)) Anyways, so interviews are always entertaining if anything (I know, thats almost mean but seriously you should come try it)
So the ad said , vacancy for a person to work in a hotel , duties bla bla, you must be 21-35yrs, you must speak good english, past experience a bonus but not absolute, you must be able to work weekend and evening shifts.
So interview-ee number 1) can you answer this question in english "what time does you church start and is it ok for me to come to the service??"- reply- blank stare
again ök , what time does church start- reply - blank stare
ok- then an admission that they cant speak english. 70% of our interview-ees did this, they can speak some but they are sooo terribly shy and afraid and embarressed re- broken english (which really is not an abosolute problem, as long as you can give one word answers and appear helpful you are ok)but its like they can even try, i try to encourage them to attempt because its not as hard as they think, but again, blank stare, I can just see a guest asking a question to one of our staff and they get the locked up wide eyed frozen stare reply, nice, welcome to Savaii!
interview-ee number 2- can you work weekend shifts- well actually no laga o aú le lead singer number 1 i le makou aufaipese i le loku....ok
number 3- had his mother phone, she said her son was 21yrs old spoke good english was an outgoing person who would be an asset to our business- was slightly annoyed with the mum ringing to apply but claims her son was somewhere else and had no credit when he heard the ad so 'please call me-d"his mum to please ring us from her phone and secure an interview. Person that showed up was a 45yr old fafafine who upon questioning in english "how do I catch a bus into town" went "BUS?!....ahhhhhh"and then started shaking nervously while frozen and wideeyed for 10 minutes (really uncomfortable) and then cried
i mean seriously, its like no one heard the requirements asked for in the ad, age, english, etc.... one girl who spoke no english ( or so she claimed) never had a job before, looked presentable enough, when asked what sort of work she would think suited her at our hotel (ie cleaning, serving etc) answered, in Samoan, "well actually I dont know if anything would because I am 3 months pregnant"....What the????? so are you applying for a job or what?? sounds to me like you are saying you cant work but you are here????ehhhhh, anyways, people here seriously need some advice on how to apply for a job. most people think that because they rang, they 'got'the job. then when they get here and get interviewed and asked about how they would contribute to the business, all say, i really need money so just give me anything to do ....thats it. shaminbadash.
anyways, we've chosen 2 of the lot and much to their dismay and doing training today (they look like nervous kids sitting exams) but so far all going good.
thought i would share my 2 cents for the day from my rural location!!
just another day in paradise!
I have hunted the whole of Savaii up and down for Root beer (craving ) There are only 1 or 2 stores on the entire island that have a decent variety sporadically throughout the year, and they are all out of root beer, they did however have apple flavoured fizzy tea from somewhere in Kansas or something....something different for a change I guess!!
I have been holding interviews for new staff at the hotel cos just when we thought we had trained our current lot to the point of dependability and reliability, number ones family relocated to Apia (sorry I have to go) number 2 is on indefinite maternity leave (kinda saw that coming) and number 3s mother is "very ill" overseas and has to leave immediately...leaving me with nada in the restaurant this week
( heres me hoping that business remains quiet for once otherwise I am the cook the receptionist the waitress hahahaha how terrible would that look ! (just while the hubby is In Apia - today- back tonight)) Anyways, so interviews are always entertaining if anything (I know, thats almost mean but seriously you should come try it)
So the ad said , vacancy for a person to work in a hotel , duties bla bla, you must be 21-35yrs, you must speak good english, past experience a bonus but not absolute, you must be able to work weekend and evening shifts.
So interview-ee number 1) can you answer this question in english "what time does you church start and is it ok for me to come to the service??"- reply- blank stare
again ök , what time does church start- reply - blank stare
ok- then an admission that they cant speak english. 70% of our interview-ees did this, they can speak some but they are sooo terribly shy and afraid and embarressed re- broken english (which really is not an abosolute problem, as long as you can give one word answers and appear helpful you are ok)but its like they can even try, i try to encourage them to attempt because its not as hard as they think, but again, blank stare, I can just see a guest asking a question to one of our staff and they get the locked up wide eyed frozen stare reply, nice, welcome to Savaii!
interview-ee number 2- can you work weekend shifts- well actually no laga o aú le lead singer number 1 i le makou aufaipese i le loku....ok
number 3- had his mother phone, she said her son was 21yrs old spoke good english was an outgoing person who would be an asset to our business- was slightly annoyed with the mum ringing to apply but claims her son was somewhere else and had no credit when he heard the ad so 'please call me-d"his mum to please ring us from her phone and secure an interview. Person that showed up was a 45yr old fafafine who upon questioning in english "how do I catch a bus into town" went "BUS?!....ahhhhhh"and then started shaking nervously while frozen and wideeyed for 10 minutes (really uncomfortable) and then cried
i mean seriously, its like no one heard the requirements asked for in the ad, age, english, etc.... one girl who spoke no english ( or so she claimed) never had a job before, looked presentable enough, when asked what sort of work she would think suited her at our hotel (ie cleaning, serving etc) answered, in Samoan, "well actually I dont know if anything would because I am 3 months pregnant"....What the????? so are you applying for a job or what?? sounds to me like you are saying you cant work but you are here????ehhhhh, anyways, people here seriously need some advice on how to apply for a job. most people think that because they rang, they 'got'the job. then when they get here and get interviewed and asked about how they would contribute to the business, all say, i really need money so just give me anything to do ....thats it. shaminbadash.
anyways, we've chosen 2 of the lot and much to their dismay and doing training today (they look like nervous kids sitting exams) but so far all going good.
thought i would share my 2 cents for the day from my rural location!!
just another day in paradise!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
going insane...lol
Hallllooooo everybody! Yes I know, I haven’t blogged in yonks...funny, because I used to work a very busy hectic 9-5 job which I thought wasn’t a 9-5 job because I took all my work home and stressed about it and tossed and turned in bed about it...but I had time to blog so that must say something about “those “days...now, if I’m on the computer its pretty much work related, apart from maybe a 10 minute sneak peak at the oh so faikakala world of facebook! (That keeps me sane when you live in the bush!!)
But oh so many blog worthy things to write about, on Sunday I was driving somewhere in the morning, and it was sooo peaceful in the village with umu-mist settling lightly over the whole place...and I felt good vibes and had this very optimistic blog idea...today, my husband and I are looking for 2 pieces of plywood, that he recently shaped into a triangle shelf, and left in a partly open building in the middle of our fenced compound which has a security guard at night...and its gone. Zilch disappeared nada...so I’m therefore, in a very not so optimistic mood, in fact I am fuming and in a very pessimistic mood...I mean seriously, we leave a dinky old scrubbing brush on our deck, in a bucket...and both disappeared overnight, now a piece of wood, I guess its a new piece of wood so someone now has a nice shelf or chair or tabletop in their house, gone. What eggs me the most, is, do I think its people from 2 villages down that are sneaking into our compound at night taking things?? No, I think it’s our own neighbours and villages, because if one really thought that an outsider could get past all the people and homes in our village to get to us, you’re crazy. In fact there are 3 annoying spots in our surrounding fence where there are man made, bent over, climbing pathways, in the fence....that we see people, our neighbours, stepping over to come ask us to borrow our weed eater etc. I feel like saying (yelling) are you crazy?? Why can’t you use the gate?? That’s what the entrance is for?? Can you even afford to fix my fence that you have so nicely bent into a u shape to suit your activities? No of course not! You came and asked me to aikalafu bingo money last night !arrrrghhh....This village....that is meant to be our family, our roots, apparently they look after us, they say (uhmmmm ) sometimes i feel more like they threaten us, be good or else...eh.
Recently I read a blog owned by a Peace corp teacher who was living at Lalomanu when the Tsunami struck. Luckily she was ok but her house collapsed in on itself, on the first day she could see all her belongings stuck under pieces of iron roofing and had wanted to go to try to recover her things, but she was still in shock and her village convinced her to return the next day, to go rest for that day. Upon her return her house had been torn apart, ransacked and every last item stolen...she felt so betrayed, betrayed by the very people she had lived with for 2 yrs trying to help and make a difference, who she had grown to call her family, as the very villages she had served had looted her house. Do i think this is an isolated incident or behaviour, no , because i know it happens to us, on a daily basis, and it makes me so bitter. Especially when people come asking us to help them financially... i just feel like laughing hysterically and pulling out my hair and dribbling saliva out one side of my mouth, to show them how insane they make me. You steal from us, yet you also want me to hand you my money on my own accord?? Admittedly it is surely not everyone, but its a lot of them. I was looking at a relatives digital camera recently flicking through photos of an outing, and this relative had gone to someone in the villages’ house to pick one of the village youth up to go out with, and low and behold, in the pics on the camera, of someone in our villages’ house, someone who is living very very nearby one of those bent portions of the fence, is a picture of one of our outside chairs from the hotel, which have mysteriously decreased in number over the years, in someones house. Now this is not a chair you can buy in Savaii OR Apia, infact these chairs are quite unique I doubt they are even manufactured any more. Yes, there laughing at me from this digital pic, saying “look at me! You thought my lifespan would be limited to your little 2 acre property!! But i am going to travel the world!!”
Yes, so i have serious issues of trust with this place. And i am trying hard not to let it make me terribly upset or miserable, what i want is to figure out ways to overcome these..behaviours shall we say. Problem is, i don’t even trust the security, cos they are the village as well..sheeezle...i think i stand a better chance at actually morphing into the lady laughing hysterically with drool dribbling out one side of her mouth trying to pull her hair out!! Mm, fa laia!!
But oh so many blog worthy things to write about, on Sunday I was driving somewhere in the morning, and it was sooo peaceful in the village with umu-mist settling lightly over the whole place...and I felt good vibes and had this very optimistic blog idea...today, my husband and I are looking for 2 pieces of plywood, that he recently shaped into a triangle shelf, and left in a partly open building in the middle of our fenced compound which has a security guard at night...and its gone. Zilch disappeared nada...so I’m therefore, in a very not so optimistic mood, in fact I am fuming and in a very pessimistic mood...I mean seriously, we leave a dinky old scrubbing brush on our deck, in a bucket...and both disappeared overnight, now a piece of wood, I guess its a new piece of wood so someone now has a nice shelf or chair or tabletop in their house, gone. What eggs me the most, is, do I think its people from 2 villages down that are sneaking into our compound at night taking things?? No, I think it’s our own neighbours and villages, because if one really thought that an outsider could get past all the people and homes in our village to get to us, you’re crazy. In fact there are 3 annoying spots in our surrounding fence where there are man made, bent over, climbing pathways, in the fence....that we see people, our neighbours, stepping over to come ask us to borrow our weed eater etc. I feel like saying (yelling) are you crazy?? Why can’t you use the gate?? That’s what the entrance is for?? Can you even afford to fix my fence that you have so nicely bent into a u shape to suit your activities? No of course not! You came and asked me to aikalafu bingo money last night !arrrrghhh....This village....that is meant to be our family, our roots, apparently they look after us, they say (uhmmmm ) sometimes i feel more like they threaten us, be good or else...eh.
Recently I read a blog owned by a Peace corp teacher who was living at Lalomanu when the Tsunami struck. Luckily she was ok but her house collapsed in on itself, on the first day she could see all her belongings stuck under pieces of iron roofing and had wanted to go to try to recover her things, but she was still in shock and her village convinced her to return the next day, to go rest for that day. Upon her return her house had been torn apart, ransacked and every last item stolen...she felt so betrayed, betrayed by the very people she had lived with for 2 yrs trying to help and make a difference, who she had grown to call her family, as the very villages she had served had looted her house. Do i think this is an isolated incident or behaviour, no , because i know it happens to us, on a daily basis, and it makes me so bitter. Especially when people come asking us to help them financially... i just feel like laughing hysterically and pulling out my hair and dribbling saliva out one side of my mouth, to show them how insane they make me. You steal from us, yet you also want me to hand you my money on my own accord?? Admittedly it is surely not everyone, but its a lot of them. I was looking at a relatives digital camera recently flicking through photos of an outing, and this relative had gone to someone in the villages’ house to pick one of the village youth up to go out with, and low and behold, in the pics on the camera, of someone in our villages’ house, someone who is living very very nearby one of those bent portions of the fence, is a picture of one of our outside chairs from the hotel, which have mysteriously decreased in number over the years, in someones house. Now this is not a chair you can buy in Savaii OR Apia, infact these chairs are quite unique I doubt they are even manufactured any more. Yes, there laughing at me from this digital pic, saying “look at me! You thought my lifespan would be limited to your little 2 acre property!! But i am going to travel the world!!”
Yes, so i have serious issues of trust with this place. And i am trying hard not to let it make me terribly upset or miserable, what i want is to figure out ways to overcome these..behaviours shall we say. Problem is, i don’t even trust the security, cos they are the village as well..sheeezle...i think i stand a better chance at actually morphing into the lady laughing hysterically with drool dribbling out one side of her mouth trying to pull her hair out!! Mm, fa laia!!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tsunami again
For the second time within 6 months Ive found myself in Apia on a short trip, only to be caught out by a huge tsunami warning/drill/debarkle.
It all started with several phonecalls from mums worker yelling "TSUNAMI" the call was at 3am so I heard the phone rining and thought it would be one of those Chinese weirdo salespeople calling (somehow our number is popular in china) but no, about 2 mins after someone in the house answered, i could hear traffic, loads of traffic, and people talking and yelling, and then followed by bells and sirens. Ok, time to wake up, something serious going on.My sis Tash explained - earthquake in Chile, Tsunami heading our way, I cracked up cause she was telling me how we were in its direct path being in Apia cause the wave would obviously come from the North west???? uhm, Chile or CHina Tash?? anyways, after 2 secs of arguing (because we are both real stubborn and think we are smarter then each other) the Blackberry saves me as I am able to show her exactly were Chile was!!lol!
Anyways, the warning was for 9am , we did try for half a minute to go back to sleep and evacuate at 6, but the phonecalls were non stop, Nana, aunty, mum (who had gone to the airport to take my bro due to fly out to NZ at 5am) none would let us go back to sleep so off we went, apparently to 'beat the traffic'
what went through my mind this morning -
1) there is something exciting about natural disasters, not that I enjoy THEM but i enjoy the thought of heading off somewhere to camp with the whole extended aiga and drink hot coffee and eat pancakes and chat and talk and worry together.Something about this gathering is calming and reassuring that all will be ok. Often we joke that if worst came to worst, we have a doctor a nurse a midwife a carpenter a baker a fisherman, a farmer, a cook, in amongst us, so we would kinda be self sufficient!
2) as we drove up to Aleisa,There were so many people on the road, walking, in buses, on the backs of trucks, everyone seemed relaxed and sensible, Thank god circumstances allow us to be this way, and not running for our lives with panic...
3) I couldnt stop thinking about how those who were already affected by sept 2009 were handling this, would they be going "sh*t, not again, give us a break" because I can not see how they wouldnt be doing that very thing...thank god this was not another repeat of last years events. I was wondering though if anyone would think twice about businesses in those susceptible areas??kind of a hard one aye
4) I missed my husband and home and wished we (me and bubba) were there with him, or he with us
Thank goodness for the last time that the events of the day panned out to be less then was expected.Samoa does need a break so I am glad things turned out the way they did:)
It all started with several phonecalls from mums worker yelling "TSUNAMI" the call was at 3am so I heard the phone rining and thought it would be one of those Chinese weirdo salespeople calling (somehow our number is popular in china) but no, about 2 mins after someone in the house answered, i could hear traffic, loads of traffic, and people talking and yelling, and then followed by bells and sirens. Ok, time to wake up, something serious going on.My sis Tash explained - earthquake in Chile, Tsunami heading our way, I cracked up cause she was telling me how we were in its direct path being in Apia cause the wave would obviously come from the North west???? uhm, Chile or CHina Tash?? anyways, after 2 secs of arguing (because we are both real stubborn and think we are smarter then each other) the Blackberry saves me as I am able to show her exactly were Chile was!!lol!
Anyways, the warning was for 9am , we did try for half a minute to go back to sleep and evacuate at 6, but the phonecalls were non stop, Nana, aunty, mum (who had gone to the airport to take my bro due to fly out to NZ at 5am) none would let us go back to sleep so off we went, apparently to 'beat the traffic'
what went through my mind this morning -
1) there is something exciting about natural disasters, not that I enjoy THEM but i enjoy the thought of heading off somewhere to camp with the whole extended aiga and drink hot coffee and eat pancakes and chat and talk and worry together.Something about this gathering is calming and reassuring that all will be ok. Often we joke that if worst came to worst, we have a doctor a nurse a midwife a carpenter a baker a fisherman, a farmer, a cook, in amongst us, so we would kinda be self sufficient!
2) as we drove up to Aleisa,There were so many people on the road, walking, in buses, on the backs of trucks, everyone seemed relaxed and sensible, Thank god circumstances allow us to be this way, and not running for our lives with panic...
3) I couldnt stop thinking about how those who were already affected by sept 2009 were handling this, would they be going "sh*t, not again, give us a break" because I can not see how they wouldnt be doing that very thing...thank god this was not another repeat of last years events. I was wondering though if anyone would think twice about businesses in those susceptible areas??kind of a hard one aye
4) I missed my husband and home and wished we (me and bubba) were there with him, or he with us
Thank goodness for the last time that the events of the day panned out to be less then was expected.Samoa does need a break so I am glad things turned out the way they did:)
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