My Samoan experience was not only about me, but also my taxi driver/guide - Taula. The bus system on the main island was sporadic and not the best way to get around Samoa. I could have rented a car - but as fate would have it I ran into Taula. He was circling in his taxi by the tourist office as I was getting info on places to visit during my stay. We connected and for the next four days spent many hours together touring two islands - Upolu and Manono. He would pick me up at 9am and bring me back to my hotel at 4pm. Over the course of that time we talked for many hours about his island, his life, his family and his culture - he was a true Samoan.
Our arrangement was that I would buy his gas and pay him $50 a day to take me to places that would give me a real sense of Samoa, not necessarily where other visitors might go. He joined me in whatever I saw and did. We hiked the island of Manono together and then had lunch in the local food market. After that, we went to his village and met some of his family. All the while I learned so much about his life in Samoa and the Polynesian Culture.
Once you get out of Apia (the capital), the views and sights of the road tell you about the life of the people in Samoa. Cattle & pigs roam freely and bus owners would be washing their buses in the middle of the roads.
Families were selling tara (kind of like their potato) and coconuts by the side of the road. One family saw us stop and all the family ran down to the roadside stand to make a sale. Taula cut off the tops of the coconuts and we enjoyed fresh coconut juice.
As schools finished for the day, the Samoan children would use the road for passage back to their villages. Happy and content like the children in the Solomon Islands, these children seemed to have a different ethnic origin. The Samoan children are much lighter skinned. When you compare photos of the groups of children, you could see the physical differences between the Melanesian and Polynesian Cultures.
In the villages and between the villages there were churches. It seemed like there couldn't be enough people to support the number of churches we drove by. Some churches were simple structures and others more elaborate. What is obvious as I drove around Samoa is that the family and the church play a huge part in the Polynesian Culture. Here is an interesting fact. Samoa has the fifth highest family size average in the world - 7.8 members per family.
