Elections, Mail and Housing

Yesterday was a big day in Samoa.  It was election day.  I haven't gotten into the politics here, and know little of the details.  I do know that the current party has been in power for 28 years.  While there was stronger opposition this year, the balance of power was unlikely to change.

Yesterday I got a surprise when my "sister" from New Zealand arrived.  No one knew she was coming so it was a treat.  She joined me in walking to the beach fale at the other end of the village.  I'd planned to go snorkeling and she wanted to take a nap.  Also, the owner of the fales, her cousin, was running for parliament, so she was excited to see how he did.

While she went into the house to hang with family and discuss the elections, I went snorkeling.  We'd been warned to steer clear of all election activties so as to not give the impression we were taking sides.   We spent the day with me going into the water occasionally and my sister going to and from the house to check on what was happening.

Polls closed at 3 p.m. and results were expected at 4.   I know it's a small country, but they use paper ballots.  How could that work?  Seems it wasn't really that fast but results started coming in then.  Cars, trucks and vans filled with men started arriving at the candidate's house.  I watched from the beach fale across the street.  It was very low key.  Lots of people, about 90% men, most wearing lava lavas.  About 4:30 a young girl came over with two styrofoam containers.  One had a note on it, saying "Enjoy your dinner.  Ruta" Seems the candidate was providing food for all the supporters and I got to share. 

The young girl and I enjoyed our dinner together on the beach and were just finishing when Ruta came out to give me the good news.  "Our" cousin was winning and the preliminary tally shows him as a new member of the Samoan parliament.  Even better, he lets me use his beach fale for free. 

Ruta stayed to enjoy the festivities, but I started to walk the few miles home.  No busses on election day.  I stopped by the new house to see what was up and was given the grand tour.  The bathroom is about done.  It's a good size with a toilet and shower stall.  There's still a hole in the wall between the toilet and the main room of the house. It was a window before they added on to the house, so they need to patch that.  Works fine for me but could be awkward if I have guests.  They were busy working on putting in a ceiling, so I won't have to worry about leaks from the tin roof.

I came in to Salelologa this morning to buy some stuff for the house, like silverware and another plate.  As a proud new homeowner, I might have company and thought it would be nice to have more than 1 fork and 1 plate, which is what I have now.

While checking email, I laughed out loud.  I got a letter from a dear friend in San Francisco.  She shipped a package to me months ago and kept anxiously asking if it had arrived.  No, it hadn't.  Then one day recently, she found it on her porch, looking like it had been around the world.  Not quite, but the USPS had sent it to South Africa instead of Samoa.

She repacked it and took it back to the PO.  Asking them to send it to me without her paying additional postage, which only seems fair.  Here's her description:

"The PO worker first used the excuse, "Well, it's our job to get the box to the country, then once it's in the other country, we can't do anything about it." My response was, "Yes, you see, that's the problem. Samoa isn't in Africa.""

Perhaps instead of teaching English in Samoa, I should be teaching geography to Postal Service employees?