Mealofa ("Thing of Love" aka Gift)

Tonight the women’s committee of Falevao held a gift-giving ceremony for all the Peace Corps volunteers as we’re nearing the conclusion of our stay here. The entire village gathered on the steps in front of the church as the pastor led a brief service and prayer on our behalf. At its conclusion the women of the village began singing and one by one started stepping forward and laying gifts at our feet. They piled ie (lavalava) after ie in front of us, as well as many other items, including fine mats for all of the trainers that have been living with us and working full time to help us integrate into the culture and the language. There is no way that I could possibly do justice in words to the beauty of this ceremony that was held in our honor. The women’s committee had gone to Apia to purchase fabric to make matching outfits for our entire group- the girls were all given puletasi’s out of the material and the boys all had shirts from it with matching black ie faitagas (men’s dress ie’s, with pockets). It was so touching to see the entire village gather to be a part of the ceremony and their singing was so touching. (The Samoan people are AMAZING at harmonizing and their music is absolutely fantastic. I actually get excited about lotu, the prayer time every evening at sundown, because my family all gathers together to sing and the songs are so beautiful.) After the presentation of the mealofa there was, of course, food. Here’s a new one- spaghetti sandwiches. I had never even dreamed up the possibility of the existence of such an item before tonight, but apparently they’re quite popular here. They consist of chef-boyardee style spaghetti between slices of bread. And I gotta say... not half bad. I’ve been cultivating all sorts of interesting new food tastes since I’ve been here, but I gotta say I surprised even myself with taking to this one. All of the trainees performed a dance we have been learning and practicing in a traditional Samoan style for the village in order to show our appreciation called a sasa, where you sit together with folded legs and perform a series of motions that mostly involve slapping your legs and various other parts of your body in ways that are symbolic of parts of Samoan culture (somehow I have a feeling that was one of those explanations that confuses more than clarifies, sorry). The village found us hysterical as I’m sure we’re significantly less than adept at their forms of dance, but a good time was had by all. It was really a great evening, and again felt like such an honor to be a part of. It’s amazing to think that we’ve been living here for more than a month and that our time really is coming to a close. I think that many of us are getting ready to move on to the next step of our Peace Corps journey but it will still be bittersweet to say goodbye to the village that has welcomed us with open arms as strangers to this country upon our arrival.