Odd timing...

I was just cleaning out a drawer when I found a packet of photos. They were a jumble of images from as far back as my mother at 8. Many were from my parents college days. Uncanny, as I had just written about them. It was a curious window into their past. As amusing as it was as a history of their hairstyles and fashion mistakes, it did reveal a little of the life they led before I entered it. My father looked so shy and quiet, my mother so fun-loving and happy. Hawaii was the furthest my father had ever traveled from home at that time and I remember him telling me that when he first arrived he was astonished at how tall the buildings were (the tallest building in Samoa back then was 3 storys) and he wondered what was in the soil that made them grow so big. Of course, he didn't mean this literally as he was studying Soil Science, but he would sneak into buildings to ride the elevators for fun. I'm sure he marveled at the people who would need to box themselves away in the clouds, pulling them further from the warm ocean and the humming soil that housed life and the solidity of existence below. What was in the soil that made these people sleep so far from it?

In Samoa, all the traditional homes, called Fales, would be open and free of walls and doors. They are welcoming and most social activity occurs there. As you can see from this old photo, the roof is made of tin but originally it was all thatched plant matter, and bound together with a thick twine made from coconut husk. Whole families would live together and privacy was as rare as wine. That was before my time. Most homes now will have a fale for gatherings but a separate Western home for private living. My Grandfather was a builder and he built for his family a Western style house (concrete, separated rooms, with glass windows) but my father would sleep with his brothers in the fale out back, only a skip from the ocean. Late at night, when the sounds of the village would give way to the the songs of the tree frog, they would listen to the wind brush against the thatching and the waves press against the shore, as the scent of a fire burning low would circle their drowsy forms. What was in the soil that made these people sleep so close to it?

Fale at Saleapanga Beach, Samoa, 2001

View from my Grandfather's Fale, Utuali'i, 2001.