White Sunday & Upolu Visit

Today is White Sunday in Samoa.  It is a national holiday intended to celebrate children; family members serve the children by doing their chores, letting them play, and feasting.  White Sunday is more celebrated than Christmas and children receive gifts.  The shops and stores were bustling all weekend in preparation of buying white clothing, gifts and plenty of food.  White clothing was being sold everywhere.  It is a long weekend holiday so our schools resume on Tuesday, after this past two-week school break.

We were fortunate to spend time this week in Upolu touring the island and getting together with other senior missionaries for activities.  We took a day to drive the east side of the island and travel the crossroad.  There are more island crossroads in Upolu than in Savaii where roads do not cross the interior because of the lava terrain and jungle growth.  Upolu has a lot of sites to visit. Leaving Apia we travelled along the northshore with lovely coastal scenery.  Along the way we went inland for a distance before drossing over a rugged and very windy, steep road up and over a mountainside ridge.  Along the ascent we stopped at a small but lovely falls before rapidly descending down to the gorgeous Fago-Iopa Bay where we stopped and gathered some distinctive seashells from the area. Retracing our road back up over the ridge we commenced to travel to the south and easterly end of the island traveling through an array of small towns and amazing scenes along the ocean. The day of our drive it rained across the south and up until we crossed the highest point going north again.  Even so, it was enjoyable and we had breaks in the rain that allowed to stop here and there to see waterfalls and ocean views.

Falefa Falls

Falefa Falls

Love their many old churches---beautiful stained glass windows.

Papapapai-Uta Falls

Thursday morning, we attended a temple session in the Apia Temple.  

Afterwards we visited the cultural center which is open to the public on certain weekdays to share and teach about Samoan culture.  We were intrigued with the tapa paper or tapa cloth process in which cloth is made from the bark of a tree. "Tapa can be decorated by rubbing, stamping, stenciling, or dyeing. The patterns of Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian tapa usually form a grid of squares, each of which contains geometric patterns with repeated motifs such as fish and plants....Traditional dyes are usually black and rust-brown." [wikipedia] The tapacloth  can be print screened for lava lavas or for wall hangings.  They use natural resources for the dyes used in printing.  We were served lunch of fish, chicken, and taro leaves cooked in coconut cream on a leaf in the woven reed like basket.  We were entertained with music and dancing.

Squeezing out excess water of bark with a smooth rock.

Turtle Carving

Chris, the moderator.

Across from the Cultural Center Fale in Apia stands a 

beautiful Catholic Church with amazing architecture:

Thursday evening our group attended a Fiafia (fee-ah, fee-ah) at the Le Manumea Resort.  A fiafia means a celebration or get together.  A beautiful dinner buffet was served with entertainment following.  The restaurant was full as there were other groups there mainly from Australia and New Zealand on holiday.  The traditional kava ceremony was performed and a variety of dances.  They gave a demonstration of the many ways a woman can wear a lava lava wrap as a dress or cover up.  Fire dancers were awesome. The best part of the evening was the company of nine other senior missionaries.

Friday was a perfect day!  Four of us couples ventured on the Coastal Walk which is a hike along the ocean across lava terrain.  We were quite a way above the seashore and could look out across at the magnificent architecture of standing lava arch structures carved out by water erosion over time.  The walk was relaxing as it wasn’t too hot nor rainy with just enough cloud cover to be enjoyable. 

This plant's orange appendages produce a "paintbrush"

Organic paintbrush for painting and dyeing.

We had our potluck picnic lunch down the road at the Togitogiga Falls in a fale there.  The falls empty into a clear-water pool in which a few of us went swimming.  

On the return we stopped at a little art gallery and café that is tucked off the road.  The Tiapapata Art Centre displays beautifully crafted pottery dishes; pottery animals like pigs, chickens, and turtles; stationary cards with original prints; and other artwork.  We visited with the amiable artist/owner, Wendy Pervicel, from Wellington, New Zealand.  She makes delicious ice cream in flavors of green tea, koko Samoa, coffee, orange ginger, soursop (a tart fruit), and pineapple as well as other healthy dishes like ganoush and hummus entrees. It was a delightful spot to end our day with a treat and in the best of company.

The green is the Soursop fruit.

Saturday we returned to Savaii on the afternoon ferry; it was packed with passengers meeting families for White Sunday.