This is all about the willpower of a young entrepreneurial family that lost their restaurant on the beach when it was hit by the tsunami wave on September 29, 2009.
Sala and Nika had a good going small restaurant in between two big luxury resorts. The guests from both Sinalei Reef Resort and Coconuts Beach Resort all loved the possibility to have a beer and some food together with the locals in an easy and friendly atmosphere just a few steps away.
When the restaurant was flushed away by the tsunami wave and the owner didn’t know what to do, the staff insisted to start building the restaurant up again. They told Sala and Nika – We Can’t Wait!
Without any payments they worked for 3 weeks collecting timber and old parts that could still be used until a new version of the restaurant was created.
Help for the ones that help themselves!
When other people saw what was happening they joined the team and all kinds of building material and money appeared. It was a true Miracle! – Nika said.
Every day was an improvement and very soon people from Apia, 20 km away got to know that one restaurant on the affected south coast was open again. A new sign was placed by the main road leading visitors to the little oasis with cool beers, cocktails and food at the beach.
Prepared for the next wave.
Sala and Nika and their staff have now had time to prepare for the next wave, which hopefully should be tourists from the bigger resorts, that soon will be ready to open after their reconstruction work.
If their entrepreneurial mind was not set to get things started and moving in the beginning they would never be in this great situation of creating prosperity and wealth for themselves, their staff and for the entire village of Siumu.
We recently picked up 2 huge bags with cloths that came the whole way from Sweden. The swedish travel and tour agent “Tour Pacific” sent the bags with two of their clients. We were sure that they were happy to carry the big and heavy bags half around the world. The people in Samoa were at least very happy to receive the cloths. Among the cloths there were about 30 Swedish T-shirts in bright yellow and blue. We walked around town yesterday and we saw 2 kids with a swedish T-shirt.
Money from Australia and Europe,
More people have been donating money for Samoa. We got all together 3,200 Tala paid into our account from staff at “Intrepid Travel” in Australia plus from private people in Europe.
We decided to get the shopping done and filled the car with rice and canned fish (sorry, this is what the Samoans like most) and had it delivered to 16 different families.
As we are moving around in the affected areas, we realize that the progress of rebuilding is slow and we would like to see more organized efforts from the government to have villages cleaned up, businesses up and running and families getting one of the new buildings that was promised.
We will continue to add more reports about the progress inn a near future.
Thanks a Million to all you fantastic people out there that have been contributing to help the people of Samoa that were affected by the Tsunami on September 29. We have received packages after packages with cloths and cooking items plus money that was transferred directly to our account.
It has kept us really busy to deliver everything that was coming in. Yesterday we had a big shopping day to buy everything that we thought were most important to the affected families.
So far we received 3000 Tala that we decided to use for kerosene stoves, plates, pots and pans.
All this went to the village of Saanapu which was affected by the tsunami. The main focus of the tsunami help has been on the South East coast as it was the area that was affected most allthough many other places like Saanapu on the South West coast were badly damaged as well.
All the families send their sincere thanks to you people for making a difference in their lives.
With great help from outside, the government has put together a help plan for the ones that lost everything. These people will get a new small house built for their family. The total cost for each house will be about 7000 US Dollar.
I am looking forward to keep informing you about the progress of the rebuilding of the lives of the Samoan people.
One of the highlights of the Independent Celebration (June 02) each year is the Fautasi Race (long boat). The harbor is always crowded with people waiting to see the boats with 52 crew members crossing the finish line in front of “Aggie Grays Hotel”.
Some ninety six men of Lepea village are wasting no time in getting themselves prepared for the upcoming Independence Day fautasi race next Monday.
Lepea is one of the villages who have submitted two longboats for the upcoming race, namely Fetu Afiafi and La o Samoa II and are not taking this competition lightly. Captain of Fetu Afiafi, Siu Aoelua says 90 percent of his team are new rowers with last year’s rowers allocated to their newly built boat La O Samoa II.
The rowers of both boats have been in camp for two weeks and have had a busy training schedule with a 3am road run followed by rowing practices before breakfast. They have been doing weights mainly concentrating on upper body strength.
There is a universal law saying “Giving is Receiving”. Although this concept is known it is not always used. I am living in a country and among people that practice giving as a natural part of their life. It would be impossible for someone in Samoa not to share their food with you if you came close to their house during meal times. The fact that the word for your and mine is spelled the same way (lau) must have something to do with that we all share the same things.
There is also a total trust in that when you get old you will be supported by your kids. Your family is your life insurance and this vill not change in 1000 years in Samoa. Hope we can learn more from this in the western society.
I like to start to introduce Samoa to you in a more official way with all the facts and details about our country and culture to make you have a greater understanding where we are coming from.
This cover all aspects like culture, politics, geography, economics, demographics and sports. I need to have a closer look myself as I am not sure I know all this although I live here.
One of the highlights of the Independent Celebration (June 02) each year is the Fautasi Race (long boat). The harbor is always crowded with people waiting to see the boats with 52 crew members crossing the finish line in front of “Aggie Grays Hotel”. 
There is a universal law saying “Giving is Receiving”. Although this concept is known it is not always used. I am living in a country and among people that practice giving as a natural part of their life. It would be impossible for someone in Samoa not to share their food with you if you came close to their house during meal times. The fact that the word for your and mine is spelled the same way (lau) must have something to do with that we all share the same things.
Please make a comment about people you met in Samoa that made a difference to you.