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and sold them cheaply for the G.I.'s --- and won their undying loyalty. We returned for the Samoan dancing, a real treat. The men sweated and drummed and danced and clapped until we were all exhausted with their effort. The "lovely Samoan girls" were hefty ladies. There was nothing less than a 52-inch waist between them. But their sweet moon faces and graceful hands belied their bulk. When the last flames from the fire dance were extinguished the male dancers changed into their waiter's outfits and served up a buffet!
We decided to go on the "Green Turtle" bus around the island. Sam the driver, took us and a couple of back-packers who would be dropped off on a mountain along the way, on a merry ride. Western Samoa has a mountainous, mostly uninhabited interior. Alongng the coastal fringes one extended family's land joins up with the next. The family compounds always include at least one open-sided fare where the family likes to sit in the breeze. Some family compounds have only open sided dwellings. We could see beds, cupboards, and mosquito nets as we passed. The very old oval thatched fares are still treasured and preserved to some extent.
This close to summer a heat haze rose from the land so that the bright paint colors seemed to shimmer. Dogs narrowly escaped under the wheels of our van and wandering pigs too, tried to commit suicide. Droves of children tumbled out of school, wearing red or blue or green uniforms. When we stopped to photograph, they practically trampled us in their enthusiasm for a picture. A cold spring erupted from a cave into a large swimming hole just beside the ocean. We stopped to cool off. Michael swam through a tunnel that began in the dark about six feet under water and ran for the count of about six seconds under a rough rock ceiling along which he had to feel his way.
Fishermen sometimes rescue green turtles that they place in a landlocked pond, where we also stopped. For the past two years Sam has fed them taro leaves every day so that they will know him and come. He told us that Samoans no longer eat turtle. They are banned --- and if eaten a person can be sentenced to six months in jail.
Along the best white sand beaches the land owners have built small "fare" that picnickers from town can rent for ten tala a day. The raised oval platforms with cool thatched roofs make a perfect place to relax and nap after a swim. There are also fares available for overnighters. A Swiss and Australian girl we met spent four days staying in these, but conceded that although interesting, they had grown quickly tired of the food, all of which, whether it be banana or mangrove crab, was cooked in coconut cream!
The highlight of the day was a waterfall where we frolicked. What is a tropical island without such a place!
Sam had mentioned that there was "very little violence". But the weekend New Zealand Herald newspaper carried a feature story about Samoan Churches and told a different story --- when it came to the assimilation of the congregations of the Assembly of God, a charismatic Christian sect. Up to now there has been a cozy cooperation between the mainstream Catholics, Congregationalists and Methodists. All the churches are controlled by the community council headed by the hereditary Matai's who wield
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