Local sights

Turtle feeding at Malua Theological College.

And again. They are being fed pawpaw.

Johnny's working man bar, the local karaoke joint. It also doubles as a autoworkshop, a natural combination.

Hector, the enormous Gecko.

Teuila dancers. It is a bit hard to make out in this photo, but the big guy provoking the laughter is in the middle of the shot.

More Teuila dancers.

We went along to the Teuila Festival last night and watched a traditional songs competition. Lots of singing, dancing, clapping and leg slapping. It gets a bit reminiscent of german folk dancing which is perhaps not surprising- Samoa was a German colony in the early 1900s up until World War I when they bolted and left the administration of the Islands to New Zealand (Samoa gained independence in the 60's). It was lots of fun and the singing is beautiful, though we were often confused by the rounds of laughter that came from the crowd. They are not backwards at coming forwards and, to coin an aussie phrase, taking the piss. Once it was when a dancer's lavalava fell off during a particularly vigorous dance. It had rained twenty minutes before they commenced, so the slippery stage and the inevitable impact on the dancing was also very amusing to them. At another point it was the group of very fit looking young men dancing in skimpy lavalavas who were joined by a much bigger man and such was the discrepancy that I wondered if it hadn't been done deliberately, for comic relief. There are harder ways to spend an evening than watching young samoan men dancing topless!

We discovered the largest gecko I have ever seen in my life when we got home. I spent the night in fear it would eat my children. It must have been at least 20 centimetres long. Paul has named it Hector the Protector. Given the poor state of local TV, we spend many a night watching the geckos defend their territories while eating from the all you can eat bug buffet that is our lounge room.

I think I have failed to mention that there is a bar on our street. Johnny's working man bar. Not the kind we are likely to visit in any hurry, but it is unique in that it includes a karaoke bar. On a clear night, it is possible to hear drunken Samoans singing along to various songs like Brown eyed girl. Clearly the classics transcend cultures. I even heard Islands in the Stream last night, sung by two men. Beautiful.

Finally, the sight for this week was the turtle feeding pool at Malua theological college, about half an hours drive out of Apia. While they are captive, the staff at the college maintain the pool, feed them daily and release them to the wild when they are big enough to survive. It is a beautiful location and it is free, an oddity here- everything is usually 5 tala. We spent an hour or two sitting beside the pool with obligatory Vailimas on the weekend. Check the serenity love.