Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Tattooist

Great movie. Liked the plot and enjoyed the holywood-ing of our pe'a ceremony. But kinda squirmed in my seat when I heard the nz-borns try to speak Samoan. Whoever wrote that script shoulda repplaced all the t's with k's to give a more natural curve. Oh well. It was made for the palagis anyway. Guess I wasnt supposed to understand the Samoan words.

Watching this movie in Samoa in a theatre full of Samoans is another experience. Probably why I enjoyed myself so much. Well, other than the fact of Jason Behr...oka se aulelei o le jama. But that is something else...But the Samoan humor...People dying brought waves of laughter from the audience. Jason Behr's attempts to woo Sina were easily muted by the polos in the back row snickering and giggling.

Se malo lava le fai mea pepelo.

Howdy howdy

So the feeling has returned to publish some thoughts here especially following the great excitement of the Nation-wide Tsunami Drill yesterday....

I dressed specifically in shorts, t-shirt and jandals for the occasion. In no way was I going to run up Mt Vaea in a skirt and the "gilas". But I was not like to fall over while the masses made their way to higher ground....like i saw some do rather unfashionably! Can you believe some idiots dragged their stilettos all the way to the prayer house and back? On tar seal? All I can say is, you woulda gotten a great work-out at the expense of not only your feet but those beautiful heels.

To some extent, seeing the corporate community make an effort to make the drill a success warmed my heart. Eventhough the sun was hot enough to fry our brains, the sight of the average overweight samoan huffing and puffing to make it up the hill somehow made the distance easier.

Of course there was the occasional fia malie that decided to scream "help" at the midst of our efforts to put one foot in front of the other. It did give us a good opportunity to stop for a bit of air and to laugh.

The drill did upset our work schedule for the rest of the day but hey, Im not complaining.

I got caught afterwards in a discussion involving blisters that resulted in very loud and samoan eruptions of laughter. You can easily guess what this discussion was about IF and only IF you are Samoan. Dont you love our humour? We can make some painful experience very funny. And private parts very public for that matter.

Only in Samoa.