Week #2 - Faga Village

As we continued further into our Samoa experience, we ended up landing in a village called Faga village (Samoan g's are pronounced with an 'ng' sound, making this "Fanga"). Upon entering the village, we walked into a meeting fale to participate in an Ava ceremony. The Ava ceremony is a traditional welcoming to the village. The head chief, the orators, and the heads of several households are present, seated about stately, some smoking and some smiling at us. At Faga the men spoke amongst themselves in Samoan for awhile and laughed heartily every now and again for whatever the reason. Each guest is given an opportunity to speak aloud personal thanks to God, throws back the traditional Cava drink, and says "Manwea!" which is Samoan for "Cheers!"

Students were divided up and went away with their Samoan families to spend three days together, enjoying all kinds of different meals, non-English speaking moments, and family times. Meals ranged from taro with coconut cream, spam and crackers, fish with "pig parts", papaya soup, cocoa rice (rice in cocoa mixture), and sometimes cup-o-noodles.