Cloths from Sweden,
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.
Mats www.samoa-experience.com
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.
Mats www.samoa-experience.com
