White Sunday – The biggest celebration of the year for the kids.

Another white Sunday was celebrated on October 10 (actually 10.10.10). This special occasion of the year allows all kids to become the Prince or Princess for a whole day. The kids get new white cloths to wear at the early church service in the morning and throughout the day.

As always in Samoa, any celebration is connected to food, lots of food… The white Sunday is no different as you will see in the short video below.

If you are Samoan you will also understand what they are talking about…

Enjoy it!!

If you have problems watching it please Click on Samoa White Sunday

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Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel

Becoming a High Chief of Samoa.

It is a great honor to be chosen to get a chiefly title (Matai Title) in Samoa and serve your community and family as a trusted leader.

It is an even greater honor to be chosen as a high chief of a village or a district with all it’s social and political responsibilities that follows with the title. Although more than one person can get the chiefly name, there will always be a primary leader for the group which usually is dedicated to the older and more experienced Matai or Chief.

In most cases the Matai has full control over the village and all matters, like a smaller form of government. Many times the villages makes their own social rules and laws that has to be followed and where the national government has no influence.

Today you do need a chiefly name to be able to get a seat in the parliament which makes the chiefly titles even more important.

In the video below you will be able to follow the bestowal of the new High Chiefs with the title “Fui” in the area of “Lefaga” on the south coast of Upolu island. Although it is a great honor, not everyone can afford to pay the high donation cost to the village that is connected to the ceremony and the chiefly name.

Samoan High Chief Bestowal

Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel

When I am writing this it will be about 10 months after the Samoan tsunami disaster and lots of progress have been done to start all over for the affected people and businesses.

There are still many question marks about where the government spent all the aid money from other countries. At this time there is a huge new government building being constructed which probably needed some funding as well…

There is a newly published video from “Tagata Pasifika” that captures the current situation in Samoa. Please watch it below…

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Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel

A few years back it was a luxury to have a land line telephone installed at your home and the rates were just incredibly high.

Then suddenly there was an international company called Digicel appearing in Samoa that promised to make it possible for everyone to have a mobile phone.

The Digicel company started a market campaign of international standard that Samoa never had seen before. You could suddenly read Digicel slogans on every street corner in Samoa and you could get a simple mobile phone for almost nothing.

Digital addiction

Very quickly the mobile phone become a must to have item by both young and old and top-up cards were available everywhere. Although an almost free phone, the cost to use it is rather high when you buy phone cards to feed your phone.

Clever “Free text in the night” promotions have made the young kids addicted to the phone, spending the night texting their boy friends and girl friends as non of them have money to buy a normal phone card.

Parents are hiding their phones.

Digicel crated a very clever but dangerous function on the phone called “Credit Me Credit You” which makes it possible to transfer credit from one phone to another. This function were very welcomed by the kids as they could now easily find their parents phone and transfer fresh credit over to their own.

If the kids can’t find any credit they can at least do the texting and use the phone for listening to music.

Games, Games and Games…

Samoans love games and gambling and this is a side that the Digicel company are using for their promotions. You can submit your phone number for a small phone fee and if you are lucky you will be randomly picked for a final game called “Text To Spin” where you can win anything from 100 Tala to a few thousand Tala.

Needless to say, this is a very successful game…

Digital Paradise

Next time you visit Samoa don’t be surprised when you hear a phone ringing from a coconut tree. This is just the guy picking the coconuts getting the instruction from his wife.

Loosing Money with cell phones is easy but did you know that you can earn money with your phone. I found this 18 year old high school kid who makes lots of money every day. Have a look for yourself…

Cell Phone Treasure – Make Money With Cell Phones!

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Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel

48 years of independence from New Zealand

1962 was the year that Samoa declared its independence from New Zealand and every year Samoa has been celebrating this important event on June 01.

In colorful uniforms, groups and organizations are marching down the Beach Road toward the Molinuu peninsula to rise the flag of freedom. Sports games, longboat races and dance entertainments are always on the program for this special day.

Samoa has changed

When we are celebrating, we are also reflecting on the past and the future of our nation. Changes are natural and welcomed when done in a positive and responsible way. Most of Samoa is changing very slowly and the so called progress is only obvious in the capital.

Half empty high rise buildings and government office complexes are growing up  all over Apia. Although Apia is getting very modern in one way the social structure and education is still suffering.

Instead of going to school many kids are helping parents selling goods in the streets. The promised mandatory primary school system is still not working due to budget cut in both education and health.

Money could have been saved.

Last year Samoa changed over from driving on the right side of the road to the left. There was no logical reason for this sudden change and it also hit the Samoan economy hard with a very high bill during a time of economical recession and tsunami catastrophe.

We are looking forward to see Samoa developing in a positive way, paying attention to the essential parts in people’s life and being sensitive to cultural values. Samoa is unique and if we loose this uniqueness we are just another tourist destination without any flare.

Let us have many more positive and fun Independent day celebrations in the future.

Help us writing about Samoa and all your other travel experiences. Learn how to start and promote your BLOG and even earn money for your next holiday!

Travel Blog Success – ECourse.

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Mats Loefkvist

Hotels Samoa / Samoa Tours / Samoa Travel

Join Us in Natural Medicine!

As you might know, I am passionate about traditional cultures and their practices. Samoa where I live is certainly one of the more genuine cultures when it comes to using the old way of healing.

You still find lots of traditional healers, usually specialized in a certain illness or problem. You have bone healers, back healers, spiritual healers, skin healers and many more.

The Samoan People usually go to a traditional healer first and if it doesn’t work they will try a normal doctor. If the normal doctor can’t do anything he will send the person back to the traditional healer.

I have been lucky to have the experience from not only the Samoan culture, also the native Hawaiian Culture, the American Indians, the Aboriginal in Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand.

For some time I have been working on creating a newsletter focusing on Alternative Medicine with lots of great information about natural products used in both the western world and other traditional cultures.

I want to give you an opportunity to tap into a more healthy and natural life showing you ways and information that you might not be aware of.

I will also show you how it is done in Samoa and other cultures which you can learn from and practice in a similar way in your own country.

Are you ready for a healthier life??

“Samoa is founded on God?”

Since Samoa become independent it has been founded on God. Today this foundation is rocking and very unstable. The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi has clubbed through a new legislation to allow 2 Casino Licenses in Samoa.

Samoans not worthy!

The prime minister have decided to only allow people to gamble that has a foreign passport. This means that he consider his own people not good enough to take care of their money and all the risks connected to gambling.

The talk is about the filthy rich people that will come and spend their money in the casinos as they are too bored with beaches and culture and need something else to do.

This sounds like really clever strategies to build a solid future for a country???

What about Samoans with dual citizenship?

It is well known that many Samoans have dual citizenship which will allow them to gamble in Samoa. The prime minister has no problem with that as he means that they need a break before they go home again. The fact is that many or most people in higher positions in Samoa have dual citizenship although they are not living abroad.

I guess that we will have two classes of people in Samoa in the future:

• The Normal People and
• The Casino People

What else will follow the casino future?  What about drugs and prostitution?

I hope they will build the casino on a big rock so people can jump effortlessly after loosing all their money. This is actually a good business opportunity for the funeral services in Samoa.

Mats Loefkvist   www.samoa-experience.com

We can’t wait!

This is all about the willpower of a young entrepreneurial family that lost their restaurant on the beach when it was hit by the tsunami wave on September 29, 2009.

Sala and Nika had a good going small restaurant in between two big luxury resorts. The guests from both Sinalei Reef Resort and Coconuts Beach Resort all loved the possibility to have a beer and some food together with the locals in an easy and friendly atmosphere just a few steps away.

When the restaurant was flushed away by the tsunami wave and the owner didn’t know what to do, the staff insisted to start building the restaurant up again. They told Sala and Nika – We Can’t Wait!

Without any payments they worked for 3 weeks collecting timber and old parts that could still be used until a new version of the restaurant was created.

Help for the ones that help themselves!

When other people saw what was happening they joined the team and all kinds of building material and money appeared. It was a true Miracle! – Nika said.

Every day was an improvement and very soon people from Apia, 20 km away got to know that one restaurant on the affected south coast was open again. A new sign was placed by the main road leading visitors to the little oasis with cool beers, cocktails and food at the beach.

Prepared for the next wave.

Sala and Nika and their staff have now had time to prepare for the next wave, which hopefully should be tourists from the bigger resorts, that soon will be ready to open after their reconstruction work.

If their entrepreneurial mind was not set to get things started and moving in the beginning they would never be in this great situation of creating prosperity and wealth for themselves, their staff and for the entire village of Siumu.

Well Done!!

Mats Loefkvist   www.samoa-experience.com

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