Samoan Independence Day

Peace Corps Assembles
Honor Guard Before Reviewing Stand

Chaos

Ready for Samoan TV

Lining up

Approachinfg

Entering the Inner Sanctum

Independence Day is a two day holiday with the first day the official one complete with a parade. Well you need to understand what a Samoan Parade is like to get the full appreciation of Fa’asamoa.

To me it reminded me of waiting to get into a University of Iowa football game. There are lots of people milling about with food stands surrounding the periphery. Since this is Samoa and it is still early in the day, there is no tailgating, so comparison to a football game is quite a stretch of the imagination. However, Iowa football fans don’t have to stand in the hot sun either.

The participants, such as Peace Corps, we stand in the sun for two hours waiting our turn to walk 1/10 of a mile past the reviewing stand where the Samoan “Head of State” and his wife sit. We stop, turn, and do two “Hip, hip, hoorays”. Walk another 100 feet and we are finished. There was not even any food for us after our long march. At least we were there.

I have a feeling there is lots of food waiting for those seated in the reviewing stand.