As Samoans, we help one another

By Sarafina Sanerivi 15 January 2017, 12:00AM

Meet Asi Leota, a 50-year-old father from the village of Avao Savai’i. 

Asi spends most of his time maintaining and cleaning the land belonging to his family residing overseas

He told the Village Voice that he loves what he does.  

Moreover, as a Christian, Asi said the verse 10 from the book of Luke in the bible is the reason why he keeps doing what he does.

“Verse 10 of the book of Luke says, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”

“And I truly believe in this because this is the word of God and I truly believe that we can achieve anything in life just as long as we are honest and work hard.”

“To me, whatever you do in life, or where ever you go, if you set your mind straight and be honest with what you do, you can do anything.” 

“The main important thing is for you to use your time and energy wisely.”

“For me, I look after my uncle’s land who now resides in New Zealand and other lands belonging to my relatives.”

“That’s what I do. I am not picky with what I do, I don’t mind who owns the land whether it belongs to my relatives or not.” 

“The only important thing for me if to work hard and be honest with my work.” 

“This because I know that as humans, our responsibility is to look after our environment which is our gift from God.” 

“I know that if I do my job well more crops can be planted on the land and can be used for other things.”

“And we should be thankful to God for our lands, because I know people in other countries are not fortunate like us when it comes to land.”

Moreover, he said he doesn’t call his families and tell them that he is doing such things for them.

“I like to do things on my own. I am used to it. But I also believe that in this world, we all need to work together and help each other.”

“We all need help sometimes, and I love doing what I do because they say that what goes around comes around.”

“This is something I do out of good will; I don’t do it because I want something in return.”

Finally, he has a simple message for the people of Samoa, especially the youths.

“Be honest in all that you do,” he said.

“Work hard and do things in the name of love. We are Samoans; we should all help one another and share the work.”

“With all the things happening in Samoa nowadays, the main thing we need to do is to work together.” 

“Some of us only work when people are looking. I mean it’s not a bad thing, but you have a good heart, you can work even if no one is looking.”

By Sarafina Sanerivi 15 January 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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