Life isn’t easy but we try

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 19 November 2016, 12:00AM

For Temu Laki from the village of Ti’avea, life is no walk in the park. Taking care of her elderly parents as well as her own children can be very stressful but the young mother tries her best.

Plagued with the problem of having no water source, Temu and her family are forced to make trips to the far away water well to shower and fetch water for cooking.

“We don’t have water here at our house,” Temu told the Village Voice.

“We have to go down to the well to fetch water and to shower. We have a water tank but it’s only useful when it rains but most of the time it doesn’t.

“The only thing we really need is water pipes to our house. The same goes for many families living in this area.”

Aside from the problem with water, Temu says everything is alright. She says her husband works hard to bring money to the family and she tends the plantation to take the pressure of his shoulders.

“Life is alright; I think the only problem I face is what all parents face; when the children are too cheeky,” he said.

“My husband is currently working so his pay is what puts food on the table. We also have a plantation which we get food from and sometimes, we can get a little bit of money from things we sell.

“When we take some crops to sell at the market then the money we get is alright. There are extra costs associated with selling produce at the market such as transport for all the crops.”

Temu explains that even trying to take crops to town for sale is a task on its own but the work and extra costs are necessary if big profits are the target.

“We have a village car which takes our crops to the market,” she said.

“They go around the village and do pickups for a small price. Transporting from all the way here to town is about $25 if the bag of crops is really big.

“There is a difference when selling in town and selling here in the village. We make more money in town because we have to drop the prices a lot when we sell it out here.

“So no matter how hard it gets, that $25 to transport our produce is not decent.”

Temu says there are no problems other than water. She even explains that the cost of living is decent right now and if they can’t afford something they need, then they purchase on credit.

“To be honest, the cost of living is pretty decent right now,” she said. “Sometimes we have to buy things on credit for my children’s school lunches because we don’t have enough but the prices are still decent.

“My husband gets about $250 dollars every week and it goes pretty fast. There are just too many things that need to be done.”

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 19 November 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>