Life is only hard if you make it hard

By Pai Mulitalo Ale 20 November 2016, 12:00AM

For Fipe Lafoia, from the village of Tuanai, she believes that life isn’t meant to be easy and if you want something then you have to be willing to put in the hard work.

Aged 69, the hard working mother and grandmother spends much of her time selling homemade koko and other things from her plantation to take care of her family.

She says that you alone are responsible for how you life plays out.

“My word of advice is, the only reason why things get tough is you,” Fipe told the Village Voice.

“It’s up to you if you want to make life harder for you or easier. The way I see it, you have two options; you can either sit around and be lazy or you can work hard and get what you want in life.”

 “For me personally, I would sit down and think about how I can provide for my children and the rest of my family then I stand up and get it done.”

“I wouldn’t get anywhere in life if I was lazy.”

Her days are no walk in the park considering her age, but she still makes the effort to work.

“Every day I would wake up and gather what I need to make different products like Koko,” Fipe said.

“I would then prepare it and bring it out here to sell by the road so I can earn a bit of money for my family.”

“We don’t have anyone in our family currently employed; my children are at the plantation right now working and growing the crops.”

“This roadside market stall is all we have to earn money and make ends meet.”

Fipe is able to make about $100 a day for her family if sales are good.

“I have lived here for a while,” she said.

“I take care of my children and grandchildren, that’s my duty as a grandmother. I do the chores, cook the food and make the koko to sell.”

“I am able to make about $100 a day if sales are really good. As you can see, I am even making use of the mango season and making some money out of mango sales too.”

“I sell whatever I can make or grow in the front here and it’s a good, honest way of making money. Some of my children are currently overseas and they send over some money every now and then.”

Asked about the leaders of the nations, Fipe says they are doing good but some of their priorities should change.

“I really support the government and I feel they are doing really well with the roads and the development of Samoa,” she said.

“I think they should put more attention on helping the people. An example of the help they can provide is they can open more doors for us to export our crops overseas. That will help us a lot.”

By Pai Mulitalo Ale 20 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.

>