The village of Aele Fou has celebrated 50 years since the establishment of the village.  

The event kick started with a thanksgiving service conducted by the President of the Methodist Church, Reverend Elder Apineru Lafai followed by the revealing of the memorial stone to commemorate its Golden Jubilee.

In an interview with Toeafua Auapaau Fa’amasino Sione, who is the church secretary and Village Mayor, he said their forefathers went through a lot of changes to get to where they are now.

“Our forefathers started from scratch when they came here. This land was offered by the Methodist Church to us many years ago and in establishing of this land we started from humble beginnings.”

“And as I was growing up my father would always tell me stories of how hard it was in the beginning. They said there was no electricity at the time, no water and the road was just bad.”

“When they want to fetch water they would walk from here to where the Wesley College is at and walked back carrying buckets of water. They had to make sure the water they fetch will last them a week or so because it’s far and they didn’t have cars back then they walked everywhere,” he said.

The village lived in darkness those days, due to the lack of a power supply, he added. 

“I would always cry when I hear of those stories because now that we have children of our own they are living and enjoying the things that our forefathers had worked hard for.”

Comparing back then to today, Toeafua said they have access to electricity and water and live in nice houses, unlike back in the days when they barely had nothing.” 

“We were living off our plantation back then. It was a hard life and now there is a bus that actually comes to our village and stop in front of our houses.”

“Most families have cars of their own, our roads are in a much better shape than it was back then.”

“Every family have big screen televisions, everyone owns a mobile phone those are the changes that I see nowadays and we are so thankful to God for bringing us this far,” he added.

The church secretary and Village Mayor said there is a lot to thank God for over the years and having come this far. 

“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him. We are so blessed because 50 years is no small thing and all we can say is thank you for all these times and for bringing us this far.”

The celebrations marking the village’s Golden Jubilee took a whole year to plan and as they needed to make sure everything went according to plan, added Toeafua. 

“As you know we needed that amount of time because not all of us are rich and we wanted to make sure we are ready when this comes. So today we did it and we are celebrating this very memorable milestone.”

The celebrations will end today with traditional performances.