ono masina

“Ship-wrecked love can be cruel, don't be fooled by her kind

There's a wind in my sails will protect and prevail

I just spent six months in a leaky boat

Nothing to it leaky boat”- Split Enz

10 signs you’ve been in Samoa for 6 months…

1. “Let sleeping dogs lie” is no longer an idiom, it’s a very literal and personal motto which you will happily step into oncoming traffic to abide by. 

2. The best parts of your day are sunrise and sunset and they’re only made better by a 90 minute walk up a 2000 foot mountain.

3. You feel obliged to return a wave to every second driver on the road including cabbies and bus drivers- but everybody has stopped offering you lifts.

4. Random schoolchildren start to greet you with “Malo Iakopo” (and you don’t have the heart to ask them for their names again…)

5. House geckos have stopped being cute- but are now so plentiful and large you’re scared of a mass revolt if you evict one.

6. You’ve stopped referring to “vevela tele le aso”…because every day is very hot - some are just wet too.

7. “Please Forgive Me” emblazoned as a logo across the front of a bus no longer prompts the question in your mind of “What for?”…you just forgive him

8. You can utter the phrase “famalie atu, ‘ou leai talanoa faasamoa” (sorry, I don’t speak samoan)- with just enough conviction and correct pronunciation, to confuse someone into thinking that you might be able to speak samoan.

9. You sometimes feel like you have accomplished something at the end of a working day.

10. You look forward to a week in Auckland mid-winter, the way you used to look forward to a week in Samoa mid-winter.