5215 This is the dance group that was on the pier for our arrival. I love the colors of their outfits. The lava-lava I bought here uses the same colors but different design.
5225 This is the first floor study in Villa Vailima, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s home. You can see the tala bark paper lining the walls. Besides the unusable fire place can you spot any other useless item in the picture? That’s right!! The long handled bed warmer. Our guide suggested it would be more useful if, instead of hot coals, you filled it with ice and made it a bed cooler.
5237 RLS writing desk. I love the design. Now if I could only get this desk and the Thomas Jefferson designed and built library desk study rack from Monticello, I’d be in furniture heaven.
5302 Villa Vailima, Apia, Samoa. You can see how the middle section of the house is offset from the outside sections to provide 4 wall cross ventilation in all areas.
Nov 22 (The First) - Apia, Samoa Islands. The first time we ever visited Apia was 1991 and 45 days later they had a terrible typhoon. We visited sometime in the middle 2000s and nothing happened after that so we’re 50-50, hoping to go to 67-33 to the good. Apia and I suppose samosa in the whole as changed the least of any place I’ve visited over the past 30 years. Still no tall glass and steel buildings, still mostly village style life, still unabashedly Christian in their beliefs and practices. Amazing really.
As we sailed into the harbor and approached the pier they had a singing and dancing group to greet us. Seven women and 13 men were grouped by sex. The women were dancing while the men sang and clapped. In almost all the dances the women were holding a large fan fringed in feathers as a major part of the choreography. It’s always pleasant to be greeted by a traditional troupe on the pier. Some are very professional and some are not but they are all nice to see. This group was very polished indeed.
We’re headed out to Villa Vailima, the home of Robert Lewis Stevenson while he was in Samoa near the end of his life. He came here for health reason; some say heart problems but I think the more likely explanation is tuberculosis. He lived here only four years but in that time became a beloved member of the community, especially by the everyday people. He got involved in Samoan politics, championing the causes of the common people. He’s buried on a hilltop overlooking the house and with views of Apia and the ocean. When we were here in 1991 we saw the home from the outside but it’s been converted into a museum and is now open to the public so we wanted to go again.
The drive out was pretty. The island has no tall glass and steel buildings. I believe the tallest building is 4 stories tall and is of concrete construction. The Chinese are investing a lot of money here by way of construction. Our guide says that all the money winds up back in China as their companies get the contracts, supply the materials and most of the workers, except for some laborers. The only conclusion is that this investment is not benevolent in any conventional way.
Villa Vailima is a large two story home with broad verandas circling each level. It’s constructed in three sections with the center section set forward of the outer two. This design allows four way ventilation of every section. In rooms that occupy the entire section you have windows in all four walls. Those that share a section are no more than one room away from the same arrangement. With large doors between rooms the circulation is very good, an absolute necessity here. Traditional Samoan homes were roofs on pillars, no interior or exterior walls at all. Not much privacy but plenty of fresh air. Of course Villa Vailima is painted white and has a red tin roof.
The first room we entered was a study on the first floor. The room is unique in several ways. First the walls are lined with tapa. Tapa is a paper like item made from pounding the bark of a tree until it’s flat and pliable. The lava-lave I wore on formal night has tapa style designs on it. They draw traditional designs and patterns on this paper mostly using a rust brown colored dye. The tapas are used for decorative purposes. In this room the tapa have been applied like wallpaper to all four walls. Various antique artifacts are hung on the walls as well.
Second, there’s a fireplace in the corner. Here in Samoa, just a few degrees south of the Equator, it never gets cold or even cool. The fireplace is not even connected to a chimney. But Stevenson was used to having fireplaces in important rooms in his home in Scotland so there it is.
We exited the room by the back door and went up the stairs to the encircling veranda. It’s very deep and provides shade unless the sun is very low in the sky. We reentered the house at Stevenson’s library. Oddly enough it also has a nonworking fireplace. With the wood paneling and bookshelves it could have been a room in Stevenson’s native Scotland. The library, as one would suspect, has a large collection of RLS’ books including some children’s books with which I wasn’t familiar.
On the wall there was a letter from RLS to Andrew Lang. It was written only two days before his death in 1894. It’s obviously about literary issues but it ends with a great sentence.
“The year ends with us pretty much as it began, among wars and rumours of wars, and a vast and splendid exhibition of official incompetence–Yours ever, R. L. Stevenson” That sentence is as relevant and accurate as if it were written yesterday. If I were to be bold enough to edit it a bit I would add the words “voter and” after the words “splendid exhibition of”.
There’s a small writing desk of ingenious design in the room. The top is slightly sloped and hinged like a school desk so you can lift the top for a large storage area. There’s a small wooden box built centered on the narrow flat space at the rear of the top. Its front is hinges so that you can pull it down to access the contents, probably for writing implements. It has four drawers of varying heights that pull out from the side of the desk’s body so the writer doesn’t have to move his chair to pull them open.
Above the drawer stack there’s a pull out shelf to hold a reference book or other papers.
In a frame on the wall near the desk were the playing cards for the game of Authors. Nor sure how it was played but there were four cards for each author and RLS was included. On the same wall was a water color of RLS sitting with Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) on a bench in Washington Square in New York City. An excerpt from Clemens’ autobiography is framed with it in which he describes the meeting. Apparently Stevenson was on his way to a clinic in upper New York State and stopped over for a few days in Manhattan. Clemens, who lived in Hartford, Conn, at the time arranged to meet him and rode the train to NYC. Stevenson’s hotel was in Greenwich Village and, since his doctor had advised him to be outdoors in the sun and fresh air as much as possible, he and Clemens walked over to Washington Square Park and chatted on a bench for over an hour. He described the meeting as “very pleasant and sociable”. I’d love to have been the fly on the tree listening to that conversation.
The tour of the home included the bedrooms, sewing room, the family hospital, living and dining rooms. There were several pictures of Stevenson’s wife and in every one she’s dressed like Queen Victoria. She must have been very uncomfortable in Samoa’s heat and humidity.
After the tour we all met on the broad side porch for some Samoan dancing and singing. The group was young and very energetic is not as polished as some we’ve seen they more than made up for their lack of experience with their great enthusiasm. It was a very good show.
We drove to a local market and then out to the Parliament area also the site of the tombs of some important past kings, Malietoa, Afamassaga, and Matasafa. There’s a memorial to the islands independence that says “Mavae I Le Atua Samoa” or “Samoa Is Founded on God”. Echoes of the words of the USA’s founding fathers.
Samoa is a very pretty place. As our guide said, “You’ll never starve on Samoa. Food grows wild here.” The Apia side, northern, is very green but is on the leeward side of the island’s mountains. The southern side is windier and gets a lot more rain. Or as the guide put it, “It’s a lot greener.” By that he must have meant the foliage is thicker because this side is completely green.
We drove back into town along the ocean front. We stopped at the flea market in town so everyone could get last minute trinkets. I got another lava-lava that’s a lot less solemn than the one I brought with me. Should create a stir when I wear it to dinner one evening.
Back at the ship there was a youth group aboard. The ship has had several silent auctions of needlecrafts and art work produced by passengers with the proceeds going to this youth work in Apia. The group performed several dances and songs some traditional and some not at all. It was fun watching the kids (probably ages 7-15) perform. At the end Gene, our cruise director, presented the leader with a check for $10,000. That’s the most I’ve ever seen a ship give to a charity on any of my trips. I’m sure HAL rounded it up significantly.
Tattooing is a large part of traditional culture here. Sort of a rite of passage for both men and women. Men’s tattoos generally can go from the lower chest to the knees and can take months or years to complete. A woman’s generally go from the knee to the thigh. Two of the group members were older and had significant tattoos. They performed a dance that allowed us to see the girl’s tattoos. The boy’s were readily visible.
When the dancing was over they kids stayed around for some photo ops. Diana loves that part.
Then it was off to bed as we have to live today over again but this time at sea.
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