Now that we live apart for most of the year, as Samoa has a better climate, more natural foods and so much more to keep them busy with, we are blessed to have our children learn from their Grandparents as much as I learned from mine.
I remember only realising last year, that my children were blessed in knowing their late great grandmother, when we all called her granma because that was how I was brought up knowing her.
There are so many things that I have learnt from my father over the years, or being good at organising and 'rounding up the troups' to get things done i.e. he was pivotal in establishing the Mangere Samoan PIC (Pacific Islanders Presbyterian church), in establishing a church building in village of Si'ufaga, Falelatai and very influential in our aiga in being a man of integrity and decision making.
I think he learnt a lot from two highly respected Matai (chiefly) men who were quite influential in modelling and shaping his understanding of leadership growing up in Samoa i.e. that of his late father Tau'au, Uili who died in the 1940s when my father was still young and his uncle the late Faalavaau Galu, who was a member of the first government of Samoa when it became independent in 1962.
My father and I have had long talks about Samoa and some of the memories that he has had. Some of which have been turned into poems that I've published in my first collection regarding a blue and white Mark 2 Zephyr he used to drive and also the special relationship that he had with his adopted mother.
There are still more poems to come and I hope to pen them soon in our next collection of poetry with my father's biography that I am currently working on to share some of the wisdom gems that I have learnt along the way from his life's journey. A real blessing for me from a wonderful God above...
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