My brother and his wife are based in Sydney, Australia with their family and it was neat to see 3 generations of them perform a feat of working together, coordinating, cooperating and also learning together as they travelled to two countries that of NZ and also Samoa.
It is definitely a practice that I would recommend in reminiscing of how I travelled with my grandmother to Samoa and all of the things that I learnt with her being there. It's something that I think more families should consider in sharing new learning experiences between the older and younger generations.
It was also a chance for my parents to meet with their great-grandchildren and it was such an amazing thing to see 4 generations of people come together, including my father and his sister's children, as we all had dinner together, prayed together and generally enjoyed each other's company.
I was so encouraged in seeing my brother and sister in law take their family on a journey to Samoa for the children and grandchildren to see where a part of their cultural heritage originated from and then also that of their Maori heritage in my sister in law's cultural background here in NZ.
My brother was brought up by my grandmother and so I missed out on many experiences of having an older brother about as "officially" he would have been seen as my uncle but I once joked that he could be seen as my uncle/brother and I've always seen him as my older sibling.
Samoa of old, used to hold the relationship between brother and sister to be sacred also known as a 'feagaiga' or a sacred covenant. Things have changed a lot but it can still be seen and is quite strong in Tonga and I still see remnants of it in my family.
It was so neat to have had them stay overnight and my youngest already misses her Australian Uncles/Aunties and cousins. Those connections are precious memories of which I thank my older bro for taking this neat opportunity of meeting together.
Tofa Soifua and may God bless your family until we meet again...
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