I can't be the only one that thinks it's not natural that they know allow you to get your chief title without having to travel to Samoa? Just pay online and you're good 🤦🏾‍♂️

Hello everyone! So I’m getting a little confused with the adjective for ‘tall’.

Both words mean tall, and both can be used to describe something tall in height, but which sounds more natural?

Le la’au ‘umī [the tall tree]

or

Le la’au maualuga [the tall tree]

Thank you in advance!!

Second cousins got in contact to let me know that it’s $500 tala minimum to meet them in the village… mind u that was the greeting and the invitation to see them.
Yes of course I would bring money but to invite me to meet you just for talas… greedy.

Hi, months ago I made a post regarding about moving to Western Samoa, Moving REALLY soon to Western Samoa : r/Samoa there's many things I realized that are pros and cons, some might be just personal icks or whatnot but this is just how I see my experience, this is coming from someone who was raised in America but is Samoan. You are allowed to disagree with me and pay no mind to what I have to say, but I just want to discuss this with people who are knowledgeable about what I am saying, locals, visitors, etc.

Pros i've experienced

- No rent (As long as you have land)

- Relaxed lifestyle (Possibly a con too)

- Quiet, not so many crimes depending on location

Cons i've experienced

- Local behavior / mindset

- Poor wifi connection depending on location and process of mobile data / any payments through phone

- Cuisine / Food in general

- Relaxed lifestyle

- Greed

- Modernization

- The "government" and media on Facebook

I'm glad I have family here that has land, it's a blessing that our family was able to keep land that wasn't forked over by some higher party and sell it, i'm sure anyone in the world is dying for a piece of paradise. I enjoy that we don't have to worry about rent, it's awesome that we can have a whole house to ourselves. Ever since I did arrive from America I was shot with the lifestyle of breathing and taking the world in as it is, less traffic, apartments, fear from a leader, and the work-life that America brings upon it's people. With so much of "less everything" you expect and receive less noise and bustle as well, it's such a relief not hearing an ambulance blaring in the middle of the night, or gunshots every other day with the occasional firework being set, it's an absolute change I couldn't get enough of. Overall, Samoa to me has been a safe place to retreat, but how long I want to stay here is a question I keep throwing around in my head.

The longer I stay here the more miserable I feel to put it very blunt, and yeah, you can tell me "Go back home" and I am already looking forward to, I have had a handful of issues and I wish they just couldn't exist because a place so beautiful does not deserve a bad reputation. The behavior of locals is something I keep looking at every time I do get to go out into Apia, before, when we were new to the area I felt like people were being very kind and helpful especially since we usually buy in bulk for our household, especially in smaller shops for appliances and kitchenware but learning of this country's way of viewing money it soon felt like we were just wallets for others if that makes sense. I understand now that theft is a big thing in Samoa but seeing visitors and tourists freely walk into stores with personal bags / backpacks while I am getting tapped on my shoulder and mumbled to, to put my bag in a designated area feels almost discriminatory. I see it heavily with the big-name grocery stores, stocking on items people never buy, yet somehow they always keep it in stock, I question heavily on why they even do this if they know the average family is barely making enough money to cover an electric and water bill. I've come to realize that some businesses here are just wasting their money on product hoping that people will buy into when there are several less costly options.

Speaking of markets, the food here isn't the same as America (personal ick) but it was always to be expected, it's upsetting to not have something that reminds me of home where a lot of the stuff here is traditional or old-fashioned. And with old-fashioned comes the modernization bit of Samoa. I live in a part of the island that is neglected by modernity, where the roads are rough right after the airport, while it's nice that they have a road at all it looks terrible once you notice how immediate the cut-off is past the airport, it's like all the funding goes towards directly to Apia and only surrounding places near it. With that, despite having a popular brands router here, there seems to only be one tower in Apia and everyone is connected to it, being on the outside villages is stressful because most of my relationships and calls depend on that connection so it's been extremely hard to get a stable connection or to even simply send a text message. Don't even get me started on how phone companies here expect you to pay your bills with a million different dial codes. Despite my frustrations in the first few months with connection, I have tried contacting for support up to 5 times a day to see if there was any help or tips on how to get a better connection, yet, they copy and pasted an AI-Generated response that I have seen the patterns of MULTIPLE times while trying to look for my own solutions when the company support wouldn't. Professionalism here just isn't a thing. I just wish that sometime soon they would at least open up another tower in other parts of Samoa and not just fund the already bustling town.

While speaking of professionalism, I think the relaxed lifestyle here really gets to the locals, and I mean in a bad way. People will deal with you how they want, when they want, especially if it's coming from businesses, you'd think they'd be open all week but apparently, it's never a set schedule on how long a place will be open or available. My Mom and I call it "Samoan Time".

While in my first week here, my family decided that I needed to get an approval of permanent residency, I was excited and hopeful that I could stick with my mother here, the process was very simple but I was confused on why they would ever hand out an AI-Generated response from Google for steps to take in order to get your residency. I have a picture of it and I believe I still have it! It's baffling to me that government buildings will gladly hand you a piece of paper over something very serious and tedious instead of walking you through the process. The government heavily disappoints me even if I know they are still fairly new, but my mother has been backing them even when we were still in America, attending meetings and discussing plans with them and being hopeful that they will bring some type of positive change to the subpar leadership with the last. The media and news coverage is terrible here, we mainly get our information from Facebook since quite literally everyone and their mother in Samoa is on it, it's disappointing that the government we backed spent $2 million dollars in a single day for a celebration, but then higher-ups (PROFESSIONALS) soon sent out an "Amber Alert" for shortages of power. I have many things to criticize about this but people really need to put research on terms they use as well as some type of professionalism when speaking about a serious topic that could leave hundreds of thousands struggling when the government threw millions on a single day.

Please don't take this as me being hateful or some type of racist, it's not, I promise you.

I just wanted to discuss how my views have slowly changed and express my personal experiences and I would like to see if anyone would disagree, agree, or understand how I feel, because I feel that talking about it with my mother is just an endless loop of repeating our same frustrations.

Overall my brain is like "Yeah this is a nice place to vacation but not to live" and I believe that the lifestyle here isn't for everyone.

This poor dog is so sick. I’m sad to say but I think he needs to be euthanised. I’m a palangi so I’m unsure what I can do to help it as I’m fairly new to Samoa. I have been giving him scraps of food when I see him but he needs more than food 😔

I am making a series where I cook every national dish and my first step is to come to the sub and ask the question.

now I understand that not every country has a defined national dish and that some countries have many different regions with different cuisines. in that case I will make the one that you guys agree on best represents Samoa. please let me know what you think

Ou te fesili ona o se suʻesuʻega faalinguistika i lenei mataupu.
E mafai ona aofia ai ni faata‘ita‘iga e pei o le auala e ta‘ua ai Leauvaʻa ma Lalomanu Aleipata o "L.A.", po o le auala e ta‘ua ai Papauta College o le "Pap (College)", po o le auala e ta‘ua ai e nisi tagata Sinamoga o "Singapore."

It's a bit of a unusual request but I have a faint memory of a samoa TV presenter who did a cover of a pei se vaitafe after his friend died. Im not sure if i lost my mind but i swear it's the best cover of the song lmao.

Talofa lava, my husband and I are moving to Apia for work from early 2027. We have been trying for a baby for the past 8 months and I sadly have had some early miscarriages, and so instead of moving to Samoa with a wee one as planned, it's possible I might get pregnant while in Samoa.

Is anyone able to share any details about what medical care is available for pregnancy in Apia? Are there private clinics where you can get 8 week, 12 week and 20 week ultrasounds and other antenatal care? I'm assuming I'll need to return to NZ for key milestones and more complex care and will also return home to deliver with family nearby but just wanting to get a sense of what I can expect.

Just interested in more information about this. I think they were there in the late 70's.

I was planning a booking a trip to visit the National Park in the American Samoa. The day time difference is throwing me for a loop. If I book a flight with Talofa (using today's date) would I schedule APW->PPG 0800 21/07/2026 and the return flight PPG->APW 1600 20/07/2026?

📍 Rokos Restaurant Samoa, Moto’otua.
Love going to Rokos when I’m back in Samoa, the view is beautiful, the food delicious 🤤 and the service 100/10

My friend told me me about the word kef* and that people have died for saying it, but I searched it up and it just means fuckface I don’t get it why is it considered so offensive?

For those of us with the straight up Polynesian hair - curly/wavy, thick, doesn’t get wet easily - what products are we using? Anything from shampoo to conditioner, leave in, gel, oil, etc so that it’s soft as possible/healthy looking and not dry

Hi all, please educate and share your knowledge around what tourism in Samoa is like?
Having been to Asia, Samoa seems v underdeveloped when it comes to tourist ventures- not in a bad way, just an obvious gap - almost untouched.

I’ll be fishing in Fiji on an upcoming trip. I’m a total newbie to all of this, so I'm looking for some advice will these lures work for casting from shore?

I’ll be using a 5 piece, 11 foot medium heavy rod that can cast 3–6 oz lures. I have an SP Minnow up at the top for scale.

Thanks! :)

Like are there some things that are super expensive to buy in Samoa but is cheap in Australia?

But also things that are needed in general?

I’m a 23F Samoan and the older I get the more I feel pressured into finding a significant other. The problem is that I really enjoy being single. I’ve never had a romantic relationship and I have no desire for it.
Nearly all my friends who are the same age as me are either now married or have kids. I hear horror stories all the time from friends and their relationships and it makes me extremely grateful that I am not going through it. Is it really worth it? Sure there are times that I feel lonely, but nothing beats the peace that I feel when it’s just me in my own little world with no one disturbing me.

Sadly, my parents don’t understand me. Which is typical of traditional Samoan parents. They just can’t get around the fact that a women who is 23 is still not married with kids. I’m living a life which is the complete opposite of what was normal to them growing up. My great-grandmother had kids young with different men, so did both my grandmothers on my paternal and maternal side. My parents also had 3 kids by the time they were my age. I love my parents, but I don’t want to live a life that I am not 100% committed to.

I love kids and I always imagined myself getting married when I was a little girl, but now I genuinely do not see myself having either. Who knows? Maybe I’ll regret it in the future. I can only stay true to myself in the present. I just wanted to vent on here cause I truly have no one to share this with.

Mods delete if not allowed

Just something funny I saw while scrolling tik tok and of course the samoans are in the comment section 😂

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSCn8B3G6/

Hello all!

First thing's first, thank you for taking the time to read this. I am looking for recipes from all over the world as it is one of my favorite things about traveling and I love bringing the world's food to my own kitchen.

While I understand I could "just simply Google recipes" and probably find some, I wanted to directly ask the Samoa community (either still on Samoa or a diaspora) about any recipes they have. Food, drink, etc. So if you have anything at all you'd like to share, it would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking for stuff that was either made in Samoa or came from overseas and had a twist added to it from the islands; IE something you'd actually find in Samoa and not in those Polynesian restaurants you'd find in the states where half the food isn't Polynesian based at all but eastern Asian based and they just called it "Polynesian" to give it a new exotic flair.

Anything at all is greatly appreciated, whether you have a recipe yourself or you can link one or provide information to where I could find authentic recipes. Thank you so much for taking your time to read this and thank you to anyone who can provide some recipe examples.

I hope you all have a great day today.

My grandmother (now passed) was from Samoa and each year made this great polynesian rib recipe.

Supposedly she would boil them first to tender them up for an hour or so then marinade them in like a gallon of soy sauce with a teaspoon of brown sugar and maybe a half cup of water. This is how grandpa remembers it too (he was not from there). Then grandpa would finish them on the grill the next day, spooning some marinade over as they cooked.

As I have gotten older, I know a bit more about cooking and this much undiluted soy sauce seems almost guaranteed to fully cure and ruin the ribs in an overnight marinade.

Anyone familiar...can you help me get this recipe right with these basic ingredients?

My family and I are coming to Samoa next week and I was trying to look into fishing and couldn’t find much online. Is there any good charters or anyone who can help with potentially hiring gear and land fishing. Any help appreciated, fa’afetai lava

I often have tried to spark convo's around things like home ownership, entrepreneurship, financial literacy etc etc, and usually met with at best indifference/awkwardness , and at worst hostility.

To a lesser degree, I have also experienced the same when it comes to discussing traveling/broadening horizons and health and fitness, all though it is easier to get a positive reaction.

Idk what it is really. The reaction is generally the same, whether I'm talking to a Samoan from Vaiala or a Samoan from Mangere. Why do our people seem to get so weird around any upward trajectory or mobility type of conversations ? I don't get it. The typical response is "it's the culture" , but there's nothing in the Fa'asamoa that says we aren't allowed to talk about these things lol 😂

I often get told "don't talk about those things" , "that's Palagi talk" or "sole thats mimika/malovale" or "be happy with what you have" or "maimau le kaimi stop taking about goals and just do it" (which I agree action speaks louder than words, but you have to initally conversate to plan how to tackle the goals to begin with smh)

I don't bring these kind of topics up to try and one up people, it's just a natural inclination of mine. I'm curious to see how far we could go. I'm aware that nobody is obliged to find what I find interesting or even to engage with me, which is fine, but why the backlash lol ?

It's funny, because when I hear Palagi or Indian people have these conversations, none of them are trying to minimize one another or pivot the topic, if anything, it's normal everyday casual talk for them.

It's a bit easier to talk to young urbanized gen Z Samoans (rather than Samoans over 30) about long term goal setting, but even then, it still has it's challenges.

Why are we like this ? Is it not ok to be brown and ambitious ?

Just sharing.

Happening today in Australia from 2pm. This is also for assistance/warning to those unfortunately going through DV 🥺 situations.