A village man’s duty

By Sarafina Sanerivi 08 January 2017, 12:00AM

One of the unique features of the Samoan culture is the respect accorded by men to women. In different households for example, the men generally serve their sisters by performing the hard labour chores.

For Polito Pentito, from the village of Levi-Saleimoa, he says Samoa should never lose this.

The 22-year-old says it is the men’s job to face the fire in the cookhouse to serve the women. 

“It’s the way we live and it works for us,” Polito told the Village Voice.

“The boys in my family are the ones who do a lot of the chores.

“So we do our best every day to take care of things around the house and look after our parents to the best of our ability.

“No matter what happens and how much my parents get angry at me, I know that I have to serve them and my family because that’s where the blessings will come from.”

With eight family members living at his house, Polito and the other boys do a lot every day but it’s no problem for the tough village lads.

“There are eight of us at home right now and I am one the helpers around the house,” he said.

“My sister is employed overseas and I stick around at home to help take care of things. I’m not sure what others think but taking care of things around the house is pretty easy for me.

“I have grown used to going to the plantation, cooking, doing some housework and other chores around the house.

“Every morning I wake up and I go straight to the plantation to check on the crops then when I get home, I make some food for my parents and when my father comes home from work, I make sure his plate of food is waiting for him.”

Furthermore, Polito explains how the only issues people his age face happens when they muck around instead of being at home to take care of things.

He also mentions that his personal struggles can be fixed ones he learns from the mistakes he made last year.

“The only problem people my age face occurs when they just muck around and not be productive at home,” he said.

“If you just stick to taking care of you family and making sure everything is alright at home then you will live a decent life.

“For me personally, I there are a few things that I want to change as we get further into 2017. In order to do that I will have to review last year and what happened so I can improve this year.”

By Sarafina Sanerivi 08 January 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>