It’s not all about money

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 13 September 2016, 12:00AM

Life might be tough for people but Tologata Tanielu Fano from the village of Pata, Falelatai, says life is a breeze.

Aged 65 without any children to worry about, Tologata lives with his wife out in the village.

“My life is just full of joy; there are no problems at all,” he told the Village Voice.

“I do my own thing and whatever I get, I am grateful. There is no point in complaining about not having other things, just be happy with what you have.

“It’s just my wife and I living in this house but my wife stays in Apia to look after my elderly mother,

“Most of the time I am by myself out here and so I just live a nice peaceful life. “

Tologata once relied on his plantation as a source of income but that is now in the past. He now uses his land as his main source of food seeing little value in money.

“In the past I made money out of my plantation but right now; we don’t get much from our plantation for money,” he said.

“But that doesn’t bother me, as long as there’s food on the table, I just pray to God saying thank you for what he gives on a day to day basis.

“We don’t even rely on families overseas for money. We live on whatever I get from the strength of my hands every day. My wife might even get some money from Apia.

“No matter how poor I am, I just speak to God about it. There’s no point in letting everyone else know you’re hungry or they will talk behind your back.”

When asked how the general living standards were like in the village he says it’s simply great.

“Life is just great out here,” he said.

“The only problem out here is, what ours is the property of the village. What I mean by this is when I go somewhere, I return to a messy house with missing things. They take a plate, knife and so on.”

With money having little to no value to Tologata, items from shops are also useless to the carefree man.

“I don’t know how the cost of living is right now because I don’t eat anything from shops,” he said.

“The land provides my food. No matter what I get I boil it and eat it; I never buy anything. That’s how I live my life right now.”

Even the government isn’t an interesting matter to him.

“The government is alright to me,” Tolagata said.

“The only thing we need to do is to pray for God to give them strength and to ask him if what they are doing is right or wrong. That’s all we need to worry about.”

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 13 September 2016, 12:00AM

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