Father’s Day a reminder about role of men in the house

By Talimalie Uta 13 August 2017, 12:00AM

Life is more than money.

Happiness comes in many different forms. 

As Samoa celebrates Father’s Day today, Gafanua Lemafa, believes the biggest challenge of today is doing the best you can with whatever God has blessed you with. Gafanua is looking forward to spending Father’s Day with his children. Lunch, he said, will probably be chicken and umu.

Gafanua is a carpenter.

He is a hardworking man who says everything he does is for the benefit of his young family.

He works as a carpenter. When he is not working on building a house, he is at the plantation planting taro.

“My wife stays home to look after our baby,” he said.

“As a father, I have a huge responsibility in taking care of my family and ensuring that we get to meet all our needs.”

“Sometimes we may not have money but that will never stop us from trying… life is all about trying our best.”

Gafanua doesn’t think the cost of living is too much of a problem.

Rather he says it’s about people making the most out of what they have.

“Personally, I think it’s fair,” he said.

“One of the reasons why people complain about it is because they are too lazy to work or they have nothing better to do.

“They just spend so much time judging and talking rubbish about others.”

Like many families in his village, he said access to water is a challenge.

“At the moment my family don’t have access to water because we didn’t pay our bill,” he said. 

“However we won’t let that issue define who we are, we can just continue on with the rain water or water fetched from our neighbor.”

“But I still have to work hard for money to reconnect our tap water.”

He is also looking for other better paying opportunities.

He said he has skills as a builder and can work without supervision.

“It’s correct that the cost of living is expensive but that depends on the person.” 

“If you have a good job with a good pay, I guarantee that you can handle life but if not, don’t be sad. Keep trying.”

By Talimalie Uta 13 August 2017, 12:00AM

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