Dear Editor

Sāmoans are known for their hospitality, generosity and “spirt of aloha” as we say here in Hawaiʻi. In June, I had the privilege of attending the 13th Annual Festival of Pacific Arts in Honolulu with my 12 and 17-year-old grandsons, where the Sāmoans once again demonstrated le agaalofa.

I was volunteering at the Peace Corps booth (having served in Poutasi in 2007-2008), so I gave my grandsons my credit card and told them to walk around and find a souvenir t-shirt for each of them. When they returned, the youngest had a shirt, but the oldest said he didn’t find one that he wanted. Instead, he held up a small package and said that they’d found a gift for me.

Two days later when we came back to our Big Island home, I excitedly unwrapped a small, beautifully carved and painted, wooden turtle from Sāmoa. I immediately loved it and was touched by their thoughtfulness, but that’s only the beginning of the story.

While looking at the items for sale, they’d told the woman from the Sāmoan delegation about their grandmother who was in Peace Corps in Sāmoa. They picked the turtle and then found out that they would need to pay with cash only. They were about to walk away when the woman called them back and told them, “Here, take it for your grandmother,” as she wrapped it and pressed the package into their hands.

My laumei is lovely and reminds me every day of Sāmoa and the kindness shown to my grandsons. “Faʻafetai tele lava!” to this bighearted woman who personified the generous spirit of the Sāmoan people.

Donna Barr