Cost of living too expensive

By Aruna Lolani 26 July 2017, 12:00AM

The high cost of living is something no one can escape.

So it is only fair people make do with what they have.

A 68-year-old mother of Fusi Safata, Fa’apaia Vili, shared this opinion with the Village Voice yesterday.  

“With the high cost of living, I’m telling you there are so many things that we need but cannot afford,” she told the Village Voice team.

“I mean even if we could, we have other things to prioritize first like the welfare of our families.”

“For instance, we really need a water tank for our family because as you can see, we are one of the families from this village relying on the village well.”

“That’s the good thing about this village; they cater to people’s needs but to me, sometimes people can only do so much and that’s why we need a water tank for our own to make things easier.”

How so?

“My family is not a big family and the water tank we have now is basically for cooking our food and for drinking water but we need water for other things as well like our laundry and for showering but we only have one old water tank.”

“It’s not just my family who needs a water tank, most families from this village need help with water tanks because most of us anyways cannot afford to pay for the installation fee to set up our own water.”

“Like I said, life is not that cheap anymore and we have more important things that our money should go to first; our children’s education is one of those things.”

Fa’apaia is a mother to ten children. 

“My children are all grown up now and have families of their own; you know their children are my children too.”

“That’s how life is and honestly life in the village is okay despite the many challenges coming our way.”

“That’s the truth right now, people can’t respond to their basic needs nowadays and it’s because the cost of living is expensive.”

“I mean we could have afforded our own water and anything else for that matter if it wasn’t right?”

“But reality cannot be undone because we are already living in it.”

“Life is going down the fast lane and with that, we are the ones who have to keep up with it.”

By Aruna Lolani 26 July 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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