Village life trumps urban living

By Vatapuia Maiava 10 November 2016, 12:00AM

Some may prefer the many job opportunities offered when living in urban villages but for others, they would rather have a simple rural village life where money is the least of their worries.

For Liueni Leota, from the village of Manono and Vaitele-Fou, he would rather live in a rural village where there is peace and order.

Aged 35, Liueni works hard to take care of his children and puts them through school.

“I think the only downside of living here is that there are no village leaders who can keep order,” he told the Village Voice.

“The way people live here is up to every individual man. Many issues arise from having no village leaders keeping everyone in line and that’s one thing that needs to change here in the urban villages.

“In fact, the church is playing a big role in keeping peace in the absence of village leaders. We these days we are seeing a drop in issues because everyone is being taught morals at church and they are beginning to apply it in their everyday lives.”

Migrating from Manono to Vaitele, Liueni is put in a perfect position to comment on the two different village types.

“My family is actually from Manono before so we know the pros and cons of both living situations,” he said.

“Living standards in both rural and urban villages are very different and I can’t stress that enough. There is so much order in rural village because of the village leaders and I actually prefer that.

“Over here, there are no Matai’s or village leaders so everyone does their own thing. One problem with that is it causes chaos at times.”

Furthermore, Liueni says he misses having order and peace in his everyday life and not having to worry about money.

“I miss the peace in the rural village,” she said.

“Another difference between rural and urban villages is the way we see money. In the rural villages you can just stay home and not worry about having money or not.

“That’s because we have a lot of land to cultivate and the ocean to fish in. Here in the urban villages is different, we don’t have a lot of land but there are more job opportunities to make money.”

On the other hand, Liueni says that living in the urban village is good for the children because it’s close to all the schools.

“For me personally though, everything is alright with life and there are no problems we are currently facing,” he said.

“One of the great things about living in an urban village is that it’s good for the children. It’s not too far from all the different schools and I guess that’s the most important thing to us.”

By Vatapuia Maiava 10 November 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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