Kulua – the matriarch of the family. She is Isa’ako’s mother and at age 75 does more around the house than any older woman I’ve ever seen. On a given day you could expect to see her weaving a fine mat, weeding around the house, feeding the chickens, and on and on. She has a bad back for which she drinks a strange Samoan herbal remedy that I would hesitate to try. Apparently she swore off smoking hoping it would help with the pain as well as it being a sort of barter with God. So wasn’t I surprised when I saw her smoking like a 
Isa’ako – my host father, age 51, balding, an easy laugh, or more like a giggle, and really bloodshot eyes. For a long time I doubted whether he could see very well at all. Then I saw him reading a newspaper. He spends his days fishing in the ocean (fagota) or at night (lama) not with a pole, but with a spear. He is also the treasurer for the Congregational Church in Fausaga, collecting donations in front of the church before morning service on Sundays. He runs Friday night bingo and smokes cigarettes like a champ. His wife, Lefulefua, died in 2000 (?) leaving 6 kids.
Logova – he is Isa’ako’s oldest son, age approximately 25. He works in the plantation growing taro, gathering coconuts, and planting banana trees. He also is a master crab fisherman and goes fishing basically everyday. He loves dancing. 
Eni – age 21, an enigma of sorts during my stay. He works in the capital of 
Akeripa – age 18. The go-to man if someone in the family needed a chore run for them and didn’t trust a nine year-old to do it. A splash of bleached-blonde hair and a rat-tail with a sea turtle necklace completes my mental picture of him. I burn rap CDs for him that he seems to absolutely love, going as far as to call me once I moved to Savai’i at 11:30 p.m. to make sure I would be bringing another one when I came back to Fausaga. 
Tuese – the oldest of Isa’ako’s daughters, age 20, she works at Coconuts Beach Club Resort a few towns over as a waitress. It’s hard to capture her in words. She was such an awesome help to me, explaining things I didn’t understand or just talking and hanging out. She was always trying to get me to try new things or go visit somewhere I hadn’t been. 
Tafale – age 19, she just finished school last year and was basically assigned to care for me while I was staying in Fausaga. She cooked many of my meals (quite tasty), ironed, and washed my clothes. I felt bad for her and tried to alleviate as much of that responsibility as possible. That said we ended up spending a lot of time together and becoming good friends. We played cards, watched volleyball and taught each other slang in our respective vocabularies. She’s really smart and I told her I thought she should definitely go back to school. We’ll see what happens. 
Fipe – age 12, the youngest daughter, super smart (got third in her class this year) and loves a good laugh. She was cracking up all the time I was there. Except for a week where she got really sick and I thought she was headed to the hospital. But, she pulled through and was back to her old ways. Generally, she plays volleyball in the front yard, squirts her cousins with a squirt gun and is just a kid. 
Ta’afi, Soloa, Lili & Ueli – Ta’afi is Isa’ako’s younger brother and is married to Soloa. I thought they only had two kids, Lili, age 7, and Ueli, age 4. I found out in late December after living with them, in the same house, for two months, that they in fact have five kids, three of which are living with Soloa’s family. It blew my mind to say the least, but hey, Samoans’ perspective on family is much larger than my American nuclear family view. Lili starts school next year and seems really happy about it. Ueli runs around the house, takes showers in the rain and plays with toy cars. Ta’afi works at Sinalei Hotel as a groundskeeper for the golf course. Soloa is like Superwoman. Let me explain with a small anecdote: one Saturday I walked to the plantation to get coconuts with her and Tafale. It is a good two and a half mile walk. We headed back and I picked up the stick with 12 coconuts on either end. I’ll estimate its weight at 95 pounds. To carry it you balance it on one shoulder. I walked about ¾ of a mile in the 90 degree heat and 100 percent humidity and just about died. Soloa insisted that she take it. She did. She then walked it the rest of the way home, without stopping, and forever engraved herself in my mind as one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. I woke up the next day with a bruise on my shoulder.
Mele & Elika 
Onosa’i, Mele, Winston & Elika – this is another of the small families within the greater extended family. Isa’ako is Onosa’i’s uncle. Onosa’i was raised by Kulua. He is married to Mele and they have two kids. Onosa’i has been my teacher of the fa’aSamoa (the Samoan way). He taught me how to plant banana trees in the plantation, go fishing with a net, tie my lavalava, basically anything and everything. He runs a small store out of the side of our family’s house and hopes it use it to pay for his sons to go to school when they are older. Mele, his wife, works at the Australian Defense in 
All the people listed above lived in the two houses on my family’s property. It is a packed house all day, everyday. It was a definite change to be around people 24/7 but I really enjoyed it by the end. Now that I’m living alone, it’s really damn lonely. 
One house down the street lives another of Isa’ako’s brothers, Gasolo. His kids – Lineta, Taua, Sa, Limu and Kepa – were in and out of my family’s house all the time. 
I also spent a lot of time with PCV Matt’s family. His host mother, Mele, is Kulua’s sister. Another of Isa’ako’s brothers, Oge (pictured), lives there along with Mele’s daughter, Asolima, and her two kids, Akenese and Leme. In summation, my Samoan family is very, very large and very complex. It took me two months to learn all of these relationships and I’m sure another two months would have been just as revealing. That said, they are awesome and I wouldn’t trade my time with them for anything.
P.S. If you hadn't noticed this blog post is HUGE. I couldn't have posted it with the use of PCV Matt's computer and lava spot pass in Apia. Thanks!
