A Different Culture (Written 10/15/05)

Well I walked around Apia a bit today just to get a feel for the place and see if paradise was all it was cracked up to be. Unfortunately, like every major city no matter where you go – once you look underneath the surface that is projected for the tourists, things look a lot different. As I walked around I saw the ‘houses’ in which people tend to leave called ‘Fales’ (FALL As), but unlike a traditional house in the states there tend to be no or few walls between the inside of the house and the outside world. I know its hard to imagine a house made only of poles but no walls, but it’s a regular occurrence in Apia and from what I hear the rest of Samoa. The walk around gave me a better understanding of as far as this culture has come, the Peace Corps still has a lot of work to do here in order to improve the quality of living. Not just in the way people live – which is the traditional Samoan way – but since people live in a house without walls they tend not to have computers (the reason I am here). While in the states a computer is almost a dime a dozen, here in Samoa it seems to be an item that most people can live without (for better or for worse). While I was walking around the town a bit, I felt like I was back in Chicago on the west side or the residential area surrounding a sports complex – the standard of living was almost equivalent. But the good thing is that these people are truly happy and while I as an American may look on there situation as kind of bad, part of my training here is to see things as a Samoan would see them. So sometimes its good to get some alone time to just see the culture as the way a native would. But this is also a different culture in that they are tremendously affected by Western civilization (whereas we American aren’t very affected by the output of other countries). In the 4 days I have been here I have heard buses with subwoofers on them blaring through the street, I’ve heard Eminem, 50 Cent and Kanye West played on a lot of speakers throughout the city. While in the American culture, we know these artists say some bad things sometimes but for the most part many Americans don’t repeat what they hear in these songs. The same can not be said for most Samoans – because this is what they hear from the states. So as I was walking around today, I had my first encounter with the ‘n’ word. While I was warned about it before it was still a shocker to just hear someone, not meaning any harm, just come up to me and say it multiple times. The bad part about it is its hard to explain to them that I am an African-American because if you say that the ask if you’re from Africa. So as in my culture where its kind of easy to get people on the right track – or just explain to them how offensive some words can be – here its different because they constantly hear these types of things from the radio and television. I just have to remind myself that this is a different culture and while I may not be able to change the whole island’s mindset, I can start one person at a time – who knows in two years they may no longer say that word. BTW, I am one of 3 African-Americans on the island (the other 2 being women) and it came as a shocker to all of us the first time we heard it – so at least I’m not alone in that regard. L8r.