Samoan Prayer Life (Written Nov 1 2005)

In lieu of typing about my second day on the job at Chanel (we went over technical stuff today – yesterday was the teacher portion. I'm a lot more comfortable with the technical portion!) I wanted to share a little bit more of the Samoan I learned while in the village. So here are two Samoan prayers that I asked my host family to write down for me. The first one is a prayer that you would say before eating a meal. Here's a reference to what some of the words mean:

Lotu = prayer

Iesu = Jesus

Meaai = Food

Fa'afetai = Thank You

Aso = Day

Lotu Meaai

Fa'afetai Iesu foai mai meaai tausi ai matou le fanau. Amene.

 

This second prayer is the 'Our father' prayer you would say during church. They say this after every evening prayer.

 

Tatolo a le Alii

Lo matou Tama e, 'oi le lagi

'Ia paia lou suafa

'Ia o'o mai lou malo

'Ia faia lou finagalo I le lalolagi

e pei 'ona faia I le lagi

Ia 'e foa'I mai ia te'I motou I le aso nei oa

Matou mea'ai e tatau ma le aso

'Ia 'e fa'amagalo ia te'I motou

ia matou agasala

'E pei o 'I matou fo'I 'ona motou

fa'amagaloina atu I e 'ua agaleaga

mai ia te'I matou

'Aua fo'I 'e te ta'ita'iina I matou

I le fa'aosoosoga

'A 'ia laveai I matou 'ai le leaga

'Aua e ou le malo ma le mano

'Atoa ma le viiga e fa'avavau lava

Amene.

 

And there you have it. Do I know what each one of these prayers is saying, not right now but at a later time I'm sure I'll be able to tell you (and I ran this by a trainer before accepting it is truth). So if you want to feel like you're a part of a traditional village Samoan family then give these two prayers a spin and see how you like the constant attack of vowels on your tongue. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Phillip!!!