So I did demolish the first
faleo'o about a year ago, and then I have since been working on rebuilding a new one. Though this one is different in size (smaller) and location (just to the side of the old one), it still serves and provides for me the same authentic and entrancing feeling about beloved Samoa. I've noticed and felt this especially having recently returned from Samoa where it has been a wonderful experience of
going home.
Faleoo are still ubiquitous even in a contrasting if not paradoxical sense. Most of the so-called
beach fales for tourists, visitors and beachgoers are all constructed using the blueprint of a
faleo'o. And although all family homes and dwellings are now modeled after
fale papālagi (western/European houses) using modern materials (bricks, concrete, glass windows/louvres, iron roofing, etc.), yet a
faleo'o, or two, are still wedged somewhere within the aiga (family) homestead. The adage that says you can take the man out of the country but not the country out of the man applies in how I have internalized this particular craze. I've always wanted a
faleo'o no matter how far away I live from the motherland. Dearie sometimes objects but I've been resolute for reasons that are only deep and visceral. You get my drift, aye? Ia ga. E gofogofo ai i le afiafi ma kākā le kikala 🎸ma usuusu mā pese ma si a'u honey.
Anyhow, before we left for Samoa, this American
faleo'o was still incomplete until a month after our return that I was able to finish it, plus the landscaping ..... and so if/when I ever go back to Samoa to finally live, in the broadest sense, I'll be able to build my own
faleo'o 🤣🤣
“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. ”
Henry David Thoreau
...and finally got some time to take a break and relax at the beach...🤣..though not the same as Lalomanu Beach 🌴🏝🤣
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