I sat in my seat trying my best to take notes and not doze off to sleep (from staying up until early hours in the morning on 1SAMOANA) haha I know what an addict. The lecturer looked up at me she was annoyed at my cellphone going off. I knew it was a text because all I heard was my message tone JUST DO IT DO IT DO IT……………MY NECK MY BACK LICK MY ………AND MY BACK. I rambled through my huge bag feeling about for it.All I could feel was hair products,handfull of lipglosses,pens,scattered lollies from my dads fathers day ula lole and my folder of notes. I finaly got hold of it and switchd it off. I didn’t bother reading the message as I thought I was annoying forward. My eyes got heavier and heavier and my grip on the pen got looser and looser. I felt the floor vibrating it was my cellphone again.I rambled through the bag once again and read it ”Hey cuzz is your mum ok?” I texted back “Yea cuzz shes good I spoke to her last night, she gonna b in Samoa 4 anothr few weeks”. My cellphone went off again “Can u get in contact with her plz…….we worried about her”. I thought to myself GOSH, WHAT DRAMATIC FAMILY MEMEBERS!!!!!! I chucked the cellphone back in my bag and kept writing. Again I felt the floor vibarating over and over, I picked it up and there 9 UNREAD TXT MESSAGES. My eyes lit up thinking YEAH THATS RIGHT FANS TEXTING ME. That dream was immediatly shattered as i read the last message out of the 9. ”HEY WELL????DID U RING OR WAT????TXT BAK NOW!!!!! THERE HAS BEEN A TSUNAMI IN SAMOA!!!!” By then the lecture had finished and I was on my way out to my tutorial for that day. It didnt hit me until I jumped on one of the student comps in the hallway googled the news and there it was all the info I needed. My heart just started to ache the first image in my mind was my mum. I just kept thinking ”….am I going to be loosing my mum?” A week earlier before she left to Samoa to attend a title name court case bla bla bla we were constantly arguing over her making me change her return flight date over and over again. ”Mum I have to pay money everytime you want to make a change to your flight details!!” She always replied with ”I carried you in my stomach for 9 months” LOL and I replied with ”Well I did not ask you to did I?” LOL But now I was sitting there helpless tears streaming down my face and how I wished I had just gone with her as planned. When I viewed the map of the areas affected, my mum’s village (MUTIATELE,ALEIPATA) was right in the affected area. I wish I had not viewed the map. Still crying I started dialing my uncles cellphone number in Samoa. The longer it rung the harder I cried. Finaly my uncle answered. I asked (trying my best to be strong and sound not worried) if they were all alright. He paused, then said they all were alright. ”Is my mum alright?” I asked this time holding my breath in and letting all my tears flow down no matter if all my eyeliner dripped as well. He paused again and I closed my eyes ”IOE shes alright she’s on the other side of the hill the village has been demolished but we are all alright”. I kept crying this time tears of joy and relief. All day long I kept thanking GOD, for his protection over my family and for reminding me to appreciate my mum and that there are those out there who are not as lucky as I was.Those who were unable to go pick their mum up from the airport and see them smiling and feeling that warm hug again.
Our family lives directly across from a bus stop, (I know what you are thinking.....WOOOPPPYYY DOOOOOOO SOOO WHAT?????) It's a heavily graffitied bus stop it stands there day and night (no kidding) rain or shine with a half munched timetable and a bus stop sign that has been smeared with mud and God knows what else. We all know that a bus stop is used to shelter those who catch the bus to wherever they are going, unless you are from a 3rd world country over the hills and far away....teletubbies come out to play oh well a bit off the topic LOL sorry I miss watching teletubbies LOL . You knw this bus stop, how about every weekend we have a group of under age drinkers (the same group every weekend) drinking there.They sit there singing laughing a conversating and even krumping to the 1 song from JSQUAD that sounds RECORDED onto their phone (very poor sound LOL) on 1 of their cellphones. Its put on repeat from late Friday night until early saturday morning. You usualy know the drink up is finished because 1. Their phone battery has run out 2. They got no more alcohol 3. The police pull up and kindly offer them a ride home LMAO What about the other day a group of school kids waiting for the bus decided that the footpath,road and some poor persons front lawn was not enough room for their fight. They their fight onto the roof of the bus stop by the time cars had stopped to sort these teens out the biggest guy out of them all (who was probably samoan, judging from the samoan expletives that was coming out of his mouth)…..well he was holding the skimpy guy from the top of the roof dangling him while the rest of them clapped and cheered on the 3 boys on the roof. On a weekly basis as our family members make their way to work or school in the early hours of the morning we will always spot a foreign body laying inside the bus stop after a long night of boozing and partying at a nearby house.One of us (usualy me) crosses the road and check if who ever it is, is still breathing then carry on with our daily routine. You have to be very cautious if you ever decide to catch the bus from here why? because people (of all ages) tend to use it as a public restroom if they cannot make to the next one. Not only during the night it is used for urinating but is also during the day and openly (most people would do it discreetly) not the people in this neighbourhood LMAOOOOO!!!!! One night my sister and I were in the room surfing the net and being faikala on peoples bebo pages and all we hear is a couple arguing ……….how about they were arguing over who was going to be paying their fares on the bus and how much is the bus fare???? $3.00 nzd for both of them. LOL I know I couldn’t believe I was hearing an argument over this. The moral of the story is...................Our Bus stop (I mean the city councils bus stop) has many other uses. LMAO
When you have a teenage girl trembling and hiding in your closet while their mother, father and sister are all standing at the door yelling out her name each time the tone in their voices becoming more and more aggressive, what do you do? It then gets to the point where they all basically step into your house uninvited yelling at the top of their lungs and threatening to call the police when in fact the only ones breaking any type of law would be them, what do you do? You know for sure that once they get their hands on her she will get a beating, what do you do? As I was growing up I always imagined what I would do, the steps I would take if I ever was in a similar situation I even rehearsed lines to say but I totally froze. I mean yes I have had my fair share of beatings up to a certain age where my parents saw the light and stopped laying their hands on me which was a very long time ago. Still frozen I thought to myself I’m not this child’s mother or legal guardian I really do not have the right. This thought was quickly interrupted by this young girl giving herself up to her parents only to have her father viciously pull her by the hair about 10 metres out to the car in front of the whole neighbourhood whom were already out on the road wanting to know what all the commotion was which is very common especially amongst an area over populated by many Samoans the faikala ones mainly. [ad#alamaipostsquare]The big red Honda family van zoomed off. I knew once they got home she will get a beating not only from her mother but from her father, sister her two other brothers and cousin all at once that’s just how it is in her family they probably think the more the merrier? Although I picked up the phone and notified the police for some reason I had this guilty feeling I knew I was doing the right thing but still I had a sick feeling in my gut but I wanted to break the cycle of staying silent and turning the blind eye like many do. Discipline is a thing that should be carried out but not to the extent where it becomes a family gang bash well at least that’s what I think?
