Teuila Festival

Thing that we have been doing in the last week:
We both have been snorkeling at the Paloa Deep, F enjoyed her experience swimming with the multi coloured fish and the coral bommies.
I finally got to take F on a tour of the fish market on Saturday morning, we also visited the vegetable market further uptown.

We went to fundraiser Pirate Night at the Yacht Club on Saturday night, some pics to tell the tale.
This week is the Teuila Festival named after a red blossom. It encompasses many activities from choir singing, dance, singing, traditional cooking, jazz, Samoan long boat rowing, markets and activities and a Miss Samoa Pageant. We went to the Hymnal Choirs on Sunday evening, represented were seven choirs from the major religions of Samoa. It started with a youth choir of about 60 and the choirs just got bigger, eighty, one hundred, etc until the last was estimated to be around the 400 mark with a brass section thrown in for effect. The singing was in Samoan and the effect was fantastic, each choir had been practicing for at least a month and they gave their all to the three to four songs they presented. The hall seated over one thousand and we were all given bottled water and a snack box.
Monday morning was the Samoan long boat rowing races. About eight teams competed an approx. 3k row, finishing in Apia harbour. This race was with traditional oars, Thursday’s race will be with scoop oars. I actually missed the finish and only saw the last boats finish. Apparently the lead boat thought they had crossed the line and stopped rowing, to be pipped by another boat coxed by the only woman in all the crews. The chants, war-cry’s and singing were fantastic to hear. There was much raising and lowering of oars to celebrate.