Bulidings of Samoa

This is a beautiful church both the front and back.  This is the back and it has a large field for soccer, football etc.

Was this dog sad because his master died or was it was just a great place to sleep with a great advantage for a quick attack if he gets up the energy to do so? The family graves are in the yard next to the house.

At night these churches have all the lights on and they look really sharp and inviting.

This is the home of one of the many resident NFL players who came back to the Island and built a big home for his mother.

This is a public Fale so it's called a Faleo'o. It is a public fale that anyone can use for parties, funerals or weddings.

This Fale is on private land and they have just a beautiful yard, well groomed with a countless variety of flowers and trees.

All the  other Christian  Churches have big posts around the perimeter of the building - all very different and fancy. The church goers are all dressed in white from head to foot. The women wear beautiful white hats.

This Fale is across the street from the beach so it sustained damage from the tsunami in 2009. We have lost count of the foundation slabs which are all that is left of homes or businesses from the destruction of the Tsunami in 2009. We have heard from some that it was a 60 ft high wave that went inland more than 1 km in some areas. Many of the island homes are along the shoreline within 100 yards of the ocean. Right behind the homes is the steep mountainside so there is no where to go if you have short notice. Our home is high enough to be above the danger zone so we sleep well at night but as we drive around we see destroyed homes that are vacant or just cement slabs where homes once sat.  You can only speculate as to how the occupants fared. One big shell of a business still has a big fishing boat sitting inside it. There is reconstruction ongoing as it takes years to recover from such a natural disaster.

Another public Faleo'o at the airport.  while people wait for their plane to leave or wait for people arriving they will sit on the floor with their back to a post and have a lunch or fall asleep.