Manuia le Kerisimasi

Translation: Merry Christmas

I have now experienced a Christmas and New Year in Samoa. I am, in my opinion, one of the luckier volunteers in the sense that it is not my first holiday away from my family. I am able to cope with the fact that I am not with my family during this time. I also had an interesting Christmas that kept me too busy to think about my American family. 

I spent Christmas with my host family in Savai’i, which is the larger of the two main islands in Samoa, but the less populated one. For the week leading up to Christmas, I spent my nights with the church youth group working on songs and dances for our Christmas production. The hardest part of all these practices was trying to learn songs in Samoan without actually being able to read them. I had to listen to the group sing, then try to decipher words. If you have ever listened to a song in a language you’ve never spoken, you can attest that it just sounds like a jumble of words.

Finally, on our practice on Friday night, we were given a book with all of the songs we would be singing. I finally had some clarification to what we were singing and realizing I had been practicing singing (or more lip syncing) very incorrectly. Luckily, I had been standing at the back and planned to stay there for the performance. The only exception for this was that I was asked multiple times if I wanted to sing a solo. In my new “Yes, man” attitude, I decided “Why not?”

Saturday rolls around and I rush to get a new ie (essentially a skirt) to wear for the Christmas production that evening. When I asked what time it started, of course no one knew. That is just the Samoan way. It ended up starting after dark (how real Samoans tell time). We sang and danced for close to two hours and during special performances, they put out bowls for people to donate money to the church. When it was my turn to sing my solo, they had the bowls out. I was nervous, but my host mom was up hooting and hollering so much that it immediately calmed me down. For my rendition of Jingle Bell Rock, I raised a total of 8 tala. Big money….

After the production, my host mom asked me if I wanted to join them to walk and sing to bring in the birth of Jesus at midnight. Once again, my “yes, man” attitude kicked in and I went with it. While the experience was nice and definitely a good part of integrating into my community, there is no way I would do it again. At midnight we started walking with a group from my church, singing Samoan Christmas songs. It was beautiful at first. Eventually, however, it became a drain. We sang basically the same three songs and finished around 2 am. I went to bed around 2:30 am and needless to say, I slept through church the next day.

On Sunday, Christmas Day, we had another production, which was much more about songs about the birth of Jesus. No solo for me that night. There were still special performances that raised money for the church. And even when Christmas was over, I still had people wishing me a Merry Christmas until the New Year. Occasionally I will still get a Manuia le Kerisimasi and definitely still hear Christmas Songs….It is January 11th...