Mother proud of hard work

By Sarafina Sanerivi 07 December 2016, 12:00AM

There is something wrong when people think life is a walk in the park.

Fale Soma, from the village of Malie, believes life is meant to be hard to challenge us to get better.

Fale, 52, lives by the saying – you live by the sweat of your brow – and works hard in her plantation growing a variety of crops.

She explains that if you just sit around, you won’t get anywhere in life.

“To put it simply, if you don’t work then how do you expect to live,” Fale told the Village Voice.

“Life isn’t simple and everyone needs to make an effort when they want something. My family is doing great because we go by the saying – you live by the sweat of your brow – if you sit around then you won’t have any money.”

“So here is how things work, work gets you money and money gets you what you want. It’s as simple as that.”

Fale spends much of her day in the plantation making sure her crops are growing well. With a large variety of crops growing on her land, the task is not easy at all.

“I can’t think of any issues we are currently facing right now,” she said.

“The children are currently working and helping out with the family and the old man and I just stay at home and work on our plantation.”

“We try to make good use of our land so we grow taro, bananas, peanuts, peas and a few more other crops. That’s pretty much all the work my husband and I are involved with.”

“I actually just finished weeding the peanut plot just moments before you arrived.”

With more focus on peanuts than her other crops, Fale says that although it’s tough to maintain, peanuts are a really good way to make money.

“We have been working on our plantation for a while now but we focus a lot on our peanuts,” she said.

“I think we first started growing peanuts three years ago and it has helped my family a lot. It’s a good way to make money but it’s not easy to maintain. The money is really good though.

“All we have to do is wait for three months and then we can harvest it. Like I said before, you won’t get anywhere in life if you just sit around and do nothing.”

With the only issue being the menacing grass and weeds, Fale says that $3,000 made from harvesting the peanuts is a good enough reward for the family.

“Once we harvest the peanuts, we can make up to $3,000,” she said.

“We have some young guys come and help us out with harvesting and we pay them $20 each for that day. We only spend about $150 to pay and we still make a lot for my family.”

“The only problem we have with the peanut fields is the grass. It’s a lot of hard work weeding the field but it has to be done if we want to make money.”

“That’s a bit about my family and the work that we do.”

By Sarafina Sanerivi 07 December 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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