Positive mother happy with her lot

By Talimalie Uta 23 August 2017, 12:00AM

Nothing is easy in life.

But if we stay positive and try our best, we can easily overcome any challenge.

So believes Afetualaina Maligi, 55, of Falevao. 

The mother of three lives with her husband in Falevao while their three children live in Apia to be closer to schools and work.

“We all know where life is moving towards and it’s not an easy way,” she said.

“However, to me personally, there is no such a thing as life being hard. One of the reasons why people are finding it tough is because they are not working hard enough.”

Afetualaina caught up with the Village Voice yesterday, when she was weeding her garden.

 “This is what I do every day,” she said. “After cleaning the house, I use up my free time to work on clearing our land.

“You know, nowadays we just don’t need to sit around doing nothing, we always have to work. It’s nice to sit there and look on to something that’s clean.”

In life, she added, everything requires effort.

 “Because blessings do not come to you in a peaceful way,” she said. “You will not enjoy anything until you feel that you’ve earned it.”

The 55-year-old admits that the cost of living is expensive.

But she is also philosophical about it.

 “Of course everything is expensive,” she said. “Mind you, the reason why we find it expensive is because we rely too much on imported goods from the shop when we can get food from our own hands.

“In Samoa, we can have taro for ‘umu’ and ‘luau tunu’ to go with it.  It’s healthy and tasty. The cost of living is expensive because we are making it expensive.”

Besides, in Samoa, there are many ways to make money. 

“You work on your garden and you sell the flowers where you can make some money,” she said. “You farm the land and you can make money. If you go fishing you can make some money. So there are lots of ways to make money.

“You see life can be easy if we make it easy.”

Afetualaina said she enjoys the peace and harmony in their village. 

She added that they have access to water and electricity and her family is reasonably happy with their lot.

By Talimalie Uta 23 August 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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