Struggles of rural life

By Ulimasao Fata 23 January 2018, 12:00AM

Living in the rural area is not an easy life to deal with every day.

Such is the view of 59-year-old father, Faitu’u Talā, from the village of Lalomanu in Aleipata. 

Mr. Talā says life in rural areas is harder than living in urban settings.

“I guess for us here in the rural area, depending on the plantation does not work. Your family has to have someone who works so they can help,” he told the Village Voice team yesterday.

“Most of the jobs are in the urban areas, so if our kids don’t do well in school, majority of them will be jobless.”

“The prices of goods are even more expensive here than in the urban areas. We don’t have supermarkets, but only a few small family shops that have their own prices for various good.”

He says the rapid change in the standard of living in Samoa contributes to the hard life.

“Life is really hard at the moment if you compare it to what it used to be back in the days, when most families only depend on their plantation for a living,” he explained while returning from the plantation

“Nowadays, it is really hard to depend on the plantation as the only source of support for any family because Samoa is going forward and things are getting expensive at the same time.”

“Today we have connections with overseas countries where we export goods from and that cost us a lot of money.”

Mr. Talā said his family is trying to cope with the hard life in Samoa these days.

“I have two children who work in Apia and they support our family in terms of finance.”

“So for me, this is my contribution to our family’s welfare from working at our plantation to providing crops for our food.”

“I don’t sell any of my crops to the market, but then some people here in our village usually give me money when they need crops from me.”

Mr. Talā also added people in the rural area must not settle with just the plantation.

“People here must need to seek for jobs to tackle the hard life we have today in Samoa.”

“Nothing is easy because we still have things to support apart from our families, like church and village obligations.”

“We need to push our people to go work and also work their plantation at the same time,” he said.

By Ulimasao Fata 23 January 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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