Hi, months ago I made a post regarding about moving to Western Samoa, Moving REALLY soon to Western Samoa : r/Samoa there's many things I realized that are pros and cons, some might be just personal icks or whatnot but this is just how I see my experience, this is coming from someone who was raised in America but is Samoan. You are allowed to disagree with me and pay no mind to what I have to say, but I just want to discuss this with people who are knowledgeable about what I am saying, locals, visitors, etc.

Pros i've experienced

- No rent (As long as you have land)

- Relaxed lifestyle (Possibly a con too)

- Quiet, not so many crimes depending on location

Cons i've experienced

- Local behavior / mindset

- Poor wifi connection depending on location and process of mobile data / any payments through phone

- Cuisine / Food in general

- Relaxed lifestyle

- Greed

- Modernization

- The "government" and media on Facebook

I'm glad I have family here that has land, it's a blessing that our family was able to keep land that wasn't forked over by some higher party and sell it, i'm sure anyone in the world is dying for a piece of paradise. I enjoy that we don't have to worry about rent, it's awesome that we can have a whole house to ourselves. Ever since I did arrive from America I was shot with the lifestyle of breathing and taking the world in as it is, less traffic, apartments, fear from a leader, and the work-life that America brings upon it's people. With so much of "less everything" you expect and receive less noise and bustle as well, it's such a relief not hearing an ambulance blaring in the middle of the night, or gunshots every other day with the occasional firework being set, it's an absolute change I couldn't get enough of. Overall, Samoa to me has been a safe place to retreat, but how long I want to stay here is a question I keep throwing around in my head.

The longer I stay here the more miserable I feel to put it very blunt, and yeah, you can tell me "Go back home" and I am already looking forward to, I have had a handful of issues and I wish they just couldn't exist because a place so beautiful does not deserve a bad reputation. The behavior of locals is something I keep looking at every time I do get to go out into Apia, before, when we were new to the area I felt like people were being very kind and helpful especially since we usually buy in bulk for our household, especially in smaller shops for appliances and kitchenware but learning of this country's way of viewing money it soon felt like we were just wallets for others if that makes sense. I understand now that theft is a big thing in Samoa but seeing visitors and tourists freely walk into stores with personal bags / backpacks while I am getting tapped on my shoulder and mumbled to, to put my bag in a designated area feels almost discriminatory. I see it heavily with the big-name grocery stores, stocking on items people never buy, yet somehow they always keep it in stock, I question heavily on why they even do this if they know the average family is barely making enough money to cover an electric and water bill. I've come to realize that some businesses here are just wasting their money on product hoping that people will buy into when there are several less costly options.

Speaking of markets, the food here isn't the same as America (personal ick) but it was always to be expected, it's upsetting to not have something that reminds me of home where a lot of the stuff here is traditional or old-fashioned. And with old-fashioned comes the modernization bit of Samoa. I live in a part of the island that is neglected by modernity, where the roads are rough right after the airport, while it's nice that they have a road at all it looks terrible once you notice how immediate the cut-off is past the airport, it's like all the funding goes towards directly to Apia and only surrounding places near it. With that, despite having a popular brands router here, there seems to only be one tower in Apia and everyone is connected to it, being on the outside villages is stressful because most of my relationships and calls depend on that connection so it's been extremely hard to get a stable connection or to even simply send a text message. Don't even get me started on how phone companies here expect you to pay your bills with a million different dial codes. Despite my frustrations in the first few months with connection, I have tried contacting for support up to 5 times a day to see if there was any help or tips on how to get a better connection, yet, they copy and pasted an AI-Generated response that I have seen the patterns of MULTIPLE times while trying to look for my own solutions when the company support wouldn't. Professionalism here just isn't a thing. I just wish that sometime soon they would at least open up another tower in other parts of Samoa and not just fund the already bustling town.

While speaking of professionalism, I think the relaxed lifestyle here really gets to the locals, and I mean in a bad way. People will deal with you how they want, when they want, especially if it's coming from businesses, you'd think they'd be open all week but apparently, it's never a set schedule on how long a place will be open or available. My Mom and I call it "Samoan Time".

While in my first week here, my family decided that I needed to get an approval of permanent residency, I was excited and hopeful that I could stick with my mother here, the process was very simple but I was confused on why they would ever hand out an AI-Generated response from Google for steps to take in order to get your residency. I have a picture of it and I believe I still have it! It's baffling to me that government buildings will gladly hand you a piece of paper over something very serious and tedious instead of walking you through the process. The government heavily disappoints me even if I know they are still fairly new, but my mother has been backing them even when we were still in America, attending meetings and discussing plans with them and being hopeful that they will bring some type of positive change to the subpar leadership with the last. The media and news coverage is terrible here, we mainly get our information from Facebook since quite literally everyone and their mother in Samoa is on it, it's disappointing that the government we backed spent $2 million dollars in a single day for a celebration, but then higher-ups (PROFESSIONALS) soon sent out an "Amber Alert" for shortages of power. I have many things to criticize about this but people really need to put research on terms they use as well as some type of professionalism when speaking about a serious topic that could leave hundreds of thousands struggling when the government threw millions on a single day.

Please don't take this as me being hateful or some type of racist, it's not, I promise you.

I just wanted to discuss how my views have slowly changed and express my personal experiences and I would like to see if anyone would disagree, agree, or understand how I feel, because I feel that talking about it with my mother is just an endless loop of repeating our same frustrations.

Overall my brain is like "Yeah this is a nice place to vacation but not to live" and I believe that the lifestyle here isn't for everyone.

This poor dog is so sick. I’m sad to say but I think he needs to be euthanised. I’m a palangi so I’m unsure what I can do to help it as I’m fairly new to Samoa. I have been giving him scraps of food when I see him but he needs more than food 😔

Ou te fesili ona o se suʻesuʻega faalinguistika i lenei mataupu.
E mafai ona aofia ai ni faata‘ita‘iga e pei o le auala e ta‘ua ai Leauvaʻa ma Lalomanu Aleipata o “L.A.”.

I am making a series where I cook every national dish and my first step is to come to the sub and ask the question.

now I understand that not every country has a defined national dish and that some countries have many different regions with different cuisines. in that case I will make the one that you guys agree on best represents Samoa. please let me know what you think

It's a bit of a unusual request but I have a faint memory of a samoa TV presenter who did a cover of a pei se vaitafe after his friend died. Im not sure if i lost my mind but i swear it's the best cover of the song lmao.