Satitoa Diary

Wanganui Chronicle reporter Anne-Marie Emerson is part of the Wanganui District Council-led reconstruction team currently in Samoa. The team is helping the village of Satitoa rebuild after the devastating tsunami in September. Anne-Marie is reporting daily from Satitoa.

5 December 2009

Today, the team arrives in Samoa and survives a terrifying bus ride to Satitoa, where their arrival is greeted with excitement by the locals – especially the children.

I'm writing this from the wrecked ground floor of the Matamatagi Motel, on the waterfront at Satitoa. For the next 10 days the motel will be our home; we've spread out our belongings and our airbeds on the floor, marae-style. Since the tsunami, the motel no longer resembles a motel, but it has running water and electricity and plenty of space, and most of it is structurally sound. It's more than adequate for our needs.

The scene here right now is one of semi-organised frenzy. The container in which all our food, gifts and building supplies arrived in Satitoa is sitting on the wharf, next to the high chief's house, and the long process of unloading it is well underway. The children and young men, and of course the crew, are ferrying in armloads of supplies including boxes of food, timber, toys and nails. The kids are falling over each other to help out. Some of the little boys, no more than eight, stagger over the road carrying 40kg bags of concrete; egged on by their mates, they wouldn't dream of putting them down. (Click on the image to view a larger version).

We landed in Apia in the early hours of this morning and spent the remainder of the night there. Most of us have not slept since we left New Zealand, so it will be an early night for the crew tonight.

We made the journey to Satitoa over the mountains in an ancient wooden bus, which shuddered and juddered over every tiny bump in the road. The driver ignored the colour of the traffic lights – every colour apparently means "go" – and took the many judder bars at full speed. The scenery was spectacular: brightly-coloured fale [Samoan houses] tucked into lush tropical bush and coconut plantations. But as we got closer to Satitoa the path of the tsunami became more evident. Once-beautiful beaches resembled rubbish dumps with corrugated iron, smashed wood trees and wrecked houses strewn everywhere.

In Satitoa we received a very warm welcome from Te'o Uiva Simi and Rev Afaese Falanaipupu. The women of Te'o's household served us crackers, sweet tea and coconuts with a hole in the top and straw sticking out of it to drink the milk.

Tomorrow morning we will go to church and start planning the new building, which will function as a preschool and church. No work is done in Samoa on Sunday. But on Monday the building work will begin, and we can't wait.