Their cat has become a member of our family too, and acts like he lives here with us.Toi and Malanga are retired so Toi plays golf (a lot!) and Malanga loves to putter around the garden. He takes care of both his yard and Loina's and it's stunning. Naturally, he's thrilled to have Curt as a neighbour because previous renters didn't always take care of the yard, and you know how much time Curt spends mowing and weeding! Malanga also helps us identify local plants and trees. Apparently we have a grapefruit tree in our back yard, and another one that looks like it has miniature oranges. There's also a banana tree but it's too old to produce fruit or something.
Like many islanders, Toi and Malanga moved to NZ about 40 years ago. They still have a bit of an accent, but their kids and grandkids are pure Kiwi.
One of the first things we learned was how to pronounce "Samoa." It's supposed to be SAM-O-uh rather than Suh-MO-uh. There is a large population of Samoans here. New Zealand is an ethnically diverse country. Here's a rough ethnic breakdown: 70% Pakeha (white people)
10% Maori
10% Pacific Islanders (Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, etc.)
10% Asian (China, India, Korea, etc.)
They invited us over for lunch one weekend back in April and fed us heaps of good Samoan food. It was really nice of them to reach out to us and to want to get to know us. Our only previous experience with Samoan culture was through our church in Portland which hosted a Samoan congregation. We often combined services with them and got to hear wonderful Samoan songs and dances, and even scripture read in Samoan.
Loina is a 4th/5th grade teacher at the same primary school she attended while growing up next door. Sadly, Loina and Laei are leaving on Saturday for 3 years in America, where Loina will be teaching in North Carolina and Laei will be finishing high school. They will have a great time but it's sad to see them go because they have been good neighbours. They bring in our mail when we're out of town, and they brought Curt some dinner after his 24-hour flight.
A few weeks ago, there was a BIG farewell party for Loina and Laei and all their friends from school, from the neighbourhood, and from the Samoan community. They rented a hall and there were probably 100 people there! The Samoan men prepared a hangi feast, cooking the food for many hours in a large pit in the ground.
The food was yummy and I tried taro for the first time. They assured me it's even better when you put coconut cream over it. Mmmmm. At the party, a couple of Loina's friends emceed a trivia contest for everyone ... and it was all based on American trivia. Well, you can imagine how happy we were that for once, we might actually know most of the answers! We were sitting at a table with more of our neighbours and they were pleased to have genuine Americans on their team. "How many states are there in the US?" "What's the title of the national anthem?" This is so easy!
Then they started playing short excerpts of old American TV theme songs. I'm afraid we weren't very much help there, but I was amazed at the theme songs our Kiwi teammates knew - Kojak, Benson, Battlestar Galctica? Overall though, our team won the trivia contest by a mile! (or maybe a kilometer?)Next there was more entertainment: Laei entertained us with some piano pieces, and some other girls danced, and then Malanga got up to lead everyone in the final song/hymn.
Besides the good food, we had a great time, and we got to meet more of the neighbours. We felt honoured to be included.
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