Getting passports and other documentation needed for the overseas assignment took a few months. We moved out of our house and put all our belongings in storage. Before leaving for Hawaii, the family stayed with Kathy's mom while I finished things up in Salt Lake City. But we finally went to Hawaii in February 1981 for a week’s training. My training time left Kathy and two children in the hotel. Kathy was six months pregnant then, and touring Hawaii was unappealing. I managed a couple of leave days to tour when the training was complete. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Then on to Samoa.
The heat and humidity were initially shocking when we arrived in Pago Pago (American Samoa). It felt like someone had thrown a hot, damp towel into my face. Kathy’s feet were swollen from the flight and pregnancy. My new boss met us there. We then flew to Faleolo Airport, near Apia, and drove to the Tusitala Hotel, where we stayed for several weeks. Our new home was to be in Moto’otua, near Apia. The Church had a housing compound there. The housing was for Presiding Bishopric employees (like me), Church Education System employees (the Church had small elementary and high schools there), and the mission president. The house we were to live in needed some repairs, so we stayed in the hotel for a few weeks until this was done. One morning during breakfast at the Tusitala, the family was dining together when thunder struck the fale we were eating in. With no outside walls, the sound was enormous, and Melissa, at four, jumped across the table into my lap.
A few weeks after we arrived in Samoa, we decided to take a sightseeing drive around the island. We had purchased a van, but it hadn't arrived yet. So we drove a church-owned van. As we drove around the island, we ended up driving on a beach on the opposite side of the island, having no idea where we were or how to get home. This is tough to do when the entire island is only 25 miles across. We drove along the beach, hoping to find someone who could speak English and give us directions. Finally, we found someone who got us back on the main highway and headed for home. In a few miles, the van got a flat tire. There was no spare. We walked back to a telephone booth we had noticed, but the phone didn't work. (Just like in the U.S.) We then started walking towards Apia, some 10 miles away. When we were walking past a village, a man stopped us. (For some reason, a couple of white people walking along the highway, one seven months pregnant, with two children, was an unusual sighting there.) He turned out to be a matai, or village chief. He spoke English. He asked what had happened. When we explained the situation, he offered to help. He told us of another member of our Church who had helped him out at a needy time, and he wanted to pay forward. While waiting for the bus, though, he took us on a tour of his village. He fed us. We realized that we had no Samoan money with us. So, he stopped a bus, paid our fare, and we rode home with passengers, pigs, and chickens. We got to see the authentic Samoa. He had boys from his village take turns watching over our van until we sent someone back to bring the van home. Kathy then baked a chocolate cake, and we returned to the man who helped us to give it to him. This time, our car had a spare tire.
Kathy was six months pregnant when we arrived. Before coming, she had been told that the hospital had a new maternity wing. They neglected that the new wing was built with 40-year-old equipment from the US. The government strike had been our central news story since arriving. The week before Ben's arrival, the strike advanced to the hospital employees, including doctors. Kathy went into labor during the strike. Two nuns were in charge of maternity. We had hired a private doctor. He didn’t believe Kathy when she told him to be ready to deliver after 30 minutes of labor. As promised, she delivered. The doctor and his wife (also a doctor) quickly pushed her into the delivery room where Ben was born. We had upgraded Kathy to a semi-private hospital room, which cost us $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents) daily. Our private doctor cost $35. We did not even meet the deductible required for health insurance.
Kathy was new to Samoa and wasn’t ready for the Samoan food they served at the hospital. They prepared her a special treat, a sandwich using the hard Samoan bread with Spagetti-O's. She asked that I take care of her at home during her recovery. I brought Melissa and Aaron to the hospital to see their new brother. We looked from outside through a window in Kathy's room. The nun saw us and opened a door to let us all in. They climbed on Kathy's bed to surround Ben. Ben had difficulty at first with jaundice. He was given a blessing and recovered soon. (Plans had been made to fly him and Kathy to Hawaii for treatment, but that proved unnecessary.)
At first, most of our contacts were other Americans in the church housing compound who stuck mostly to themselves. Kathy instead learned enough Samoan to go haggle at the open market in Apia and socialize. The Samoans loved Aaron’s light-colored hair and blue eyes, which prompted them to drop prices at the open market. We went outside the expat compound for our social lives and became friends with many local Samoans. They, in turn, often had us in their homes. We got to know the real Samoa. We learned to love Samoan food. We missed these friends dearly when it was time for us to return home.
Kathy looked for a musical outlet where she could perform with her flute. She found a music group that consisted of a Samoan matai, two Europeans, an Australian, and a woman who had some top hits behind her in New Zealand. This opened to musical problems that Kathy didn't even know could exist. The musical terms used in different parts of the world are different. When the band leader would talk about missing quavers, she had no idea what he was talking about. The group became close. After practice, the rest of the group broke out beers each Wednesday, and Kathy went home with our newborn son. After a practice session, they asked Kathy to stay and showed her they had gotten some Orange NeHi’s just for her. How could she refuse? It turned out that they had many questions about the Church and the new temple that was being constructed in Apia. After that, she hung around after each practice, drinking her orange and grape NeHi's. The group went on to perform in local bars, where the Samoan Prime Minister started watching them. He approached them and asked if they would become his official band to provide background music while he entertained dignitaries. So, they became the official band of Samoa. Looks pretty good on her resume.
We had a full-time housekeeper while there. Since wages were so low in Samoa, the cost of having her help was irresistible. We hired Sa Ama, who was saving up for a mission for our church. She became a close family friend. Melissa, at four, used to attend a local preschool. Once, Melissa was talking and used words that caused Sa to blush. I guess the kids at preschool were educating Melissa. She said that Melissa had no business hanging out with the guys who used those words and should never repeat the words. Sa wanted to show us Savai'i, where she had grown up. We took a ferry across to Savai'i, another Samoan island. She took us around the island, stopping to let us talk with residents and enjoy eating with them. We then stopped for the evening about halfway around the island. We had a fiafia and spent the evening singing together. In the morning, we ate and finished our tour.
A bar had opened about a hundred feet from our home. It was structured as a Samoan fale, with no outside walls. The bands played at full volume until 2 AM, blasting through our house. There was no such thing as a noise ordinance. Melissa learned to sleep through the noise, but Aaron was difficult to put down and woke up often. One night, someone climbed the fence of our compound to go exploring. He walked into our house to see what he could take. Kathy heard the footsteps on our floormats and assumed that Aaron had gotten up and was coming to our bed. She turned and looked, and an adult man was looking down at her. She shouted, “Get out! Get out!” I awoke and assumed she was yelling at one of the giant cockroaches. He turned and ran out of the house before I realized what was happening. He was over the fence and gone when I went looking for him. (Count me lucky.)
The bugs there were huge. The cockroaches were 3 inches long and could fly. You could spray one with Black Flag, and then he would fly right at you until the poison killed him. I once killed a centipede that was a foot long in our house. There were lizards we could hear marching around in our attic. But no snakes. Kathy was happy to have no snakes. Once, Kathy and I were driving along when I looked at her to see a huge 5" spider on the passenger window next to her. I told her to keep looking at me. I pulled over, went to her side of the van, opened the door, and knocked the spider to the ground. If she had seen it while we were driving, there surely would have been an accident.
The storms were amazing. Samoa gets about 230 inches of rain annually. In Samoa, it doesn’t rain in raindrops. It is like Mother Nature decided to dump a bucket of water on you. I typically walked to work. I would run for cover if I heard rain hitting the metal roofs in the distance because a deluge would come fast. One time, we were hit by a tropical storm that brought 30 inches of rain in a week. I was in Apia when the torrent started. I headed for home, but the water had risen well above the bridge by the time I got to the stream just outside our compound. I was driving a Toyota FJ, which sat fairly high like a Jeep, but I ended up with water on the floors when I crossed the bridge. A friend, Charles Schwenke, had his home destroyed when the stream changed its course to right through his house. Kathy was driving our little Suzuki van and turned a corner. She saw a puddle as she turned the corner. But the road had washed away under the puddle, and the van was turning over and sinking into the hole. Some Samoan men and women were standing at the corner. The women opened the van doors, lifted the children, and escorted Kathy out. The men stepped up and lifted the entire van out of the water before it sank and set it down on dry ground. We love the kind Samoan people.
The water supply was cut off during the tropical storm, and we had no running water. The kids took showers out in the rain with bathing suits and soap. We would catch the rain runoff and store it in the bathtub. We kept the bathroom door closed. However, once Ben got into the bathroom somehow and fell into the bathtub. Kathy saw the open door and went in to find Ben underwater at the bottom of the tub, looking up at her, not breathing. She quickly got Ben out of the water and got his airways cleared and him breathing. She then handed me a wet baby, sat down, and started crying hysterically. I understood when I heard the story.
While in Samoa, I was charged to replace myself with a Samoan local when it was time to go home. They had always previously filled my position with an expatriate. True to the charge I was given, I went looking for a qualified local when an opening came up in my department. I came to know Molisa Tavete and interviewed and selected him to fill the opening. Molisa had a non-accounting degree from BYU-Hawaii. He knew nothing about accounting, but I sensed a man of integrity who would do all he could to fill the position. I was right. I took some heat for choosing someone without accounting training, but I stood my ground. I spent the next few months teaching him accounting, and he took it from there and ran with the assignment. He proved fearless in seeing that all spending was according to established policies. Two years later, when I returned home, he replaced me. In later years, he even replaced my boss there.
There is a wonderful story about Edwin Dharmaraju, our elders’ quorum president in Samoa. It happened a few years before my arrival. The Ashby’s were called to leave their Northern California home to serve as missionaries in Samoa. Lillian was just recovering from cancer at the time of their call. They were concerned about her health but felt it was right to serve in Samoa. She received a blessing at the missionary training center that simply stated that the mission would be successful. While in Samoa, they met the Dharmarajus, a couple from India, and felt they would be great members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Edwin and Elsie were from a strong Baptist family of many generations. They were not willing to consider a change and the effect it would have on family relationships. But they did become good friends with the Ashby's. Lillian Ashby had her cancer aggressively return. Just before her death in Samoa, she felt prompted to write her testimony in a three-in-one book of scripture. She asked that her husband present the book to Edwin and Elsie after her death, which he did. Richard Ashby shortly later had a serious car accident that put him in the hospital. He then went home. I’m sure he wondered why they had served in Samoa and what was accomplished. A few months later Edwin opened the gifted scriptures and began reading the Book of Mormon. He instantly knew it was the word of God. Elsie also read and was converted. They were baptized. A few months later they visited their home village in India for a family wedding. They shared their new-found faith around the village. There were many who wanted to know more. The problem, though, is that it was illegal in India at the time for a missionary to proselyte who was not a citizen of India. The Church had no presence in India then. Edwin wrote a letter to President Spencer W. Kimball explaining the urgent need to send missionaries into his village to reach the interested villagers. Shortly after, Edwin and Elsie were called on a 9-month mission to India to teach, baptize, and organize a church branch in their home village. They formed India's first branch there. In a few years the first Indian stake was organized in that village. Some 40 years, later there was a temple built in India. Looking back, you can see the big picture of the Lord. He needed a temple in India and forty years earlier sent missionaries to a couple in Samoa.
My boss’ did not like me from the moment I stepped off the plane. He wanted someone else to fill the opening but was overridden. His reaction was to hate the person who had been selected. His criticism became more and more intense. He began opening all my mail before it got to me to find “evidence” of my rebellion. He confronted me with what he thought was evidence. After two years of criticism, I gave up and resigned. His boss stepped in and, based on the negative feedback he had been receiving, declared me disloyal to the Church. He wrote to Salt Lake that I should never be considered for Church employment again because of “the contention I caused”. Further he stated that I would have to pay my own way home. As you can imagine, this was a tough moment. We wrestled with how to react to this declaration. How could our leaders treat us this way? For us, it came down to our faith that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only place where the priesthood, ordinances, and covenants exist to bring us eternal life. It is about our relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, not with other church members. No matter what the outcome, we decided we would continue to be devoted members of the Church. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect, its believers are not.
Those in Salt Lake City who knew me before my leaving for Samoa appealed to the Presiding Bishopric’s Office in my behalf. They pointed out the inconsistency of my work reviews before I left for Samoa and those received while there. I was then offered the position of Payroll Manager for the Church in Salt Lake City. All my moving expenses were later reimbursed. One of the managers in Salt Lake City handed me the stack of the letters that my boss had written about me. This was the first time I knew what they were being told. We were now headed back to resume life in Kaysville.
Our last Sunday at church the congregation sang, "Tofa My Felene". ("Goodbye my Freind"). While singing, many congregation members came one at a time up to us and hung leis around our necks. What a lovely final memory of Samoa.