New member. Introduction post.

[biathlon]

Apologies submitted. I used to fish with a lot of the Samoa guys and drink way to much too. Probably 1978 or '76. They were a lot of fun to party with. Lava rock roasts, fish I had never seen before or since, that was always a slap on the back greeting between us and trading followed. We made our own arbellettes then and always had to scrounge the parts. Swim fins and goggles or masks were worth their weight in moonrock. That's how I remember the place and no offense was intended. So, I'll try again, welcome and hope to see ya here in Wyoming. We're having some genuine Wy. weather here now, a little different than the trade winds.

[MamaLiberty]

WHEW! Thank goodness.

[biathlon]

I honestly thought that was a friendly Samoan greeting Being a dumb hillbilly from Wyoming my first attempt at fishing there was to grab a pole and reel, put some bait on the hook, throw it in the water and wait. I remember catching an octopus the first day and a really large weird looking crab the next. About the third day or so some of the local folks that usually showed up with the whole family approached me and asked"What you catch?" I showed them and they all laughed hard and about the fourth day one of the guys that looked about my age(20ish)told me to come on in the water with them. They had several old inner tubes with netting tied to the bottom and some very long homemade spearguns they called "arbellettes". Swimming with them was actually a lot easier than I had thought it would be and I learned later this was because they knew how to use the currents in the lagoon to get out to the outer reef with little effort. After a brief warning about the little fish that lived there that you did NOT want to step on and some other warnings about some of the cone shells you did NOT want to pick up, they showed me how the reef was built and how to look down the face into the open ocean to see some REALLY LARGE fish! It seemed the smaller the fish, the longer its name was and the bigger the fish, the shorter its name was. They speared several, caught some lobster and back to the beach we all went. As the group left one of the teenagers looked at me, held up a hand and said "Ufaa". I returned the "greeting" or "goodby" not really knowing what else to say and the entire group broke up laughing like all h@**. The next day the same group showed up and one of the others yelled "Kefe". I smiled and returned "Kefe". Same response, they all laughed hard and that day one of the older members came over, put his arm around my shoulders, smiled and waved me toward the group now getting into the water. This was an honor as far as I was concerned and I spent the next several days, fishing, learning how to catch lobster, drinking beer, eating wayyy too much and really enjoying these people. The younger ones always smiled and offered the same "greeting" or "goodby"(the afore mentioned questionable Samoan words)and to this day I believed this was a perfectly acceptable Samoan hello. This appears to be a bad joke the locals were playing on the dumb hillbilly 30 years ago. Oh well, live and learn. I certainly did not intend any offense.     

[lost_in_samoa]

I honestly thought that was a friendly Samoan greeting

Malo Saefua Biathlon,

Apology heartily accepted.     Fa'af Tai Tele Lava (honorific thank you very much)

To clear up some old confusion,

Talofa lava (warm hello)
Malo lava (familiar warm helo,  Like "hey good friend")
Malo Saefua (honorific to familiar greeting, reserved for someone of higher status)
Fa Saefua (honorific goodbye or good sailing, reserved for someone of higher status)

I hoped that this was just a case of confusion. 

Samoan's can have a pretty cruel sense of humor when it comes to Palagi's, (white people). 

I was afraid that I might not be welcome because I work for the scientific community overseas.

I frequent a fair amount of liberty and freedom type boards and on some of those I've been shunned.  People automatically ass-U-me that if your working with university scientists on atmospheric research that you are a "global warming" fanatic, and socialist without peer.

Truth is I loath the popularized "climate change" and "global warming" agenda.  It has derailed the real study of what's going on our planet.  Hi-jacked it into a farce of what it really needs to be.  That is a dangerous damn thing.  Any farmer worth his salt will tell you that you have to pay attention to your fields and study your crops.

Sorry , I digress ........ (/RANT OFF) ......

Thank you all  very much.

[biathlon]

"Cruel sense of humor"? That's an understatement! After a couple weeks when I really started to figure out what was going on in the ocean and had used the base shop tools to construct my own arbellette, I actually managed to spear a really big fish that all the Samoan folks said was really good to eat! Being real proud of myself I declined the offer to have them cook it for me so I could take my trophy back to show off to my base buddies. The result was my LT asking if I would introduce him to my new friends? "Yes Sir!" We drove out to the other side of the island where I had been fishing and partying in the LTs jeep and upon arrival were told"You park over there under that tree in the shade". We did and the laughing and snikering began. I had NO CLUE what sort of cruel joke they were playing on us. They had parked us under an enormous breadfruit tree! For those of you not familiar with these trees, imagine a water balloon the size of a basketball filled with elmers glue! Anyway, we all proceeded to the beach, got in and began to swim out to the outer reef. The LT really thought this was a lot of fun. We had no idea why all the Samoans were laughing so hard. After an hour or so and some real good luck fishing the group told us it was time to return to the beach. I still had no idea why they began to laugh so hard when we got to shore till I saw the LTs jeep! Several large very ripe breadfruit had scored direct hits! His jeep was a mess! The Samoans were rolling in the sand because they were laughing so hard. I couldn't help myself and began laughing at the LTs expense too! Fortunatly for him he saw the humor in his situation and started laughing like h&## too. Yes, the Samoans do have a sick sense of humor!

[MamaLiberty]

Ah, biathlon, you are a trusting soul. After all those dirty tricks you never even wondered about that friendly greeting? LOL 

[biathlon]

Nope When we all settled down and the LT and I got in the jeep to leave all the younger Samoans raised their hands and telled "Ufaa!" We smiled and returned the "Ufaa!" At least they kept me from the dangerous things on the reef. I do remember one time out there one of the younger kids began yelling and waving franticly at me to get out onto the reef from where I was swimming. They were all looking very serious when I got over there and informed me that they had seen a very large tiger shark! This is the only shark they seemed to be afraid of. 

[lost_in_samoa]

"Cruel sense of humor"? That's an understatement!

That sounds about right.  The locals advised me to park my truck under a coconut full of copra.  I did at first, but after a bit of thought I moved it to an open space.

[Paul Bonneau]

to this day I believed this was a perfectly acceptable Samoan hello. This appears to be a bad joke the locals were playing on the dumb hillbilly 30 years ago.

In a very famous case, the anthropologist Margaret Mead was also apparently taken advantage of by Samoan girls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_Age_in_Samoa
So don't feel like you've been singled out, Norm. 

[Danl]

I don't know what it means, but from past experience I don't think Biathlon would intend to offend anyone, especially wihtout cause.  Let's not let this go where it isn't intended.

BTW, Samoa,  welcome aboard.  We welcome Liberty lovers here!

Regards, Danl

[Danl]

Well, phooey!  I see I responded on page one without seeing page 2 and Norm's response.  Well anyway I was right.  He would never behave that way. Thanks B for making me right!

Regards, Danl