“A log in the Ocean”

Mana (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 3, 4 August 1977, Page 6

“A log in the Ocean”

Due to a large number of requests, the Samoan editor has translated a contribution printed in the last issue of Mana. The contribution was originally written in Samoan by a Mangere College student.

I am like an orphan, living on my own in this country with no parents, neither a brother nor a sister. I can’t forget my parents, my family and all my friends in Samoa. Sometimes, I fail to remember things which are of significance to me, but the existing relationship between children and their parents is me of the things I never loose.

Let us refer back to the question; Is it a right thing for children to separate from their parents?; My answer is no; there is a Samoan saying, “O au o matua fanau” which means, parents care and love their children. Perhaps the reason why I have been separated from my parents was the fact that, I want to help my parents and assist them in order to improve the standard and the welfare of my family. I was living with my parents for sixteen years, but still I have a lot to repay. Going to school on a cold morning of the typical New Zealand winter is another big challenge, this is one of the thinf i which deprives me from

going to school some times. In Samoa, it will be a good change for my father to exercise his physical power if I stay away from school without a reason, but here in New Zealand, children are too permissive, I often made my own decision, because of the fact that I have no parents living here. It was a job for mother every morning, to make sure that you are ready for the school, because of these things, I hardly fail to forget my parents. I asked myself a question, Why I’m here?, I missed all the things which I shared with my friends in Samoa, especially my parents. This is a very beautiful country, really eccentric, as a result of my new adventure, I start to forget my parents, but thank goodness, I was not dominated by these new foreign ideas, I still want to be with my parents.

I have friends in New Zealand, but no brother. A child depends on his parents, but to me, I have no-one to depend on, I’m just like a log in a big ocean.