Samoans spruce up villages

Villages throughout Samoa are adding the final touches to their preparations to welcome thousands of visitors expected for the Small Island Developing States conference.

Yesterday, Vaimoso village started work on beautifying their village at 4.30am in a bid to beat the traffic and the hot sun.

A village matai, Manuleleua Ioane, said the clean up involved mowing the lawns near the main road, picking up rubbish, painting and wrapping the roadside posts with coconut leaves.

The aim, he said, is to make driving through Vaimoso a pleasant experience for visitors.

“We started very early because we wanted to put up the banner before the road gets busy,” he said. “There are still some finishing touches that need to be made but other than that, we are ready.”

Everyone in the village was involved from the women’s committee to the young people.

“This is a community effort, everyone in our village wants Vaimoso to look good and so they are all here contributing whatever they can,” he said.

“There are young children and elderly members of the village and it’s good to see everyone working side by side. It makes the job a lot easier.

“This is the first time that some of these people will be coming to Samoa and we must prepare Samoa to look beautiful.

I sure hope they will enjoy our country.”

The international conference starts on September 1 is set to start in seven days time.

Some 3000 people will be in Samoa for the summit.