Village Homestays

Hi

Just an inquiry whether Samoa offers any village homestay opportunities. I would like to visit in Feburary although would rather stay with a family. I am happy to become involved with day to day duties and possible visit and help out at a school. Does anyone know how to arrange this? I would be most interested in those located on the south or west on Upolu.

Can anyone share their experiences of staying with a homestay?

Thanks
Christie

My experience with staying in a local home are nothing you'd want to repeat - see the Samoa thread in my signo line.
I would suggest you to choose the host family very carefully, and to take care of your valuables at all times!

Alternatively, staying in a beach fale in a lightly touristed village could still provide a very similar experience, while allowing a bit more privacy both for you and your hosts.
There are many villages with fale accommodation where you could still be just about the only tourist in residence. And in such situations, it is quite easy to observe village life and socialize with the locals. I found Saleopaga, just west of hugely popular Lalomanu, one nice place to do this.

Hi Laszlo,

I can open most of the links in your signature but the Samoa one (along with Kalimantan & the Orang Utans) seems to be broken. A pity as I am sure there's interesting info there...

The Samoa Link

that one works - the info helps to set the paradise stereotype straight. I am still looking forward to my stay there but I will try to be careful. I hope locking valuables up inside my main bag will be a stumbling block for most would-be-thieves...

Thanks a lot & Üdvözlettel!

Just from my experience living in the South Pacific, though not in Samoa, I would say that locking valuables in your large bag is only a 50-50 way to prevent thefts. If you can't afford to lose something, take it with you. Bush knives (machetes) are quite common carry-alongs in the SP, and cutting open a large bag is not that difficult.

If you entrust it with the head of the family, it may help a bit, as his possible shame from having anything stolen while in his care might prevent immediate relatives from stealing things.

Unfortunately in Samoa's case shame doesn't seem off-putting enough.

Two other people I met there had part of their cash and TCs pilfered from the money-belt handed over to their hosts for safe-keeping.

It has earlier been suggested by Werner that when one hands money over to hosts, they should be made to sign a receipt for it, noting the amount, counted together with them. That should work, though many people (me included) might feel "a bit: too embarrassed to show such obvious mistrust openly.
But still, if you do hand things over, let them know you know exactly how much it is, and will count it when getting back.
As they always only seem to steal a part of the money, they obviously hope that you won't notice, so the above might discourage pilfering.

Of course carrying it on you at all times is safest, but kinda hard if going to swim alone.

Being careful with this should go a long way towards ensuring an enjoyable stay in Samoa.

BTW, thanks nocool for pointing out that thing about my links!
I guess URLs for TT threads were changed during one of these recent TT overhauls.
Changed them now, hope they are working again.

This opportunistic petty theft and i cant believe who would leave their valuables to someone! The only reason i would leave it at the register is if they had a safe. otherwise, if im swimming or diving i would i hide my wallet for a day. if i had to leave my backpack at the register, lock it up and chain it to the side.

simple dont be a naive gringo. would you leave your windows open and place your wallet on the dash at a parking lot overnight?