Random Adventures and 'My Family'

Here is the family that has adopted me. Their last name is Finau (fee-now) and actually this is only about a quarter of them. They had 12 children 6 girls and 6 boys, however, one of the boys died when he was 4 years old. All of the girls are married and only the oldest boy is married. So in the picture: there is only 4 children of the 11, 1 spouse of the total 7, and only 7 grandchildren of the current 26.

From the left back: Melelose(daughter), Viliami (son, youngest of all 12 children), Pomana (father), Saane (mother), Melape (daughter), 'Edimoni (son, oldest of all the children), Mele (wife of 'Edimoni). Mele is holding their youngest child of 6, Tevita.

Front row from the right: Sivi and Kilisitina (children of 'Edimoni), 'Ana, Siulanga (children of different daughters not pictured), Lea'aengalu and Saane (children of Melape).

After the boys come home from the ocean it is time to clean up the fish for dinner. From left to right: Pomana, Saane, Viliami, Melelose, 'Edimoni, Mele and standing up in the back is Sioeli (one of the sons that has not been pictured yet).

Filimone, Sinilau and a tuna.

As some of you have heard how I have to get my mail, I thought I would post a picture for you to better understand. If you see in the background a bigger boat, that is the boat that comes from the main island, next you can see the little boats that we take out to meet the big boat, and in the foreground you can see an example of how most things get done in the island, jsut man power. We not only get mail off that big boat but anything else we need for the island. You can see Sioeli pushing a drum of gasoline onto the beach for the church generator.

Tokelau (son of one of the daughters) and Filimone holding a bat, yes, a bat!! I guess it some how got holes in it wings and was not able to fly back home. The kids saw it in the tree and decided to climb up the tree and get it.

Peka - bat or flying fox, technically

Some of you have heard that I have a cat and a dog so I thought that I would post a picture of them to share. They are not allowed into my bedroom since they play outside with all the other animals. So, one cold night, I was laying in bed reading a book and when I looked over to check on them I saw them sleeping like this. Too cute to resist, I had to take a picture of them. My cat's name is 'Ivi, which means energy, power, strength. My dog's name is Sinilau. The reason I named him this was because there is a story about Hina and Sinilau. Long story short, that was her boyfriend and later her husband. The people in my village would always ask me where is Sinilau, especially if they had seen me walking on the road with any of the male youth. So I decided to have a little fun and give this name to my dog. So now when they ask I just point to my dog. =D