Our chart for the anchorage near Lelepa village was 1 nm wrong! That’s the price when you start exploring remote places.

With 1700 km2, Savai’i is one of the largest island in Polynesia outside NZ and Hawai’i and as clean as Switzerland. There is a lot of sun with heavy rainfalls. There are about 40’000 people and you find not a single paper on the ground. It was the first time we were not able to organize a clean up with the students.
A key person for the environmental awareness on the island is Chief Vaasiliifiti Moelagi Jackson. She was on of the first activists against a big US logging company which destroyed 90 % of the native rain forest in the 70s. The cyclones which hit Savai’i in the 90s initiated a second environmental movement, she told us yesterday.
World Bank financed hospitals and a huge project to limit the erosion of the coastline cause of wave impacts from more frequent and violent cyclones and storms. Unfortunately the bulldozers building the dams brought a lot of soil to the reef and that means less fish for the fisherman.

Chief Lee Letiu from Upolu told us that her village is still waiting for help and showed us where the school has been: ‘The place is now 100 m out on the sea!’

A very good example of a single-person doing something for the environment and global warming is the Craterman: Last week we climbed with our two children in the backpack from sea level to mount Matavanu. There he is living alone, 3 h from the next village, in a small house, called Fale. He is planting trees and remains the visitors on nicely painted boards to keep the crater land clean and record all his friends, who visit him.

Near our anchorage we became friends with the family of Fila Fyyen. Every time when we passed there house they invited us for dinner and provided us with 54 fresh fruits. They have very strict rules and in every family is a chief, like here Fila’s mother, producing coconut mats to sleep on it:

They use natural products and old techniques which do not pollute the environment. We all can learn from them to live in harmony with nature. They do not need a plastic bag! In 3 minutes they made a bag out of a palm leaf:

For their houses, called Fale, they made wonderful roofs with the wood and leaves of the coconut tree; like here in the Vaipolli Collage.
In the first place Fila’s Fanily opened for us tins, because they thought that is the food we like and although it costs them a fortune. But we told them that we enjoy the local food much more and they cooked it for us with proud.
Faatau, Fila’s husband, has gout (Gicht) and Nurse Sabine found some medicine on Pachamama and was able to treat him:

Note: In the back of Faatau is his old house destroyed by a clyclone.
After our school presentations we are invited to have lunch with the principal. Every day the family from one student has to feed the teachers.
Thanks so much for all donations we got from you (Please get in contact with us, if you have more). The school material, like pencils, books, etc. was of big help to the schools here:

We would like to thank you to the Le Lagoto Beach Resort. We were able to use the phone to organize our school visits with the school review officer Manuta.
Thanks also to Pauline and Otto on SY Crimson Lady for the donation of school and fishing material. They have been our Dutch neighbours neighbours and became our friends.
When you like to help the family of Fila with her husband and the 4 children, you can send them school material to: Family Faatau & Fila Young Yen, Fagamalo Post Office, Avao, Matautu, Savai’i, Samoa
If you want to anchorage the Craterman in his work, please send him a postcard to: Craterman, Seu Api Utumapu, Mount Matavanu, Safotu Post Office, Savaii, Samoa
and at the end a picture for our family from the anchorage in front Avao village: