Afakasi Woman by Lani Wendt Young

Author:Lani Wendt Young [Young, Lani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lani Wendt Young
Published: 2021-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

“Is this where we check in?” The backpackers are young and eager. Two of them have dreads. Twisted, tangled strings of dirty blonde hair. Their denim shorts have holes in them and their white legs are speckled with the red blotches of mosquito love. They’ve been in Samoa for seven fabulous days now, staying in assorted beach fales and sleeping under the stars.

And it would seem by the pungent odor that rushes in the door with them, that they haven’t kaele’d much in those seven days of heaven.

The air conditioning is perfect for keeping you cool. But it also traps every smell no matter how unpleasant. Mata at reception tries hard not to wrinkle her nose. It’s her job to welcome visitors and answer their queries. It would be rude to tell them they smell bad. Even when they do.

“We love it here,” the tall woman gushes. “It’s amazingly beautiful and the people are so friendly!” She tries to wave away a fly that’s eating a crusty sore on her ankle. (More evidence of mosquito love.) The fly ignores her and keeps grazing.

“Yes,” the only man in the group agrees. “And there’s a laid back atmosphere and so relaxed. Perfect for a vacation.” The red floral lavalava he’s looped awkwardly around his waist is slipping and he takes a moment to re-tie it, flashing everyone with indecent amounts of hairy white thighs.

Mata politely averts her eyes from the palagi who has so much #whiteMan confidence that he can wear a lavalava without the security of shorts underneath. She takes their details and processes their check in for one night. Coughs a little cough of choking protest at the stronger whiff of unwashed-ness as the tall woman leans in closer over the counter to sign for her credit card.

Not for the first time, Mata wonders how palagis can afford to fly on planes to Samoa and buy $8 cups of coffee from Earth Café – but they are too poor to buy Protex soap. Rexona roll-on. Lynx spray. Palagi’s are a mystery.

But then maybe it’s not about money? She once saw a backpacker bathing in the Vai Pe. The stream that runs through town, the one that drunk men pee in late at night when the bars close. Everybody knows the Vai Pe is dirty. Mata had been amazed that the palagi could kaele in such filthy water. Maybe these backpackers DID bathe? Did use soap? Only they kaele’d in a septic tank overflow stream? And that’s why they smelled bad? Mata decided then that palagi’s aren’t a mystery. They were valea. She immediately put that thought aside though. She only had a job because of palagis like this. So what if they didn’t kaele? So what if they wanted to wear a lavalava with no pants under it?

Just then, Kisa walks into reception through a side door. Immediately her eyes widen and she exclaims loudly in Samoan, “What is that stink?” She is horrified and not afraid to show it.

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