On Saturday 13th of July Mia Cable and Mauosamoa Fatiolofa made their way up to Auckland to spend the night and meet everyone before their very early flight to Samoa in the morning. When they got to Samoa they were greeted with a very long wait for the vans in the hot and humid weather. They were eager to see where they were staying and secure the best room. 

Monday consisted of some team building activities in their groups, where one girl fell off someone and broke two bones in her ankle. Safe to say that activity was cut short. In the afternoon the groups got to choose what they did, but somehow both Mia and Mau’s group chose the sliding rocks, a popular swimming spot within the locals.

Tuesday was the first of the rotational days where there were set activities for the day and the groups would cycle through them. One of the activities was a very long and wet hike up a river stream, where there were multiple beautiful waterfalls to jump off. 

Another activity was a morning in Apia, the capital city of Samoa followed by an afternoon of beach clean ups around various beaches across Samoa. 

There was the Umu experience, which consists of learning one of the traditional ways Samoans prepare and cook food while also touring around Florists (the lady who owns the places) cacao bean farm. 

The last day of activities was a problem solving project where we had to find a solution to a problem within Samoan youth that didn’t involve the government. This activity was very eye-opening for us to understand how difficult things can be for them over there as they cannot get proper education on certain topics or afford the education. After this we visited the To Sua ocean trench which is a big hole in the ground that is connected to the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful there and was extremely fun to get pulled around by the tides and lay in the sun. 

The last full day in Samoa was full of Graduation preparations. Girls getting ready and boys just playing about until 10 minutes before we had to leave. The graduation ceremony was held in Apia and local families were invited to see the graduation take place. All the groups and group leaders were acknowledged and thanked for their efforts on the camp. The students performed a Maori waiata, a Samoan dance and a Australian song to acknowledge all the different cultures there. 

We would highly recommend this programme to others who want to experience new cultures and learn different leadership skills in a new environment. 

Mia Cable