Lumepa Hald

The child vendor, should hold lessons about how to love anyway. Her mother by the fire with burning eyes. And her frequent absent father. He has to make a simple buck. At least that is what she is told. Her younger brothers, cheering her on. What rooster crows at midnight is there to accompany her […]

When I am overwhelmed with memories of Mana, I go to Aleisa road in my mind. She and I drove along there for many hours sometimes. Sometimes she played her favorite songs and we sang along to them. Sometimes we laughed ourselves silly. Other times we listened to the breeze. She loved the serenity. And […]

For the memory of 2009 tsunami victims and my daughter Moanalei. Today when you walk through Lalomanu, the sea follows you everywhere. It is as if she still beckons for your forgiveness. The church with her large windows and her silence stays revered but distant still. And the children, in their Sunday attires look ever […]

May the fire of the peninsula sea be with you! When you look at Mulinu’u peninsula, at first glance, it’s a restful tail of a sandy filled fish like hook. But deeper eyes will find a journeyed home of swaying palms and gravestones of welcoming spirits for the disconnected. They come to belong, to make […]

I dream of Savaii river rocks and sands sometimes. The trip there is a reminder of the smaller islands at the distance, the waves you count to reach Apolima, the whales and reef sharks in between, the brilliant sunrise and the butterflies to come at you in Salelologa when you arrive. You arrive as if […]

Some day I will drive by the hills of Lalomanu and think less of this strange life. But as I try each day to ponder on happier things, I am stopped in the midst of despair. I am reminded of the reasons of loving someone I could lose. I am reminded of why I went […]

The empty beaches, climbing debts, and busy Apia streets are going berserk all at once. Restaurants, the one I ventured to, on a blessed Saturday morning, smells of empty seats, eager waiters, and owners smiling to the teeth. I hear a person of political importance complimenting the chef. It brings a smile to my hopeful […]

Fales with thatched roofing, blue tarpaulin as wavy windows, and poumuli posts; lined along the armful Lalomanu beach like forgotten soldiers of some oceanic war about the meaning of Sundays and Covid19. Since the shut down, the silky white beach has rested from plenty footprints. Empty as the air, the only sounds are the thrashing […]

She Believed in Love. for Manamea Apelu Schwalger.  She was born on the 26th of October 1975. She would be 45. But she died of cancer. Breast cancer.  She was barely 43.  I tried to write about her but could not.  Night after night.  It’s been 2 long years without her.  Manamea Apelu Schwalger, my […]

September sorrows haunt me. A kind of haunting that follows you like a ghostly shadow. Even in sleep, it comes to you, tall and dark, but hollow. Emptiness isn’t the word for it, because fulfillment lies on the other side. It is, I guess, a narrow road with a dead end, no opposite, no place […]