Olosega Island

Ofu Island's south part seems to be the most beautyful in the whole Pacific. You can also find some hills on these isles. Ofu is home to Tumutumu, the highest mountain, which is 491 metres high; Olosega is home to the 629 metre high mountain of Mt. Poumafua.

There is a shared coastline and a viaduct connecting the two isles. The highest summit of American Samoa, the Lata (995 m), is located on Tau Island and can be reached by air.

Olosega Tokelau: Laughing, music....and diamonds.

With a PhD in chemical engineering and an expert in the field of photovoltaic power, Eldon Haines was a technician at the American Samoa Territorial Office of Energetics. In the course of his research he travelled to Swains Island (Tokelau Olosega) to help install a photovoltaic system. Manu'atele started from Pago Harbor towards the small island of Swains (Takelau Olosega), 200 northeast of Samoa.

It brought some twenty Olosega inhabitants to a meeting and three working groups: a biologist to investigate the rats issue, an energetic crew to set up a photovoltaic system and farmers to gather coconuts. Usually about five couples are occupying the Olosega rainforest, which has gone savage on the old farm after thirty years of abandon.

Now, only five young men between the age of twenty and thirty are occupying the island. One Tokelau folks wants to come back in November when the issue of mice can be solved. There is a brownish laguna covering almost half of the 800 hectares of the island. Over 20,000 rivals occupying less than a sq m - it's a sham!

But they raved about everything in the town in the dark - and about a piece of chocolate that I opened one morning and briefly exited - and when I was walking through the woods, I could feel them running away from me. We were also present every sunset at dawn for s', or vesper, with more a capella chant of Samoan anthems and a long thanksgiving prayers for the island's solar and ocean, its productive capacity and the heat of the population.

Spoiled with the island's wild footlong monster that can peel a monster out of a rock, the lobsters and freshwater cod of the lake, one of the family's home grown pork cooked in the subterranean stove, and beautiful warm buns cooked in a keg stove over a bake. Above all we were spoiled with Tokelau-Samoanian kindness, welcome, happiness, laughing, music and dancing.

So I worked with an engineering guy called Chris and our two Samoan wizards, Taliga and Sio, to set up the pod. The three PV modules recharge twenty of the island's 20 battery power in a 24-volt system that operates the DC fridge and lighting for the island's pharmacy and one-room-club. After sá the night before our departing the old one-armed Poni of the island declared the fafia, a departing celebration with dancing and soundtrack.

Sa, Fifia and celebrations all took place in the joint fold, an open wooden pile construction roofed by a roof of dried nuts and illuminated by two Coleman-lamps. Four lessons of singing and dancing competitions followed, humorous sings between the Pago Samoans and the Olosega Tokelauans, improvised verse and mad slap-stick-kits, which made everyone laugh.

Sung music of subtle elegance, gently stirring harmony and delicate counterpoints blew through the music. This is a smooth dancing with emblematic arms, hands and eyes, similar to a humble hula from Hawaii. A man was dancing a nice male snake, and every female dances the snake at least once.

The seventy-eight year old Eliza was the most delicate dancer for the last of the dances and became a young one. In a few moments of dancing, she invites each of the Palagi and Pago Samoans to join her in dancing while the Tokelau guitars play and sing their beats. Bare-footed we were dancing on the wave-rounded dead corals, whirling around our feet under the gentle lights of lampposts, starlight and a new moons until we were totally weary.