Title: Culture and customs of Samoa
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*Shayna, this is your father.  I don't see any progress on this.  Get busy, snort!*

Talohfa!
 This is the Samoan greeting. It is not aloha, as in Hawaiian.
Fa'asamoa means Samoa Way.
These are some facts about the Samoan culture and customs.

 Language -- The Samoan alphabet contains only 14 letters. This includes the vowels, A E I O and U. You pronounce 'a' as in 'bath'; 'e' as in 'bet'; 'i' as in 'feet'; 'o' as in 'raw' and 'u' as in 'pool'. The consonants, F G L M N PST and V, all sound like they do in English, except the 'g', which sounds somthing like 'ng', as in 'song'.

 Food -- Food is cooked in a strange way in Samoa, because the men do the cooking!
These are some of the ways (and things) Samoans cook.

 Umu: This form of cooking is very common. it involves making a fire, and waiting till it truns to nothing but embers, then green bananas, breadfruit, taro, and other such things, and warm them on the embers.

 Oka: Samoans, like so many islanders, like to eat raw fish. The 'oka' is a form of cooking which is already known to us. It envolves chopping up the raw meat, and marinating it in lemon juice, coconut cream, salt, and onions.

 Lu'au: This is the dish that will never be forgotten in Samoa. It is basiclly a taro leaf filled with coconut cream, onions, and taro. The Samoans call it 'food of the Gods'.

 Dance -- This is probably the only thing that hasn't been affected by western civilization. These are just a few of the traditional dances, and my favorites.

 Fire dance: This dance is when you take one or more men, and put sticks with fire on them in thier hands, and the twirl around them. This dance was made to honor the fire god.

 Siva: This is somewhat like Hawaii's Graceful Hands, only they don't depict stories, but things in everyday life. Lately, though, it has been done less, and less frequently. How can you say with hand movments that you got in the car and went to work, without looking like a child?

 Taulalunga: This dance is VERY common. One woman performs, but at certain pionts in the dance, the men interact. The best part of a popular story told by this dance, is when the woman walks over a man lying on the floor. This signifies that the woman is in charge of the houshold, and while she's in her house, husband had better hang low.

 Clothing -- This is somthing not easily answered. If you want to know about modern day dress, think of what you're wearing. Think of American Indians with lei's if you want traditional wear.