Water

My Village Projects-Water
So the overwhelming request was for me to get piped water to my village. I talked to another volunteer who is also trying to get this task and she told me it is a simple process. All I need to do is go to the Samoan Water Authority (SWA) give them some money and ask for them to do a survey and they will find out if it is possible and tell me the costs of this project. It sounded pretty easy and straightforward. My host dad told me that I should bring in a map with me of the houses that needed water but I was told that they have an idea on what the different villages look like.
When I arrived at the SWA I told the woman at the payments counter why I was there and she told me that I really should be at Bluebird Lumber to buy the pipes and find out about my project. She saw my confusion and got a man from the office to go with me.
While we were walking there he explained that he was raised the Samoan way and that was to help out everyone, especially those who are Palagi. It was nice to know that he would be as helpful as possible to me. I asked him if going to the store was what I needed because I was coming as a request to the entire village.
We began to head back into the office because he realized the store was not what I needed. I sat with him in his office for a while to describe the reason for me being there. It sounded like he understood and I began writing notes for him to pass on to someone else.
I was then passed onto someone else so they could get paperwork started for me. Halfway through the paperwork we realized that I should not be filling that out and paying the money. The survey was for each individual family and then they would be paying $250 more to get the water connected. So unless I was to put up the bill for my village, I was in the wrong place. They told me that I should be directing the families to them to help get the paperwork started.
I was also told that there is a village committee that deals with the water. I should talk with them to figure everything out. I guess I will try to talk with either the Matai or the women’s committee this week and see how they want to go about this and to find out if this committee actually does exist.
It seems like it is extremely interesting to get work done here. What may look like an easy simple project, really will turn into a huge one where you are unsure where to go to next.