Oti

Oti
The bells rang loud in the middle of the day to signify something, a death. The Methodist Church is always the bells I hear ring for that reason. Up in uta, away from the sea my mom’s aunt had passed away. She had been ill for a long time. The woman had been such a sweet presence in my time in the village. I had seen her a least once a week for the past year.
The following day, students in other villages asked me who had passed since they heard the bells.
That day my school family suffered another tragedy, a teacher’s mother had passed away. Since it is a member of our school family, the entire staff will be chipping in for the falavelave. We will be contributing money, fine mats, and fabric to cover the coffin.
Hopefully bad events don’t travel in 3’s and all the falavelaves are over.