This is an engaging autobiographical account of a young American
woman's life in her Samoan husband's native home. Fay Calkins, a
descendant of Puritan settlers, met Vai Ala'ilima, a descendant of
Samoan chiefs, while working on her doctoral dissertation in the
Library of Congress. After an unconventional courtship and a
typical American wedding, they set out for Western Samoa, where Fay
was to find a way of life totally new and charming, if at times
frustrating and confusing. Soon after her arrival in the islands,
the bride of a few months found herself with a family of seven boys
in a wide range of ages, sent by relatives to live with the new
couple. She was stymied by the economics of trying to support
numerous guests, relatives, and a growing family, and still
contribute to the lavish feasts that were given on any
pretext--feasts, where the guests brought baskets in which to take
home as much of the largesse as they could carry. Fay tried to
introduce American institutions: a credit union, a co-op, a work
schedule, and hourly wages on the banana plantation begun by her
and her husband. In each instance, she quickly learned that Samoans
were unwilling or unable to grasp her Western ideas of input
equaling output, of personal property, or of payment received for
work done. Despite these frustrations and disappointments, however,
life among the people of her Samoan chief was for Fay happy and
productive.
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