By Candace Tevaga, Year 7

BOOM! The small animal's body banged the ground. “YEEEAAAHHH!” The side of his mouth lifted and transformed into a smirk, the colour of his skin was like the night sky with lots of tattoos. The tall older dark haired man picked the pig up by its legs and dragged it to his shed. Alofa’s dad was preparing a feast for the fiafia night. Alofa was excited, this was her first time. Alofa had a bright pink petaled hibiscus hanging in her ear. Her hair was like light, smooth waves rolling in the sunlight. She was wearing a long blue dress with gold flowers.

In Samoan villages like Alofa’s, pigs go scuffling around for food. Most of the things in the villages were handmade. Every morning Alofa would go outside and help her auntys weave baskets, fans and flowers with flax, after sunset the flax would turn into a brownish colour. The village led to a big forest with large trees. There was a beautiful view in the village, the sea was like a mirror. There was clean fresh water that some people would use to wash their hands and faces in.

The night before the fiafia night Alofa couldn't sleep. The ground felt like it was shaking and there were big banging noises, there was a loud sound of squealing coming from the pigs. “WOOOHOOO!” barked a lady on the day of the fiafia night. There were lots of traditional Pacific foods and cool Samoan performances like people doing the Siva afi fire dance, the traditional boys Sasa dance and Alofa’s favourite, the Siva Samoa. The Siva Samoa is where lots of women at all ages dance to a Samoan song. But not just any dancing, they gracefully move their hands like a peaceful butterfly flapping its wings and never make their eyes leave eye contact with their hands, they all move like delicate birds flying in the blue sky. Alofa’s dream was to be up on stage like them.

Alofa still had a really bad feeling in her gut. The ground was shaking really bad and she heard the sound of banging noises coming closer and closer towards her. She told her dad but he wouldn't believe her. BANG… BANG… BANG! Everybody was screaming and running. All of the animals were jumping and squealing. ROOAAR! The enormous tide came crashing through the village. Everything tore apart. The huge wave swallowed all of the houses down, many people got swallowed along with it and caused many injuries. Alofa ran as fast as a cheetah. Her eyes scanned the whole village but her parents were not to be seen, as the wave ran closer to Alofa, Alofa’s eyes closed and she clung to a palm tree, closing her eyes as the tsunami wave washed over the village.

Alofa’s eyes lifted, she was somehow washed up on land by the huge tide. Alofa instantly tried to get up, there were a whole bunch of scratches and deep cuts stained on her body with lots of blood.

After Alofa struggled to sit up her face went pale. Everything was ruined, all the palm trees were gone, the villages were all ripped to pieces and the cars were torn apart. Everything looked plain and felt like it was unreal, Alofas eyes started to water, not being able to find her family.

Over the next few weeks Alofa’s parents were not seen, she was orphaned not having anyone to take care of her. Alofa managed to take care of all her cuts and bruises by herself. She was found by some relatives from a different village, they explained it wasn't safe for her to stay there.They sent Alofa to New Zealand to stay with her aunty and uncle.

When Alofa arrived in New Zealand, her aunty hugged her tight in the arms and gave Alofa a sloppy kiss on the cheek. Alofa loved looking outside. It was so interesting because it was the total opposite of Samoa and was much colder. Alofa helped her Aunty make chop suey and taro for dinner. It almost felt like she was in Samoa.