Cultural Excursions During Fieldwork: Samoan Baha'i Temple

Pulling together a chicken stir-fry in our makeshift kitchen.

Undergraduate research assistant Grant Pethel and I were supposed to arrive in Apia, Samoa on Thursday, and on Friday we were going to meet with collaborator Dr. Bernadette Samau from the National University of Samoa. We were in a bit of a time crunch because Bernie was leaving the following week for her own summer research trips, and we needed to finalize our research methods for this summer. More on that later. But because of our flight delays, we didn't arrive until Friday afternoon, so we just kind of took the weekend to get settled (and find clothes--see previous post). And I always try to fit in a weekly cultural excursion when I'm doing fieldwork, especially with students.

One of the main Baha'i Temples in the world is in Samoa, which we learned by visiting it. I'd seen it on previous trips, as it's a giant temple overlooking Apia that is clearly visible when crossing the Cross-Island road, and tourists see it on the way up to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. This is my fourth time in Samoa but first time visiting the Bahai'i Temple. Grant and I wandered the meditative grounds, read about the architectural design of the temple, which resembles a Samoan fale. And we visited the grave of one of the Persian founders of the Baha'i Temple here, who comes from where Baha'i originates. I'm a little murky on the history now, and I lost the brochures we picked up. We mostly grabbed them to read the English to Samoan translations so we could work on our Samoan language skills, but I got caught up in the fascinating history of Baha'i, and the temple here in Samoa. Here is a link to the temple in Samoa, which contains the history of this temple and a bit on the history of Baha'i which I guess I can look up on the internet too, so here is a link to a reputable source on Bahai.

We finished the day by assembling our makeshift kitchen to make some chicken stir-fry. Adjusting to local spices and food availability is interesting. 

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