South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Crisis strands 600 homesick American Samoans
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Makerita Iosefo Va’a hasn’t been home for nearly eight months — the longest she’s ever been away fromAmerican Samoa.
She longs for the breezes that cool island humidity and the ocean sounds and smells that permeate her home in the village of Tula. She also misses the food that’s impossible to re-create in Tracy, California, where the coronavirus pandemic has left her and her husband stranded.
“Every time I talk about it, I just cry,” she said.
Va’a left the U.S. territory in the Pacific in February with her husband for medical treatment. They planned to fly home in March from SanFrancisco but decided to postpone after hearing a security worker at the airport had contracted the virus.
Since then, they haven’t been able to leave because American Samoa Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga closed the territoryMarch 13 to protect those on the islands from
COVID-19 — and it hasn’t reported any cases.
In July, after the order was extended, the Va’as stopped bothering to make travel plans and are awaiting word from government officials about when they can come home.
“The interests of the
60,000 residents on-island and protecting their lives outweighs the interest of the
600 or more residents stranded in the United States,” said Iulogologo Joseph Pereira, chairman of the territorial government
COVID-19 task force. Somepeople fromAmerican Samoawere stranded in the midst of family visits or business travel. A Facebook page started by Va’a and others to share information has turned into a support system for thosewholong to go back to American Samoa,
said Kueni AumoeualogoHisatake. Shewent toHonolulu with her husband for their biannual medical checkups on the last flight outof the territoryMarch26 — not anticipating they would not be able to return.
Aumoeualogo-Hisatake said the situation makes her “feel abandoned and neglected.”
Other people can’t leave American Samoa.
Epifania Rapozo lives in Washington state and returned to the territory in February for the first time in 20 years to visit her ailing grandfather, who later died. Unable to return to the U.S., Rapozo’s 10-year-old daughter has been taking online classes and her 6-year-old son is enrolled in a local school.
“I am grateful thatwe are COVID-free but also quite disappointed on how the government is handling the issue,” Rapozo said. “There is absolutely no excuse as to
why there hasn’t been any action implemented to repatriate not only us U.S. citizens but our ownpeople.”
Moliga is reviewing a petition by stranded residents demanding repatriation. But amid a spike in coronavirus cases inHawaii, he has asked Hawaiian Airlines— the only carrier with regularly scheduled service betweenHonolulu and Pago Pago — to suspend flights throughNovember.
The territory is controlling its ports by quarantining crewmemberson boats, and essential workers arriving from the U.S. are tested for the virus.
Officials did arrange a free charter flight in July to take 150 Medicaid patients and support staff to the United States for medical treatment. There were enough extra seats to accommodate 45 students heading to the U.S. for college and 79 people who had been stranded on the island
sinceMarch.
The nonmedical passengers paid $884 for their one-way ticket, a price that prevented Rapozo from taking the flight. Therewere no passengers on the charter’s return flight to Pago Pago.
“In the beginning, everybody was happy that our government closed the borders, you know, for safety,“Aumoeualogo- Hisatake said. “But now, as time has accumulated, there’s more understanding about the virus and the preventive measures and all that stuff and howto deal with it.”
She and others say they don’twant American Samoa to open its borders, just bring them home safely.
As theywait, theVa’as are living with relatives but fear they have overstayed their welcome and are making plans to move in with other family in Seattle.
They consider themselves lucky among the stranded. Makerita Iosefo
Va’a is a manager at American Samoa’sMedicaid office and her husband, Shaun Va’a, is a member of the territory’s House of Representatives. While away, they’re able to work remotely without losing income and they have rented a car so they can get out of their family’s hair once in a while.
“It’s nice here, but home is home,” she said, pointing out that California, with its dry heat and isolation, is much different than American Samoa. “Here, we don’t really know people, versus back home you have a village.”
Back home, not everyone wears a mask and social distancing is still catching on, especially in tight-knit Samoancultures. Many people wonder what will happen when American Samoa opens its borders.
Ilalio Polevia and his 16year- old daughter, Rita, were essentially homeless in
Honolulu, when a group that helps Hawaii visitors put them up in a hotel. They had left American Samoa in Novemberso shecould go to high school in Washington state. He stayed and got a job at a bagged salad company.
When the pandemic was declared in March, they decided it was time to go home and left Tacoma for Honolulu, but their flight to Pago Pago had been canceled.
“I’m surprised there’s people here in Hawaii that care about us,” Polevia said.
After the father and daughter stayed at three different hotels, the visitors group connected them with a Samoan church, and they have been living at the reverend’shouse for the past month.
Rita enrolled at Waipahu High School and is taking classes online. They are livingoff churchdonations and hope they can be home by Christmas.