Government Housing

Contract workers who come to American Samoa usually end up living in housing provided by the American Samoa Government. Out of that group, most end up residing in Lion's Park, the large complex of housing near the Pala Lagoon. This plot of land was created by draining a marsh meaning that there were no Samoan villages there. Thus it was easy for the federal government, followed by the Territorial government, to build housing there for the off-islanders that were working here.

It's putting it mildly to say most of the houses there are in bad shape. Less than half the houses are habitable due to damage from cyclones, fires, mold, rot and termites. There is no Samoan word for maintenance and the American Samoa Government often finds other priorities for its funds than taking care of the property and structures it owns, especially those inhabited by us palagi.


All of the houses that are inhabited in Lion's Park are also in various stages of decay. Most people's houses have termites that will come out at a certain time and fly around the house for 15 or 20 minutes each evening. This being the tropics, all houses have some amount of termites, mold and rot. Wood houses fair poorly in the heat and humidity. The climate also rusts and corrodes  the nails and other metal pieces holding it all together, a water clip left in the open will rust away in a few months.

Needless to stay whether occupied or left empty these houses are under constant assault from the climate and pests. If you're lucky you get a house that relatively few issues (like Sara and I). If not, you're waging constant war against the environment that trying to reduce your residence to rubble to line  the jungle floor.

We had a moment a week ago that typifies the confluence of all these factors in the government housing living situation. We were hanging out at another attorney couple's house in Lion's Park. During our third game of cribbage the husband got up to demonstrate one of our doctor friend's aggressive golf swings and lost his balance. This sent his shoulder into the plywood wall behind him that had some extensive termite damage. The force of the impact shattered the wall and sent shards of the papery plywood through into the kitchen. As it wasn't a structural wall there wasn't any real damage to the house. In cleaning up the pieces of wood that came from the wall we quickly figured out that the wall was toast. Using a few tools we quickly commenced an impromptu remodel and pulled down the rest of the paper remains of the wall. The end result was some unfinished cabinet ends, but otherwise an improved kitchen and dinning room, as the lack of the wall opened up both spaces. That's not something I would attempt in the real world, but living under the extremes of the tropics sometimes leads to odd situations like that.