G. T. Toomata - Gods Cuisine for Balance: In English and Samoan

Copyright 2021 by Toomata, Hicks Vaa, Sagaga Simanu. 815983

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 09/28/2020

1. G. T. Too mata

G. T. Toomata is a retired teacher with a career that has spanned over forty years teaching teachers in Samoa. A master of education graduate from Macquarrie University, she has five children and eleven grandchildren and still counting. Her greatest joy is in her grandchildren. She and her husband are both matai, or leaders of their respective families and villages, and currently enjoying retirement, tending to duties for these in the villages of Lalomalava and Samataitai in Savaii, S amoa.

2. L. R. Hicks Vaa

L. R. Hicks Vaa is a Samoan but sees herself as a regional having worked at the University of the South Pacific (USP) for thirty-five years. A master of philosophy graduate (science and Education) at USP and now retired, she had been a science teacher and distance educator programme leader who taught in Samoa, Fiji, and other USP countries. As well, her special interest in gender equity saw her engaged in the Graduate Womens Network in the Pacific (PGWNet). She and her husband, AmituanaI Nemaia Vaa, have a nuclear family of five children and ten grandchildren, and they are both matai serving their extended families from a distance: she holds the matai title Leatuaolevao of her family in Salailua SavaiI, and her husband AmituanaI is from Lalomanu, Aleipata, Upolu, S amoa.

3. T. Sagaga Si manu

A retired Samoan Presbyterian Ministers wife, T. Sagaga Simanu is a Master of Arts in Education graduate from the University of Auckland. She is the author of eleven Christian b ooks.

Dedicated to all the young people of Samoa throughout the world who have achieved well after struggling in education and are able to have a good job for life. May the peace of God go with you as you venture into the world, and may the future be fruitful and safe in your expeditions.

In aspiring this work at over seventy years old, our initial thought was to end our years of motherhood by leaving a small contribution to the lives of all young readers and anyone who is learning about Samoan cuisine, the tastiest choices in our lifetime. As well, after enjoying some success in our work and most of Gods challenging world, conquering all problematic encounters, and eating this kind of nutrition for the body, mind, and soul, at church, school, university, travel, and family, we concluded we had achieved some form of peace and some form of balance in our lives, viz. a utopia which is worth sharing. E njoy.

Sailau, Tili, Ruby

With humility in our hearts, we wish to express sincere gratitude to our parents and families who brought us up, took us to school and achieved scholarships for better education, and encultured us to loving relationships and culture. Their tireless work and prayerful loving nurture made way for our successful and balanced lifest yles.

Also in preparing for this project, we wish to thank our immediate families for their loving ongoing support in providing the expertise in technology to write it. Your prayers and care for our health at old age were most important. Our retired ageing status taught us a lesson: we should have done this work when we were you nger.

Our sincere gratitude as well goes to Xlibris NZ for publishing this work with a 40 per cent discount. Very much appreci ated.

Thank you, Gatoloai Tili Toomata and Leatuaolevao Ruby Hicks Vaa, for your wonderful chapters of lovely cuisine. I could not have done it without your support and input. Faafetai tele I lua Afioga. Faamanuia le Atua.

To BNZ Manukau and friends who helped fund this project, our grateful thanks. To all who will help to distribute this work, may you have peace and balance in your lives as you enjoy living in this very challenging w orld.

CONTENTS

We believe that God, through nature, prepared the kind of nutrition all people consume to sustain the body, the mind, and the spirit. A balance from what food we eat for physical strength, what knowledge we educate and fill our brains with, and what relationships and culture we nurture for our spiritual lives can produce great healthy, quality citizens for our w orld.

The purpose of this work is to educate and remind our young readers about the importance of a balanced style of life. That kind of achievement is attained not only from the healthiest food we eat, viz. Gods cuisine, but also from a good slice of psychological nutrition and spiritual enculturation and guidance. Great quality citizens acquiring healthy, intelligent, and loving courteous lifestyles are ideal for the future of every soc iety.

When we achieve a good balance in our lives from the blessings we receive every day from the world around us, we should experience the highest form of peace that passes all understanding (Jesus), a lagimalie (TTTamasese), a nirvana (Brahman), or a utopia (Plato/Socrates), a balanced lifestyle for living this life. We have enjoyed the goodness of God by witnessing the beautiful and amazing universe created for ever yone.

Like Descartes have mused in his many philosophies on duality, there are two sides in everything, the good and bad. We dont envisage anything adverse in this compilation, just a passion to share what is beneficial for our children and, of course, the w orld.

Without the properly using of mental resources (our thinking and our telepathic abilities), consuming quality healthy foods for the body, and respecting the Creator from whom we acquire the breath of life and all that we witness therein, so freely granted to us all, we cannot completely enjoy God-given bless ings.

A sound education in all the knowledge of the world feeds the mind, the body, and the spiritual faculties of every person. Eating good, healthy food brings happiness, contentment, love, and susten ance.

The book aims to reach the poorest individual who consumes sausages, pigs heads, or cheap foods most days but who earns a living instead of living on a benefit at a young age.

These authors have well served the country and world in various ways for many years, especially in education, Christianity, and their families, and they believe in the beauty of Gods universe that can be preserved well if all human beings can initiate goodness over and above the greed for p ower.

O UPU T OMUA

Ua saunia e le Atua e ala ile Natura o mea, mea taumafa e fafagaina ai le tino, mafaufau ma le agaga o tagata uma.

Aisea ua tusia ai lenei tusi?

O se galuega e faatatau mo le fanau faitau tusi, e aoaoina ai I le taua o le ola paleni lelei ile itu faaletino, faalemafaufau, ma le faaleagaga. Ae aoga tele foi mo matua uma. E le na o le tino e tatau ona fafagaina I taumafa lelei, ae faapena foi ile mafaufau ma le soifua faaleagaga ina ia maua le paleni lelei ole soifuaga atoa. E taua e nisi ole filemu e le mafaamatalaina.(Iesu) O nisi ua faatatau I le lagimalie.(TTTamasese) O nisi I talitonuga faa atunuu I Sasae, ole nevana,(Brahman) poo le iutopia.(Plato/Socrates). A maua e tagata uma le soifua paleni lelei, o se lelei taua lea mo aiga ma atunuu uma.