On Saturday (Aug 29) a group of us WT went to our first Fa’afafine pageant! Before heading to the big event Julia, Cynthia, John, Bridget, Rosemary, Tahn, Kate, Kathy, and I went out to a nice dinner. We went back to Deluxe Cafe (we went there for our dinner with the DOE), and I got to eat mashed potatoes!!! Can you believe it!? That might have been the highlight of my night! After that we walked over to Tradewinds Hotel for the pool side event. Fa'afafine is a third gender specific to Samoan culture. Fa'afafine are biologically men who in childhood choose by their nature to be raised to assume female gender roles, which is not discouraged in the traditional fa’asamoa (Samoan society). They are not to be confused with being gay. Anyway, the fa’afafine make up a rather large community, and hold many pageants. This was the 26th annual Island Queen pageant entitled “Once Upon An Island Queendom....A Royal Affair.”
The fa’afafine compete in quite traditional categories like swim suit (they keep everything marvelously hidden), talent (usually singing/lip sinking and dancing), evening gown, and interview. The night was very funny with skits done by old pageant queens in between each category. The comical part was that their was a Disney theme to the evening, as many of the lip sinks were done to famous Disney songs. Dakota, one of my co-workers, was actually the MC for the night, and she was fabulous! Dakota is one sassy, hilarious fa’fafine, so she livened up the night with crazy remarks! One of my favorites was, “Mmm mmm she’s like a McDonald’s sundae. So good and you can get her for only $2.99.” Dakota is also of the large persuasion (400 lbs+), and her favorite remark is “Don’t be jealous of all this!”
After the pageant we walked across the street to check out the Tafuna volunteers’ house (Jung, Adam, and Alison), then we heading out to Maliu Mai for a bit of dancing and chatting.
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