The River

Helena Bennett-Tuionetoa Year 6 St Peter Chanel Primary School 

It was an early Saturday morning when the rooster Moli started to crow in the morning light. Soon Moli’s crowing woke up a girl named Rosa. “Rosa! Rosa! Ave le mea’ai i le moa,” said her mother. When Rosa heard this, she got out of bed, grabbed the food for the chickens and went outside where Moli and some female chickens stayed. After feeding the chickens, Rosa went back in the house where her baby sister Sana was waiting for her. “Rosa, Rosa si’i au!” said Sana, so Rosa picked up little Sana and went off to have some breakfast. After eating, Rosa went to see if the river was flowing but when she got to the bridge there was nothing but some rubbish. The sight of the river distracted her and she wished someone could do something about it but she had to go home. She was also disappointed that this Sunday she would not be able to go to the river with her family. As she walked back to her house, she looked around her and saw that there were not many trees and the only place in her village with lots of trees was where the waterfall was, but it still was not enough to make the waterfall flow. The only way the waterfall would flow was with the rainwater, so Rosa looked out for any rain. Then two hours later it started to rain heavily so Rosa turned on the TV to see what the weather would be like and sure enough it would be raining all night so that would give enough water for the family to go have a swim the next day. Throughout the day Rosa could not stop thinking about their swim the next day. Then after eating dinner, Rosa went to bed excited for Sunday. But when Rosa woke up the next day she saw she was in a traditional Samoan house, in traditional Samoan clothes and on a traditional Samoan mat. Then Rosa heard someone call her name, so she ran out out of the  house to see who it was, and it was her mum, Sina. “E Rosa! Ua fiu fa’atali oe, sau tatou o i le vaitafe.”

After hearing what her mum had said she remembered it was Sunday but she also knew that she was somehow in the 1800s but she didn’t want to spoil the plan by asking any questions so she went with Sina, Sana and Samu (Rosa’s dad) to the waterfall. Then when they got there the waterfall was so full that Rosa had never seen the water that full in her life. Wasting no time, Rosa quickly jumped in the water to have a swim. After Sina joined Rosathey swam until they had to go back. But then when Rosa started to swim back to the ground, everything started to change around her. Now she was no longer in the river. She was in the sea. Then she heard her mum call her so Rosa looked to see where she was and she saw her mum on the beach so she quickly swam to the sandy beach. After getting out of the water, Rosa got into a car with her mum and flew off to their home, as the car could fly. But on the way past the waterfall Rosa asked her mum if the river was still flowing but her mum told her that the river had stopped many years ago. This news shocked Rosa that her favourite waterfall had stopped. As soon as Rosa and her family got back to their house, Rosa walked to the bridge to see the place where the waterfall had been and as soon as she saw the river her mouth dropped because the place where the waterfall used to be there were no trees and there was only one sad, dusty tree in the whole area. And all she saw were houses everywhere.

Then suddenly she woke up and realized the whole time she had been dreaming. But this dream told her that the waterfall will end if she doesn’t do something about it. Wanting to go back to sleep Rosa lay back down knowing that she must take action to save the waterfall. Tomorrow she would ask her family to go to the river and pick up all the rubbish. It was up to her to make a change.