Samoan Cultural Day

Samoan Cultural Day 

This week the Level 10 students (about 14 years old) had a Samoan Cultural Day.  They prepared traditional Samoan foods, sang songs and all around had a great time.  They were right behind the carpentry shops so I was invited in join in the festivities.

Side note - I asked a few of my students if people cook this way today.  Many of them do Umu style cooking every Sunday.  They get up early and build a fire to heat up rocks.  The food is wrapped in banana leaves - taro, bananas, fish, etc. and placed on the rocks.  Then they shower up and go to church and come home to a traditional Umu meal.  It was kind of surprising that they carry on this tradition today.  I guess this accounts for the smoke that rises in small patches all around the area each Sunday.

Coconut is King!  

In the Samoan food culture, coconut is King.   Many of the traditional foods contain coconut and coconut cream (it seems to make everything taste better).
The student breaks the coconut in half, sits on a bench with a metal tong on the front and shreds the coconut.

When the coconut is shredded, they put the coconut in some of the fiber from the husks and squeeze out the coconut milk.

A fire is built from coconut shells and wood to cook the fish and the drinks.  They made two drinks -- one of mostly coconut meat and coconut cream and another made of Samoan koko (cocoa), papaya and coconut cream.--both sound better than they actually taste.

The fish are cooked directly on the coals and then simmered in coconut cream.

Taro is Queen...

 The taro is a starchy root vegetable, more dense and more starchy than a potato, and grown in abundance here.

This young man is using a piece of a tin can to scrape the skin off the taro root (hope it wasn't rusty!) and then cook it in, yes, coconut cream.
Below is a basket made out of banana leaves - the main method of carrying items here.  Every Samoan knows how to make these baskets.

Enjoying the feast!

The best part is when everyone gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

There are some benefits to being Senior Missionaries.  Everyone treats us nice, and they share the fruits of their labor.

It also helps to have this event just in back of the Vocational area of the school.

Day tripping

After running our morning errands,  we decided to go to the beach, so we hooked up with the Renchers and spent the afternoon sightseeing and swimming,  Craig Rencher is a dentist from Twin Falls who has been volunteering his dentistry services here for two months--they return home in a couple of weeks.)  Dentistry services are offered in the compound for free to anyone on the island.

We saw this waterfall just off the road.

We hiked a small distance to the second waterfall, and saw people swimming, so we grabbed our suits and returned to join in the fun,  We saw some brave souls jump in from the embankment high above the water--we were content to cheer them on.

An open air garden rest room

This was one of the most unusual bathrooms we have seen yet - but very scenic, indeed.

Survivor!

We tried to stop at Virgin Cove Beach on the way home, but the beach was closed due to filming of "Survivor Australia."  We wondered if the participants would find their way to a market close by for some refreshment, and thought of them camping out in the surrounding area.  We are standing just beyond the beach entrance, which is said to be the most beautiful undeveloped beach on the island.  We'll be back...