[password] grace40

[position] 19 08.375s 178 34.533w

[status] 0800 hrs 24 July 2019. Yesterday, being Tuesday, was women?s weaving day in the main and adjoining villages. They meet in a community hut in each of the villages and weave with pandamus leaves, mostly large mats for their bures (huts), but decorative items like purses, fans, and turtles to send to Suva for sale. While women were doing that, the men who carve chipped, sawed, plained, and sanded creating their beautiful and intricate wood carvings to sell to the yachties that come to Fulaga, and send to Suva to sell in the tourist shops. We added to those activities by doing a bra, sunglasses, and children clothing giveaway. I know I mentioned in earlier posts that we had about 1000 bras, 6-700 sunglasses, and a large wardrobe of girls clothes donated by our friends, Billie, Kris and Craig. Leilani and our host, Bali, managed the bras and children clothing, and I and our other host Alifretti the sunglasses. It was so much fun seeing all the smiling faces after they took away their items.

One of the ladies from the adjoining village invited us to lunch. I always have trepidations about going to lunch because I?m not a big Fiji cuisine fan. The biggest worry is how my digestive system will react. Many times it?s not a good reaction. After sitting on the floor and listening to my knees screaming at me not to fold them too much, and me telling them I couldn?t fold them if my life depended on it, our host put out several dishes that was our lunch. Two plates immediately had my stomach punching me in...well, the stomach, to be careful. One consisted of four very large plantains, bright yellow in colour that made a yellow canary look dull, submerged in water. When I tasted one, I was pleasantly surprised. They had been boiled in sugar water, and had a very nice sweet taste, and the consistency was like a soft banana. It could have been a dessert.

The other suspect dish was land crab. Four were presented in their half shell with what looked like curdled coconut cream poured over them. They were smaller in size than my cupped palm. All the meat and body insides were extracted, then diced with onion, and put back in the half shell, smothered in coconut cream, and baked. I told myself to taste a bit, and if it didn?t agree with me, then I?d feign a heart attack or something as an excuse for not being able to finish. But, again, I was pleasantly surprised. The crab was delicious. In fact, I had two. Even Leilani, who is a more finicky eater, enjoyed the dish. The plantains and crab dishes showed you can?t always judge a taste by its looks.

The remaining dishes consisted of ubiquitous cassava, which tastes like a boiled potato with no seasoning, and a spinach-like vegetable boiled in coconut milk with bits of fish, which was not bad tasting, but I wouldn?t order it in a restaurant. There were also home baked buns.

As if the luncheon wasn?t enough, we were invited into the community hut where the women were weaving, and presented with two large baskets (made of palm leaves) full of papayas, bananas, plantains, sugar cane (which I didn?t know was grown in Fulaga), oranges, husked coconuts, and a large lobster. In addition, Leilani was presented with a beautifully woven basket-purse, and three woven fans. Finally, we received a small replica of a traditional Fijian war club with intricately carved designs. The ladies told us that it was their ?thank you? to us for our ?generous gifts?. I can tell you, we felt their gifts far outweighed in value whatever we gave them. Their gesture brought tears to Leilani?s eyes and a lump in my throat. I?m always sensitive to the fact that all food items have to be caught, collected, grown, and/or harvested before any can be prepared to be eaten. Certainly not as convenient as popping down to the local grocery store and simply buying it. Fulaga is truly a subsistence fishing and farming society.

Yesterday was why we love Fulaga and see no reason to leave.

Sototale, John

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