A Village Feast
Vavinaqiri villagers were very happy that they were selected for a focused agricultural information needs assessment and subsequent support. The village community invited us to lunch and it was a lavish party. All this took place right inside the village church. Everything was locally sourced from freshwater prawns and fish in the nearby river, curried pork from wild hogs hunted by the villagers, duruka (Sacharum edule) from the bushes around to a whole array of root crops - sweet potatoes , yams , dalo, plantains you name it, it was there. Before the food came, we had been treated to copious quantities of kava and succulent water melons. The kava drinking is an elaborate ceremony and there is long-drawn process of incantations and blessings and clapping. Each cup served has to be downed in one go - no sips!! The cups are made from coconuts shells cut into halves. Kava has a numbing effect on your mouth if you take too many cups. Thankfully, you can opt out when you signal that you have reached your limit.
As we sat in the lotus position on mats around the food, we were serenaded to good Fijian music while we ate and our hosts played guitars, sang Fijian tunes and drank kava. Young ladies were interspersed among the guests around the food to fan away flies in case they disturbed. The food was delicious to say the least!! It was only after we had eaten to our fill and moved away from the food that our hosts took over to eat what was left. What was left was still a feast!!
No comments:
Post a Comment