Tonga, Day Four

This morning was a laid back affair as we were leaving early in the afternoon to prepare our evening umu feast. A few of us piled into a van with the guys that guided us on the Fangtuva hike. The van ride was a bit weird as we kept stopping at various places to pick up water or put air in the tires. We also ran over a puppy. With so many animals running around this island with only limited fencing, this sort of thing must happen a lot but it made me quite sad.

The feast prep was done down at the beach. Sifa took care of the chicken and fish, but we all helped with opening and grating the coconuts, peeling the tapioca and flattening the taro leaves. All the food was wrapped up in the taro leaves and banana leaves as well, then buried in sand with the hot coals of our fire and coral "rocks" from the beach. While it was cooking a few of us went and explored the reef. I went out and was videotaping Ben standing around a few blowholes. Luca was out there too, taking pictures with his camera when this big wave came over the reef. All three of us were swept away but surprisingly neither camera was submerged. Both Luca and I had our camera straight up in the air while being swept across the coral and rocks and succeeded in saving them. The three of us were pretty battered though. I had hit my left wrist on something and couldn't move it much. I also had scraped my left knee and shin and right calf and my left hand had some long scratches down the side of it. I looked at my camera later and realized I had been filming the whole time... so I have lovely footage of the turbulent water that almost swallowed my camera.

The damage:



An Ikale beer later, I was feeling better and dinner was ready. Mmm it was so hot and perfectly cooked, it didn't even taste smoky at all! The taro leaves had a bit of a sting to them though that I found unpleasant, so after a few bites I scraped it off my fish and ate around it. It was so nice to be sitting around a big fire (the Tongan boys insisted upon throwing everything within reach on top of the fire so that it started to singe the leaves of the tree above us) with friends... almost like a typical Homer bonfire.

Me and John enjoying the Kodak moment