Today's news consists of food, food, and more food. Or as we call it here, Kaikai. It has been awhile since I have done a blog update, so let me get through the boring stuff, and then I'll cover the kaikai part of this. Basically we wake up, have classes, get convicted from what is being preached, go to the village and learn Pidgin, cool off at the beach, and eat more food. Yes I know that is very vague, but honestly so much happens in one day I struggle to remember what I did last night.
Ok, now for the fun stuff. Our dear staff at this fine establishment thought it would be a grand idea to make us students cook over an open fire for four meals straight. At first I didn't think it was that big of a deal until they told us we had to buy only market food (fresh fruits and veggies, smoked fish, and sweet potatoes) because my initial plan was to buy makings for PB&J and just live off of that. Well, that idea was quickly shot down.
I was kinda nervous, but my team had a good meal plan in place and we were ready to tackle the market, well at least we thought we were ready to tackle the market. Saturday morning the market was swarming with people (I later learned that Friday is payday...I think the staff planned it this way) and we all were completely overwhelmed. Also, all the food we planned to have was already sold because we got there a little later in the morning. Needless to say it was a time that I had to trust the Lord to get through it all. When we got back from the market (2 hours later) we saw that the other team of girls bought a bat, and was going to cook that for dinner. Boy oh boy did everybody on the mission base come to watch that ordeal go down. It was hilarious to watch the girls ask the Nationals how to cook the bat. First they had to burn all the hair off of him, and then cut him up, and soak the meat pieces in vinegar. They then made a sketchy looking stew out of sweet potatoes and anything else they could find to put in it to hide the taste of the bat.
My team took a simpler road and bought a crab. We cooked that yummy fellow in boiling water and had sweet potato,greens, onions, garlic, eggplant, and chicken bouillon to help fill us up. Anyways, I won't bore you with the details of our meals, but we all survived and got to celebrate our success by having a big potluck Sunday evening (the boys were finally able to eat something more than a roasted sweet potato).
Now fore even more food adventures. Today at the village we had a Sepik style feast which they call a Mumu (pronounce Moo Moo). Right when we got there we had to kill 4 chickens (and yes, I did help kill the chickens, I even have pictures to prove it :)). After we killed them we had to pluck the feathers which is rausim grass bilong kakaruk (remove the hair of the chicken), and cut the chickens into smaller pieces. I also got to help cut down lip belong banana (leaves from a banana tree) so we could use those as cooking mats. While all this was going on, another team was peeling kaukau, tarro, kumu, and banana (sweet potatoes, tarro, greens, and plantains) and putting those on to boil. My team was lighting a fire and heating stones in the fire to use for cooking. Oh! the boys are all scraping the inside of coconuts to make coconut creme from that.
After all these ingredients were ready we poured the coconut creme into a big bowl and started to put the hot stones in it. The hot stones would make the liquid boil, then we were able to put the chicken and greens in there and let it cook. All the preparation work (about 3 hours) and the food took about 30 minutes to cook. After the food was cooked we got our plates and dug out what we wanted from the pot and ate our kaikai. Let me tell you, after working 3 long hours for food, that was some of the best food I have ever tasted. Today gave me a good appreciation of the accessibility of everything back home. I will think twice before complaining how long something has to heat up in the microwave.
Anyways, I know that was a lot of details, but I can't really give vague descriptions of anything or otherwise nobody would have any idea of what I was talking about.
Before I leave, some quick prayer requests:
Our team leaves Friday for Biem island. Every Interface team takes a side trip and lives in a tribal location with the bush missionaries. We have a 6 hour boat ride ahead of us, and 5 days of living in a strange place. Please pray for safety traveling out there, and that no one would get sick while we are at Biem. I know some in our team are nervous about it all, so just pray that God will calm all of our fears, and that we will hand any concerns over to him.
Praise that my Pidgin language acquisition is coming along nicely. I am far from fluent, but I feel much more confident communicating with the Nationals. This will become extremely handy when we are in Biem because nobody knows English there, unlike in Wewak.
Thank you for all the prayers and support, I know God has everything under control, but it is comforting to know that I have an army of pray warriors at home lifting me up before God.
Happy super late 4th of July, and have an awesome rest of the week. I hope to write another update before i leave for Biem, but no guarantees.
Em tasol (That is all),
Lydia
Mifit bus pla meri (I am a strong bush woman...a very nice lady in the village told me that today when she saw me working on everything)
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