Tongan Take-aways : Camping on the Beach

February 26, 2013

Actually fulfilling a random suggestion made the night before, a group of us got together to camp out on the amazing beach that is in my village. Because one of the Ausaid volunteers is dating a Tongan we got to do some pretty cool things, including but not limited to getting a pig and then killing it and eating it all on the beach. That’s right folks the pig that rode in the back of the pickup with us from town, very much alive trapped in a food grain bag, was killed shaved an roasted by yours truly! Nothing makes you feel more Peace Corps than cleaning out a pigs entrails with your hands and then spearing it with a stick to roast it on a fire built out of wood and dried leaves. We didn’t let anything go to waste, and feasted on the delectable stomach and lungs of the little piglet as we waited while the delicious specimen was being slowly roasted. Our Tongan friend climbed perhaps the tallest coconut tree in site (maybe 40 feet) to get us a plentiful supply of coconuts and a few of the leaves to be weaved into a matt on which we would lay the fruits of our labor. We ate at the foot of the beach during sunset…. It is times such as these that make me really appreciate being placed in Tonga…

I still made it back to my village in time for second church! Where my friend Ofa caught me dozing off more than a few times. I still got my Sunday lu too! I dropped the fact that I had only eaten bread that day and my principal told me to come to her house to find some lu... Side note: you really have to appreciate a culture that specifically grows certain plants that contain the ingredients for a meal that is only had on Sundays.