mumu

Mumu

Today we went to New Camp ( a village about 1/2 hour walk
from here) for a mumu (feast). It was a lot of fun and a
good cultural experience.

When we got there us girls had to peel the potatoes. I'm
glad my peeler was sharp. It made the job easy. After we
finished some men from the village started building the
mumu. First they had to heat the rocks. This was done
before we got there. Then the arrange banana logs around
the rocks in a circle. They put sticks in the logs to form
a frame. After that they started putting banana leaves on
top of the rocks. They continued to form a wall of banana
leaves inside the frame. It was neat to see.

After they did this they put some unpeeled kaukau (sweet
potato) in the mumu(also the oven.) Then they covered them
with leaves. From this point on they layered kaukau,
banana leaves, greens, and eventually the lamb flanks.
Afterward they put a pipe down the middle and covered the
mumu with more banana leaves and eventually dirt. After it
was finished being built they poured water down the pipe
and filled the mumu. Now all we had to do was wait for the
food to cook.

While we were waiting, my language helper Bunais, took us
to her house down the road. It was really cool to see her
place. We sat around inside and talked for a while. We got
to meet her 3 year old son, Boni. We returned to the
village and the mumu was just about ready. Finally the
food was done and it was time to eat.

The men laid out the banana leaves and piled the food on
top. We had all sorts of good food; orange kaukau, white
kaukau, greens, cabbage and best of all lamb. All of the
ITF(interface) girls ate around one pile of food. We had
to reach in and grab our food. Of course we ate with our
fingers. It was a lot of fun. This is an experience I will
never forget.

Then to top the afternoon off we ended up having a water
fight in the back of the truck on the way home. That was
fun until I got wet. Oh well.

This will probably be my last post for the week. On Friday
we are leaving to go on our side trips. Not sure where I'm
going yet (when I find out i'll post it if I get a
chance). There is no email in the villages we're heading
out to, so
I'll write about it when I get back on Tuesday.