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Heinrich is leaving tomorrow so the village are having a party to say goodbye. The picture is of the villagers cooking the local dish of lap lap over an open fire.
We watched them grate some taro and yam yams using some tied together storks as rough as very course sandpaper. The goo was then layed onto some banana leaves and parts of a pig chucked in (trotters and all).
The banana leaves were folded over, tied and layed on the open fire (blog picture). Some hessian sacks were then layed over the top to keep the heat in and a dog then decided to make the whole lot his bed. Apart from the sacks they could have been doing it this way for hundreds of years (even the string was plant).
A rather excited Heinrick had invited his chums over, in the form of a white female that came out of the bush (and she had a rather large bush under her nose). She was filming the cooking, whilst saying how comfortable it is here compared to the bush (bully for you).
She was working on the same project as Heinrick and had to make 10 films as a condition for getting grant money (this included local customs).
Anyway we were sumoned to the main village hut for the party. As we entered the women were scooping out the lap lap into whatever containers they could lay their hands on. I was trying to see where the whole trotter was whilst thanking God that I was vegetarian.
Once this was done the village chief gave a speech in the village language "called the village language". Heinrich and co were given a wreath and Heinrich tried to give a speech in their tongue which was partly successful going by the various titers from the locals. Next was a sermon and then eaties.
Things got a bit heavy here, we were invited up as guests first but we could only eat the rice. The chief and the various women cooks were trying to get us to have some meaty lap lap (vegetarian - they just couldn't get their heads round it). Already feeling bad Susana had a go saying that we should eat and just avoid the meat (she is German).
The local men took their food from the only table where their was also a pig joint. The women and children ate the lap lap on the earth floor.
The atmosphere was like a lead balloon so we started to think up ways of escape. Sissy had been cooking for us during our stay (and she wasn't here) so we used this as an excuse to go and check.
Sissy however thought that we would be having something to eat at the party. We had been trying to eat the soups that we brought but every attempt to use these tins was thwarted. We had a stove but no pans, and the wind was blowing in the right direction for them not to smell the soup. We heated up the tins themselves (god did it taste good).
By the time we got back everyone had packed up.
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