Period Party

Tim had plans to go fishing with Ruteru (the man with the foozeball table) but plans changed because Ruteru’s niece became a woman and there was a feast to prepare for.

The tradition is that when a girl gets her first period she only eats dried coconut for three days and then at the end of the three days they have a big feast for her to eat. The man we talked to about it said that’s the way it’s supposed to be, but probably the moms feel sorry for the girls not getting to eat anything but coconut and sneak them rice from time to time. We were invited to the party, and of course we accepted the invitation, but we weren’t sure if a gift was appropriate or not. So, Tim asked someone before the party and was told that a gift of money is generally appropriate. We considered that input, but opted to go with the gifts of nail polish, lipstick, and body spray that we have.

The party was a lot of fun, and we feasted, danced, and Tim even gave a speech to the new young woman. Alex was there this time for the dancing, and like Brenden he was also a very good sport, but sadly it was too dark for any videos. Lucky Alex. The funniest part of the night was the huge group of kids hovering around us. We jokingly call the group of kids that hover around us wherever we go “Alex’s posse” and this night was about the biggest posse we’ve seen. They actually broke down the fence they were gathered by and leaning on, and once there was no fence they infiltrated us and sat close in with us in our little corner. They don’t speak much English but there was lots of repetitive high fiving, fist bumping, and of course they absolutely loved having their pictures taken.

A man came and sat with us and talked with us during most of the party and after awhile we found out that he was the new MP, the one that beat Martin in the election. His name is Tieniti (pronounced Senis) and it turns out he was one of the men I had danced with at the Protestant party on New Year’s Day. (Not on video!)

At the end of the party the hostess presented as a gift to us one of the woven mats, and I couldn’t contain my gratitude/excitement because I’ve always really been wanting one. I told the boys when we get home we aren’t going to have furniture, just a big hand woven mat in the living room, but Tim has vetoed that. I think he misses the big comfy couch. The hostess also gave us two huge pumpkins, and Tim never tired of the joke “Oh my gourd, what are you going to do with those?!” The pumpkins were almost as exciting as the mats given we had absolutely no fresh food on board. Oh, and when you think pumpkin, don’t think big round thick skinned pumpkin that you carve at halloween, think something more like a giant zuchinni. You can even eat the skin.