Welkam bak kakae

One thing my family does well is welcoming family members back home after a long time spent away. My counterpart Chris spent 2 months in Japan, at the beginning of this year, for a math teacher's training. He was awarded with a scholarship and was the one representative from Vanuatu to go. While there he was taught the Japanese approach to teaching math and even got to observe teachers in the field. On his return home we celebrated this great experience and welcomed him back to Ambae.

The family all got together to bake lap lap and pig a pig. My Mama, Mama Vira (Chris' wife) and Bubu Marium prepared the banana lap lap. Timothy was helping "ras ras" the manioc.












Papa prepared the fire. The key is to make a huge fire so that it gets the stones scorching hot. They the stones alone cook the food.






Here Mama is heating the leaves to make them soft so that they wrap around the lap lap easily.

Then she spread coconut milk on the leaves first so that the banana and manioc do not stick to the them while they cook.






Papa and Timothy killed the pig, cleaned it out and then burned off the hair. No gruesome pictures sorry! But here are my siblings and cousins watching this messy task!

Once the pig was prepared it was seasoned with salt. A hot stone was placed inside it to make sure it cooked all the way through. Then bush cabbage was put with it took. Papa used coconut leaves to weave/braid around the pig so that it would not burn while baking in the hot stones.

The lap lap and pig were placed over hot stone and then covered up with even more. They are left there to bake for many hours. We use pieces of bamboo to pick up the hot stones and put them on top.










That afternoon we enjoyed manioc lap lap, banana lap lap, baked pig, and delicious bush cabbage. It was a great meal and welcoming for Chris to come home too. Not only did we have this good food but my cousin brother Michael was even playing with the pig bladder like a balloon! I guess you get crafty with your toys when there isn't a Toys-R-Us nearby!!