Vanuatu is full of customs and traditions. There still is a strong focus on preserving these traditions but including some newer ideas and twists. We recently had a big celebration. One of my sisters was "blocked." This is the Bislama way of saying she's engaged! The ceremony to "block" a woman involves work on both sides of the family. Our family prepares a banana laplap kworo to give to the family of the man. Bubu Madeline is putting thick coconut cream on the slabs of banana laplap. Three whole chickens were placed on top before they leaves covered them.
Flowers and colorful leaves are used to make the bundle look fancy!
Here is the father of the groom. He traveled from his island of Malekula with his wife to do the ceremony. They brought yams, custom mats and money to give as gifts. People from our village came to witness.
Here is the groom and his father giving gifts to members of the brides family.
The mother of the bride, Bubu Nancy, receives her mats, buckets, yams and money from the groom to be.
Gifts were given to each of the bride to be's uncles as a thank you for raising her.
After the groom's family was finished Cheif Jeconiah gave a talk thank you and presented the kworo laplap to the family of the groom.
Here is my new "taewi" and his mom.
And here is their son David Moli with his grandmother (Bubu) Nancy.
