Vanuatu (part 4) - Back in Port Vila

Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu

We flew from Santo to Efate on Monday morning.  We had plans for that evening to have a family home evening (or as they are called in Vanuatu: Famle Haos Naet) with the Tiasinmal and Kaun families.  So, we walked around Port Vila, through the market...

...and enjoyed a super juicy pomplemus (pomello).  There are different kinds of pomplemuses, basically white and red.  A red one is just like a grapefruit.  The white pomplemus is much bigger, has a more subtle flavor, a little tangy and sweet.  Whenever they cut the skins off, it is done in a long spiral. They were always a welcome gift on my mission, even though some were the size of bowling balls and weighed the same... we always brought them home.   It was a happy, happy thing.

As we were walking around we saw an advertizement for scooter rental.  Hmmm.  That could be especially fun.  Upon further inquiry,  we learned that it was $35 bucks for the afternoon.  Sold!!  We strapped on the helmets and were off.  We didn't know where we were going, but we found a beautiful little beach surrounded by these large volcanic rocks.  The water was perfect for a swim and a lunch of bread and licorice.

And another one with a gentle wind against the trees and a stunning view of the open sea.  Perfect for a walk, hand in hand, along the edge of the water.

As we continued scooting around the island we passed this amazing tree.  I'm a fan of trees, and trees in the islands are incredible.  I could see into the tree that the family had a bench in it and some storage.  I would have loved to wonder through it.  There were 2 little girls playing by the tree so I walked over to them, with fruit snacks in hand.  They were a little nervous. 

I talked to them in Bislama and they started giggling. And giggled some more when I asked if they would like a lolly (sweet treat).  That won them over.  The dad of one of the girls came over and we chatted about the tree and the girls.  I got permission to take pictures of the tree (since we'd already taken several) and some pictures of the girls.  Cute cute!

We were across the street, leaning as far back as we could against a fence to try and get the whole tree in the frame. 

Truly, a remarkable tree.  There is another tree on the island of Tanna that I love.  There is just something about them that reminds me of the majesty of the Creator.  One of my most favorite poems by Joyce Kilmer says it better...

I think that I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree.

A tree that looks to God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

After an afternoon scootering around Efate we headed back and met up with the Kaun and Tiasinmal families... two of my most favorite in the whole wide Vanuatu.  I'm pretty grouchy about the fact that the entire evening of lesson, dinner, chatting, laughing, and more chatting went without a single photo.  So I am including a photo of both families from mission days.

Katimal & Mariella Kaun.  They have two beautiful daughters, now teenagers.

 

Mary & Honore Tiasinmal (I'm holding their daughter, Lovelina, who is now about 12).  They have 2 boys, both nearing mission age, and another daughter who is 4.

Both families are pioneers in their land, wonderful examples, and dear friends.

We were flying out the next day, but not until the afternoon.  So Honore and Mary said they would drive us around to Mele Cascade Falls and the museum.  I hiked up to the falls once on my mission and once during my 2004 trip.  They'd done a lot of landscaping and added some handrail ropes for portions of the hike.  Here we are at the base of the trail.

There is a bridge that crosses over the stream.  I went and sat on the rock while Matt set the timer on the bridge and made the mad dash over to the rock to look completely relaxed for the photo.  It's like the Garden of Eden.

We enjoyed the hike up, having the trail almost completely to ourselves.  The "hike" is more like a "walk" for much of it.  But oh, what a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L hike/mostly-walk it was!!

The trail passes through the stream multiple times... this was not one of them.  We wanted to get some pictures of the water cascading down the stones. We took off our shoes and waded into the clear water to get some pictures.  Sigh... loved it.

I liked this picture of our shoes on the edge of the stream.

This part of the trail actually was through the water.  They have carved a few steps into the stone to make it easier to climb up.  We were both surprised how un-slippery it was. 

There are 2 falls together and then another over just a bit.  It was over cast that day and we were going to pick up our bags and go straight to the airport, so we decided not to swim.  But it sure was perty!

We headed back down the trail to wait for Mary and Honore to pick us up.  We went back to our bed and breakfast, grabbed our luggage, and headed out the door.  We made a quick stop at the national museum.  We'd tried to go there twice before but it hadn't worked out.  Everything went smoothly at the airport, so we were able to enjoy some more time with Mary and Honore.  And then we were on our way to Samoa.  There was a new excitement at introducing Matt to Brett & Tufa and the kids.  What a dream to be in Vanuatu with Matt and then to be off to Samoa.  I'm tempted to burst into the "Sound of Music" song: "I must have done something good!" 

I love him.  Dearly.

Vanuatu (part 3) - "What in the World is Laplap?"

Luganville, Santo, Vanuatu

When I got home from my mission I started school at BYU.  I had to make a "How to..." powerpoint presentation for an assignment.  The powerpoint had to include a voice recording.  I decided to make a powerpoint about how to make laplap (pronounced lop-lop).  I was sitting in a computer lab on campus working on my project when I had to make the voice recording for my introduction. I felt awkward talking in the middle of the quiet lab.  So I leaned forward and quietly said "What in the world is laplap?" into the microphone.  It wasn't loud enough, so I tried it again.  "What in the world is laplap?"  This time I stuttered a bit, so I had to start again.  And so it went until I was on the fifth or sixth time of attempting to record it when the guy sitting next to me tapped my shoulder and said, "What in the world IS laplap?!"

For the one or two other people in the world that don't know what laplap is... this post is for you!

In Vanuatu, laplap is perhaps the cultural equivalent of roast and potatoes.  It takes several hours to make, so it is made for special occasions or when company is over.  When I first got to Vanuatu I had a hard time getting it down.  The consistency is like cream of wheat that doesn't have quite enough water and has cooled off so you could cut it into pieces and hold it in your hand to eat.  It was soft and kind of sticky, thick and heavy.  (I'm not selling this very well, am I?)  After being out for a while, however, I came to looove a hot piece of laplap that had just come off the hot stones.  Especially when it had some ave ave or coconut cream to dip it in.  Mmmm mmmm.

Matt is a cook.  A good cook.  And a clever cook.  He seldom uses a recipe.  Usually he just looks in the refrigerator and pantry and pulls something together.  So was I surprised when I came home from work one day and he told me he had some laplap in the oven for dinner??  Yes, yes I was.  He'd heard me talk about it and wanted to try it out.  He looked it up on the internet, watched some youtube videos, and jumped in.  This is what he came up with.

His effort was so sweet and it was fun to share with the kids.  The only downside was that it didn't quite work (although it was the closest thing I've had away from Vanuatu).  When we went to Vanuatu, one of the things we wanted to do was help make some laplap. I talked with Mama Mavutu and asked if we could make laplap with her.  She was more than happy to do so.  Her daughter Ruth, suggested that we do it at her home.

After church on Sunday 4 September, Matt and I went to Ruth and Patrick Ishmael's home to help prepare the lap lap that we would be eating later that day.  I had known Ruth and Patrick when I was serving my mission.  They were both in the mutual program and great examples of what a young woman and young man should be.  Ruth eventually served a mission in Idaho (bless her heart and her frost bitten toes), and Patrick served in Australia.  They were married in the Fiji temple (a feat in and of itself).  They have a little boy named Michael who had just turned two and whose birthday we were celebrating that night.  Patrick is the branch president of the Santo Branch.

Anyway, lets get on with the cooking lesson.  First, you need to decide what type of laplap you will be serving.  Ruth thought it would be fun to make two kinds, since who knows when we'll be enjoying laplap again.  We had laplap maniok and laplap yam.  The first step is to peel the maniok (known as cassava in other parts of the world) and yam.  Matt took on the yam like a man!!

Next, the maniok and yam needed to be "scratched" (as we say in Bislama), or grated (as we say in English).  Take a piece of metal and using a nail, hammer dozens of holes into the metal.  Then flip the metal over, attach it to a wooden frame and voila, you have a laplap scratcher.  It basically grinds the yam/maniok into mush.  Here Mama Mavutu and I are making maniok mush.

Ruth was busy making mush with the yam. 

Meanwhile, the fire needs to be started to heat the stones for the ground oven.  The husk of the coconut is used to get things going, but then a little frame of wood is added on top of the fire to support a pile of stones.  The stones are what will cook the laplap, so they need to be smokin' hot.

Once the maniok and yam have been scratched we get started on the coconuts which need to be milked for the laplap.  I'm poised, ready to strike the unsuspecting coconut right between the eyes.  It was a pretty good whack, if I do say so myself.

Because it was Sunday and we didn't want to spend the entire day cooking, Mama Mavutu scratched the coconut.  As you can see, she did a thorough job.  The fibrous stems to the side of the coconut shell (in the picture below) are cut from the large leaves and will later be used to tie up the laplap.

Matt and Ruth began preparing the green onions, chicken wings, island cabbage, soy sauce, salt, and a little MSG that would top it all off.

There are specific leaves that are grown in Vanuatu that are called "laplap leaves" (clever name), however there were none available at the market on Saturday.  So banana leaves are an alternative (they look very similar).  Mama Mavutu is laying out the leaves in preparation for the yam and maniok mush to be poured on.

Now she is milking the scratched coconut onto the leaves - the equivalent of spraying PAM on your cake pan so it won't stick .

 Now the yam (brown) and the maniok (white) are poured onto the leaves.

Ruth married Patrick, who is from the island of Malakula, so we had Malakula-style laplap .  That means island cabbage is put in the middle, then two hot stones are placed on top (you'll see the steam from the stones in the video), put the chicken wings all around the hot stones, sprinkle the green onions, salt, and some MSG for good measure.  Then, you wrap it all up in the leaves, tying it together with the bone (stem) of the leaves.

Once it is wrapped up all pretty, it is taken down to the hot stones.  By this point the fire would have died down and most of the stones would be moved to the side of a small pit.  The pit is lined with stones, the leaf bundle placed on them, and then the other stones put on top.  They use a piece of bamboo folded in half like huge prongs to move the hot stones.

Then you pile all sorts of other things (more banana leaves, gunny sacks, corrugated tin, dirt, whatever...) on top of the stones to trap in the heat. About 2 hours later you uncover the happy little bundle.

Here it is all uncovered.

It's actually quite heavy, being made with 4-5 yams, 6-8 maniok, chicken wings, two stones, and the other additions for flavor.  It's hot and ready to be unwrapped and eaten.

Laplap is eaten while sitting on a mat, with everyone around it in a circle.  First it is unwrapped, then the chicken and island cabbage are taken out of the middle and spread around the laplap.  More coconut milk is added to the top.   

The two stones are removed (you can see them on the top left side) and coconut milk is put in the two holes they left.  The laplap is cut around the edges and those pieces are eaten first before cutting further into the laplap.  From start to finish, it took about 5 hours to make.  Here is what was left over.

What is almost impossible to captured is the chatting and laughter that went along with the preparation as well as the conversation and company that accompanied the evening.

And that, my friends, is laplap.