Our Umu

Our neighbors got a brilliant idea to to an umu. A palagi umu, basically. That means that we bunch of white people prepared a Samoan style dinner baked in a pile of burning rocks and leaves. (When I say "we" I mean "they" because I didn't help at all. I was at a school meeting half the day.)

Damien was our resident Samoan giving instructions and techniques. Ephraim drew from youthful experiences to scrape and strain the coconuts until his hands couldn't handle it anymore. Then James took over. Then Damien finished the job.

Frankly doing an umu is WAY too much work to do regularly. And many people here do it every week. They basically spend all day cooking for lunchtime. When I say "they" I mean the young people. When you reach a certain age you don't have to do that work anymore. Age has its perks.

The boys took their fish prep job very seriously.

Good training for their future at Starkist cannery.

We were nervous when the rain threatened our umu; when you cook outside the weather reigns (get it?).

In the end it turned out to be an amazing feast. My personal favorite: palusami. Young taro leaves baked in coconut milk and onions. Luscious. Dinners with our neighbors are ALWAYS a delicious success. We talked about our next umu... It's like giving birth, after awhile you think labor wasn't THAT bad. So, yeah, we'll see about next time. And when I say "we" you know I don't mean myself.

The Hut

Our amazing neighbors have been working on a hut for the past few months. The foundation posts were already there, leftover from some home renovation project, I suppose. An eyesore becomes an opportunity. It helps that our neighbor is a foreman of one of the largest construction teams on island.


Now our boys have somewhere to release their constructive energy (pound nails into the floor) like good little youngsters.

Looking forward to good campouts in the hut...

Kids in the Kitchen

Although life's been hectic, we TRY to get some home cooked meals in there most days. In fact last week Ephraim made the most amazing pan fried potatoes I've ever eaten thanks to carefully followed instructions from Terence and Vicki Conran's cookbook, Classic Conran. They were cut, boiled for 12 minutes then coated in hot meat drippings and baked until they were golden and gorgeous. Those aren't the official instructions and I'm not looking it up for you. Sorry. You get the idea.

I'm counting boxed Ghirardelli's as homemade.

At the School

Recess--keepin' it real

Here the students are drawing ideas for a school mascot.

Looks like the Ta'iala Fighting Bunnies.

School Days

Director Alaiasa schools the kids in 4-square

Hi all,

School's going well. I know you're wondering. We're adjusting to each other, which isn't always a picnic, but overall things are great. Kids are happy, teachers are happy, parents are happy. And we're all learning a lot!

A favorite so far: journal writing. My class of 5-6 graders (+one 7th grader) write everyday and I get to read their stories, ideas, and babbling adding my comments here and there. But the pages that are folded over are private, and I wouldn't even think about reading those ones.

I'm impressed with what I read, we have some creative talent in our class. Adventure series about ninjas vs. samurai, a teenage detective squad, and a confession about all the candy a boy would buy if he had $1 million. But he'd save some money to fix his cavities. That's foresight.

Being a teacher is more than time-consuming. Life-consuming. But I'm happy when Ella comes home from school telling us about paleontologists, houses built from old shipping containers, and Samoan songs. Isaac makes adorable things in kindergarten, and Owen has volunteers to hold him all day until he falls asleep on his little sleeping bag.

But if I don't write frequently, I hope you'll excuse me.