Sunday 19 September Fish Feast

A grave in the village

Nico in his new house

Cea & Nico's house

Tongans are religious people. Almost everyone wil go to church on Sunday. On Niuatoputapu they have the choice of Methodist, Catholic and Mormon churches, plural. The sabbath is respected as a day of rest and cruisers are expected to respect this and refrain from obvious working on boats or coming ashore for whoopee. One form of whoopee that is allowed is to join a family for lunch. Cea's husband had caught a lot of fish yesterday and they invited all 12 boats in the anchorage to come to their house and help hem eat the harvest. We were asked to contribute tins of corned beef and to bring a dish to share and whatever we wanted to drink.
There were about 20 of us and children who turned up at Cea and Nico's house. We must have given them at least 8 or 10 cans of meat, someone donated a huge piece of marlin they'd caught and yet the table in their sall house was filled with the dishes we'd brouhgt. Cea had cooked parcels of spam and coconut in young taro leaves on an umu (traditional overground oven of banana leaves), some fish and coconut, clams in coconut and three plates of fried fish. The marlin seemed to be absent.

Peter & Mary (Asor Lare)

We sat and ate and chatted with the family and with friends. Including Peter and Mary from Asor Lare (Amel 54) who we had last seen in the San Blas in January. Feeling most replate we sauntered back to our dinghies admiring the many pigs and piglets running around. They also have many ponies on the island. I didn't see anyone riding, most were tethered in the shade. Perhaps they are for reaching their plantations.