Dinner party at Wyndam Vale

from w
Yesterday I roasted a chicken etc and Peceli made vakalolo to take up to a dinner party at the home of Sailosi to welcome three visitors from Fiji. Wyndam Vale is one of those new suburbs of new housing and it is hard at night to find your way through the maze of bendy roads (though our old car knows its way any time!) The special visitors were Rev Tomasi and his wife, and Rev Tevita from the Methodist Church in Fiji. There was plenty of yaqona drinking, formal speeches and story telling. Our group represented the Fijian congregation of Altona Meadows/Laverton and the purpose of the visitors, who are also spending time in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra, was to talk about the next Conference in August and the opening by Fijians abroad. And give us an update on the Methodist church in Fiji which is where most of us had come from.

It was a lovely evening to share in hospitality and listen to stories of joy and of sadness. We tried not to talk about 'you know what'. Thank you Leba for your delicious puri and goat curry. She looked with a critical eye at Peceli's vakalolo because after all she had been his teacher of that recipe! Here are a few photos I took. It was a late night and we didn't get back to Geelong until about 12.30.