Barbeques and parties

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Tonight only three of us are quietly watching TV as the others are away, one overseas, two at a church camp for teenagers, two in Melbourne. What a change! Anyway we had a party here last night for the Fiji Geelong Friendship Club and a couple of days ago two Fijian students from Deakin Uni visited us and we had a barbecue for them. Seini and Vani. It's always good to meet up with tertiary students who are bright and motivated to study well.

At the airport

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The Melbourne airport - Tullamarine - is always very busy and yesterday Peceli and our grand-daughter flew Pacific Blue to Fiji. One photo is of them at the international departure doorway, one of Peceli happy after having breakfast there, and two of an interesting mosaic on the floor there.

Birthday Party

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With three birthdays in the family in one week we decided to make our Fiji Geelong Friendship Club night a bit of a party. The boys made a lovo - an underground oven in the backyard with lots of pork, lamb, chicken, dalo etc. and after two hours took it out. Visitors also brought pots of delicious food so it was a good dinner with about forty guests. There was the usual kava drinking too. A noisy night with children playing but the teenagers were in another room playing with an X box whatever that is.

More from Pako Festa

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Here are some pictures I took at Pako in the afternoon when the Fiji dance group from Melbourne performed from 3.30 p.m. It was a lovely afternoon and then we adjourned back home for kava and a barbecue. Though some people in Australia are saying that 'multicultural' is finished because it can cause ghettos and isolation and division, here in Geelong we are proud of the diversity of cultures, the celebration of different migrant dance, music, food, languages. Recent arrival groups such as from Sudan and Burma now join in with their dances and songs. I've only really taken photos of our Fiji group but there were over sixty different groups performing and participating in the festival and probably 200,000 people. Pakington Street is in Geelong West, hence the name 'Pako Festa'.

The journey of Abraham

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Not the old patriach from Ur, the pillar of salt, the stars in the sky story, but a Year 12 student on his first plane journey from Fiji to Australia. And alone. Welcome to Geelong to another of the family tribe. Abraham left Suva by van at 7 a.m. yesterday, got a message that his Pacific Blue evening plane was cancelled and to hurry up and get on another plane that goes via Brisbane. Okay. In Brisbane the Customs officer sniffed and tasted the kava he carried, then Abraham was told to catch another plane to Melbourne - and get to the domestic terminal by train. Well, he did that. No officials guided the travellers. Another delay. Meanwhile our gang frm Geelong waited it out at Tullamarine. In Melbourne Abraham's plane terminated at the Domestic, not the International, so there was some searching until Abraham found Peceli. The kids had got tired and gone to the car! So dinner was at 1 a.m.
Today is another day of course and the basketball half-court in our backyard is being well-used. Several years ago when we were looking for a house to buy (all five of us made the decision then) the basketball area was the deciding factor, not the need to restump a few problem areas. So now the next generation still like to play basketball.
And the boys wanted the basketball backboard painted so Jordan and his uncle did this a few minutes ago, Jordan deciding on a good name.

Making a Fijian lovo

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Making a lovo
Today we made a lovo (underground oven) in our back yard near the apricot tree. Peceli had to make a new pit because the place we used to use is too close to a fenceline where there are four new houses. The purpose of the lovo was to provide some of the food for a feast to follow a church service up at Altona Meadows/Laverton Uniting Church as four Fijian congregations were meeting together. A combined service is now held every three months and it is a lovely opportunity to catch up with friends from different corners of Melbourne. Last night – after 11 p.m. – Sai and his son-in-law came down to Geelong with a car loaded with bags of taro and pork so the wrapping up started at midnight, then we had to wait until this morning.

We informed our neighbours what we are doing so they won’t panic when they see some smoke rising, and Peceli obtained permission from the local fire brigade as he always does. Some of the Maoris in Geelong make a hungi which is the same as a lovo.The food went in about 11 a.m. and was taken out at 2.30 p.m. and looked beautifully cooked. The young men took it all up to Melbourne and I stayed home and had a restful afternoon, after 'borrowing' one cooked chicken.

So here are some notes for anyone who would like to make a lovo and don’t live in Fiji.

The pit
Collect all the gear you need such as stones, shovels, cartons, bags, leaves, firewood, aluminium foil. Then you need to dig a round or square hole in the ground away from buildings and plants about a metre by a metre. Light the fire to heat the stones.

The preparation of food
Prepare the food by wrapping whole taro in foil, pieces of pork or lamb or chicken in foil, perhaps marinade the meat first. Sometimes you can add a large fish, or palusami in foil packets which is dalo leaves in thick coconut cream with onions and tinned corned beef.

The cooking.
Take away the charcoal and burnt wood so you only have the hot stones. Heap the wrapped food on top of the stones. A metal crate may be useful for this and that’s what we use these days as it makes it easy to take out later. Cover with leaves – banana leaves if you have them but we use gum leaves. Cover with bags, and then heap dirt onto the top. It doesn’t look a very promising oven at this stage! Leave this for about three hours, depending on the size and also the heat of the stones. It’s a guessing game sometimes.

Removing the cooked food.
Use gloves if you have them as everything will be quite hot. Remove dirt, bags, and place cooked food into cartons. Unwrap just before the people are ready for the feast so that the food is still hot. Cut up as required and serve on very large dishes or place dalo on leaves on a set up table. Enjoy.

Fiji Geelong Friendship Club

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Yesterday the Fiji Geelong Friendship Club had a farewell party for two of our members who are leaving us to go up and live in Queensland. Sad to see them go but that's life, coming and going of friends. We met in the home of Ninietta and Joe Cordone for a lovely afternoon of kava drinking, singing songs of the islands with guitars and a ukelele, telling stories and having a delicious meal which included a barbecue. We will miss the friendship of Ken and Selai very much. Here are a few photos of folk who were there. I was dosed up with a painkiller tablet wkhich made me sleepy but I managed five hours of partying. Our club has been going now for nearly twenty-eight years and started about the same time as the Pako Festa, Geelong's annual ethnic festival. We do have a website but haven't updated it for years because Billy of Bombay (Mumbai) offered to update it, changed the password then disappeared. Guess we have to somehow get another password. Our group meets on every second Friday evening and at other times for kava, meals, sharing with one another, helping people out in various ways.

Street Faces in Geelong

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This evening we had the launch of the Street Faces project in Geelong, Australia. Of the twenty-eight faces chosen, Peceli's portrait is on the wall of the Geelong library. Buses took a group of us on a tour of Pakington Street and inner city Geelong to view some of the portraits of a cross-section of people from our wonderful community of Geelong. We had speeches, music, drinks and eats at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre as part of the launch. The project was organised by Diversitat and the City of Greater Geelong with several other sponsors and is part of the Pako Festa for 2010. Twenty-eight faces were used because Pako Festa is 28 years old and our Fiji group have been part of this huge ethnic festival for all of that time - with dancing, participation in the parade and in earlier years with crafts and a stall.

No time for drawing this week

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With visitors from Fiji staying with us, is too much talk and cooking nice meals, taking the couple around Geelong and so on, that I haven't done any drawings and paintings lately. Here are just a few photos messed about with - from my trip to Melbourne last week - of Federation Square and nearby. We are really having a good time with Rev Waisake and his wife Mere as they tell us stories of Navua, Rakiraki, Taveuni, all places we know. They are an amazing couple, - church planting in a difficult place. Here, many good things are happening each day such as a gift of many lilies, succulants, and plants to split up and repot or plant in the garden. We have many thoughtful friends so I guess the motto is to pass it on. There is also some interesting news from our relatives in Fiji too - that 'money for jam' is coming our way as a weather radar tower may be built on one of the hills on the Ratawa land. This is a gift that can provide money for school fees and development projects.