An Umu To Bring Us Together

This weekend was really busy. Our congregation wanted to pull together an Umu (a Polynesian underground oven) to have a reason to be together. The day before Lucky Dragon and I went to camp out. It was fun to do that. He LOVES to burn things so we had a fire and instead of roasting marshmallows, he likes to throw them in and watch them grow and then deflate. Koala Bear loved it too. She would pull her chair and sit right next to her brother wherever he went. She would also take the flashlight and say, "I go walk," she would start out and if I did not join she would  wave at me to come and say, "go walk!" Best thing ever to just go walk and listen to her babbling as we held hands.

Lady Hiva came to join us in the evening after her Relief Society duties and we all huddled in the tent to stay warm the brisk evening.

As the day progressed we went to help prepare the food. It was fun watching all the guys prepare the lu (meat--sheep, beef, corned beef, fish or sometimes chicken wrapped in taro leaves and cooked with onions, coconut milk and often tomatoes and mayo) and then get it ready for the umu. With the umu they dig a pit and start a big fire. Once the fire is going well, they place a whole bunch of hot lava rocks on to get them hot. The wood is taken out and the food is placed on the hot rocks then covered. In the islands they use banana leaves and other items to cover the food, since Utah has a lack of banana leaves we used metal sheets and then old carpets soaked with water. Lucky Dragon came to help us dig out all the lava rocks talking the entire time about each rock (true rockhound!). They all look the same to me, but they are apparently very different to him!

Once the pit is covered it remains covered for nearly two hours while the food cooks. In that time they also went to a nearby pig farm to get two pigs to roast. It was funny Lucky Dragon could hear the pigs squealing and wanted to go watch...this kid is not scared of anything. Curiosity propels him through life. Once the pigs were killed we watched them dip them into boiling water and de-hair them.  As that was happening our bishop asked Lucky Dragon if he liked to eat pigs...he replied, while not removing his eyes from the work, "I think I like carrots better!" My little diplomat answered vaguely while still saying SO much! haha.

Lucky Dragon was, however, very interested when they started to gut the pigs. He was naming all the parts as they came out--small intestine, large intestines...heart, lungs, esophagus. If this little guy isn't a doctor I would be surprised.

We had a great time gathering as a congregation. We had chicken, lu, roast pig, watermelon, cake, faikakai (a caramel covered desert made with sugar and tapica flour), and otai (a fruit based drink, often watermelon or mango but also have other fruit used, it also includes sugar, half and half and for a flare someone added vanilla ice cream this time).

We were so thankful for all the time, effort and money that went into the event, but it was amazing! Some of these guys worked from sunrise to sunset--literally--to provide the food and chance to gather.