"winter break" and my pet goat

13 May 2014

It’s truly unbelievable just how fast the time has been flying here. I already have less than 23 months and everyday the time seems to be going faster and faster. Luckily, I’m currently enjoying my first two week school break which has allowed the time to slow down a bit to make time for some pretty great adventures.

During the first week of break I relaxed a bit and then went to visit my sister in law (tawi)’s family about another hour by truck deeper into the bush. The first night I helped prepare dinner by killing a chicken by pulling out one of its wing feathers and sticking it into the crevice where it’s skull meets it’s spine and pushing the feather into it’s brain until it died.

The next morning we woke up to drink tea and the two three year olds were running around each with one dead wild pigeon (nawimba). My tawi’s Dadi had gone hunting early in the morning and the two nawimba were our dinner that night. I was a bit skeptical because I’m really not adventurous when it comes to meat but I sucked it up and it really did taste like chicken! Little did I know my adventure with meat for the week was only beginning… 

The next morning my tawis Dadi asked if I had ever eaten “nani”…I said…”what?” “GOAT!” He replied excitedly….

I told him no, I had never eaten goat. He was excited about this because he then ordered his teenage son to follow him down to the ocean where they keep their goats so they could heard them out onto the coral jetty and harness one for us to kill, clean and roast on the beach. Again, I was skeptical–especially because the scream of a goat who knows it’s about to become dinner sounds exactly like the scream of a child–but man was it delicious! We made a fire on the beach and stuck big hunks of meat on sticks and let them roast. When the meat was almost done we squeezed some lemon juice on top and let them cook a little more. It was so good I decided to buy one of his goats to keep on my family’s plantation! For 2000vatu ($20) I bought my first pet goat. My plan is to let it live on the plantation for the next two years and before I go I will roast it on the beach with my family. They’re pretty psyched too! My niece Elsa named it Babes because it’s a female so, hopefully, it will have adorable goat babies! 

My Tawi's niece and son waiting for the nanny goat to die

This is my Tawi's Dad preparing the hot stones for us to cook over on the beach. Once the goat was sliced up we rinsed it in the solwora to add a little flavor to the meat and we're ready for roasting!

Last Friday I switched gears a bit and headed to my friend Dane’s site, Brenwei. To get to his site I have to take my truck to Lakatoro (3 hours) then take another truck in the afternoon to Brenwei (1.5 hours). Our Australian volunteer friend Mollie came too so we had a wonderfully white person weekend fully of semi cold beers, incredible food and dance parties. It was most needed but also incredibly exhausting. Dane’s house is amazing because he has built a beautiful bamboo fence all around his yard as well as a covered outdoor chill area. He also lives close to a big river that flows into the ocean by a black sand beach. One day we walked about 30 minutes down the black sand beach to a white sand beach where we played in the surprisingly large waves. 

One day we found a little stray puppy that Dane has now taken in–Chico, he is adorable but terribly flea covered so Dane took about an hour one day cleaning him. Good good weekend!

Now I’m in Lakatoro waiting for my truck back to Matanvat. I won’t be back on Internet for another month because I have too much to do until I go back to Port Vila June 13-25 (!!!!)

My computer also broke (I think, but I hope not, for good) so the quality and quantity of my blog posts may go down until I figure out how to get another one.

I’m definitely missing spring and early summer beginning in DC and MV but can’t really complain about anything here! Until later skaters.

And here's an incredible cake that Dane/we whipped up...chocolate cake, banana cinnamon filling and chocolate frosting. Oh yes, oh yes.