In other words, just another average Saturday in Nairai.

We went into the village this morning and Tuba (pronounced Tumba) the Chief’s son met us and helped pull the dinghy up above the high water mark. We were going to look for him anyway as we brought him a couple of fishing lures. He was very thankful for the lures and right there knocked a couple coconuts down so we would have some to drink. Next, down the beach came Epeli (who with his wife Esther are our friends here on the island) with his dog Tiger and a wild boar over his shoulders. Yes, it was dead. Tiger tracked and held it and Epeli caught it. I asked him how he dispatched it – he drowned it in the ocean. “Much cleaner. No blood”. After that he cut its throat and bled it before carrying it back. By the time we had changed from our beach/coral shoes to flip flops and went into the village, Epele had the boar hanging on a tree behind his cooking shed, had lit a fire under it and was burning the skin with a dry coconut palm frond that he caught on fire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was to burn the hair off and tighten the skin. After that he scraped the skin with a knife, then cut a chunk of dry coconut husk and used that under some running water to scrape the boar from head to tail. It was now deemed clean enough to gut and butcher. And the first cuts; the hoofs and lower legs, for Tiger to reward a job well done. (He not only caught this boar but trapped a pregnant female that Epeli hobbled to be retrieved by the minister on Monday! The minister had previously told Epele that he really wanted to raise some pigs.) Then he sent Ann and I into the cooking shed with Esther to have tea. I watched him start the process and can report it’s the same as gutting a deer.

All this in just the first half hour of the day.

After tea we went outside to sit under their huge mango tree and rest.

You need a lot of rest here to digest all the lovely food Esther makes. We’re having a small battle right now to see which of us can send more food back to the other. Last night she sent us back to Charisma with two fresh fish for our dinner and some home baked bread. We retaliated today with fresh sourdough muffins and jam and thought we were doing pretty good until she loaded us up with a stalk of bananas and a box of the biggest mangoes you have ever seen. AND she cooked one of the entire hams of the pork and a side of ribs and sent that as well. We’re losing big time here. Oh well…

In between all this we needed to get out of her way as she was preparing for Sunday feast, so we went out for a walk down the beach. We didn’t get a hundred yards before Ann “The Magnet” had a dozen kids following us, finding sea shells and finally singing songs while Ann recorded them with her camera and played them back to the shrieking delight of the children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all a very fun day. PS – dinner tonight is BBQ wild boar ribs with a side of mung bean salad with Asian peanut sauce. Oh how our diet adjusts to what we have!