Konifelenisi

Two mice dead – 1 more to go.
I thought there was just one little rodent causing havoc in my home, but I’ve come to realize there were several. I found one when I woke up the other day just lying by the foot of my bed. I had a neighbor come and remove it because I don’t handle things like that very well. I found another one dead while walking outside to the bathroom. I guess the keke kuma did the trick. I’m buying some more keke kuma today so hopefully my house will be clear in about a week.

Konifelenisi is translated as Conference.
This is a weeklong gathering of church officials and members from all over the region to attend meetings. What seems to get the most attention though are the feasts that encompass this week. Every day for the whole week there is a feast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each village is assigned a day and meal to cater. Within each village, a family that attends that church must provide the meal for a 30 ft table. I’ve heard that over the years the tables have been getting more elaborate. I attended the conference both as a guest and as a caterer so I was able to see it from both perspectives.

As a guest I was seated in front of huge portions of food loaded onto the table. Each table container all the traditional Tongan food such as pig, root crop, chop suey, raw fish, and lu was piled high, but also extra items were added to make each table stand out from the other. It is expected that you take home food, drinks and candy at the end of the meal. I was criticized for not bringing a plastic grocery bag to the feast in order to bring everything home, but luckily someone found one for me. I took home fruits, bottles of juice, and wafer cookies. I was feeling a little strange, but go with the flow was my motto.

I helped bake cakes for Okoa’s night at the feast. I spent the day slaving in my kitchen and I only burnt one. We started setting up at 2:00 for the feast at 5:00. The woman were dancing crazy while everyone was decorating their tables. It seemed like the more body fat that the women had to shake, the more cheering they got. I saw one woman from my village dump a huge can of fruit cocktail all over herself. I ran so that I wouldn’t get caught in the display. The feast finally started at 7:00 (late) and I ended up eating at this one too. As soon as the prayer was over, the woman next to grabbed everything (huge juice containers, sparkling juice, bowl of fruit, and a pig) and stored it under the table. She then ate some food and packaged everything up to take home. I sat there in shock. I ended up taking home a small bag of fruit and lobster. These feast are definitely a sight to see.
Next week is a different church’s konifelenisi. I guess I’ll be doing some more baking.

That’s about it from here in Vava’u. Friday night I’ll be hanging out at another volunteers house for Mexican night. Weathers been better. Can’t complain.

Hope everyone well.
Love,
Adrianne