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Saturday all of the BYU students put on a Hangi and an Umu for the Branch and all of our Homestay families. It was one of my favorite experiences. I felt for the first time that I was actually able to dive into the native New Zealand and other Pacific Island cultures. The Hangi is the way that Maori people cook their meat and vegetables. They dig a large pit in the ground and fill it with wood and iron pieces. They heat all that stuff for a few hours and then place the pig and other vegetables on top and fill the pit up again. It becomes a huge underground oven. It takes about 4 hours to cook and the meat tastes really smoky and good. The Umu is the Samoan way of cooking the meat and vegetables. It’s essentially the same thing only it is done above ground on hot rocks and then covered with wet newspaper. We had some Maori and Samoan people from the branch helping us know what to do. Traditionally the men kill the pig, gut the pig and prepare the fire while the women cut vegetables, make stuffing and steamed pudding.
It was supposed to rain all day Saturday which would have really slowed the cooking process down. Our friend Brother Nau Nau asked us to pray that it would at least not rain until after they heated up the rocks and wood. So we did and lo and behold our Heavenly Father blessed us with much more than we asked. It was such a beautiful hot, sunny day right up until we pulled the meat out of the pit and the umu. God hears and answers prayers. I think it was Brother Nau Nau’s unwavering faith, but he thinks it was ours.
There was an awesome variety show for people to enjoy as they ate the food. My favorite part was the Maori and Samoan singing and dancing that the natives did. It was inspiring and filled my heart with so much love for the people and their culture. I actually got to learn a poi dance (with a poi ball that I made) and performed it with some of the other girls from the program.
It was only kind of hard to eat the pork after watching the gutting process in the morning. I have a lot of really nasty intestine pictures if anyone wants them.
I AM PECULIAR (this is a permanent post. If you have already read it, scroll down to see my latest)
Those of you who read my blog could probably make a list of all the reasons that you think I am a bit peculiar. No worries, I would be the first to shout an amen to everything you could think of. I know I’m peculiar; but let me tell you the number one thing on my list that I think makes me a peculiar person. I know where I come from, why I am here and where I am going. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some of you will know me as a “Mormon” although that is just a nickname. The word ‘Saint’ just means ‘member’ in this context. I believe in God the Eternal Father, that I am a daughter of God, and that He loves me and wants me to be happy. I believe in my Savior Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life, atoned for my sins, died and was resurrected all that I might enjoy the blessing of being forgiven of my sins, and having my body and spirit reunited after death. I know that just as God called prophets in the Old and New Testament times that He has in fact called a prophet to lead and guide us today. I believe that families can live together for eternity; death does not have to be the end of our relationships with the ones we love. Some of you may wonder how on earth I can know these things. As I learn more and more from the Bible and other scriptures and actually live what I learn I see the promises the Lord has made being fulfilled in my life, and I feel the Holy Spirit bear witness that these things are true. I know, I’m peculiar, but thankfully there are over 13 million other peculiar members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and with each year that number grows. I feel so much joy and happiness in my life because of this knowledge. If you want to know more depth about anything I have said that makes me peculiar, visit www.mormon.org. This website explains in detail much of what I have just professed to believe and more.
2 comments:
That was some dang good stuffing!
I am very impressed that you ate the meat after preparing it that way. Good for you.
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